New Year's Eve

Hello :)

 

I hope your week has been lovely! My holiday has been a haze of tissues, coughing, and more tissues.

 

*blah*

 

Although I was positively sick on Christmas morning, it was still quite the magical day filled with Barbie houses and Candyland (one of the few things I could play from my corner on the couch!). I am still getting over this cold, but am looking forward to the new year and excited at the projects that lay ahead.

 

If I weren't sick, I could promise you that quite of few of these lovely things would be making it into our house this year:

 

 

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12

 

 

Thanks for a wonderful year!!

Happy New Years :)

 

xo,

Rachel



Polar Express Movie Night

Hello :)

 

This weekend we surprised the kids with a Polar Express movie night, complete with hot chocolate bar and goodies.

 

During the day of I handed out 'invitations' I printed up from the internet, so the kids could get excited about it.

 

 

Right after dinner, they got their jammies on and were treated to special popcorn {I loosely followed this recipe, only I left the popcorn/pretzels plain} and special glow sticks.

 

The glow sticks were found at the store, Five Below, and were originally going to be stocking stuffers, but I felt like they were just perfect for our movie night. The kids absolutely loved them.

 

They also got a chance to try some of the homemade peppermint ice cream Jason made.

 

As they settled in for the movie, we took a quick hot chocolate break to go along with the film.

All the labels were printed out using the free printables found here.

 



 

As their 'favors' we handed out bells toward the end, and small chocolate trains.

 

Mess aside, we all had a really great time :)

 

 

Merry Christmas Eve, guys!

 

 

xo,

Rachel



DIY School Parties with FREE Printables!

Happy Friday, folks!

 

We are going to be busy little bees today hopping from one school party to the next, so I wanted to share some of the little projects we have been working on for them:

 

For our daughter's class, they are doing a cookie exchange. Initially, I wanted to do sugar cookies with some pretty icing. But since we already have so much going on, I decided a cookie that required no decorating was the way to go - especially since then I could make Jason make them :)

 

We used this recipe, and it came awesome! The recipe is actually used from cake batter, and makes soft, chewy cookies. To really make these cookies look special, I bagged them up and created a small topper to go with it, using some of the graphics we already had from our Grinchmas Party.

 

 

First, let's take a look at these beauties - when you crack them open, just check out that awesome Grinch-green color!

 

Next, I cut out the labels that you can print HERE.

 

Just staple them to the top of the bag.

 

The next project was for Jameson's class. I am the party planner for his class, and we are doing a 'winter wonderland' theme. Plans are to do the penguin craft and minute-to-win-it games found on my pinterest board.

 

As a small gift to hand out to his classmates, we decided on our take of  this hot chocolate bag. My idea to create a printable file for this instead of doing it with scrapbook paper was based entirely on laziness :)

You can print up this snowman hat label HERE. {I used regular ziploc bags folded behind the packet}.

 

The last project we did was to turn their juice boxes into snowmen, inspired by these.

 

The label is printable HERE and also has a small detail of stick arms on the side. The nose and scarf were cut from felt that I had leftover from recent garlands I've made.

 

I don't know about your kids- but mine are super excited for their parties tomorrow :)

Me? I think I need a nap after this week!

 

xo,

 

Rachel



Homemade Christmas :: Knitting Ornament

I wanted to share with you a quick, little DIY present I did for a friend of mine. A few days ago I saw her pin this and thought, "I could totally do that."

 

And for free :)

 

 

I already had all the supplies: an old ornament, pretty yarn, bamboo skewers, small balls (I used some from an old garland pic I had), and {of course!!} a hot glue gun.

 

Glue down one end of the yarn and start wrapping and gluing until you have something that resembles a ball of yarn.

 

Attach the balls to the skewers (cut to size) with glue, and place the knitting "needles" through the yarn. I used ribbon instead of a hook so it would look prettier:

 

And a little bit of wrapping to make it look nice:

 

In all this project took about ten minutes...totally worth it!

 

I'll be doing a few last minute Christmas gifts this weekend: stay tuned! Until then, I'll be back tomorrow with some of the projects we have been working on for all the class parties we have going on.

 

Happy Thursday!

xo,

 

Rachel



Homemade Christmas :: A Box of Warm Wishes

 

 

Hello :)

 

Today's homemade Christmas gift was created for our son's teacher and bus driver. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Once again, my main goal was to make a homemade gift, but make it look special. {and of course, pretty!!}

 

 

This first part to this gift, was the pocket warmers. I made two smaller versions of the comfort rice packs in a 4" x4" size. This time I found a cute, little baby's outfit from the thrift store that I knew would be perfect:

 

I loved the white color and texture - perfect for winter :) I also found a soft, cotton turtleneck in the adult section that I used for the back of these packs {I also used it as a backing to the baby fabric since I wasn't sure if the rice would stay in the knitted parts}.

 

I created a personalized, hand-stamped tag again and wrapped them both up with twine and created a small tag with directions:

 

The second part to this 'warm wishes' box was hot chocolate and marshmallows. I made small little bags for the marshmallows out of sandwich bags {taping them on the back to keep closed} and cut out heart shaped pieces from red fabric.

 

Since I wanted this gift to seem more luxurious, we bought specialty hot chocolate {Starbucks Dark}. The bags are actually folded in half - they are really long. I cut out some burlap fabric I had and wrapped around some red and white baker's twine.

 

And that was it :)

 

I created a little bunting banner to display our message on the inside of the box:

 

I decided not to wrap these; just a stamp and some washi tape. {Thanks Kristen for the idea!}

 

Here's the tag on the pocket warmers if you want to copy it and make your own:

 

Agh! Can you believe it's almost Christmas???

 

 

xo,

Rachel



Homemade Christmas :: Comfort Packs

 

Hello :)

 

Today I wanted to share a simple gift I made for a few of the special people in our lives, like our son's speech therapist.

 

Rice packs are a staple in our house, for boo-boos and body aches, they are used all the time. I received a really lovely rice pack as a gift once to sooth tired eyes, and I remember thinking how nice it would be to create my own {only with prettier fabric!}

 

So here we go:

My original plan was to actually use some leftover fabric I have from around the house. I have been saving bits and pieces from our dining room and family room projects specifically for this intent. {wouldn't a yellow chevron one be fabulous?!}. But when the time came to make them, it just didn't feel right. I wanted something soft and more luxurious. I searched through my fabric collections and found this old sweater that I have been holding onto in hopes of making a small pillow out of. It was perfect. The sleeves provided enough fabric for two packs, leaving me the entire front/back for a future project.

 

So I cut out my shapes, measuring about 3" x 6".

 

{I am a horrible sewer, so I like to trace a pattern so that it leaves lines so I know where to sew :) shhhh, don't tell anyone!}

 

Before sewing, I created custom tags that I hand stamped with their names on one side and the hashtag #thanks on the other.

 

I slipped the tag into the bag before sewing. {notice on the bottom, right hand side there's a small dash - that's a reminder to stop sewing there to allow an opening to pour the rice in!}

 

After sewing, here is what you will need {not pictured, and optional, was lavender essential oil}:

 

Pour you rice through the funnel. I used brown rice we had on hand. Make sure it is not instant rice, though.

 

In small scoops, fill the bag up to about 3/4 full (leaving enough room to make the bag moldable). I clamped my shut until I was able to sew it {you can either hand sew it shut or use your machine since it's not too full}.

 

Once finished, I wrapped mine with some twine.

 

I printed up a little note to go with it that included instructions:

 

And a little gold wrapping to make it all pretty:

 

Here's the note I used {feel free to copy and use!!}:

 

 

 

Happy Hump Day :)

 

 

xo,

Rachel