Tuesday, February 16, 2010

A little Valentine fun, a little organizing fun


First, a little Valentine fun.  I always like to bake candies/cookies/foods for the kids' teachers.  They all have way too many "teacher" things so this makes the holidays more fun and shows how much we appreciate them!  This is Amariah (she really dislikes having to stand in the pictures, can you tell?  Lol!) with some goodies for her three teachers that she has this year:  Cinnamon Apple Jelly, Brown Sugar-Oatmeal Mini Loaves, Peanut Butter/Kisses Surprise cookies and Oreo Truffles.  Yum!

Well, since I've been back from Mexico... I have been FREEZING!!  I'm not one to complain but that sunshine on my face and sand between my toes every day ruined me!  I've been trying to stay busy.  My projects have only been ones that can be worked on by the fireplace.  I LOVE my fireplace so much!

I finally put my cabinet together.  Well, I guess I should tell the truth... Rich finally put my cabinet together.  We talked about painting it a different color because I didn't think black would look good in that room.  But here it is finished and it will stay black:

Oh, I think I need to show a before shot.  This is what the room looked like in October when I decided to tackle re-purposing two of my rooms.

Here's a (not so good) close-up shot of what this cabinet's purpose will be.

I finally found an open cabinet that held three sections with interchangeable shelves.  One section for each child.  When they come home from school, they go straight to the laundry room and drop off their bags, books and lunchboxes.  It has been wonderful this week to use this cabinet.  I got so tired of stepping over bags and kicking them out of my way.  This is a lifesaver!  And now for the fun part!  I'm going to show you how we made the boxes on the top shelf that will be used to hold all their papers.

I grabbed these boxes from when I put Christmas candy out on the shelf at Hobby Lobby.  At the time, I had no idea what I would use them for.  They turned out to be the perfect size and shape!

Then each child went through all my scrapbook paper and picked out some paper for the sides, front, and lettering.  We used Elmer's glue because it is safe for the kids to play in.  This was their favorite step of the whole process.  Here are Amariah and Robbie spreading out their glue.  Ryan, at age 14, was too old to get his picture taken and I had to make him sit down and play in the glue.

Once they glued the paper to the front and the sides, I used a xacto knife to cut around the curves in the front of the box.  If you don't have a Cricut, then I highly recommend you get one!  I only have the smaller one but it gets the job done.  I originally bought it for my scrapbooking but have used it on every thing else!  We cut out their names and glued them to the finished box.

Robbie had fun saying his letters as he put them in the machine.  He was so excited to see his name print out.
 

This is what the finished boxes look like...
 





It's a little bit of organizing but on a grand scale for our family!  School stuff has been an eyesore for us as long as I can remember.  Now I have one more small cabinet to buy for this room to hold all their extra school supplies then I can mark it off my list as complete!

I am grateful for fun loving kids that like to get in there and be messy with me as we create and see what we can come up with.  I love to bounce ideas off of them and see how creative they can be.  A simple but messy project, a small amount of time, but wonderful memories made!


10 comments:

Prim Stacy said...

I wish I had one of your children in my class! LOL! Your goodies sound delicious! Oh, and I love your organizing boxes!
~Stacy

Cora said...

Wow...you really got the creative juices flowing here. Love the idea for the boxes!! They worked perfect. Send some of those Peanut Butter/Kisses Surprise cookies and Oreo Truffles my way! Sounds so yummy good!

I have been freezing too.
Stay warm my friend!

Valley Primitives Gift Shoppe said...

Your goodies for the teachers so so good and I bet they really enjoyed them! I love your organizing project, what a great idea for re-purposing
those boxes.

Have a great day!!
Kim

Jenn said...

What a wonderfully creative idea for the boxes you salvaged :) The shelf also looks great in the room! Remember, Alyssia's room is tan with black accents. The two go really well together.

Christine said...

Angie your organizational skills are brilliant and the result is so good.
I love how the kids enjoyed making them too - that really adds to the fun and purpose of the idea!
Thanks for the ideas - I too am fed up tripping over school stuff!
Hugs
Christine

Leann said...

How thoughtful of you to make goodies for the teachers. I'm sure that they loved them. And I just love your cupboard. I don't have a cricut, but it's on my wish list.

Have a wonderful week!
Leann

Donna B. said...

Ang, I love the cabinet! I'm thinking i now want one :)

Enjoy!

Julie B. said...

I love to go through Walmart during the back-to-school sale & pick up the empty boxes. They're so sturdy and colorful! I have some from Lowe's in my spice cabinet!

You're right about asking kids for creative ideas. They come up with things we never would have thought of!
Good job on the room & cabinet--looks great and you had so much fun!

The Old Cupboard Door said...

Oh I loved looking at your post photos! Especially seeing Amariah (high priest in the Old Testament, how cool is that) and Robbie in them. They are not shy of the camera, that is so sweet! And what great helpers! Love the boxes you repurposed for your shelves, very clever!

Angie, thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving such encouraging comments! I can see you are a sweetheart and ambassador of Christ!

~willa~

Seth said...

Ooh that room does look different! Good box usage there, btw.