I think this was the perfect birthday gift!

Since we weren't doing a huge party for Mr. Man's 50th birthday, I decided to do a scrapbook for his birthday with pages made by all his friends and family because I thought that would be a good memento of his birthday!

In January I sent out a letter to everyone asking them to help me make a scrapbook for him. I included a piece of scrapbook paper and a return envelope. I addressed the envelope to come back to my office so he wouldn't see any of them. For some people I sent an email instead of regular mail (both to help keep the costs down and in some cases it was because I simply did not have a mailing address for certain people). I asked them to email me something and then I printed them out and put them on a scrapbook page.

As they started coming back I really liked how everyone's personality and style showed on the page they created and the stories written. The emailed stories reflected individuality too. It was really cool! I had some people write him a letter about what their friendship meant to them. I had some people do a scrapbook page with pictures and journaling. I had some write a birthday wish for him. Some people wrote their favorite memory of him. Some people emailed me pictures and others didn't but it all came out SO cool! Not one page was alike and I really loved that. Some were extravagent and others were more simple, but that is what made the book extra awesome! I loved it and so did he!!! It was all so neat! I loved reading what people wrote and looking at the pictures. I had the hardest time keeping it a secret - but I did and so did the kids! We would spend a few minutes here and there working on it when Mr. Man would leave the house to run errands or whatever. One kid would stand guard watching for him to pull down the street (or in some cases, I would) and then we would quickly hide everything.

When we gave him the book he actually teared up. I told him it was a group effort present! He read and re-read all the pages several times.

Here are just a few of the pages, I haven't counted to see the total number of pages we ended up with, but as you can see in the picture at the top of this post, the book was busting at the seams!

Remembering 2009

I can't believe we are approaching 2010. Seems like yesterday we were panicking over Y2k!

Some wonderful things happened in 2009, although January, February and March were fairly quiet (we had some birthdays and an anniversary in there, but nothing so grand I need to recap it!) BUT...

In April, Lefty received a City Scholar Award. That was a proud moment for all of us!

In May, my sister and her family came to visit. We had lots of fun with them!

In June, another sister came to visit me and we had great times with her too! She left the sweetest present for me!

For my birthday in July, sweet little ol' Spirit took me to lunch with his own money (well most of his own money...)

In August we took a 4,300 mile road trip. It was a ton of fun!

September was "sick month" in our house. I got sick. Then Lefty. Pretty soon Spirit caught it. It was horrible and I seriously was bleaching like a mad fool!

October was a great month for building forts out of leaves!

Two of my favorite blog posts from November are this one about Lady Bug and this one about the teacher gift.

December was filled with parties, Disney on Ice, baking, and crafting. But a momentous event happened also! Phew! That was a big one conquered! And let us not forget the horrible root canal I had!

*Crafting part 1 - Snowglobe soaps
*Crafting part 2 - Personalized Totebag
*Crafting part 3 - Silhouette Ornaments
*Crafting part 4 - 4-pack carrier candy holder
*Crafting part 5 - Family Yahtzee
*Crafting part 6 - Handmade Coasters
*Crafting part 7 - Stocking stuffer

I hope you all had a great 2009 and I wish everyone the best for 2010.

Our handmade Christmas gifts - Part 7

I know Christmas has come and gone, but here is a little thing I made for the kids stockings and I didn't get it done and photographed in time to post before Christmas!

Part 7 in the handmade Christmas postings is a personalized activity book.

I wanted to buy them an activity book for their stocking, but before I bought it I had a night where I couldn't sleep so I got on the computer. I decided with all the websites with downloads and the printable color and activity pages I could easily make each kid a customized coloring/activity book.

I printed off the pages and then I covered them in a scrapbook paper cover. I just two-hole punched the tops and tied string to hold the pages together, but I am sure there are a million other clever and pretty ways to attach all the pages together.

Here are some of the websites I really liked for printing pages from:

Crayola

Activity Village

Patterns for coloring - mosiacs

These Alphabet coloring pages are wonderfully detailed from this website I also printed some mazes and a few more coloring pages

ABC Teach has great crosswords and other printable activity sheets

TLS Books has tons of options for worksheets and coloring pages

This site has tons of coloring pages

Our handmade Christmas gifts - Part 6

In this part 6 of our handmade Christmas gift postings, I will be showcasing these coasters using tiles bought from Lowe's and then a couple different things to top it off. I got the idea from here.


Things you need:
* 4x4 white tiles bought a Lowe's or Home Depot
* Clear acrylic sealer
* cocktail size napkins with a design of your choice
* cork for the backing
* ribbon to tie up the coasters

Here are the ones we made. The kids helped me glue and seal them. It didn't take long at all to make them.

Our handmade Christmas gifts - Part 5

Part 5 of our handmade Christmas gifts is Family Yahtzee. Click here to see an awesome tutorial on this.

This was a more time consuming craft then the others I did this year, but well worth it in the end. I used smaller wooden blocks for the dice than she did in the tutorial. I think next time I would go bigger, more like hers. Mine are 1x1 inch that I found at the craft store in a package of 16 wooden pieces for $2.

There is a lot of dry time in between coats. I would do a little then go start something else (like laundry or dinner) and wouldn't pick up again until later or even the next day.

This is a picture of the box I used. I bought a cardboard box that is meant to look like a book. Then I painted it white and covered the front and back with scrapbook paper.

I think it came out really cute! I hope the family that gets this likes it! My kids want to make one for us too! They were actually playing with this game and really got a kick out of it!


When I took the pictures I was letting the top dry before I added a "label" that read "Family Yahtzee" -- then I went on and wrapped the present before I had a chance to take a picture of my label. Shoot. So you don't get to see the end result. Sometimes I wonder where I left my brain!

Our handmade Christmas gifts - Part 4

Part 4 in this handmade Christmas gift showcase is another really cool neighbor gift. Repurposing a 4-pack Starbucks Frappachino with the cardboard carrier. I have made these before as birthday gifts, but this year I made one for a neighbor and one for a teacher's assistant at Lady Bug's school.

I got the idea here awhile back.

Here is where I posted about the one I made for my friend's birthday.

Below is a picture of one of the ones we made this year. Lady Bug helped me do this. It is so simple and everyone just loves these!

Our handmade Christmas - Part 3

Part 3 in the handmade Christmas is these silhouette ornaments. These are made by the kids, with very little supervision from me. Once I gave them the instructions, they whipped these out and had a blast making them. We made several of these ornaments to give as gifts.

Items needed for this:
- Wooden plaques (I found a 4 pack for $1 at the craft store and it already had a pre-drilled hole in the top. I wanted to get oval shaped ones but couldn't find the right size I wanted. These rectangle ones are about 2 1/2" wide and 4" long)
- paint for the sides of the plaque
- ribbon for hanging
- scrapbook paper
- your silhouette pictures

I probably did this the hard way, but here is what I did:

I took the kids pictures from the side. After I downloaded the pictures on the computer. I used the graphics editor and used the selection tool and cropped the edges of the profile. I deleted the background. Then I printed this and used scissors to cut it out. I made sure to cut the flyaways and the little fuzzy hairs so they show up (Spirit was cracking up at all the flyaways that Lefty had until I pointed out he had a few of his own!!) Anyway, then I traced it onto black paper and cut it out again.



I made some in a frame for my room (5x7 frames), but for these ornaments I used the small plaque. I looked at getting photo ornaments, but they were quite costly.

So, first I printed a version of The Christmas Story using a fancy font. I printed it out and we cut it the same size as the rectangle plaque I am using. I had the kids add a small amount of modge podge to the rectangle and place the verse on top. Then we added a little bit more modge podge over the whole thing.

When that was fully dried, we put a tiny bit of modge podge on the back of the silhouette and carefully placed it in the center of the rectangle on top of the Christmas story. Then carefully covered the whole thing with more modge podge.


After that is fully dried, we took some Christmas scrap book paper and cut it to fit the back side of the ornament You could use paint, but I had some scrapbook paper so I decided to use that on the back. Again, using modge podge to attach it.

After that had dried overnight, we attached a ribbon hanger and the kids wrote their names and the date on the back. I forgot to take a picture of the back. I thought I did, but I can't seem to find the picture and unfortunately all these that we made for people have been sent off, given away or already wrapped up. But the scrapbook paper on the back is red and says Merry Christmas all over it.

BELOW IS A PICTURE OF THE ONES HANGING IN MY ROOM. I WANT TO GET SOME RIBBON TO ACTUALLY HANG THESE FROM, BUT HERE IS THE WAY THEY ARE HANGING NOW.

Our handmade Christmas gifts - Part 2

Part 2 of the handmade Christmas gift showcase is a totebag for Lady Bug's teachers. Lady Bug is in Pre-K and learning to write. So I had her take a pencil and write on a totebag (I helped her decide what to write!) Then she and I sat together and embroidered it. We just did a basic back stitch with embroidery thread. She got a real kick out of making this.

We completed this in two evenings. The first night after dinner she wrote on it and we started sewing it. Then we completed it the next night. So again, this was an easy craft and not too expensive. The totebag was only $3 at the craft store. If our time and budget allows I will put in some school supplies in the bag before we wrap it up for the teacher.

Our handmade Christmas gifts - Part 1

This year we are doing a mixture of handmade gifts and store-bought gifts. I wanted to start showing off what we have been doing.

Part 1 of our handmade Christmas gifts:

Snowglobe soaps. Click here for the instructions I used.

These are so cute. So fun. And so easy to make. The kids helped me make them and we did two batches in about an hour.

I found some deer in the dollhouse section of the craft store. I also used some fun buttons. I didn't do a very good job placing the items on my first batch and they were hard to see. But I learned and the next batch came out much better!

These little gifts would make great stocking stuffers because they are the size of an ice cube. We are giving these to nieces, nephews and our neighbor kid friends.


Very cute and I highly recommend the craft.

**I took this picture before I wrapped them up. I plan to wrap them in cellophane and tie a ribbon around it.**

Helping a hard working teacher out - WFMW tip

I am not a teacher, nor have I ever been , but I am close to some people whose occupation is teaching in the public schools. So I know from talking to them that they work hard and put in lots of hours that we (as parents) don't know about, especially during parent/teacher conference times. They sometimes are pulled away from their families during conferences and sometimes until late into the evenings for these conferences.

So this year I decided to make each teacher a little "Dinner in a basket" gift. I picked up a few baskets at the thrift store. Then I prepared some homemade chili, stuck in some crackers, a couple apples, a few biscuits (just from a can), Mr. Man made some salsa that we packaged up and I stuck in a jar of homemade pumpkin butter. I attached a note that said "With the stress of parent/teacher conferences, please enjoy dinner on us tonight! Thank you for all your hard work!"


The kids and I enjoyed packing these up and then Mr. Man helped the boys deliver them to the school Monday morning when he dropped the kids off. The boys were so excited to give them to the teachers. I immediately got a note back from Lefty's teacher saying "Thank you! Dinner is just what I needed this week! Things are going to be so crazy with conferences. Thanks again!"


Click here for more Works for Me Wednesday tips and ideas.

Please don't forget my Rachel Ray cookware giveaway - click here to enter.

Friday Recipe - Pumpkin Butter

This recipe is for Pumpkin Butter, similar to Apple Butter for toast and such. This is a great fall/winter hostess gift or a gift for teachers, neighbors, etc. I usually make up a batch and we keep one small jar for ourselves. This is excellent on toast, muffins or biscuits. I usually attach a small tag tied with raffia or ribbon to my jars saying what it is and what to put it on.

It makes the house smell yummy too while it cooks!

Pumpkin Butter
INGREDIENTS:
1 (15 oz) can solid pack pumpkin (for those of you who cook your own pumpkin it is about 1 3/4 c pumpkin)
1 c applesauce
3/4 c apple juice
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Transfer to sterile containers and refrigerate until serving.

**NOTE: I reuse jars so I don't know what size my jars are, but I can tell you that this batch fills about 3 smaller sized jars. The recipe can easily be doubled or even tripled if you want to make more. The cooking time would need to be increased as well.**

Craft - Mother's Day

Ok, ok, so I know Mother's Day has come and gone, but I couldn't post these pictures until after my mother got her present! So you can flag this idea for next year if you want, or for any other holiday that might come along! This was fun and easy to do!

It all started with this chip board idea that I saw on Crafting Chicks. Then I saw this accordion book idea here. Combined the two ideas and came up with this:

There is one here that I made for my mom and the other for my mother-in-law. Each one was slightly different inside, but essentially I glued photos of each of us on a section of the accordion and each one of us did a short paragraph about what we love about these two women. I let the kids hand write theirs, but for Mr. Man's and mine I typed them up on the computer then cut them to size and glued them in. On the empty pages I found quotes about moms and glued them onto the pages to fill up the book.

The above picture shows the book all unfolded. These were not hard to put together and it was a great family thing to do together! These also were not expensive to make either.

Going Away Present

My sister-in-law and her family moved away. They left yesterday afternoon. They are moving from Colorado to Virginia for her husband's job. I wanted to give them a little going away gift, but you see they have moved once before. About 3 years ago they moved from Colorado to Virginia. Then about 1 year ago they moved back to Colorado and now they are leaving again. When they left the first time, I put together a little handmade recipe book of all our family-favorite recipes. She loved it!

I can't very well do that this time around so I needed to come up with something different! I decided since they would be driving that maybe a little "road trip care package" might be a good idea.

I found a rectangle Rubbermaid box (one that I had around the house that we weren't using) and filled it with snacks, chap stick, hand sanitizer, lotion, travel-size tissues, travel-size Extra Strength Tylenol, some fruit and water bottles. I figured this could be stacked in the car somewhere neatly, no pretty tissue paper and bag to deal with, nor was it one more thing she would have to pack up!

She carried on about how awesome this was. She said all she would need to really do is buy some ice for her cooler and fill it with the water bottles and some pop and they would be all set.

So, if you need a going away gift idea you could do the recipe book (like I did for my SIL the first time she moved) or do this Road Trip Care Package - she loved them both!

Book giveaway

My dear friend over at Rainy Day in May is hosting a giveaway for a very cute book called The Perfect Baby Handbook. This book sounds like a great book to use in your baby gift package for a new mom!

Go check out her post about the book. Misty does book and movie reviews - and she is an overall awesome person (go read this post for more on Misty and her absolutely fabulous family {we love them!})

Cute baby gift idea - Cake and quarters

Here is an idea for a simple, but unique baby gift idea for the mom in the hospital. I read on a blog a long time ago (I don't remember which one--sorry) that this woman takes a cake to a new mom in the hospital. She writes on the cake "Happy 0 Birthday!". At the time, I didn't know anyone having a baby so it didn't occur that I might ever use this idea.

My husband's niece just had a baby last week and since my husband had the day off from work (and I had to work) he decided to go visit her - I didn't have a gift ready for him to take so I told him to stop at the grocery store and buy a small cake. I told him to have the lady at the decorating counter write "Happy Birthday baby Prestyn". (I was telling a friend of mine about this and she said we should have done Happy Birth Day Prestyn THAT would have been so cute... I will remember that for next time!)

He took it to the hospital and everyone loved it and commented on what a good idea it was. I also told him to take her a roll of quarters because she had a c-section and I knew she and her husband might need money for the vending machines.

The reason this was a good gift idea is because this girl has a ton of family and friends and had lots of baby outfits, diapers, balloons, stuffed animals, etc. already in the hospital room and at home. So the cake was something everybody could nibble on in honor of the new baby and the quarters came in handy for the 4 day stay she had in the hospital!

Thanks to whomever gave me this idea! It was a great one! I will probably do this again!

"All I Want for Christmas Is..."

I am posting this in hopes that Mr. Man will take a gander here for some ideas:

I would love to have my microwave hung up above the stove

I would love a coffee maker

I would love my own sweatshirt so I don't have to wear Mr. Man's anymore

I would love a new pair of black shoes

I was also thinking a new car --- prime time to buy one. End of the year. It should be snowing today (salesmen are always ready to make a deal in a snowstorm... right??)

The list could go on and on, but I'll stop there for now! :o)

All I want for Christmas is...

Lefty (who is 6 and in 1st grade this year) told his dad that all he wants for Christmas is to have his kindergarten teacher come over for waffles.

He was in love with his kindergarten teacher and so were we (mostly). She was great for him. She gave him just enough push to really make him strive for more and more.

Oh, I battled with her on some things. Click here and here for more on those issues. But overall, she was so good to Lefty and he enjoyed her!

So I am thinking we get her over for waffles A.S.A.P., put a red bow on her head and that takes care of one present. Viola! Just like that!

I am kidding of course! (sort of!)

DIY Project - Dinner in a basket

I am not a teacher, nor have I ever been , but I am close to some people whose occupation is teaching in the public schools. So I know from talking to them that they work hard and put in lots of hours that we (as parents) don't know about, especially during parent/teacher conference times. They sometimes are pulled away from their families during conferences and sometimes until late into the evenings for these conferences.

So this year I decided to make each teacher a little "Dinner in a basket" gift. I picked up a few baskets at the thrift store. Then I prepared some homemade chili, stuck in some crackers, a couple apples, a few biscuits (just from a can), Mr. Man made some salsa that we packaged up and I stuck in a jar of homemade pumpkin butter. I attached a note that said "With the stress of parent/teacher conferences, please enjoy dinner on us tonight! Thank you for all your hard work!"


We are going to put together a few of these for some neighbors this year for Christmas gifts. I am thinking of spaghetti noodles, a jar of sauce, garlic bread and some homemade cookies with a note that "With the stress of the holidays, please enjoy dinner tonight on us!"

Oh the crafti-ness of me

My wheels have been a spinning and I am getting ready to make some Christmas presents. Every year I sit down and make a list of who I plan to give a present to and then I start searching for the perfect item to make or buy those people.


I have admitted before to being a list maker, I make lists for everything - the Holidays are no different! I could not get through the holidays without my lists. I write down names of people I will make or buy gifts for, which store or online shop I need to go to, approximate cost and then I mark it all off when I am done.


Then if I am making gifts I make a list of what items I need to buy and how much of each one. I keep my lists in my purse or car so when I get a chance to go shopping I have my lists -as you know with kids sometimes the moments can jump up on you so you must be prepared.

Here are some gifts I already know that I am going to do this year:

FOR COUPLES: I am putting together a couples basket, one of them will be filled with a couples devotional, some candles, sparkling wine or cider and some chocolates. A second basket I am thinking about will have a gift card to a movie theatre and some boxed candies and also add a love song (or soft music) CD.


FOR FAMILIES: This year I am giving gifts as a family instead of individual items for each member. One of my SIL's has a tradition with her kids that they work on jigsaw puzzles over the holidays. So I found this website called signals.com and you can order a puzzle of your hometown. That would be some great family time together!


Another basket I am putting together for some of the families we are giving to this year is a "Family Night" basket. I plan to put in a movie, a board or card game, popcorn, candy and maybe some of those Christmas-y bottles of Coca-Cola.


FOR NEIGHBORS: Mr. Man makes the best popcorn balls (I know, funny right?) so I am going to put a few of those together in a basket or a cute bowl with a tag attached that says "We are popping over to wish you a happy holiday season! Thanks for being such great neighbors!"


Another idea I am thinking of is putting together a basket with a pot holder, a wooden spoon, some spaghetti sauce and noodles with a tag attached that reads "With the holiday rush and busyness it brings, please have dinner on us. Thanks for being such great neighbors!"


I have some other ideas I am working on so I will keep you posted! I am hoping to be able to post some pictures too!

Father's Day ideas

I asked Mr. Man what he wanted for Father's Day and he didn't really have any ideas. I know he wants a new bike. I know he would love to have a new grill. I know he needs new roller blades. I know he'd love some shelves for his garage. Since he told me he doesn't really have any gift ideas I am not sure what to do for him. I would love to get him a bike. The grill.... well ours, as old and rattled as it is, still works so I don't really want to spend money on that and I feel about the same for the roller blades. But, a bike is something that he needs and wants and I would love to spend the money on it for him.

I also, would like to see if the kids want to make him something -- but what? What would we make? Nice breakfast? He gets that every Sunday. Nice dinner? What would he want? UGH

I am so confused this year on what to do. Mother's day is so easy for him -- the kids make stuff in school and then he took me out to lunch. It was nice, but it was easy for him to make it nice. I have it hard!!! I have to come up with all of it on my own! As my kids would say: "It's just not fair!" **do you hear the whine in my voice?**

Anyone got any glorious ideas to share?