Valentine's Day Teacher Gifts

I actually got a head start on Valentine's Day this year and have checked off teacher gifts on my to-do list.  I purchased several boxes of Valentine's candy at Target and then fancied them up a bit at home.  I didn't have to spend a ton of money to come up with sweet, one-of-a-kind gifts.  And, I got my craft on!

From this:

 To this...

 

For each box of candy, I pulled off the plastic wrap and then taped the sides with a few pieces of scotch tape.  I then added grosgrain ribbon to the sides using double-sided tape.  I traced the heart onto card stock, cut it out, and glued it to the top of the heart using a sponge brush and matte Modge Podge.  Then, I embellished it with ribbons, stamps, and stickers.

 

Much better, I think!

Are you working on any Valentine's projects?  I would love to hear about them! Pin It

Happy Birthday... to me!

Yes, today is my birthday!  I love to celebrate it each year and decided to treat myself to the sweetest birthday gift ever...

....meet Mr. Tinkles!

 

He is my three month old Yorkie and is just as loveable as can be! He's tiny, just two pounds.  Hopefully he'll stay fairly small, about five pounds.  Mr. Tinkles is timid, but a friendly little guy.  And no, he doesn't tinkle everywhere.  That name just popped in my head before I even picked him out.  And, it just makes me giggle every time I say it!

We put a little bow in his hair, even though it isn't very long and we got so tickled.  He put his little head down as if he was embarrassed!  So, my daughter made this funny little montage:

 

Our cat, Kitty Moo Moo is not thrilled with him AT ALL!  She has already let him know she controls this block.  Fortunately, our older dog, Bear is fine with him.  Actually a little indifferent, but Mr. Tinkles is okay with that because he isn't starving for any affection around here!  We've made three trips to Petsmart for goodies and treats and he's all signed up for puppy classes later this month.  Tee hee, we're having so much fun!

Another addition to our home was from Santa to my son - a precious mini Holland Lop bunny!  He is the softest little thing, loves to be held, and plays great with Mr. Tinkles!  They are about the same age and size, too. He hops around and does this little popcorn twist in the air that is so fun to watch!  My son is still trying to decide on a name for him, poor little nameless fella.

I would like to throw out a special 'thanks bunches' to Mrs. Lavender at Lavendar Dreams for her birthday wishes today.  So sweet!

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season and celebrated the new year safely and joyfully!  It was relaxing around here with the kids all home, presents to wrap, people to visit, cookies to make, lights to 'ooh and aah' over, and of course, new babies in the house.  We are now back in the regular swing of things and I hope to get some sewing in very soon.  (Santa brought me a Bendable Bright LED light for my new sewing machine and a cool book, too!) I plan to start on my daughter's quilt using my new Go! Baby - wish me luck!  In the meantime, I'll be snuggling with this little guy - 

Love. Him.  (singing, fading away... "happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Mona....")

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Bonjour les amis!

 

Hello friends.... hoping you had a Merry Christmas!

 

Ours was merry and bright!

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Holiday Garland - NOEL

I couldn't stand it.  I had to have a new Martha Stewart tool to add to my crafting arsenal.  Her tools are the best. THE BEST!  I bought the scoring board with paper medallions in mind, but wait... you can do so much more!  Like envelopes and boxes!  Yes!

Back to the topic at hand... since I decided to decorate with my Victorian ornaments this year, it threw off my whole plan and I had to (really forced to) make a new garland.  I usually hang something in front of my large mirror in the living room and last year I made a wreath for it.  Well, that wreath didn't match the tree this year so I had move things around a bit.  That wreath is now outside on the front door; the wreath from the front door is now in the kitchen; different garland on the front door and in the living room around the column - but its all good. 

So here's what I came up with...

I used another Martha Stewart tool - the circle cutter, to cut out my letters.  I used Word and the 'Carnival MF Open' font in a gold color to create the letters in N-O-E-L and my little dobber-doo-hickey and brown stamp ink to "age" the edges around each letter.  Cream card stock was used for the letters and double-sided scrapbook paper for the medallions.

Making the medallions was super easy, but I did have a little difficulty hanging them.  I was originally going to use some red and white baker's twine.  However, I spaced them too far apart and even though I glued the twine toward the top of each medallion, they were top heavy and wanted to lean forward.  It just didn't look good.  

 

 

So, I ripped off the twine and decided to use the gold ribbon instead.  Since they lean forward and are against a mirror where the back of the garland can be seen, I decorated the back sides as well.  You can't see it in the photo below, but I also dobbed brown ink around the edges of each of the circles.  I punched two holes in each circle to run the ribbon through, then glued them to the backs of the medallions.  It turned out much better. 

Excuse me?  Did I actually get a picture of it hanging on the mirror?  Ummmm, on my cell phone... yeah.  Do you know how hard it is to take a photograph looking into a mirror?  Without getting all that stuff you don't want to show?  Like ceiling air vents, the fan, or an adjacent room?  Ha!  Well, you'll "get the picture"!

Have a great weekend!

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Holiday Pillows - Fa La La

My BFF Harriet and I made some super-cute holiday pillows last week and I couldn't wait to show them off.  I like to change out the pillows in my living room during the year and found that just making slip covers is so quick and easy. 

This is Kitty Moo-Moo.  She's chillin' like a villain, eh?

I used the freezer paper method for both pillows.  After I typed up my pretty "fa la la" in Word and sized it to my liking, I printed it out and traced it onto the matte side of the freezer paper.  For the carolers, I did a little work in PhotoShop to get the silhouette, and again traced it to the freezer paper.  Then, I used a craft knife to cut out the pieces where I wanted to paint.  I used an iron without steam to iron the shiny side of the freezer paper to the fabric (I used unbleached muslin).  I turned the fabric over and ironed from the back side as well to make sure all the bubbles were gone and it was nicely and evenly adhered.  Using Plaid Simply Screen water-based screen printing paint (found at Hobby Lobby for under $3.00) and a sponge brush, I painted in the areas and let them dry for a few hours.  The freezer paper pulled right off with no problems.  The next day, I used medium grit sand paper and lightly sanded over the painted areas to give them a vintage look.  That's it!  This would be a wonderful technique to use on hand towels as gifts for Christmas.

Go here for Char's 'Faux Feed Sack Pillows' post about the project she made using the new Cameo.  I don't have the Cameo so I just made do, but wouldn't that be a fun little machine to use?  You can also use a Cricut or Silhouette if you have one.

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Tis the Season - 2011

The house is all decorated - a tree in every room!  This year I decided to decorate the living room tree with my Victorian ornaments.  My mom helped me collect some of these over the years and I enjoyed getting them back out and reminiscing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few things from the kitchen, although most of it is decorated the same as last year.

 

And in the studio... We love the movie, The Grinch starring Jim Carey and this is one of our favorite quotes.

I'll be back soon with a few projects that I did manage to fit in this holiday season.  Thanks for coming by! Pin It

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and yours a safe and blessed Thanksgiving Day!

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There is Liberty

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

 2 Corinthians 3:17

We were worshiping yesterday at church and as we were singing, I saw something that really caught my eye.  Yes, we had props in front on the stage from our monthly sermon, and the pastor, the band, our choir.  We had five beautiful American flags, lots of red, white, and blue everywhere.  But what struck me in the midst of all of this was what stood out just two rows in front of us.  A young man, probably in his late twenties was singing and had his arms stretched out to God.  On his left forearm was a large tattoo of the Statue of Liberty.  

To me, it was the perfect picture of what our country was born from - the fight for FREEDOM.  Freedom to worship to God, freedom to sing, freedom to assemble, freedom to be ourselves.

I am thankful to live in this great country.  And, praise God that He has given us the ultimate freedom.

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Catching up...

* Disclaimer - this post is long and most likely boring.  Read on anyway...

The days are just zooming by!  I'm sure many of you are feeling that way as well.  This time of year is always hectic, especially with school-aged kids.  Programs, sports, holidays, meetings, prom, graduation - to name a few.  I often wonder how we scale down from so much of this.  The answer?  Not participate in so much, maybe.  But, with four kids, it doesn't take much to get this busy.  My kids aren't even involved in much separately, but add them all up... my calendar is full.  I try to say "no" when I need to and remember that it won't be long before they are all on their way to other phases of their lives.  So for now, I just keep my calendar handy.

I hope you all enjoyed Easter and Mother's Day.  Yes, I think it has been that long!  Anyway, it is raining here today and very dark.  I've just come down from a very busy week and finished up some major PTA meetings (my last year as the high school PTA prez).  So the past two days have been a whole lot of "nothin'".  Time to re-focus, re-organize, etc. for the next several weeks.  And, time to blog!  Just a few snippets of what's been going on around here:

I made this little dress from Simplicity 2432 at the last sewing retreat.  It was supposed to have a little shrug, but I didn't think she would wear it.  I added a little bling to the top and a pretty ribbon.  The bodice ended up being a little too wide for her.  I should know better than to go straight from the pattern.  But, she loved it anyway.

A good hunt!  Thanks Easter Bunny!

 

I bought a pretty fan for my studio.  The lights I have can get very warm and I cannot part with my sweet little chandelier to put in a ceiling fan.  So, best of both worlds!  Isn't the popcorn ceiling purty?

I've tried using my crock pot more, at least once a week to help quicken meals but still have something better than fast food.  The only drawback - its getting warm outside and you can't make cold crock pot meals!  A friend of mine gave me a super-crazy-good recipe for chicken tortilla soup!  Oh man, she wasn't lying to me when she said I would love it!  So much so that I took pictures of it!  There are so many recipes for this, but if you would like this one, I would be happy to share it with you.

 

I bought the "Fix It and Forget It" cookbook and decided that I MUST purchase yet another crock pot.  They obviously come in different sizes.  Who knew?

It's so cute!  And, Mother's Day rolled around and I was surprised with three bouquets of flowers!  All different and unique like my kiddos.  I love fresh flowers!  

 

 

 

 

I loved the sweet message on my kitchen chalk board.  It usually says something profound or simply "It's good to be the Queen", but this made me smile!

Next post I'll fill you in on a few of the crafts I was able to squeeze in.  I also have some very exciting news to share soon.  I hope you'll stop back by!

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Queen for the Day

As I posted last year, I have no problem telling people, "Today is my birthday!"  Why not, right?  Yes, I'm older and yes, much better (? questionable - but I'm going with it), but it was another year of living and loving life.  Another year's worth of gifts from God.  So, party on!

 I had a wonderful day and many birthday wishes from friends.  I had a great lunch with my sweet baby girl and two dear friends at a local burger shop that just opened.  They have sweet potato fries that are fantabulous!  My daughters left me little birthday notes about the house and on my chalkboard in the kitchen.   My daughter's boyfriend even brought me fresh flowers - big time points in my book!  And, my husband made sure I didn't cook last night (I wish every day was my birthday!) and brought home my annual birthday cookie!  It was a loverly day!

Ummmm, sorry - I got caught up in the moment and forgot to take a picture of the cookie cake BEFORE we tore it apart!  It was yummy though!

I went ahead and splurged on the Nook color.  I love it and it is a fun little thing to have.  My BFF and I can go to Barnes and Noble (together  - like a girlfriend date) and then sit in silence (together - not speaking) and read to our Nook's content (together - in silence)!!  How fun will that be?!  I, having four children and BFF having two of her own certainly appreciate the "quiet moments" in life!  Even if it means escaping to a public place to have them!

I do feel a little guilty though.  Lots of money for a toy.  So, I've made myself feel better by knowing that it will be there for all the family to use and hopefully I will take the time I should to sit and read God's word on a daily basis.  I know, I can do that with a printed bible.  Don't throw that in my face.  Anyway, I'm keeping it.  I think it is like that gym membership - if you pay good money, you are more likely to guilt yourself into using it use it.  I will be able to purchase some books from the money my sweet mother-in-law sent and I decided to sew my own Nook cover instead of buying the pricey leather kind.  And, who needs an excuse to sew?

Well, I've gotten the grocery shopping out of the way and posted for the day.  On to see the counselor at the local college.  Its time to see what needs to be taken care of for my oldest daughter.  She graduates high school this year and wants to jump into college courses this summer.  I think I've put this off for obvious reasons.  But, she must move on to that chapter in life and I want to be there to guide her, encourage her, and then watch her fly. She has great things ahead of her, I know.

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