Homemade Dry Erase “White” Board

I saw this idea multiple places, namely here, here and here (each found on pinterest), and I just fell in love with the it.

When you stand at the kitchen sink in my apartment, you’re staring at a blank wall. I really wish I could look through windows, or at the very least the family room. But until that happens, I decided to try this homemade dry erase board.

I bought a cheap plastic picture frame at IKEA (I think glass would work just as well, but plastic was cheaper and lighter) and a fabric remnant that cost less than $3.00. I ironed the fabric, and then stretched accross the back of the frame and taped the edges with duct tape (I’m so handy, can’t you tell?).

I stuck it to the wall with those 3M Command Strips.

It works great so far! Right now it says, “I love you babe – we need garbage bags and sandwich zip locks”

 

Autumn Decor

Yay! My first season as a married woman — and the first autumn I have an apartment to decorate! We bought a bedroom set that was too big to fit into our bedroom, so the dresser is now a “hutch” or “buffet” that sits in our dining room. It’s turned out to be very convenient storage space, and a fun place to display some seasonal decorations.

All the white dishes were wedding gifts, and I bought the gourds at the grocery store for $3.00. I was looking for white mini pumpkins, and found some for less than a dollar a piece at an apple orchard. I think they are so elegant looking. They are currently serving as the centerpiece on the dining room table.

 

Easy & Yummy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

This doesn’t even really count as a “recipe” — Prepare a yellow cake mix (with pudding) as normal, and then beat 3/4 cup of creamy peanut butter in the batter for 2 minutes. Bake as normal.

Then, add 1/4 cup of peanut butter to your store bought can of milk chocolate frosting. I didn’t have any, but I think it would be cute to put crushed Butterfingers or Reese’s Pieces on top.

They were yum, and even I could make them!

 

Cute Bathroom Passes

I probably didn’t NEED to make bathroom passes. Sunday School is only 45 minutes long, and my kids never need to go the bathroom…until I made the passes, that is. Now they’re always leaving class to go to the bathroom! Oh well. I couldn’t resist these two robot wooden figures from Michaels…I feel like they look like they need to go to the bathroom themselves!

I painted the wooden door hangers with acrylic paint, and then glued the robots on. Easy and adorable!

 

Garage Sale & Thrift Store Finds

Last weekend, I tried my hand at garage sale and thrift store shopping…sort of for the first time. I had tried it before without much luck. But this time, I was looking for toys for my Sunday School class, and found lots of treasures!!

I love finding activities that are structured, but require the kids to use their creativity..like, blocks!!

These Melissa & Doug brand cardboard blocks were only 99 cents! I put them in the preschool room (we already have a small collection of cardboard blocks in there).

I have never seen these before, and I’m not 100% how you’re supposed to play with them, but they look cool! They are Lego brand. All of the pieces fit together to create a path or track. I think they might have been a part of a game originally (?). I’m thinking about putting some matchbox cars in with them so that the kids can have that structured creative play that I like.

I was so geeked to find these wooden blocks. They were only $3.00! Anywhere else they would be $30.00 or more.

Dominoes don’t allow for that much creativity, but I always console myself with the thought that maybe kids could make up their own version of the game. Besides, how cool are these Care Bear dominoes?? I just liked looking at them.

How fun are these oversized playing cards? I put these playing cards next to a pencil as a scale of reference. Not sure what I’ll do with them yet, but they were dirt cheap.

My Sunday School kids LOVE bingo. It’s so funny. Even though there is absolutely no strategy involved, winning bingo is a huge bragging right. And it’s so fun to watch them over dramatize the suspense. So I couldn’t resist this for $1.00.

These were in great shape, and I envision using these in an after school program someday-maybe. They were $3.00 total, and the picture sare fun to look at.

I’ve been getting excited thinking about these additions to my Sunday School room all week…I hope the kids are half as excited as I am!