Keeping CHRIST in Christmas

My friend Stacey made these for her son's class so I asked her if I could borrow the idea for KMC's class.  She agreed.

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Sorry for the pathetic Instagram pic

Here's the Poem:

As you hold these candies in your hand,
And turn them you will see
The M becomes a W, and E and then a 3
They tell the Christmas story,
It's one I'm sure you know
It took place in a stable a long, long time ago
The E is for the East, where the star shone so bright
The M is for the manger where Baby Jesus slept that night
The 3 is for the 3 wisemen, bearing gifts when they came
W is for Worship, Hallelujah, Praise His Name
So as you eat these candies or share them with a friend
Remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas
It's a Love Story that never ends!

Gettin' blingy with it

I saw THIS on Pinterest and knew that I wanted to make ornaments for all of KMC's teachers and EEC staff.  They are remarkable women and take wonderful care not only my child but many more too!

I chose black ornaments because I thought that would be more dramatic.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
Ornaments
Blinged out letter stickers
Pretty matching ribbon

I think these turned out great and thanks to a certain co-workers awesome bow-making skills, look more expensive than they were.

Happy Trails!

I thought I would make a yummy trail mix for KMC's teachers so I went to Pinterest.  I found THIS one and THIS one and took ideas from both to create my own.

INGREDIENTS:
Honey Nut Cheerios
Quaker Oatmeal Squares
Life Cereal
Cocoa Puffs
Salted Peanuts
Caramel Bits
Pretzel Squares
Peanut Butter Chips
M&M's

Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl and then put into glass jars.  I had enough to make a jar for all 4 of KMC's teachers, my hubby and our neighbors!

Then I created a cute little "Gobble 'til you Wobble" sticker to put on the lid of the jars.

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Sorry all I have is this Instagram image

Everyone seemed to like the mix a lot.  I thought this would be an inexpensive treat but it turned out being one of the more costly projects due to all the ingredients just fyi.  I should have teamed up with another mom and gone in together and split the cost!  That's what I'll do next time!

Turkey Time!

When I saw THIS post, I thought...those are adorable....how hard can they be?  Yeah well, 20 billion (I might be exaggerating) hot glue burns later...not as easy as it looks!  I made 12 of these bad boys for KMC's Thanksgiving party.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Fake Leaf
Tootsie Pop
Hershey's kiss
Black puff paint for the eyes
Orange felt triangle for the beak
Red felt for the gobble neck thingy
Hot glue gun and hot glue
Scissors

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  I cut the bottom part of the leaf to fit the sucker better.  I cut out all 12 of the felt beaks and red felt gobble's.

2.  I hot glued the kiss on to the sucker first. Then I glued the gobble followed by the beak and finished it off with the leaf in the back.

3.  I turned a box upside down and punched holes in it to sit the suckers in and then used the black puff paint to make the eyes.

It really is a rather easy project but with my big man-hands and such little pieces, the hot glue burns just kept coming.  I joked to my husband that soon I wouldn't have fingerprints anymore!  It was worth it though because all of KMC's friends really liked their turkeys!

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Sorry, all I have is an instagram pic of it!

Ghostly Grub

This Halloween, I wanted to try a recipe I saw HERE.  She has wonderful step by step instructions.  Here are just a couple of pics I snapped while making my batch for KMC's four teachers.

You'll Need:

Spider Eggs - white popcorn
Skeleton Bones - pretzel sticks
Pumpkin Poop - orange M&M's
Bat Droppings - black M&M's
Sprinkles
White melting candy

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A is for Auction

Online Facebook Auction Sept. 17 – Sept. 30 at 9:00 p.m.

CLICK HERE TO GET TO THE FACEBOOK DUFFELS FOR H.O.P.E. AUCTION!

Duffels for H.O.P.E. is a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation, a public supported organization that seeks to provide proper transitional containers for the belongings of children entering the foster care system.

We collect the donations and then take them to our local Advocacy Center to be placed in the Rainbow Room so that CPS workers can come and get them before they remove a child. We had 231 new bags donated in the month of July alone!

Our goal is not only to collect duffel bags and backpacks for new foster children, it is also to support the CPS workers and foster parents during this critical time.

We are hosting a "CPS Worker Appreciation Dinner" in October to celebrate these hard-working, under-appreciated men and women that make such a huge impact on children's lives. This will also give us an opportunity to make them aware of our charity and help us to get to know their needs better.

We can not do this alone. We need to raise funds to put on this event. We are asking our friends for help.

All you have to do is bid on the items in our online auction! US RESIDENTS ONLY PLEASE!

Please read the RULES photo in the Auction album, comment AGREE before you bid on anything so that you will know the proper way to bid!

ALL BIDDING WILL TAKE PLACE UNDER IN THE COMMENT SECTIONS OF THE AUCTION PHOTO ALBUM. You can find it on our page under Photos/Albums and we have pinned it to the top of our page too! Thanks so much for all the love!!!!!

We can't wait to see how this turns out!  

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts!


The D4H gals, Lori Cooper and Gina Jones

A is for Appreciation

Today is my daughter's last day in her current class. I'm not sure if it's going to be harder on her or me!  I love her teachers so much!  They have helped her with some pretty big things in her life.  As always, I see them as her "other mothers"... taking my place while I have to work.  Together we have potty trained my sweet girl, she has learned a vast vocabulary and has quite the sense of humor.  We have always been so lucky to have the best of the best in terms of teachers for her and this year was NO exception!  Thank goodness they will just be a few classrooms away so we can go visit from time to time!  I found a poem online that I think sums it up nicely!

A CHILDCARE PROVIDER

A willing partner for working moms,
she comforts, pampers, soothes and calms.
With all the love she has to share,
she's great to have when mommy can't be there.

She loves to rock a fussy child,
corrects the one that gets too wild.
She hears her share of tearful pleas,
and comforts those with skinned up knees.

With little children she plays games of peek,
for bigger ones it's hide and seek.
She is an expert at each game,
but somehow loses just the same.

She helps them learn the alphabet,
and gives them hugs when they're upset.
She gently tucks them in their beds,
with dreamland tales for sleepyheads.

She is a true and trusted friend,
who helps them learn and play pretend.
Although she's paid, it's plain to see,
she serves them with a love that's free.

~Author Unknown~

Typically I just do a little something for my daughter's 4 teachers but I ran into a friend the other day and she had a bunch of gifts. When I inquired who they were for, she explained that they were for the "behind the scenes" people...the kitchen staff, the curriculum coordinator, the bookkeeper, the music teacher, the director, the secretaries, etc. 15 total. So I found an inexpensive yet totally cute way to show our appreciation as well.

I pinned this a while back and now I'm so glad I did!  I made my own tag b/c that's how I roll but she gave great directions.

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ITEMS NEEDED:

20 oz Mountain Dew

BITE SIZE Mounds

tiny brads/sticky strip

scrapbook paper

cardstock or posterboard

I made a hanger for the Mountain Dew bottle out of poster board (You can use cardstock too). The measurements are 7 and 3/4 by 3 inches. Score it 2 inches at each end.  Fold one end down and the other up, making a pocket on one end and punching a hole in the other end as a hanger for the bottle.

I used a  1 and 1/4 inch punch for the hanger. For the pocket I adhered the edges with sticky strip and then added tiny brads at the top for reinforcement. I used a mum pin to poke the holes in the corners so I could add the brads.

I’ve made a circle printable for you.  You can punch this out with a 1 and 3/4 inch punch. 

CLICK HER FOR A PDF OF THE TAG

The flower punch is up to you.  I just used some black poster board I had lying around but you could do it out of scrapbook paper for an extra cute touch.  I used a 3 inch punch because I wanted a big flower.

Important: To place in the Mounds Bar, you need to squeeze the sides of the pocket of the holder just slightly to give it a little give for it to fit inside.  Squeeze gently:)

I think they turned out pretty cute and the staff was very sweet to my daughter when she passed them out this morning!  Giving back (even in the smallest way) feels so good!  Everyone likes to feel appreciated for their hard work so I encourage you to take a look around and find people to encourage in your life as well!

Daddy Day!

I've been pinning Father's Day ideas all year so I knew what I was going to do for a while.  So I went to Hobby Lobby and picked some fun letters out for my daughter to hold.  Then we went to my bestie's house and took the pictures.  Anyway, he loved it.  Now I have to find the perfect frames so he can hang them in his office at work!

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So of course then I did the same for my best friend's kids!

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And then the nieces wanted in...

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One idea done 3 different ways!  Love it!

Fancy Meeting You Here

Well, I know I haven't posted in FOREVER but we have been busy little bee's here at Coop's Corner lately.  In May, I had the opportunity to photograph the 1st Annual "Carry the Jerry" 5K race for Parental Care Ministries.  It was amazing to see the drive and determination of everyone involved.  To see all of the pictures, you can go to facebook.com/pcmonline or pcmonline.org

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Pastor Emmy demonstrating how they carry the jerry cans in Uganda.

Then, the first week of July was Vacation Bible School at the church we attend and I am employed at as a Graphic Designer and Photographer.  It was an Olympic-themed VBS so this is the logo I created and here are a couple of pictures from one of the events.

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Olympic Gold Medalist, Josh Davis and our Pastor

Two teenage volunteers getting the kids hyped up and ready to learn about Jesus!

They had a full house and captive audience all week!

Now I'm working on a series for DUFFELS FOR H.O.P.E., a non-profit my friend and co-worker Gina just started.  Here are the images I have so farl.  I'm excited to do another shoot tonight for this great organization.  Go here to "like" her facebook page and learn how you can help local foster children.

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Renovation Reality

Let me start at the beginning.  My grandmother wasn't doing so well a few years ago, so my mom moved her in with her and rented out my grandmother's house to help pay for grandma's medicine, care, etc.  The first renters were great but the second renters were terrible.  They never paid the rent on time and were destroying the house.

My mom asked my husband and I if we wanted to rent the house until we could buy it (which we did last year).  Win win for everyone right?  Well I was very pregnant at the time so my sweet hubby had to do a lot of the work by himself to get the house move-in ready.  He spent 2 months every day after work and every weekend gutting the house and getting it ready for our little family.  Some great friends helped us paint when they could and we were able to move in before the baby was born.  

The whole house was pretty much wallpapered with gold and white wallpaper that the hubs took down before he textured and painted.  He tore all the old nasty carpet out and laid floating floors in most of the house except the bedrooms where we got new carpet installed.  The bathrooms were also carpeted (straight nasty) and we had tile laid in those.

To make things easier and faster, we basically painted the whole house one color just so we could get moved in, knowing that we wanted to do more to each room over time.

In this particular room, our master bathroom (the smallest master bathroom I've ever seen, haha) we changed out the faucets, replaced the lighting,  mirror and toilet, replaced the marble sink with new marble.  Also, there was only a tub when we moved in so the first thing we did was replace it with a marble tub/shower combo.  When we added the shower, there wasn't enough wall space to hang the cabinet back up over the toilet so we bought baskets and hung them for towel storage.

So to clarify, these BEFORE pictures are from BEFORE we ever moved into the house.  We NEVER lived in the house like that.  I just didn't think to take pictures in between these two extremes!  haha

Last week, we decided to add beadboard and crown molding to the master bathroom to cover the terrible patch job they did on the ceiling after removing a skylight before we moved in.

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It was supposed to be SO easy but it turned out to be a nightmare.  We had measured from wall to wall thinking it would be the same on the ceiling.  We were wrong so when we got everything nailed in, we were short.  We had to take everything down and start over.  It sounds like no big deal but when you are holding big sheets of beadboard above your head so your husband can nail it in, it's pretty tough.

It took longer than expected but in the end, it was totally worth it.  It made the bathroom look so much nicer in my opinion.

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Two rooms down (KMC's room was the FIRST to be completely transformed), the rest to go!  

Get Your Mind in the Gutter

I keep seeing pin after pin of rain gutter shelves for little ones and I finally convinced my hubby it would be the perfect addition to our little one's room. (click on pictures to enlarge)

She LOVES her new bookshelves and wants to be read to even more now than before!  It was a very easy project and cost just a little over $20!  It only took the hubs about 30 minutes if you don't count the drying time!  We put them below her window right by her "reading nook" corner.

Materials Needed:

10' vinyl gutter

4 gutter brackets

2 left gutter end caps

2 right gutter end caps

8 wall anchor screws

measuring tape

pencil

level

drill

weld-on glue

pvc saw

1. measured and cut gutter in half with saw

2. put brackets on gutters

3. glued end caps on each gutter; let dry

4. measured and marked gutters where the brackets would go (we put them at 16" from the end caps)

5. leveled and centered gutter(s) on wall

6. marked the holes on the wall where the brackets would go

7. used wall anchors to mount the brackets and end caps

Our lil' ARTIST

KMC has 4 teachers that care for her every day so that my husband and I can bring home the bacon.  They are wonderful women and we appreciate them very much.  We love to think of fun things to do for them whenever a holiday rolls around.  This time I wanted KMC to be able to help with the gift.  So when I saw THIS pin, I thought we could do it 2 year old style!  First KMC and I went to Walmart and purchased four 4 inch terra cotta pots.  I forgot to snag a pic so here is one I googled!  haha

The husband then spray painted them with white primer inside and out.

I busted out the acrylic paint and brushes.

Now the fun part.  Insert 2 year old in play clothes so we don't have to worry about stains!

I loved it because when she would use the sponge brushes, she would say "Boom" every time she created a "flower."

She LOVES to draw, color, paint, anything and everything creative!  Wonder where she gets it from?  haha

She used the sponge brushes to make the flowers, I drew in some "stems" and then she painted the saucer's to her liking (which meant mixing all the colors together)  Then we TRIED to make a heart with her thumbprint but it didn't really work.  Each one has <3 KMC on it.  The imperfections are what make it endearing, at least I hope that's what her teachers think!  I'm super proud of my lil' artist!  The hubs sprayed one coat of Fast Drying Polyurethane after the paint dried.

He stopped at the store and got these beauties to put in the pots for the teachers.

Happy Easter!!!!