K is also for KICKS!

Anyone who knows even a little bit knows I am all about a cute pair of shoes.
But really, who am I kidding, what girl isn't!

When I saw there was a shoe party I was so excited! But wait, shoes start with an "S" and I am still on "K" week (yes I am that much of a control freak)
how can I play and make it work with "K" week?

Ha ha ha: KICKS!
I am going to show you my kicks and join in on the shoe (whoops, I mean Kicks) party!

I picked my 4 favorites to share. Before looking at these, remember I am an elementary school teacher. Now go be impressed...or laugh at me and tell me I will have gynormous bunions in about 5 years...

First pair up, I bought these for about $6 at a local clothing store.

I love these green beaded babies, I actually wore them to school today.

Here is a closer picture of the detail on them. Aren't they cute?

If you liked those, you will probably really like these.

Second pair up I actually bought at Walmart, but I think they cost me about $20:

Please don't be a hater.
But they are cute aren't they.
Here is a closer picture of the beading:

Third pair up I got from a local consignment store for $12:

I do wear these to school too, at least once a week, but to be perfectly honest my feet hurt pretty bad by the end of the day though.
But I figure that is just the price I have to pay to have cute shoes.

Finally, my favorite shoes (even though I haven't worn them in a year and a half).
My wedding shoes.
Before I show them to you, you know how the wedding all starts with the dress? Well, it wasn't that way for me. All I cared about was a cute pair of shoes. I wanted a GREAT pair of shoes. I didn't care if I got married in my blue jeans as long as I had a super cute pair of shoes.
That being said, these shoes were a little more than the others...you be the judge if it ($100) was worth it:

Yeah, I thought so too!

I do have some more boring shoes in my closet, but the ones I showed you are my "go to shoes" when I want to have some fun and dress an otherwise boring outfit up just a bit.

Come by The Stories of A to Z and see some other great shoes!

Job Chart!

I am just getting this one in under the wire.

Week #10, "J" week...

My kids are like every other normal kid--they don't really like chores, but they do like getting paid. I have tried to come up with some encouraging (actually CUTE) way to display a "chore chart." My girls have begged for one. They have created their own (but it wasn't cute enough for me) and my son could care less.

One day, I stumbled across this great idea at Shannon Makes Stuff and it was exactly what I had been waiting for:

Visit her blog on the above link for a great tutorial on her version.

I live about 45 minutes from a Hobby Lobby or Michaels and I tend to get a little impatient once I get something in my head. (Who me, no.....never impatient)

Anyway, I REALLY wanted to get this done so I picked up the little tin cups at Walmart and I already had the button magnets to glue to the back. Then I started scouring my local Peddler's Mall for at least a 10" by 10" frame. Then I ran across this little beauty:

It was 12" by 12" and it was already metal! One less thing I had to buy for it! And, I think the tray was about $4. I was so excited!!!

I proceeded to spray paint her the same color as "Bluebell". Yeah, spray painting again, I'm sure you all are SOOOOO shocked.

(Complete disclosure, I went through 5 cans of spray paint in one day this week!)

I found some cute scrapbook paper to line the back with and then I started cutting paper to put inside the cute little cups.

I am missing two cups because I couldn't find the last two magnets.

Yes, I am one of THOSE people who loses EVERYTHING! I can't find my cellphone about 3 days out of 7. It drives my friends nuts.

This 12x12 will hold 5 rows of 5 tin cups. Inside each cup I put a "chore" on a slip of paper, along with the money they can earn for the chore. I have 3 kids so each kid gets a row and each kid has a different pattern of paper. I have two extra rows that I use for "extra" chores. The kids have the option to earn more money by doing a chore on one of these rows.

This squirt is my youngest daughter. She was totally pumped about this chart. I think she woke up at like 5am to do one of her chores. No joke.

Once I got the tray upstaires, the blue was a little too bright for my room. I just took it outside (the scrapbook paper is not glued down--too impatient to wait for the glue to dry. The magnets hold it on!) and lightly sprayed over it with Heirloom White so some of the blue shows through.

Here is the final product sitting on my kitchen counter and all filled up with the chores and the cash:

Thanks Shannon for your inspiration!

For my family, each chore is worth $1. I thought it would be fun to fill it with change as well as dollar bills. It is cute, but the change makes the cups too heavy for the magnets. Next week I will probably just use the bills.

Next week is "K" week and I have some more great knock offs ( I just need to get some permission from the owners before I talk about them!)

Linking up to:

Come by and take a look!

Islands in the Stream

Well, I have reached week #9 in my quest for organizing my blog:

This week is "I" week and to be quite honest, I am getting a little over this plan of mine. Decorating ADHD has struck again. I have so many things going on that I am dying to share, but I MUST press on and follow through with my original plan. Otherwise, I'll end up chasing my tail and never getting anything accomplished.

I alluded to the subject of this week's post on my "fear" blog. I made you wait until now to see more (and better pictures). The second (and last) post for "I" week is my island.

I have coveted islands forever, really. So, I was beyond thrilled when we walked into this house and there she sat. AN ISLAND! When we moved in, I continued to be happy with her...
for about 2 weeks.

My husband says I am easy to please, just hard to keep pleased. Don't be mad at him, I can't tell you how right he is!

This is the kitchen the day we closed on the house (see the Sherwin Williams bags on the island?)

I wanted a little more counter space and room for at least 4 people to sit comfortably. I came up with a basic design and spoke with a local kitchen designer to help me make it happen.

I requested big, chunky legs, a larger countertop and a beadboard wrap. I wanted to make the island look more like a piece of furniture. The kitchen guy did a beautiful job, here it is right after he left.

Not only have I always wanted an island, but I've always wanted a RED island, so about 10 minutes after he left, I broke out Martha's Hollyhock red and got to it.

Hubby caught me in the act

I put on three coats of red and then brushed some glaze in the cracks and crevices to help them pop out. I followed up with 3 coats of polyurethane.
The kitchen guy thought I was crazy when I told him I wanted to paint it red, but even he was impressed with the results.

Here are some pictures of her in all her red glory:

The best part is I am going on 3 months with the new, improved island and I still love it! Whoo hoo a breakthrough!!

Linking to:

"I" Like Green Eggs and Ham

Not a decorating post, but still following "I" week:

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

As I have told you before, I teach in an elementary school. March 2nd is the biggest day next to Christmas that there is. While I like Dr. Seuss, but I DO NOT like green eggs and ham. I am sure that my school is no different than every other school in the U.S. On March 2nd they serve green eggs and ham for breakfast.

It totally grosses me out. It is just WRONG.

However, I tweaked an idea from my sister-in-law and created my own, much more edible, version of the popular ode to Seuss:


My version of green eggs and ham


Ingredients:
Twisted pretzels
Almond bark (or white chocolate)
Green M&M's

spread wax paper on a cookie sheet and lay out pretzels on paper
melt almond bark
spoon small amount of bark on each pretzel
lay green M&M on top

Put tray in fridge to harden candy

The kids at school get a big kick out of it.
Another fun version is to make "bacon and eggs." Use pretzel sticks and yellow M&M's.

I will eat them in the car
I will eat them going far
I will eat THESE green eggs and ham
Thank you, thank you Sam-I-am!!

Linking up, come and see what inspiration you may find:

House Before and After-The Dining Room

Week, mmmm, lost count. Well, anyway "H" week and I am going to show you some of the rooms in my house. We haven' t done major construction, but I'm sure you won't be surprised how far a little paint and staging will go.

This week I have chosen to feature the first room you come to when you walk through my front door---the dining room. It is a really large room with access to the screened in porch (the flow of this house is fantastic, great for large gatherings).
Here is how the house looked on the day we moved in:

Before I get on with the reveal, I need to mention that you won't get many upclose and personal pictures, because a couple of the projects in this room are reserved for letters to come. I will point them out, but that's all you get!!

I painted the room Bosc Pear by Sherwin Williams and added the roman shades. My old house was predominately red, yellow and green so when I found this fabric with a blue background I was excited. Hubby likes blue, so it made me feel more like I was including him in the decor of the house (small steps people, small steps).

This is the room where "Scarlett" resides. You can read about her transformation here.

On the wall above the buffet are the shelves I talked about here, with the offending white spots gone. On the shelves I have propped and hung my hand-made silhouettes as well as some silver pieces that I like. Except now that I see these pictures I am thinking the shelves are STILL too high
(don't tell hubby, I'll see what I can do to fix it first!!)

I also have a lovely antique secretary I got at an auction (it was quite a bit more than my usual $2-$3, but so worth it.) on the opposite wall.

To the side of the desk are some pencil drawings of my three kiddos that I absolutely love.

Finally, I have the piano wall with some of my favorite finds from Peddler's Mall (you can see them more up close here.

Again, here is the dining room on Halloween (the day we moved in)

And here it is today, third week in February:

I do still have a few more things I would like to do (new light fixture, rework the secretary wall) but she's come a long way in a few months. Later in the week I'll be showing you the downstairs den.

I also wanted to thank those of you who are following me. Sorry this week has been a little light. My school is hosting the district Governor's Cup this weekend, plus I have night class 2 nights. Anyway, enough of my pity party...come back for more before and afters!!

Gussied Up

It's still "G" week...I wanted to show you some easy ways to "gussy up" some everyday, boring objects.

My two girls have plain old pull down shades in their rooms. Yes, there are tons of cute options to replace the shades out there, but I was going for CHEAP because I have a million other things I would rather spend the money on.

For those of you who are keeping up (aka know your ABC's), next week is "H" week and I am going to do some of my house before and afters. So please come back and see what I've been up to for the past 4 months (we moved into this house on Halloween).

Anyway, back to the shades. I decided just to embellish them with simple things. Oldest daughter got simple ribbon hot glued to the bottoms of the shades.

This is definately a "do as I say and not as I do" moment. Not only am I a teacher, I also have a degree in Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) and I had to take a whole course on electrical safety. I am sure this breaks all kinds of electrical safety rules. But it was much easier to do it this way then to set down the blasted glue gun every second.

Youngest daughter has a polka dot "themed" room so when I found these round mirrors at Walmart, I knew they would be perfect. For this embellishment, I did take the shades down so I could place the mirrors where I wanted them before I glued them down. I let her add the flower stickers later.

Finally, I had some posters/prints/whatevers hubby bought at an auction (I turned my head and he started bidding on random stuff...note to self, keep my eye on him more closely).
Anyway, I found some picture frames I wasn't really using, but they were, well BORING.

I had some bead/ribbon/trim stuff that I decided to try to hot glue onto the frames to give them more dimension. After that, I spray painted them oil rubbed bronze and I like the way they turned out.



Simple solutions, easy on the pocketbook.

I am all about the details, I have some ideas for this area:
Remember Truvy's Beauty Shop? You can read a little more about it here.

And I can't wait to share it with you.

Keep coming back...you challenge me to be more creative.


I'm linking up, come see: