Fall into the Weekend

I have a new found appreciation for the weekends since starting my career. Like I've said before, I LOVE my job, but I crave the weekends and sleeping in nonetheless. This weekend in St. Louis was FAB-U-LOUS! It rained (and I mean poured) Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were a perfect way to start fall. It was in the 70s and sunny. My heaven! Fall is my favorite season, so this girl was happy! Here are some pictures to recap my weekend:

Ok, so this was from last weekend, but how great is this view?!

 Saturday I ran errands, which included some shopping at TJ Maxx. I also stopped at Hobby Lobby to pick up some material for a new fall wreath. The night ended at the Clayton Art Fair, one of my favorite St. Louis events, didn't hurt that I got to spend time with my little buddy. ;)

TJ MAXX find

Milly guarding her new bone

Clayton Art Fair

What a nugget

Sunday night dinner, YUM!

This weekend was so fun and ended with a doggie playdate and making dinner. Feeling refreshed and ready for this next week of work. What did you do this weekend?

The Big Reveal

Hey y'all! Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. I sure enjoyed having an extra day off! This past week we had Back to School Night and the 6th graders led chapel, so needless to say the 6th grade teachers really deserved this long weekend (at least we think we did ;) Finally, I have uploaded the picture of my class room and am ready to share:

Before:

 The school I work for is a ministry of a local church and the school part is in the basement. Therefore...no windows. :( so...since I have no natural light coming in I decided to do bright colors and use a polka dot theme. I didn't do a ton of decorating but I am so pleased with how it turned out! 

After:

My desk

View of my desk/file cabinets

One of my bulletin boards that will eventually display student work/projects. Right now it just has a problem solver.

The main door to my classroom

Desks, rules and boards

My favorite part of the classroom: THE LIBRARY! I got cheap pillows and a bathroom rug from WalMart (college section) and then made the hanging flowers from tissue paper. DIY here. I altered mine a bit.

Classroom rules. I found this ADORABLE, FREE printable via Mrs. Heeren's Happenings. Check out her entire blog. It's awsome-sauce!

Name tags that are on the front of the desks

Love the way my classroom turned out, but already thinking of the changes I want to make for next year and things to add so it feels a little more filled and decorated.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I can't believe it has been exactly a month since my last post! Where has the time gone?? 

Well, y'all...I started my big girl job. I am a sixth grade teacher and am LOVING every second of it! Seriously, though. I. Love. My. Job. Like a lot! Ok...enough gushing. I promise to post pictures of my classroom later this week. I'm waiting to finish one more thing before the big reveal! :)

Before school started I wanted to do a few DIY projects. I am by no means "artistic" but I love to craft. I saw a monogram canvas on Pinterest and thought, "I need that!" But when I saw that it cost $40 I thought, "No, I don't..." So since my BFF's mom is a GREAT (and I do mean GREAT) painter, I begged and pleaded for her help. She was so helpful and made me be the perfectionist I usually am, even when I was so annoyed with the project. It took a long time to paint, but I love how it turned out. 

 First I drew a circle on my 12x12 canvas with pencil.

 Then I free-handed my monogram using the circle monogram font. I Googled the circle monogram font and drew it on trace-paper. Cathy helped me go back and make sure that everything was straight and in a perfect circle (Thanks Cathy!)

 Next, I painted the canvas green, except for the circle. That got painted white.

 Using tracing paper I transferred my monogram. Painted it a dark turquoise color. Then, wrote out the bible verse (Psalm 139:14) on trace paper and again transferred it along with tracing on the scallops around the circle.

 I traced the letters of the verse with paint and began on the scallops. I used the end of a small paintbrush to put the dots on the inside of the scallops.

 Here is the final product! Woo!! Love how it turned out! And I actually went back and lightened the turquoise color. It was too dark for my liking. (Please excuse the poor iPhone photos above, the last was taken with Instagram)

The two pics above where the color inspiration for the canvas. Hand towel from Target and the cross was a gift from my sweet friend, Marcy. I also added two blue Mason jars that currently hold my q-tips and cotton balls. It looks a little cluttered and messy, but I have very little space and storage to work with. :) Love how my bathroom feels more complete, it only took a year and a half!

Sorry for the long post. I promise to post pics of my class later this week! 

Have a good week! Oh and one last shout-out to Cathy...Thank you second momma! You're the best! :)

Pure Michigan in All It's Glory

I went to visit a dear friend (and now co-worker!!) a few weekends ago in her hometown of Holland, Michigan. Earlier this summer I traveled to St. Joe, MI but didn't get to see Michigan in all it's glory since I was there for a wedding and had no time for anything else. This trip was just what my soul needed. Karissa has a way of making me laugh where I am suddenly crying and can't breathe. Love friends like that! I got to her house around 3:30 PM (after getting lost for a bit in the small town) and we immediately jumped in the pool. It. was. glorious. We then cleaned up and (with her hubby) went to their friend's house for dinner. Karissa made a super yummy baked-pasta dish and there was Texas Sheet cake waiting for us there... (I attempted to make this cake today. It was a disaster. But that's another story.) After dinner we met up with different friends to go to a improv show, HILARIOUS! At one point we all lost any control of our laughter that we had and pretty much made a scene in the back row.

The rest of the weekend was spent at an alumni basketball game, the pool/lake/beach, eating and shopping. What more could ya ask for? NOTHING...except maybe more time. I was sad to leave and was wishing I had one more day to explore Pure Michigan. But can't wait to get Karissa and her husband David back in the good ole' STL. 

Finally made it!

Founders Brewing Company-YUM

Karissa's handsome Boston Terrier, Chip

Lighthouse photoshoot

Chip on the Prarie

Gorgeous-these suckers were everywhere!

I need more Holland time very soon...there were many adorable shops we didn't have time to go in and I still need to see those epic Michigan Lake sunsets I keep hearing about.

What are some of your favorite MI or vaca spots? Or, do you have a good great Texas Sheet Cake recipe? Cause I'm looking for one...so don't hold back, please share! :)

A Few of My Favorite Things

Good morning blog world, and happy weekend! This weekend is jam packed for me, but I wanted to share some of my favorite products before all the weekend festivities begin.

First, Emily Giffin (one of my most fav authors) has a new book coming out, THIS TUESDAY! I can't even tell you how pumped I am. And to put icing on the cake, she is coming to St. Louis August 3 for a book tour. Woo! You better believe I will be there, front and center! Her new book is Where We Belong. Go pre-order yourself a copy and RSVP to her book tour...you'll be glad ya did! ;)

Via Google

I found myself a new mascara, and I'm in love people! It's Maybelline's Mega Plush line, I use the Blackest Black. Check it out and fall in love too!

Via Google

And finally is a little something called Baby Lips. This stuff is magic in the form of lip balm. I have Peach Kiss and Cherry Me. They are lightly scented and  tinted and super moisturized. Can't get enough of this stuff.

Via Google. How cute are these?

Well, I better get off of here and get ready for the day's events. What are your fun weekend plans or products you can't get enough of?

Little Man Baby Shower

Hello friends! One of my very best gals is having a baby, and a few family friends and I threw her and her little man a shower. Thought I'd share pics and decor tips from the special event.

Look at all those cute little goodies!

Baby Boy's nursery is "world" themed and the colors are yellow and black, so we decided to stick with the colors and apply it to the shower. The momma-to-be is very anti-baby when it comes to her little man. :)

One way we incorporated the 'Little Man' theme was through iron-on ties from Etsy.

Short and long sleeve onsies with ties and bowties

These precious ties were ordered from Boy Oh Boy Boutique on Etsy. They are super cute and easy on the wallet! The onsies are the Carter's line for WalMart.

Another cute/useful decoration we incorporated was a diaper cake. The momma-to-be's momma created the masterpiece and may I just say that it was PERFECT!!! Diapers were newborn diapers rolled into three tiers and held together with rubber bands. All ribbon was found at Michael's. Didn't she do a great job? I love the way it turned out.

Could this be any cuter? 

At the last minute we decided there weren't enough decorations so we decided to make pinwheels. I was a little intimidated at first, but quickly found out they are super easy to make. What you will need(bear with me it might seem confusing):
Cardstock-colored
Patterned scrapbook paper
(Instead of the two above you could use double sided paper)
Brads (I used button brads found at Michael's)
Glue sticks
Something sharp to poke small holes into the paper

First cut two squares (I used 6x6 and 3x3 squares), one of cardstock, one scrapbook
Glue paper together (pattern up of course :) and wait a few seconds for it to dry
Then fold paper into a triangle by pulling one corner to the corner to it's diagonal
Fold again using the same process
Unfold paper
Using the lines created from folding, cut each corner towards the center, leaving 1/4 in. to the center
Punch little holes in the paper like picture below:

Image via Google

Pull each slit with hole towards the center as you place the brad through each hole
Once all corners are on the brad put brad through the center hole and fasten the brad to the back on the pinwheel.
You should end with this:

Excuse my hands at the bottom of the pic

We attached the 6x6 pinwheels to painted sticks and attached them to a wrapped box to use as decor on the mantel and the 3x3 pinwheels in between the onsies

This shower was so fun to prepare for, here are a few more pictures from the actual event.

"Baby Carriage" Fruit

All the yummy food!

Each food item had a hand-made info card. 

Hope this inspires you the next time you need to throw a baby shower! What have been some of your favorite baby shower themes?

Happy Reading!