Mother's Day Ideas 2011

This year for Mother's Day, I have the opportunity to teach about 65 children ages 4 to 11 at church. I decided to give a lesson / game with a crossword puzzle I came up with that I will put on the white board of names of Biblical mothers. Each question will give the names of the child or children in the scriptures and then a hint and a scripture reference to find the answer. Then I will show a picture of that mother and tell her story.

For example, (one of my favorite women in the Scriptures!): Esau and Jacob's mother. Hint: she had twin sons. Genesis 25:21-26. Answer: Rebekah

Then I am going to give each child a copy of this cute survey to fill out and give to their moms which I found here.

Then we are going to give each child these fun "M&M Mom & Me Moment" cards with little bags of M&M's to take home and play with their moms. A game AND chocolate, who doesnt love that?!

You can find this here.

And lastly, we are going to take the last 5 minutes of church to surprise all the ladies by going into their classroom singing a mother's day song and giving everyone a "mother's day hug." It will be so sweet, I can't wait!

Remember that free Mother's Day card I told you about here?

We got ours and it turned out so cute!

free envelope and front of card

inside of card

Did you get a free card? What are you doing for Mother's Day?

I hope you enjoy your Mother's Day by celebrating those special ladies in your life!

Painted "Wallpaper"

Note to self: I want to do this.

Visit the Jones Design Company to see this beautiful idea. And SO my style: great design on literally a dime (or a dollar for the bottle of acrylic paint). I LOVE using a paintbrush!

V

My 2011 Spring Style & setting a Spring/Summer Table

The Spring Lineup: strawberries, lavender, sage, boxwood and hydrangea - my favorite flower.

I love terra cotta pots and how they get better with age. I also love hearty plants, I (ahem) do better with the heartier ones such as lavender, sage and boxwood, the type of plants that can grow in the desert even in between long periods of drought (or someone remembering to water them!) The strawberries made it from last year. These are a Mother's Day gift from my hubby.

I just love this Willow Tree figurine and had to add it for all things Spring : "New Life." It is a part of my living room Spring decorating.
Now to the fun stuff. Went to a fantastic neighborhood garage sale on Saturday and found everything on my wish list! SO FUN!!!! Among my wishes were topiaries. Found these for $1 each. AAAHHHHH!!!
I decided to grace the piano forte with them. I love symmetry. It reminds me of the landscapes in Paris.

Love.

And here is the Spring hutch decor. I am just lovin' the arrangement. Another thing on my wish list- this is totally random!- a decorative pineapple. See it on the right hand side? It was a GOOD Saturday :)
ALSO, this fantastic yellow fabric I got for 25 cents! Couldnt decide whether to make it into napkins or save it, for now I just decided to iron it and lay it on the table = pretty. It is already hemmed on 3 of the 4 sides. It must have been a curtain or something in its past life. Score!

Everything else I already had, just "shopped" the house.





This arrangement is a great example of my style and how I shop. You will find everything in my home is 99% gift, hand me down, garage sale, clearance or ebay for cheap, cheap, cheap.

Rundown: Vinyl-lettered tile and frame: gift. Apothecary jar: garage sale $3. Lemons: goodwill $3. Vintage French enamel building number plaque: gift. Ivy and styrofoam balls: Michael's w/ 40% coupon, I cant remember how much, we'll say $5. Moss: dollar tree $1. Wood letter: Kohl's $2.75. Basket: gift. Topiary: goodwill $3. Pot: pottery barn clearance $7. (and that's expensive for me!) Rooster: gift. (and he is our "pet rooster" we call him Rocky :). Pineapple: garage sale $1. So that's a total of $26. But it was bought over the last 8 years and most of it has been used and moved around other parts of the house a million times. The apothecary jar alone still has the original price tag from HomeGoods for $25!

What is your Spring Style? And have you set your table for anything fun lately?

I am going to try to link this to: Between Naps on the porch, http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2011/06/4th-of-july-table-setting-welcome-to.html

I LOVE: a few good deals on fashion and beauty

Deal #1: How to get department store items for {practically} free. Do you ever get a Kohl's, JC Penny's, or other card/coupon in the mail for $10 off any purchase? If so, USE THEM! Go to the store with the goal in mind that your budget is $10! It may sound impossible, but you'd be surprised. It's like a treasure hunt of sorts. Know that you'll basically be going for small sale items or clearance racks only. Be creative and keep an open mind. Sometimes you'll walk away with 2 or 3 fun small items like a wooden letter, 4 oz. candle, and a canister of vinyl wall lettering (I once did at Kohl's!) Other times, you might not find anything fun, but get something that otherwise you need and it's more fun getting for free than spending money on (like a trash can, or kid's socks like I also did at Kohl's). My go-to fun item if you can't find anything else, is the clearance jewelry. Lots of fun stuff there.

Last week I got a JC Penny $10 off any $10 minimum purchase. TIP: at JC Penny you have to spend at least $10 before tax so I try to find something a little over $10. I got lucky and found a shirt in the JR's clearance section.

60 % off $26.oo for $10.40. Perfect.

After the coupon, I walked away after paying forty three cents! Woo-hoo!

Deal #2: drug-store/inexpensive brand cosmetics. Some cheap makeup is a good deal. Some of it isn't. I am a MAC fan, and after using the good stuff, you see the difference.

I have been wearing eyeliner every day probably since the age of 15 or 16. Just last year I was given a MAC cream eyeliner they call Fluidline. It is SO. great. It goes on easy and stays on all day. I am convinced it might just be the best.

While at Target recently, I saw that the e.l.f. brand (which stands for eyes lips face if you didn't know) has a new cream liner. So for $3, I thought I'd try it. And I was pleasantly surprised! It goes on good, it is softer than MAC so spreads a little thin sometimes so I have to apply thicker but overall, it does a pretty good job, especially for three bucks.

If you'd like to try it, I suggest ditching the brush it comes with, and with your 40% off coupon at Michael's or JoAnn, go to the painting section and buy a Loew-Cornell 797F-1 brush. It is a thin, flat, straight cut brush that does the trick beautifully and easily. TIP: a great way to apply makeup without having to spend a fortune on cosmetic brushes is to use paint brushes. Many are made with natural fibers and are good quality and much cheaper. There are tutorials and more information on websites like Classy Cosmetics (see my blog list) or on youtube.

Don't judge me. I decided to bite the bullet and post these self pics despite my premature wrinkles, dark under eye circles and sun damage. Yikes!

Deal #3: Great cheap jewelry {if you can't get it for free with a $10 off coupon!}. Have you heard of Forever21? It is a super trendy store at relatively cheap prices and {can} be lots of fun. However, be warned: if you are a mom like me, it can be absolutely horrifying going into that store. lol! I suggest going on a weekday morning when most of the youth {should} be in school and not with all your kids. And I'm really just talking about the accessories, here. They have stylish, fun jewelry and a very good variety, for cheap. One of my favorite necklaces came from their dollar section. That's right. Sometimes they have great stuff for ONE DOLLAR each.

I have been looking for something special to wear for a certain important occasion coming up. I was bummed to see they didnt have a dollar section right now. However, I found this fancy schmancy for a total including tax of three dollars and three cents. Not bad. And wow, does it make a statement! TIP: if you are shy about statement jewelry, there are lots that have faux diamonds or pearls, or gold or silver, or clear crystals or beads, that are neutral and can go with lots of things and will serve you for years to come. Or if not, you dont have to stress about it, 'cause you got it for a GOOD DEAL!

What good deals have you gotten lately?

Tickled Pink: Girl's Room

While looking through a Pottery Barn kids catalog, my girls pointed out this room to me. (Like mother, like daugher!) So dreaming of my someday house, I was thinking of how I could incorporate more color into their room and make it flow with the rest of the house.I love the plae blue walls with the pink. Then when I saw this little girls room at granvillehouse.blogspot.com, I have been obsessed. I love all the bright fun colors. Kids' rooms should be fun. So using these two ideas as inspiration, I am starting to incorporate little splashes of stronger color in their room.

Since I can't paint the walls where we're at, I started with what I could paint. First, this adorable little children's table and chairs set I found at a garage sale for $8. It is solid pine but needing a little TLC. Me and the girls went to Walmart to pick out paint. They chose a fun, bright pink Watermelon.

I sanded and sprayed, dried, and sprayed lots more.

Then I went thrifting for frames. I found this cutie for $1....

This awesome vintage one, and another great big one I forgot to take a picture of before.

I added some scrapbook paper I had inspired by the blue and bird from the PBkids picture. Isn't that frame perfect?!

And here's the big one. This was inspired by the one at granvillehouse. I used some more adorable scrapbook paper that had all the colors I am looking for. Then I found a crown at the Graphic Fairy blog and whipped up a sign I have been wanting in their room.

And here are the finished projects! I was just tickled pink with how they turned out! I LOVE it!

Hope you have a Happy Easter Weekend!

~R