Patriotic Buddy Poppy Wreath for Veteran's Day

Due to the chaos/mess of the holidays, I didn't get this posted when I wanted. My soon-to-be sister-in-law asked for my help decorating the the local VFW's float for the Veteran's Day parade. I wish I can could claim the idea on this one but it was all hers. And it turned out to be a good one!

She was given a full box of Buddy Poppies to play with. And that we did. We pulled the tags off each one and left the wire stem. Then we simply stuck the stem into the foam wreath. She wanted red, white, and blue theme colors, so we attached a white and blue deco mesh bow to the bottom to take the Christmas-y look away from it.

Aside from the poppies blending together too much, I say it turned out cute! She was very pleased with the results. And here is one on the float! 

We had a lot of trouble finding the foam wreaths. At the time, they were out of stock everywhere. I wanted to get a larger one but we went with what we had. We also painted the signs with silver, red, and blue. We worked HARD on those! But I really have to give all the credit to my sister-in-law-to-be.  :)

"Baby" Halloween Pumpkin Idea for Daycare or Nursery.

A friend/co-worker's church put together a pumpkin patch this year and since I have never been to one (and to help them raise money), the kiddo and I made a trip last Friday to have some Fall fun!

I have been dying to make the "Baby" pumpkin for my Mom ever since I saw this on Pinterest. She doesn't get the chance to decorate much anymore and I thought this would be perfect for her daycare. She loved it! I think I may try it with a fake pumpkin so she will have one to set out every year.

The smallest pumpkin pictured was my kiddo's work and insisted it stayed in the picture. He was giddy about the tiny pumpkins and wanted to stick his purple vampire teeth in one. To give him "mean" eyes,  I let him use some red glitter glue I had laying around forever.

Creepy Halloween Skull Tray Tabletop Decor

So here is my real fake fruit bowl. Yay. Displayed all-year round on my buffet in my dinning area.  I have two chargers on top of a glass bowl. The bowl is pretty in itself, thinking of just making it a stand alone after Halloween.

I needed something new for the buffet this Halloween and I wanted to still use the two chargers. It needed to be creepy and somewhat disgusting (but not bloody disgusting! For the kiddo.) I didn't want to spend any money, so I dug around for some random bits from my treasure boxes in storage. The skulls were perfect! Kept the Autumn fruit from the bowl and the rat adds a nice touch (of plague!) Leaves are always falling off my fake vines and I am too lazy to stick them back on, so used them for garnish instead. Then added some spider webs .

I had fun editing and playing around with the photos for some creepy effects!

DIY Version of a "Little Pot for Thought" Teacher Gift

My kiddo has had a wonderful teacher this year. He has taught my son so many great things and showed compassion, concern, knowledge, and awareness about his food allergies. We wanted to show our appreciation with a thoughtful little gift to present to him at the End of the Year Classroom party.

I racked my brain on what to give him. I reached out to friends and google searched like crazy. Received a lot of great ideas, but I kept going back to this "Little Pot for Thought." It was just so cute! And the quote was perfect!




"Teachers change the world, one child at a time"  --Anon.

Well, if you clicked the link then I am sure you might have seen the price. It's a bit out of my budget and that doesn't include shipping charges. I was also on a very short time frame so I did not have time to wait. I thought, "That would be so nice stuffed with school supplies. And the pot would be so easy to make." That sealed the deal. So I went out and bought the supplies.






- COSTS -
Found the 4" pot terra cotta pot at Wal-mart for .78 cents. The matching saucer was .75 cents (why they charge separate for those is beyond me!) I went with Krylon Duo Paint + Primer in one, a glossy black, which cost 4.94.  We needed a mismatch box of acrylic gems anyway, and we found one that had little red ones just like the "little pot for thought." That cost $4.97. Then I purchased a white paint pen at Hobby Lobby for $2+change along with a 40% off coupon. I should have bought a smaller tipped paint pen, I was a total noob at it and the letters turned out HUGE. But anyway, I already had the rest of the materials, so it cost me less than $14. Even lesser if you figure the cost of the actual gems used. I had money left over to buy some supplies I knew he used for fillers: pencils, dry erase markers, red pens, and some post-it notes. The kiddo also wanted to leave a little something extra special in there for his teacher, so he tucked in a Spring school photo of himself.

Here is a close-up of the acrylic gemstones. Tacky Glue hadn't completely dried yet, so you can see a bit of white around the edges.

I added a little bit of personal touch by writing his teacher's name on the top rim. The kiddo also signed the back of the pot with a drawing of a heart with love (not pictured). Children can be so sweet. :)

- TIPS -

I used a fine sand paper to smooth out sharp and rough edges of the terra cotta pot before I painted it. I also used tacky glue for the acrylic gems, E6000 to permanently glue the pot and the bottom dish together, an apple sticker for decoration, and then sprayed the finished project with Mod Podge spray sealant. I recommend the glossy sealant if you are using the gloss spray paint. 

Valentine's Day "Heart Attack" For The Family!

A sample of a few I made for my kiddo :) Photo by Lainy @ Geek & things

Such a neat idea inspired by Bakersfieldmom.com! They were so much fun to make and very inexpensive. With the kiddo having peanut and tree nut allergies, most valentine's candies are off limits. Not to mention we still have leftover candy from Halloween and Christmas so he is in no need of more sugary junk. It's always hard to decide what to do for him so that's why I have to search for ideas. That's when I saw this on Pinterest (go figure!). I made about 20 hearts for the kiddo and they were so much fun that I went on to make 20 more for the husband, too! And it was hard to stop at 20, I could have kept going. 
The project didn't cost me any extra money because I already had the supplies and it left a smile on my face when I was finished. 

The plan: I will scatter these all over the kiddo's door and all along my husband's side of the bedroom wall this morning. And when they wake up...SURPRISE! A "heart attack" full of wonderful things about them!