Teacher Talent Show & Zebra Print Shirt Tutorial

So I'm pretty sure my teachers in high school were never THIS cool! These ladies are my co-workers, many of them also special education teachers. Yes, we can get a little crazy as you can see (I'm the one on the ball in case you were wondering) but we do it all for the kids :)

 

Every year our school puts on a talent show.You might remember the dance we did last year. Our group is the "Remedy" and we dance. Oh, and I totally do a round off - you have to check it out! ha. We try to do a lot of popular songs that the kids enjoy. This year we did Levels by Avicii, Gangam, T. Swift, Call Me Maybe, Kiss You (One Direction), Thrift Shop, the Harlem Shake (hence the crazy props), among others.

You can see our performance below or here. It cracks me up and I hope you find it funny as well. I'm the blonde on the left, second to the end at the start of the dance. (It takes them a while to start the music and for us to all get on the stage, so feel free to skip the first 30 seconds) The end is the funniest so make sure you check us out doing the Harlem Shake!

 

So, what did you think?

And now for how we made our shirts:

Iron On Letters Tutorial:

Last year we puffy painted them, but this year we really liked the idea of Zebra print. I found these shirts and Zebra iron ons at Hobby Lobby. 

 

We used a Cricut and the Alphalicious Cartridge to cut out the letters. It worked best when the settings were changed to the highest pressure and lowest speed. Also we needed to tape down the iron-on so it wouldn't move around while cutting.

To iron it on you need to place the letters paper side up. As you can see below, not all of the paper came off when I tried to pull it off. Learning experience for all of us but we finally figured it out toward the end - the trick is to pull the paper off while it is still hot. It worked much better when we ironed each letter one at the time and then pulled off the paper on that letter. However, if yours turns out like mine you can scratch off the paper little by little and it will eventually work. :)

And here's the final shirt(s)! I love the zebra!!

Also, not sure if you could see it in the video but we each had a word on the back of our shirts that, when put all together, said "We Are Never Ever Ever Ever Getting Back Together." We did this by projecting each word on the white board, pinning up our shirts, and then tracing the word with the sharpie. Then we filled it in with puffy paint. And on our arms - socks and leg warmers! :)

And that's my sister-in-law with the Iron Man costume on under her shirt. How crazy that we ended up working at the same school!

I'm so thankful for such a fun group of co-workers! And for a good way to get a work out in too! :)

Tweet

Foxy the Fire Dancer and Cabana Bob - Murder Mystery

My hubby and I attended a murder mystery party a couple of months ago, Murder in Margaritaland. You might remember, we also went to one in March as a french maid and butler. My husband's high school friends seem to be on a murder mystery kick! :) It's fun though!

For this murder mystery party, hubby had the role of "Cabana Bob." Easy costume for him - a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and a lei. I received the role of "Foxy the Fire Dancer." Really?! Well, here's what we came up with:

So finding a costume was an adventure. We went everyone looking for a grass skirt. You would think we'd be able to find some leftover Halloween costumes considering it was just a week after Halloween, but nope, too bad I didn't start looking sooner.
                         
I then decided I would make a hula skirt out of crepe paper. I taped the paper on the belt and....it looked ridiculous. See picture below....it looked too bad on to even take a picture of it wearing it!

By this time we had about an hour before the party, so after some google and pinterest searches, it was time to get creative. I went with the basic fire dancer outfit - baggy pants, tight shirt, and face paint. Okay, I actually used lipstick, but it did the job. I was laughing at myself so hard while I was painting my face - wish you could have been there. What an adventure :)

I added a braid in my hair and a red lei (oh, and a red DIY hair tie on my wrist). So - even though I didn't have the skirt or the headdress, I feel like I made it work. I also found some sweet glow sticks at the Dollar Tree to act as my torches. They were fun! I can't believe how much light they actually give off.

The party was fun. I don't want to give anything away in case you end up going to this one as well, but we had lot of yummy food and had a good time hanging out with friends. Everyone was very creative in their outfits and we all stayed in character most of the time. Also, thankfully I didn't die like last time!

Tweet

1st Birthday Gifts for Twins

My cousin's twins just turned ONE! :) I had the hardest time deciding what to get them and am really happy with what I came up with so I just had to share.

(And yes - I did tape their cards to the bags...that way I didn't have to decorate the bags too!)

Pink for the girl and blue for the boy. How stereotypical :)

A hippo and a dolphin. And yes, the dolphin is my favorite even though it isn't pink! BUT these are not just stuffed animals, they are "pee-wee" pillow pets! So you can velcro them up to make the animal, or un-velcro them to make it into a pillow. So. cute. I hope they like them!

Tweet

Back from Florida!

Hello again! I'm back from our Florida vacation! Seriously - I feel so spoiled...two vacations, Florida and California, in one summer. Dang, really, this isn't normal for me :)

But we picked a perfect time to go. We were enjoying the 80-90 degree weather in Florida, while everyone back home in Chicago was experience the crazy heat wave with temperatures in the 100's all week! And then we came back last night with temperatures in the 80s. Really - couldn't have done that if I tried!

 Kevin and I went with his family his parents (everyone else backed out on us after we bought out tickets)! We had a lot of fun though. We went on a cruise in Naples, shopped at the outlet mall and flea market, read some books, and laid out and swam both at the beach and our pool.

Kevin and I even spent the night at a resort just for fun using our Chase Freedom reward points. They even had their own island that they shuttled us out too- AND we saw dolphins on the way there. It was fun staying in a place so nice. I called down to guest request for some hair spray and a comb and they come right up to your door and just give you stuff! lol I was quite excited.

And then it was time to go home and start session two of summer school! Yup - that started today. I am teaching geometry and functional math. Today was crazy - I didn't even know what was going on, but I think we have it all figured out and ready to go!

Oh - and one of the best parts of coming home - getting packages in the mail!!!

 

I was so excited for my Julep box to come! Three different nail polish (one is patriotic) and a lip gloss to match! It always comes so cute and even with little FireBall candies this time! Check out my post here to see how you can get your first box for a penny. 

And then I got this beautiful frame! Love it. 

Random freebies too :)

And $28 flip flops that I got for only $1. I love deals :)

Yes - I realize this is a weird post, but I hope you enjoyed looking through my mailbox. HA! Oh, and I also got the good stuff, like our internet and electric bills. And three letters from State Farm telling me I'd save so much money if I just switch my insurance to them...funny thing is...I already have State Farm insurance.

Okay off to craft, um, I mean unpack...

Tweet

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day everyone (especially those of you who are fathers)! 

Love you dad :)  

 And one of the great things about being married - I now have two dads! Haha, that kinda sounds wrong doesn't it?! 

 

Anyway, I love both of you.

WHOA! Stop the presses. I have THREE dads. A Father even better than the two above - sorry guys, but you don't even get close. A Dad to everyone who needs a dad. A Dad with a perfect, unconditional love. Thank you Heavenly Father for always loving me and being the best Dad to me and everyone in the world. Happy Father's Day Dad :)

Hope you all have a fabulous father's day! 

Tweet

We've been married a year!!!

Today is our one year wedding anniversary. It's so crazy to me to think that a year ago today was our wedding! I loved our wedding and love being married even more. My husband is the best! (Really, he is - sorry ladies, he's mine!!)

 

 We stopped to take a couple anniversary pictures on our way home from the Cheesecake Factory. Kevin took the day off work so we've just been hanging out together which is so nice.

Check out our wedding slideshow below. My friend Charlee is singing! My favorite pictures are at the end, so if you don't want to watch the whole thing, at least skip to the middle-end :)

Tweet

California Day 1 - San Fran

CALIFORNIA - here we come!!!

We left this morning. Early this morning. Like 5:00 AM...which is 2:00 AM California time...YIKES!
And it was lil sis's first time flying! She did great - really didn't seem to care one way or the other! I just love flying, I mean seriously - look at this view!!!

We arrived in Sacramento this afternoon. My sissy Heather picked us up and we got to see her for like 30 minutes and then she was busy with church stuff the rest of the day... And they had a banquet for the parents...but sisters weren't invited. Tomorrow's her graduation and they we get her for the rest of the week! :)

So, my lil sis, Kayla, and I went with my grandparents to San Francisco for the night. It was a bit of a drive, about two hours, but not a bad one! Look at the flowers all along the highway!

San Francisco was awesome. I was seriously freaking out driving up those crazy steep hills (and I wasn't even driving - my Grandpa was)! Also the trolley cars - so cute! It took us a while to find it, but we finally saw the golden gate bridge. (I had to convince my grandparents and lil sis that it wasn't the gray one we crossed over on first!) It was really foggy but that only added to the beauty.

(This picture is unedited -beautiful isn't it?!)

I wasn't planning on blogging...but everyone went to sleep so early! So, who knows I might continue throughout this trip, or you might have to wait until next week to hear more about Cali, but no worries, either way - you'll hear about it! (Oh, and I've been using my new camera bag - had a little photo shoot of me modeling it - love my bag!)

Tweet

Celebrations - Engagement Cake and Banner

WaHoo!!! School is out for the summer and it is time for celebrations!

My favorite sister-in-law is pregnant with her baby (I'm going to be Aunt Brie - so excited!!) AND my other favorite sister-in-law just got engaged!! Seriously, see what I mean about the celebrations!? And I love it, because, right now, my life is the normal one. I get to enjoy everyone's excitement without any of the stress. LOVING it!

So, to celebrate the engagement, my friend Rita and I made a fancy little four layer engagement cake and added a fun banner. I love how it turned out! And it tasted good too! Check out the banner - it says "HE PUT A RING ON IT." I cut out the letter with my cricut machine and then poked holes on the tops on the letters and strung embroidery floss through the letters. I later realized it would have worked a lot better (and would have been a lot easier) to just glue the letters on the string.

O my, and it was delicious! The layers of cake were french vanilla and devil's food with chocolate ganache filling and covered with buttercream frosting!

Here's the newly engaged couple with their cake. They are just so cute. I also took a few pictures of them in his backyard yesterday. I'll post some of those soon too.

Tomorrow I'll share with you some of the secrets and recipes I used to make this cake turn out so well!

Tweet

Rita's White Rhino

My fantastic friend Rita just moved into a new apartment and has begun to blog about her designs! She is so cute and creative! She loved a $30 cardboard rhino she saw somewhere...BUT made one herself for just $3! Check out her blog and her rhino project at Rita in the City!

And, a quick snippet of my own life...I start, for the first time as a "real" teacher, teaching in less than 2 weeks! (start of a slight freakout here) Going to my classroom tomorrow to start getting things set up!!! Wish me luck (or give me advice), both are appreciated!!

Tweet

Woot woot! Wedding Thanks Yous...DONE!

 I ordered these stickers with a few of our favorite wedding photos just over a week ago! When they came today, I knew they had to go on our thank yous!

See, isn't that sticker adorable! And check out our address labels (from Vistaprint)!
(I hid the address for obvious reasons...clearly I am going to have so many creepers after me the night I start this blog!)

Check out all those thank yous! Yes, I am proud of myself...thank you very much :)

And...I used the Garden Love stamps, which really made me happy. So much more exciting than the boring bell forever stamps!

Even though writing these thank you notes seemed like it would never end, I actually enjoyed writing them. Honestly. It helped me further realize how TRULY thankful I am for the people in my life, not just for the beautiful gifts they gave!

Tweet