Five Minute Sugar Scrub

My crafty girl, Haley, and I did a fun little project today that I wanted to share with you. We made a sugar hand and foot scrub. It was so easy and fun. She has a much longer attention span for crafty projects than I do, so this five minute project was perfect for me!

Sugar Hand and Foot Scrub

Mix together:
1 part coconut oil
3 parts raw sugar
several drops of essential oil of your choice (we used orange, it smells divine!)

We used a recycled jam jar. To spruce it up a bit we used some leftover spray paint from Haley's room makeover on the lid. We also added a chalkboard label that we cut out of chalkboard contact paper. Have you discovered chalkboard contact paper yet? It is super fun!

So, if you know us personally, please disregard this post because you will most likely receive this as a gift from us in the next six months!

Blessings,
Jennifer 

Printable Christmas Tags

Hi friends! I was feeling a little creative today and made a few printable gift tags. I thought they would be cute printed on colored cardstock with a hole punch and some fun ribbon. If you would like any of them for yourself, just right click on the image and select "save as" it will then be on your computer. Next, you can print it as is or you can drag it onto a word document and print from there changing the size to suit you.

I'm hoping to do some fun, simple, vintage-inspired crafts with the kids throughout the season (think stringing popcorn and cranberries and making salt dough ornaments). If time allows, I'll be sharing them with you. But, if not, check out my Christmas Pinterest board since that is where most of my inspiration will be coming from!  

Many Blessings,
Jennifer

Thrifty Sunday School Craft Idea: "I am Thankful..."

(Note: I actually wrote this post last year. But I thought I should share it again since it would make a great Thanksgiving craft idea.)

I started teaching a Sunday school class this fall and I am loving it! My daughter, Haley, is in the class with some other sweet friends whose ages range from 7 to 9. I wanted to do something special for them for Thanksgiving and I came up with a fun little craft.

I went to the Dollar Tree and bought 5x7 frames and dry erase markers. The dry erase markers come three to a pack. I then went to JoAnne's and bought several options of fun scrapbook paper, velcro and fun stickers. I printed out paper with "Today, I am thankful for...." and cut it out into a small rectangle. 

After our lesson, we talked about how we have so many things to be thankful for, then the kids assembled their crafts. I had the scrapbook paper cut to size, so they could pick whatever design they wanted. I also had fun stickers that work for a boy or a girl. Then the glued the paper with the thankful saying on the top. I had already attached a dry erase marker to the frame using the velcro. The kids had a blast making their thankful dry erase boards!

Here is my daughter's frame:

Well, she didn't really write that, but I'm sure she would've if we hadn't been in such a rush this morning, ha! I let the kids have total control over their design and putting it together. Therefore, they weren't perfect, the words might've been a little crooked. But, that's okay, they enjoyed it and had something fun to take home and hopefully they might remember to be thankful each day for the many blessings in their lives!

God Bless,

Jennifer

Laundry Room Vintage Curtain

All of this moving things that I already own around for a fresh look got my wheels turning even more. My husband's aunt sent this wonderful vintage needlework about a year ago. I just adore it, but I hadn't had a chance to get it framed and if I did frame it, I really didn't have wall space for it. So, it just sat in the closet in a box. 

I thought it might be a crazy idea, but why not make it into a little curtain for the laundry room? First, I just pinned it up there. I thought it looked cute, but I knew that I could improve on the pins even though I'm not a super crafty one.

I decided to try some clothespins and a string. Well, it is a laundry room after all?!? Haley painted these clothes pins to be name place holders for her Tea Birthday Party. We actually didn't end up using them for the party, but I thought the colors looked pretty cute here.

Looking into the laundry room with my vintage farm signs above and now the vintage "curtain" makes me almost want to do some laundry! Why not make the laundry room a happy place, I spend enough time in there!

Thanks for hanging out with me in my little vintage inspired home! For more home inspiration be sure and like Simple Home Managing on Facebook!

Have a blessed day!
Jennifer

Linking up with Thrifty Thursday and Transformation Thursday

End of Year Teacher Gift

I guess I'm in the tea cup giving mood after Haley's tea party favors were such a hit. I had these two vintage tea cups that I set aside thinking they might be cute for a little gift. Thankfully, I thought of them when I realized right after returning from a beach vacation that I needed gifts for Harrison's precious preschool teachers as his last day was the day after our trip.

I just filled the vintage tea cups with a couple of tea bags and a modest Target gift card. I enclosed the tea cup and thank you card in a plastic party favor bag that I found at Dollar General. I think they turned out pretty cute! 

Be sure to like Simple Home Managing on Facebook!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jenn

Haley's Eighth Birthday Tea Party

Haley and I had the best time planning and throwing her birthday tea party and I just couldn't wait to share the pictures with you. Since, we don't have a lot of space, we knew it was going to be an intimate affair where only her closest church friends would be in attendance.

In planning the party we first wanted to give out the perfect elegant invitations. Using a coupon at JoAnne's, we bought a large packet of girly scrapbook paper. This paper would be used for our teapot invitations and in many decorations.

Haley and I had the best time searching for the party favors. We went to several thrift stores and found tea cups. Our goal was to give each girl their own individual tea cup. The cups were filled with nail polish, a chocolate and a note pad.

Haley made a festive sign to greet her guests.

I pulled a lot of decor out of Haley's room to outfit our elegant girly mantle. I also made many banners out of the scrapbook paper. These banners also hung over every window in our living area and kitchen. 

My mom and I pulled together our resources to outfit the borrowed table for the occasion. I also hung balloons with tape from the ceiling  Each girl had a name card. My mom made a strawberry cake and muffins. I bought several fun cookies and fruit from Trader Joe's. The girls had a choice between two caffeine-free teas or pink lemonade. Of course, fresh flowers were a must for the tables and classical music playing softly in the background.

All the girls arrived in sweet dresses and ready for tea.

And Daddy even wore his pink shirt.

The girls were quite lovely and well-mannered sipping their tea.

There was a homemade pink cake.

And there were presents...

And dancing...

And they all lived happily ever after.

Simple Gift and Girl Time

Hi! How are you? I wanted to jump on here for a sec to show a little birthday gift that I made for one of Haley's friends. It's just a new twist on the Christmas gifts that I made this year, to see more just click here.

My amazing friend, Robyn, invited me to a fun girls' night of creating a dream board. I was slightly skeptical, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the evening! I found it incredibly relaxing and fun to cut on magazines and chat with a fun group of ladies. Here's my "dream board":

So, this cutting on magazines inspired me to cut little more and add "dream" to Haley's friend's dry erase board. Just don't tell my hubby that I cut on one of his Dwell magazines! To learn more about dream boards, just click here and find Robyn's description.

I also added one of my fabric flower pins to the dry erase board, I need to do a little tutorial on these one day soon!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless! 

p.s. I went to a wonderful MomHeart Conference hosted by Sally Clarkson this weekend and I can't wait to share my experience with you, so come back soon.

Super Easy Homemade Gift Idea

After my Sunday School craft was such a big hit, I started thinking that I might be able to refine this craft a little and use it for the many Christmas gifts I wanted to give out. So, I went back to the Dollar Tree and pretty much bought the store out of 8 x 10 frames.

At first, I was thinking about doing fabric inside the frame. After seeing all the cute scrapbook paper options at JoAnne's, I went for paper instead. My favorite paper to use was paper that looked like burlap, once again I bought the store out of that paper! They also had some other neat designs, like one that looks like an old wood floor. The options were endless.

I also found the adorable paper embellishments at JoAnnes. They had such a vintage look which I love. I also found a sheet of quotes that coordinated with the embellishments. I had so much fun putting together different combinations and giving people quotes that I thought they would enjoy.

I bought the dry erase markers at either the Dollar Tree or in the dollar area in Target. I hot glued velcro to the marker and to the frame for future easy access.

For a not super crafty girl, I think these turned out great and they were fun and easy to make! I wish I had taken more pictures, because I made so many unique frames, but here's a couple to give you the idea.

Here is a picture that our Children's Minister sent me after she opened her frame:

Here is one the I made for a birthday of one of my daughter's friends. You'll notice that I simple hot glued fun buttons to add a little something extra to this frame:

As you can see, there are so many fun possibilities! This year I am on a mission to be extra thrifty and stretch our dollar even more! Come back soon for more money saving, fun projects!

God Bless,
Jennifer

Simplifying Gift Giving & Giveaway Reminder

If you are on the little kid birthday party circuit like us, then you might like this idea to simplify present giving. Instead of buying a card for every party, I've started simply printing a personalized message on a white piece of paper, cutting it to the right size and attaching it to the gift bag with tape. It's definitely not Martha Stewart, but it does simplify this area of my life and I think it looks pretty cute. It also saves a couple of dollars per birthday on a card that will probably end up getting tossed anyways.

I also have a stash of boy and girl presents in a bin in the attic. I've found all of them on clearance at various stores. Target after Christmas clearance is a great place to load up. This helps save time when my little social butterflies get invited to a party.

Reminder: Tomorrow I will announce the DaySpring Giveaway! Click HERE to get registered!

Mother's Day Gift Idea

My sister and I teamed up this Christmas and put together this fun gift for my parents. It was such a hit, I thought I would share it with you as an idea for a mother's day gift. My sister (the artistic one) made these cute signs. Instead of trying to get all the kids together holding the signs, we chose to take individual pictures of the kids. Then, I found a frame that was already set up for three pictures. You could change the words on the signs based on how many kiddos you have or what message you want to send. You could even use "Happy Mother's Day".