Just Keep Blogging...

I'm the worst blogger. Ever. I apologize to the twelve people and my mom who regularly read this blog. Ha! There are always fun things going on in third grade. But, at the end of the day, I'm just so tired. And taking pictures is far from my mind.

I do take a million random pictures that basically are a snooze-fest to everyone but myself. But, luckily for me, this is my blog! So, I'm gonna post them. Because, I do enjoy going back and looking at old pictures. 

So, here we go.

I'll start with my recent purchases.

First up: I just ordered new boots! 

Confession time: my name is Lindsay and I don't like boots that touch my calves. Is that weird? It's totally true, though. My calves aren't fat, but they certainly aren't thin either. I'd say they're average calves, that's a thing, right? Well, every pair of boots I try on are tight on my calves. Like, they fit, but I like then loose. Dilemma. 

I've seriously tried on about 20 pairs. One pair would fit in the calves but be weird in the front. Then the next pair would be too  tight. Uhhhhh. And I wanted them to be a little taller than my current pair. And, I'm kinda into the gray boots instead of the cognac color I've always bought.

Soooooo, long story short, I bought some on Zappos. That are grey and that have a bigger calf opening.  They're supposed to be loose. We shall see. They'll probably be too loose. Because that's how it usually goes. They got delivered to my parents' house, so I'm gonna try them on this weekend. I'll let you know. I'm sure you'll be dying to know!!! 

Oh, and I also bought a few things for my  niece who won't even be here until April. You stop judging me right now. 

For days when she's feeling a little sassy...

And, for days when she's feeling a little sweet. ( I didn't take a picture of the whole thing because it's a shower gift. Don't want to ruin the surprise.)

Okay, one more peek...

Yes, that is smocking. Swooooooooon.

My mom bought some sweet smocking too. Shopping for baby girls is reallllly fun, you guys! 

My mom also pulled all my old dresses out of the attic for Ryan Grace. They're obviously wrinkled and need to be dry cleaned. But, I'm glad they're gonna get some use! 

In other news, it's been really cold here. The kind of cold that makes you want to stay in and be cozy. (Okay, I pretty much always want to do that anyways.)

I got a little adventurous last week and made some scrumptious brown sugar pork chops! Perfect for a cold night! They were soooo good. I got the recipe off Pinterest. And, they smelled a-mazing! 

I also put my flannel sheets on my bed! You know it's cold if I do that! I pretty much always sleep with the windows open and a fan blowing on me. Ha! 

Finley was completely weirded out! 

Speaking of Finley, she's going to Pet Smart this weekend for the first time to get groomed. She usually goes to a lady that does it from home. But, she was all booked up and this thing hassss to have a cut before Thanksgiving. Has to. 

Clearly, she's really stressed about it!

On Tuesdays, I do an after school program for third and fourth graders. It's hands-down my favorite part of the week. Today, we had some leaf throwin' fun!

I took the boys and we made a massie pile of leaves! They had so much fun and literally worked on this for 45 minutes. Then I let them jump on them. Which probably wasn't safe, but it was really fun! They all started singing Wrecking Ball, which cracked. me. up. Hearing 9 year old boys singing that song is pretty funny. I just hope none of them have ever seen the video: yikes.

Oh, and check out this sweet bracelet one of the kiddos made for me! I'm wearing it with pride! 

This was the sunset around these parts today. Just beautiful!

Here's a little sneak peek of what we've been working on at school: 

And, were going to Nashville's replica of the Parthenon on a field trip tomorrow! My kiddos could not be more excited! I'm gonna try to get some more pictures this week and I'll come back and post about our Ancient Greece unit. It's nothing special, but the kids have been soooo into it! 

Okay, well since we have a field trip tomorrow, I better go to bed! 

Thanks for reading! 

It's a Girl!

I'd like to introduce you to my niece.

Her name is Ryan Grace.

 And she is gonna' be one loved little girl.

We had a gender reveal party tonight. 

Everyone voted for pink or blue. You can see what Aunt Lindsay voted for :)

The theme was Baseballs or Ballet. We decked out the house! 

My mom and I made two banners. We made one that said Ryan Grace and one that said Lofton, their boy name. We use scrapbook paper and ribbon. My mom just sewed it all together with her sewing machine. And we bought some cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby, painted them white and glued them on! We wanted them to be a good quality so that Blakely could use them in the baby's room or in future pictures if she wanted to. 

Workin' on them!

They hung in my mom's kitchen for a week so that they wouldn't get bent!

This is where theyhung for the party.

I guess they'll have to save the Lofton banner for the future ;)

Miss Ryan Grace has already wracked up some pretty sweet goodies. 

I mean, seriously? I'm gonna' go broke. I've already started pinning baby clothes that she just HAS to have! 

It's all just too sweet. 

Ryan Grace Ridings, you better get ready because your Aunt Lindsay is going to kiss your face off and spoil you rotten! 

Pumpkin Book Characters

Over the last few years, I've seen a project on Pinterest that I wanted to try. I wanted my kiddos to make book character pumpkins! But, teaching at a low-income school, I was honestly kinda nervous to try it.

I would never want to make a family feel like they needed to spend a lot of money on something like this. And, I was kind of nervous that the kids would just color on it with a marker and not get super into it. 

But, this year, I just bit the bullet and made it an assignment. A family assignment. And I'm soooo glad I did! My kids blew me away!!!

First of all, I made the assignment due after Halloween so that they could find pumpkins cheap or take them off a neighbor's hands :) And, as a class, we brainstormed materials they could use without buying everything. I only gave them two rules: you must bring in the book you used and no carving. Ha! Mostly because I didn't want the room smelling like pumpkin (gag) and I didn't want kids playing with knives. Obviously. Oh, and I included pictures I examples on the letter to the parents. I think that helped a ton because it let them see what I was expecting. 

So, are you ready for a parade of pumpkins?

Sam I Am - Love the construction paper!

Sorry this one's a little dark. It's a Goosebumps character and he's in a locker, ha! 

Harry Potter - this kiddo was concerned because he used a gourd instead of a pumpkin. So sweet :)

I especially love the stick broomstick!

Pippi Longstocking...

And another! Shockingly, this was our only repeat. Obviously, we just got finished reading Pippi in class :)

The Cat in the Hat - love this! 

Cute little Arthur. You have to admit, the faces are pretty identical!

Love this Clifford! She used big jewels for his black eyes.

I thought this duck was precious. 

Here's Simba from The Lion King. This kid walked in holding it above his head like The Circle of Life, HA!!

Oh, wait. We actually had one other duplicate - The Cat in the Hat! 

Okay, I adore this one! This kiddo made the bird from Are You My Mother? So creative and cute!!

Seriously, I don't want to send this one home. It's adorable. How long do pumpkins last anyway?

Skippyjon Jones! 

And, last but definitely not least, we have Spongebob and Patrick! The kids literally dropped their jaws when these came through the door! Ha! 

Here they all are on my back counter: 

I told the kids before they brought them in that they'd get to vote on their favorites and the top three winners will get a new book. Any book they want. I'd buy it myself. But, guys, it's gonna be tough to pick three.

 I'm glad I don't have to decide! 

If you've ever seen this project and debated about doing it, DO IT! My kids had so much fun and I don't hear a single complaint from a parent. In fact, some of them told me they had a lot of fun working on a project with their kid. 

I'll definitely be doing this again next year! 

My Place

My mom saw that I blogged yesterday and she got all excited. And, then, when she saw that it was a post about school and leaves, well, let's just say she lost her excitement. Ha! She said I never blog about house stuff anymore and she's right, I don't.

Mostly, I don't blog about my place because it's not very big and I feel like you've seen it. I don't feel like I need to update the internet on every single new lampshade or pillow I buy. And, believe me, I buy quite a bit. 

But, since my mom asked for pictures and since I've bought a few things recently, I'm going to post a home tour. And, again, my place is tiny so it's really only about four rooms. It's small, but I've tried to make it as cozy as possible.

The Living Room

This is my foyer area. If you can even call it that, ha. But, it's the perfect spot for my new Dash and Albert rug and this painting that I bought off Etsy.

It's a little funky, but I just love all the color!

This hutch is a newish purchase that I'm not sure I've ever blogged about! I went to dinner with my teammates one night at the end of last school year. We had a few extra minutes before we had to be back at school for a performance, so we ran in an antique store. And, well, impulsive me walked out the new owner of this! 

It honestly may be my favorite piece in my house. I slid the stool underneath it, but they match perfectly! 

I've been keeping my milkglass collection inside. I need more, but I'm off to a good start. I have a ten dollar rule - I don't buy it if it's more than ten dollars. Because, really, it's all about the hunt :)

I really need some more substantial seating in this room. But, that's something that I'm on the lookout for. I still, after two years, haven't really decided what I want in here and I don't have the money to just buy stuff to try it out, ha! 

I changed out the lampshades in these fun little buffet lamps and I love them now! I think they add to the eclectic feel of my house.

This painting is between the lamps. It's one of my favorites because of the colors! It was a thirty dollar thrift store find. 

I also got a new pillow for this room from World Market. 

This piece is a flea market find and I love it so much! 

This painting was a flea market find, too!

So was this one. I bet you can't tell that that's my favorite place to shop, can you? 

Sorry the lighting is weird from this angle, it must be the window. The love seat is a charcoal grey.

I like a lot of pillows. Obviously. 

The Kitchen

This is the hallway leading into the kitchen and den area. 

I found these vintage salt and pepper shakers at a thrift store recently for a dollar each. They're teal, if you can't tell in the picture.

And I found this canister to match at World Market. Love that place! 

The rug in front of the sink came from Target. 

Here's the hallway leading into the den. Excuse that brown rug. That's there because Finley likes to eat my carpet. 

I really like this little table. It's a perfect size for this short wall and a great place to display picture frames and a lamp! 

The Den

I've rearranged that table in the corner about a million times and I still don't really like it. Any tips? Maybe I need to go shopping...

The curtains in this room are from World Market. I think I'm getting tired of them. I'm definitely on the lookout for new fabric. But, I do love the colors so I'm thinking something similar, but not so busy? 

I bought the black and white pillow on my recent trip to IKEA. 

I have a little gallery wall going on right here. The Keep Calm print is from Etsy, the oil painting is from the flea market and so are the frames.

And, the deer head is from TJ Maxx. I adore him! 

I bought the rust colored zebra pillow at TJ Maxx, too! 

Master Bedroom

I rearranged this room over fall break. It's very eclectic and random, but really, that's kinda my style. When my roommate gets married in the Spring, I will be moving all of this into the guest room and redoing my room. 

I moved my giant dresser between my bathroom and the closet. And, it barely fits! But I'm keeping it because it gives me so much more space in my room! 

And I moved this smaller cabinet onto this wall. I basically just swapped them. But, when the dresser was on this wall, it covered up some of the windows and I didn't like that. 

New pillow from World Market. (Okay, not new. But I've never blogged about it.

So, it counts, right?)

This HUGE shelf is above my bed. I pray every night it doesn't fall on my head, ha!

My red lamps came from TJ Maxx. 

And this painting came from Tuesday Morning.

My duvet was a $30 clearance find from Target! 

The white chenille blanket on the bed was another IKEA buy.

That scrolly wall thing is something I bought in college! Ha! It's been about four colors. 

Well, I think that's it. I think I've caught you up on my whole house. Not too much has changed. And there probably won't be too many more house updates until the Spring when I start moving things around when my roommate moves out. 

If you're still reading this, bless your heart. Seriously :)