I'm back!!

Hi my friends! I have really missed blogging for the past few weeks. I have been out of internet, which means I have been disconnected from the world! :) But I am BACK!!!

This week I have finally been able to get in my classroom for the first time since school has been out!!! I have been blessed to be moved from 2nd grade (which I loved) to Kindergarten (WHICH IS MY DREAM!) So I had lots to do. I also was moved into a room that hasn't been an actual classroom- it was our OT-PT room, so quite a bit was missing that Kindergarten would need.

They got my Smartboard and Bulletin Boards all hung this week so it's actually looking like a classroom :) It is so fun to watch a classroom come together. I will be posting pictures soon! :D

PIYO

Hey my Fit Fam! I have discovered a new workout that I am just OBSESSED with! It's called PIYO. Totally Low Impact (great for my old lady knees) with High Intensity for losing weight. If you are interested in it, you need to check it out HERE!

If you think this workout is for you, but you're needing some motivation or more information, send in your Beachbody Questionaire NOW so I can get you on the right track!

Yes.... when you're home for the summer you have to work with fact that your child is attached to your hip :) She loves PIYO too!

DIY Canvas!

Does anyone have a love for the HUGE canvases that photographers and other people show off on their facebook pages and websites, but CANNOT stand the price of them!? Well... me either. I am a teacher and a semi-new Beachbody coach, so I don't make the big bucks. But I have this beautiful family that I love to show off and I couldn't stand not to! So, what did I do? I started experimenting.

First, I did not get such a great turnout. I tried using thick insulation for that dramatic pop-out on the wall, and I wrapped the insulation with black fabric because it was on sale. NOT PRETTY. When the heater came on in the winter time, the glue on the insulation to fabric refused to stick and they looked like they started melting off of the wall.... It was not fun and they took forever to make. 

That's when I started using thin foam board. If it came thicker, it would be EXACTLY what I want. But I have to admit, these look pretty good :) 

Materials: 

picture

black foam board

spray adhesive

box cutters 

scissors

newspaper or something to lay board on

Step 1: Measure Your Picture 

I laid my picture on one of the corners and traced around it with box cutters. Don't dig too deep yet just in case your picture moved! 

Step 2: Start Cutting

Use your box cutters during this step, NOT SCISSORS. Scissors leave marks in the foam and it doesn't leave the prettier edge like you want showing. 

It's ok if you are having trouble cutting nicely, that's what your scissors are for later :) You might need to bend the board and cut down the harder side again. 

Step 3: Shave the loose pieces

I know you all are thinking, "you said the box cutters leave a smoother edge!" Trust me, they do. The scissors are good for cutting the roughness off without digging indentions into the foam. 

Step 4: Get sticky! 

I personally like to use the spray adhesive over mod podge only because the spray is thinner, you can't see it under the picture, and you can pick up the picture another time or two (carefully), if you don't square it up perfect the first time. ALWAYS ALWAYS start in the corner that you did not cut. those two sides will always be straight :) Flatten the picture down slowly so you don't have any waves in it.  I use a t-shirt to flatten it down so my fingers don't smudge, scratch, or leave gluey finger prints in the picture. 

VUAH LA! The picture I did cost me a total of $15. $12 Shipping for the picture and a $3 foam board. If you are not a member with Shutterfly.Com then you need to be! They are always having free prints for holidays, as well as free 16x20s!!!!! (Which I can never say no to, as you can tell). It is an awesome website. Enjoy! 

Diaper Cake

Hey all!

Tomorrow is a teacher friend's diaper party (this is her 3rd baby so she didn't want a full shower). Unfortunately I have to miss it to help a friend move (oh the joys of moving!), but I still wanted to get her something :)

Instead of just buying her a box of diapers, I decided to make her a diaper cake! I didn't do anything too crazy, but I have looked at pictures of a couple different cakes and they take up A LOT of diapers! So I played around with these diapers until I got it to work!

Materials:
Diapers (I needed about 100)
Rubber Bands (these will keep you sane!)
Extras (sample sizes of lotion, shampoo, powder, travel kleenex, antibacterial hand wipes, bottles, etc.)
Ribbon
Hot Glue Gun

I started off with folding the diapers in half, one at a time, until I got to 10 (it was hard to hold more than 10 in your hand and keep them folded). I then wrapped them in a rubber band together. The rubber band starts to give the diapers a rounded look to start your first tier of your cake :) 

For the bottom tier, because it's the biggest, I had about 30 diapers total. I added 5 more to this rubber band of diapers, then did another rubber band of 15. After I got my 30 folded and together, I pulled one of the rubber bands over ALL of them to make it a tight circle. Once you've gotten that done you can add a few little goodies in between. I added two zip up nighty from Walmart (one shown). 

To keep this a tight circle, I decided to put hand wipes in the center of the tier. Normally I do baby bottles all the way up, but since this is baby #3, I figured my friend didn't need a ton of bottles (I just got her one). 

I repeated this same process for the next two tiers. You probably need to make the rubber band a little tighter to make it seem smaller, as well as adding less diapers. I probably put 20 or 25 diapers in the 2nd tier and a couple sample bath supplies. 

After you have all tiers done, you need to find a way to hide your rubber bands. I used thick ribbon and hot glued it around them. In the picture it shows my clips holding the ribbon for them to dry. 

You can top your diaper cake with a stuffed animal, a big bow, or anything you like! :) I normally do a stuffed animal so then it can straddle the top of the bottle and I can put a piece of ribbon around it to hole it on. **Not pictured** I also weaved binkies through the ribbon for them to hang. 

Hope this helps!
Happy Creating!

Shakeology Pudding

Hey friends! It has been a while since I have posted, and I have missed it! The blog is going to be going under some construction here in the next few weeks.... I need to get this baby ready for school to start! :) {Cannot wait! Can you tell?}

But anyways, being back in the States from our honeymoon, I am also getting back on track with my eating! Thank goodness. I have missed my Shakeology! For those of you that don't know what Shakeology is, click HERE.

Here is a little recipe that I make for myself and daughter when we have our little sweet tooth screaming at us :)

Shakeology Chocolate Pudding!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 scoops of shakeology (you can also use vanilla)
1 medium ripe banana
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 medium ripe avocado
1 cup almond milk (you can use whatever milk you choose if you don't like almond milk)


Put all of the ingredients in a blender (cut the banana up in small slices), and blend until it is creamy. If it is too thick, you may need to add more milk. Put the pudding in a bowl or small cups and refrigerate for 1 hour. Then serve & Enjoy!

1st Week of School!

Hey all! It is officially 1 month until I can see my new classroom.  Last year I taught 2nd grade, but my heart is with the Kinder babies :) So I have a new team, a new hallway, and a brand new classroom.... and I mean NEW. Last year it was our OT/PT room so it didn't have a whole lot in it that is needed for Kindergarten.

What I am most excited for is my Calendar/Morning Message station :) I feel like that is so important! (and we are making it shorter and shorter, sad day)  Yesterday I started my vision board for it because I want to make sure that everything I want to add is accessible for the students to reach, understand, and relatable with what we will be learning.

One thing that really caught my eye yesterday as I was browsing other calendar stations was this awesome Weather Chart! I love how it has great pictures to go with the words, as well as the thermometer. It gives 2 things for the students to help with also :)

If you love this, check it out over at  Rowdy in Room 300 !

{FOOD ALERT!}

I've been trying to get some new snacks in my life: mostly just adding in veggies. 

I'm just not eating enough greens, so here is a new (around) 100 calorie snack! Sugar snap peas, yum! You can do a serving of these, then add a cheese stick or a handful of almonds. Awesome snack . 

Light ranch: optional (this was for Cody and Hadley lol)

**A recipe I learned today to alternate that ranch dressing**
Mix Plain Greek Yogurt with a Ranch Packet. THAT SIMPLE!

YUM.... I love me some snaps :) 

MUST. HAVE. WATER!

My HUSBAND (tee hee!) and I just had a beautiful honeymoon in the Dominican Republic. We stayed at a Viva Wyndham resort, which was amazing! Beautiful landscaping, pools, ocean, parties, all inclusive, etc. The one and ONLY complaint that you will hear from this girl is that we only got one water bottle each every day. They said that water was not safe out of a faucet, and man, they were strict with their one water bottle rule.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but I am like a fish. This girl NEEDS. WATER. So for 5 days I drank my water bottles, and in the middle of the night I snuck drinks from

my husband's water bottle. Ha! (Thank goodness for all-inclusive special drinks, lol)

Here's my little fact for water :)

Take your body weight, divide it by 2.
The number that you came up with is the same amount of water you should drink DAILY in ounces.

DRINK MORE WATER! :)
Drinking the right amount of water also helps with acne, weight loss, and hunger. Good night!

Chalkboard Rustic Labels

I have officially been married for 9 days {WHAT!?}, and we have been home for 2 of them. I am so glad to be back from our honeymoon; it was amazing but was definitely missing our home, family, and daughter.

Going through honeymoon pictures, I realized that I didn't post some of my DIY crafts from the wedding!

First, I wanted to point out that my family does a little memorial for members that cannot be at our special day, so that's what I used the slices of wood for.

Materials needed for these labels are:
Slices of wood (so you'll need a chainsaw, a hand saw, or a friend to do the dirty work for you),
I used chalkboard paint in case I made a mistake (I'm good at making mistakes)
Chalk or a paint pen
Paint brushes

My dad said that Hickory was the best tree for the job because it has pretty rings inside so the back is beautiful too, depending on what you are doing with these. I let the pieces of wood dry out a few days (they could have gone longer)

I used a sponge paint brush putting the paint on because I hate painting with bristles! It seems like I am always messing up and it drives me crazy! I can control my sponge brush with my finger tips, even if I get my fingers a little dirty. I then used the natural ring in the wood to make my circle (you can see in the picture above) 

I then smoothed out the border of the paint, and VOILA!  I had myself some labels! I will post pictures of the whole setup when I get my pictures back :)

Wedding signs

Alright guys, so I am getting married on Saturday {AHH!}. I have been doing everything myself; painting, creating, borrowing, etc. Just about everything is owning up to my vision that I have in my mind, and it is definitely exciting. :) My FAVORITE decorations for this wedding though, have definitely been my signs that I painted for directions and the ceremony :) You don't have to spend a ton of money to get the results you want!

Step 1: I found 2 pieces of plywood that just happened to be the right size for a picket, then I asked around town and found 2 pallets in "ok" condition. "Ok" as in one of them was REALLY old looking, had grease stains on it, the back side was a little cracked, but it was definitely still usable.

Step 2: The game changer for these pieces of wood that had been sitting out in weather (not pretty), was the stainer that I bought for them! They went from gray/ dirty looking to FAB. I got the MINIWAX gloss woodfinish stain from walmart -Pecan colored. {Beautiful!}. Don't worry about sanding them. I gave my pallets two coats, and my small plywood pieces just 1 coat. Totally up to you!

Step 3: Choose what font you need on your sign; Practice first! I did everything in Pencil first. I did not have a second chance :) It is so much easier to find a stencil and just trace, if your wording is not too long. I got lucky and found my stencil letters at a yard sale.

Step 4: Start tracing with paint! Everyone thought I was crazy because I painted all of my words with Q-Tips. They work perfectly because there are no bristles, so it's not as messy. But you do need to be careful because the Q-Tips can get a little stringy. When that happens, just flip it over or get a new one. I used $0.50 Apple Barrel Paint, again, from Walmart.

That's it! Just take your time and I guarantee that you will love your results! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Introductions! :)

Hey there! My name is Brittany Kay. I am 24 years old with passions: passions to live my life to the fullest and to enjoy everything that I do in it! Teaching is an absolute need in my life. The fact that I mold the minds of our future world amazes me, and I love watching them grow, learn, and succeed.  This will be my first year in Kindergarten, last year I taught 2nd grade, and the year before that I long-term subbed in Kindergarten and Title I Reading and Math.

Another passion of mine is a company called Beachbody, which I am a coach through. Being a coach through Beachbody means that we coach people through changing their lives for the better! Whether their goals are to lose weight, to eat clean and be healthy, to achieve a better, positive attitude about themselves, or to join a team and become a coach which you can turn into a full-time job.

I also LOVE to do things myself. I hate spending money on anything... no matter how much I think I NEEEED it. So I am a Do It Yourself-er. Check out my wedding decorations for some easy but fun ideas :)

You are reading this because 

1. You are a teacher,
2. You enjoy reading about health,
3. You want to get fit, or
4. You love DIY!

Follow me along this amazing journey that I am starting. Thanks for stopping by!