Back to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts + a Tutorial

August 13, 2021 by

It’s the start of a new school year and to show our teachers some back to school love, we’ve created this simple back to school teacher appreciation gift! 

Back to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts + a Tutorial

Ahhhh! The most wonderful week of the year. Back to school week. Where the kids head back into the loving arms of their teachers and mama gets some time to work uninterrupted (well… with the baby). While they enjoy learning and playing and being taught by someone other than me, I can get things done and FINALLY get back to a semi-normal schedule working from home.

And because of that, I felt the need to thank the teachers. Thank them for being there for my kids, taking them under their wings, and actually getting them to listen when you teach them fun things like sight words, money, reading, subtraction, getting along with peers and everything else they’ll be learning this year.

What better way to thank them than by giving them a small token of appreciation. Or a large token. So as part of the school’s PTG, I proposed a gift idea for the teachers. A simple thank you in the form of some candy, popcorn, and a Redbox gift code. Plus some extra school supplies for them to take as needed and some gorgeous flowers for the Teacher’s Lounge.

Back to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts - flowersBack to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts - school supplies and flowers

I don’t know about you but receiving a flower delivery just brings a huge smile to my face. It makes me feel good. And always brightens up the house or office. So one of my favorite things to give when it comes to a gift giving occasion for a birthday, celebration, anniversary, etc is flowers. And most of the time I’m sending them to my mom out of state. But this time around I decided to send them to my son’s school as a thank you to his teachers before the beginning of the school year.

With them I paired some extra school supplies I purchased throughout the summer when back-to-school sales were going on and supplies were dirt cheap. Why not stock up and spread the love with extra supplies when you know at least one teacher will need the extras? Then I figured it’d be nice to create an individual gift for each teacher from the PTG. So I threw together this cute little package and purchased some Redbox codes for each teacher. These came together in a few short minutes and were so easy to make!

Here’s how:

Back to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts + a Tutorial for a Redbox Gift

Teacher’s Rock Back to School Gift

What you’ll need:

  • Redbox codes OR small denomination gift cards
  •  individually wrapped microwavable popcorn
  • Full-size candy
  • ribbon
  • clear packaging tape
  • scissors
  • pen or fine point permanent marker
  • Teachers Rock PTG printable

Download the PTO printable here | Download the PTA printable here

Back to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts + a Tutorial - supplies neededBack to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts + a Tutorial - materialsBack to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts + a Tutorial - Redbox codes

What you do:

1. Print out this printable. Cut to size and write in the teacher’s name and Redbox code. Remember that each code is unique so keep track of which codes you’ve already used. 

2. Grab a popcorn package and a candy along with your ribbon and scissors. Measure out how much ribbon you’ll need to wrap around the candy and popcorn and cut the ribbon to size. 

3. Grab a large piece of mailing tape (a little smaller than the size of the square printable) and place in the middle of the candy sticky side up. Bring the ribbon edges over to adhere to the center of the tape so each side of the ribbon sticks to the tape. 

4. Place the printable on the tape and ribbon and press down gently to make sure that the tape adhere’s to the back of the printable. 

5. Pass out to the teachers! 

Back to School Teacher Appreciation Gifts + a Tutorial from PTG

What is your ‘go-to’ gift for others?

This post was originally published on August 30th, 2015

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Filed Under: Crafts/DIY, gift ideas Tagged With: , , ,

How to Make a DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey

August 10, 2021 by

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How to Make a DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey #BackToSchool

My oldest will be heading to kindergarten in just two short weeks. And while I’m definitely ready for this next step in his adventure, I want to make sure to capture as many memories as I can.

So after seeing a lot of printables floating around, I decided that instead of finding something someone else made, I’d make my own DIY first day of school sign.

With the help of PicMonkey it was not only easy to do, but it came together very quickly! And it cost nothing for me to make. I simply used a picture frame we hadn’t hung yet and handed it over to him to take a few photos.

And you can make one too! Here’s how:

How to Make a DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey

Step 1: Choose a Size under Design –

Since I planned on framing my sign, I chose an 8×10 canvas. If you have specific dimensions you want to use you can specify them by selecting the custom option (or use one of the other canvas templates available).

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 1

Step 2: Rotate if you prefer Landscape orientation

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 2

Step 3: Click on Themes (apple icon) and Select School U –

You can really use any of the fonts, overlays, etc but I found everything I wanted under the School U theme making it easier to edit and add all from one location.

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 3

Step 4: Add Text –

Using the School U Penmanship you can write in your child’s grade, the school year, and if you prefer, your child’s name. Feel free to change up the fonts, colors, and sizes to your liking. Here I used Learning Curve for the “First Day of”, Sketch Block for “Kindergarten” and Freshman for the school year.

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 4

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 5

 Step 5: Add Overlays –

Still, in the School U Theme, click on any of the Overlays options and select what overlays you want to use to add more to your printable. After playing around a bit I added an apple found under School Supplies and a line of ruled paper found under Dashed & Lined.

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 7

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 8

Step 7: Save, Print, & Frame!

If you’ve chosen the 8×10 size there’s no need to change the size of the document but if you’re looking for a lower resolution/size file feel free to make the size of your printable smaller. You can also change the file format and save as either a .jpg or .png. When you’ve named your printable go ahead and save to your computer.

When printing out make sure that your printer isn’t automatically printing a full page photo and stretching your image. You want it to print out at an 8×10 size to fill an 8×10 picture frame (unless using a different size). Once printed, frame and snap away! Just be aware when using a glass frame that glare may be an issue when taking photos.

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 9

How cute is this little guy?? Definitely growing up way too fast!

DIY First Day of School Sign Using PicMonkey step 10

 What grade is your child going into?

Don’t want to deal with the hassle of making your own and have a kindergartner? Use my printables for free!

First Day of Kindergarten 2014 - printable

First Day of Preschool – Date

First Day of Preschool – No Date

First Day of Kindergarten – Date

First Day of Kindergarten – No Date

First Day of 1st Grade – Date

First day of 1st Grade – No date

First Day of 2nd Grade – Date

First day of 2nd Grade – No date

First Day of 3rd Grade – Date

First day of 3rd Grade – No date

First Day of 4th Grade – Date

First day of 4th Grade – No date

First Day of 5th Grade – Date

First day of 5th Grade – No date

First Day of 6th Grade – Date

First day of 6th Grade – No date

First Day of 7th Grade – Date

First day of 7th Grade – No date

First Day of 8th Grade – Date

First day of 8th Grade – No date

This post was originally published on August 15th, 2014

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DIY Shamrock Shirt with 4-Leaf Cover Stamp

February 21, 2020 by

When the kids are home on a weekday because school is out we find an excuse to craft! And with St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, we decided to make a festive t-shirt for my daughter to wear to school on the holiday. With a cardboard roll, some q-tips, and green paint, you can easily make a shamrock shirt in 30 minutes. 

And, if your child is as excited to craft as mine was, you may also end up with a rainbow and pot of gold over your four leaf clover too! Painting with q-tips is fun and using items from around the house to create things allows the kids to think outside of the box! We share some more tips in the Facebook Live video we did below: 

DIY Shamrock Shirt with 4-Leaf Cover Stamp

What you’ll need: 

  • white shirt
  • green paint (plus rainbow colors if you want to add a rainbow)
  • cardboard tube
  • q-tips
  • hot glue gun
  • scissors

What you do: 

1. Cut cardboard tube into 4 sections. 

2. Make a heart with each section by flattening the tube and turning one point into itself.  

3. Glue all 4 hearts together to form a shamrock. 

4. Position shamrock onto shirt. Using the q-tip, dot green paint onto shirt following the shamrock outline. 

5. Add a rainbow, pot of gold, or sun to your shirt to finish it off. 

6. Let dry fully before wearing. 

How do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? 

Looking for more ways to celebrate? Here are some great recipes to check out! 

Irish Soda Bread Biscuits

Rainbow Cupcakes

Filed Under: Clothing, Crafts/DIY, Holidays Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Tissue Paper Jack-O-Lantern Preschool Craft

October 13, 2019 by

Tissue Paper Jack-O-Lantern

With Halloween right around the corner, these tissue paper jack-o-lanterns are a fun and easy project to do with any preschooler. It combines quite a few different skills including cutting, staying in the lines, and gluing the paper down.

This craft is very similar to the paper plate pumpkin we made. We’ve been working on fine motor skills and the steps taken to make this craft definitely helped her practice those skills. Plus, the kids love crafting with glue!

 

TISSUE PAPER JACK-O-LANTERN

What you’ll need: 

  • Pumpkin template
  • orange tissue paper
  • 1 sheet black paper
  • 1 sheet green paper (or a scrap)
  • scissors
  • glue

WHAT YOU DO:

1. Cut one piece of tissue paper into 1″ squares. Set aside.

2. Grab the glue and squeeze little dots a few at a time in clusters.

3. Ball up tissue paper and place on a glue dot. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until whole pumpkin is covered with orange tissue paper.

4. Cut out eyes and a mouth for the jack-o-lantern out of black paper and glue to top of pumpkin to create your jack-o-lantern.

5. Cut out a stem for the jack-o-lantern out of the green paper and glue on.

Tissue Paper Jack-O-Lantern Preschool Craft

My daughter had a blast with this craft and loved practicing her cutting skills, gluing the paper in the lines, and learning what the difference between a pumpkin and a jack-o-lantern are.

She’s already asking what her next craft will be. I guess I better start brainstorming!

HOW DO YOU WORK ON FINE MOTOR SKILLS?

Filed Under: Crafts/DIY, Halloween, Holidays, Kids Crafts, Preschool Crafts, Toddler Crafts Tagged With: , , , ,

3 Ways to Dye Easter Eggs with Toddlers and Preschoolers

February 24, 2019 by

These 3 Ways to Dye Easter Eggs with Toddlers and Preschoolers will make egg dying fun for the whole family! 

Easy Ways to Dye Easter Eggs with Toddlers and Preschoolers

This year our preschooler is ready to jump in with both hands and really have fun dying Easter eggs. We did a few experiments of our own last year to find 3 ways to dye Easter eggs with toddlers and preschoolers that are not only fun but easy too! And as an added bonus, you probably have all of these things in your home right now. How’s that for awesome? 

My youngest had a blast trying these different methods of dying Easter eggs with me last year and couldn’t wait to show her brother and sister what fun they have in store for them. Since we dye Easter eggs the Saturday before Easter, she had a leg up from her siblings and was a pro when it was time to actually dye the eggs. This year? She’s the master…

3 Ways to Dye Easter Eggs with Toddlers and Preschoolers

With small children, it’s hard to use the ready-made kits on store shelves. Their little hands just aren’t ready for holding those thin wire holders and spoons can sometimes be harder to control. So we set the spoons aside and let the kids have fun with these few suggestions! 

1. Use a Whisk 

As I mentioned before, it’s really hard for little ones to use those small wire handles that come with the store bought ready-made kits. So we make it easier by placing hard boiled eggs in a whisk for easy dunking. 

Put some plastic cups in a muffin tin for stability and fill with 1/2 a cup of warm water and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Then add in some food coloring drops to create the colors you want. Grab your hard boiled egg in the whisk and let your child dunk until they’re done! 

You can also forgo the whisk and cups and simply let your child dunk their eggs in the muffin tin directly! But be prepared for a bit more mess that way. 

2. Whipping Cream and Food Coloring

Grab a tub of your favorite whipping cream and add it to a few muffin tin wells. Then add a few drops of the food coloring of your choice and swirl with a toothpick. 

Add a hard-boiled egg to the center of the muffin tin well and spin with your hands until the whole egg is covered. Pull out and set aside to dry. Wipe off any excess cream with a paper towel and enjoy the beautiful colors it leaves behind. 

Alternatively, you can also use shaving cream! 

3. Dye with Rice

Grab some rice from the pantry and add to a few wells in your muffin tin pan until they’re about 1/2 way full. Add some drops of food coloring and mix around with a toothpick until the grains of rice are coated with the food coloring. 

Add a hard-boiled egg into the muffin tin well and swirl around. Let dry completely and enjoy! 

These 3 ways to dye Easter eggs with toddlers and preschoolers is a fun and easy craft you can do with your kids this Easter. We love setting everything out and sitting back to watch what the kids will think of next when they’re dying their eggs. 

A few alternative tools you can leave out for your kids are stickers, crayons, and paintbrushes. 

Watch how my 2-year-old and I use these techniques last year in a fun Facebook Live video: 

Looking for more Easter ideas for the kids?  

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Easy DIY Princess Peach Dress for Kids + Super Mario Party

November 6, 2018 by

We’re huge Mario fans in this house. And even bigger Nintendo fans. So when we were sent a copy of Super Mario Party for our Nintendo Switch, we had to celebrate in style. What better way to celebrate than to dress up like Princess Peach? Plus? This easy DIY Princess Peach dress for kids is not only super cute, it’s so simple to make with the right tools! So if you’re looking for an easy Cricut project to do for your little ones, this is the one for you.

Once you’re done making it, take the dress out for a whirl and play some Super Mario Party with the whole family – even the littles!

Easy DIY Princess Peach Dress for Kids

What you’ll need: 

What you do: 

1. Measure out your jewel size by looking at the chest area of your dress.

2. In Cricut DesignSpace create an oval that is slightly taller than it is wide.

3. Duplicate that oval and change the color of it. Then resize the second oval to be smaller by 1/2″ all around.

4. Place the smaller oval onto the larger oval and center it using the Align tool.

5. Slice the design so that the smaller oval size is cut out of the larger oval.

6. Remove the inner oval of the larger oval.

7. Cut the larger oval out in the gold Siser Holographic HTV and the smaller oval in the aqua Siser Holographic HTV.

Note: Remember to place the vinyl color side down before cutting.

8. Preheat your Easy Press to 300 degrees.

9. Place the smaller aqua oval in the center of the chest area of the dress (or centered higher up if you prefer), cover with teflon sheet, and press for 15 seconds with EasyPress. Lift up then press again for another 15 seconds. Remove plastic cover of vinyl slowly and make sure vinyl has adhered to dress.

10. Position gold oval over aqua oval so that it covers it perfectly. Cover with a teflon sheet and press again for 15-minute increments until vinyl has adhered.

Enjoy your easy DIY Princess Peach dress for kids!

Super Mario Party for Nintendo Switch

The popular Mario Party series of games has come to the Nintendo Switch for the first time with the release of Super Mario Party last month. The newest in the long-running Mario Party series of games, Super Mario Party features the fan favorite “board game mode” which goes back to 4-player basics, with players taking turns and racing across the board in search of Stars. (Note: To play in 4-player, you will need to purchase additional controls.) The original board game style has also been kicked up a notch with deeper strategic elements like character specific Dice Blocks to add another layer of fun.

Whether you’re flipping meat, matching bananas or who knows what else, you’ll use Joy-Con™ controllers in fun and clever ways across 80 new minigames. It’s even more fun with 4 players, so it’s a party the whole family can enjoy! How awesome is that? We love the classic Super Mario games so bringing Super Mario Party into the mix for the whole family has been loads of fun!

What’s your family’s favorite Nintendo Switch game?

Love this post? Check out these awesome DIY projects:

DIY Bird Feeder for Kids

DIY Indoor Herb Garden

DIY Cricut Christmas Wreath

Filed Under: Crafts/DIY

Disney’s DuckTales Destination: Adventure + DuckTales Activity Sheet Download

June 5, 2018 by

Does your family have a favorite TV show? You know, one you all enjoy watching together and talking about? For our family, it’s DuckTales.

I’m not sure about you but my husband and I talked about some of the fun things we’d share with our kids when they were old enough. Trips to Disneyland, beach outings, camping, etc. But surprisingly, one of the top things my husband got excited about sharing with them first were his favorite cartoon shows from his childhood.  And that included DuckTales.

I can’t lie. It was one of my childhood favorites too. Who doesn’t love a classic episode of Scrooge McDuck and his grand-nephews getting into some sort of shenanigans and watching them pull out of it with the help of their friends? So when DuckTales relaunched with their new spin-off from the classic version, my husband was the first to take note of the release date. And my middle child got hooked on that first episode. So imagine her surprise when she received the new Disney’s DuckTales Destination: Adventure in the mail…

If you want a peek into how excited your kids will be, take a look at my daughter’s reaction:

Disney’s DuckTales Destination: Adventure

The latest DVD just hit store shelves on June 5th everywhere! If you want to get your fix of Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby, you need to check out this latest adventure in Disney’s DuckTales Destination: Adventure.

An ancient tomb in Toth-Ra, the mountain peak of Mt. Neverrest, a vacation island for Greek gods… global expeditions await! Thanks to Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby, trillionaire Scrooge McDuck is back in action, leading the way to death-defying exploits stretching all the way from Duckburg to legendary destinations around the world.

This DVD includes the following NEW DuckTales episodes:

  • The Beagle Birthday Breakout!
  • The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!
  • The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!
  • The Spear of Selene!
  • The Missing Links of Moorshire!
  • Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!*

Plus a bonus of 2 Classic DuckTales Episodes:

  • New Gizmo-Kids on the Block
  • Ducky Mountain High

FREE DuckTales Activity Sheet Download Below

Looking for some fun activities to do with the kids either before or after your binge fest on these episodes? Check out this fun activity packet! It includes a coloring page, maze, crossword puzzle, and spot the difference game. Just click on the button below to download. Let the greatest family adventures begin!

Who’s your favorite DuckTales character?

Love family fun? Check out these posts:

Upcycled Container Gardens

How to Make a Pool Noodle Boat

DIY Bouncing Ball

Filed Under: Crafts/DIY, Disney, DIsney Movies, Kids Crafts, Printables Tagged With: , ,

Upcycled Container Gardens: Housing Your Herbs

May 17, 2018 by

Upcycled Container Gardens Housing Your Herbs

Around this house, we try to repurpose and upcycle as many things as we can. If it can’t be composted or turned into something else, we try to donate. So very rarely do we end up with things that go in the trash. This makes for a great assortment of containers to be used in the garden.

When we picked up our chicks I knew we’d need a little home for them until they were big enough to go straight into our coop. At 3 weeks old they’d need to stay warm indoors so I picked up a metal bucket at our local hardware store.

Since I knew I would only be using the bucket for a short period of time I already had it earmarked for a project I’d wanted to do for quite a while… a stand alone herb garden!

Growing Chicks
I’m not sure if you know this but chicks, like children, grow like weeds! Seriously.

I turned around for a second and these cute little baby chicks are almost chickens at 2 months! But we still have 4 more months until they’re actually laying eggs (so I’m told).

Upcycled Container Gardens - growing seedlings

With so many things growing in our raised beds (like the broccoli that’s sprouting from our DIY K-Cup Seed Starters) we didn’t have any more room for the herbs I love to have on hand for cooking.

So it just made sense to have a container garden on the patio. What’s a better green work of art than a container garden?

Our next step will be to build a stacked container garden to house the strawberries we’ll be planting soon! How awesome does that sound? It’s as simple as taking this idea and stacking a few smaller containers on top of one another. Then planting in each tier.

Upcycled Container Gardens - cleaning out the container

 

Because our tub housed the chicks, I wanted to make sure that I cleaned the container very well before putting the soil and plants inside.

While some might question why I would clean out the container first – don’t people buy chicken manure? – the chicken poo that may be on the container hasn’t been composted yet. And I don’t want any bacteria that may have been left in the container to contaminate my plants.

But more on composting chicken poo later! Let’s get to this herb garden. First up – the chalkboard label.

Upcycled Container Gardens - DIY Chalkboard Label

 Upcycled Container Garden Chalkboard Label

What you’ll need:

  • 2 paper towels (can also use newspaper)
  • painters tape
  • chalkboard spray paint
  • metal container

What You Do:

1. Wipe down the area you wish to put the chalkboard paint on with an all-purpose cleaner. Then rinse the container out with water and let dry.

2. Grab two paper towels and cut each in half (4 half sheets). Then cut one-half sheet in half again. You’ll have 3 half sheets and 2 quarter sheets.

3. Using the painter’s tape and the paper towel pieces, create a square or rectangle space to spray paint the chalk onto.

4. Put extra paper towels under the container to protect the table underneath from paint.

5. Using the chalkboard spray paint, spray on two coats of chalkboard paint onto the container. Wait about 20 minutes in between each coat to allow them to dry.

6. Remove the paper towels and tape to reveal your chalkboard label. Write on it with chalk and display for all to see!

Upcycled Container Gardens - variety of herbs

Tips for Planting Herbs in a Container Garden

  1. Use good soil – find a soil that’s good for growing vegetables or use a good blend of soil and compost
  2. Depending on where you’re putting your container garden, consider the height each herb/plant gets and plant taller herbs in the back
  3. Plant what you know you already use now in the kitchen
  4. Make sure you are also giving your herbs vegetable food (found at any garden center)
  5. Place the container garden in a spot that will receive direct sunlight and make sure to water!

Upcycled Container Gardens with Chalkboard Label

What’s your favorite way to upcycle old containers?

Filed Under: Crafts/DIY, eco-friendly, For the Home, Gardening Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting Crafty in the Garden: Painting Rocks for Garden Markers

April 10, 2018 by

Kids helping in the garden this Spring? Why not use these painted rocks for garden markers! This craft is super easy to make and you can just use supplies you have around the house.

 

One thing I love about this time of year is all of the green and new growth sprouting about everywhere! And that means that our garden goes from sad and lackluster to full of life within a few short weeks. With that new life comes a bit of confusion for the kids with what plant is growing what type of fruit, herb, or vegetable. So we had a little fun and used painted rocks for garden markers to distinguish each plant from one another. 

Now there’s no real huge planning that goes into these painted rock garden markers. We simply used a base color that would make our illustrations stand out, and I let the kids paint each of the plants that we were growing. They had fun choosing the colors and making different types of veggies and herbs on their rocks. 

I think the most fun was when they tried to trace my penciled in names with paint to make each name stand out a bit more. The concentration my littlest had in her eyes (and brow) was quite humorous. 

If you’re planning out your spring garden, or are already growing, these are a great addition to share with kids and guests alike what you’re growing this season. Here’s how to make these painted rocks for garden markers: 

Painted Rocks for Garden Markers

What you’ll need: 

  • good sized rocks
  • paint in a variety of colors based on what you’re growing
  • a variety of brush types, cotton balls, and/or cotton swabs

What you do: 

1. Using either a brush or cotton ball, layer the base color on the rock so that the illustrations you paint will stand out. We used a white base but any light color will due. 

2. Once the base coat is dry, now it’s time to paint the objects you’re growing. As you can obviously see from the rock above, my daughter was painting strawberries. Remember, it’s ok if the artwork is a bit… abstract… in the next step we’ll make things a bit clear. 

3. With a pencil, write out the names of each of the plants onto the rock. Then let your child trace the written names with their paint brush to make the name of the plant stand out. 

4. Once your painted rock is completely dry, set it outside next to your plant and enjoy! 

With Spring upon us, we’ve planted a variety of different seeds and plants in our garden. Here’s what my preschooler helped plant: 

  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Bell Peppers
  • Radishes (from seed)
  • Carrots (from seed)
  • Cucumber (from seed)
  • Snap Peas (from seed)
  • Mint
  • Sage
  • Basil
  • Parsley
  • Thyme

And the big kids help by watering, weeding, and keeping an eye on the bugs that are in our garden beds. 

Looking to get your kids more involved in the garden? You’ll love these tips! 

DIY Indoor Herb Garden Ideas

Using Ladybugs in the Garden

Tips for Gardening with Kids

Kid Friendly Ideas to Get Your Kids In The Garden

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Filed Under: Crafts/DIY, For the Home, Gardening, Kids Crafts, Outdoor Crafts and Activities, Preschool Crafts, Toddler Crafts Tagged With: , , ,

DIY Indoor Herb Garden Ideas: Easy to Make Indoor Hanging Herb Garden

March 26, 2018 by

This DIY Indoor Hanging Herb Garden is the perfect way to bring the garden indoors! Plus you’ll have fresh herbs for whatever you’re whipping up for dinner. This post was sponsored by Culligan Water as part of an Integrated Program for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Water is the one thing that makes the world go round. And filtered water is something we can’t live without. As a busy mom of 3, I am constantly filling up water bottles at our fridge or turning on the tap to make dinner. And all of that water usage had me thinking… are we drinking the best water we could be drinking? The answer was no. And I’ll tell you why… while we had an under the sink water filter, it wasn’t pulling out everything it could be to ensure that our water was safe to drink. 

We live in Southern California. We’re known for our droughts and lack of water. So any water we do have is usually brought in from another source. Our source? The Colorado River. Since our water comes from so far away, it has quite a journey to reach us. and that means there’s more chance of contaminants leaching into our water supply. Being able to ensure that we get those contaminants out of our drinking water was goal #1 for me. The second goal? How our water affected not only drinking but other water usages like showering, our garden, and our pets. 

Luckily we were asked to check out Culligan’s Water Filtration System. We just had the ClearLink PRO installed in our home.

Stay tuned for a follow-up post sharing how Culligan has positively impacted our daily usage of water. As of now, while we’re still testing the system, we thought it’d be fun to share how we can bring the garden indoors and add a bit greener to the meals we’re making with the help of a DIY indoor hanging herb garden. Here’s how!

Changing How We See Water

We knew our home needed a few updates to our water filtration system. We previously used an under-the-sink filter for our tap water as well as another filter in our fridge for the water that came out of the fridge door. But one in-home consultation with a Culligan expert showed that even these filters we had in place weren’t taking out everything we wanted to keep out. With water playing such a crucial role in our daily life – being used in the food we make, the water we (and our pets) drink, and what we use to water our own edible garden – a few changes to our water filtration system was a must. 

Culligan’s goal is to provide water that its customers can trust and offer the best possible customer service experience out there. With over 80 years of water quality and service industry experience, they strive to help individuals identify their water issues right in their home – whether that be hard water, water filtration or taste of their water. After our in-home consultation, our new Culligan Water Filtration System was installed. And with the push of a button right by our sink, fresh and filtered water comes right out of our faucet. The system is so easy to use that even the kids can get their own filtered water from the sink. We also had a filtered water line run to our fridge as well. 

Now that our system is in place, we’ve been enjoying the perks of filtered water. We’ll be sharing our full journey from start to stop in our next post featuring Culligan so stay tuned. Now for our tutorial on this easy to make DIY Indoor Hanging Herb Garden! 

Easy to Make Indoor Hanging Herb Garden

What you’ll need: 

  • Glass containers
  • Wire
  • Wire cutters
  • Window hooks
  • Labels
  • Small rocks
  • Soil
  • 4″ herbs OR seeds
  • Water

What you do: 

1. Wrap the wire around your container to form a circle. Connect the wire to itself tightly so that your container is secure in the wire. Don’t cut the wire just yet.

2. Make an arch with the wire over the glass container. 

3. Once you have the arch length you want, cut the wire leaving about 1 inch to attach it to the other side. 

4. Once you’ve secured the arch to the other side of the wire circle, make sure the wire is still securely around the glass container and can be lifted safely without the container falling out. 

5. Fill the bottom of the containers with about 1/2 an inch of small rock to provide drainage. 

6. Top the rocks with soil up to about 1 inch from the top of the container and dig a well for the herbs. Add some filtered water to the bottom of the dirt well.  

7. Add the herbs to the container on top of the water and make sure the roots are buried/covered. 

8. Sprinkle a bit of vegetable food on the surface of the dirt by the herbs and then water again with filtered water. 

9. Place the window hooks in the window where you want the containers to hang. Find a place that will get sunlight during the day. 

10. Hang the herbs up in the window and watch them grow! Snip off what you need for meals in the kitchen as you cook. 

Water plays an important part in our everyday lives. Being able to have the kids go to the sink and fill up their water bottles, or fill up a watering can, and know that the water they’re drinking and using is water we can trust means a lot to our family. And now we can say that every day is a “Good Water Day” with Culligan! Stay tuned for our next post where we go in-depth into our experience with Culligan Water! 

How are you making healthy touches in the kitchen? 

Love this idea? Check out these other garden-related posts! 

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Filed Under: Crafts/DIY, eco-friendly, For the Home, Gardening, Outdoor Crafts and Activities Tagged With: , , , , ,


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