terrariums and such

So it's been a bit since I've stopped by (I wonder how many of my posts start off with this statement?!)- but I assure you I'm still around, alive and doing well :-)  Truth of the matter is we're doing really well- we finally found a house and are waiting for settlement!!! It was a looooong 6 months of hunting but well worth it. It will be another long 3 months of waiting for settlement but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel.

In the meantime I have been busy wrapping up the school year and trying to fit in tidbits of craftiness along the way....

We celebrated"Father's Day"- well I actually came down with that awful stomach bug the day before and was out of commission for the celebration and the 2 days after... but I heard it was wonderful :)

We finished studying animals in winter and moved to study the red-tailed hawk along with celebrating St. Patrick's Day. (I took plenty of pictures and had every intention of sharing- but time got the best of me!)

I finished up my last round of P/T conferences and am on the home stretch to graduation!


As for home life- Steve and I have stumbled upon an amazing outdoor/indoor garden studio that we adore.... called Terrain at Styer's. If you like anthropologie- you'd LOVE terrain! They are a bit pricey- but it's a great place to get ideas.... and...if you find stuff on sale it's a pretty good deal. I've collected a few things since our initial love connection...

This soap dish I paid full price for- but fell in love with it at first sight! It's going to look wonderful in my powder room :)

This cow door stop I bought online on sale and it is truly sublime! It's wrought iron and has a family of cows on it- so me!

This wall hanging tear drop terrarium I bought at full price- but it was totally affordable and adds a peaceful aura to our living space.

These terrariums Steve and I made! So cool right?! We took a terrarium workshop this past weekend and it was such a fun, funky date-day activity. He made the one with the woodland plants and I made the one with the succulents.

Creating terrariums is so addicting- I want to make another one! Stay tuned as I plan to have a terrarium workshop party this summer after we settle in to our new home <3

settling in...temporarily

So we've made the move and things have started to settle down. Everything went smoothly, we had beautiful weather, and the best thing- we had enough room for all of our stuff!! Downsizing from a single family home with 1300+ sqft to a 2 BR 900 sqft apartment was a bit scary and I was doubting that all of our things were going to fit! One BR is stocked FULL of boxes and randoms- literally floor to ceiling! (I'd show you a picture- but it is NOT a pretty sight and every time I open that door I get a waft of anxiety) I'd say we only unpacked 1/5 of our stuff. The other 4/5 is packed and stacked in our "storage room". I was pretty stingy when packing up our 'open now boxes' and wish I would have kept out a few more things- I have to run the dishwasher often so that we have enough dishes and I'm really missing my aero-latte!



As for our aparment- it is actually quite cute! We weren't looking for something long term so we didn't really have many requirements- but I'm pretty satisfied with our choice. The living room is a nice size and it has adorable pale yellow walls with thick crown molding. There is also a big window ledge in the front room that is perfect for my plant collection.

The bathroom and kitchen are tiny but Steve and I are learning how to dosey do around eachother when trying to fill up our mugs and get out the door in the morning. And we are learning how to deal with the kitties waking us up at the crack of dawn wanting to play!!!! I feel bad that they don't have a whole lot of space to run around when feeling friskie- but I just have to remind myself that this is only temporary! So far no luck on the house hunting end- but I think come March more things will pop up on the market (fingers crossed)

Hope you had a wonderful weekend <3

Oh and here's a little sneak peak at a new adventure I'm pursuing...

and then...

So... the snow fairies were looking over me and a few days after my winter post- it SNOWED!! It was on a Saturday...and it's all melted already...but I'll take it! It was a nice backdrop to our day stuck inside finishing up the rest of our packing! Yes, we're still packing because we still haven't moved. This will be our 4th time moving so it's safe to say we're kind of "moving pro's", but this time around was a little more crazy. We were supposed to move at the end of December, but some things fell through and we got to stay in our rental house for another month. Then we thought we were going to move into an apartment for 3 months while we looked for a house (our first home!!) but then...a week later... we put an offer in on a house that we fell in love with and it was accepted. Yay! We were first time home buyers... for a day that is. Because then... we rescinded our offer due to some unexpected things wrong with the house that we weren't prepared to deal with. SO... now we're moving into a short term lease apartment closer to both of our jobs (with Steve moving locations he was driving an hour and a half  and I was driving an hour- each way!) Official move out date is this Saturday :-)

I'm excited to have a normal 20 min commute and I'm excited for things to slow down a bit so I can start posting regularly again...but I'm not excited to live in a 900 sq ft apartment...Yikes!

Enjoy the rest of your week! (fingers crossed for more snow...on a weekday that is!)

still here...

Hi all!! I'm still here- promise...

just been a bit preoccupied right now with traveling, packing, house hunting (AND apartment hunting for the interim) - phew...

I'll be back soon with some new posts and great ideas! Hope everyone's holiday was full of smiles and laughter :-)

In the meantime- check it out...

over break while visiting NYC I got the itch to do something crazy and got the nose pierced! Lovin' it <3

nails, nails, nails

So my decorating dilemma isn't much of a dilemma anymore...we just found out that we have to move out of our rental house by the end of the month! so no decorating for us :-(  Instead of unpacking boxes full of  xmas decorations, we will be packing up boxes....boo!

So instead of decorating my house I decided to decorate my nails! This way I can have the best of all worlds... Each week for the month of December I'm going to paint my nails with a different holiday theme!

Here's a peek at this weeks nails...

first I filed and shaped my nails...

then I painted 2 coats of purple pulse from Sally Hansen Complete Salon- best new nail polish...the wide brush allows you to apply an even coat fast!



once the purple polish dried, I painted a thick stripe across the tips of each of my nails with sparkle polish. (I was able to paint a pretty even line- but if you have a shaky hand- using a strip of scotch tape helps create a nice straight line)

And voila- I'm done. I have fun, funky and colorful nails!!

Check back in a week to see whats next <3

Christmas dilemma...

I LOVE Christmas- but then again who doesn't!?!

However, I do run into a slight predicament every year- when it comes to decorating...

...do I go with the traditional Christmas/Holiday colors of red and green...

...or do I go with the wintry mix of gold and silver....

....or the funky fun colorful array of the blues, purples, and pinks????

Which would you choose?!

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE dressing up! so.... that makes Halloween one of my FAVORITE holidays.

I always like to be something different each year (or else it gets too boring!), however, I've compromised with having 3 different costumes. This way, I stay true to the Montessori 3 year cycle (and no kid sees my in the same costume the whole 3 years they're in my class).

Last year I was Cat in the Hat which was a huge hit. So I knew that I needed to step it up if I wanted to continue my awesome costume streak.

I knew I wanted to semi make my costume and... be something 'child-related' (being a teacher and all)... so... I decided on Mary Poppins!

I made my bow tie, hat and skirt... I know that's not very homemade- but it was the best I could do. I made my bow tie with red felt, a glue gun, and a pin (very easy- took me 10 mins).

I made my skirt using navy blue, light weight fabric and black elastic. I used Dana's Circle Skirt Pattern and it was so simple! Thanks Dana.

As for the hat, I bought a black hat from the party store and glued daisies on it using a glue gun- also very simple.

I had black shoes and black stockings. I borrowed a long black jacket from sister (thanks!), and bought a white button down shirt from Walmart (the kids section! $8.99). Oh and I had white gloves from a previous costume.

I put my hair in a low bun, gave myself some rosy red cheeks and red lips and voila! Mary Poppins.

(don't mind my morning coffee!)

All of the adults at school got a kick out of my costume...but unfortunately only a few of my children knew who Mary Poppins was! Am I that old?! Or does this new generation not watch classic Disney movies?!

Oh well...


...now... what to be next year?

the perfect pine cone

So the turn of the season has been in full swing this week...

the cool crisp air, the falling leaves, and the shorter days.

I only have a few fall decorations-but this year I did something new. I bought a bag of cinnamon scented pine cones (I normally wouldn't do this, because they are rather expensive for pine cones- I think $7.99 a bag!). They smelled so good and I thought I could use them both at home and in the classroom. So I caved.

When I got home, I opened the bag- and the pine cones were PERFECT! They smelled delicious... They were symmetrical, full and had flat bottoms so they sat up straight. Just perfect. I walked around the house and placed them all around. I think it added a special touch of fall to our house- and of course the smell is an added bonus. 

In the classroom I made a little fall centerpiece for the art table so that the children can pick an object out and draw it. In the bowl I have yellow lentils (as a filler), 3 scented pine cones, 2 small white pumpkins, 1 small orange pumpkin, 2 gourds, and 1 acorn squash. (post/pictures coming soon!)

Happy Fall!

everything happens for a reason

You always hear people saying "everything belongs" or "everything happens for a reason"... mostly during trying/hard times... but I am a true believer of this! You may not always know why something happens, but eventually you figure it out and it all makes sense.

With that being said, my hubby and I were driving home from mountain biking last Wed. night and he missed our exit. This meant that we had to go a different way home... and take a side road we wouldn't have taken if we had gone the right way. About a mile in on the side road, there in the middle of our lane are 2 baby kittens!! Me, being the ultimate animal lover, screamed "OMG pull over!!" and I jumped right out. These poor babies were sitting, crying and shaking... oh it just broke my heart. I scooped both of them up and wrapped them up in a blanket I had in the trunk of my car. I sat in the car trying to calm them down while my husband combed the nearby woods with a flashlight- looking for mommy or more kittens.

After a long 20 minutes and no mommy found, we decided to take the kittens home with us and go from there. I rummaged through our garage and found an oversized bin that I transformed into their new home and the husband ran to get KMR (kitten's milk) and kitten wet food. They were crying non -stop!

Finally the food arrived and they went to town! After their bellies were full, they fell right asleep...I'm sure they were exhausted from their ordeal.

Now came decision making time... to drop them off at a shelter or to not?! Hhhmm...I called around to all of the no kill shelters in my area and unfortunately they were all full. (kitten season?!) I was having a really hard time dropping these fragile little beings off at the SPCA- even though I KNOW they do all that they can- I just couldn't imagine them being locked in a metal cage! So...

I decided to hold on to them for the weekend and try to find them a home myself. (I did want to keep them, however, I have 2 kitties of my own and I'm sure they wouldn't be happy sharing our attention with another 2 little ones!) Low and behold, a day later- several emails and FB updates, I found them both a home! YAY! and these homes are both very close friends of mine- so I can continue to have a relationship with them :-)

I took them to the vet and everything checked out great! They are both females, 4 weeks old, and negative of any diseases. Phew!

I've been taking care of them and will give them to their new homes as soon as they get their first round of shots (which is in a week). It's been a lot of work, especially since school started this week- but it's been very rewarding. They are loving, cuddly, and of course extremely playful! They have outgrown their bin, so my husband created a living area for them in our garage using old pieces of wood and blankets (they are living in the garage because I don't want to bring them around my loves without having them vaccinated).

Kitten #1 (grey, med. hair):

Kitten #2 (brown with black stripes, short hair):

what style are you?

An easy Wednesday brings me to playing around on the computer.

I'm anxiously waiting for my husband to get home from work so that we can hit the road and be off to good ole' Cali! We're going to stay with my Uncle (who lives RIGHT ON the water in Laguna Beach). It's a first time trip to the west coast for the both of us, so I'm really looking forward to it! Can we say surf lessons anyone?! (and right during Shark Week too....Hhmmm)

Anyway, I found this quiz that is 'your design fortune cookie'. I'm one of those people that like a little bit of everything and don't really know what my design aesthetic is?! Good thing I found this quiz so it can tell me!

and the results are...

"Bucolic Artisan" Cozy… not oversized - a hand crafted gem. Your kitchen is your prize. Decorative, finished… elegant. Hibiscus and an Ocean Breeze while you sleep. Art that definitely does not match the sofa. Modern subtleties extend to your table. A cool refreshing drink - and often more than one!(they must really know me) Pre-war, upper east side attitude. Always intriguing, never clumsy. 

and my friends would be Pablo Picasso, Annie Liebowitz, Willie Nelson. how lovely!

Take the quiz and let me know what your 'suspected design style' is! happy hump day...enjoy <3

How Montessori found me.

Montessori.

So many people have no idea who or what this is all about. I must admit that I was one of 'those people' not too long ago.

It was in 2007 that I stumbled across Montessori- and it was by shear accident. My boyfriend (now husband) and I had just graduated from college and moved to Southern MD for his job. I, unemployed, was struggling with what every recent graduate struggles with.... now what?! What am I going to do for the rest of my life?! I graduated from Penn State (Let's go STATE!)with a degree in HDFS and a minor in Psych. I had done some work as a Social Worker, but found myself struggling with the way the 'system' worked. I knew I wanted to work/help children- but by doing what I was unsure of. I interviewed at a few local daycares/preschools and came across a Montessori school. HHHmmmm Montessori. I went in to observe one of the classrooms and I fell in love (instantly)! The peacefulness, the independence, the respect, the order... really I can go on and on. Of course I accepted the position and began self educating myself on the philosophy. This was no easy task as Montessori is not just a style of teaching- it is a lifestyle. I then went on to receive my formal Montessori education in 3-6 early childhood. I now live in PA with my husband and 2 cats (whom you'll meet later I'm sure!). I am working at the school of my dreams and will be opening a brand new 3-6 year old classroom this coming fall. I am excited for my Montessori journey and I can't wait to share all of my ideas with you and hopefully learn a few things along the way <3