KITCHEN Gre-ART Find

Hi Readers!

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving with family, friends, love, and laughter. I am so happy during the holiday season. It is always a beautiful time, and being a newlywed, it is so sweet... and since like I told you, we purchased our home in April we have been able to work on our home together like a team, and so many changes have been happening here in our lovely yet humble abode. I never knew that being a homemaker would be so exhilarating! I mean, seriously. Does anyone feel the same way? I am so excited when I find the perfect pillow for my sofa, or when I make a meal for my husband and he loves it! I'm like "yes!"

One of my most recent projects I found on pinterest {duh!}. I printed these out and put them in my kitchen- link below.

These lovely printables were made by the awesome team over at The 36th Avenue, and can be found here. I believe Desiree posted this one, and it was the perfect addition for my kitchen! Thanks girl! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have!

weapon OF CHOICE

Hey all,

Hope all is well! How are things in my neck of the woods, you ask? Well I had a wonderful day. Naturally, as a crafter, I absolutely look forward to days off so that I can get my craft on, but today not only did I get crafty butt in action but I got some of my friends crafting with me- My sister, and my best friend. What a blast! However, being kind of a lonesome crafter, I observed these two gals, and I noticed that everyone has their own tools of choice, and their own methods, that they, choose to follow. I am probably a little more "unconventional" than probably the average artist, but below, these are my tools of choice- yes, a paper plate, and a tiny little brush. 

If you haven't noticed already, I like letters. Calligraphy, typography, letters- I am totally and completely obsessed with all of it, and with this tiny brush I can letter beautifully.

What is/are your "weapon(s) of choice"?

Spaghetti Jar Upcycle

Hello to all my lovely readers:

Have you ever seen the beautiful pinterest posts using mason jars? Well, I have too and absolutely love them! Therefore, I am constantly saving all of my spaghetti sauce jars and I love it! Although I cannot say the same for my husband, haha! Saving these jars, means that I have stacks of them all over!

For those of you interested in doing the same thing, I have some tips on how to prep these jars for crafting.

First clean the jars out with dish soap. {You can soak them in clorox too.}

Then you are going to want to soak them in hot water to get the labels loose enough to peel off.

The paper peels off leaving some glue residue. You can them take your dish sponge {or a scouring pad} and, using the rough side, rub the glue residue off.

Then once you let them dry completely, they are ready for crafting.

 Happy crafting!

Crafting Around The House

Hi y'all!

So recently my husband expressed his concern about needing a place to hang his keys. Like I've shared many times,  being new homeowners is tons of fun but there are times when we just totally overlook things that we need life... like somewhere to hang our keys lol. So i assured him that we'd find one and then my best friend bought me an early Christmas present that I had to immediately put up. It's a mail basket. I'm totally obsessed. It goes great with our rustic industrial theme here at home and then thought of a great idea to craft up for a home for our keys. Here it is, tell me what you think!

Worst. Nightmare. Ever.

Hi all:

So I come with bad terrible horrible news. I bought these ikea shelves and I'm totally not blaming ikea but they both have fallen. My poor little craft room. I use the shelves for keeping my buttons, glitter, spray paints, knickknacks and recycled glass jars and bottles that I plan to use for future projects. I'm pretty sure that glass did it but is there something else I'm missing?  Any tips?

Thanks!

Great Find

I found this and had to share! Enjoy!

Fall-ing in LOVE with Fall

Hi readers!

So it's about that time. The time for boots, scarves, sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and cool weather, right? Wrong! If you live in Miami that is. Even though the last couple of days we have gotten some cooler weather- cooler as in not 100 degrees.

Check out our 5 day forecast, thanks to weather.com:

However, I am still determined to feel Fall in Miami. So, yes, I go to work in my cardigans, and scarves, and pray and hope to not have to be outside, at all.

In order to help me get into the season's spirit, I made these printable chalkboards and gave one to one of my coworkers to put on her door. {see below}

 I did the same with mine. Check them out:

I then quickly decided to make them available to you. So, yep, that's right, click below to download.

Chalkboard No. 1

Chalkboard No. 2

Send me pictures of how you used yours, and with your permission, I can post them up. Enjoy!

Gard-In or Out

Hi readers!

I posted a picture not to long ago of a piece of the front of my house with my beautiful little chalkboard, bench, and pillows out there. However, in the picture was also my TERRIBLE landscaping which we let die over the summer. To be honest, we hated the thing when we moved in and therefore didn't really put too much thought to it. {pictured below}

Well, since this post my husband and I got to working. We went to Home Depot and DIYed ourselves a pretty good looking garden, if I do say so myself.

We went to Home Depot and picked some plants that we thought might look good with the style home we have, with the weather we get down here in SoFlo, and keeping in mind that we wanted a variety of heights, and colors.

We brought the plants home and placed them on the bare ground first to see where we wanted to place them. This is great tip because then you don't have to worry about replanting.

And here is the finished product:

So excited now to decorate for fall. Here is a very informational post on creating your very own garden bed by craftionary. So helpful!

Inspire.

Hi all-

So here is what I have been thinking about all day. Inspiration. As human beings, we constantly have the thought going through our heads of "Why am I here?" "What is my purpose?" or "Will I make a difference?" For me, it has always been very important that I make a difference in the lives of the people around me. I think this is the reason God led me to teach. I feel very blessed every day to be able to come to my classroom and touch the lives of the students that come in and our of my classroom every year. This then also leads me to another thought. Legacy. In order to really leave an imprint on the world, we must take a second to look at the legacy we are leaving behind. Not just our reputation, but also our affect on those around us, and how we've inspired them to do something to benefit the world {or not}. This takes me back to inspiration. Over the weekend, one of my students surprised me by emailing me a picture of something I inspired her to do. {pictured below} It got me thinking. The students in my class, your coworkers, or people you run into on the train, at the red light, or at the coffee store. They all are impacted, or inspired, by you. How are you inspiring others? Remember, smiles really ARE contagious, and a random act of kindness DOES bring beauty to the world.

The DIY steps for this are pretty simple and they are a GREAT way to spruce up any wall, whatever room in the house that wall might be in.

First- You need some canvases {You choose! This specific example was made with two 12x12's and one 12x16}.
Second- You need painter's tape, however, if the struggle is real, scotch tape will do
Third- Decide what colors you want {She chose white and black which made it so much easier for her}
Fourth- {If you are choosing a color other than white, this would be the step to paint and let dry, but once you let dry the rest of the steps, are the same} You get to choose whatever designs you want, laying the tape however you think fits your style best
{Remember wherever you lay the tape, that part will not be painted by your next coat of paint}
Fifth- You paint over the whole canvas and set aside to dry {Yes, even the parts that you covered with tape}
Last- Peel up the tape and Voila! you have your design

Try it out and let me know how it goes!

Open house'n it

Teachers! How was your open house? These are pictures of a great idea for a polite way to ask your class parents for donations. "The Giving Tree"! Do you have a cricut? These apple and leaves would be so easy if you did. Email me, I can make some for you!

Man Crush Mon(scratch that... Errry)day

Hi readers:

I thought, in honor of it being almost the weekend, (and my excitement for the weekend being that I am currently surviving the back to school week) I would like to let you know that my forever man crush just started his own blog over at TheBleacherView.com. He is so witty, and intelligent, and for those of you that have hubbies starting fantasy football, his insight is pretty beyond his resources and very well beyond his years. He is so intelligent, and knowledgeable and has always given advice to all of the guys we know on what their fantasy football decisions and moves should be, that he thought why not put them online!

Look up FANATIC and you will probably see his picture. He is a home team fan with a lot of passion for sports in general (football is my favorite).

I love you, George Vazquez. You make my heart skip a beat!

Quiet Summer

Hey all! 

So yes,  I have been exceptionally quiet this summer. The first summer,  married,  and a home owner so I imagine that you can all imagine how my summer went. Stress. Stress. Stress. Lol. Meaning that now with teacher orientation week half way through I am ecstatic for the school year. I haven't posted in a bit but doesn't mean that I haven't been creating. How about you?  Here are some of my pictures. Send me some of yours!

Stay Tuned

It's a bird! It's a plane! No it's... some totally free Superhero Party printables. {Yes, I know, you saw that coming}

The printables will be up soon. Stay tuned!

{It's a Minnie} Freebie Friday

Hi Moms & Dads!

My niece is ABOUT to turn one and we are SO excited! This is going to be HUGE! and we are {little by little} getting ready for her Minnie Mouse bash. We are doing a lot by hand and some I have done on my computer. Which, although not my tool of choice, I think some of the things we made came out REALLY cute.

Below are the images of what I created, and here is another FREEBIE that will be loved by anyone obsessed by the oh so adorable Minnie Mouse and her lovely polka-dot bow. Here are some Free Food Label Tents to print and get ideas.Also, I have included a beautiful little printable for your candy station! I hope you love these Minnie Mouse inspired printables.

Download Food Label Tend Cards Here       Download Candy Station Printable Here

Please let us know how it goes! 

What a {Bite-Ful!}

Hello lovely readers! Happy Friday!

My best friend's son is OBSESSED with Dinosaurs. He just turned three, but no he is not into the soft and cuddly kind. The scarier, the better for this kid! His favorite movie is Jurassic Park, which actually still scares the bi-geebeez out of me. 

That being said y'all, I am SO excited to share these lovely pictures of very simple DIY tweaks that add a "T-Rexirrific" touch on any party! My best friend is responsible for these cute little projects, and I have to say I am SO proud of her. She may not be the most crafty of "crafters," but she knows what she wants, and she is very resourceful. She gets it done!

Here are some pictures I took with my camera phone of the results! 

ONE HAPPY BABY!

and that, my friends is a wrap!

Thank You {A Bunch}

Hi readers:

Every year I work the same Summer Camp at Bridgeprep. It is so much fun, and a nice way to keep the kiddos busy during these long and hot days. Working so hard these last couple weeks has made it very hard to post any of my latest creations. However, this morning I thought I should post this little gem and share it with all of you. During the summer, our staff is amazing (our school year staff is awesome too) and so I thought it would be nice to thank them here and then for all the awesome work that they do! 

I made them little snack bags like these and have included the download so that you can use them too!

- Download Here - 

Enjoy! And let me know how it goes!

did you know?

Did you know that many of you are crafty without even knowing it? Have you made ANYTHING by hand? Maybe a favorite dish? Or a book? Calendar? Hmm... what else? Comment below what you have made by hand.

{what a} Marvelous Monday

Hi readers:

I have to say how amazed and in love I am with latest obsession.

It's called PRINTSTAGRAM!

This is great for printing your Instagram pictures!
and all your Insta DIY projects!

Here is an example of what they offer:

Go by TODAY and check it out!

Freebie Friday

Frozen Party Printables

Good morning readers!

We threw a party recently for my niece that was Frozen themed, and I thought, how cute is this? A Frozen party in the summer! Olaf, of course, approved. Here are some pictures for you to grab any ideas from. This was a collaboration with VIP FD&E and Sweets by Sonia. They are always such a pleasure to work with!

And, if you have a little daughter you know, very well, the FROZEN obsession. Well here is a little freebie for those of you that are planning to have a Frozen themed party this summer.

In this pack there are Food Tents, & Ziploc Bag Tags. Here's what you're going to need:

For these Food Tents, we used marshmallows, and chocolate kisses. We put them each in their own platter with the food tent printed on Cardstock, folded in half, in front. You can get the editable version here. The font I used here is called "Aspire." You will need to download it first into your PC, Notebook, or Laptop. You can find it by "googling" the font name, but there's a great version here. Have never downloaded a font? You can find the How-To here. 

We also had Olaf Noses {Carrots} and these awesome Ziploc bag tags.

We attached the Ziploc Bag Tags to, you guessed it, Ziploc Bags and then put these in their goodie bags. In each Ziploc Bag, there were 3 marshmallows, two pretzel sticks, some brown M&Ms, and a baby carrot. The guests {Baby L's little friends}, chose to either build their snowman or just eat the pieces. It was SO cute and tons of fun for the little ones. 

I hope you enjoy, and remember to share any of your hits or misses on the comments below. 

Enjoy!

- Download Pack Here -

{Studio Life}

Okay... so maybe not your idea of a studio... but every artist needs their space, and this space is ALL mine. it's coming along as you can see here... oh and how can I forget, here {yikes!}. It's come a long way. I would love to hear your ideas or thoughts. Comment below!

I got these two Ikea tables that are a GREAT space for any craft, or project. They are not too bulky, and the way my room is set up, I can put the two next to each other along the wall to make for one really long table if ever needed. {I'm trying to leave a little space for my husband to use his laptop if need be- He's my manager, lol}

I love me some Marilyn Monroe. Okay, so I know she has her story... but don't we all?! AND, she used her story to propel her into a career that although ended quickly will resonate through time. 

 ....work....in....progress....