Bedroom Surprise!!

My daughter went to church camp last week and while she was away I wanted to decorate her room for her.  She had a great room in our other house, pink and white walls, picket fence, adorable comforter, etc.  But her new favorite color is lime green and since she will be in JR. HIGH next year she wanted an "older" room.  Decorating is something I really enjoy, so I planned and sketched and sanded and painted, measured and draped and exhausted myself but I got it done!!  It was a great surprise -  she had no idea what I was doing.  Here are a couple before shots (I'm not very good at them):

And here are the afters....much more fun :)

The green is a little brighter than it looks in the pics but you get the idea.  I never thought painting furniture black could make such a difference!!  It was alot of hard work but totally worth it.  Now onto my son's room!!

Prepared for Anything!

There is something strange at work in my brain that tells me if I am not completely prepared for any possible scenario that might come up when I am away from home, somehow I am not doing my job.  I know it's ridiculous and silly but it is what it is.  If someone needs a tissue or a nail file - I want to say "Got it!"  Is that strange?  Wait, don't answer that.  Needless to say, I am always intrigued by what other people carry in their cars and/or purses for such occasions.  So, here is my car basket o' goodies!

This is everything that goes in the basket.  It doesn't look like much but it gets pretty full.  I have a notebook with all of our restaurant and store coupons for easy access.  A first aid kit, a bag with some card games, paper and markers, a sewing kit, a roll of toilet paper (don't laugh, it has come in handy many times), kleenex packets, some target sacks for trash, a hair pick with hair bands, wipes (a mom's best friend), a towel in case of spills, and the cup has hand sanitizer, bug spray, a file, tire pressure gauge (don't really know how to use it but whatever), pens, lots of lip gloss and chapstick, hand lotion, and those wisps things.  Of course can't forget the snacks and water bottles since my kids seem to think if we are out for longer than 30 minutes it's a road trip.  I also have a little flashlight.  Oddly enough I do use most of this stuff and replenish when needed.  I also have a blanket, jackets, and phonebook in the cool compartment in the back of my Trailblazer. Here is all of it crammed into my cute little tote that they now have at Target ♥ in adorable colors in the summer section!!

This is the little bag I carry in my purse as well:

It has a mini deodarant, body spray, hand lotion, mirror, ibuprofen, a smaller sewing kit (which I never use but feel like it should be in there, lol) floss, tape measure (not for my body, for house decorating) nail clippers, eye drops ( I wear contacts) and lots more lip gloss and lipstick, and those sheets to wipe shine off your face.  So there you have it, my emergency save the world kits!  Do you have one?  I would love to see it!!

Meeting the big guy

My son is obsessed with all things sports.  He talks about sports all day long.  He asks me on a daily basis what team I want to win what game, depending on the time of year.  He plays sports himself, on video games, and board games.  His room is decorated in a sports theme.  He and his dad are playing in the NBA finals right now on NBA 2010 and you would think it was really happening.  I get updates about their progress and how he thinks the next few games will go.  It is a hilarious and endearing trait.  That being said, the fact that OKC now has its very own NBA basketball team - well that is just icing on the cake.  He has been able to go to a few games thanks to some wonderful friends of ours and he loves all the players (play off time was CRAZY in this house) but his favorite is Russell Westbrook.  So naturally when I saw that he would be signing basketballs at a local Dillard's last Saturday I had to check it out.

Now for those of you who know me, I am not one to go spend money on what I think are frivolous things.  In order to meet Westbrook and get a signed basketball you had to buy $50 worth of Perry Ellis merchandise.  Say what?  My husband doesn't even wear Perry Ellis.  My first thought was - not gonna happen.  Then I thought about my little brother growing up.  He was obsessed with Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics.  He wanted so badly for him to come to his birthday party one year.  Of course that wouldn't happen but I remember him being convinced that if we would just invite him, Larry would come.  So when my son actually has the oppurtunity to meet his favorite player, I need to suck it up and lay down the $50.  Which is what I did and it was worth it.  Colby said it was one of the best days ever and now he has an awesome piece of memorabilia for his sports room!

Teacher Gifts Pt. 2

Well because I posted the first one as part 1, I felt I had to make a part 2 even though I wasn't super excited with what I did this year.  I just plain ran out of time, energy, and creativity.  The end of the year caught up with me and having to plan four major events for my daughter's 6th grade class just took precedence.  I will post about that soon.  ANYWAY, I made these yummy peanut butter chocolate bars...you can find the recipe here.  I put them on these adorable little plates I found at, where else, Target, and wrapped them up all cute with some ribbon.  I also added a Target gift card in their card so they could pick out what they like.

Naturally I had to taste test these babies and they were delish!  So give them a try.  You could even wrap them up all cute and give them to yourself as a gift - just be sure and hide them from the rest of the fam! ;)

Say What?!?

Before you glance at the picture below and think I've lost my mind, it is NOT what you think!!

I read a lot of hype about this product recently so I thought I would check it out.  It is a powder gel that is inteded for chafing on your thighs and other girly areas.  HOWEVER - what some people have discovered is that it also works as a make-up primer!!  It comes out as gel but dries like a powder.  Make-up primers are typically one of those "would be nice to have but won't spend $45 on" type of items for me.  So needless to say, when I read about this, then saw it at Target for $5.99, I jumped on it!
Now the real question is, "Does it work?".   The answer is a resounding "YES!!!!"  I put it on after my moisturizer but before my foundation ( I use Bare Minerals)  I made sure I got some on my eyelids as well to help with eyeshadow.  I spent my day at the park with a bunch of 6th graders, playing kickball, running around, sweating.  And get this.....my make-up is still on girls!!  I'm not kidding, you can still see the different colors of eyeshadow I have on!!
So thank you Monistat, even though it wasn't your intent, it is fabulous!  If you try it, let me know what you think too!

Teacher Gifts Pt. 1

I'm not sure how they do it in your neck of the woods but around here, you send a gift to your child's teacher at least Christmas and the end of the year.  If you're really on the ball you do Halloween, Valentine's Day and Teacher Appreciation Week.  That being said, I have been brainstorming what I would like to do this year for my kid's teachers.  I really like to hand make them something but that usually depends on my time and sanity!  :)  Here are a couple ideas I have done in the past that I thought were fun!

These are some mini clipboards I made that were super easy.  I bought some cute scrap paper and used Modge Podge to put it on the front.  I then sealed it with some craft sealant and added some ribbon.  It can get tricky smoothing out the wrinkles sometimes.  I used a smoothing tool that you use for spackle. (I don't know what they are actually called)  I also attached a green little flower in the bottom corner for some depth but it's hard to tell in the picture.

I bought these cute pink buckets in Target's Dollar Spot and cut out each teacher's initial from scrap paper and again used Modge Podge to seal it on the bucket.  Then I filled them with homemade goodies.  These were really fast to make.

These monogrammed bags were a little more time consuming.  I have done these a couple years now and the material I buy is based on the bag I find first.  These had the light green handle so I decided to go with a green and gold fabric.  However one year I found some with black handles and did black and white polka dot fabric and outlined in lime green and they were way cute!!   So you print off the initial on paper from your computer using 600 font.  Then cut it out and attach it to your material using straight pins.  Now if you can sew then you could just sew the letter on the bag but I unfortunately do not so I used fusible web to attach the letter then outlined it in corresponding puff paint.  I attached a tag onto the handle using a strip of the fabric for the ribbon.

All these are fairly cheap and simple.  And there are more to come so stay tuned!  Oh, and I would love to hear your ideas!!

Au naturale

This is my beautiful 12 year old daughter with her uncle Paul.....

This is my beautiful 12 year old daughter with make-up on before her first school dance....since I would rather her look 12 instead of 15, we are going to stick with the natural look for now! ;)