My Etsy Store Grand Opening!!

I JUST...TODAY...OPENED MY ETSY STORE!  Can you tell that I am excited?  I am very much looking forward to seeing what some success, just like my TpT Store!  :)  I spent SO LONG searching for exactly what I needed while decorating our daughter's nursery and playroom.  I really NEVER found exactly what I wanted, but had to settle.  A few months ago I decided to just try to use my tech skills to give Etsy a shot.  I have a few awesome compliments from family and friends, so I thought, let's go for it!!

I only have 6 items for sale so far, but I am always adding more.  Right now I am mostly posting girls' nursery and playroom decor, but I am working on boy posters as I type!  :)  Swing by and take a look!  If you have any ideas or suggestions on how I can improve, please let me know!  :)  I am looking to improve and always get better!!  Thank you in advance!  :)

My Etsy Store:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/TeachingWithSmiles?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Here is one example!!

Adorable Snowmen!

Awwww!!  My mom and my dad helped Emma create this special ornament for my husband and me!  What an amazing memory!  The snowmen are her three fingers!  :)  Keepsake indeed!!  Thank you Mom and Dad!  :)  (Dad did the holding of Emma's hand with the white paint!  Mom and Emma did the rest!  Haha!)

The Sunday Scoop

I cannot believe we are almost going to say goodbye to 2014!  I am linking up with Teaching Trio for their last Sunday Scoop of 2014!

Leftovers are awesome, especially my mom's stuffed mushrooms, but there comes a time when you do NOT want leftovers...again...I think I am at that point.

We are so lucky to have had so many Christmas gifts given to Emma as well as us.  Now, just to find out WHERE to put them all.  My mom sent me this article about a mom starting a tradition of having her toddler go through her own toys before Santa came, and leaving a pile of toys Santa could take to give to less fortunate boys and girls.  I am definitely doing this next year.  I think this is a fantastic way for Emma to realize that she can help others around her and others deserve happiness as well.  Here is the article if you are interested in reading.

Enjoy your Sunday and rest of the week!  :)

Salt Dough Ornaments and Goodies!!

I am sure you have seen these adorable Santa ornaments floating all over Pinterest (or something like them), and I am so excited to say that ours turned out successfully!!  :)  I got the original idea from Jay over at Learning to Play and Playing to Learn!

Emma is so proud of her creations!!  :)
Even though E is only 18 months old, she was great at helping make these Santas, and also the hearts we made when we had left over dough!  :)  It was really hard to take pictures of what she was doing while she was doing it, sadly...But, she did help put on the stickers, and then she ran around in circles around my legs while I painted and Modge Podged!  LOL!!  :)  We are making these Santas and hearts for both sets of grandparents as well as Emma's uncle.  We cannot wait to see their faces when they open the Santas that are E's little hands.  :)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

We traced E's hand, as soon as she let me, onto a piece of white paper.
*I then used this piece of paper as a tracer to trace multiple times onto the rolled out salt dough mixture.

First of all, in order to make the salt dough you need the following ingredients:

2 cups of flour

2 cups of salt

1 cup of water

We poured the dry ingredients into a big bowl and started to stir.

Then, we slowly added some water while we continued to stir.  We kept adding a little bit of water a little bit at a time until all the water was used, stirring in between pours.

We laid the hand tracer onto the rolled out dough mixture and I used a knife to cut out the handprints.

As soon as we made our three hand Santas, I realized we had extra dough, so we made some hearts, but you could make any shape you wanted!

We put the hands and hearts onto a cookie tray and into the oven they went!  Now go about your business and do something else!  Those ornaments will be in there for about 6 hours.  Make sure to flip the ornaments over halfway through so both sides get cooked.

As soon as both sides are cooked, take them out and let them cool.

Then you get to paint!



Add some flair! :)

Make sure to Mod Podge those suckers so they stay nice and crisp looking.

Here is the finished product with ribbon and all!  Now these can be hung from the Christmas tree at the grandparents' houses!

Here is the idea for our hearts.  We are going to give our parents and Emma's uncle a hanging heart so they can hang it anywhere they want:  a cabinet door, a doorknob, cubicle at work, etc.

Enjoy this special project with your little one or by yourself!  :) 

Bookmarks

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Catherine from The Brown Bag Teacher, for these amazing bookmarks!  We made these for our kiddos for their holiday presents, and they LOVED them!  Great idea and love the font and colors!!  :)  You can snag these at Catherine's TpT store, here!