Teacher Appreciation Collage

'Tis the season to let our teachers know how much we appreciate all that they have done for (and put up with from) our children throughout the school year.  My friend Tiffany and I got together and came up with a couple of ideas to show our teachers how special they are.

After asking the children to describe their teacher in one word, she provided me with the list of attributes and the general idea and I put together these collages, printed them on photo paper and framed them.

Miss Gunn is a Texas Longhorn fan!

This was a simple and inexpensive way to give a gift that is sentimental without being cheesy - and straight from the mouths of the students... as you can see, many of the attributes were the same, so making the second one took less time.  

Simply choose a photo and make it the backdrop or watermark in a word processing document and then begin adding text boxes and turning them different ways, changing the font and color, etc.

Have a better idea?  Let us know!  Post it on our Facebook page and we could feature your project next! 

Simple Centerpiece

Table centerpieces are a simple way to update your everyday decor. However, centerpieces can be expensive and sometimes it's difficult to find the right one. Some are too big for a small table or too small for a big table or simply don't match your other decor.
Making your own centerpiece is simple! The picture below is twigs that I clipped off a dead bush in my backyard and spray painted with metallic gold paint and placed in a red vase that Linda had in her stock of vases. Simple, efficient, and pretty. It made my kitchen table complete.

You could also use glitter spray paint, which is what I would have used had the store not been completely out of every color except for clear!

Old Pumpkin = New Christmas Decor

Don't throw your pumpkins away after Halloween or Thanksgiving.  Dress them up and give them a second life with some spray paint and silk flowers.

I've kept it simple with white spray paint and a poinsettia and pine sprig, but you can use gold  or silver or even glittered spray paint.

These pumpkins have been a part of my outdoor decor from September to December this year.

Talk about stretching your dollar.

Click For Inspiration

Now, this is obviously not me, but this is how I feel when I know I have a lot to get done!

There are so many things throughout the course of a day that truly need my attention, that I have absolutely NO desire to do.  Being your own boss has lots of perks, but for this country girl, there is one huge drawback - MOTIVATION!  Whether you're a freelance writer like me, a seasoned artist, a craft connoisseur or even a stay at home mom, you probably thrive with the adequate motivation.  So, to help us all, I've put together a list of things that inspire me.  I hope some will inspire you, too!

Disclaimer: If you are one of those energetic do-it-yourselfers who don't need caffeine in the morning and never let the dirty dishes pile up in the sink, this list is probably not for you.

Here's a quarter... call someone who cares...
When I am lacking inspiration and just need to feel a little better about procrastinating, there are two people I call.  They let me bounce my big (and sometimes crazy) ideas around.  They give me feed back.  They tell me that some things just take time.  We may talk for five minutes or we may talk for an hour, but I always hang up feeling a surge of motivation to tackle whatever it is I am dreading.  Thanks, Mom and Tiff... for listening!

Catch a flick...
This may sound really strange, but when I am needing true creative inspiration, I watch movies that I loved from my childhood - and some more recent ones that I like for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Now, granted, this does nothing for me when I need to do the dishes -- except for giving me an extra hour and a half-long time frame in which to NOT do dishes. 
It always lends inspiration when I need to write or put together some create savvy business idea.  This is probably due to the fact that these movies always remind me of the magic of my childhood.  The following short list is a sample of some of the many movies I go to when I need a pick-me-up.  Some are more current than others and some are markedly strange, I'll admit.  I can't guarantee that they will work for you, but if you think back, you probably already have your own list.

• Anne Of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea
• You've Got Mail
• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (the old one from the 70's)
• Hocus Pocus
• Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
• Sleepy Hollow
• Drive Me Crazy
• Twilight (yes... all of them... I know... don't judge)
• Beauty and the Beast
• Tombstone
• 19 Kids and Counting
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
• 200 Cigarettes
• Dirty Dancing
• 16 Candles
• Son In Law
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Persuasion
• Reality Bites
• The Parent Trap (not the new one... the 1960 version)

Get OUT!
Sometimes all I have to do is leave the confines of my home and smell the fresh air to find inspiration.  I'm sure my snooty suburban neighbors find it strange that I sit in a lawn chair in my front yard and work on my laptop or read a magazine.  Take time to enjoy what's around you, like the sunset or the stars or the sounds and smells of the great outdoors. (Side note: If you are my neighbor and you are actually reading this, I'm sorry for calling you snooty.  Seeing that I have only actually had the opportunity to meet a grand total of four families in my neighborhood, I don't think there is much danger there.)

Sunsets at my suburban abode don't even compare to sunsets on the prairie.

Change gears...
I can make myself sit at my computer all day and write.  It makes me cranky and grumpy and has caused me to gain a lovely 10 pounds that I am still trying to work off.  Bleh.  I have discovered that not only is my writing better when I change gears every hour or so, but my rear end fares far better as well.  It's true.
I try to switch between sitting activities and standing ones.  Sometimes I do the dishes (only because I have to, not because I like to), sometimes I work in the yard, sometimes I clean house, sometimes I just go out and play with the kids.  Work, play, work, play... this is supposed to be fun, right?

If you have to have neighbors, you may as well enjoy them, talking to other adults during the day often boosts my creative juices... and breaks the pattern of reading Dr. Seuss books and refereeing kids scuffles.

Take a break...
This is by far my favorite tool for inspiration.  I give myself complete release to do something frivolous.  When you work for yourself, every minute that you are not working, you are not making money.  I used to feel very guilty if I wasn't at my computer, pecking away, writing mundane article after mundane article.  Now, I realize that if I sit down and watch TV for an hour or browse at Hobby Lobby without feeling guilty about it, those mundane articles become a little less mundane and my work pace actually improves.

These solutions may sound simple, but actually doing them when you have an entire to-do list with nothing actually checked off yet, can be a challenge.  Take the challenge and chill out, do things backwards... as my dad always says just before the last steer has been worked, "If you girls would have started with this one, we'd have been done a long time ago."  Thanks, Bob.

Rain, Rain, Please Don't Go Away

Amber once said, "as farmer's daughters, we learn at a young age to pray for rain." This statement is entirely true to this day as 20-something-year-olds. I pray for rain daily and long for the sight of green grass in the ditches beside the highway near my parents' house.
Tonight we got lucky enough to have a small rain shower. No matter where you grew up rain always smells the same. I think that smell is possibly the best part of a rain shower. I will never get tired of standing in my front yard in the rain, feeling it come down on my skin.

Our garden comes to life, soaking up every coveted drop of sustenance. 

The calm after the storm right after the sun goes down is one of my favorite times. Those moments where it's not quite dark yet and the only thing besides the single cloud in the sky is the blinking lights of the radio tower a few blocks from my current residence. I don't think I will ever get used to living "in town," as my dad says. It's hard to remember that you can't run outside and yell or wrestle your sister in your front yard when your neighbors may or may not be inside calling 911.
I will be on the lookout for more June showers, maybe I will even be able to get better pictures next time!