Halloween Fun!!!

First off...I'm so SORRY I missed last week...life happened.  I KNOW you all (all 10 of you that read this religiously) were wondering what happened!!!  Moving on...

So, I'm well aware that this should be the Laundry Room Part 3...but with Halloween right around the corner (in 3 days to be exact), I wanted to share a little DIY I did for both Sweet Pickle and Peanutty's classroom parties.  I took it upon myself to be in charge of games for the kids' classrooms.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE giving out little prizes for the kids, so guess where I headed to find the perfect little somethings???  Did I just hear you right?  Did you just say...Target?  Well, you're right!!!  Thank goodness the dollar bins did NOT disappoint this year.  I also picked up a couple things from Aldi of all places! Here's just a little bit of what I found:

So here's what I scored:

Aldi:
mini Play-Doh - $3.99 for 15 - I purchased 3
20 pack of 20 sticker boxes - $1.99

Target:
8 count of Halloween pencils - $1.00 - I purchased 6
50 count of Halloween erasers - $1.00 - I purchased 4
50 count bat rings - $1.00
Tattoo sheets - $1.00 - I purchased 2
8 count vampire teeth - $1.00 - I purchased 2
20 count tattoo boxes - $3.00

All together I spent $31.96.  Seems steep right?  It is.  I admit I went overboard.  My justification?  Halloween just so happens to be my FAVORITE holiday.  I anticipate my involvement in the Little's school parties to be every single year.  Anything left over will just be saved for the following year.  Anywho...moral of the story?  You don't have to go CRAY-ZAY over the fun junk in the dollar bins...but if you're like me, you will!

I decided to do a Bingo game for Peanutty's class.  Whoever gets a Bingo will get to pick a pencil and eraser.  They'll use candy corn as markers for the Bingo game.

I decided to do a bean bag toss game as well for BOTH Peanutty and Sweet Pickles classes.  Originally I was going to use the $.99 plastic pumpkins that you can get anywhere.  I actually used those a couple years ago for Peanutty's classroom game, but the problem with those?  They don't nest.  I was that crazy lady with the huge Rubbermaid tote full of Halloween game supplies.  I don't want to do that again.  I went on a hunt for bowls or SOMETHING that will nest.  Well, I found a cute set at Target.  There were 6 buckets for $10.  Steep?  Yes, but in the big picture, if I would have found them in the dollar bins, I would have purchased at least 6 anyway...so I spent $4 more than I had hoped, but again, I'll be using this game for years to come.  Not to mention we're having a shindig for Halloween that everyone can enjoy!!!  Here's what the  buckets look like:

Super cute!!!  They came with these plastic ping pong ball, but all they'd do would be bounce out.  So, I decided to make some bean bags.  These took me all of 20 minutes to make.  I purchased the fabric at a local store.  I purchased 1/4 yard of each fabric bringing my grand total to $2.00 for all 3 styles:

Yay!!  I purchased some beans at Aldi as well for $1.00:

I cut out two 6x6 inch squares from each fabric:

Did a little pinning (right sides together):

Sewed three of the four edges:

Flipped them right side out:

Filled with my beans...there may or may not have been a little bean spillage from Sweet Pickles extraordinary help:

And sewed up the last side giving us these:

Best part?  It's not rocket science.  It's simple, easy and quick!!!  And as long as the kids don't wipe their noses on them, or lick them, you can reuse them.  I know that's a lot to ask of kids, but hey, we can hope!

Here are the game rules for Peanutty's class (they are elementary level children)

Each child will get to toss each of the 3 bean bags once.  There will be a little prize in EVERY bucket.  If their bean bag lands in a bucket, they get the prize.  If they don't make it in, no prize.  If one or more land in the same bucket, they only get whatever prize is in that bucket.  You're aiming to get your bean bags in three different buckets to earn 3 prizes. 

Rules for Sweet Pickles class (they are 3 year olds):

You get three bean bags to toss.  If you get them in, great!  If not, no biggie.  EVERY child will get a little goody bag with a variety of Halloween goodness in them.

There you have it!!!  Set me back about $42, but I envision a lot cheaper purchasing next year...I hope.  Keep in mind that I budgeted for all of this in the 'School Fund' and the 'Daycare Fund'.  I usually only participate in one of the kids' school parties each year, so in the big picture, it's not too bad...at least that's what I'm telling myself!!!

I hope you all have a safe and warm Halloween!!!  Where I'm at, it's going to be a high of 53 degrees and a low of 36 degrees....EEK!!!  That's super scary!

Next week, I'll post about my last DIY from the laundry room as well as some photos my kids took of me while opening my new 2015 Life Planner.  Sigh.  I love that thing.

Until next week my faithful followers!!!

Side Note:  Not editing.  I have a rabid child that needs fed.
Side Note 2:  I didn't get my chai in today.  Have you?
Side Note 3:  It's taco night.

Laundry Room Part 2: DIY Shower Curtain and Valance

A Happy Tuesday to YOU!!!  First and foremost:  I found my USB thingy!!!  Funny story...You know the little pot that we keep our phones and such in?  No?  Well:

I'm not going to lie...sometimes it acquires a few items that aren't supposed to be in there.  Such as:  coupons, USB thingies, a pen...in this case, a collegiate pin was in there.  You know those round pins that people wear to support whatever they're supporting?  Back in the day, the only pins I had were New Kids on the Block (Joey forever) and Book It.  Well, Peanutty had one that had landed in this pot.  My USB thingy just so happens to be magnetic...you know where I'm going with this.  I'd looked in that pot about 53 times (because things like that appear out of thin air).  I decided it was time to clean it out and when I picked up the pin, it seemed a little heavier than usual.  BOOM!  There was my USB giving me the evil eye as if to say "you're an idiot".  So, I'm happy to report the lost has been found...for now.

Moving on...remember the laundry room I showed you a few weeks back?

I'm going to show you how I made the shower curtain and valance out of about $20 worth of fabric purchased at Hobby Lobby.  Because of the smaller shower size (it's just a simple stand in shower with no tub), I wasn't sure if I was going to find a shower curtain that size.  AND a matching/coordinating valance.  So, I opted to make my own.  After I figured out the colors I wanted to go with, I set out to find the fabric.  I really wanted a chevron print, but I was coming up short.  I found this fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby and rolled with it.  Here are the steps I took to make my laundry room duds:

First thing I did was cut the plastic curtain liner to fit the actual size of my shower.  I made sure the holes on the top were going to be centered on the curtain rod and even on each side.

I spread out all the fabric onto the floor and laid the plastic curtain over the top.  Yes, I could have measured, but I didn't want to do that this time.  I wanted to see how much extra fabric I wanted on each side of the curtain.  I did measure after I did this step and cut.  Again, I allowed extra for seam allowance.  And I'll be the first to admit that I do not cut straight.  I think cutting fabric straight is one of the most difficult things to accomplish.

It was as simple as sewing the edges to give it a nice finished look.  I then sewed button holes to match the holes in the plastic liner.  For the record, I had no idea how to do button holes on my machine...my sweet-as-all-get-out Hubby read the instructions, and then showed me how to do it.  What would I do without him!?!?!  Jealous?  Yeah, you should be. Hehe! 

Put it all together and there you have it!  It was simple and really quite fun!!!

Valance:

Once I figured out how long and wide I wanted my valance, I cut it and made enough for seam allowance on every side.  I had leftover curtain liner from a project years ago, so I used that as well.  Cut it down to the same size of the patterned fabric.  I put the right sides of it together and sewed all along the perimeter and left the top open.  Turned it right side out and set it aside.  I wanted to do a tabbed curtain.  So the steps above show what I did.  I cut the little strips.  Spaced them out on the valance to see how many I wanted.  Ironed around the folded edges, then sewed them.  Gave them a clean and simple look.

Remember that open top edge of the valance?  I tucked the fabric under, and ironed it to give it a crisp edge.  I then took the tabs, spaced them, and pinned them to where I wanted them.  I then sewed up that top edge with the tabs in place.  They are just hanging out of the top for now, but we will connect them to the back side of the valance to make them actual tabs.

You would pin them to the back side of the valance and then sew across to keep them in place.  Here's an up close pic of what they look like all done:

This is what the back side looks like and the bottom picture shows what the front looks like.  I opted to just sew the tabs, but you could put a full seam from one side to the other. 

And again, the final product.  It was super easy and only took me an afternoon to finish them.  Wahoo!!! 


Side Note: It's too early for me to have an iced chai, but it is in my near future.
Side Note 2:  I ate a toastada for breakfast.  It was delicious!
Side Note 3:  I'm not proof reading this.  Enjoy my mistakes!!!

And that's that.  Hope you all have a great week!!!  Until next time...