Sweet Baby Clarke

If you remember about a month back, I took maternity pictures of my friends Laura and Doug which you can see on my blog here.  Well, sweet baby Clarke made her appearance on November 23, a week before she was expected. I have to wonder if this tells us a little about her personality. Her mother is a planner and she did not stick to the plan. (Love you Laura!) Regardless though, she is the most precious little thing and such a miracle. I got to take her pictures last week which was wonderful. Plus, it meant lots of baby loving time for me. :) Here are some of my favorites.

 

Isn't she just too cute for words! I love the Christmas ones and I think she makes the best Christmas decoration of all. :)

**If you need any pictures of you or your little ones let me know. I would love to take pictures for you.**

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, I have finished my Christmas decorating...at least for now. I never feel like it's completely done but I think I need to stop while I'm still ahead.

Here's my sweet little table...it's not very big but I love having a set table, even if nobody actually ever eats there.

Ornament Christmas Tree Centerpiece: This was soooo easy to make and I adore it. All I did was wrap a styrofoam cone with tinsel, hot glued the ornaments and then added the bow. I realize the bow is a little large, but who doesn't love an overzied bow?!

 Table Setting 

Place Setting: Just a sweet little glass from my grandmother's, an ornament, and a sprig of holly from the bushes outside. I just added a little piece of cardstock paper to the ornament to write a name on. Guess I should have a little dinner party huh?

Front Door Wreath: This little bugger took a while to make, a TON of ornaments, and a TON of hot glue, but I think it turned out well. Again, I took a styrofoam wreath form and just hot glued on ornaments until it was all covered. The dining room is just off the front door so I wanted the two pieces to go well together and be a little "dressier" than I normally make things.

Card Holder Wreath: I've seen a few other versions of this kind of wreath lately and couldn't wait to make my own. The front isn't too exciting, just a few snowflake ornaments hooked onto an evergreen wreath. On the back however, I attached some small clothespins to hold Christmas cards. It's a great way to show off your cards, especially the photo ones that can't stand up on a mantel on their own.

And finally, my sweet little tree. It's nothing to extravagant but I love it and love that it holds all the ornaments that are special to me. And, yes, I know the bow is huge. ;)

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you are getting to enjoy this holiday season and decorating your own home. I would love to see what you all have done!

Soon to be Mr. and Mrs.

Emily and Brandon are getting married next July and they needed some pictures for their Save the Date. This was my first attempt at "engagement" pictures so thankfully they were willing to march around Keeneland with me for a while and take a ton of pictures. We had a great day and the weather was perfect! Here are a few of my favorites.

Here's a link to my Picasa Album if you'd like to see more:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Dara.Hanrahan/EmilyAndBrandonFinalEdits?authkey=Gv1sRgCNmpv9K_i_ezbg#slideshow/5539435572583017042

But don't worry, it's not ALL of them, just the ones I've edited and really like. ;) Hope you enjoy them!

A B-E-A-U-tiful Mama to Be

My friend Laura and her husband Doug are expecting a little girl at the end of THIS month! I had the honor and pleasure of taking some maternity pictures for them to remember this very special time. Here are few of my favorites.

These two are going to be such fantastic parents!

Congratulations Laura and Doug! Love to you both and your little baby girl! I can't wait to meet her.

P.S. I heart Picnik!

http://www.picnik.com/



Still Obsessed with Wreaths

First let me say, please forgive me for my blogging hiatus. I've made a lot of bow holders, bows, and other things that I had already blogged about so I didn't have anything new to post until NOW! So, here are a few more wreaths that's I've recently made...

Cork Wreath...This little lovely is hanging in my kitchen now above the sink. I'm so excited that I finally have something to put in that sad, empty spot. This was an easy one to make although it did take a lot of time and A LOT of hot glue. Thanks to my mom, aunt, and their many friends for making this possible! (And maybe I helped a little too.) I got the inspiration from the link below. Her's is awesome and all jazzed up with bows...still trying to find something I love to give mine a little pizazz too. :D

http://moremisadventures.blogspot.com/2010/01/cork-wreaths.html

Fabric Fall Wreath...Again thanks to some lovely inspiration from one of my favorite blogs I finally made a fall wreath that I adore. I really didn't want to use silk flowers this time so the fabric rosettes were a nice change. I used burlap around the wreath and love how it gives it that extra touch of fall.

http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/09/guest-project-make-autumn-rosette.html

Diaper Wreath...Last weekend I had the honor of hosting a shower for two wonderful friends expecting little ones very soon. (Another post about that later.) Since one is having a girl and one a boy I went with purple and green for the ribbon. This was done by just wrapping small diapers around a wreath form and tying them up. So cute and it made it very obvious that people were at the right house for a baby shower.

http://craftsandsutch.blogspot.com/2010/08/baby-shower-diaper-wreath.html

So, now it's about time to come up with a brilliant idea for winter and Christmas wreaths. Happy wreath making!

Bows, Bows, Bows

Two posts in one night...gotta be a record for this girl but I just couldn't wait to post this cutie little project. Once again, I'm thrilled that I have friends who are having little girls so I can make fun things for them!

My friend who is expecting in September recently had a baby shower and received over 30 bows!!! That's gonna be one cute little head. :) Anyway, she definitely needed a place to store all of those bows so I got to work.

Here's the bow holder. Sorry the picture's not a little brighter. This was super simple. I bought the plaque and letters at Hobby Lobby and painted them to match sweet Ryleigh's room. Then attached the green ribbon and added some little bows at the bottom so the ends looked finished and so the bows don't slide off.

 

I also got to practice my bow making skills with the leftover ribbon from my signs. I'm still working on the technique for those so they're not perfect. But they'll still be cute on those sweet little girls. Can't wait to meet them!

Kids Say the Darndest Things-Take One

As I was heading back from dropping my kids off at lunch today two first graders were walking by and their conversation went something like this....

Little Girl: What school did you go to last year?

Little Boy: Nowhere. But last night I had Chinese.

Little Girl: Ewwwwww.

Then a substitute teacher who is petite walked by and the Little Boy said to her:
Why are you so little?

I just about died. That little guy was TOO funny! So thankful for these moments that put a smile on my face and help me appreciate my job. Anyone else have any good stories lately?

Hand Painted Name Signs

I've been working on a lot of these signs lately. And I'm loving it! Last spring I wanted to make something fun for my student teacher and just came up with this cute way to display her name...and this was even more fun because it's her soon to be married name. It was her first thing with her new name! Well, once I made her one I decided I definitely needed one for myself. And since then, I've been making them for other teachers at school. I love getting to use all the fun ribbon out there. Plus I can use the extra to make hair bows for my friends' baby girls on the way (post coming soon about that)!  :D

A little more masculine version.

I work with 2 males in my grade and so I made them signs too so they wouldn't have to worry about decorating their doors. And we all have fun matching doors!

This one is for my awesome guidance counselor roommate!

This is for a friend who is expecting a sweet baby girl in late September. It matches her nursery and hangs on her door as you go in.

Finally, I couldn't leave out my CATS!! Can't wait to cheer them on!!

I really don't care about politics but....

....it's not everyday you get to meet a president!

My mom and I were given the opportunity to go to a fund raising event for the Lexington Hearing and Speech center held at the RJ Corman complex in Nicholasville Friday night. The president spoke on the importance of an organization like LHSC because it is a private program serving the public.

Me and Mom

As a teacher what he said really resonanted with me. His 'line' for the night was something along the lines of--People all over the world are born with intelligence, ability and dreams but not everyone is given the empowerment and opportunities they need to fulfill all of those things. All of my students have strengths and gifts and it's up to me to help them and give them the opportuntities and empowerment to move them further in their lives. Great way to end the first week of school!!

Back to School

So today was the official first day back to school. The kids don't come until Wednesday but we had faculty meetings and such today. Let me just say, I am EXHAUSTED! Wow! I haven't set an alarm for before 8:00 all summer...this morning it was 5:30 and it definitely came early! Especially since I went to bed at my usual summer time. This night owl does not like going to bed early or getting up. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to go to bed early. I'm doing anything I can right now to not take a nap! :)

I'm looking forward to the kids coming on Wednesday and meeting my new little kiddos. We had open house last week but it's such a whirlwind with all the kids and parents at the same time. It'll be nice to just have the kids and start to get to know them. Our superintdent today spoke about the importance of relationships since without them we can't really accomplish anything else. One of my goals for this year is to do a better job building relationships with students and helping them to be excited about coming to school each day.

At open house I had one of those, "this is why I became a teacher" moments. I had a student last year who was pretty tough to build a relationship with and I never knew if he was having a good year or if I was making any kind of impact. But, at open house he stopped by my room just to say hi. I know that's not really a big deal but for him it's not easy to do that and it just made me feel like he must have had a decent year and enjoyed 4th grade. It's the little things that make the difference in this profession.

Since school is starting soon hopefully I'll have some funny and wonderful stories to share for the "teach" part of my blog.

And I've been working on lots of painted signs for some classroom and baby room doors. I'll try to have those pictures up this week.

Here's to the first week of school. Hopefully I'll survive!

Book Page Pot

I've decided to change some of the accesories and colors of my living room so I needed to replace the brown and blue bowl that held the remotes and stuff on our coffee table.  I had some extra book pages from the wreath that is hanging in the room and I wanted to use them as well as connect the wreath to something else in the room so I made a book page pot!

What you'll need:

1.An old pot or vase: I bought this one from walmart. It once had an orchid in it...this chic doesn't have much of a green thumb so that didn't last long.

2. Foam Brush and Mod Podge

I haven't used this stuff since college...used to use it ALL the time. I forgot how much I love it!

3. Strips of book pages. I had already cut mine when making the wreath because the original pages were too big. But you could just take the pages and cut about 1 inch strips. I then cut them in half to make them go around the vase better.

How I did it:

(I'm sure you could figure it out, but here's a few pics and steps just in case.)

1. Put the mod podge directly on the pot and lay the strip on top.

2. Flatten it out as best you can and get out any air bubbles.

3. Just keep adding. I didn't use any kind of system or pattern.

4. Once you've covered the whole thing add another layer or two of mod podge and voila!, you're done!

What do you think?