A winner

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:16Powered by RANDOM.ORG

I did it! I figured out how to use the true random number generator and how to post this cute little square on my blog. For someone as technologically challenged as I, this is a big accomplishment!

Anyway, the winner of the bracelet is. . .

TRACI at Beneath My Heart.

I'll bet you've seen her blog, because Chris at Just a Girl just did a Feature Friday post on her. Traci, it looks like these are your lucky days! Shoot me an email and let me know your address, and I'll send your bracelet right to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I sure appreciate your taking the time to visit here and leave a comment.

It pays to organize

My latest DIY project was so simple, I'm excited to show it to you.

My closet is one place that has badly needed de-cluttering. Okay, that's an understatement. It needed cleaning out in the worst way. It's a pretty good-sized closet, but I could barely walk into it. Anyway, it's nice and clean now, but I found myself wanting more than just nice and clean. I bought some inexpensive plastic bins to hold things (undies, socks, etc.) on my closet shelves, but they were so ugly. I wanted cute baskets, but I didn't want to spend any money on cute baskets.

I resigned myself to being satisfied with the plastic bins, until I remembered that I had a few scraps of fabric left from my new bedding.


So I cut up those scraps and hot-glued them to my plastic bins. . . and voila! Cute baskets!


Remember this ottoman that I re-covered with my other bedding scraps? It has a home in my closet, too, where everything is now organized AND cute.



And now for the part about how it pays to organize. You may not believe this story, but it's true. Sometime last year, I lost my favorite bracelet. It's a simple little bracelet by John Medeiros, whose jewelry resembles that of David Yurman or John Hardy. Not expensive like DY or JH, but very nice. Anyway, I had a bracelet that I just loved--wore it practically every day. Here it is:


And then one day it was gone. It just vanished. I searched high and low, to no avail. And I eventually went and bought another bracelet just like the first one. (This was before the economic downturn of last fall--I now find it hard to believe that I went and bought another bracelet, but that's the truth.)
Well, guess what I found yesterday as I was finishing my de-cluttering and organizing?

Yep. I found my bracelet. So now I have two, just alike. See?


Can you believe that?  I'd actually gone and bought another bracelet to replace one that I thought was lost forever--and it was actually hiding in my closet!

In trying not to be wasteful, I held a giveaway on my blog and gave the second bracelet to one of my readers.  So at least someone profited from my disorganization!



**This giveaway is closed.  The winner was Traci.**

Be sure to check out all the fun DIY projects at Kimba's!

Easy gift for a teacher

I love teachers. Love, love, love them. One of the many reasons I like Chris so much is that she's a teacher. And Jen and Darcy are homeschool teachers. Teachers are awesome.

I always liked my own teachers, and then I trained to be a teacher myself. (My degree is in Secondary Education in English.) I was a good teacher, I think. I taught in various capacities (back in the day), then I homeschooled my own children for three years. During that time my appreciation for teachers skyrocketed.

So now I like to do little things to show my appreciation for my kids' teachers. This was easy when my boys were little, for they were always glad to take "an apple for the teacher." Now that my guys are big, they no longer wish to be the bearers of gifts. I hope that my sons tell their teachers how much they appreciate them, but I like to do a little more than that. So I try to occasionally write a note of thanks, send a card, or give a small gift to their teachers.

Today was Meet the Teacher Day at my sons' school, and I took a little gift to my youngest son's homeroom teacher. I made it myself for very little money, so I thought I'd share it with y'all.

Supplies: inexpensive vase with straight sides, pencils

Tools: glue gun

(Note: I bought a vase for $1 at Wal-Mart as well as some cheap pencils. You can use very cheap pencils because they don't have to write well--they're just for looks. My vase required 22 pencils to cover the entire outside. Office Depot has pencils on sale right now for 10 cents {yes, $.10} for a package of 10.)

Simply apply hot glue to sides of vase and glue pencils all the way around the vase. That's it!

You've got a perfect vase for a teacher's desk.

And look how cute it looks with some grocery store flowers and a bit of ribbon.

Easy as pie, quick to put together, inexpensive. But much appreciated by a hard-working teacher.