my blog

first and last.

I was all prepared this year and finally did something I had wanted to do for the last couple of years.

Last day of school pictures.

I LOVE comparison pictures. It can show you just how far you’ve come and how much further you may have to go. It shows grow, change and maturity. Really cool stuff to document.

You may think I have it easy since my kids have blue eyes and they just pop and are so bright in pictures. Well let me tell you, people with blue eyes (not me) are way more sensitive to light, so when we head outside, I almost always have an eye squinter, tears and looking down pictures to deal with. Hunter is particularly bad, his eyes are so, so sensitive to light.

Unfortunately this little bugger doesn’t get his own back to/last day of school picture for another year.

Sigh.

I also made some teacher gifts this year. They were really, cheap to make too, I think they were about $5 for two of them.

I painted some clay pots (all supplies from where else, Michaels!!) with black chalk board paint, and the rim yellow. Marked out a ruler and drew the lines with a sharpie marker. The plants are from Home Depot and that’s it.

From Pinterest: Source

more gift ideas.

It's really beginning to look like Santa's workshop at my house. I have 6 crafting projects on the go right now, and the mess to prove it. My deadlines are fast approaching (Sunday for some, Tuesday for the rest) and I'm thrilled to knock one more thing off my to do list.

If you remember last year, I made these cute little cookie cutter frosting sets for the women I Visit Teach through Church.

This is what I came up with this year. (Actually the original idea spread like a bad rash and ended up being nothing like what I planned)

I wanted to do some cute little hot chocolate in a mug, with a candy cane stir sticks and marshmallows, so I found some cute little mugs. I didn't know which one would work, since one has a wider mouth than the other. So I bought them both to try. (Dollar Store)

Then when I was trying to fit the hot chocolate and all the goodies in, it just wasn't looking right. So I ended up making a sweet little paper carrier to put it all in.

(I'll break down the parts to make this for you...) 

Start by taking jumbo marshmallows and sticking a lollipop stick in the bottom.  Melt some chocolate and dip the marshmallow in about halfway. Stand the sticks in something that will hold them upright until the chocolate sets. (I used my salt container)

I wrapped each marshmallow (once the chocolate set) in cellophane and tied it with curling ribbon. Just in case you're wondering what these are for, they are to stir into your hot chocolate and the marshmallow gets all melty and delish!

Each little milk box is made out of kraft cardstock. The first one holds two little packages of hot chocolate mix.

 
 If you google milk carton template, you will find lots of free ones to download. But I used the one from the Papertrey website, which you can buy here. (I wouldn't feel right sharing it here, since well, it's not very nice and slightly illegal, but anyways) The free templates I found are slightly different from the one I used, but they will still work just the same.

Okay, so the other milk box, all I did was cut the top off where it folds into a carton. Cut a window out of the front and add some cellophane to "cover" the hole.

Along with the marshmallow stir sticks, I included crushed candy canes in a little zip-lock bag to sprinkle on top of your hot chocolate.

The carrier itself is included in the milk carton download from Papertrey. It too is made from paper and super easy to assemble.

Front View.

 
Side View.

See, super simple, but so adorable. And very inexpensive as I try to do with most of my projects. You could probably make these for about $1-2 each, not including the template download which was $5.

I like to look at this and think of all sorts of different ways I could stuff these little boxes. The possibilities are endless!

  
  

handmade christmas.

It's December, already.

wow.

I can't say I didn't know it was coming, after all it does come every year, faithfully after November 30th, I just can't believe how fast it's moving.

So as you may or may not know, I like to make stuff. And this Christmas is no exception for my handmade gifts. The only problem is, that I want to share them with you, but I don't want the recipient to see them before hand.

What's a girl to do?

Well, I'm going on the honesty of my family and friends that they won't peek. I hope that you will have better restraint than I would have. And I'll won't post pictures in the post, instead I'll make an album that you won't be quite so tempted to go and look at. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Today we'll start real simple... this is one that everyone can look at.

Last year for my Nursery kids, I made really cute gift bags filled with play-dough, a cookie cutter and some candies. You can check it out here. (just keep scrolling past the movie night, it's at the bottom of the post)

So this year I really had to come up with something creative, and this is what I did.

I bought some wooden blocks that measure about 4" x 2.5", they have a bit of a routered edge. And I painted them a variety of colors.

It would be best before hand to find out what their favorite colors are. I knew a couple of kids color preference, but I wish I could have done them all in their favorite color.

Anyways, the next step is to cut some black vinyl. I used my Cricut machine and 2 different fonts. The first more chunkier font I cut out "LOOK WHAT MADE". Then with a more scripted font I cut out each child's name.

Once the blocks were dry, I sanded the edges a bit for a more weathered look. Then I stuck the vinyl to each block.

Then for the next step. On the back of the blocks they were a bit messy, some extra paint that had oozed onto the back, and some sticky adhesive still left from the price stickers.

 So I painted the back of each block black. (Phew that''s a mouthful, back, block, black)

The next step is to add some magnet. I wanted my magnet to cover the entire length of the block, for maximum coverage.

Measure the magnet and stick it down.

 
 
 And you're done.

Wondering what you just made?

Fridge magnets of course, for your child's sweet art work.

The best part about this project was the cost. Each block cost me less than a $1.00!! Can you believe it! The blocks were 50¢ each. The paint and vinyl was supplied by my lovely friend Myril. (Thanks for all your help!!) and the magnet was $2.00 for the whole roll, and I used about half.

Of course I know a Nursery aged child will not appreciate a block of wood for Christmas(haha) so I have some candy to add to some cute bags for them.

I ♥ handmade gifts.

Many more to come... I just gotta finish them all, and that's the scary part.

monster mix.

So, I've been thinking about Halloween a lot lately. Mostly because I LOVE it in the worst way (as I've mentioned before) and second because it is only a mere 38 days away. So with that being said, I wanted to think of some cool gifts I could give to my Mommy friends or my visiting teachers. And I came up with this idea.

So you know the basic cookie/brownie in a jar recipe. You know all the dry ingredients are packed into a mason jar and you give it with additional instructions to add the wet ingredients and bake. Well I really wanted to put a cool spin on it. So I made 'Monster Cookie Mix' in a jar instead.

Basically it's all the good stuff you add to monster cookies. (those jumbo, loaded with goodness cookies)

It took me a couple trys to find a jar big enough to hold all these yummy goodies. And I like to fill my monster cookies with a ton of candy. But I managed to find this jar at Hobby Lobby. (I'm sorry to my fellow Canadians) But I'm sure if you check Micheal's they will have something similar.

The "candy" etc that you can add to your cookies is really up to you. Most recipes only call for the chocolate chips and m&m's, but I like to add a couple extras.

As for the little tag. Well I just quickly made this label in photoshop.

When I give these as gifts, I will tie the recipe to the top with ribbon. And since I love you so much, I've attached the label for you to print at home. I've included two color choices. (Just right click to save it to your computer to print)

Green Monster View this photo

Orange Monster View this photo

The other reason I've had Monster's on the brain is because this:

 is coming out very, very soon and I have been brainstorming movie night ideas for the last couple weeks. I can't wait. I think it's going to be a fun one!!