Teacher Thank you gift

For the last day of school, I wanted to have a small thank you for Natalie's teacher, because as I've said many times before- she is amazing.

I originally had plans to buy a vase, etch an initial on it, and fill it with flowers. But, Ross stores that I checked, didn't have any good vases. I decided that I'd have to change up the plan a little. I bought this little pitcher- which I have been wanting to get for myself. :) I LOVE IT. It was $2.99. I love using other containers for vases anyway so I actually liked this better than the original idea. I bought a small bouquet of mini carnations at Safeway (for $3.99) and cut them down to fit. I tied a ribbon around the pitcher and made a card to attach to a skewer to place inside the bouquet.

We also made a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies and placed them, still warm, in a white lunch bag and tied it with a ribbon to deliver after school.

Satchels

I just 'had' to make up one of these for each of my boys after they kept carrying my purse all around the house to use as their "satchel" like the one Flynn Rider has in Tangled. ha.

I just used some scraps of fleece that I had around and cut a long strip to attach for the handle. It won't last forever but probably will last long enough for them to enjoy while they're still excited about it.

Angry Birds

Alright, once again and I am going to shamelessly admit that I am copying an idea that my sisterfirst showed me. But, how could I not? These are DARLING! My husband and kids (okay- and me too) love Angry Birds and with my husband's birthday coming up, I had to make up some of these for some real-life angry bird battles.

(This pig is my favorite) :)

They took me WAY longer than they probably should have but I wanted to make sure they would hold up to the inevitable abuse they would get. The eyes on the pigs needs to reinforced already, despite my best efforts, but I am really happy with how everything turned out. I am not a super experienced sewer and this was my first time using a pattern so if I can do it, so can you.

I made them all out of fleece and they are so soft and fuzzy that my little 11 month old LOVES snuggling them. For the original idea and patterns, click HERE. These patterns are so great! They look just like the real birds. A-MAZ-ING.

The birds needed a few eggs and a couple golden eggs, so I used THIS fabric egg pattern that I came across.

Also, I had to have something to keep them in, so I made up this drawstring bag.

Minions

My son Evan recently had a birthday and after seeing these on my sister's blog, I KNEW we had to make them too. The kids were INSISTENT that there had to be some one-eyed minions, too.

Evan also wanted a Gru cake, so I kept it very simple and did a (somewhat recognizable) silhouette of Gru's face. The cupcakes were a little time consuming but so easy to make. Some people's creativity amazes me...

(as my daughter is seeing me create this post, she's singing "I'm having a bad bad day..." Lol.

Teacher Appreciation Day

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!

Natalie has THE best teacher(s) this year. We LOVE them. Natalie's teacher's daughter is also a credentialed teacher but there's a shortage of jobs here in the district so she teaches every day with her mom. Natalie is extra lucky because the kids get twice the one-on-one attention. Not to mention that they get to go on TONS of field trips (for example: this week there are 3!!) and the kids all adore their teachers. The principal is amazing, too. He knows every child by name and is so down to earth and friendly.

So, we wanted to really let Natalie's teachers know how much we appreciate them. I found this orinigal idea from my extremely talented cousin, Marisa and my amazing sister also did a similar one here. I decided to make a teacher's version of it for our teachers this year.

(excuse the dark picture above. the lighting was not good)

Here are the magnets that Natalie made for her teachers to include in the boxes as well as a couple for her principal. She wrote each person a really sweet card and illustrated it. :)

The pencils were for her class and each child got to bring one home as well.

Super Hero Canvas

My friend, Alanna, recently lent me her Super Hero Cricut cartridges "Batman" and "Superman" which were perfect since I've been trying to make a Super Hero-themed bedroom for my boys. And, I hd arecenly picked up this canvas up for free from a neighbor who was moving.

I guess it's a map of the Presidio in San Francisco. Not my favorite piece of art, but with a coat of white paint, it quickly turned into a large, free blank canvas.

First I painted the background on, then I cut out a Superman image with the Cricut and went to Office Max to have it enlarged. They charged $0.36. Nice! I paid more for parking than for the enlargement. Then I took it home, traced it with carbon paper, and painted it on using black acrylic paint.

The colors for the back ground really pulled together some of the other decorations for the room, which was exactly what I was hoping for. I also wanted to keep the silhouette pretty unspecific. I just wanted it to look like a hero, not a specific hero.

Bathroom Soap and Lotion Dispensers

Living in an apartment, space is limited and clutter accumulates quickly.

We've got six people in this apartment and one tiny bathroom. A bathroom that has NO counterspace. The sink has just enough space to put a soap dispenser and that is IT. So, I wanted to keep it as clean looking and simple as possible. I've got a soap dispenser and a bottle of lotion that we keep out. Even though that doesn't sound like much, it looked too busy so I decided to stream line the look with these. I really liked the flat shape of them.

Not much explanation needed: I bought these two dispensers at Dollar Tree, cut the vinyl on my Cricut (using Plantin Schoolbook) and stuck it on. Easy. Easy. Easy.

Easter Bunny Cake

Several years ago, I made a cake just like this for my kids when my oldest two, Natalie and Evan, were about 3 and 1.

It's a fun cake especially for kids around three years old. Things seem so exciting and magical at that age, I think. I wanted to make it again for them this year since my youngest son, Miles, is three. Sure enough, he was IN LOVE with it. He loves kitties and bunnies, etc. anyway so it was fun to see his reaction to this. :)

I actually only used one 8 inch round to make it so the kids were MORE than happy to decorate the second cake. ( I can't believe I didn't get a pic of it! It was awesome and more frosting than cake.)

Here is the basic outline for making the cake- this isn't the original one I used, and I can't seem to find it, but this one has the same diagram for cutting and assembling the body.

I used chocolate chips for eyes and a jelly bean for the nose. :)