Keeping My Cents ¢¢¢

Hand lettered gift bag for Teachers

2018-12-19T11:39:00.000-05:00

I love to give handmade gifts to teachers but being a former teacher I know that they really want gift cards:) So I came up with a clever way to give my little one's teacher a gift card and a couple of other small gifts...chocolates without giving her something she really didn't want or need. In the bag I gave dark chocolate...she likes that...yuck and an Olive Garden gift card. Win for both! I still get to make something and she gets something useful.

Thankfully the teacher sent a letter home before school that told all about her and some things that she liked. Which proved to be very helpful for this gift.

Hindsight I would have found something else to use besides a Sharpie it tended to blend and made the lines appear darker in some places.

I modified it from seeing First Grade Parade's a few years back on Instagram.

Shower Themed Baby Shower

2018-04-06T12:31:00.000-04:00

Planning parties is my thing....so when my niece told me she was pregnant I knew I wanted to throw the shower. A baby is shower is one party that I've never had the privilege of throwing. Good o'l Pinterest never fails me so when I saw a "shower" themed baby shower it was on. I planned everything I could around my theme. Notice the Shower up ahead door poster to greet the guests. It literally had rained everyday that week except for on the shower so I was super happy about that. I also did her maternity photo shoot and had to incorporate the cutest little parasol. She is having a boy and it looks rather girly but I still like it.

A party wouldn't be a party without cupcake toppers and straw toppers, right. Also, the little nappies with chocolate covered peanuts were an addition my Mom just had to do. And you'd guess all the guests raved about them:)

I didn't get a real good picture of the food. But we had a brunch so we had chicken salad sandwiches, mini quiche, fruit, veggies, spinach dip, chips, macaroons, & cupcakes.

I'm in love with taking maternity pictures. Isn't she just glowing?

Read Across America Week Snacks

2018-03-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

This is read across America week and I was asked to bring in snacks for my little's class. I chose Pinterest of course for my inspiration. I'm taking the easy route more and more but of course my OCD takes over and I change something. I reworked the water bottles to fit Sam's club (Walmart brand) mini water bottles to fit perfectly. So, I took off the nutrition facts and QR code. It was making it too cluttered. Original source came from Little Wish Parties.

For the goldfish snacks the link only provided a picture so I designed those completely. Then printed on card stock and used double sided tape to attach them.

And last, the Cat in the Hat cheese stick hats I also just had a picture so I made those too.

I'm an overachiever and I was asked to only bring in one thing so hopefully she didn't ask anyone else to contribute as well or they will be on snack overload:)

Here are my links for downloads if you'd like to use my Dr. Seuss files.
Cat in the Hat Cheese Topper
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish goldfish label
Dr. Seuss mini water bottle labels

I'm "Beary" Happy You're In my Class Gummy Bear Valentine's

2018-02-12T14:52:00.001-05:00

Leave it up to Valentine's Day to get me to come out from underneath my rock:) I do L.O.V.E. Valentine's Day. It takes me back to the days when I was little.

I'm obsessed! So of course I make all the Valentine's and my kids get a "little" say in what what they want. LOL. I usually give them two Pinterest options and then they get to pick which one.

I wanted to makes these gummy bear valentine's last Valentine's Day but I could not find the individual packaged gummy bears. But this year I spotted them at Target so even though I had bought these really cute eraser Valentine's at Target earlier for my little one I knew when I saw them I had to make them!

They are really easy if you don't reinvent the wheel like I do every.single.time. I do a craft. Here was my inspiration from CreatingReallyFunAwesomeThings.com but I wanted them to include a pink gummy bear and I didn't really like the look of their gummy bears either so I redid them and of course I had to add my daughter's name at the bottom because getting her to sit down and right her name 22 times would be a chore. Her teacher already lectures her enough about how she still is writing capital M's for her middle letters. So I made it easy on her and just typed it in:) YAY!

If anyone is interested in me putting up a printable without my daughter's name of course included ...leave me a comment at the bottom and I will try and get one up.

Homemade Valentine's for My Kids

2017-02-14T13:28:00.000-05:00

I love homemade Valentine's. I CAN'T HELP MYSELF. So, this year we had to do something a little more grown up for my oldest. She decided on fake glasses with the saying "I've got my eyes on you." The little one decided on ring pop valentines...perfect for a kindergartener.

I included a picture of my chalkboard with the saying, I love you more. We constantly say that to each other. If you have watched Tangled then you understand. I adore the felt heart envelopes I put on the backs of their chairs and the little glitter heart tie on tags I got from Target. So cute and cheap!

Valentine's Day 2017

2017-02-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! My littlest decorated cupcakes during her class party. I think it's the cutest. I know....I know....I am not partial. Right?

Oh, and here is Ginger popping in to say "Happy Valentine's Day" too. Since the kids were at school she was modeling for me:) By the way she is a very demanding model. She went through lots of treats. LOL

Hershey Bat Halloween Candy Bars

2016-10-18T14:37:00.001-04:00

I have made these Hershey Bat Halloween Candy Bars for three years now. Thanks to moving and having two daughters in school. Yay! I love it when I can reuse something. My little kindergartner just learned about bats last week in school so this will be the perfect Halloween treat to take to her classmates:) And for a bonus she LOVES Hershey chocolate bars. I'm sure all the parent's are going to appreciate me giving their child a full size chocolate bar:)

All packaged up and ready to go. I love this little bin I got at Target last year. It is the perfect size for my little one to carry and if she drops it everything should still stay inside.

MISSION Athletecare’s EnduraCool towel

2016-09-16T12:20:00.000-04:00

Fitness is very important to my oldest daughter. She just asked for a Fitbit on her birthday. So, naturally when I was asked to review the MISSION Athletecare’s EnduraCool towel she wanted to try it out on her "workout" LOL. She pretty much does stretches and when she starts to sweats calls it quits. But she does love to look the part:)

I'm a little more realistic and tried it out at the pool. I'm usually pool side fully dressed watching my two girls swim which can get pretty hot here in Texas. I dropped it around my neck to take the edge off. It's become my next best friend. I also really like the fun, funky colors they come in. Thank you MISSION Athletecare for letting me review the new EduraCool towel.

Happy Anniversary - 14 Years!

2016-09-06T16:14:00.000-04:00

I'm a little late...like 2 weeks. But, it was my 14th Wedding Anniversary! The country music song quote, "there has been more good than bad years." Pretty much sums it up;)

I was bored at home since both of my littles are now in school:( So I decided to go outside and take a pic of my wedding ring. Which then prompted this post.

Water Park Birthday Party!

2016-07-28T18:53:00.000-04:00

This year we had my oldest daughter's 10th birthday at River Country Water Park in Muskogee. It is becoming more and more challenging coming up with a location for our birthday parties. We've decided since the move to Texas we'd have a family party in Oklahoma so everyone can attend.

One of the positives of having it at the water park means virtually no clean up, but I would not recommend paying the price they have for their birthday packages since they do nothing! I actually had to ask them to have people move from the area we paid to have reserved. Which they ended up not doing and the people still stayed. So DO NOT PAY for their private pavilion. Just have someone go and hold the area. But, what more can you ask for when it's run by a bunch of teenagers and the adult managers sit inside under air conditioning and never bother coming out?

Bottom line it was nice having it where all the kids could have fun and clean up was easy. And as a side note their hamburgers from the concession were really good. But beware no water or any other kind of drink is allowed in at the gate and the water pitchers that you pay for is tap water....and it tastes like it! I know it sounds like I'm being a diva but really tap water is so yucky!

For the party favors I made personalized tumblers with each guest's name. This made it really easy to figure out who's cup was who's. And I packaged a small sunscreen and sunglasses. The kid's loved it.

Here's the birthday girl with her cake before we got ready to go to the water park. She is getting so big!

DIY Honey Bee Logo Design

2016-07-26T18:20:00.000-04:00

My Brother-in-Law & Sister-in-Law are in their hobby years and are venturing into the honey business. They have the bees and now the honey (their first crop just came to fruition) but they still needed a design to go with their new honey business. So here is what I came up with per my Sister-in law's request and of course I had to do a little photoshoot with the new bee design.

Just for fun I made some hang tags for their purchasing bags and more hang tags for the honey jars.

Father's Day Gift Idea: The Joke Book Only Dad/Gramps Could Love

2016-06-19T19:33:00.000-04:00

My daughter who just turned ten loves jokes. She loves telling jokes and she loves hearing them as well. So, when I was contacted to review "The Ultimate Book of Dad Jokes" I knew it was a perfect fit. And double points for my daughter being able to give it to her Gramps for Father's Day! It was a hit! The jokes are appropriate for all ages.

He told her after he got it that he was going to study up for when she came back to visit. I was laughing because he is 82 years old! So let's see how many he can remember when she comes back. By the way this new book features 1,001+ funny jokes so good luck with trying to even read all of those jokes! My husband is in the background of the recorded video chiming in with his mother. They both hate all the jokes Gramps makes them listen to so now it's onto the next generation getting tortured with this hilarious book "The Ultimate Book of Dad Jokes." Think your Dad or Gramps would enjoy it too? You can purchase your own "The Ultimate Book of Dad Jokes" over at Amazon for $9.50.

Balloon Time Helium Tank Review

2016-05-03T21:23:00.004-04:00

My little one just turned 5! Since we've been back around our family we usually do my kid's parties at a venue. This time my little one choose the movies. Yay! I've never done a movie birthday party before. We watched The Jungle Book. Which is a little intense. The birthday girl actually had to come and sit on my lap. Lol. I love her still being little.

I never can just come to a party. I have to bring the party too. So, when I was asked to review Balloon Time Helium Tanks...I jumped at the chance. But before I went and got the tank we still hadn't decided on a venue for the party. So, I literally drove this tank to another state. One of the little things that is easily overlooked is the packaging. Well besides the tank being super light it has these two little holes on the side of the box. These are for your fingers so you can carry it. This was wonderful to have since I had to carry it from the car to the room at the theater and had tons of other stuff to carry as well. The tank isn't heavy but it's awkward so those little finger holes make it EASY to carry. It's the little things people...and this is one of them.

The tank is so easy to operate. Even a child could do it. And that is exactly what happened while I was acting like a crazy maniac to get the room setup. My other daughter, a 9 year old, and mother blew up all the balloons. She aired them while my mom tied them. You can guess what her duty is going to be at the next party;) The room was filled with balloons but amidst the chaos I forgot to take a picture of the ceiling. Balloon Time Helium Tanks are great if you are at a venue and need to air up balloons there. Because trust me I and my husband both have driven with a car full of balloons and it is not fun. Then try getting them outside inside without them getting tangled up. It's. not. going. to. happen.

Thanks Balloon Time Helium Tanks for sending me the gift card for the tank. I am sold! I won't do a party without my OWN Balloon Time Helium Tank.

Christmas Window Silhouette

2015-12-08T17:06:00.000-05:00

St. Nick is on his way! I love doing these window silhouettes since we've been in apartment. It's the biggest space to decorate so I take advantage of it. I love looking at regular store window displays. I got my inspiration from this image that is posted below and tweaked it to my liking. I have two girls so the second child that looked like a boy had to be changed to a girl. I added a pony tail with a bow. BAM! A girl appeared. I loved the cute little dog but we have a Dalmatian. I did originally change that too but when I started placing the pieces the dog didn't fit because of the divider between the windows. Overall I love how it turned out. I had estimated on my Halloween display that I would get several displays out of one roll of the magic cover but this is it. I am officially all out. If you want to see more details about how I do these head over here to the Halloween silhouette post.

Thanksgiving Chalkboard - Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving And His Courts with Praise

2015-11-12T12:16:00.000-05:00

This year's Thanksgiving Day Chalkboard. Enter His Gate With Thanksgiving and His Courts With Praise. I thought it needed some greenery at the top since I didn't really center it properly. Oops.

Halloween 2015

2015-11-07T19:36:00.002-05:00

Here is the beautiful but ornery butterfly. She picked her costume out this year:)

Here are the two trick or treaters before their Halloween outing. This was as good as it got for pictures. They were ready for candy and didn't want to waste a lot of time taking pictures with Mom. lol

Jack O'Lantern Juice Soda for Classroom Teachers on Halloween

2015-11-07T18:53:00.002-05:00

Aren't these Jack O'Lantern juice sodas adorable? I bought a 6 pack of orange Crush pop from the store and made these Jack O'Lantern sodas. I designed the pumpkin face in Silhouette and used some vinyl to attach to the clean Crush pop bottle. I then packaged them up in clear goodie bags I got from Dollar Tree. I prefer Dollar Tree's bags because they are more transparent than the one's I have from Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby's had a more foggy look. The straws are from Walmart and then I dropped in a few candy corns for added cuteness. I love how they turned out and the teacher's did too. Hope y'all had a Happy Halloween!

DIY Halloween Window Silhouette

2015-10-17T20:47:00.000-04:00

I love Halloween! This year I got pretty creative and did a Halloween display. I had found this image awhile back and thought it was just too cute. I love Halloween but without all the gorey scary stuff. I like the cutesy decorations. My girls will agree. LOL.

One of the best parts about this is it is easy to remove and doesn't leave any residue behind and is completely customizable to your space/window. We are in an apartment now so pretend those dirty windows are part of the decoration. We are on the second floor and didn't want to hang outside to clean them. Yeah, that's what we will agree on, right?

Forgive the photos they are from my iPhone. I was being lazy.

Here is the overhead set up to project onto the window. I used a TV tray to get it to the right height.

Put the transparency on the overhead projector.

Project your image up onto the window to make sure you have it properly placed.

I put some scotch tape up to keep the Magic Cover up in place and traced the projected outline with a pencil.

Here is what I'm using to put it on the window. I had to order mine off of Amazon. It's called Magic Cover and it sticks to the window but it comes off clean. It is also double sided black. Meaning this will show black on both sides. Love it. But not that it comes in 24 ft! Looks like I will be finding lots of projects to use this on.

Here is the Magic Cover traced. Can you see the pencil lines? It is just enough to see to cut it out.

I had to divide my silhouette into 3 parts. I decided to put the center of it straight down the middle of the girl since this would be the easiest. Here is the first part cut out.

When I started sticking the silhouette to the window I put the top on first then slowly pressed down with my hand will I moved the paper backing away as I went down.

Here it is going up. My photo bomber in place as usual. My husband told me I'd have to take it down if the dog started barking excessively at it. It was a 50/50 chance but she's good with it:)

I loved how it turned out and I've had lots of neighbors complement it as well. Looks like another project I will be repeating.

Chalkboard Art Tutorial

2015-10-17T16:21:00.000-04:00

Here is my Halloween chalkboard. It's a little busy for my taste...but it's only going to be up for a few weeks so I can live with it. The design is Lindsay Letters. I love all of her stuff and now you can buy some of her work at Hobby Lobby!

BTW This is how I do all my chalkboards. I start with finding a design I like, then resize it and touch it up a little or a lot depending on the image quality I have in Photoshop, size it to 8 1/2 x 11, and have it printed at an office supply store on a transparency for .75 cents.

Here it is on my old school over head projector I bought off of Craigslist. You can see the art work on the transparency isn't the best. And it doesn't have to be. All you need is the basic outline to draw on the board. I just use regular o'l chalk you can get at Walmart or the Dollar Tree. I tried dustless chalk you can get at Hobby Lobby but would advise against it because it scratched my board and doesn't go on very smooth.

Here is my dog photo bombing as I'm trying to show you the image projected up on the board from the overhead. She loves the projector. She literally runs to me and waits for me to plug it in. It's her favorite craft machine because its puts out heat like a heater. She's crazy. My kids were literally swimming this week it's still so hot here in Texas. It should be called Hot-ober instead of October.

Here is the board during mid production. It's really easy to do. You should try it!
Need more inspiration? Check out my other chalkboards:Good Mom MottoAutumn is the Year's Last Loveliest SmileEaster Bunny & Chicks Chalkboard

Good Mom Motto Chalkboard

2015-10-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

Motto of my life! This is what has stayed the longest on my chalkboard until I changed it to the Autumn one. I think that this saying "Good Moms have sticky floors, dirty ovens, and happy kids says it all. The dirty floors can wait....play with your kids!

Shark Pool Party

2015-09-30T11:37:00.000-04:00

Here is the last party I helped my friend with before we moved away. He wanted to do a pool party so the shark theme was easy! I loved how it turned out but unfortunately, didn't get very many good pictures. We changed the location from the pool to her house then back again to the pool on the account of forcasted rain. And then low and behold it didn't rain so back to the pool we went. Whoo setup finally was complete.

Autumn Chalkboard Idea

2015-09-28T13:17:00.001-04:00

My chalkboard has officially changed to autumn even if the Texas weather is not cooperating. One thing I do miss about Virginia is the fall. It is absolutely beautiful there. It was my favorite season of all. Watching the leaves blow off the trees from the woods behind our house was mesmorizing.

I found this chalkboard inspiration from Pinterest. Here was the picture I used for my inspiration. It was originally posted on by Katie at Clarendon Lane but as far as I can tell the blog is no more. Boo. Since there was no directions or tutorial I went looking for an image close to the quote "Autumn is the year's last loveliest smile." To my surprise I found one. I cleaned up the image in Photoshop and stretched it a bit to fit my chalkboard dimensions. Then took it to my office supply store printed a transparency and used my handy dandy overhead projector to project it up on my chalkboard and traced away. I was going to take pictures of the steps but I get so carried away that I forgot. I'll try for when I change it for Halloween.

Update: Here is the tutorial!

Like my chalkboard? Follow my chalkboard ideas on Pinterest.

How to Keep Your Plants Alive While Away on Vacation

2015-09-15T18:26:00.001-04:00

Have you ever wondered how to keep your plants alive while your away on vacation? Me too!!! I searched high and low and found this method. I wasn't sure it would work, but it did. Insert happy dance here. Plants and flowers for some reason make me happy:) I really enjoy them and when my husband decided on a vacation this summer I thought how in world am I going to keep my flower baskets watered? I was seriously about to buy one of those shirts that say "I can't go....My plants need me."

So here it is.

You'll need a big container (I used the largest kitchen pot)
Twine
Scissors to cut the twine
Screwdriver, optional. I used it to poke a hole into the soil where I put the twine into.

So, I think the pictures make it pretty self explanatory. Fill a large container to the brim with water, soak the twine in the water until thoroughly wet, then put one piece of the twine in the pot and another end into the soil. Space out the twine so equal parts of the plant will get watered. I was gone 10 days and noticed that a little bit on the end of one plant got a tinge of yellow (meaning that part got over watered). I never imagined it would get over watered.

It was really hard to get a good shot of the plants in my tiny bathroom. But this should give you an idea since you'll have a different size of plants than I have anyways. I have flower planters that hang over my deck railing. I wanted to originally put them in the bathtub to create less mess but they needed something to support them from falling over.....so the bathtub was a fail. I then thought I might be able to put each one in front of each sink and (the faucet would be the brace) to keep them from falling over. Bingo bongo! Then, I need something to elevate my pot of water. The pot needs to be elevated to wick the water down through the twine. I used my 4 year old's step stool but needed more height so I got a skillet and put that under the pan. I also covered the stool with a towel since it was wood and she'd totally freak out if it got messed up.

Here you can see the water soaked twine that ran from the water pot to the plants. I put approximately 8-10 strands of twine for each plant and my planters are 3 feet wide.

I used a screwdriver to poke holes in the dirt and place the twine as far down as I could. The roots is where the water needs to get to.

This is a close up of what my plants (coleus and sweet potato vines) looked after 10 days of the self watering system.

My pan of water was bone dry so I should have used a bigger pan but didn't have one. I'm not sure when the water ran out but do know it did a great job of keeping my plants alive while I was away. There was NO WAY they would have survived in the 106 degree temps we were having in Texas. I'm sure also the cooler temps inside also added to the survival but you can believe next time I go out of town, which is quite often this is the system I will use. Sometimes you just don't have someone to water the plants or want to bother them for that many days. This way the plants water themselves!!!

Horse Birthday Party Banner

2015-08-04T13:57:00.000-04:00

Here is the latest creation for my Etsy shop. A custom horse birthday party banner.

General Mills Brings Minions Buddies in Your Cereal Box & $25 Fandango Gift Card Giveaway

2015-07-26T15:41:00.000-04:00

General Mills has partnered with the Minions. For a limited time in participating boxes of General Mills cereal you can collect miniature minions like the one shown on the box. To me they resemble little christmas tree ornaments. You can also see their cute faces on the Betty Crocker fruit snack boxes. My kids absolutely love Betty Crocker fruit rolls. As soon as the box came out they were devoured. Hence, no picture of those. Minions In the City movie is currently showing in theaters.

In exchange for this review we were given a $25 Fandango gift card to view Minions in the city. It is super hot here in Texas right now so my kids were absolutely delighted when I asked them if they want to chill out in the cool theater to watch one of their favorite movies yet.

GIVEAWAY:

Our sponsor is giving away a prize pack containing:

A participating General Mills cereal
1 box of participating Betty Crocker fruit flavored snack
An exclusive Minions Buddy
$25 Fandango gift card

To one of my Keeping My Cents readers. All you have to do is enter below leaving a comment on which General Mills you would buy.

a Rafflecopter giveaway