Changes

Since Tuesday there have been some changes in my life which are exciting. As of Tuesday night I accepted a new job as Principal and 6th grade teacher at Black Hills Lutheran Schools! I am excited about this new chapter in life and know that it will be a chapter filled with lots of new learning where I am able to hone my skills and build upon what I have learned in the past five years as well as what I learned while earning my Masters in School Administration. 


Many of the skills that I have gained in the past five years at TIE will definitely help me in my new position especially as I move to a school that is 1 to 1, how exciting that I will be able to infuse technology into my students learning! I have truly enjoyed my time at TIE and will miss my colleagues but I won't miss some of the random hotels I have stayed in over the years. But even those random hotels have helped shape me into the person I am today and I am thankful for the opportunity I have been afforded and look forward to my new position. 


I may be excited for infusing technology into my teaching and learning but I am most excited that once again I will be able to focus on infusing the Gospel into curriculum. This opportunity will definitely build my faith and I can only pray that it will build the faith of my future students. Go Falcons! 

Beer Cap Coasters

Today I was eager to finally make some beer cap coasters so I went garage sale-ing to find exactly a cork board. As a child we went to garage sales and second hand shops which I must admit were of little interest and of slight embarrassment as I entered jr. high. Then throughout high school and college the only reason I went to such places was when looking for a costume and this has carried into my adult life. Now, with my new direction of crafting I have started sale-ing again at least a little. My favorite sales are those at churches because they often have loads of goods for very little money. I searched high and low but there was no cork board to be found at the sale. Then as I was nearing the end of my search I did come across 2 foam place mats and decided they would be perfect! 

When I got home I gathered my materials, sorted out all of our beer caps as we've been saving them with the help of friends for a year and a half and had over 225, and then I began working. All in all my project took about an hour and a half and when I was done I had 12 completed coasters or 3 sets of 4. Below is the full picture of what I completed but I've divided them into sets of Coors Light/Bud Light, Shiner and Leinenkugels/Schells. 

Envelopes

As summer is here and June is my slow time of the work year I have a lot more time to work on some re-purposed crafts. So yesterday as I was sorting through some of the items I have had for an extended period of time I came across a Road Trip Calendar. I recall when I first got it that I thought I would cut out the pictures and transform them to coasters. As I began thinking I knew I didn't have a supply of coasters on hand and was reminded of a wonderful letter I received  from a friend a few years ago that came in a unique envelope. After I read the letter I took apart the envelope and realized that it was a calendar! It was awesome and so my calendar has now become 11 envelopes. 

Free Money

Everyone loves free money or at least they should because it really is amazing. Benjamin Franklin once said, "A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned" and I definitely adhere to this principal, plus many of the pennies are save are pennies I find on the sidewalk and thus they were "free money". A few years ago I came across a website that gives "free money" to non-profits based off of every web search that is generated. In the past year this site: GoodSearch.com has become my favorite free money site!
Goodsearch is powered by Yahoo so the search results are just as good as Google and I love that every time I search I am giving  back to the community. If you have never used Goodsearch before you can create a log-in or use Facebook as your log-in. Then you select the charity of your choosing from a list of 105,974 that are currently participating. My charity of choice is a local school, Zion Lutheran School and Preschool, and in 2012 to date with 21 supporters we have raised $31.96 through searching and shopping. Yes, $31.96 may not seem like much money to many people but to me every little bit counts. The Goodsearch fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 - Sept. 30th so thus far in the fiscal year the school has earned $69.60! Wow, from searching and shopping, none of this money actually had to come out of people's piggy banks and now the school can purchase whatever they need, art supplies, new soccer balls, whatever! 
The other side of Goodsearch is Goodshop which has thousands of stores listed for your online shopping. I am addicted to The Limited and since the nearest one to my house is over 300 miles away online shopping is the route I go. The best part about this online shopping is that with each purchase they donate 1.5% to Zion's school. This makes me feel better about my frequent purchases because they benefit someone else! The percent back has a wide range from the 1.5% to 37% from Match.com if you know anyone looking for their services. So if you're looking to send flowers for Mothers Day check out Goodshop where FTD, my mother's day florist, will give 6% back or 1800Flowers will give 8.5% back, Mom's Happy and you're happy! 

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain. For a minute or two I couldn't figure out what the sound was but once I realized it was rain I was super excited. We have been watering our lawn like crazy in order to get it to bounce back and I have been praying for rain so we can get some "free water". Our lawn will hopefully start bouncing back a little more and we are aerating it in the next few days so that will help also. 


The rain and impending summer also made me think of my favorite place on earth, Lutheran Island Camp. Even after visiting 7 foreign countries there is no place I would rather be than on the Island. So many wonderful memories and experiences are associated with the Island that make it my favorite place. One of those memories is associated with rain. It had rained for a day or two and I didn't have a raincoat as I had forgotten it at home for the summer and a 75% chance of rain was in the forecast for the next few days. So two of my fellow camp employees went into town and I asked if they could pick me up a poncho and they agreed. Low and behold they return with a Men's Poncho! Now, I am not opposed to this and the one coworker really tried to get Porter to buy me a children's size as I am only 5'4" but he insisted that a children's size would be too small for me and purchased the men's size I believe is 6'3 frame is what influenced his decision and needless to say this poncho went to my ankles! I definitely did not have to worry about getting wet, I could swing my back pack on, put my poncho over top and still had room for my crutches under my poncho (yes, I also had a newly sprained ankle at this point of the summer) 


This experience and the week of impending rain is a wonderful memory and a wonderful reminder that a flood will never take over the entire earth again. When I'm praying for rain and we receive it or don't receive it I am reminded that "Every good and perfect gift comes from above." Jame 1:17. And even when a friend over compensates from me, he was willing to purchase something on my behalf and thus the purchase is still wonderful. And 9 years later I still have the poncho. 

Golfing

Five years ago my then boyfriend, now husband, said that he always wanted to have something that he and his significant other "do together" and he asked if I would go golfing with him, I immediately said yes! Of course I said yes, I loved this man and I wanted to be with him so golfing was only a minor bump or so I thought. 


That year I borrowed clubs from a friend and started my attempt at golfing. My attempts were interesting, the irons I had were still true irons so they were heavy and frustration was high. There was a time or two or three when I would through the clubs. At least I never broke any. The following year my fiance bought me my own clubs. Now I was set my irons were no longer heavy, I wasn't going to throw brand new clubs no matter how frustrated I became and all would go well. 


Needless to say I still was no good at golfing nor did I go often enough to improve much.
The past three years I've probably gone golfing less than 10 times and have been to the driving range a few times but this year is going to be different. Actually this year is already different, I have bee to the range three times and have done 2 rounds of 9! I am not playing church or city league softball this summer so my summer will be golfing. I decided in March that going golfing once a week was a must. I'm going to pretend that I'm in a league, even if it is a league of one, but it will be a strong league.

Last night, when Barry and I finished golfing, he thanked me! I had no idea why he thanked me so I replied with "You're welcome but I'm not really certain what you're thanking me for." He said "We finally have something that we can "do together". That makes golfing worth it any day of the week and golfing is definitely a re-purposed step in my life. 

A Busy Weekend

I have been negligent in posting and crafting these past few weeks as I have been traveling a lot. But this weekend I made up for some lost time and completed a few projects. I finished another toss pillow that is perfect for anyone who loves red, cupcakes, cherries or just wants to add a splash of color and character to a room.

My other project was my second picture frame for a monogrammed letter. This time I went with black paint and the glitter glaze. I haven't selected a letter yet so it is ready to be customized! These monogrammed letters are versatile as they can hang with a cute ribbon, the hooks that come with the frame or they can stand on a piece of furniture.

 

Easter

I wish I could claim this idea as an original but it is definitely not. I found this idea from a The Creative Homemaker blog via Pintrest and immediately put these pillows on my to do list! So far I have two Easter pillows completed and am in progress with some Valentine ones and an Autumn one. They are fun to sew both with machine and by hand. They are made of 100% cotton hand towels with a 100% polyester filling so they are super easy to clean if needed. 

Husbands Away

This past weekend my husband was away so I had a full day to do some crafting which was fabulous. My living room was a disaster with glue guns, glue sticks, cardboard, fabric, buttons, paint, canvas, and more! Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the mess for you all to see but through the mess game a few new items from re-purposed materials and a few truly new items. I must say I am looking forward to when he is gone next month so I can do the same thing again. I love my husband dearly but feel so much more free to leave the living room a disaster when he is gone than when he is home and I know he appreciates me not leaving it a disaster when he is home.

This monogrammed A, which isn't finished yet, was made using buttons I've been collecting for years. Every shirt with buttons that you ever buy always has extra buttons which is great and fortunately I never need the extra buttons so this is what I have started.

I also made this pair of items which was a lot of fun for me! When I look at them I see the works of someone who is finally willing to express their artistic side no matter what the results. I also see areas of improvement which is great. In the words of a brilliant educators "Anyone to busy to reflect on one's practice is too busy to improve." Robert Garmston

Why Repurposed?

This blog fulfills two purposes for me that fit into the category of re-purposed monogrammed life. One, I look at my faith as something the re-purposes my life each day as a make conscious decisions to walk the talk. Secondly, I am an avid recycler and have decided to use the hobby to re-purpose many common household items to sell on Etsy.

As a youngster my mom tried teaching me how to sew and it worked for awhile but eventually our learning and teaching styles failed to mesh and my pursuit of sewing ended. In college I had my "grandma" teach me how to crochet which has been a great past time. I have stuck with scarves and baby blankets as they are easy, don't take to long and are always needed by organizations that help those who are less fortunate.

In the past six months I  finally gave way to my desire to begin quilting. One would think that perhaps I took a few quilting classes, purchased a machine and then some fabric but no that is not how I role. I went to JoAnn Fabrics website and purchased my new friend Singer. Then I pulled out fabric I've had since high school and decided to start cutting and sewing. When I needed help I searched YouTube videos and when I came to a full road block I asked my neighbor for help. I am thoroughly enjoying quilting and received many great quilting tools this past Christmas which have greatly aided my efforts. However, my attention can be swayed quickly so I am also branching into other crafts such as re-purposing.

This blog will track everything from faith and crocheting to quilting and crafting so stay tuned and see what happens. It'll be a great ride!