Kicking off 52 Projects in 52 Weeks!

How was your holiday season? Ours was busy but great. 

We enjoyed a smaller (yet still abundant) Christmas and visiting with family.
Now I am looking to the new year. 

I am excited to restart my 52 projects. 

Last time it started out as a way to focus on my wish lists of projects. So many ideas and so little time. In the end, I found great success in just doing 1 project a week. By the end of the year I could look back at all that I had accomplished. What a great feeling! As a obsessive list maker it felt good to see my completed projects and check them off the list.

 That was in 2010.....I miss it.

More than I realized.

So this year, 2014, I am revisiting my 52 projects in 52 weeks challenge.

All those fantastic ideas on Pinterest.....

and all the failures as well....

I am going to tackle them and share my results with you....

1 week at a time. Join me for another grand adventure!

 

Just stopping by...

Life has been crazy around this house the last couple of months. I know. I know! L.I.F.E is one of those 4-lettered words. I have been working 60 hrs a week at the hospital and just had to let something go. Never fear! I will be back just after the first of the year. I have still been doing a few projects here and there. I plan to share the good with the bad. All those pins from Pinterest that didn't quite work as well as what did. And I hope to start another 52 projects in 52 weeks. So stay tuned.

 For now, I am focusing on my family for the holidays.

Merry Christmas to you all!

PTA fundraiser ideas and a printable.

We have a wonderful PTA. We work hard to send each class on a field trip, increase technology in each classroom, and support our teachers and show them how much we care. This year we have decided to do away with kids selling products in favor of other fundraisers. I am thrilled! They are going to be fantastic!

This is what we are planning:

1- A Flea Market sale

2- Our annual Halloween Carnival

3- Santa's Sweet Gift Shop

4- Penny Wars

5- Fun run/walk

We have done the middle 3 yearly but added the other 2 this year.

I am in charge of the Flea Market and I couldn't be more excited with how it is going. We hope to turn it into an annual event. I wanted to have 80 spaces 'rented' and have so far gotten over 60 with 3 weeks left. The PTA is renting the parking spaces to those with yard sale goods, homemade crafts, or small businesses. We have such a variety of vendors already signed up. From DoTerra, Tupperware, and Pauperauzzi, to Custom concrete, Maxi skirts, and homemade treats. All the money the vendors make is theirs to keep. Our money comes from the space rental making it a win/win deal. Now to pray the weather holds. I think I will be getting quite a bit of Christmas shopping done myself.

Although we have done the Santa shop in the past we decided to stock it ourselves. We felt the company we used in the past charged too much for...well...basically junk. As frugal moms we just couldn't handle our kiddos paying for useless junk. We thought we could do better. So over the past year we have shopped after season clearance sales, made crafts and requested donations. I think it is going to be so much better. We only made a small amount last year because of the large overhead. It is such a great time for the kids to be able to shop for their family without mom or dad that we wanted to continue it but wanted to provide better quality products for them. I have been putting together crafts big and small. I was tasked with gifts for dads, grandpas, and brothers...all the boy gifts. It made sense with 4 boys but boy gifts are a bit harder than girls and they are not found on sale as easily. Still, I have to admit it has gone well. I have more to make and need to pull out my sewing machine but we are getting there. I will let you know how well we do in December.

Last year we had the Penny wars among the classes. Those little kiddos brought in over $1500 in coins from their piggy banks! How awesome is that. A little healthy competition can go a long way. The bonus was just watching all the kids get excited to see their jars fill up. This year we found a couple of spiral wishing wells that will add to our penny wars. We plan to have "vs" wars with them. For example iphone vs android, vote for your favorite. Should be fun. Besides ya gotta admit those funnels are just cool to watch.

Our other new fundraiser this year is the fun run/walk. It will be our spring event. Although I am not a runner races are always a great way to build support. 

Our Halloween Carnival is our biggest event. It is a huge undertaking but the kids and community love it! After all what is Halloween without a school carnival. ;-)

I will keep you posted on the success of our adventures. We are also working on grants and bigger company programs like box tops, Walmart, and Target gift cards. What are some of the fundraising events you have had success with? I would love to hear your ideas. Our parents have been thrilled with the idea of not selling products. This momma included!

I thought I would share a printable freebie. This is the sign I made up for our Flea Market. Hope you have fun using it too. Just click on the photo to download.

DIY tile~ cooling the storage room

We have a small cool storage room under my stairs but it was time to fix a couple of issues.

I store the produce I bottle from our garden in there so it needs to be cold and dark.

It was also a bit of a squeeze through the doorway.

I thought if I took the insulation off the outside walls it would cool off more and I wanted to cover the floor in something. We had used the sticky tiles in our other house and they worked great! This was definitely a project that needed to be done before canning gets going full swing.

I found some nice (but cheap inexpensive) vinyl tile at Home Depot. I didn't have room to empty the storage out completely so I enlisted my boys help and did the job in 3 sections.

 First I started under the stairs. My boys were great helpers at taking out all the empty bottles. Once the tiles were laid they went to work moving the bottles back in place. 

Now for section 2. We had to move my homemade shelves, no easy task mind you. Those babies are He-avy!

Most of the tiles went down nicely. We have to do a bit of cutting but not much. I am not good at that part so thankfully dear hubby indulged me after he got home from work.

Then we finished off with the last little bit, working my way out the door.

The insulation I took off the walls gave me 8 inches more space. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but it was perfect. Now the shelves fit better and my lunch bins easily slid in between the shelf and wall. Remember that tight fit~ yep, no more.

Ahh, that is wonderful! So much better. It's amazing how little things can make big differences.

Now my bottles are no longer right on the cement. Did you know that water bottles can leach the taste of  cement into it. Uck! This is better. I plan on putting my water on pallets as well.

I don't mind the cement walls. They are outside walls and will help to keep the room cooler.

Now for a door and light switch of it's own....

Bike Helmet Rack

 I found this large but narrow piece of peg board in Home Depot's cull lumber area. They have a cart that they discount various pieces of lumber on. It is usually only $0.60. Sometimes they have great pieces on the cart. I always check it out. I wasn't sure what I would use it for but knew this peg board would come in handy. The price was literally pocket change.

I already has a 1x2 to frame the back. It turned out to be a great project for my boys to learn to use the power tools with. Simple cuts. No big deal if you cut wrong. They did a fantastic job.

 Just frame the back to give a space between the wall and the peg board. This allows the hoods to slide into place. I think the pegs were less than $5 so for around $5 I have all the helmets within easy reach.

An just above the helmets are the fishing poles. After returning from camping I set a pole up on this tool wrack and realized it was perfect for holding all the rods. Sure enough, a perfect fit. Now the rods won't get tangled with other camping gear. 

What do you think? Are you bikers in the fall? This might work for you.