May Day "Baskets"

Happy May Day everyone!  I love the sweet tradition of delivering May Baskets, full of spring flowers, to hang on neighbors doorknobs.  For years I've wanted to just that, but inevitably May 1st sneaks up on me and I find I'm unprepared.

Not this year!  I picked up flowers at the grocery store, saved cans from making chili, and put together a few sweet "baskets."  I drilled holes in the sides of the cans and knotted ribbon through the can so that it could hang from a doorknob.

I would have loved to use flowers from my yard, but I don't have anything blooming except a few daffodils.  I did use a sprig from the crab apple tree however.

I don't think I will ever tire of pink and green together.  It's so lovely and couldn't be more perfect for spring.

Cookie of The Month Club

I know that everyone is probably done and ready to move on from Christmas posts but I really wanted to share Grace's gift to Bryce.  I think it's such a cute idea (if I do say so myself!) for a gift that children can make for a parent or grandparent.  It would work not only for Christmas but birthdays and Father's or Mother's Day too!

Bryce loves cookies of almost any sort, particularly chocolate chip cookies, which Grace makes for him fairly frequently.  For Christmas this year she gave him The Cookie of the Month Club.  Every month, for one year, she will make a batch of cookies just for him.  She even went ahead and selected cookies for each month loosely based on the seasons!

She made an adorable coupon booklet for him and wrapped it up along with her first batch of cookies, Christmas Coal, that were made with Oreos, a favorite!

Santa's Gifts

I almost forgot about my annual posting of Santa's gifts to the children.  I particularly loved the stocking stuffers this year. 

 

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned that Santa brings the majority of the children's gifts.  Both children got one gift from Bryce and I this year and the rest were from Santa or family.  To say the least, they were thrilled with all of their gifts!

 

Sibling Gifts 2013

Since we started making sibling gifts they, along with our other handmade gifts, have become one of my absolute favorite parts of Christmas.  The children are excited about making them and it's the first gift that is opened after Santa's gifts!  This year was all about the pillow!

Grace loves mustaches so Harris and I came up with the idea to make a pillow with interchangeable mustaches.  Since I have zero sewing skills, we enlisted the help of my Mom who did all the sewing for both the children's gifts.  Harris designed the mustaches and the face of the pillow, stuffed the pillow and helped cut out the mustaches.  He also made a little pouch for the mustaches that aren't being used.  He was delighted with the results as was Grace.

 

Several years ago, Al and Marilyn found this plaid, insulated shirt at a stadium that they were visiting.  After trying to find the owner, they kept the shirt and sent it to Harris.  Wouldn't you know that it became his favorite shirt and in fact, there is a period of time where every picture I have of Harris he is in this shirt!

It was a sad day when he realized it no longer fit him, but he didn't want to get rid of it.  Grace had the idea to make a pillow out of it to commemorate his favorite shirt.  I think the pocket was a stroke of brilliance.  It's perfect for little notes or tokens!

Souvenir

I can hardly believe that we have been home from our trip for almost three weeks!  Honestly, I've had a bit of a hard time adjusting and I'm not sure why.  I've found myself to be unmotivated, lethargic and at loose ends!  I think that our time in the RV was so good for me to be inspired and active and I need to find a way to incorporate that into my daily life here at home.

I've shared before our thoughts on purchasing souvenirs from vacations and this vacation was no different.  We purchased an ornament for our Christmas tree, a lovely book about Yellowstone and a piece of art.  My definition of art is very broad and I've included a beautiful Pendleton blanket in that catagory.  Did you know that Pendleton has made a blanket for various National Parks since the early 1900's?  I love that I got my  Glacier blanket (it's so, so soft!) at Glacier National Park.  For now, it's thrown on the chair in the office/library and every time I glance over it reminds me of our amazing time in Glacier!

Stuffed Animal Portraits- A Valentine's Gift

I don't believe that I ever posted about the gifts that we gave the children for Valentine's Day.  I had seen portraits done of stuffed animals before and thought that it would be really special to give the children a portrait of something they love on the day of love!

Bedtime Bunny and Mushca are definitely favorites around here and a part of the family.  I took several pictures of the animals and sent them to Erin at First Friends .  She did a beautiful job and I simply couldn't be happier with them.

When I went to take them to get framed I was shocked to discover that each one was going to be $100 (that's using a coupon!), so I ended up buying a regular frame and having them make a mat to fit the frame.  I'm really happy with how they turned out and even happier with the $18 total!

Sibling Gifts 2011

When we started making sibling gifts several years ago (here, here, and here) I had no idea that it would become such a family favorite.  The children love making gifts for each other and it's the first gift they want to open on Christmas morning.

This year, Grace knew right away that she wanted to make some sort of animal for Harris.  She decided on a sock animal that she found in an old Martha Stewart Kids.  With a little help/guidance from her Grandma she created Mr. Meows for Harris.  He is darling and Harris adores him!

I helped Harris to make lip balm for Grace.  He was giddy the whole time he was making it (and he did almost all the work- he even shaved the beeswax!) because it was one big science experiment for him!  We followed the instructions from Martha Stewart and the balm turned out beautifully.  I think we will all be using it.  I waited a little too long to order pots or tubes so we used travel sized pots from Target and they worked out just fine.

Peppermint Hot Fudge Sauce for friends

I delivered a few gifts to friends today that I'm hoping will add some seasonal cheer to their weekend!  I made a double batch of peppermint hot fudge sauce, packaged it up in small mason jars, tied on candy cane toppings and added a pint of really yummy (local) ice cream.

While wandering the grocery store, I happened upon these darling miniature, one serve ice cream containers.  They fit the top of the mason jar perfectly and were adorable.  But alas, I figured it would be nice if my friend's families could have more than one spoonful each, so I'm filing the idea away for later because everything is cuter when it is smaller!

Portrait Labels

The children have been really into wrapping their gifts for everyone this year and I think these Christmas labels are the cutest things ever! These are from last year but we will certainly be using them again this year.  I just adore how personal they become and who doesn't smile at a child's portrait of themselves?  You can print them off here (we did enlarge the labels).

Summer Thyme Pound Cakes (teacher gift)

Yesterday was the last day of school (finally!) for the children.  Both of our classes gave a class gift to the teachers, but I thought  it would be nice to also give them a little homemade token of appreciation for all that they have done for the children throughout the year.

I've had a recipe for Lemon Thyme Pound Cake that I have been wanting to make for several years.  It was a great way to use my over abundance of lemon thyme and I thought it was a cute play on words (enjoy your summerthyme!).

I've never used a mini bundt pan before but I love how sweet the cakes turned out!  I will definitely be on the lookout for more recipes to make more cute cakes!

The Grandparents Valentines

I had such big hopes this year to get out Valentine's to my friends and family.  It didn't happen.  I did manage to get Valentines to the children's grandparents though!

We gave the Grandparents child made cranberry scones, homemade butter and some tea bags that we added hearts too.

The children made the scones all by themselves (except for the oven part) and they were really, really tasty!  We used Martha Stewart's recipe but substituted Craisins for the whole cranberries.

Making the butter was all sorts of crazy fun!  I followed the initial instructions for homemade butter that I found here, but I ended up taking it a few steps farther than what I understood her instructions to be.  She also has a very cute printable.

I thought I would share some tips that I learned while making the butter.
1.  Your butter will get very, very thick and feel like it is finished but if you continue shaking it will once again get very sloshy and feel like you are back to the beginning.  This is good!  Apparently, it means that the cream has broken and you have butter.
2.  The butter will now be in a ball surrounded by the buttermilk.  Dump everything out into a sieve and rinse the butter.  It will sort of fall apart but will easily go back into a ball.
3.  From what I read this is the only way to insure that the butter will stay good for more than a day or two (this was important since we were shipping cross country)!
4.  It's shockingly good.
5.  We found the best (and the funniest) way to make the butter was to have a dance party.

Chocolate Spoons

We don't always give the children a gift for Valentine's Day but this year inspiration struck!  Remember the garden markers that I made this past summer?  I had the idea that I could make chocolate spoons with a little love note stamped on them.  I loved the idea that they wouldn't know that there was a surprise message for them until after they melted the chocolate!

It was easy coming up with what to stamp- the children and I always go round and round saying, "I love you... MORE!"  I believe my Mom started that when I was a child!  

After stamping the spoons, I melted chocolate (I used dark chocolate) in a coffee mug.  I used the mug so that I could get some good depth to cover the spoon.  After dipping the spoons in the chocolate I let them sit on waxed paper for a bit before I dipped again.  I dipped three times and then popped them in the refrigerator to completely harden.

  

We warmed up some milk and the children made hot chocolate with their spoons!  

Grace has already asked if she can give it to her children!  Wouldn't that be lovely?