The Last Day of School.

This year has been a great year. The boys have loved going to school, playing with old friends, making new friends, and they had really great teachers. I am truly going to miss this year.

The question at the end of the year is always, "do we need to get the teachers something?" I always say no, but only if you want to. It's not an obligation nor is it expected. I do not remember anyone giving teacher gifts when I was in school. Here's the thing, I like to get the boys teachers gifts. So, I decided this year that they will get handmade gifts as a thank you. 

I made these cute little posters. I saw something very similar on an Instagram feed. I really liked it and decided that it was a great saying for a teacher. So, I made it. 

I feel very lucky that my boys go to a preschool that they love. E was asking this morning if it was a school day. I had to break it to him that schools out for summer. Then he asked for a graham cracker and ran outside. 

I am pretty sure he will have a great summer break!

Things I love...

This week has been brutal, coming up with things I love besides warm weather has been overwhelming.

I have been working on planning my cousin's "One Big Bridal Shower". I took on the task of organizing and hosting her shower for both sides of her family, her fiancé's family and her friends. I will have help from her bridesmaids and some of her aunts in making sure things go off without a hitch. As part of the planning and something I love to do, I made the invitations. I didn't come up with the design, I found one that I liked on Pinterest and figured out how to make it my own. After searching for the perfect fonts, I put together this little gem.

So, why did I decide to do this? I love to make things and this helps me in my creative processes and learning techniques. How did I make it? I did it in Photoshop. I drew the graphic by hand, snapped a photo of it, edited the graphic, layered in the text and printed. 

I am a big fan of making your own cards and invitations because of the personal level. I completely understand that not everyone can or will do things like this. If purchasing is more your speed, check out Esty.com. There are many makers there. Some makers create cards and invites and ship them to you and others create files for you to download and print. There are many different options to get a more personalized or customized look. 

I also make most of the birthday cards we give people. Most of the time cards get tossed with the wrapping paper so I decided to just make the cards myself. These are customized to the theme of the parties we went to but I think coming up with a signature card that I give to everyone might be the best way to go.

Here's the thing with making my own cards, I don't stress and I have fun with it! When I make things its really for me, I want others to like the things I make, but I know not everyone appreciates these things. So, I just make them and keep working on my process and style so maybe one day they will be masterpieces!

Get out and go...

Days like today make me count the seconds until warmer weather and we can get out and explore. It's snowing, windy and bitterly cold.

Each year, I set goals for our family adventures. Last year, was to take a three week vacation with the destination of Yosemite National Park for a week. This year we decided that we would stay a lot closer to home. We are going to explore Indiana. We set goals like going to all of our state parks, seeing as many towns and cities as possible, checking out festivals and attractions, participating in our town events, and doing things we haven't done before. 

A couple weekends ago we decided we needed to go on an adventure that was in our town and something we hadn't done before. We choose to paint ceramics as our first adventure of the year. We went to our favorite place to grab breakfast, a short walk around the neighborhood, a coffee and hot chocolate stop and then walked next door and painted a mug and a plate. 

This time Emerson and Eric picked out what they wanted paint. Eric choose a mug to put the boys hand prints on. Emerson painted a plate however he wanted and then I added his name, a drawing and dots. The process was fun and the boys both enjoyed painting. 

I love that we have decided to focus on doing things around town and within our state. Sometimes, I feel we get caught up in the grand part of doing things that we look past what is right next to us.