Tag Archives: pinterest

Fabric {My "Crafty" Side}, Friends, Frugal Finds

Little Thank Yous ~ EOY Treats For Teachers, Staff & Classmates

June 10, 2013 Amy 2 Comments

Every holiday my kids bring home goodie bags and treats from their classmates…Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, birthdays, etc. Usually I feel terrible and tell myself that I will get my act together on the next holiday!

This year I promised that I would do a end-of-the-year class treat since I haven’t really done anything all year…or last year for that matter.

Pinterest is full of all sorts of cute ideas and a couple had caught my eye, but I hadn’t settled on anything and we only had a week left ’til SUMMER. {yay!}

I was trolling the aisles of 99¢ Only last week and came across some fun composition books. I immediately e-mailed Elliott’s teacher to get the girl/boy breakdown to gather the corresponding comp books. To my dismay, I could only find half the number of {boy} books at the two stores here in the area.

They DID have plenty of girlie versions in three different styles so I just wrapped a little yarn around them and attached a note to each one for her to pass out on the last day of school. After the fact, I thought the girls could exchange phone numbers and record them in these little books for play dates over the summer, too.

I decided on the collapsible water bottles for the boys in her class since they were such a hit at her birthday party…again from 99¢ Only and BPA-free!

{the tag reads, “Stay hydrated and have a great summer…see you in 3rd grade!”}

Tags are just clear Avery labels [address 18660] that I personalized, printed and attached on manila mailing tags from Staples.

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For Holden’s kindergarten class, I went with the “bookworm” idea that I’d seen on Pinterest awhile back. I did these for holiday treats in Elliott’s first grade class…

Individual bags of sour gummy worms, die cut worms, personalized labels and some washi tape later…

{gummy worms ~ Smart & Final, die cut worms ~ Dollar Tree, washi tape ~ Target}

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I always like to acknowledge the rest of the staff at the holidays and end-of-the-year. I usually deliver baked goods to the office, yard duties, custodian and aides, but this year I decided to go with paper products!

{typewriter notecards for the ladies in the office and mini purse-sized magnetic closure notebooks for the librarian, cafeteria staff and campus supervisors ~ all from Target clearance}

For our nice custodian who does SO much, I picked up a couple Monster energy drinks and CLIF bars to help get him through the day.

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Our principal is retiring and although our awesome PTA organized and put together an amazing gift basket for her, I wanted to give her something special from our family. I made her a nest pendant…she doesn’t have any children of her own, but has been a role model and friend to MANY children through her years as a teacher and principal.

The nest represents our school, the pearl represents our dear principal and the blue and pink beads represent all the boys and girls that are going to miss her so.

Going to get teary eyed delivering this one for sure…..

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Trader Joe’s has had so many cute greeting cards lately. If you haven’t checked them out when you run in there for groceries, you simply must…

Both the kids’ teachers are moving to different schools this Fall. I handpicked the perfect cards and wrote them a note from the heart letting them know how much we appreciate them and will miss seeing them on campus next year and included a gift card for summer treats.

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I’m emotional just thinking about delivering all these goodies in the next few days.

However, I am looking forward to slower mornings and filling our days with trips to the pool, beach, frozen yogurt or whatever comes our way. Having a virtually commitment-free summer ahead of us is so refreshing.

THREE more days.

Food

Guilt-free Buffalo “Chicken”

April 6, 2013 Amy 5 Comments

If you know me by now, you know that I will try anything {buffalo chicken}.

Buffalo Chicken brownies?

Buff Chix Smoothie?

Chocolate chip cookies?

I kid, but you catch my drift.

What I am NOT kidding about are these Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower “Wings” which were probably first pinned from PETA’s website here.

I chose to follow skinnytaste.com’s version here with my own teeny tiny twist.

I followed Gina’s directions to a “t”, but used about 1 tsp. unsalted butter and 2 tsp. coconut oil instead of 1 tbsp. butter. I am just now getting around to jumping on the coconut oil bandwagon…can you believe it? If you know be my now, you also know that I love all things coconut.

Um, these were amazing. I could’ve eaten the whole pan. To be honest, you don’t even need to dip them in ranch or blue cheese. They are perfect alone.

I didn’t have any celery on-hand so I served with some cucumber slices and just a tad bit of ranch.

Oh, and this is the only buffalo sauce that I use…

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Once in awhile I love to go to Hooter’s or Chili’s for boneless buffalo wings and an ice cold beer. These cauliflower bites just might take away the craving and are certainly more guilt-free ~ both in my eyes and in PETA’s eyes.

If you, too, love all things buff chix, you MUST give these a try.

Linking up again with sweet Jess and her monthly PinterTest Kitchen!

Food, Friends

Pinterest Two-fer ~ Crescent Roll Taco Braid & Pink Grapefruit Margaritas

April 5, 2013 Amy 4 Comments

Pinterest and I broke up for a bit.

It was too difficult during Lent.

All the sweets and desserts……

However, I am at a standstill with meals and needing to channel some healthier options and am asking Pinterest to go steady again.

NOT that this post is about healthy options ~ one step at a time!

I guess this Crescent Roll Taco Braid could possibly be skinny-fied, but this time around I used ground beef and full fat cheese. I did use one reduced fat crescent roll and one regular. This recipe makes 2 big braids…perfect for leftovers and lunches during the week. I have NO idea how one would fit a pound of ground beef, a can of black beans, a can of Rotel and 2 cups shredded cheese into ONE crescent roll tube as the recipe suggests.

{followed directions, but used two tubes of crescent rolls}

{garnish with lettuce, chopped tomatoes, light sour cream, avo/guac & a shot of Cholula : other possible toppings : jalapeños, cilantro, salsa and/or olives}

To wash it all down, I stirred up some Pink Grapefruit Margaritas. It is Spring Break after all…

I totally stopped reading the recipe and didn’t realize these were supposed to be blended. Whoopsie.

Here is what I had pinned…

{via}

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The taco braid was delish! I left it in the oven a tad longer than 25 minutes to get nice and crisp, but not too overcooked. I doused mine in Cholula, of course, and used an Ortega chipotle taco seasoning packet for some more heat. For the Rotel, I used the lime & cilantro variety. I’ll definitely be making this again and next time will use ground turkey and lowfat cheese on the reduced fat crescent roll to cut fat & calories a bit.

The margs were perfect, too. Not too sweet, not too tart and a pretty shade of pink that would be perfect for a bridal shower or bachelorette party.

Or a Friday night on Spring Break.

Linking up with Jess over at Keeping up with the Johnsons…come say “Hi!” and click around to discover all sorts of Pinterest action!

Fiestas & Fetes

The Circus Is Coming To Town

January 11, 2012 Amy 2 Comments

Once Holden’s FORTH birthday was over, I immediately went into pick-a-theme mode for his FIFTH {coming up in about a month}.

Remember this post?

Well, since then I wondered if a circus/carnival theme was too overdone ~ if he was too old since most of the parties I saw were for one, two and three year olds…I toyed with coming up with more of an original theme.

But, ultimately I decided to stick with the {5} ring circus theme with a side of carnival and I am obsessed with pinning, googling, bargain hunting and menu planning.

I recently came across this soiree which is breath taking…honestly there are bajillions of carnival parties out there on the interwebs that are magazine material.

{via}

Does that not scream fun?

Well, I can say that I am certainly having fun jotting notes down in my journal and hunting for all things carnival related on my shopping travels.

Click here to see my board on Pinterest…if you dare.

{Just let me know if you’d like an invite and you could be pinning tonight!}

Feathered Nest

Ruled Paper & Scotch Tape

January 6, 2012 Amy 1 Comment

Look out HGTV ~ we have a way of covering walls with good old-fashioned school/office supplies.

Just get yourself some ruled notebook paper and some tape leftover from Christmas wrapping and you can customize any room to your liking.

Peace signs & hearts if you’re a first grader.

Elliott recently semi took over our guest room as her room. I hate that it cannot BE her room, but we need to have somewhere for our {most welcome} guests to lay their heads when they do come…

We are still in the process of removing things and finding a new home for them…like the side rail to their old crib, Jay’s and my old skool CD collection which is now pretty much obsolete, the vintage fruit prints that I adopted from my Mom when she downsized that I just couldn’t allow her to get rid of and the vacuum cleaner.

She knew that she had to immediately add some color to the white walls {my daughter!} so with that she started drawing peace signs and hearts, cutting them out, coloring them and taping them to the walls.

She wanted me to write “Shake It Up” {her new fav} in bubble letters and color them in rainbow for her…believe me, it’s the least I can do!

Since this is a temporary fix, I have been on the lookout for an inexpensive comforter and some new sheets.

We have a date to go to Home Depot on Tuesday morning when Holden is in school to get some pink & purple paint chips to make a bunting and will also see if we can’t still find some little white lights in the 75% off Christmas crap still on the shelves somewhere ~ I thought those would be cute outlining the plantation shutters.

Looking forward to making it her own for the time being on the CHEAP! I have found ideas for her {forever} room on Pinerest, but now I need to search for some quick fixes without putting a million holes in the walls.

Here is some {pin}spiration eye candy for her {hopefully in the not too distant future} dream room: