the saggy baggy elephant

I'm pretty sure my love of reading began with Little Golden Books.  A few of my favorites include The Poky Little Puppy, Tootle, and The Saggy Baggy Elephant.  Emma Jane has just recently become interested in these classics and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them to her.  While reading The Saggy Baggy Elephant last week, I told Paul how much I loved the illustrations and then the idea hit me!  Frame them!  We actually have two copies of Saggy Baggy (both brand new) so I didn't feel guilty about taking apart one of the books.  I already had one of those $1 paint-it-yourself wooden frames you can get at Michael's (you know, the ones without glass) and lots of paint to choose from.  It took me all of 5 minutes to paint the 4x6 frame a nice shade of sage green.  I then found an illustration in the book that would fit the frame, placed the frame on top of the picture, traced, and cut.  I mod-podged the illustration to a piece of cardboard I had also cut to fit the frame.  I then applied a coat of mod-podge to the top of the illustration so no protective glass would be needed.  I LOVE the way it turned out!  For the first time in a long time, this was not a Pinterest-inspired project, but an idea I had all on my own...gasp!   I plan to buy a few more of the $1 frames and paint them in other fun colors so that I can frame a few more of my favorite illustrations from The Saggy Baggy Elephant.  I think they will look super cute in the playroom or one of the girls' bedrooms.  The first picture below is my favorite illustration in the book.  Poor little Sooki is happily swimming in the pond before a great big crocodile sneaks up and ruins all of his fun!  This one is begging to be framed next!
 

we heart teachers!

We love Emma Jane's preschool teachers...all FOUR of them!  She has Mrs. Elizabeth and Mrs. Dorothy on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Mrs. Clarice and Mrs. Teri for Friday Friends.  Most importantly, Emma Jane adores her teachers, too!  For Valentine's Day I found a cool project on Pinterest that I thought would make the perfect teacher gift...a fun, personalized mount for post-its.  It was simple and inexpensive to make, and I thought they turned out pretty cute.  I even added my own spin on the idea and included different backgrounds that the teachers can change out with the seasons.  If you're interested in making this for a special teacher, here's what you need:

(1)  coordinating scrapbook paper

      (I used solid colors with embossed designs)

(2)  plastic 4 X 6 vertical frame

(3)  coordinating ribbon

(4)  package of post-its

(5)  package of alphabet stickers

(6)  foam stickys

(7)  paper lunch bags

I already had most everything on this list, so I only had to purchase the frames and post-its.

Cut the scrapbook paper to fit the frame.  Tie the ribbon around the top (I laced it through the middle of the frame so it wouldn't slip off and to make it easy to trade out the extra paper choices inside the frame.  I added the first initial of the teacher's name with a coordinating sticker.  Although the post-its will stick if you just remove the backing from the bottom, I added a foam sticky to be make sure the stack didn't slip.  I also used brown paper lunch bags to wrap the gifts.  I put the mount, extra stacks of post-its, and a handmade valentine from Emma Jane inside.  I punched holes at the top of the bag and laced cute ribbon through to tie up the bag.  Done!

sisters in the gardens

The girls and I took a walk through the botanical gardens last week.  It was a beautiful spring day smack dab in the middle (well, beginning!) of February.  It's turned colder again this week, but it gave us a nice glimpse of what's coming soon!