Easter Basket Wreath

My Easter basket wreath needed a little refresh this year.  I love the basket wreath, but the flowers were looking a little sad after several Spring seasons.  I opted to refresh the wreath for about $5 instead of spending $50 on a new one.

The Dollar Tree has a lot of pretty silk flowers for Spring.  Some are cheap looking so you have to do some digging to find the best ones.  I found some picks that had greenery, flowers and speckled Easter eggs for just $1.25.  I grabbed four of them and headed home to refresh my wreath.

Before:  Cute bute a litle sad after using it for more like five Springs now that I think about it.

After: More flowers, Easter eggs and more greenery.

I'm really happy with the wreath refresh!  I saved money and my wreath looks nice and festive.

DIY Teacher Jean Jacket

I knew I wanted to do something special to celebrate the first year at my new school.  It felt like a big accomplishment to return to teaching after 11 years away.  I saw lots of ideas for dresses and aprons, but a jean jacket seemed like the best option for me.

I grabbed this jacket when Old Navy was having a big sale and bought all the paints/patches/supplies on Amazon to go with my school colors.  I tried to thrift a jean jacket, but they were all so stiff and not st stretchy.  Old Navy always comes through with soft, stretchy jean jackets.  Then one afternoon, I got my class list and worked my way through the list painting my student's little hands one at a time.

They thought it was so tickly and then I walked them right over to the sink to wash their colorful hand. 

Each student got to pick their paint color and hand print location.  I explained the project to the whole class and then we got busy stamping during brain break.  I let it dry on my back table.  Then I took it home to add the patches and the polka dots.

My students LOVED when I wore my teacher jacket.  I didn't add names or identifying details.  I just painted 2025 inside the jacket and will always remember my very first kindergarten class.  

It's the perfect jacket to wear on school spirit days or any teaching days, really.  I can't wait to wear it again this year and see my former students in the hall.

Another day, during brain break, I had my class make my assistant a personalized end of the year gift.  I found a big canvas bag on Amazon, used the same supplies from my jacket and helped them paint fingerprint hearts on one side of her bag.  She was a big crafter so she loved having a new craft bag from our class.

Teachers - you'll have to try to make something fun with your class this year!  I've seen dresses, head bands, aprons, skirts and jackets.  Find something that works for you and have your kids personalize it.

Closet Makeover

My Dad has been busy giving our downstairs closets a makeover!  He did completely custom closets in our last house so this was familiar territory for him.  Thankfully, we just needed an upgrade and not a complete makeover this time.

We have really nice closets and tall ceilings in our house, but they all needed more shelves to maximize our storage.  I wanted to be able to move more off the floor.  I asked my Dad to put adding a top shelf in our pantry to his to do list and then he said there were probably other closets that needed more shelves.  He was right.  He ended up adding another row of shelves in 3 different closets - our walk in pantry, our snack pantry and our primary walk in closet.

I did some initial measuring that he later confirmed.  He shopped for the supplies and prepped as much as possible as he could at home.  He used leftover trim paint from the board and batten trim project he did for us earlier this year.  Then he spent 3 almost full days working at our house.  He said the install portion took longer than he expected with all the measuring, cutting, fitting, sanding, caulking and painting.  Whew!  We supplied him with snacks, take out lunches and cookies.  I'm guessing he's glad to have this behind him and is hoping that our project list will be smaller in 2024 :)

Leo loved to be right by his side when he was working.  That was mostly cute.

Walk-in pantry BEFORE.  Amazing storage.  But it was messy and cluttered.

Leo carried barstools all around the house to make sure he was close to the action.

Work in progress.

I should have cleared off the top shelf, but I didn't realize his first work day was a morning I'd be gone.  So if you're having a similar project done at your house - clear as much out of the way as possible.  See how the shelves are crowded and I didn't love all the stuff on the floor.

Primary closet work in progress.

Walk-In Pantry AFTER!

Things are more spread out and up off the floor!  My next project is collecting more baskets and white containers to make the storage a little prettier.

Primary Closet BEFORE:

Amazing closet, but room for lots more storage up top.

Primary Closet AFTER!

We used the top shelf and then had a good 3-4 feet of blank space.  These shelves make the space make much more sense.  It looks like it should have always been that way.  Now we have more storage that is much sturdier than the builder grade shelf below.  I love the triangle brackets.  We are lucky to have a very large closet so four different sections ended up with new shelves.  I'm excited to find the best storage containers for the shelves and rearrange things a bit after the holidays.

I love this little nook.  It definitely needed a top shelf.  You know a project is a good one when it looks like it had always been that way.  Great work, Dad!

Now comes the fun part - thrifting pretty baskets, finding great clear storage containers and styling the shelves!  I'm so excited to have this big project done!  And I'm really excited that my Dad did way more than I originally asked.  He's generous like that.

Do you have any closet questions for me?

DIY Citrus Christmas Garland

I have been wanting to do this citrus DIY project for years and finally made it happen this year.  I love lemons, the smell of lemons and the color so I couldn't wait to try this project.  I read several tutorials and then made a plan that worked for me.  I learned some tips along the way and things that I'll do differently for next year.  That's right.  I loved this project so much that I'll do it again!

My tips and changes for next year are at the bottom of the post.

Grab a big bag of lemons from Sams.  They're around $5 and your favorite twine.  I sliced about 10 lemons for this project with a sharp knife and put them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  I left the seeds in and liked the look of that.  Your kitchen will smell great.

Bake at 200 for 2 hours at a time.  Flip.  The tutorials I read online said to bake lemons for 2-3 hours, but mine took probably 6 hours.  I'll make a few changes in the future to cut down that baking time.

Let them cool and air dry for a day.  They turned out to be the prettiest amber color.

I used a tooth pick to poke a small hole in the top of the lemon slices and then strung my red and white twine through.  I just tied a simple knot for each lemon.

I did one long strand for my mantle. It was the perfect finishing touch.  I have 3 garlands, ornaments, garland and stockings below.

I loved the red and white twine.  I'm super traditional and want all the red and green Christmas decor this time of year.

The ornaments are just as pretty as the garland!  I added about 15 lemon slice ornaments to our real tree.

A few things that I'll do differently next year:

1. Slice lemons thinly and then toss the thicker end pieces.  They curled up funny when baked and I ended up throwing most of them away.

2. Dry lemon slices with a towel after placing them on parchment paper.

3. Let them air dry overnight allowing them to dry out on their own some and bake for less time the following day.  I've heard that the keep their color better if they bake for shorter amounts.

4. Add in some oranges with my lemons!

Have you ever done any dried citrus projects at Christmas time?

This is a great one to start with!  I'm so pleased with the finished product!

6 Ingredient Homemade Play-Doh

Have you ever made homemade play-doh?

I grew up with a mom who made homemade play-doh so I had to continue the tradition with my own kids.  This recipe is so easy and you can easily add the ingredients to your next grocery pick up order.  The recipe is fast to make and the play-doh lasts for 1-2 weeks if you keep it in a ziploc bag.  

I've made play-doh for my kids, when we had friends over to play and for a whole class.  It's a really inexpensive, fun activity to do with kids and they love when you let them pick their own color of play-doh.  When Olive was in Pre-K, I made a class set of play-doh for her Christmas party and Olive requested we make more this Fall.  

Homemade Play-Doh Recipe:

1 cup flour

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup salt

1 T lemon juice

1 t vegetable oil

liquid food coloring

Directions:

Add everything to a saucepan and stir until well combined.  Add food coloring, vegetable oil, lemon juice and water back to back to get the best colored play-doh.  If you wait until it's well combined to add the food coloring, the color won't mix in well.  Stir the mixture with a spatula as it thickens up. If you have older kids, you can ask them to help you stir.  Keep stirring until it gets to a good play-doh consistency.  Then put in on the counter or a plate and knead it.  It's warm so I usually knead it the first minute or two and then pass it on to the kids.

You'll be the favorite mom in the neighborhood when you set up a play-doh factory in your kitchen!  The kids loved using my utensils to chop and create.

Big kids will love it!

Toddlers will love it!

We experimented with mix ins.  Cinnamon was fun to sprinkle in but didn't add much of a smell.  These sprinkles were great to mix in once the play-doh cooled.

We learned about coloring mixing.

We made birthday cakes.

And Grimace shakes!

And the 5th graders really enjoyed shopping Olive's play-doh shop at school!  We made pumpkin play-doh. and put it in bags to sell at her class market.

We also made look alike Crumbl Cookie play-doh to sell.  This was a big hit!

I hope you have someone in your life to make play-doh for!  It's been so fun for us to make the past month or so.  I'm going to make sure that I always have these ingredients on hand now that the weather is turning color and we might have some snow days in our future.  Let me know if you have any questions!

New Board & Batten Entry Ways

Hello, new and improved entryways!  

Both of our entry ways now have board and batten trim thanks to my ideas and my dad's hard work.

Let me explain.

I knew our entryways would be the perfect spot to do this board and batten trim.  Our trim and our doors are perfect to pair with this kind of trim.

I texted my dad pictures for inspiration and he came over several times to talk through my options.  We decided on the look I wanted and then he did all the measuring, calculating and cutting ahead of time.  He measured and planned out the entryway for our front door and the entrance by the garage door.  My hope was to have entryways that looked polished and finished and were easy to wipe down.  

Mission accomplished.

BEFORE: Pictures of our two entrances before the trim was added.  Plain and simple.  I was eager for these spaces to have some personality.  Remember that's been one of our big goals with our house - add personality to our new build!

I love our current trim so we just worked with the baseboards and planned the wall trim to go with it.  He measured the vertical pieces to make sure they were even and didn't get in the way of any of our outlets.

Leo was so excited when Papaw showed up with all his tools and materials.  He was happy to supervise.  My dad cut almost all the pieces ahead of time so the install seemed to go really quickly.  He set up a work station in the garage to do a few cuts and barely made a mess inside.  It's nice to have someone who's super detail oriented and a perfectionist just like me working at my house :)

He glued each piece to the wall with caulk and then nailed them in place.  He commented that this project took a lot more caulk than he was expecting. 

Proof of planning and measuring.  

I'm thankful that wasn't my job :)  I have the ideas and he makes them come to life.

Papaw was teaching Leo about measuring and reading off the measurements.  Leo was repeating while keeping a close eye on all the tools.

Good progress!  We headed out of town for a few days for Fall break so my dad got to work in a quiet house.  The cats kept him company and my mom came to supervise :)

All the layers were installed.  Things were caulked and then he did a mix of brush and roll to paint the trim.  He ended up needing a gallon of trim paint.  Plan for more than you think so that you have some for touch ups later.  All the trim got two coats of paint and it looks so bright and crisp.  Leo ended up with paint in his hair and paint on his clothes because he just couldn't stand not be right next to Papaw while he worked.

AFTER:

The hallway to the garage has trim on both sides now and looks so nice!  I'm hoping to do a fresh coat of paint on the doors now that the trim is freshly painted.

Front entryway:

Our built in bookshelves and benches were his first big project for our house.  And now the that trim is complete for his second big job here.  Everyone keeps my dad busy with projects so he's already moved onto his next one.

Great job, Dad!  It's always a pleasure working with you on projects :)