As another year comes to an end...

I haven't written in a really long time. The month of December was just crazy and then the holidays came and so I find myself writing this up before I head out for NYE.

2013 has been one of my best years yet, and I don't think I really expected that it would be. I started off the year, with a wonderful student teaching experience. I had the opportunity to be placed with 3 host teachers who taught me more than I ever would have thought possible. They are 3 educators who really love the profession and they helped show me how much I could love it as well.

My hard work was then paid off when I graduated from college in May. College both flew by and lasted forever. On one hand I never thought I would make it graduation and on the other, I blinked and those 4 years were over. I'll always cherish my time spent at Old Mizzou and the friends I made there.

Post-graduation. I had somewhat of a tough summer, down because it just didn't look like I was going to find a job for this school year. And then, in the middle of July, my world turned upside down when i unexpectedly interviewed and was hired at my old middle school. I truly believe that some things are just meant to be, and I'm so lucky to be working in the school that I'm in. I dearly love my co-workers and feel so supported by my administration. It's such a great environment for our kids to learn in.

2013 has been unbelievably good to me, so 2014: please follow suit!

I promise I'll be back in the next few days with some new crafts! And my bedroom re-do is almost complete :)

Put A Little Holiday In Your Heart

I love Christmas music. Like a lot. The period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is wonderful to me because I get to break out my "Merry and Bright" playlist. Well truthfully, a lot of years I don't even make it to Thanksgiving. Martina McBride's "O Come All Ye Faithful" is truthfully one of my favorite songs ever, and sometimes I've been known to break it out, even in the summer. N*SYNC's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" is another favorite. This year is especially amazing for me because one of my best childhood friends has a holiday EP out, and his first single off it "Fireside" is amazing. I've had it on repeat 24/7 lately. It's truly amazing. I've know my whole life how talented this guy is, but dang this song is a great reminder!

We all have a song that somehow stamped our lives: DIY Lyric Art

It's true, sometimes hearing a certain song can really evoke a memory. Maybe the lyrics remind you of a person, maybe it's the song you and your best friend sang into hairbrushes growing up, or maybe it was the song that the band was playing when you saw your first love from across the room. Memories can be easily tied to a melody.

That's how it is for me. So many moments in my life are tied to song, or maybe it's that so many songs are tied to a moment in my life. Regardless, there are a lot of songs that hold a special place in my heart.

I probably would have never blogged about this DIY project I made, but I posted it to my Pinterest and it's seemed to get a lot of love, so why not? When I was in college I bought this gorgeous Mizzou print off Etsy. I love it, not only is my Alma Mater in the center, but my little bitty hometown is somewhere on there too!

Is my flash blinding you? Sorry, laziness prevented me from getting a better shot in my terribly lit living room!

It was actually this print that helped me decide to make yellow the accent color in my living room. When I bought that frame at Hobby Lobby, they were having a buy ,1 get one half off promotion, so I bought two, because why not? It all worked out perfect when I needed one frame on each side of a floral canvas (left over fabric from throw pillows) above my TV.

But, really the question was, what would I put in the frame. I scoured Etsy for hours and came to the conclusion that I really wasn't going to find anything that I liked. So at that point I started trying to design some art myself. I created a beautiful sign with a quote from, "The Great Gatsby" and another with wise words of wisdom from Albus Dumbledore. Neither seems to balance out the Mizzou print though.

At that point, I kid you not, maybe it was fate. "Springsteen" by Eric Church came on my iTunes. Of course it's catchiest part is "funny how a melody sounds like a memory," which I totally believe connects to my life. My friends younger sister at one point (maybe still) had that quote on her wall surrounded in CDs, but my vision had those lyrics in front, backed by songs in a much smaller font. So I played around until I came up with this.

Taking a screenshot from my computer prevented me from blinding you with another flash!

Yes, some of those songs are laughable. I do have a memory tied to Afroman's "Colt 45" and "Country Grammar" by Nelly will always me my brother's and my song. I'm sure that at some point I'll feel the need to update this and add a few songs. I've actually already thought of one I forgot, but for now, I love this print opposite the Mizzou one!

Baby Shower Bonanza!

I've gone to a lot of baby showers in the past few years. We've had several family babies and I've reached the age where a few of my friends have started to have kids. For baby showers, I limit myself to around $25, which can be tough. Let's be honest, even if you're shopping at Wal-Mart that can buy you an outfit and a pack of diapers, or a bunch of really little stuff.

The little stuff is often necessary, but it just doesn't look good coming out of a gift bag, so I've started upping my presentation, and I've become known for my diaper cakes. They stay in my price range and the mommies love them, here's a look at 3 of my favorites!

This was the first Diaper cake I ever made. I made it for my friend Brooke, who was expecting a boy. This cake includes: 50 diapers, baby washcloths, baby nail care set, teething ring and a rubber duck. The frogs you see are wooden and like the ribbon is purely decorative.

I made this cake for my friend Kaela, who as you can guess was expecting a girl. once again the butterflies are decorative, but this cake includes: 50 diapers, baby washcloths, baby nail care set, hair bows barrettes, flower barrettes, a teething ring and a rubber duck.

 This is the most recent cake I've made, for my cousin Becky who was expecting a girl. Once again I used 50 diapers and a pack of baby washcloths. I also bought a Johnson & Johnson travel kit, a teething ring and hair bows to stick in the cake. The topper is a hippo rattle.

I typically use rubber bands to bundle the diapers in groups of 4, and then bundle them again as I'm creating the layers. I stick a dowel rod down the middle for stability, and it becomes really solid. I always think about creating and painting a cardboard base for the bottom, but it's yet to happen! They've gone over pretty well anyway!

Merry and Bright

My weekend was wonderful. I spent it with 50 kids at Missouri Youth In Government and I really couldn't have picked a better way to spend it. I love the program and I couldn't have picked a better group of kids to go with if I tried. I'm so proud of them.

When I got home from YIG, I was exhausted because as fun as it was, it really was a long weekend. After I woke up from a rather uncomfortable nap on my couch, I decided it was time to decorate for Christmas. I know it's early, but I was really in the spirit. I don't have all my stuff up, and I plan on making a wreath, but the tree looks beautiful!

Last year at Christmas I was already thinking about how I would decorate my tree this year. In college my roommate and I had a really cute Mizzou (go Tigers!) themed Christmas tree.

While the actual tree and lights were mine, the ornaments were hers, so I knew I'd need to figure out what to do this year. After a little bit of thought I decided I wanted to use gold and traditional red and green. Right after Christmas last year I started looking ornaments on sale and was able to buy more than 100 for under $20. It turned out pretty well I think :)

Isn't it gorgeous?

Weekend Wrap up

It's finally starting to get cold in Missouri, and I mean more than chilly- cold.  Seriously though, look at those lows for the new few days,  eeeekk!

I love exciting weekends, but I'd really love for there to be one where I have a completely open schedule. Let me tell you how wonderful the Alabama concert was on Saturday. I think I smiled the whole time because I was so in awe that I was really seeing them live. I love that I'll always have that memory with my dad.

Fall Clothes are my favorite!

I spent Friday night sewing pillows for my best friend's daughter. She's pregnant with her second, and before the baby comes in the spring she's redoing Jayde's room. I think they turned out pretty well, and Jayde loved them!

I also made some artwork for Jayde's Christmas present. I'm still working on another to coordinate, but I'll get them printed and put in white frames for her!

Sunday night seems to come around so fast, here's to a successful week!

this week in pits and peaks

pits:
- I overslept 3/5 days this week.  I seriously need to get it together and stop hitting the snooze button.
- Similarly, why am I so tired lately, I struggle not to pass out as soon as I'm home from school.
- I have way too large a stack of papers to grade this weekend.

peaks:
- Today I read an essay on Colonial Life from one of my students that almost brought me to tears It was beautifully written. It opened up with a Dr. Seuss quote and she tied the ending back into it, and it was simply amazing. Did I mention I teach 8th grade?
- It might have been a full moon, while a lot of my kids were off the wall this week, the kids I usually struggle with, we're awesome this week. Am I too optimistic to hope it's permanent?
- Next week I'm taking 17 students to the state Youth In Government convention. Which, I went to when I was in 8th-12 grade. How did I get so old?
- Today in our PAWS class, basically homeroom at the end of the day, we played Just Dance, it was ridiculously awesome.
- My dad and I are going to see Alabama in concert tomorrow night. This has seriously been on my bucket list for years, so here's some "Mountain Music" for your weekend!

Beautiful Mistakes

When I started revamping my bedroom, I did endless searches for "gold decor" all over the internet. I was looking for something simple and classy, that wouldn't cost me a ton to make. I came across these pretty canvases at Retro Ranch Renovation.

I loved that they seemed so simple to make, and while Gabbi at RRR used 12x12 canvases, I had some 6x6 canvases that I had never used laying around.

I don't have pictures of the fiasco, but man, my canvases did not turn out well. I wanted mine to be white and gold, My initial thought was that it would be great because I'd only have to paint one color. What I did not think about was the fact that it meant the gold stripes would be like the blue- not connected. With the white background they just looked unfinished and ugly and I was ready to throw them out. In an attempt to save them I painted them all gold (Using the same Krylon paint I used for my lamps) and put them aside to figure out what to do with them.

After thinking about it for a while, these became my inspiration, which is funny to say- because my finished product looks nothing like it!

I knew I wanted bows, but wasn't crazy about the initial. I also wanted to stay away from chevron. I'm all about the chevron in my living room, but I wasn't crazy about carrying it into my bedroom. I bought some white ribbon and really just started playing around until I created something I liked. I'm pretty impressed with the final product!

Plus they look really great with my newly refinished lamps! I'm thinking about trimming the lampshades with the same ribbon I used on these canvases!

something old, becomes something new.

For most of my life these old lamps sat in my grandparents house. A few years ago, when my grandma bought new lamps, she gave them to my mom. My mom put them in her living room, not out of love for the lamps, but out of love for my grandma. She was never really crazy about them.

The lamps before my upcycling

  A few weeks ago I was visiting my mom and she was talking about digging her grandmother's old cherub lamps out of storage and polishing them up for her living room. She casually (I actually think she was kidding) offered me the lamps. Boy, was she surprised when I quickly said yes, because they're normally not my style. I had a vision though!

I'm currently in the process of redoing my bedroom. My college decor is still in great shape, but I'm tired of it (not to mention, it will fit nicely in my extra bedroom/office!) and I'd like something a little more grown up. I've focusing on whites, golds and coral, while keeping my black furniture.

college bedroom decor

I definitely wanted to go with gold for these lamps. So I bought Krylon Paint + Primer Gold Metallic paint and I taped off the hole for the bulb with painter's tape. I also wound up the cord and put a grocery bag around them and covered the exposed part of the cord. I rigged up a paint spot outside my house and got to paintin'

It actually took a lot more paint than I thought it would. Part of that might have been because it was windy, but I used almost a whole can of spray paint on them. After I had them well covered I sprayed on a coast of acrylic sealer in hopes of letting them last a long time without getting scratched or scuffed up.

I just bought cheap white shades from Wal-Mart, I'm thinking of dressing them up with white stitched ribbon on the top and bottom.They're definitely not perfect up close, but they look pretty nice on my black nightstands, best off all, they were free. Lamps this size cost 20-30 bucks, even from Wal-Mart! Grandma's old lamps, just got a whole new life!

The beginning.

I'm Leslie and I'm currently swimming (floating? trying not to drown?) as a first year teacher. I teach 8th grade Social Studies and I really, really love my job! I'm also in the middle of decorating my first house (which is technically a duplex, but whatever). I'm excited to share some of my life with the blogosphere! The life of a teacher means living on a budget, and I've made decorating my house a challenge to myself to buy as little retail as possible. And of course that means: beg, borrow and craft!