December 2, 2014 by Krista

Free Gift List Organizer Printable

It’s the first Tuesday of the month again and that means I’m over at Ask Anna once more. The holidays are fast-approaching and December is one of the busiest months all year. The key to keeping the chaos manageable is to organize, organize, organize! Let me help you organize your gift-giving with the gift list organizer.

In a simple, easy to reference layout that can be used in multiple ways the gift list organizer will help you make sure you get the perfect gift every time. You can put each recipient on a line with their gift(s) listed beside them. Or put each store on a line, with the recipients listed below, and the items you need to purchase from each location on the right side. You’ll be sure to get everything you need at each store… because who has time to retrace their steps and go back for forgotten things. Not this month, am I right?!

Keep your chaos under control will this Gift List Organizer you can print right at home and get organizing TODAY! It doesn’t get much easier than save, print, organize! The file is formatted to an 8.5″x11″ size, perfect for your holiday organizing binder! Organize your holiday celebrations so you can enjoy

So, head over to Anna’s and

get your FREEBIE printable organizer!

The sooner you get organized, the easier your holiday gifting will go… right? Right?

November 25, 2014 by Krista

Holiday Printable Gift Tags

Where are you on your gift-giving? Are you one of those amazingly organized people that have everything bought and wrapped by Thanksgiving? Or are you more like me and have to let the turkey digest before you start planning for Christmas? I aspire to be one of those done-in-October people every year, but I’m always left scrambling around in November and December like a madwoman.

We usually spend Thanksgiving at my Grandma’s house. Sometimes we try to hit all our family on our annual trip, but this year we opted to just go to Grandma’s. Which means that these three days before Thanksgiving are a little more relaxed and I have a few moments to consider a game plan for Christmas. And make some printable gift tags!

Get your free high-resolution copy of these tags HERE.

You’ll have to download the file and then you can print as many tags as you need. With an almost cartoon-feel to them, they are perfect for the kids or the kid-at-heart. And who doesn’t love to let some of their inner kid shine through, especially during the holidays! I would highly suggest printing these out on cardstock, but that’s completely up to you, of course. After you print them, cut them out and you can stick them down with gluesticks or tape. Or you could always use a hole punch and attach the tags with ribbon.

Need some ideas for ways to make these tags even better?

– Print the tags on self-adhesive paper and you’ve got yourself some awesome stickers, just like you can buy in the store… but so much cuter.

– Put colored paper behind the tags to create a great layered look. Use a paper crimper to add some fun texture. Or use small shape punches.

– Want to tie your tags on with ribbon? Put a small piece of tape (clear Scotch tape or cute washi tape would work well) over the tag and then punch the hole through the tape and the tag to help prevent the tag from ripping through.

– These would look fantastic with brown paper bags or packages… those are, indeed, a few of my favorite things.

November 20, 2014 by Krista

Thankful Tree

As my kids become more aware of the world around them, they tend to come down with a terrible illness every so often, usually around birthday and gift-giving holidays, although it has been known to make an appearance at other times too. Symptoms include jealousy, selfishness, envy, and it’s accompanied by begging, whining and pleading. This terrible condition is what we call “Get-itis”. My kids see commercials for new crap – because, seriously, most of it is crap – or hear about a new toy from a friend and their little child minds and instincts kick in to high gear. “I want one too!” “Let’s get one of those!” “But so-and-so has one!”

So, this month we are making a Thankful Tree. It’s simple, it’s basic and easy… and it’s working. Seriously. We were at the store the other day and Big J asked if he could get some dumb toy that 1. we didn’t have the money for and 2. would’ve been on my floor later that night while I was stumbling around in the dark while on baby duty. Rule #1 of toy purchases is to always ask yourself “how badly will it hurt when I step on that?” We looked at it, talked about why he liked it and then I asked him where he’d put it. He stopped and thought, throwing out 3 or 4 “possibilities” – on my bed, under the bathroom sink, and under Baby N’s bed (uh… no, no, and no). Then I asked him if he really needed it and I reminded him of all the things on our Thankful Tree. He decided to leave the toy there. Willingly! It’s human nature to want new things, but one of the most important skills I can think of is self-control. When he left that toy in the Lego aisle all on his own, I had a glimpse of the responsible and logical man that is slowly developing. It was one of those awesome-mom, everybody-saw-that-right? moments. I don’t have a lot of those it seems, so each one is a notable victory for me! And all it took was some time, construction paper, a marker and glue.

THANKFUL TREE

Materials:

large paper roll (ours is from IKEA, but you can find them on Amazon too (affiliate link))
red, yellow, orange and brown construction paper
scissors
glue stick
permanent marker

Directions:

1. Use the permanent marker to draw a tree trunk and branches. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just go with it.

2. Cut out leaf shapes from the construction paper. I just free-handed one and then used it as a template for the rest of them.

3. Use the scissors and cut the leaves out.

4. Write one blessing or thing you’re thankful for on each leaf and glue it to the branches of the tree with the glue stick. Super simple!

Week 1

Week 2

We have been working on our tree for about two weeks. We don’t do it every night, but we take ten to thirty minutes, two to four nights a week and take turns writing down things we are thankful for. It’s gotten a little more difficult, but we haven’t run out of things yet. This has been a great visual for my kids and a good reminder to me of all the blessings we have in our lives. There’s a lot of things we don’t have – new cars, big house, expensive toys, bottomless bank accounts – but the important things are the ones we do have.

November 17, 2014 by Krista

JORD Watch Giveaway and Review

I was provided with product in order to conduct this review. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.

In life, there are moments that can change everything. Some times, it’s a change for the good and some times it’s a change of hardship. Those are often the moments we remember all our lives. But, some times, it’s the small, insignificant, everyday moments that matter. Whether you’re tracking a major moment or simply the minutes of a mundane task, why not do it with a beautiful timepiece?

I had the chance to review a wood watch by JORD. When I was first contacted about doing this review I was intrigued at the idea of a wooden watch, but didn’t have much of an expectation. A wood watch didn’t sound like something I’d had much interest it. And then I took a look at them on the JORD website. I was amazed at the beauty. Every piece was unique and absolutely gorgeous. I chose the Fieldcrest series watch in black and anxiously waited for it to arrive.

When it did, I found the beauty of the watch was even more impressive in person. Unfortunately, I have small wrists, small enough that I have a really hard time finding watches small enough for me that aren’t designed with a child in mind. I also don’t often wear a watch, as I worry it might scratch my kids. I usually just use the clock on my cell phone, but the Cora Series of JORD watches almost makes me want to risk the flesh wounds. My particular watch was designed for both genders, so I gave it to my husband and asked him to help me out.

The watch on my arm – the face covers my entire wrist and while not uncomfortable, I was worried I would catch it on things or scratch my kids.

At first, he was a bit of a skeptic, but he has come to love it. Not only is it beautiful, but it’s classic, light-weight, and because it’s made of wood, it doesn’t have the chill of a metal watch. Every JORD watch is made from 100% natural wood and is hand crafted to showcase the beauty of the wood. The watch band is very easy to adjust and the clasp holds securely. He wears it as a dress watch, so I can’t vouch for whether it stands up to daily wear. He also mentioned that he really likes how security of the adjustment pin. It doesn’t catch on his pockets and pull the pin out, stopping time. Or at least the tracking of time. Although, that would be quite the trick, just think of all the things I could accomplish……..

On my husband’s arm, the watch fits well and is comfortable.

On Saturday, my husband notice the glass face of the watch had popped off on his way out the door. We have no idea where it was lost. The rest of the watch is still in good condition and operational, but the hands on the watch are now exposed. The good news is that every wood watch by JORD has a 12 month warranty “to be free from defects in material or workmanship” (JORD warranty, via the JORD watch website). So, if something does happen to your watch, it could be covered and repaired or replaced under warranty.

In case you’re curious, this is the watch on my mom’s wrist. While it is large, it fits her average-size wrists much better than my little tiny ones.

So, think a JORD watch might just be for you? Or maybe a loved one? Well, then, I have some fabulous news. JORD has so graciously offered to give one of you lucky little duckies a $120 gift certificate and free shipping! You can choose any watch you want, use the gift certificate toward the cost of purchase and it’ll come directly to your mailbox for free! Check out the widget below and get your name in the proverbial hat. The holidays are right around the corner and any of the wooden watches by JORD would make a fantastic gift!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

November 14, 2014 by Krista

Removing Permanent Marker from Textured Walls – An Experiment

Ever have a week where everything just goes so completely not how you planned? Yeah, that’s been my kind of week. It’s been busy and a bit hectic. The time I planned to spend typing up a Thankful Tree post and a giveaway post were actually spent scrubbing permanent marker off my walls. It’s a good thing my niece is so stinking cute… I just kept thinking about the end of Toy Story 2 where they put Stinky Pete in the backpack in the luggage sorting area at the airport. Can you see it too? He’s picked up from the baggage claim with the bag and an exclamation of “Ooh, Barbie! A big ugly man doll.” Then Barbie slides into the pocket next to him with a greeting, “Ooh, you’ll love Amy…. She’s an artist!” Of course, Amy’s art is all over the side of Barbie’s face. While Little J did color on Baby N in a decidedly Amy-like fashion with a dry erase marker last week (Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up.), he was also the one that alerted the two adults in the room about the new “decor”.

So, how do you get permanent marker off a wall? Well, I have to say I think it depends on the wall. I found a lot of ideas and tried most of them. Let me preface this with the detail that we have ridiculously textured walls. I hate them. I have two perfectly good Cricuts and vinyl won’t stick to the first walls I am not afraid to adhere it to. You’ll see why that’s important in a minute. I hit Pinterest and Google trying to find ideas on how to get this “artwork” off my wall and there was no shortage of ideas. Here’s how it worked out:

1. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and OxyClean. I started with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and some oxyclean. It took the marker on the wall plate off fairly well. But, when I started scrubbing the textured walls, it pretty much tore the eraser to shreds in mere moments and I was basically left scrubbing with little tiny nubby sponges that just kept disintegrating. Eventually, I switched to a toothbrush, but there just wasn’t enough pressure on the head of the brush and it just ruined the bristles. No slipping that one back into the spare toothbrush bag after this, you won’t get away with it, promise.

2. Toothpaste. Specifically, Colgate Whitening toothpaste. I’m not sure it did much of anything, to be honest. Other than cover my wall with minty goop. Nothing like making a bigger mess for yourself to clean up. On the plus side, my family room was minty fresh.

3. Hairspray. This actually worked fairly well. Marker actually came off the wall with this. The problem was the texture of the wall. Even with the toothbrush, I couldn’t get into all the nooks and crannies. I scrubbed with both the toothbrush and a kitchen sponge. The sponge was great for getting it off the flatest parts. The texture of the wall was killer though. The hairspray was probably one of the best removers, when all was said and done.

4. Rubbing Alcohol. I figured since the hairspray worked so well and it’s alcohol-based, maybe rubbing alcohol would work well too. It wasn’t as amazing as I’d hoped and ended up going back to the hairspray. It worked about as well as the OxyClean and magic erasers. And I had to really scrub it. OR maybe my arm was just getting tired and it just seemed like more work?

4. Bleach Pen. Because, at this point, it couldn’t get much worse, right? It did okay, but it’s not where I’d start if my walls suddenly become adorned with permanent toddler art again. It did the most good on the marks we hadn’t scrubbed yet, taking off the stuff on the surface. It didn’t stand a chance on the grooves of the texture though. Next time, I’d just skip this I think. The pro was that there was little damage to the paint.

5. Acetone Nail Polish Remover. This was excellent at removing the marker. I just poured a little on a blue Scotchbrite sponge and went to it. However, it was also fantastic at removing the paint. While it worked incredibly well, I wasn’t about to re-texture my wall, so it was very short lived. I did go back to the wall plate and this quickly removed the faint traces left there.

6. Handsanitizer. This worked well too. At least as good as the hairspray. But I had to use a lot of it. And if I scrubbed too hard, it too removed some of the paint and texture. I used the sponge a squeezed out about a nickel-sized circle on it and then just rubbed it over the ink. It came off fairly easily and removed most of the mark. If I let it sit for a few minutes, it came off better.

So, here’s the before (again):

and the after:

You can still see a few faint areas with marks when the curtains are open and the sun is shining in… otherwise, you’d never notice it unless you were looking for it. So, moral of the story… hairspray and hand sanitizer are the best contenders for removing permanent markers from textured walls. At least in my case they were. I shared this photo on my personal Facebook page and got like 5 people suggesting the magic erasers. Because of the intense texture, these didn’t work for me. But I’ve heard they work well on less textured walls.

One of my cousins is a teacher and suggested a pink eraser. I didn’t try it, but it can’t hurt, right…? What have you used for removing permanent marker from the walls?

get your FREEBIE printable organizer!

Get your free high-resolution copy of these tags HERE.

THANKFUL TREE

Privacy Policy