Back-to-School Medicine Cabinet

AKA: How to Head Off Those Phone Calls from the School Clinic

So, a quick little story first:  Marley has only been back to school for 2 weeks, and last week, I got the first phone call of the school year from the clinic.  Marley, according to herself, had a headache, stomach ache, and sore throat.  Pretty terrible, huh?  Well, not really.  She was fine.  She had that dreaded illness known to some kids as, "I-Miss-Summer-Vacation-Already" Fever.

Well, I started talking to some lovely ladies at work, and one of my good friends had a great idea.  She takes medicine to school at the beginning of each school year and leaves it all year long.  It got me thinking...  And you know what happens when I start thinking!

I made this:

First I made a list of all the most common issues that Marley may have while at school, and figured out what medicine she would need to get through the school day.  I bought the following:

1. Claritin - for those bad allergy days
2. Nasal spray - for the occassional bloody nose from the humidity
3. Chloraseptic lozenges - for those sore throats
4. Triaminic Cold & Cough - self-explanatory
5. Pepto - for the tummy aches
6. Jr. Ibuprofen - for the general ache and pain

I got the cute little box at Target and packed it all up nice and neat:

I used a card from Becky Higgins Project Life kit to label the box with the following information:

• Marley's full name
• Homeroom teacher
• Grade
• School Year
• List of medications
• In all CAPS - PLEASE RETURN ALL UNUSED MEDICATION AT END OF YEAR

I went onto the county school board website and downloaded the medication form, printed them and filled them out.  In the morning, I'll be dropping off this cute little package at the school clinic, and Marley will be good to go for the whole year!

Hopefully, no more faux tummy aches and crying wolf from the school clinic!  (Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?)

Linking up to these fabulous blogs:
Life Made Lovely
Nifty Thrifty Things

New Fall Wreath on Etsy!

I just finished my newest addition to Gertrude & Matilda's on Etsy!  I love this one so much - the rich cranberry, burnt orange, and peach combination is heavenly for fall.

Enjoy!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend as much as I am!  The family and I are really looking forward to church tomorrow - our friend and mentor, Aaron Johnson, is home from Germany for a few weeks and he'll be preaching.  Can't wait!

See you tomorrow!

Linking to these fabulous blogs:
Sassy Sites
Lolly Jane Boutique

DIY Pencil Toppers - SO CUTE!

Yesterday afternoon, Marley and I decided to get crafty.  We pulled out the foam sheets, googly eyes, and glue dots, and created some really cute pencil toppers.  It's so easy, I think a child any age can do this with a little help from mom (or dad)!

Check it out:

Here's what we did:

We got all of our supplies out - and we had no real direction, so we pulled everything out that we thought we might use.  We ended up using only a few things:

- Foam sheets

- Googly eyes

- Markers

- Glue dots

- Hole puncher

- And in Marley's case, pipe cleaners

First we traced circles on the foam sheets - 2 for each pencil topper.

Cut them out:

I made a ladybug first, so I cut out a piece for the head:

And of course, she needs dots:

And voila!  A cute little ladybug to adorn your pencil :)

Marley and I each made a few little critters:

(It's supposed to be a black lab, like our dogs, but my dog looks a little like a pig!)

These were so easy - we spent about 30-45 minutes and ended up with 5 new friends to help Marley with her homework.  I made a ladybug, black lab, and flower, and Marley made a really cool lion and peacock!  She's so creative!  :)

Have a Happy Friday!  See you this weekend!

Linking to these fabulous blogs:
Design Dazzle
Somewhat Simple
Whipperberry
30 Handmade Days
Simply Designing
It's a Hodgepodge Life
Be Different Act Normal
Nifty Thrifty Things
Serenity You

Project Life Update

Hello All!  Tonight I've decided to share my latest Project Life layouts with you.  I can't say enough how much I love Project Life - how simple it is, how cute it is, and how collective it is.  Seriously.  Because of Project Life, I have captured random everyday moments that will now forever be memories, things I wouldn't have otherwise photographed and documented.  It's a nice reminder that life is full of little things, not just major events, tragedies, or holidays. 

I love the everyday...

In the first week of August, we hung out with friends, Marley lost a tooth and helped cook dinner, Mark finally drove a car for the first time since his wreck (go here to read what happened), and Marley got her first skateboard. 

If it weren't for Project Life, I wouldn't have so many pictures of me and mom - this one was just one random night that she came over for dinner.  :)  We took a massive trip to Costco, and my sweet hubby bought me flowers and a card...for no reason!  :)

The dogs wore themselves out at the off-leash dog park, Marley started gymnastics, and we geared up for back-to-school.

We enjoyed the last few days of summer (remember the countdown?), and Marley started 4th grade!

Have you ever had that fabulous Jack Daniel's pulled beef from Costco?  It's so good it deserved a place in the book!  My child lost 2 more teeth!  (That would be 6 in a month if you're counting...the tooth fairy is going broke!)  And I cleaned my craft room!

I also like to put little keepsakes in page protectors, like this:

One of my flowers from my bouquet the sweet hubs gave me...

...the card he also gave me, and the first part of Marley's countdown cards...

...and the rest of the countdown cards, along with her little love note from me :)  Oh, and a Menchie's sticker - because I ate yogurt there and LOVED it!

Well, there you have it - the last 3 weeks of my Project Life book!

Come back tomorrow for a cute little craft that Marley and I worked on tonight.  It's super easy!

See you tomorrow!

MORE Craft Room Organization

As promised, here is Part II to my Craft Room Organization.  (If you missed Part I yesterday, go here.)  Two of my issues involved random ribbon scattered everywhere and random scrap pieces of paper scattered everywhere.

Problem #1 - Ribbon, Ribbon Everywhere:

It was a mess, so I bought this:

And now, my ribbon looks SO much better!

For the spools of ribbon that are either new or still have a lot of ribbon on them, I organized them by color and arranged a little bin for those:

Now if I could only stop buying ribbon, I'd be good!  But, Michael's was having a SALE!

Anyway, issue #2 was the random scraps of scrapbook paper.  I organized by color and holiday and put it all neatly in here:

I also have this little square rolly tub thingy (official term) with my pads of scrapbook paper, page protectors, and stamps:

Now I can easily navigate to exactly what I need!  And all of my crafty stuff is right here next to my table, at my fingertips.

I love bringing order from chaos!  It's a nice sense of accomplishment.  :)

See you tomorrow!

Linking up to these fabulous blogs:


Night Owl Crafting
Sugar and Dots

Craft Room Organization

Remember that little teaser I did the other day showing you guys what I was busy working on over the weekend?  Well, besides making inventory and setting up an Etsy shop (YAY! Gertrude & Matilda's!), I was busy getting organized.  As a matter of fact, I was up LATE Friday night, into the wee hours of Saturday morning, organizing.  When I get on a roll, there's no stopping me!

Anyway, I wanted to share with you a few things that I did - hopefully this will inspire you to organize your space!  Enjoy!

So, Friday night when I got home from work, this is what my craft room looked like:

Not pretty, I know.  I had 8 bazillion projects going at once...  So my goal was to find a method to the madness and create order from chaos.

I made a plan:

I knew I wasn't going to buy any pieces, just use what I already had.  But I needed a more efficient workspace, what with the new Etsy biz and all (YAY!  Gertrude & Matilda's!).  *Ahem*  'Scuse me.  Back to the craft room...

After some cleaning and throwing out (HUGE bag of trash and recyclables...), this is what my lovely craft room now looks like!

Ahhhh....refreshing.  So much space now!  LOVE!

Everything is right at my fingertips - organization = efficiency.  :)

Those little bins hold my current projects - close enough to grab and work on, but out of sight to keep it clean!

And I finally have a space for my Project Life books.  They were stacked on top of one another, and moved from place to place to get them out of my way.  They were getting beat up, so I love having everything right here together and protected. 

My little owl friend there came from TJ Maxx and I adore him!  He holds my little odds & ends that will eventually end up in my Project Life album.  Cute, right?  Yea...I know. 

I also tackled a couple other...ummm...issues that I was having.  I'm into scrapbooking but I don't have a TON of supplies.  But what I did have was a big ol' mess.  I needed a way to keep up with my miscellaneous supplies.

Problem areas:

1 - stickers

2 - ribbon

3 - scrap paper

The ribbon is even more of an issue now, since I have my Etsy shop (YAY!  Gertrude & Matilda's!).  Ok, I'll stop...sorry.  But seriously, I'll be buying truck loads of ribbon, and I needed some way to keep it orderly.  But let's start with Item #1 - Stickers:

I had all my stickers in a Ziploc bag.  Ok, I guess...but I had to take them all out to find stuff, and it was a pain in the rear.

So I laid them all out and organized them by type or holiday.

Then I cut them down to a managable size, put each type or holiday in its own 8.5"x11" page protector, and put all of it in a big 3" 3-ring binder (that I can decorate later).

I also clipped a little Ziploc to the inside back cover to contain all of my little chipboard pieces, tags, and other randomness:

Easy, right?

But wait, there's MORE!  :)  HA!

Well, there is, but I'll get to it tomorrow.  Gotta keep you coming back for something, right?!?!  Tomorrow I'll show you what I did with my ribbon and scrap paper.  I gotta go work on more Etsy inventory for now (YAY!  Gertrude & Matilda's!).  Last time, I promise! 

If you promise to check out my Etsy store, I promise I'll quit bringing it up.  Actually, no, I can't promise that.  I'm excited.  But still, check it out - tell your friends - spread the word.  It sounds cooler when you just say to someone - "YAY!  Gertrude & Matilda's!"  HAHA!! 

Have a great day!  See you tomorrow!

Linked up to this fabulous blog: