Disney's in the Desert

Teacher Gift Guide

Okay this post is very last minute but if you have a teacher/aide/specialist/nurse you’re trying to gift tomorrow or even after the holiday, save this post! If you’ve already given all of your gifts, come back to these ideas for next year!

For Colly’s therapist, I made a small basket out of a reusable/decor basket and tied a little bow on it. Inside, I added filler, a monogram candle, a card of gratitude, a candy, and a Target gift card! Simple and well enjoyed!

For the kids’ teachers (& our favorite babysitter 😍) we did these reusable cups (they come in a 4 pack!), a Thread Mama gift tag, and gift cards attached with pretty satin ribbon and some sparkly star garland! Again, so easy and doesn’t break the bank!

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Holiday Gift Idea with The Bluey Lights & Sounds Playhouse

This post is sponsored, but all thoughts, opinions, and photographs are my own.

If you’re looking for a holiday gift that inspires imaginative play, look no further! #ad The Bluey Ultimate Lights & Sounds Playhouse has been a huge hit in our home! My middle two kids enjoy watching Bluey on Disney+ and keeping up with all of the fun adventures she gets into with her sister Bingo and family! Now they get to recreate scenes and make up their own with all of the different rooms in the playset!

This playhouse is massive, at a whopping 17″ tall and 30″ wide when opened!! WHOA, right?! It can be found at Walmart, Target, and Amazon. We went to our local Target and had no problem finding it – Honey’s face lit up when she saw how big it was!

Because my kiddos enjoy watching Bluey regularly, some of their favorite episodes are now memorized by heart. A favorite being, “The Floor is Lava!” Honey told me that was the first thing we had to recreate when we got the house set up!!! The playhouse comes with furniture that’s in the show and so much fun to set up in the various 7 rooms across THREE levels!! We set up the couch (just like on the show!) and had Bingo and Bluey hopping from that to one chair to another to avoid the floor just like we’ve watched so many times 🙂

Another super cool feature that Cole really enjoyed was that the house actually comes to life! When you press the octopus in the kids’ room it activates lights and over 50 sounds and phrases. We all loved Bingo’s commentary, especially!!

We had so much fun reenacting the dance scene they have in the beginning of the show with a moving dance floor that is included with the playhouse. All you have to do is attach the figures and move the lever to make them wiggle away! The kids were even singing the Bluey theme song with the Bluey toys and made them enter “Dance Mode”!!

These figurines are perfect for pre-school hands to play with. Included with Bluey and Bingo, it also comes with their friend Chattermax, along with 15 accessories. I’m excited for their little sister to use it when she’s a bit older and entering preschool in the near future. If you have preschoolers, this Bluey toy is truly a magical gift for them!

Dining Table Style: Fall Edition

Styling tables is something I’ve always loved, and I love seeing how others make the prettiest table scapes especially during the holidays!

Right before Mother’s Day last year, we ended up selling our 8 foot farmhouse dining table that C had built for us back in 2016. I was really sad to see it go, but it went to an amazing family who I know is going to make so many memories around it for years to come. It was a sentimental piece to me, as he made it right after our miscarriage and was something that kind of got our family thru that hard time. However, our dining room really isn’t a big space, and having a table that large took up a lot of real estate.

We ended up finding this one from World Market and scored it with the matching bench during a massive 25% off sale! It reminded me of the one C built, but lighter wood, a live edge, and the best part: it was smaller and could fit in our dining room so much better!

Alright, so let’s jump into the fall style for this table of ours this year! I’m probably going to reuse some of the place settings and chargers I have from last Christmas, but the centerpieces are what I wanted to focus on to make it feel warm and inviting.

I knew I wanted to do a vase or two but wasn’t sure what to get. I also wanted to attempt to make this as budget friendly as possible. I normally do Target drive up orders, but had to run in a month or so ago to return something and I spotted this large ceramic vase on my way out. It was everything I was wanting in a vase centerpiece! I added these fall stems to it and fluffed them out a little to make them look more natural. I added a couple of these acorn stems to fill and round it out just a bit. I also wanted to incorporate a smaller vase after I found the bigger one to give the table some dimension. My absolute fave textured planters were just released in black, so I felt like it was a sign! I grabbed the small size and then added some black leafy stems and some poppy-ish stems from the Target dollar spot.

Last, I added two of these woven pumpkins to the ends of each vase – I’ve had these for a few years now and I love that Target keeps bringing them back each season! They’re so timeless to me and just say ‘cozy vibes’. I really wanted to throw in a set of flameless candles, and actually did have some on the ends before the pumpkins, but it seemed offset. The pumpkins definitely finish the centerpiece for us!

What do you think? Do you create tablescapes for the holidays? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!

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