DIY Fairy Dress Idea (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

Hey guys, happy Sunday! I hope everyone had a great 4th!

Today I present a quick little costume idea I made the day of going to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with a friend. The friend I went with had the super fun idea of dressing up for the occasion, so this is what I threw together with things I had and some fake plants.  

My outfit was put together from two dresses I already owned, plus a corset I made with red fabric I discovered in our house. I don't use patterns, so I looked up how people sew corsets, copied the shapes, added sleeves, and in under two hours (maybe under an hour) I had the top part done, so it is not super difficult or time consuming. Of course, I did not bone mine or make a proper corset, just the shape appearance of one. The red under-dress was not altered, but the green dress was worn on top of the red and under the corset. I stitched up the front to create the ruffly, layered look that reveals the red dress by tucking in the fabric in the front. 

The last main thing is just lots of flowers and greenery! Unless you want to be comfortable, which wearing artificial plants is definitely not. I found sections where these plants I got for cheap in bulk at Goodwill had branches or leaves, and stitched them on. Everything I did to my green dress can be undone, because I may want it back to normal in the future. Otherwise, I might have just hot-glued the plants on. Wear coordinating accessories, create and add wings if you want (mine were coat hangers and a painted pair of old tights), and you're done!

My beautiful friend CC wore a majestic, ethereal, princess-looking outfit with a pearly crown and blue dress. There are so many directions you could take creating a costume inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

In progress...

Done:

I hope you find this last-minute idea helpful for any relevant shows, festivals, or events you might want to throw something together for! 

-Lauryn 

Custom Keychain Gift Idea for Students

 Hello! Tonight I'd also like to share a gift idea I did for my students last Christmas as both an end of the semester and Christmas gift in one (also because I literally did not have any time to celebrate those two occasions with separate gifts). I have no regrets about this and liked the result, but disclaimer: these take an insane amount of time. Like they took me at least fifteen minutes each to put together, decide on the designs, tie, and hot glue. I multiplied that by thirty-eight students which I should have done before starting this project since I have almost zero time management skills and no sense of time passing. The number I came up with is approximately a minimum of nine and a half hours. I am pretty certain it took hours over that. 

That said, it is very time consuming. That is just for the keychain part, too, not counting the packaging part. I think I made the labels on Canva but could not find the printable to add in below. I bought the ribbon in a bulk roll from Amazon and still have plenty to spare months later. The beads came from a variety of kits I bought off of Amazon and then stole from my brother because the kits I bought ran out, so for thirty-eight students I should have bought three or four kits instead of two. Each keychain featured the student's name, and two large beads I thought they would like (such as a smiley face, bow, star, and so on) or three or four smaller ones (I tried very hard to make them all equal). 

The pros are that these are both pretty and practical, and they are very personalized. These could really be given to any age and any group of people, too. 

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you find this idea helpful! 

Blessings,

Lauryn

DIY Teacher Valentine Gift Idea + Art Class Valentines for Students

 This is a bit late, but here are some Valentine's Day gift and card ideas I created this year for my teacher colleagues and students. Some of the student cards are themed around artworks/artists, such as the middle school ones, which had a Howard Finster pun since we've been studying GA folk art. I found an artwork of Mark from the Bible to go with my markers and marker pun for my second graders. I used sweet treat artwork by Wayne Thiebaud for some of my lower school student gifts. Some of the gift tags just had a pun and I handwrote them. For the teachers, I bought containers of Valentine's Day donuts, put two in each bag, and separately packaged soap roses I fond at a local store in bulk. The poem I wrote for them is below on the free printable, but if you needed to change the wording like the word "colleague" or do different gifts, I made my tags in the Paint program most computers come with. I shopped all over and the stores all kept running out of supplies, so I had to do different things for each class. I gave glitter pens to my first grade class (since they all love glitter) and ice cream pens, chalk markers and chalk tags to my second grade class who expressed interest in using chalk markers, Sharpies or special pens with glitter glue sticks or rainbow pens for my third-to-seventh grade students, note sets with cats or dogs for my high school small group members, and stacked highlighters for my art appreciation class. I decorated my classroom with a balloon arch you may recognize from the party I recently posted (it was still put together, too, which saved a lot of time), and gave the option of spending the Monday before Valentine's Day creating Valentine's cards or drawing animals holding hearts in art class. I unfortunately did not really photograph the beautiful works before I sent them home. 

Free Printable Cards:

I hope you enjoyed these free printable cards and find the Valentine's Day ideas handy for next year! 

-Lauryn 

Modern Plant-Themed 24th Birthday Party

 Hey guys, today I am sharing an event that I actually did not put together, but was a surprise for my birthday last month my family and relatives kindly did for me. I said surprise --allow me to clarify. I knew there was a 'party' but I did not know they had time to decorate and had gone all out for it, so it was a pleasant surprise. If you know me well, you know I hate many surprises, surprise parties included, but I enjoyed this surprise. 

As the balloons show, I turned 2,424. Man, how time flies. The decades just go by faster every century. They chose a plant-ish theme and simple colors, which is perfect for me. My mother even got fancy, practical notebook favors and my grandparents gave me a lovely pot of live flowers that miraculously are still alive as I type. The four balloon popped, so they got creative and used matching tissue paper on a cardboard four, which looked more unique, so it worked out well. I honestly thought that was intentional, so thumbs up for great improv!

I hope you enjoyed this theme idea as much as I did, and look forward to sharing more events soon!

-Lauryn 

2023 Bedroom Tour (Fairytale/Story Theme)

 Good evening, I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I am on a school break, so I am hoping to share a couple posts the next two days, but here is a quick room tour to start with. I decided to do a story/fairytale sort of theme with lots of animals and nature in my décor, and I decorated the day after Christmas (as always) for the new year. All of the decorations were handmade, from the thrift store or on hand. For example, I used dried roses and leaves I had saved to decorate my piano. In other words, these are cheap and easy decoration ideas I hope some of you might find applicable. 

I look forward to hopefully sharing more soon. Thank you for visiting!

-Lauryn