A New Adventure-Disney Vacation Planning

 We all have been given a gift, and I don't mean the kind with a pretty little bow on top. I mean the kind that our Father has blessed us with. They are usually seen through our abilities, our strengths you could say, but they can also be who we are in general. Whether it's being a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a teacher, an engineer, or whatever, we all have been given the ability to be someone special.

Some of the gifts that I have been blessed with are being a wife/house-wife, mother, sister, daughter, granddaughter, friend, homeschool teacher, Bible class teacher, part-time hair stylist (a.k.a. therapist), and crafter. I'm sure I am forgetting one. I love getting to be all of these. Some days are harder than others, and the blessings can seem like burdens at the time, but thankfully those days are few and far between.   

Last year, I was able to take some of these God-given gifts and put them to good use. I decided in January of 2015 that I was going to surprise my family with a trip to Disney World, and I would pay for it completely by myself.  I wrote a guest post for Couponing to Disney, where I shared all of the in's and out's of how I pulled it off. (click the link to read the post).

Below are some pictures of the breakfast reveal I did. You know me, I can never do anything simple.

 

 In the early stages of planning, I realized that the only way I was going to keep my sanity during this process, was to have the help of an official Disney Vacation Planner. 

Friends, Tricia saved me from so much heart ache. I learned so much through her and by following several Disney planning Facebook pages, things began to fall into place. I began to share with others my Big Secret, and they began asking questions about Disney themselves. I was told on several occasions that I should be a travel agent for Disney. I would always brush the thought aside because I was so focused on the surprise I was planning. 

After the dust settled, and the trip was revealed, the thought of being a Disney Vacation Planner kept nagging at me, but I kept ignoring it.

When we got back from our AMAZING Disney trip (more on that later), I had an influx of friends asking all sorts of Disney questions.

Then the opportunity arose.

A call for part time Disney Vacation Planners.

I applied, and I was offered a position.

Things got real...real fast.

I am so excited about this new adventure! I get to help people who are completely overwhelmed by all the details involved in planning a trip to Disney, and make it completely magical and stress-free.

And the best part is that my planning services are completely free!! If you look at the top of the page, you will see a Disney Travel button. Click on that, and you'll find all of my contact information!

I can't wait to share some of our experiences from our last trip, including my first runDisney event, the Princess Half Marathon weekend! 

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Where I have been...

It's Spring, and I am so glad it's here. It means the weather is getting warmer, the flowers are in full bloom, and the school year is coming to an end. 

So, where have I been the last few months? Obviously not posting here. Homeschooling is where I have been. In this room. Just me, my kiddos, the pups, and the school books. It is all consuming, and it's great (most of the time)!

I love homeschooling. I really do. I am so thankful that we have the means to do so, and live in a country where it is still legal. It is truly a blessing.

But as the weather begins to warm, my spray painting finger begins to itch, and the wheels start turning in my head as to which projects I will tackle first after we close the books.

Today I wanted to share what our homeschool room looks like. 

It's nothing fancy.

Hubby decided that he was tired of all the books strewn throughout the living room, so he graciously gave up his office so we could close the doors on all of the mess if need be. So what you see before you are the remnants of a man cave. (Alabama-everywhere...Roll Tide, y'all) 

I would love to redo a few things...

First-repaint the red wall. I'm over it. However, that would require painting the wall, and I really do hate painting walls. It's just so exhausting. You have to remove all of the furniture, cover the floors, paint the walls, climb ladders, put yourself in very dangerous positions to reach those high ceilings, and then after the paint is on the wall, you have to decide where to put everything again because you really didn't like the original placement to begin with. Exhausting, I tell you. Eventually I will muster up the energy, but for now, I will peruse Pinterest for awesome ideas.

I would also love to add an entire wall of bookshelves where the red wall exists. I love the idea of a home library. That seems to be something of the past, especially with so many people reading ebooks, or listening to audio books. I love flipping through real pages in a book.

I love built in shelves. It gives a cookie cutter home like ours more of a custom look. Here are some pictures of built in shelving inspiration.

 

Love those beams and that ladder!

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For now, this is what we have in our school room. As you can see, our bookcase is busting at the seams. I have already started double stacking the books because there isn't anywhere else to put them.

#homeschoolproblems

Here is another angle of that side of the room.

We are in Classical Conversations, and this is where I write all of the kiddos' memory work for each week. I made the board last summer, and it has been so useful.  

I love being organized.

So now you know what I have been up to for the last little bit.

I plan on being more frequent in my posts. 

If you follow me on Facebook, you heard my big announcement. I am now an official Disney Vacation Planner. I'll post more on that very soon.

If you click on the Disney Travel button at the top right of the page, you can find more information.

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North Pole Breakfast with Our Elf on the Shelf

It's December 1st y'all! Where has this year gone?!?

It's a rainy, dreary day, but we're not letting that dampen our Christmas spirits. We have started this Holiday season off with a bang with our Christmas countdown...starting off with the arrival of our elf, Snarf. 

 I am totally not a fan of the Elf on the Shelf tradition. It's exhausting, and you have to be on your A-Game all of December. However, my children love it, and love their elf. They have been talking about him for several weeks now, so I knew I would have to get over myself, and run with it.

We had a North Pole Breakfast waiting on the kids this morning. They think that Snarf the Elf put this spread together...well at least S.R. does. E is in that in-between stage of analyzing whether this actually makes sense, but I can say that he was up at 5:55 a.m. this morning excited to see Snarf at the kitchen table. ;-)

This year we are really focusing on others, instead of ourselves. I have several service projects and "random acts of kindness" activities planned(does that still make it random if I plan it??) Anyway, I found this cute little printable and loved the idea of it. The kids immediately ran to their playroom and started bringing down toys to fill the box. I just wrapped a box with coordinating wrapping paper to make it look a little more festive. The intent is to fill this box and donate it.

 Decorations were either things we had on hand, or purchased from Walmart.

 Hubs made the reindeer donuts. He was quite proud of his contribution. I love that we were able to make this a team effort.

I completely forgot about getting noses for the reindeer. They looked pretty ridiculous without them. Thankfully we had some leftover Whoppers from Halloween. Crisis averted!

On the menu:

Elf Hats(strawberries sitting on banana slices)

Reindeer Donuts(pretzels, candy eyes, Whoppers, and icing to glue it all in place)

Powdered White Donuts

Fruit Cups

Scrambled Eggs

Bacon

Almond Chocolate Milk(soooo delicious dangerous ;-) )

Snarf also brought little gifts for the kiddos.

This was S.R.'s gift.

 And E's gift. All items were purchased from Walmart.

Even though putting this together was a tiny bit exhausting, it was well worth it to see the big smiles when they woke up.

Christmas Magic is in full swing here at the Waggoner home!

Make sure to check back frequently to see what sort of mischief Snarf will be into!

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A Little Bit of Christmas

Hey Y'all! It's been a while, hasn't it? We have finally been able to slow down with home school, and now can relax a little and focus on the upcoming holiday season. I have so many fun projects for the kiddos over the next few weeks, and I can't wait to share them with you.

Have you had a chance to put up your tree? I am still in love with the red and turquoise combination on our Christmas tree. Here is a sneak peak of what our décor looks like this year. A little more than last year. I'll be doing a Christmas home tour this next week.

Do you see the fire in the fire place?? We were fortunate enough a few days ago to have the temperature drop, and we got to have a beautiful roaring fire. LOVE!!

 I am now a contributor over at Couponing to Disney. You can swing on over to Kristin's blog to see how I made this cute little Christmas countdown. It was really easy and very inexpensive to make!

Make sure to stop by again soon to see the rest of our Christmas décor!

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Jewelry Cabinet Facelift

 Hey Friends! 

I have another project to share today.

A jewelry cabinet makeover.

Sister has moved up to big girl jewelry, and is sporting dangly earrings on a daily basis. 

She looks so grown up with them in...sniff..

She had her ears pierced when she was 4, and has never had any issues until about a month ago when one of her ears became infected. 

We switched to dangly earrings, and thankfully haven't had any issues since. 

 She needed a new jewelry storage solution, so I went digging around in my stash in the attic, and found this cabinet. It was a yard sale find. 

I think I paid around $5 for it a few years ago. I kept thinking I just needed to get rid of it, but I'm so glad I didn't ;-)

The previous owners used some serious paint stripper on this cabinet, so all I had to do was use 220 grit sand paper on my orbital sander to smooth out the finish.

 

 Sister picked out the colors. Turquoise was the first color she wanted. The cabinet took 2 coats.

 Remember the old drawer I turned into a jewelry organizer? Well, I used the same type of metal from Hobby Lobby. This sheet was $11.99 (a little steep, but I used a 40% off coupon. It made the price not sting as bad). I laid the sheet on the back side of the cabinet door and marked off where I needed to cut.

 I used metal snippers to cut little sections at a time, being careful not to cut my fingers on the metal. It's extremely sharp.

 Once I was finished snipping, I tapped the edges down with a hammer.

After the metal was smooth, I painted it purple, Sister's second choice.

(Sometimes you have to get creative when spray painting two sided objects.)

 Once things had dried enough to handle, I attached the metal screen to the cabinet door(because I didn't have the patience to wait until it was completely dry), and then drilled a bigger hole in the door front so I could attach this adorable button knob from Hobby Lobby.

 

 I also added 2 picture frame hangers to the back of the cabinet, and hung it. I felt comfortable with using those because this cabinet is made out of very lite, thin wood.

 

 Here's a shot of the inside of the cabinet. It looks a little beat up, but the door will stay closed the majority of the time, so I am ok with it.

 

 And a quick before and after shot.

Now, Sister has a nice little spot to showcase her earrings, and it will be so much easier keeping up with them.

 And just for fun, a reality shot... so you know that I don't keep a perfect house. I just move things out of view ;-)

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think!

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Feature Friday-Baby Owl Gift Set

 School is about to start for us, so I am squeezing as much in as possible before we get rolling.

I have been knocking out projects left and right, and getting lots of sewing in. When school starts, most of this will come to a screeching halt. 

The kiddos' education comes before crafting, sewing, spray painting, fun(I kid...but really), building, all things DIY.....you get the idea. We have fun with homeschooling, but it's exhausting and leaves little room for anything else. 

I am branching out a bit, and trying to promote my Etsy store  more. We'll see how long I keep this up once school starts....but here's to hoping!!

My goal is to blog about some of my merchandise every Friday in a "Feature Friday" post, and tell you a little more about the items I am trying to sell.

 This little owl set is my latest addition to the store.

My very best of all best friends from high school is giving birth to her 3rd little one in just a few days, and it's

 A GIRL!! 

This bestie is my soul mate. Hubs is my male soul mate, but this friend is the female counterpart. It seems at times that the only thing we differ in is our appearance. She is a big time DIY'er. She loves to sew, paint, sand, and build. And I will have to say, she's pretty stinkin' amazing at everything she does. She's the friend that I can go ages without talking to, and then pick right back up where we left off. 

We both share a sick sarcastic sense of  humor. 

We both do hair.

And we both love us some Jesus.

She's truly a blessing, and I'm so thankful to have her as a friend.

I can't wait to meet her new little bundle of joy. 

Don't you just love the name she has picked out? It belonged to her grandmother. 

I am a sucker for family names.

Here in the South, we have to monogram everything. It's in the rule books. I'm sure of it. And when you have a little girl, you have to have SEVERAL coordinating monogrammed outfits. 

I am just helping the cause, folks.

If you're interested in purchasing your own owl gift set, you can click

HERE

to order yours!

Thanks for stopping by!

Y'all have a good weekend!

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How to Dress Up Thrift Store Finds

Hello Friends. 

I hope you all are having a fine Thursday. 

Since it is Thursday, you know what that means. It's time to share my finds from thrifting.

And while we are on the subject of sharing....

I asked for your prayers on Sunday for my sister, Heather. She's pictured below with myself and our daddy.

Last Saturday, she was about to get ready for a family dinner to celebrate her 28th birthday, when she experienced three Grand mal seizures back to back.

I will spare you all the horrific details, but in the process of seizing, she dislocated and broke her right shoulder, and shattered her left shoulder and has a tear. 

She's still in the hospital, and is on lots of pain medication for the shoulders. The doctors are keeping her seizure medication pretty high, so that when she has her shoulder surgeries, she won't seize while under anesthesia. 

She is being transferred to a different hospital for the shoulder surgeries either today or tomorrow.

Apparently she has been experiencing partial seizures since she was a child, and we never knew it. This was all a complete shock.

She is in really good spirits, but that's just who she is. She is always making lemonade outta lemons. She's a blessing to anyone she encounters.

 So since she will be unable to raise her arms for quite some time, I ran over to the closest thrift store to find enormous men's button down shirts for her to wear. 

Now, if you have been following me for very long, you know that I always have to jazz things up a bit.

Since men's shirts aren't supposed to be flattering on women (because they're MEN'S shirts), I figured I'd slap a few monograms on them, so she could be comfortable AND cute ;-)

This was the last of the shirts I worked on, and I believe it's my favorite. This was an OOPS that turned out even better than I planned. I was pulling the pocket off with my seam ripper and ripped right through the shirt..AHH! I was so mad, I had to walk away.

 I came back after a full night's rest, and made a new pocket, patched the hole, monogrammed the pocket, and attached it to the shirt. Love!

 

Heather loves her some Vanderbilt. This shirt was a no brainer. 

Anchors and Vandy go together like milk and cookies.

 I used glitter fabric with this applique, and I think it's awesome...just sayin'.

 

Now this shirt, I think is my least favorite. 

Another one of Heather's loves is 'Merica.

She's all about the Red, White, and Blue. So I thought I would make her a festive shirt.

It didn't turn out how I had planned....she may want to set this one aside for when she turns 65.

To me it looks like a Granny shirt (no offense to you Granny's out there). 

 If anything, she can wear it at home when she has absolutely no where to be ;-)

 

 My sister is also a HUGE baseball fan. She lives and breathes baseball. I was in charge of her phone on Sunday to handle all calls or texts. She got a bazillion updates from her ESPN app..no joke. She was heavily sedated, but was still watching a game on the television in her room. 

So since she's so crazy about baseball, I figured I would make her one that she could eventually dress up with maybe an undershirt, and some cute jeans to wear to the next game she attends.

 Total no-brainer ;-)

 I love the colors of this shirt. Hubs was kind of upset that he didn't end up with some of these(minus the girly monograms). I'm sure he'll survive though ;-)

 The turquoise doesn't quite show up on the plaid, but if you look really close you can see how pretty it is!!

And there you have it. Those are the shirts I'll be taking up to her so she can get a break from the ugly hospital gowns. Hopefully she'll be able to slide her arms in them without any pain.

Prayers on her behalf are still coveted and appreciated. 

On another note, I found this old Sunbeam mixer bowl at another thrift store for $1.50 last week. 

It's heavy, and perfect for housing fruit.

I recently cleaned out my kitchen and reorganized the counters and this bowl was a perfect addition. I'll share more from my kitchen soon.

 For those of you who are joining along in the hunt for thrifty finds, please shoot me an email or message me on Facebook with your finds. I would love to share your awesome deals with the rest of my readers!

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