So, I finished my two laundry room plaques and got them hung up this weekend.  When I made them, I tried choose colors that would compliment the paint in that part of my home.  What could be better than thinking they turned out pretty cute?To know that they have both already been put to use.  They work great.  I have a couple loose socks that are looking for their mates hung there now, and it helped to match up a pair of gloves and several sets of socks already.  A few miscellaneous items ended up in the pocket board's jar until they were claimed by their owners.  

Today, was my scheduled art docent day for my daughter's class.  I'm given about an hour for a quick lesson with an art project or craft activity.  Usually, I like doing something themed around a holiday, event, or season of year that is coming up.  So, today I talked about "still life" art and titled my lesson "Still Love" since it was all Valentine-type stuff that I put on display.  I enjoyed spending a few minutes "drawing along" with the students today as you can see from my pic.  Try not to laugh at my sketch...ok, you can laugh, but please don't do it to my face.  The kids told me it looked good.  It feels great to see the students excited each time I come to their classroom.

So, I'm definitely not the best seamstress.  It would probably have helped if I had taken a sewing class.  Maybe someday I will.  I've bought a few patterns over the years, but they usually don't even get opened.  LOL.  However, every so often I decide to pull out my machine and play with it.  Plus, every time I try to sew, I feel like I learn something new.  

I'm not quite done, but I have been working on a few other little projects, too.  There were a couple signs that I thought would be (cute & handy) for my laundry room.  The ideas came from a missing sock board and a check your pockets board that I had seen on Pinterest.  No, they are not exact copies...I had to make them my own.  The clear-coat is probably still drying right now.  Plus, they aren't hung up yet.  I still need to attach the saw-tooth hangers on the back of both, and to attach a jar to the "pocket" board.  Looking forward to getting them on the wall this weekend.  Of course, I hope they look as cute on the wall as they do laying on the counter.  ;)

Either way, these little projects gave me a reason to get messy with modge-podge, play with my cricut, and even make a few extra cute clothes-pins.

I've been working on simplifying my life...it's a perpetual work in progress.  In my opinion, life should be fun and filled with people and things you love.  Getting rid of the clutter (physical and emotional) can be hard to do.  It takes work and making changes.  Sometimes, it's just a little change that  can simplify things.  It's amazing how fast people can get burnt out...grow tired of doing things they once loved.  Changes, even little ones, can help.

One of the ways I have simplified my life, is by volunteering for things that I can do from home.  So today, was spent doing work for my PTO...while at home.  "We" recently made changes to our organization.  So, I figured it was time to create a new email account, make changes and updates to our website and other social media accounts.  This was my main priority for today and I thought it was most efficient to sit down and get it done all at once.  Seriously, it feels good to have accomplished my "first thing, first" for today.    

Spent some time today working on my website.  Yep, it's pretty basic, but it's a start.  I plan to spend some more time with it, but figured I should give my new blog a whirl, too.  

Anyway, I have a few blogs that I enjoy checking out and found a cute little tutorial on one of my favorites, thecottagehome.  This project is similar to another I had done in the past.  So, I thought I would give it a try.  My pics are below.  This quick project involves turning a double-sided place-mat into a throw pillow.  I decided to make a matching set.  Currently, I'm thinking of doing throw pillows for several holidays, but tweaking it as a friend suggested (thanks, Heidi), to reduce the amount of storage space needed to pack them away.  Perhaps adding a flap, buttons, snaps, or a zipper on a side or back would work?  Plus, getting them AFTER the holidays on CLEARANCE would save even more money (thanks again, Heidi).  As it was, I made TWO pillows for less than the cost of ONE similar pre-made one I could have purchased at the same store I bought the place-mats at.


Check out my pillows below.