A Place For A Bike

 My brothers are the most creative men I know.  They always have been and in my book they always will be.  I have three younger brothers that never cease to amaze me with the fun projects they come up with for their cute families and...mine!

 My brother Kurt felt my girls needed a bike rack to keep their bikes from laying all over the yard, garage, street etc...you get the picture.  Now did he just go and buy a bike rack?  Nooooooo he made one out of scraps of metal that came from something that got taken apart (I can't think of what it was now for some reason???)  Reuse, recycle, right!

I had nothing to do with him painting it pink...he knew we were a bunch of girly girls over here so he did that all on his own! (he has all boys so he gets extra points for having to go buy pink spray paint).
**my favorite part besides the massive amount of love that went into this project?  The "A" and "C" on either side of the rack.  A for Abby and C for Cassidy. **
Thanks Kurt - we ♥ it!

***I remembered what he recycled to make this....our old trampoline legs.  They were very high quality and it was such a waste to throw them away so Kurt took them and made the bike rack!

Teacher Gift Ideas

Right now I am in the middle of planning a going away party for Amberly's amazing teacher's aide and planning my end-of-the-year teacher gifts for Cassidy and Amberly's teachers.

I am the room Mom for Amberly's class and next week we are having a party for the aide, pizza, drinks and cookies.  Each child is bringing in a new or used book for her soon-to-be-classroom-library and $5 for the pizza and gift.  I'm going to go and get gift cards for her to use next year when (and if) she has her own classroom.
I'm hoping it will look something like this:  From HERE

The girls over at 2 Clever Blog always have something amazing going on and they are cute and funny too!  I have gotten a lot of great ideas from them and I promise - I always give them the credit!

Anyway, I thought I would share what I have done in the past and which I hope to do again this year.
I already have in the works for Amberly's teacher the 101 Things We Love And Will Miss About You gift.  You can read all about it HERE.  It's the best teacher gift I have ever seen! (1st photo-Cassidy's 2nd grade teacher gift - 2nd photo Amberly's kindergarten teacher gift)

We also make a t-shirt for the girls to wear to school on the last day.  They love having their friends sign it and then they get to wear it to bed at night and feel the love of their friends and remember what a fun year they had.  You can read about that post HERE  (I wish I knew how to re-post a post so you didn't have to keep clicking off this page!)  And yes...that IS a picture of Cassidy surfing on a surfboard!

Here's what I did last year for the girls in the front office at school, the school nurse, the cutest bus driver ever and all the aides, helpers and Principal.  

Cassidy's teacher this year is such a DOLL I want to do something extra special for her.  I'm not the room Mom so I'm not even going to attempt to to the $$$ idea.  She loves gum so I'm trying to come up with some cute gift that has TONS of gum in it.  And not gumballs, real minty gum!  Any ideas for me friends?

Here's a link with cute sayings and gift ideas: skip to my lou

I guess that's it for now.  After trying to find all my old posts I have realized that I need to organize my labels really, really badly.  Seriously, I almost gave up on this post.  And I'm sure there are more ideas but...I can't find them.  Sorry about that. 

For now - I'm going to bed!  I'm so tired♥

Helpful Ideas

I don't know about you but I can use all the help I can get right now.
Cassidy and Tom have been home sick which has eaten up time that I have little of.
How many days till Christmas?
I don't know - I do know however that I am down to the wire and time is running out!
Is it for you too?
I thought so.
Here are a few helpful tips and ideas I have used in the past or am going to use this year.
Let me know if you have any tricks you want to share♥
Reindeer Food - I have done this every year and the kids LOVE it! Abby made a huge batch last night by herself and I printed the tags off tonight. She's giving one to each kid in her class.

Ugly Sweater ideas - who knew this was a HUGE deal? I didn't until this year.
you are going to laugh your hiney off when you look at these photo's!

Making the world cuter - there are tons of ideas on here!

Sisters Stuff - I love the hand sanitizer idea - there are lots of ideas on here - one of which I am going to steal for my neighbors (wink)

Clover Lane - my newest blog crush. She's always got something clever and I'm digging her photo ornaments. I just ordered mine for this year from Arts Cow. They are another great site. My brother and I are HUGE fans of arts cow.

One of my favorite daily e-mails is from todays creative blog there's all kinds of goodness flowing from this amazing blog. Everyday she features a different crafty blog. I'm sure you have heard of it - if not - hop on over and enjoy tons of great ideas.

Some ideas from my blogging past:
The birthday tree
Friend and Neighbor gifts - easy and may happen again this year.

Things I have gotten from friends and neighbors that I love that might inspire-I'm all about sharing the ideas♥

Mexican Vanilla, treats of any kind, chocolate dipped pretzels, holiday bingo game, Christmas Video, LDS General Conference on CD for the car (our friends gives us this every year), Christmas videos, a nativity set, Christmas Music CD, Jingle bells for our front door, an ornament (I love getting ornaments), family cookbook & an apron. There's more but my brain is about dead so I'm stopping here.

What's some of your favorite gifts to give and get?
Have any blog links to share?
Are you ready for Christmas?

Good Mail

I got this today in my mailbox.
If I got things like this everyday maybe I would check my mailbox more than once a week.

My sweet friend Jen sent me a

"Just because we are each others oldest friends" good mail package.

To say I was touched is an under statement. To say that I had a HUGE grin on my face for the rest of the day would be accurate!! Thanks Jen, I Love it!! I can't wait to use them!!

BTW this is my second good mail package ever! Dancing Queen sent me the cutest box of goodies and I never posted about it. I think because I was on my way to Hawaii soon there after. However, if anyone ask's Brooke about it she will tell you that I was hopping and skipping to her car with my fun girls CD that she sent and which we listen to every single day in the car. My girls LOVE it!! So thanks Dancing Queen!! I know it's late but I loved it! Ü

101 Things We Love - Teacher Gift

O.K. I did it. 
I made Kristy's unbelievable teacher gift.

101 Things we love and will miss about Mrs. Workman

From the class of 2007

Spectrum Elementary

And I must say Cassidy's teacher did say, "unbelievable!" It was so easy to make with Kristy's detailed instructions and I had a lot of fun as well. It was definitely a labor of love for which I enjoyed.

When I got into the classroom to give her the gift she was calling each child up and telling the whole class what she loves and will miss about them. Is that not perfect? Some of the Mom's came and we all had a good cry. The kids probably thought we were nuts but it was a nice moment! This was such a wonderful year. It's going to be hard to top. So thank you Kristy, once again you saved the day!


**A little FYI on the brand new dollar bills. If you want them you have to order them a few days in advance. I did not know this. I thought you could just go to the bank and get brand new bills. Nope. Well, not "nope" but I did have to go to 5 different banks before I hit the jackpot!

Step By Step How To:

1) So I started by getting every Mom's e-mail address and e-mailing them the questions to ask their children plus asking for $5.


The questions were:
1. What will I miss most about being in Mrs. Workman's class.
2. What I love most about Mrs. Workman is.......
3. Mrs. Workman loves me because........
4. My favorite thing Mrs. Workman taught me this year was.......
5. What I hope to never forget about this year:


2) Then I compiled all the questions and printed them out on paper the size of dollar bills.After cutting them I put one paper with a question then one dollar bill, one question, one dollar bill etc......



3) I then went to Paper Plus - a wholesale paper co. in town and got Padding Compound. This is the glue that they put onto notebooks so you can tear the paper off without ripping.  This is a very important part of the process.  If you can't find it in your area, order it.  It will last you many years and make many projects!



4) I then clamped all 101 things and 101 dollars together with a backer board on the back and a cute cover page on the front:




5) I did two coats of the padding compound to make sure that all the paper was glued together. The glue only takes about 20 min. to dry. This was the coolest by the way! I have already thought of a ton of cute things I could make with this glue stuff! Oh and it was only $11.95 for the quart!






6) TA-DA! I was smiling the whole time I was making this. Tom thought I was nuts!~ He,He! I could hardly contain my excitement! And her reaction did not disappoint!

And here she is with Cassidy!
The most amazing teacher I have ever known.

She will be missed!

I went to the ribbon store and found the perfect ribbon for my cute paper. I thought of you Kristy at the ribbon store. You would LOVE it! A WHOLE store floor to ceiling - wall to wall of ribbon! So much fun!
This was not a hard project. The hardest part was getting the questions from the kids/Moms. If you are going to do this for a family member or a wedding present that wouldn't matter and it would be so cute!

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions.  I am always willing to help you make your favorite teacher smile!