12 Days of Christmas*Teachers' Gifts...Days 11-12

Day 11...happy, scrappy signs.  Since my Cricut took a nosedive on me, I had to go to my local scrapbook store to cut the letters.  I just bought some wood, had it cut to size, painted it, and Mod Podged on the letters.  I drilled a hole to put the wire thru to make the signs hangable{which is apparently NOT a word-ha!}, and tied a bunch of ribbon on.

Day 12...I bought candles from Wal-Mart, which smell AMAZING, took the labels off and glued burlap and/or ribbon around them.  Simple and cute!

This one is for Jackson's teacher.  She has a more rustic/natural Christmas theme, so I thought the burlap and yarn would be great.

For the rest of the teachers, I used a fun polka dot ribbon.

The packaging.  My camera seriously hates me.  I think a kid got a hold of it or something, because I cannot get a focused picture for anything!  Anyway...I printed off tags that said, 

"May your days be Merry and Bright!  

Happy 12 Day of Christmas!

Love, 

Lilly{or Jackson or Fisher}"

That, my friends, completes the 12 Days of Christmas*Teachers' Gifts!  This was a lot of fun, but a LOT of work!

Come back soon and I'll show you our home all decked out with Christmas Cheer and share some other good news!

12 Days of Christmas*Teachers' Gifts...Day 10

Day 10...Wooden Nativities.  I found the tutorial, or basic instructions, here.  I glued my people together, as I didn't want them to wiggle or come apart.  I also sanded my wood, but the original maker did not.  Other than those few little differences, I mostly followed her instructions.  I love the simplicity of these!

This is how I packaged them up.  I printed the passage of  Luke 2: 8-14 and stapled it on.

⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

12 Days of Christmas*Teachers' Gifts...Day 9

Day 9 brought the teachers pumpkin bread.  I got the packaging from Michael's...a Martha Stewart Christmas clearance!

12 Days of Christmas*Teachers' Gifts...Day 8

Day 8 brought felt snowflake ornaments from Target, along with Hershey's Kisses and peppermints.

I put them in a quart size Ziploc bag and stapled a doily to the top.  A stamped tag finishes it off!

12 Days of Christmas*Teachers' Gifts...Days 5-7

Hey there!  I hope y'all had a great weekend!  We did!  We had two cookie exchanges, so it was a super busy, fun time!  

Day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas was snow globes!  I'm sure you've all seen these around Pinterest and other blogs.  I love them!  They are super simple and inexpensive to make.  I saved my jelly and spaghetti jars, so it brought the cost down even more!  I just took the labels off, washed the jars really good, and spray painted the lids.  Then, I took trees from Wal-Mart and glued them to the lids, added in a little snow, screwed the lids back on, and voila, a cute gift!

I loved this packaging!  I took small tags that I aged in coffee and cinnamon, stamped a 5 on, then tied them to the bag along with a snowflake ornament, and grey ribbon.

A little closeup...the snowflakes came from The Dollar Tree in a pack of six.

Day 6 was yummy, homemade cookies!  You can tell I went all out on the packaging!  Haha!

These cookies are seriously yummy! You can find the recipe here.

Day 7...I decoupaged ornaments with book pages and glitter.  I then printed out the Noel on the computer and strung it all on twine.  My inspiration came from Pinterest.

I just nestled these in some kraft paper shreds in a cellophane bag tied with twine.  Simple and beautiful!

12 Day of Christmas*Teachers' Gifts...Day 4

Day 4...I made tags that the teachers can either tie on a package or decorate with.  My personal favorite is the snowman.  I just found a vintage snowman postcard, saved, and printed it to size.  Then, I just used a glue stick to adhere it to my tags, which I soaked in a bath of coffee and cinnamon to age, then used good ole Elmer's to make a bead around the edge and sprinkled glitter.  LOVE how it turned out!

I wrote a little poem, then stapled it to a fun cellophane bag.  Ready to give!

12 Days of Christmas*Teachers' Gifts, 1-3

I got this hair-brained idea to do a 12 Days of Christmas gift giving extravaganza for the kids' teachers this year.  You know, cause I'm not busy enough!  Aren't we all, though?

So...Day 1 was homemade hot chocolate mix, that I just put in mason jars and added cute lids.  The little bags hold marshmallows and Bob's peppermint sticks.

Day 1 all packaged and ready for gifting!

Day 2...Decoupaged initial ornaments...

A closeup of one...

Day 2 packaged up!

Day 3...Christmas Popcorn!

I have lots more ideas up my sleeves so y'all come back!

Horsey Love...

One of Lilly's friends is into horses.  As in, she has won first place in her shows.  The sweet thing broke her arm and so we decided to make her a care package.  I made a horsey hair clip inspired by this girl's.

Lilly made a little hoop art for her friend.  I think she did a great job!!  We threw in a few other store-bought goodies and called it done!

Come Fly With Me...A Vintage, Travel Baby Shower

This Spring, my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my baby brother's girlfriend.  I knew immediately I wanted to go with a vintage, travel theme.  I made the banner hanging on the fireplace out of thrifted men's shirts.  The "B", for Braxton, is just covered in atlas paper and wrapped with twine.  A couple of vintage suitcases, a globe, a vintage camera, and atlas pinwheels in a mason jar complete the scene.

The drink station...I used an old quilt top of my mom's on the table.  A Squirt crate held mason jars with paper straws.  We had punch, fancy water, and sweet tea.

A little closeup...

I didn't want to use paper plates, and since Nick and Ashley are just making a home together, I bought colorful plates that they could keep.  I used an old milk crate to hold them and more pinwheels and a vintage camera help carry the theme through-out.

Yummy...homemade hummus with mini pitas and veggies, chicken salad on croissants, marinated cheese, fruit...I love party food!!

We set up tables outside...

My Mamaw's vintage dough bowl holding pinwheels and a vintage camera...

A couple of vintage books, more pinwheels, and another camera...

More books, more pinwheels...I was making pinwheels FOREVER!!!  

Triple chocolate bundt cake with an atlas flag topper...

The wreath greeted people at the front door, but I don't have a decent pic of it...

I just wrapped a straw wreath with burlap ribbon and used straight pins or hot glue to attach the pinwheels.  A paper mache "B" for Braxton.

The happy couple in a prerequisite cheesy pose.  Hahaha!!!

The proud aunt of a nephew, finally!!!

Big boy Braxton now!!  Not only did our family get another little boy to add to the mix, we got 3 more cousins in addition!  Ashley's other 3 children are my other kids' ages, so there is always fun when they're around!!

Friday Thrifting...

Today Violet and I went to visit a friend who had a baby, but first we snuck in a little trip to the local thrift shoppe.  I picked up some books to use in my Fall decor, a vintage camera to add to my ever-growing collection, fabric, a wreath form, and a pretty blue and white plate.

I also found this darling coat and sweet little white shoes for Violet.  The spool of baby ric rac will be fun for gift wrapping and crafting!!

Thanks for looking!!  Hope y'all have a great weekend!!

Back to School

Well folks, it's back to school time in our neck of the woods!!  This is Fisher's first year leaving the nest and the first of my children to ever go to pre-k.  I miss him already...sniff, sniff.

Lilly is officially a first grader!!  We love her teacher AND she has had all the diabetic children that have come thru, so that makes this Momma feel very confident!

I cannot believe my first born, Jackson, is a fourth grader now!!!!  The time is flying!!

I hosted a Back to School Brunch yesterday.  For the tablescape, I used a vintage quilt top for a runner and set old books and an owl vase atop it.

My HOORAY banner was inspired by Heather at Cookie Mondays...She's famous now, you know!!  So happy for her!!!

Here's a lil closeup of the table...

The owl came from Target's $2.50 spot.  I snatched that sucker up, I did!

A sweet gift from my friend, Angie...

All in all, it was a great day!!  The kids had a great first day and us moms had a fun time eating and talking and getting to know one another more.

Are your kids back in school yet?