printable

Teacher Appreciation Week

Posted by Nat on May 16, 2012 | 5 comments

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I love a good Teacher Appreciation Week.  When I was a teacher this week couldn’t come at a better time; it was usually during a crazy, hectic spring-is-insane kind of week, and the parents at our school always did an amazing job of making us feel loved and valued.  I learned a lot of great ideas as a teacher, and now that I am a parent with kids in preschool (and soon-to-be kindergarten) I was excited to shower the teachers at our preschool with some TLC.  Hopefully my ideas will give you some inspiration, too.

My kids go to a local preschool that has a very laid-back feel.  I love it.  There isn’t a lot of fuss about anything- the kids are there to be loved and to learn to love school.  The teachers love what they do.  Can’t ask for much more than that!

In years past, I’ve done a “Thank You Party” for the teachers that taught my kids.  It was really fun, but the longer they are at this school, the more teachers they come into contact with, and hosting an entire staff at my house… well, I do love a good party, but I’m not quite ready for that.  So this year, now that I’m not pregnant or teaching, I decided this is the year to do a real Teacher Appreciation Week.  Here’s what I did to prepare and put it into action!

{Prepare}

I emailed our preschool director to get the message out, and she forwarded my email to all of the parents at our school.  I requested that all of the parents let me know if they wanted to help out, contribute money, or whatever was easiest.  I also let everyone know that participation was not required, as I didn’t want to pressure anyone into doing something when they had already planned their own thing.  Very quickly we had a plan, which you’ll see below.

Then I gave a questionnaire to all of the teachers to find out what they like to eat, do, etc.  I thought this would help the parent get to know the teachers and also get everyone excited about the week.  When the teachers filled these out, I compiled them into a simple Word document and emailed it out to the parents to help them with ideas for personal gifts, etc.  Here’s the questionnaire- feel free to download it!  Just click and “save as.”

I also put out sign-up sheets for parents to bring in treats on two days.  One day is for healthy snacks and the other is sweet treats- a little bit of both sides of the spectrum.  To help with costs for decorations and gifts for the directors and cook at the school, I also put out a collection envelope.  This was very helpful- it gave me a budget to work with, and any remaining money can be put towards a gift card to a book store or a place like Lakeshore Learning.  This also allowed super-busy families to contribute and help out without stressing out.

{Action}

The Thursday before Teacher Appreciation Week I passed out this sheet to all of the teachers so that they could know what they had to look forward to for the week.  It’s always fun to know what’s going on and be informed, right?!

Monday

Once the plan is in place everything sort of takes care of itself.   The only really involved thing was this past Monday.  Everyone brought in flowers when they dropped off their kids, and we needed to get them into vases so that each room had fresh flowers to enjoy for the week.

I had help from two lovely moms, and another decorated vases for us- they are perfect!  I showed up with an empty bucket and some trimmers for trimming stems.  It took us about an hour to get the flowers removed from their wrappers, separated into 10 bouquets, and trimmed to fit the vases.  I was very thankful for the help- doing it by myself would have taken a few hours.  I also downloaded this adorable bunting from Urban Bliss- I think it was intended to be used as flash cards, but I wanted something cute to hang, so I just punched holes and used some ribbon.  It looks super cute.  I also sewed together some streamers thanks to the amazing Dana.  I made these for Jack’s Party and they will become a staple in our house, for sure.

Tuesday

Parents bring in treats.  I was planning on setting them out, but my son, Jack, was sick, so an awesome mom pitched in and set stuff out for me so I didn’t contaminate the food. 🙂  Thanks, Jessica!

Wednesday

I called our local Jamba Juice and got a great deal on 20 smoothies.  They even gave us a nice discount since we were a) ordering a boat-load of smoothies, and b) it was for amazing teachers.  Score!

Thursday

Parents bring in treats.  Easy!

Friday

I pick up bagels and cream cheese to bring in, and parents bring in their own gifts.  I also bring in gifts for the director and cook of the school.  Hooray for Teacher Appreciation Week!

What do you do during this week for your kids’ teachers?  There’s tons of inspiration on Pinterest, but I’d love to hear what you have done, too!

Printable: House Cleaning

Posted by Nat on Apr 23, 2012 | 3 comments

Before I get into this here printable, don’t forget:  Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day is THIS THURSDAY!  Yahoo!  I can feel the organization and inspiration coming back to me now….

I hate cleaning.  You can’t make me like it.  I know I’m not alone in this.  My friend Ashley at It’s Fitting just posted about her cleaning woes at The Trend Tribe last week.

However, I have recently come up with a system that works for me.  It’s more of a maintenance thing.  I still have to do a deep cleaning every once in a while, but sticking to this keeps things presentable and manageable.  And…. If I keep up with it then I don’t have to do much on the weekends, which is so nice!

Each day I have one task, Monday through Friday.  If I get that one thing done, I’m golden.  This does not include laundry- I do laundry when it has to be done, and no sooner.  The kids have to be on their last set of PJs before I will toss in a load.  It also doesn’t include things like dishes.  Dishes are never ending around here.

I respond very well to checklists.  So for this printable, I gave myself space to check off each day’s task so I can at least have one satisfying “Check!” during the week.  I also like that the frame blocks all the crap behind it.  Doesn’t it look so neat and tidy on this shelf?

As you can see below, I did okay this past week.  Vacuuming is so hard around here because all three of my kids- ALL THREE- are TERRIFIED of the vacuum.  It’s ridiculous.  And sad.  It makes me sad to make them cry just because we need clean carpet.

Below is the printable.  I hope you can use it!

{Operation Organization} Meal Planning: A Free Printable

Posted by Nat on Apr 19, 2012 | Comments Off on {Operation Organization} Meal Planning: A Free Printable

Just a reminder to check out my post from Monday about Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day on April 26th!  Hope you can join us!

I have a love-hate relationship with meal planning.  When I do plan our meals, things go so much smoother during the week.  I don’t have to think when 4:30 rolls around and it’s time to start putting something together.  I can go into autopilot mode because I already know what’s happening in that department.  However, the process of picking what to make for the week can be tiresome, challenging, and sometimes annoying.

To that end, I decided to spruce up my menu planner.  My old one wasn’t working.  It was an old green frame (you’ll see it soon in an upcoming post), too small to write on, didn’t stay on the wall because the hanger on the back wasn’t that great- it needed to go.

I was at Michael’s Crafts getting a few things and saw a simple, flat glass frame and I knew it was what I needed.  It’s super cheap, too- only about $5.  I played around in Photoshop and came up with this.

(Clearly I have not mastered my new camera yet.  More about that later.)

Eat, Pray, Love {Crafting Crazy Style}

Posted by Nat on Apr 6, 2012 | 13 comments

As I blog more and more, there are definitely projects and posts that I am most proud of.  This is going to be one of them- mainly because this project took me for.  EVER.  I hope you enjoy and can use some of these printables!

Eat. Pray. Love.  It’s a book.  It’s a movie.  I saw the movie long after it came out and was prepared to hate it.  Really hate it.  I do love Julia Roberts…  I just found so much inspiration and encouragement in the book; I didn’t want to like the movie because it couldn’t possibly live up to the book.  But it did.  At least, it did for me. I love both.

A few weeks after seeing the movie I was still thinking about both the book and the movie, and had this idea.  When it came to me I went to my Facebook friends for ideas of languages to use (thanks, friends!).  Then, following the suggestion of a few more friends, I used Google Translator to finish things up.

I learned a lot in this process- a LOT.  Accents, Photoshop, framing, printing- you name it. I’ll share a bit below about a few things, but first, here they are!  You are welcome to download and print whatever you want, but please do not sell or manipulate these files.  While I have grouped them together in threes, maybe you just want one or two for different places in your house- it’s up to you! If you look below you’ll see that I printed one trio for our kitchen and I LOVE them- a nice pop of color.

Here they are grouped together.  I just had a few color combos, then I left the project for a while, and when I came back I wanted more options, so I added more.  (If you want to download, scroll waaaayyy down.)

Simple black and white

Pinks & a deep burgundy (good for Valentine’s next year?)

 Subtle blues and gray

Lucky {free printable}

Posted by Nat on Feb 27, 2012 | 2 comments

Free printable alert!!!

This has been on my mind lately.  And I like it.  It’s good.  See, I’m lucky.  And so are you.  Did ya know?

I’ll be having a crazy moment with my three impossibly cute kids.  Usually this means at least 2 are crying and one is whining, or a combination similar to that.  Maybe we’re in the car and they don’t like the songs we’re listening to.  Or maybe they don’t want to run one more errand.  Perhaps I won’t let them have a lollipop in the car (the horror).

Whatever the case, I will be tempted to lose my temper, or snip at them in some way.  Sometimes I do- don’t we all?  I hate it when I let myself, because then it’s all about me.  But I’m human.  Lately, though, I’ve tried as much as possible, to instead remember how stinkin’ lucky I am.

I get to do exactly what I want, which is to be with my kids every day.  I get to love them, care for them, and let them be little for a while.  I also have the blessings of a home that I have grown to love, a family who loves me, a husband who cares for me immeasurably, a sweet dog, clothes to wear, food to eat…  you catch my drift.  I’m lucky.  Compared to the lives of so many others …. I’m really, REALLY lucky.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the mundane, the routine of our lives.  I fiddled around and came up with this printable to help me remember that, even if I really do hate mopping the floor (with a passion), I’m damn lucky that I have a floor to mop.

Maybe you’re lucky because you have a job you love, or an amazing partner.  Maybe you’re lucky because you follow your passion or know that someday you WILL follow your passion.  Maybe you have your health.  Maybe you went through something crazy-difficult, and now it’s in the past and you’re okay.  If so, you’re lucky.

I did a black and white, plus three colors. With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, maybe you’d like the green?  And, if you leave me a comment, I will add more colors if you don’t think you’d use one of these.  I’ll limit that to five, just to save my sanity a bit.  I’m sort of at a loss for color right now, so I’d love suggestions.

I’d love to hear what you feel lucky for or about.  It’s neat to hear positive things about other peoples’ lives, too.  Do tell!

Keep it Happy in 2012

Posted by Nat on Jan 19, 2012 | Comments Off on Keep it Happy in 2012

I posted here about how I feel about resolutions for myself, and that instead, I would have a theme for this year.  I didn’t realize it but apparently I was right on trend, so I’ll be linking up over here at the Lettered Cottage to share my “word of the year” (even though I have three….).    I finally got to playing around in Photoshop, and this is what I came up with:

I chose teal, but I made a bunch so that I can change it up as the year goes on.  No one likes to have only one option, right?  I’m glad that I’ll have this in my entry way- I’ll pass it hundreds of times a day, so it will remind me to stay positive and be happy, dammit. 🙂

So friends, I give you an 8×10 “Keep it Happy” print.  Have fun.  Let me know what color you pick, or if you have another color you’d like to suggest, I would be more than happy to add more.  You should be able to click on the print of your choice and save it to your hard drive, but let me know if you have problems.  Happy day!