Fall Words Wordle Art

I finally figured out a way to use the nifty website, Wordle!  My hubby and I (well, mostly me because the poker championships were on TV) brainstormed words that remind us of fall.  Using Wordle, I came up with this neat collage of those words and printed it on fall-themed scrapbook paper. 

I had an old discarded resin decorative plate in my cabinet, so I sanded it down and gave it a few coats of chocolate brown spray paint.  After adhering the Wordle collage to the plate using Mod Podge, I added a few more coats of Mod Podge on the top to seal it.

My entryway finally looks festive!

What do you think?

Comfy Spot

Little C was still sleepy after his nap today. Guess he decided this was as good a spot as any....

"The Raven" for Halloween

I saw this idea on another blog and decided I too needed an Edgar Allan Poe tribute in my house for the Halloween season. 

I asked my power-tool-loving husband to cut an 18" x 24" board out of some scrap plywood in the garage.  (He was more than happy to oblige.)

After giving it three coats of chalkboard paint (eek, three coats) and letting it cure for 24 hours, it was ready to be put to use.

I chalked an excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" onto the chalkboard and placed it on my fireplace mantle.  Don't you think the black raven on the top is a nice, spooky touch?

Connor, My Man

After dropping Big K at school, Little C and I had a few moments to kill before playgroup.  We stopped in old downtown to take some pictures.

Initial Christmas Ornaments

These Christmas ornaments are the first initials of my family members' names.  If you know my family, then you just realized that I'm missing the "C".  That's because Hobby Lobby was out of stock on that particular letter, but I'll get to it later.  I have a few more months before these babies adorn our tree, anyway.

Without further ado, here they are!  I plan to add some embellishments to these soon - maybe something that has each family member's whole name on it.  If you'd like step-by-step instructions for creating these, see below.  Now on to figure out that Subway Art project!

Steps to Creating Chip Board Items:

1. Paint the item's front, sides and back with acrylic paint that coordinates with your scrapbook paper choice.
2. Using your scrapbook paper, trace around the item and cut out.
3. Placing a thin layer of Modge Podge on your item with a sponge brush, secure your scrapbook paper cutout to the front.  Make sure to spend a minute or two smoothing down the paper to avoid bubbles and wrinkles.  I used both my fingers and the edge of a credit card for this job.
4. Let the item dry for about one minute.  (Yep, I said one minute.)
5. Using sandpaper, sand down the sides of the scrapbook paper to create that vintage, worn-out look.  If the scrapbook paper extends too far over the sides of the chip board, you can trim it away with scissors (or just go to town with the sandpaper!).
6. Using a matching stamp pad, stamp or sponge brush the sides of the item to really make it look worn and to make it pop!
7. Secure a coordinating ribbon to the back as a hanger, using heavy duty hot glue.

Have fun with this project - picking fun papers, ribbons and embellishments!

Chip Board Decorating

I'm so intrigued by all the craft bloggers out there - love, love, love looking at their ideas!  Check out the subway art by Lil' Blue Boo and Tatertots & Jello.  So I headed to Hobby Lobby today to check prices on artist's canvas to use as the backdrop for my piece.  Although I haven't figured out what it will say, where I will put it or how to get it done, I really want to make one (or two or ten) of these for my house.  Ahhh, details, details....

In typical fashion, I got sidetracked by other craft projects.  Today, it was these chip board initials!  Since my poor front door wreath has seen better days (my house faces due south) and since Halloween is coming up, I decided to use the letters B-O-O to create a fun door hanger.  Here it is:

Of course, I couldn't just stop there, right?  One of my neighbors is having a baby boy next month.  As this is her third child but first boy, I decided to get crafty with the baby's first initial.  This could be used as a door hanger or wall hanging - really anywhere.  Here it is:

I also created Christmas ornaments using this same technique.  To read about this project and to find a tutorial, see this post! 

Now, back to watching paint dry.....

Sign of the Times?

This week was a sad, frustrating week for me with respect to My Gym.  We had an employee who was just about to have her one year anniversary with us.  She had progressed from a part-time, hourly employee to Assistant Director with a salary and health benefits.  In all respects, she was a key employee, able to manage the business when both Addie and I are out.  Over the Labor Day holiday, she had a falling out with her boyfriend of seven months.  In the space of 48 hours, she decided to move 350 miles away without notice.  After giving her the world, she screwed us over without a second thought.  She was 21 years old without a college degree but with a salaried position and health benefits.  Additionally, she was poised to advance even further as we grow and expand.  To add salt to this wound, this week just happens to be the busiest week of the year for My Gym with a huge Fall Open House that typically brings 250 families to the gym over the space of three days.  We needed her in every sense of the word. 

Now I am fully aware (and reminded all the time) that an employee owes a company and its boss nothing.  I know that this is a dog-eat-dog world and that most people only look out for numero uno.  That being said and out in the open, I treat my employees very well.  I regularly check in with them, ask them how they're doing and how they're feeling.  I have a defined system in place of hurdles that must be met for raises to be earned.  We host regular staff nights and make our job as fun as possible.  I am regularly told that I am great to work for.  Blah, blah, blah....  So I am at a loss for why most people don't have the common decency to at least give some notice before leaving us high and dry.  Most people can only look to "what would I do" when trying to understand another's actions.  I have no idea if it is my upbringing and my instilled sense of duty, morals and common decency or just my experience in the corporate world; however, I can say with 100% conviction that I would never fathom leaving a job without providing notice or an explanation.  I grew up with the phrase, "Don't burn bridges," pounded into my head.  It has served me well over my 34 years.

Our business is not one where just anyone can be slotted in.  A trained assistant teacher takes at least three weeks.  A trained lead teacher takes at least six weeks.  Unfortunately, we don't have the cash to pay the quantity of employees that it would take to be overstaffed, and we can't afford to pay the quality of employee that definitely wouldn't do something like this.  We predominately employ young, high-school and college-aged individuals who need part-time jobs.  Regardless, when employees leave us with absolutely no notice, I can't help but feel personally affronted and wonder where I went wrong.

These are the questions I ponder when we have an employee shoot us in the foot:

Do I get too close to my employees?  Do I make them feel as though they can't quit unless they do it stealth?
Is this a result of a deficiency in their upbringing or just a sign of their generation?
For those that still live at home, why do their parents let them handle things in this manner? 
If I was a hard, uncaring boss, would I have better luck with employees due to sheer fear on their part?
Why is he/she so selfish that he/she can't stick around for two weeks to allow us time to find someone else?
Should I just get back on the floor with my Director and minimize the need for additional employees at the expense of off-floor work and growing the business?

I am convinced that we are doing our younger generations a mass disservice by allowing them to get away with these types of actions.  What has happened to the strong work ethic of our forefathers and the common sense of right versus wrong?  Have we given our children too much and expected too little?  Have they not been required to work for the things they want, instead of being handed everything on a silver platter?  Have we gone so far to the left in wanting to be our children's friends that we've forgotten to teach them morals and virtues and to redirect their erroneous actions?

I know that these thoughts seem deep and based solely on my experiences with a certain subset of individual.  However, the consistency with which I see these actions makes me assume that my employees are not the minority and that this is going on around the world.  It makes me very sad....