Teacher Appreciation Gift

This week is Teacher Appreciation week, and I wanted to share what we brought in to Claire's teachers today.

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Claire has been busy growing a garden indoors since Spring Break. Her zucchini is by far the best growing plants, and since we now have way more zucchini plants than what we'll need, we're starting to give some away.

We're growing our plants in Jiffy Pots (pots that can later be planted right in the ground), so to dress them up a bit, I wrapped them in burlap and tied them off with baker's twine.  I made small plant markers out of washi tape + toothpicks and placed one in each pot.

Next I found (at our grocery store!) this adorable soap as well as some cute gardening gloves.

 I packaged the gifts in strawberry baskets that I had on hand, and these gifts were set!

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 Of course there's so many other times where a small gift like this would be wonderful to give, housewarming and Mother's Day both come to mind!

 

Psalm 121

This past summer, our church, Ada Bible Church did a series titled

Songs : Exploring the Psalms.

And one of the things I love most about our church is how Bible-based it really is.  (Shouldn't all churches be?!?)  But seriously.  The preaching is straight from scripture, and scripture is dissected and explained each week in ways that those new to the Bible can understand, and those who have been studying the Bible their entire life can still learn new things.  In the last year and a half that we've been at Ada Bible, I know that I've learned more about the Bible than I've learned in years elsewhere.

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On the first Sunday of the Psalms series, our pastor preached on Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
   where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD,
   the Maker of heaven and earth.

   He will not let your foot slip—
   he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep. 

   The LORD watches over you—
   the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 

the sun will not harm you by day,
   nor the moon by night. 

   The LORD will keep you from all harm—
   he will watch over your life; 

the LORD will watch over your coming and going
   both now and forevermore.

Like many other pieces of scripture, I'm sure I had read this or heard it read multiple times in my life. But our pastor had us to read this to each other as an encouragement to one another, and I felt like I heard this Psalm in a whole new way.  If you and I were in a conversation right now, I would read it aloud to you so hopefully you could hear it in a whole new way too.  To fully know and accept that the same God who created the Heavens and the Earth will watch over and protect you and I, is pretty amazing.

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And since the Psalms were in fact originally intended to be sung, the worship leader from our church set this Psalm to music.  It's pretty incredible really, and it's quite possible that I've listened to it, oh, about a million times.  Click here to watch the video.  If you have the time, watching the entire sermon is so worthwhile, but if you can't do that now, at least take a minute to watch the song which begins around the 10:00 mark in the video.

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Christmas morning, Eric really surprised me with a custom print that he had made with the help of Dee of Red Letter Words where they inserted our family names into this Psalm.  For whatever reason, on Christmas Eve night, this Psalm kept popping into my mind, so then to see it written out Christmas morning, with our family's names included had me completely reduced to tears.

I'm looking forward to hanging this in our home and always having it serve as a reminder to us that God will watch over this family.  This is something that I will certainly treasure forever.

 

Personalized Embroidered Art

Inspired by an Instagram picture I saw, I worked with Claire to create personalized embroidered art for each of her teachers for the end of the school year.

First I had Claire write "Thank you Miss Robin" and "Thank you Miss Tricia" on a piece of paper. Since her writing didn't quite fill the size of the frame I was hoping to use, I then scanned her writing to my computer and increased the size until it was the size I needed.

then it was off to the craft supply store to pick out pretty colors!

I could seriously waste a lot of time just picking out different color combinations, so fun!

I settled on red, yellow, green and aqua - kind of teacher-like without going completely primary.

next, using a fabric pen, I traced the letters onto white fabric...

...and I got to stitching!

this is such a quick project, I would estimate that I had less than an hour into each one

Finally, I mounted each one in a white frame...

...and had Claire write her name on the backs.

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I used the Take Home Bags as wrapping and also included a Barnes & Noble gift card with each one to create a heartfelt, practical and hopefully a fun package of gifts for her teachers to receive.

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There are so many applications for this project - next up, I'm thinking I may have Claire write her name and I'll stitch it up as a way to remember/document her handwriting through the years.  She also recently drew a picture of our family, maybe I'll stitch that?  The choices are endless!

 

Scrapbuster Project : Canvas Bags

Is it just me, or did the end of the school year just creep up out of no where??? While I'm so ready for summer vacation and wide open days, I love love love Claire's teachers and will be sad to see our time with them end.

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Throughout the school year, the kids would take turns bringing home the "Take Home Bag" which contained different homework activities for the kids to do.

As soon as I saw the current version of the bag, I knew an upgrade was in order. The bag was dirty and had peeling puffy paint, and I just knew I could make something nicer for the teachers and kids to use!

I picked up a pack of pre-made canvas bags from Hobby Lobby and rummaged through my fabric scraps finding fabrics containing bright reds, yellows, blues and greens. (Yet another reason to never throw away fabric, my scraps only needed to be 3-4 inches in size in order to work for this project!)

I cut letters out using my Cricut and traced them onto the fabric using Heat n Bond Ultra (remember when using Heat n Bond to trace your letters/shapes backwards!)

I made two bags and laid out each of the letters until I found the just right combination of fabrics for each one

after finding the just right spacing for the letters, I ironed them on to the two bags

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I'm so happy with how these turned out and hope the teachers love them too! This is definitely a project anyone can do as there was no sewing involved, just some cutting and ironing. Now go dig through your fabric scraps and see what projects you can come up with!!

***Stay tuned, I've got a fabulous giveaway coming up that you don't want to miss!***

 

 

Wooden Blocks by Sincerely Abi

A while back, I commissioned my friend Abi of Sincerely Abi to make me a set of blocks to use in Little Guy's nursery. I headed to the scrapbook store to find six papers to match what I had envisioned for the nursery which included lots of grays and whites with some colors like teal and red thrown in.About a week prior to Little Guy's arrival, a package arrived at our front door with not just one but three sets of custom made blocks!I couldn't get over how adorable they turned out,
and to have three full sets was an awesome surprise!
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Because my pictures don't do justice, here's Abi's description of her blocks:
These pine blocks have been sanded by hand, and then prepared with an eco-friendly, non-toxic milk paint. The block edges are once again sanded for an antiqued finish. Patterned papers are applied to each side of the block (a different pattern for each side), and each block is sealed with a water-based, non-toxic finish. The blocks are packaged in a kraft take-out style box with kraft shreds(both the box and the shreds are recycled products.)
I bought a large glass jar at Target to display the blocks in......and now they sit on Zachary's dresser and I just LOVE what they add to his room.
(Look for a full nursery reveal coming soon!)
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Now through November 28, use the code THANKS15 to receive 15% off your order in Abi's shop!

Teacher Gifts

Yesterday marked Claire's last day of preschool. I've been in total denial that my baby has finished her first year of preschool and had to snap myself back into reality long enough to say goodbye to her teachers this week. (sniff, sniff!) All year long her teachers have been telling us what a special group this class was, and the proof came when the teachers themselves were tearing up saying goodbye to the kids.

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Being our first time in the whole end-of-year-teacher-gift-purchasing game, I wasn't sure what to buy, but knew I wanted to get them something I thought they would actually enjoy receiving, (and not something covered in apples or ABC's!)
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Here's what I came up with : Watercolor & Drip Dye scarves from GAP
I've noticed throughout the year that both teachers are scarf ladies!
Flutter By stationary set by Donovan's on Etsy
purchased while at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago back in Decemberthe gifts were finished off with these cards from Gold Teeth Brooklyn
purchased from the Renegade store in Chicago
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Claire's teachers were amazing, and I'm aware that no gift will ever thank them enough for making our first school experience such a positive one, but here's hoping these gifts at least gave them a hint of our appreciation!

Receiving Handmade

(alternate title for this post : MY HUSBAND ROCKS!)

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In addition to giving handmade this holiday season, I was lucky enough to receive some handmade items as well!
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Let me tell you something about my husband : he.spoils.me.
Here's what I mean...

Vintage Typewriter Key Pendant from
Gwen Delicious Jewelry on EtsyJewelry Box from Design Hut on Etsymatching aprons for Claire & I from Lucky Ducky DesignsTWO custom pieces from Red Letter Words
(this is hilarious seeing as I sat next to and chatted with Dee of Red Letter Words at a Panera on December 23 for over two hours!)for my craft roomwe're not sure yet where we're going to hang this one. It's currently on a shelf above our washer and dryer in our laundry room. When I expressed to Eric that it may never be seen there, he kindly reminded me of the amount of time I spend in front of the washer and dryer, so certainly it will be seen plenty!
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He did good, huh?
And...it gets better.
I'm aware this isn't handmade, but look what he did...can't read that? Look closer.
It's an iPad with my name and shop on the back, ahh!yup. I'm spoiled.
(and I'm really okay with it!)

Giving Handmade

I really enjoyed giving handmade gifts this year. Being a seller of handmade items, I truly believe in supporting others doing the same.

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Here's a few items I gave this Christmas...journal from Anthropologie topped with a petal pusher
from Pleated Poppy for a dear friend(I used the petal pusher as the gift bow, so fun!)slate cheese plate from Crate & Barrel with tea towel
from Art Goodies for my mother-in-lawsix throw pillows for my mom. I used a Waverly print she's been eying forever for three of them and another coordinating Waverly fabric for the other threeprint from Creative Thursday named "We All Flock to Ruby"
...for my niece Ruby!A custom pet portrait of our dog Lyra from Funamals for Eric where the very talented Amy took this picture and turned it into this...teacher gifts of dish towels from appetite home
plus letterpress coasters from Paper Stories
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What did you give handmade this year?!?