Boxes and Bucket Lists

Good Evening!

Let me just tell you about a little something you should look out for...COUPONS and SALES! Although I am a Hobby Lobby girl at heart, I have recently become just as obsessed with Michaels (probably because it is literally a 3 minute drive from my house). Nonetheless, Michaels offers some great sales and coupons that you should check for in the paper on Sundays! Today on my way in to find some stuff for Cam and my "Bucket List" (to be discussed later), I found a tub of decorative boxes 40% off. On top of that, I had a coupon for 20% off my entire purchase INCLUDING sale items! Although I was not looking for decorative boxes for any particular reason, that is a pretty darn good deal and I assured myself that for that price, I could find a use for the boxes! They were originally $21 total, and I got two for $10 bucks!

I'm thinking these can definitely be used for a wedding, bridal shower, or home vintage look decoration! Either way, I'm thinking it was a good grab :)

The reason for my trip to Michaels, as mentioned above, was to buy supplies for a Bucket List project, inspired by the beautiful Kayla Thompson, and the tin can idea from a fellow blogger! Cam and I spent some time last night talking about some things we wanted to do in the next year (ish) together and I made up a list of about 20 things. These things were considered our Bucket List, and we were ready to create the bucket after the trip to Michaels for the supplies!

I used some scrapbook paper and cut it to fit the size of the container I bought ($2 grab baby!)

I was digging the yellow and purple together, with the neutral grey to separate the two! After cutting out the paper and lining the tin, I wrote all our ideas onto the clothespins (Also $2 at Michaels).

I added some stickers and buttons to the tin to dress it up, and ended up with this...

I then put the clothespins on the top of the bucket..

As Cam and I complete the things on the clothespins, we drop them into the tin can! Our goal is to have all the clothespins in the tin can by this time next year (some of the things are somewhat unachieveable, so we will see how it goes!) Wish us luck!

Until then,

Brittany

PS: I have also just been introduced to the teaching blogging world! I have recently started following some incredible teachers with awesome classroom ideas! I'm still new in the game (since I don't even have a teaching job yet!) so I can take all the ideas I can get and you should too fellow education majors!! :)

Mid (ish) Week Update

Good Evening!

Yes, it is 11:12 PM on a work night, and I am blogging, so that shows you what type of boring life I lead! Anywho, I have some fun/cute things to share with you so I figured a blog would be necessary! Maybe some of these ideas will get used by some/any of you! I will address them in bullet form, because it's easier to read, and it gives you something to look forward to within the blog post. AND, you can prepare yourself for the end when you know it's coming. There are 4 things I am going to share with you. Here we go...

1. Photo Booth! At work we try and create some sort of structure (this can be somewhat challening with 40 plus kids that range from age 6 to age 12). We came up with the idea of doing a Photo Booth with the kids. I did it with the kids I nannied for last summer and they enjoyed it, so I figured these kids would too! The teachers brought in TONS of stuff for the kids to choose from for their picture...

There was everything from dresess, to heels, to football helmets, to cowboy boots and beyond! The kids LOVED it so much that we are doing it again tomorrow! Here are a few snid-bits of the ideas they came up with! Faces are blurred out for confidentiality purposes.

One of my personal favorites...a child that graduated from angel school! Quite creative if you ask me :)

This little boy is one of my favorites at the camp, and he was a person in jail! He had the orange jump suit, and if you had seen his face, he looked like a genuine inmate. Priceless. Reason #875574 why my job is the best.

2. I have been meaning to find a fun way to display all my children's books (I am pretty proud of myself for accumulating quite a few books for my classroom over the years!) My books have been sitting in a laundry basket, basically wasting space, UNTIL, I saw a super fun idea Sarah Hambley did with her children's books...a rainbow display!

 Sarah is basically a GENIUS to the crafting/teaching/being awesome world! To see more of her great ideas, go to her super cute blog here! It looks bad currently, but it was a quick fix that made me feel better about my book display!

It's a small collection, but it is growing for my future kiddos to use!

3. Speaking of my future classroom, if I ever even WANT a classroom, I have to get a job! My parents have been pushing me to look into getting a legit suit for interviewing in, and I have been dreading it! Everytime I think of a suit, I either think of a stuffy businesswoman, or Ms. Trenchbull from Matilda. And I would like to think that I have a little more personality than those people. I looked at the outlet malls at the beginning of the summer and had no luck and I felt really discouraged about finding anything I liked enough to spend the money on and something that I knew I would wear again. ALAS, yesterday I went to The Limited and HIT. THE. SPOT. It is the oasis of a teacher with TONS of clothes that fit the attire of a teacher. I finally found something that I liked enough to buy because I would not only wear all three pieces together, but I could wear them all separately as well! AND, it was buy a jacket get the skirt free, so we lucked out!

The jacket is a jean looking material but it has some black and grey speckles in it. I loved that it was short sleeved and could totally be rocked with jeans or khakis for a night out! (I think..I need to check with my fashion expert friends to make sure!)

The shirt is a coral/peach color (I know the pic looks orange, but I promise, it's not!) The fabric is beautiful and reminds me of a favorite shirt of one of my former roomates, so I snagged it! It looks great tucked into a high waisted skirt, but would look great with black pants as well, or of course, jeans!

The skirt hits right above the knee and feels really nice on! I could easily wear the skirt with a tucked in shirt, so that was a plus to the buy!

The outfit as a whole looks a little weird here and the colors are off, but you can get a general idea! I didn't even think a suit was necessary for an interview, but my mom (who is a current teacher in Olathe) said you needed to dress for success and a suit would set the tone for an interview and could potentially get me a job! And that's what I need, so this suit will hopefully be the first steps to landing my first job!

4. Tomorrow night I am getting together with some girls for dinner/wine/dessert. I am excited to see some friends and catch up, and since I have currently been on a baking kick, I decided to use another recipe from my favorite cupcake blog, Your Cup of Cake, and I tried out the Oreo Cupcake recipe! For this recipe and more, go visit Lizzy's blog here!

The process basically consisted of putting oreos (cream side up) in a pan...

...making the batter and filling up the liners...

...and baking, frosting, and adding the finishing touches to them!

Yuummmyyyy! They are delicious if I do say so myself, and I hope my friends tomorrow night feel the same!

I hope you gained a little inspiration from any of these ideas and can try some of them out soon!

Until then,

Brittany

New Obsession!!

So it's no mystery to anyone that I am currently interested, obsessed with blogging, decorating, and everything in between. Through blogs, and magazines like this...

...I have gained so much inspiration and found so many great ideas for cheap! Beyond decorating, I adore organizing, (yes, I am a nerd, whatever!) and this idea that I found through DIY magazines and blogging is SUPERB!! They are called...

...chalkboard labels! It is a shiny, black adhesive paper that can be written on with actual chalk, or a pen like this...

The nice thing about this liquid chalk is it wipes right off, allowing your paper to be re-used! I was able to get 6 ft. of paper, plus this chisel tip pen for $15 (thank you Amazon!) There are multiple uses for chalkboard labels, including...

These all look soooo good compared to mine, but hey, I'm just an amateur, I will soon become a pro at chalkboard labels (hopefully :)

Cam got the following spices at the Farmers Market for $1 each and the holders from Hobby Lobby for under $1 each (I may or may not have helped him pick out the perfect spice holders that can later be used in an apartment/house... :) Here were the results..

Again, mine kind of suck, but I am hoping I will only get better with more practice!

I also took this beautiful pictures this weekend...I am also thinking about taking up photography...HAHA NOT! But I was proud of how these few turned out :)

Happy Monday!

Until then,

Brittany

What Does it Mean to "Nest?"

Interesting title...I remember last year when I was introduced to this term. My bedroom at home was bright blue, with writing on the walls, a Sweet 16 poster hanging up and mismatched picture frames and knick knacks from Junior High and High School. It was decided that since my bedroom would eventually turn into a guest room, it needed to be re-done and my parents were willing to chip in to make it happen. We painted it and I spent lots of time (and money, if I do say so) to decorate it and make it look "grown up." It was at this point that my mother introduced me to the term "nesting." Nesting, in more terms or less, is settling down and getting acquainted with your surroundings. Ever since last summer, (and some intermittent visits to thenest.com) I have been "nesting." Recently, it has gotten really bad.

This weekend I spent a relaxing day at the pool and needed something to read, so I decided to buy a decorating magazine! This one seemed applicable because it gave great suggestions on how to effectively store your belongings and get organized! I for one, LOVED THIS! I was even able to tear out pages I liked, circle items, and make small comments next to it so I could remember it for the future!

I also spent a great deal of time on the dollar rack at Michaels, and among some of my purchases were..

...these recipe cards for $0.20 each. YES, THAT'S RIGHT, $0.20 EACH!! I died inside because I have been meaning to buy some cheap recipe cards for awhile and this was just what I needed, and on a great budget! I also found a very nice black foldable on sale at Office Max for $5 so I bought this to store all my recipes!

I spent most of tonight going through my mom's recipe book and pulling out recipes that I knew I would use this upcoming year, and in my future endeavors!

So now, you should all come visit me in Manhattan and I can cook you a nice meal with a refreshing beverage and yummy dessert, and then we can talk about decorating ideas! Yay, what fun! :)

Until then,

Brittany

What a Saturday!

Good Evening Bloggers!

I have been so excited to find a spare 20 minutes this weekend to tell you about the FABULOUS yesterday that I had! I have seriously been little a little giddy child on Christmas morning to update this blog. You may laugh, but I hope you are as excited about the things I am about to tell you as I am!

Cameron has been meaning to get some fresh spices from the Farmers Market for a while, so we ventured there yesterday and let me tell you did we find some great things!!! We headed straight for the fresh fruits and veggies as we first came in, and this was one of the first things we saw...

That's right, two young children on top of a mound of corn!! This family seriously probably had enough corn to feed the whole city if they so desired! Although we did not purchase any fresh corn, we did get some fresh green beans, tomatoes, peaches...

 and my absolute FAVORITE find of the day..

...some beautiful fresh flowers for $8. I wish I could describe to you how beautiful these flowers truly are. We found them off to the side, and a young Vietnamese couple was frantically working to provide everyone with the flowers they wanted. They meticulously put together each bouquet and probably spent 10 minutes making each one just right. It was fascinating to watch as they worked to make each flower fit into the overall bouquet according to color, height, and type of flower. Ahhh, for someone who loves flowers as much as I do, I was in heaven :)

The flowers were my favorite find of the day, and although Cam found his spices, he also set his eye on something else that stole his heart..

...cannolis!!! We have had cannolis before, but NEVER ones as good as these! They are made fresh daily from this little Italian bakery at the market and they were to DIE FOR. They were so right and creamy and they definitely hit the spot :)

After spending the majority of the morning at the market, my mom took us to The GreenWood Tea Room. It was a cute little cottage that had been turned into an antique shop and tea room. We dined in this precious little room...

...and had the world's best string bean soup, raspberry iced tea, and homemake key lime pie!!! It was such a fun atmosphere and it would be absolutely wonderful for a girls day out sometime :)

After finishing our delicious lunch, my mom took us over to the Cockrell Mercantile, a place filled with five cottages that have been turned into little stores to shop around in.

Although we didn't purchase anything, I did find some very cute ideas for a future classroom and/or house!

Although very simple, I thought this could be fun to use in a classroom! Wooden letters can be bought at Hobby Lobby for relatively cheap, and they can be painted a variety of colors, or remain black for a clean look. They could be placed on the wall in a reading center, or even hung from the ceiling to add some dimension to the classroom!

Scrabble letters!! This would be so fun to use as a fun labeler in a classroom for a book area, craft supply center, or table names! The letters were hot glued to the back of the stand, and then it can be used for whatever purpose you decide!

This is a simple idea that has been used before, but the windowsill flowers are just a must for a cute little house! It is simple and just made out of wood and then painted, but it is so cute and will definitely need to be an addition to my house somewhere down the road :)

I adored this fun patio table setting! All the dishware is from Fiesta and I love how fun and bright it is! If you have never heard of Fiesta Dishware, it is SO sturdy and bright and fun that will add some life to your kitchen! Although somewhat expensive, colors do go on sale temporarily, so keep an eye out for it!

We had such a fun day together shopping around and getting ideas for the future! The Farmers Market, Greenwood Tea Room, and Cockrell Mercantile are all places you need to check out next time you are in KC!! I hope you all have a wonderful week and we will meet again soon!

Until then,

Brittany