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



Thanksgiving Leftovers TO GO

I'm not gonna lie.

 

Thanksgiving dinner has always been super easy for me. Because I don't do the cooking :). I'm lucky enough to have a guy that not only does the cooking, but actually wants to! All I am in charge of is making things look pretty {which, let's face it :: to me, that's just about as important as the meal itself, ha!}

 

For me, the best thing about this holiday are the leftovers, am I right?

 

So today I wanted to share some easy ways to send your guests home, not just with a box of leftovers, but a little bit of style, too :)

 

1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6/ 7/ 8

 

 

xo,

Rachel

 

 



Happy Friday :: Gift Wrapping with DIY Tassles

I don't know about you, but this gal is super happy that it's Friday :)

 

Although this weekend is the first in months that soccer wont be dominating our time, parties seem to have taken their place (as always!). The kids have two parties to go to, one a close friend of ours.

 

This special little girl is turning 3, and in the short few months that we have known her, she (and her brother) have fallen fast as besties of our children. She is actually only three weeks older than our little guy, and the two of them have created quite the duesome twosome :)

 

I wanted to wrap her gift up simply and beautifully.

 

 

I took out the ribbon without having any specific plan for it, but for some reason, I just knew that they had to be tassels :)

 

I am sure there are many tutorials on the web on how to make tassels. Since I hadn't planned on making them, I just kinda created my own way:

 

1. Supplies needed: yarn/ribbon and hot glue

2. Since I wanted my tassels about 3" I just wrapped the ribbon around my hands (making one side about 3"). You could extend out your fingers to make this a little longer. I wrapped about 10x

3.  Slide off of hand and cut off an excess yarn. Cut your loop in half (only on the one side)

4. Cut and extra piece of yarn and use it to tie a knot in the middle of the yarn you just cut in half

5. Bend your pile in half over the knot. Use one side of the yarn you used as a knot to wrap around the top. Wrap around several times.

6. Secure the end with a dab of hot glue.

 

For added decoration I used a butterfly stencil from the kid's collection and colored it in using a white pencil.

 

Same goes for her name.

 

Happy Birthday, Eloise :)

 

 

Happy Weekend!

 

xo,

 

Rachel



Happy Weekend!

I cannot believe it's almost Monday AGAIN.

We had a pretty good weekend; hope you did as well!

Another weekend, another party, right??? This one was actually pretty special, because it is for our former neighbor, a little girl {now 8!} that Cayden personally calls "her big sister".

Yes, you will be seeing these extra lollipops around a lot :) I think our order came in two dozen, so there is more where this one came from! I just added a scrapbook sticker, and instantly created a personalized look--a super simple way to dress up plain lollipops at any party!

And take a look at the amazing cake her parents made for her:

can you believe this is the first time that they have ever worked with fondant??

We also got a little shopping done for our little soccer players.......

And remember our little kitty, Domino whom we just got? Well, he seemed awfully lonely, so we decided to get him a little buddy. You could say we bought our cat a cat ;)

So meet Ollie {short for Oliver} our newest and last addition to this crazy family of ours.

We {well, I} were worried that they wouldn't get along. But it was love at first sight.

Squeeeeal... they are so cute, right???



Your Weekend

Another weekend; another party!

I love using kraft paper for wrapping. Usually I try to decorate it somehow, but I appreciate the beauty of it just by itself. I think some people might hate the creases you have in reusing this type of paper, but I love the organic feel it brings.

Since Jason works in hospitality, he always has an eclectic schedule. So technically, our weekend starts tomorrow :)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

xo,

Rachel



Simple Birthday Parties & Gift Wrapping

Although I love a good party {clearly, since I started a whole blog to showcase that love!}, but it's always good to sit back and enjoy a nice, simple party once in a while.

Where all you need is a good location.....

.....Some lovely entertainment to keep the kids busy.....

....and some good company, of course :)

Everytime I am in the middle of party planning craziness, I always wonder if maybe I overdo it a bit. For us, and our family, parties have turned into a big deal. Jason and I have both agreed that we love doing this for them, because it's the one time a year that it's all about them {and only them}. The one time a year that they don't have to share all the attention.

In the end, a party is party, and we had a blast.

I did want to share a peek at the gift that we got for the birthday boy. To me, the packaging is practically as important as the content :)

For this present, everything I used was leftover from Jameson's party - fabric for wrapping paper, gift tag made from the steel contact paper I used on the backdrop, ribbon, and lolipop. The letters are just scrapbook stickers that I have a ton of.

Hope you are having an inspiring day! Tomorrow I am doing the banquette reveal for the House on the Left series. I can't wait to show you!

xo,

Rachel