I Heart Valentine's Day

It might be a Hallmark holiday, but I can't help loving Valentine's Day.  Handmade cards with lots of hearts and glitter, chocolate, and a day to tell special ones they're special.  

A little holiday filled with homemade simplicity, what could be sweeter?

Window Up-cycle

Last week we had a few very warm, spring-like days which were pretty unusual for January around here.  We took advantage and rode our bikes to the park to enjoy it.  On the way home I spotted a treasure on the curb side - six old windows, just waiting for the garbage man.  We hurried home to get the car in a race to beat the garbage man before he swept away my windows.  (Both the neighbor and I forgot that garbage wasn't coming until the next day because of a holiday.)  The kids thought I was a bit crazy and I had to explain to JR why it was okay to take something left on the curb.  My mind was racing with all of the exciting possibilities for up-cycling the find.

After a few days of consideration I decided that one would be the perfect addition to our dining room/ home school room as a unique white board. I have been fighting as hard as I can to keep our dining room from looking like a kindergarten classroom, but as our timeline grows and the printed-out memory verses increase, I fear I'm loosing the battle.  Plus, I just got tired of dragging out and putting away our calendar board each day, so now it hangs on the wall as well.  My new goal:  Classy Homeschool/Dining Room.

I gave one of my new windows a fresh white wash (I like old, but not dirty old), used a staple gun to add some fabric I already had to the back, and nailed two picture hangers to the frame.  My dear husband was not too pleased to add new holes to the wall with the anchors required to hang it, especially after hanging my new map on the same wall after Christmas, but he helped anyways and I love him for it.  Voila!  Adorable little white board ready for my classy classroom.

Countdown to Christmas!

In the past few months I think I may have spent a bit too much time on Pinterest, due to the fact that our usually sufficient good ol' paper chain countdown with Christmas activites written on the links seemed lacking pazazz.  I was inspired by this cute advent countdown garland and created my own version. 

Inspiration!



The link to this advent garland has a free printable of the cute numbers she used to label her envelopes which I printed and cut out.  I didn't have any open-ended envelopes and was shocked after learning from a trip to Office Max that they cost $25 a box!  I decided to improvise and use cardstock, which I cut in half width-wise.  After writing each activity on a blank index card and fancy-ing them up with stickers, I taped (lightly in case I need to switch activities around to a different day) them to my cardstock.  I folded the cards shut and used another small piece of rolled up tape to close.  Glue the adorable numbers to the outside, and voila!  Finished!

I like how the original project was hung horizontally, but hanging it on the door was a better use of space for me.



Our December Activities

1.  Tell the Christmas story and act out with Nativity figures

2.  Homeschool Christmas get-together and watch Santa Buddies

3.  Parade of Lights and Live Nativity

4.  Go see Harold and The Purple Crayon

5.  Decorate Gingerbread House

6.  Make salt dough ornaments

7.  Go to the library to borrow Christmas books

8.  Family movie night:  The Polar Express (with cocoa and popcorn)

9.  Family Game Night

10.  Holiday Magic at the zoo

11.  Make Holiday Pretzel Treats

12.  Picnic dinner in front of the Christmas Tree

13.  Make Macaroni Glitter Snowflakes

14.  Family Movie Night:  The Santa Clause

15.  Make Paper Snowflakes

16.  Camp out in front of the Christmas Tree

17.  Make Handprint Snowman Ornaments

18.  Watch Miracle on 34th Street

19.  Make Pinecone Bird Feeders

20.  Doing Unto Others Day

21.  Make Ice Sun Catchers

22.  Bake Cookies for Santa

23.  Make ice cream

24.  Go to church and celebrate Jesus

We are also doing a Jesse Tree Devotion as a family, which I will post about later.

Letters and Fabric

We are almost completed with a little face lift for our Laundry Room, but I was still keeping my eye open for the perfect finishing touches.  Where do you go when you need inspiration?  Pinterest, of course!  This project was very affordable and easy to re-create.  I began by purchasing cardboard letters from JoAnn's.  The edges got a quick coat of black paint.  

I searched through my lovely sister's stash of scrap fabrics for that perfect pop of color, traced the letters and cut them out.  

A quick coat of Mod Podge and those babies were ready to hang!  I love the way they warm up the space!   

I have been seeing tons of adorable, crafty ways to make letter magnets, but this one was my favorite!  My sister, Amanda, and I made these together (did I mention she has an awesome stash of fabic?).

We began choosing a font we liked and printing and cutting out each letter.  The paper letters were then traced onto felt and cut out.  We then hot glued small magnets on the back of the felt letters and sandwiched them between fun fabrics.  All three layers were hand sewn together.  Since Mandy and I both have babies at home it was important that those little magnets be safely tucked inside.

This project was much more time consuming than I originally thought it would be so I'm only finished through L.  Thankfully JD is only on "G" in his Reading book, so I'm hoping to stay ahead of him!