It Would Have Been Free....

Hi everyone, today I am guest posting for mom again. She has a lot going on and wanted to take pictures and blog about a craft but asked me to do it instead so here goes.......

45 magnets and paper bags later we are wishing all the GCA little ones a Merry Christmas! What do you get 45 elementary schoolers when you would love for the gift to be free? 45 is a big number and a lot of presents! It must also be nice because, "When it's free, it must be perfect!"

Mom found some free magnet ideas and paper bag cut outs online. So we figured out the number for each class and printed them out!

Kindergarten got red snowman patterned bags, first grade-Christmas trees, second grade-cute snowmen, third grade-snowmen hats, fourth grade-gingerbread men, fifth grade-holly.

This was all a great idea in theory until you run out of ink. Being the creative educators we are, we improvised! We printed the patterns in black and white and colored them.

This wasn't the only thing we used up. With only a handful of the magnets left to run through our xylon machine, we ran out of the magnet cartridge. Let me just tell you, it was quite humorous. Mom and I were in the basement pulling as hard as we could to get all the magnet we possibly could! "Waste not, leave not." Well, we still had to make a trip to Hobby Lobby. It was almost free! Purchasing a less than $3 strip of sticky magnet and we could finally finish! We thought......

We were almost done and mom realized there were two birthday magnet smileys. That could not do because these are Christmas presents, so we had to salvage the magnet (because we used a majority of the recently purchased magnet strip) and print two more pictures.

Mom had the idea to attach brads to each of the bags to keep them shut along with the gift tag explaining the gift and we finally finished! The above picture shows the brad in the star of the tree.

It was quite the project! We were happy with it in the end, after all....it was almost free!

-Emily

It's A Wonderful Life

It has been so long since I posted, that they changed the blogging website on me!  I am finding it more difficult to keep up with all the changing technology.  Hopefully, this will improve things and not make them more complicated.  The last post was done by Emily, so it has been a really long time since I have kept up.  Thanksgiving has come and gone and now we are into December with all of the Christmas "stuff" that happens.  I have been busy working on our house in Columbia.  In fact, it should be done this weekend!  Mike is busy working away at our "punch list".  We are praying that it will sell quickly and we can start moving on from our past in Columbia.  While we have many, many fond memories of our time in that house, it is definitely time to start making new memories!  Please pray with us that it will sell soon. Today I watched one of my most favorite Christmas movies, "It's A Wonderful Life".  I alway want to see it year after year, and I fear my family gets tired of it.  It is old, black and white, and long.  I agree, but even with all that going against it, there is just something amazing about the movie that makes me want to see it over and over again.  In fact, I alway seem to shed a tear or two, even though I know what will happen.  It really is a remarkable story about how everyones life is valuable and important, how much we impact each other's lives, and how even when we are at our lowest point, God hears our prayers and sends help (okay, not always in the form of Clarence Oddbody, but in some way!)  How can anyone not enjoy that?  Also, I love that it is a period piece and enjoy the clothes, sets, and scenery of the time.  Here is a clip for your enjoyment.  I sure hope you get an opportunity to watch it again this year, like I did!  Merry Christmas!

Fall is in the Air

Well it's still pretty warm but the leaves are changing colors and falling which makes for some beautiful drives! 

Came home to GA for two days and did something we've never ever done: Carved a Pumpkin!!!

Mom and I got a baby pumpkin for 70 some cents and a little carving kit. It turned out pretty well for the first time! Do you have any pumpkin carving stories you'd like to share?

                                                Pumpkin innards! and a whole lot of seeds!

                                                                            Success!

Mom and I got a baby pumpkin for 70 some cents and a little carving kit. It turned out pretty well for the first time! Do you have any pumpkin carving stories you'd like to share?

-Emily Schreck (i am home for Fall Break and using mom's computer, didn't realize it but was logged into mom's blog so here's to a guest entry!)

Jewlery Holders: Jewelry, jewelry everywhere!

Pin Holder

Necklaces, bracelets, rings, bits and pieces

Post earrings, hanging earrings, silver necklaces, gold necklaces, scarves

I have a lot of jewelry.  Most of it is not valuable, but I wear jewelry alot and even though I have a lot, I find myself looking for more!  I used to have it in plastic boxes, but the necklaces would get tangled and it was difficult to find just what I was looking for.  Sooo, I found some jewelry holder ideas online and decided to make a few of my own.  Of course, I found some supplies at the Goodwill.  One small picture frame to use for the post earrings, one long picture frame to use for the hanging pieces, and a canvas to use for the pins.  While I was at Goodwill, I also found some amazing things to use as jewelry holders.  I think the one is a cd case but it now houses all my hanging earrings.  I found 4 other metal things ( I don't know what they are supposed to be!) and they are holding my scarves, and silver and gold necklaces.  I hung several of these jewelry/scarf holders on the wall.  The one that I made for my necklaces was to heavy so it currently resides on a shelf in my closet.  I feel like I could hang it up, if I got Mike to do it, but it's fine where it is for now.  I also still need to hang up the pin one. 

Post earring holder:  Took out picture and glass from the frame.  Stapled window screen to the frame.  Trimmed the frame edge with some black leather flower trim.  Put the earrings in!

Peg board holder:  Took out picture and glass from frame.  Cut peg board to fit inside the frame.  Painted the peg board black.  Found two decorative knobs and a handle and screwed them to the board.   Hung bracelets on the knobs and necklacees on the handle.  Also used a few pegboard hooks for the rings and extra necklaces.  The little plastic container holds necklace pieces that didn't fit on chains.  This box used to hold nails.  I used goo gone to get rid of the label.  Washed it up.  Punched two holes in it.  Used gold brads that I painted silver to hold it in place on the peg board.  

These are not difficult projects and a lot of fun!

Fall in in the air

It has been beautiful weather here in Ga.  A nip in the air but sunny.  I am ready for pumpkins, baking, fires, and candles burning.  This year I would like to attempt carving a pumpkin.  I will save that for a later post.  Life has been busy with traveling to Columbia, as well as the mundane of everyday life, such as grocery shopping (one of my least favorite things to do), cleaning house, yardwork, etc.  The house in Columbia is coming along very slowly.  We painted the garage floor and closed the pool down this weekend.  I do believe that the garage finally smells better so that was encouraging.  I think the cool air probably helps as well.  Mike will go it alone this weekend, putting insulation under the house, repairng drywall, and fixing leaking pipes that occurred under the sink last week.  Seems like water, water everywhere sure has been the cause of much demolition and expense.  We picked out a tile to do in the kitchen and now we just have to wait and see if the floor guy thinks we can spare the wooden floors or not.  If not, we will have to tile the dining room and entry way.  A lot of work, but I think it will look nice in the end.  We will also probably have to tear up all the laminate floors in order to lay the carpet down.  It is exhausting to think about but I keep reminding myself that it has to end sometime, right?  Had a great birthday on Thursday.  All the kids at school sang happy birthday, I got a few hand made cards, and the best part was going to see "Wicked" at the Fox theater with my wonderful husband.  We had a good time out together.  We haven't been able to do that so much anymore because of all our house issues so it was a nice treat.  Here are a few pics to share of this and that:

Mike & I in front of Glinda's costume

"Wicked"!

Drying my herbs from the garden in the laundry room

A little leak can cause major problems

Went to Columbia this weekend to put lights up in the old homestead; unfortunately, we arrived to find a much more pressing problem that will have to be addressed.  Apparently, in the two weeks that we were gone, a small leak in the refrigerator water tube created major water damage in the house.  The kitchen floor feels like a sponge when you walk across it, and the beautiful hardwood floors in the dining room and foyer are now buckled and black with water damage.  I fear that it also carried through to the living room and hallway.  We called the insurance company at 10:30 at night to report a claim and discovered that the agent would not come out to look at the problem until Monday or 3-5 business days.  We are quit concerned that more damage will occur as we wait out the insurance agent, however, there isn't much else we can do, so we are waiting to see what will come of it.  It is difficult to find the positive in all of this, however I know there is some.  We will now get new floors and paint the kitchen.  I'm sure all of this will help to sell the house in the long run.  It just seems like whenever we take a step forward, we manage to have to take several steps backwards.  But, being God's children, we know that there are no such things as accidents in the big picture of life.  Nothing is a surprise to God, and somehow all of this has purpose and meaning, even if I can't see it or find it in the present.  So, we wait and see.  In the meantime, we came home, went to church, Goodwill, found a Nissan dealership close to home so we can now take the car to be fixed, and managed to clean up all the flower pots and bird feeder and put them away.  They had been sitting on my driveway since the summer trip we took to Columbia.  It's nice to have the driveway back again.  We also put up the birdfeeder and found a birdfeeder sock for the finches so hopefully they will eat that instead of my zinnias!  We cleaned off the deck and transplanted the lemon balm and portulaca.All in all it was an extremely productive weekend.

Not a good picture, but here is the finch, he likes to eat my zinnias!

one down, one to go, and this and that

The house at Darian Drive finally sold.  It was a complicated process at the last minute, as all real estate deals I have had experience with tend to be, but it is gone, a nice missionary lady lives there, and we are happy to move on from the project.  Now, if we could just get the Springs Ct. house ready to sell, our final link to Columbia will be broken and we can devote ourselves whole heartedly to the tasks ahead, whatever they may be.  Mike got his annual first week back at school cold and passed it on to me.  I hope next year we can prevent it by dousing ourselves in emrgen C two weeks in advance.  The garden is drawing to a close.  It is still beautiful, but plants are starting to show signs of the end of summer.  I have greatly enjoyed my "bigger then a square foot, square foot garden".  The hummingbirds are such a delight to me.  They squeak, are very friendly, and seem like pets.  We have had squirrels, a chipmunk, a giant fat green worm, doves, chickadees, titmouse, yellow finches, cardinals, many other birds I have yet to identify correctly, a praying mantis, and butterflies.  The garden is on a high deck and I find it odd that so many creatures have found their way to it, but I guess if you plant it, they will come!  It has been a quiet retreat to commune with God, rest, and enjoy the beauty of nature all around.  It has been a blessing!  I had my first computer classes yesterday.  I think my classroom management plan will work well for all classes, except perhaps the first grade.  They have computer at the end of the day, and bless their little hearts, they were thirsty, tired, and grouchy.  Not sure how that is going to work out for them.  I will need a lot of patience and understanding!