2010 Recap

Well, 2010 was a good year for me. The Heela was finally back at work (after being laid off for a full year! UGH!), the kids were relatively healthy with no trips to the ER ('09 was riddled with them!) and I started this blog. It has been such a pleasure to have a place to share my projects and ideas, as well as get to know so many other fabulous bloggers out there. So thank you for all of your support and for humoring me over these past 6 months.

I hope to have some more fun posts for you this coming year, but in the meantime, I thought I would share a recap of my top 10 posts  for 2010. Depending on when you started following me, you may not have seen all of these, so please check them out to see what all the "hype" is about. (hahaha!) ;)

Most viewed post at the top (based on number of pageviews) and working its way down in popularity...

DIY Jessie (Toy Story) Toddler Costume - no sewing necessary

Snowflake Specimen Art {Shortcut Style}

Organizing the Kids - Toys Edition

DIY Canvas Art {tweet tweet}

Master Bath Makeover

Trick {or} Treat Bucket

Simple Silver Spray-Painted Santa

Mirror Transformation (aka the Frame Fiasco)

Halloween Specimen Art (Shortcut style)

Halloween Rag Wreath

And I'd like to give mention to my top 5 referring sites as well - they are all amazing blogs and you should check them out (if you're not a fan already!)

Shanty 2 Chic

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Org Junkie

House of Hepworths

Remodelaholic


And finally, a big thank you to all of the wonderful blogs that featured me. I am honored that you felt my projects were "feature-worthy" and to have been included in the company of so many other wonderful ideas!

Powder Room Makeover

DIY Canvas Art {tweet tweet}

Master Bath Makeover

DIY Canvas Art {tweet tweet}

Snowflake Specimen Art

DIY Canvas Art {tweet tweet}

Halloween Specimen Art

Snowflake Specimen Art

Simple Silver Spraypainted Santa

Simple Silver Spraypainted Santa

Snowflake Specimen Art

Organizing Kids' Toys

Master Bath Makeover

Master Bath Makeover

Organizing the Kids - Toys Edition

Snowflake Specimen Art

Snowflake Specimen Art

Simple Silver Spraypainted Santa

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I wish you and your family all the best for a very


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My Wishes for You...

Happiness deep down within.
Serenity with each sunrise.
Success in each facet of your life.
Family beside you.
Close and caring friends.
Health, inside you.
Love that never ends.
Special memories of all the yesterdays.
A bright today with much to be thankful for.
A path that leads to beautiful tomorrows.
Dreams that do their best to come true.
Appreciation of all the wonderful things about you. 

Author Unknown

Happy New Year!!

In case you hadn't noticed... (ha ha!)

In case you hadn't noticed, I've been taking a little break from blogging. Things got REALLY busy before Christmas with all of the last minute preparations. *sigh* I'm usually so on top of things, but it really crept up on me this year!!

We had a really fabulous celebration on Christmas Eve with the Heela's family and a fun Christmas day here at home. The girls got waaaaay too many presents, but hey, they're kids - it is supposed to be sensory overload, right? ;)

This week, I am enjoying spending time with my parents who traveled here from 9 hours away to stay for a week. Because of the distance, we only get to see them twice a year - usually once during the summer and again at Christmas. So I am making the most of their visit and taking a little sabatical from the blogging. Hope you can understand that! :)

I'll be back in full swing with some more projects in the new year so I hope you stick around! :D

Happy {belated} Holidays

and a very

Happy New Year!!!

Quick and Easy Teacher Gifts

My girls go to daycare - all day - every day. Needless to say, their teachers are saints! So we always try to give a nice little token of appreciation at the holidays. But, there are a lot of them and we just can't afford to do anything "big" when you have to multiply it by 8. (can you beleive some websites suggest one week's tuition?? Um, yeah, I don't think so!!!). So I try to think of frugal ideas every year that are thoughtful but won't break the bank.

Last year, I used coupons to score big Glade candles for $1 a piece. They were a huge hit, but were still nice to my pocketbook. ;)

This year, I happened upon some great aluminum water bottles on clearance at Michaels and scooped up a whole bunch of them. At only $1.50 a piece (50% off from $3), I thought they were a good deal. And I especially like the fact that they are "green". 

Shortly after I found the water bottles, I happened across these re-usable bags at Kohls - in the clearance section. They were marked down from $1.99 to only 79 cents! I grabbed every one they had. I really like the fact that they have snaps to hold them together when not in use.

The girls helped decide which teacher got which color bottle and SweetPea wrote each teacher's name on a circle we punched out of card stock and then taped to the bottom of the bottle.

 





Then we tucked the water bottle into a bag. Easy-peasy! :) I might tie a piece of ribbon to the top of the water bottle, but otherwise, we won't be wrapping them. I think they look fine just the way they are. :)

A Rainbow of gifts!

Not bad for less than $2.50 a piece total. And I am really pleased that it is a 100% "GREEN" gift!


What are some of your thrifty teacher gift ideas?