Today I wore my Modcloth Pencil dress to work. It is one of my favorite 'art teacher outfits' to wear. Everyone always thinks that I have made this dress, but sadly I am not that skilled (yet)! 

When I first got to school, and was walking to my morning duty, a 5th grade girl stopped and said "Hey Ms. Pencil, can I borrow that dress to take my test?!" (its CRCT {standardized} testing time currently here in Atlanta). Hehe, it made me chuckle, as normally all the kids call me Ms. P, and often forget what my REAL last name is.

As I said, this dress is from Modcloth, as is my Apple purse. The striped tee is H&M and my boots are from target!

If you scroll down I share my favorite kind of pencils to use! 

p.s.: taking pictures of yourself is always interesting. It is much easier when your photographer boyfriend is around. Today was not one of those days.

Favorite pencils for the classroom (click on link): 
Triconderoga Pencils w/o erasers (that way the kids can't fight over the ones with eraser!) 

Favorite pencils for personal use (click on link):
Black Barrel Triconderoga (good for drawing) 
Papermate mechanical **** My current fav! 
Old school papermate mechanical 
For drawing Woodless colored pencils
Branch and Twig colored pencils (too be cute :-D and the ones I got were from anthro and much more pricey) 

and Modcloth doesn't have this dress any more but they do have these pencil shoes and pencil socks! 

xoxo,
court

Here are a few pictures of the flower letters I made for our patio.  It would be soooo awesome to do this with REAL flowers, but I wanted something that would last FOREVER, so I choose to make mine with fake flowers! I am so happy with the way the letters turned out- it brings soo much happiness to our patio. 

I used pressed wood 13" letters hot glue and then I bought a few different/random fake flowers. Last week Hobby Lobby had a 50% off sale on their vine flowers. Normally they were $10 a vine, and they also had 30% off the wooden letters. I would check at Michaels too, as this week their summer florals are 50% off. Heres a secret: Michaels and Hobby lobby ALWAYS run the same sales- and they usually just alternate their weeks. If its not 50% off this week, check for a 50% off coupon next week- or check the other store & more times than not, you'll be able to get what you need for a deal!!! AND there is always Jo-Ann's - who also runs the similar sales. 

I started by cutting off all the leaves and flowers that I wanted to use from the vine. I glued down leaves to the letters first (to cover the surface) and then glued the flowers on top of the leaves. The longest part of this process was cutting the leaves and flowers off. After that it speed up. 

It was tricky figuring out how to hang these though. I wanted to avoid drilling into the brick, if possible. I got theheavy duty outdoor 3m mounting tape and then just used hot glue gun. AND it worked! I figured the walls at my school are just painted brick and I hot glue stuff to it all the time with no damage, so I tried and it works way better than the 3m. DO NOT do this to sheet rock wall though. It would be bad. 

I also made this mossy letter "C" to hang in our bedroom, with a daisy on it of course (my favorite flower). 

Happy Monday and Happy crafting! 

xoxo,
court

Keeping with my food themed table from yesterday, I also painted my garden table to look like the Homer Simpson donut! 

This table was actually already out on our patio when we moved in. It was one of those things that they wrap industrial wires around. So... that is why it looks like a giant spool. 

At first, my thought was to paint this table to look like a lime. However, since it has the cut out in the center already- I thought that it would suit better as a donut table! 

For now, I have it in the corner with a few succulents, and string light garland around it! Chris is talking about building a pallet bed seating area and farm table for us out there- so we may be replacing this down the road, but for now it is such a fun edition to our patio! 

I used all the same materials as I did for my lemon table, just different color (acrylic) paint. Using a clear, water repellant base and top coat will not only help the wood hold up longer, but also help the color hold up longer. If your table is going to be outside, or near a window I highly suggest doing this. 

happy crafting! 

xoxo,
court

When life gives you lemons.....get creative, get inspired! ANNDDD paint your table to look like a lemon!

I am sooo thrilled with how this table turned out. It has made my very industrial "backyard" (I bought astro turf!!!) feel more cozy & bright! I have been talking about doing this for so long, and finally have felt inspired to make it happen! It was super simple to do. I did it in one afternoon, after teaching all day AND it only cost about $15 to do (if you already have the  table). I explain with each picture how I did it!  

The only other thing I used that isn't picture here is the quarter inch lime green masking tape I used to clean up my edges (see below). Oh, and the yellow paint I used is acrylic. You can by samples at lowes for like $2.50. Its the best way to buy paints for projects like this where you know you won't need a whole lot of paint. 

This is what I used on the table. It comes with a base and a top coat. You could always just do a clear lacquer on it too. It takes 30 minutes for the base coat to dry. After that I then used the measuring tape and ruler to divide the table into triangular sections. I just went for it with the yellow paint. I knew I would need to touch up with the white anyways so I saved the taping off for later. Whatever floats your boat though. 

When I finished with the yellow paint, I used the white paint to add the seeds, pulp and highlights. I let it try for about 30 minutes and then I used the green masking tape, to tape off the yellow edges- to clean them up with the white paint. Look at Olive being my little Vanna White. :)

Peeled the tape off and...... viola'!!! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeeze! Now go make your self a drink!

lemon table + bloody mary + hand lettering = pretty happy gal for a school night!!!! ;P 

Bright, cozy & cheerful!!! 

Happy crafting! 

xoxo,
court