Teacher Appreciation

Wow.  2.5 months.  That's the longest I've gone without blogging.  But you know when you've waited a little bit and have a bunch of stuff to share, but it seems like so much and there's just never enough time because now it's so much, well it was like that :-)  But I have several months worth of crafts and some cute ideas to share!

May was beyond crazy and April was spent prepping for it.  First up was Teacher Appreciation Week.  My friends and I were in charge of it for the whole school.  We did a catered lunch for the teachers and staff of the entire school every day for a week!   Our theme was, "Thank You For Helping Our Children Grow."  Here's how some of it turned out.

We decorated the teachers lounge.  The room is very ugly and cluttered.  We did the best we could :-)

 Adding some burlap to the back of the wall really helped our food table.  The poofs, bunting, table cloths, signage, and centerpieces all went with our theme and color theme (yellow, white, turquoise/blue)
 

 
The centerpieces were small rose bushes wrapped in burlap and blue ribbon.  We had little signs that matched and had our theme on it.  The table runners were yellow with small blue polka dots.

 

 My friend Taryn made this adorable sign that went with our theme.  It was black vinyl on white paper.  She also made the adorable paper flowers that we used all over. 

 I was also the room mom for my daughters class. I delegated our door to some other mom's since I was busy decorating the rest of the school.  I think it turned out soooooo cute!  The kids faces were on the apples.  Love it!

 
Here's some of the decor from the front of the school.  There were grass and flowers by the front office.

 
We had signage and paper flowers going all the way down the corridor where everyone walks  into the school.  My friend Taryn did these signs!  They were awesome. 

 In 25 years, no one had ever decorated the outside of the school for the teachers.  It turned out soooo cute!! 

 It was a great week and I've already got new ideas for next year :-)

Some Gifts

I finished two fun gifts this past week for 2 of my girlfriends! 

One just had a new baby.  It's actually been a few months and I've been trying to get this to her but finally decided to mail it off so I had to take a picture before it went.  I absolutely LOVE this toile minky print!  It's been hard to come by (at a reasonable price).  I've saved a little for myself just in case there's another little girl in my future :-)

And my other friend had her birthday!  I've continued my theme of giving table runners.  This friend requested this type/color.  I added the monogramming!  I love that this is exactly what they are selling in Pottery Barn right now but I made it :-)  Hemstitch is still very 'in'.

Typography Wall Art Tutorial

I finally finished this long awaited project- some new wall art!  I actually have a couple to complete but here's the first one.  I saw an adorable version of this on Barn Owl Primitives. (if you don't want to make your own, I highly recommend getting yours from her.  awesome stuff!) But the price was a bit steep for me so I figured I could make it.  Here's a tutorial on making wall art:

-I used a blank paint canvas.  I got it at Michael's with the 50% off coupon for about $12 for a 2 pack.

-Instead of using Vinyl and transfer paper (like silhouette recommends), I place contact paper on my sticky mat and use my silhouette to cut out the letters.
-If you want your letters to be white, just leave the canvas as it is.  If you want the letters to have a color, then paint/spray the whole board now.
-Measure the board and using a pencil draw the lines of where you want the letters to go, or at least the spacing.
-After cutting all of the letters on the contact paper (I use the same cut settings as the vinyl), I peel the letters off and stick to the board.  This method makes the edges a bit fuzzy.  It will lay down flat but it will kinda peel up a little after you paint.  I like this look.  But if you want perfectly crisp letters, you'll probably have to use the vinyl.
-Once you have all of your letters positioned on the board, take it outside (or some place safe), and spray paint it.  I just used the cheap kind from Walmart, nothing special.
-  Once it is completely dry, peel off your contact paper letters.
-I wanted a kinda vintage look so I took soft sand paper and sanded over the whole canvas.  I love how it turned out.  I could probably even do some more sanding.  I'm just afraid of getting too much.  But this definitely helped finish off the look.

So, total price for canvas ($6), a huge roll of contact paper ($6, but I'll be able to use for lots of projects), and a can of spray paint ($2)-  $14, and I still have plenty of spray paint and contact paper left!  Not too shabby!!

I'm going to use this same method to make some wall art for my boys room.  I'll let you know how it goes :-)  And I'll take some pictures as I go next time to add to this post.  Hope it helps!

Cinnamon Swirl Bread- How To

My new obsession---  cinnamon swirl bread!  And more specifically, cinnamon chips!  Wow.  Just wow.  Why has it taken me so long to get these.  Now I'm finding all sorts of things to put them into.  I just love cinnamon swirl bread, especially for french toast.  I tried a couple different ways to get the cinnamon chips into the bread dough and finally figured it out.  A big thank you to my friend Taryn for suggesting rolling it up like cinnamon rolls.  It works fantastic.  Here's a few tips I figured out:

First, pick your favorite bread recipe.  I use my Honey Whole Wheat recipe.  It's not 100% whole wheat, so it actually taste's fantastic with the cinnamon chips in it too.

After the bread has done it's first raising and you are ready to separate them into the different loaves and put in the pans, you need to add the cinnamon chips.  Take your portion of 1 loaf and put a greased counter top.  I just used my granite counter top with a  little pam sprayed on it.  I didn't want to add any additional flour at this point, so stick with pam.  Using your rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle.  It should only be the length a little shorter than your pan, and just roll until about an inch thick.

Now, here's the fun part.  Take your cinnamon chips and press them into your rectangle.  Make sure you cover the whole area and be generous!  I've gotten too much cinnamon once but we all loved it.  It was amazing.  I didn't do enough my first time and I was disappointed.  So play with it, but I liked erring on the side of too much :-)

Ok, once you have all of your cinnamon chips pushed slightly into the dough, start with one end and roll the dough very tightly just like cinnamon rolls.  Roll it really tight (it prevents air bubbles) all the way up.  I kind try to smooth the seam of the bread in at the end so the top looks pretty or you can just put this part on the bottom of the pan.  Put your roll into your pan and let raise until double in size.

 

 Bake at your normal temperature and time.  Then get ready to enjoy some amazing cinnamon bread!!!  Have fun. 

 

Mmmmm.  Toasted with a little butter it = delish!

Linking Up to:
Take a Look Tuesday- Sugar Bee Crafts
Chef In Training
Craft & Tell @ Cherished Bliss

Girl Scout Costumes- Madagascar

I should have been working on finishing Valentines last week, but instead I spent several days making14 costumes for my daughters girl scout troop!  They are participating in an International Food/Dance fair.  Their assigned country is Madagascar.  After researching, I discovered that the traditional dress in Madagascar is a lambda.  It's a tube of fabric they wear around them, usually with a shirt underneath, and another tube of fabric for their heads.  I took all of the descriptions and here is my interpretation :-)

I LOVE the batik fabric I found.  It was tough finding enough fabric to have all 14 matching.  I also did a matching sarong and head scarf for the troop leader.  So fun.  The event isn't until next month but we wanted the girls to help make them, so I had the outfit ready and the girls helped feed their elastic through the casing.  I sewed it together and finished it.  They also made adorable wooden bead necklaces as part of their outfits.

Now they just have to finish learning their dance!  Fun times!!

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!!   Wow!  What a day!  I have finally sat down and after catching my breath, wanted to post some of the fun things I got done for today.  The highlights were the kids class parties and of course our wonderful family breakfast and dinner together.

Decorations:  My kids love helping me decorate for Valentines day.  I also add a little "extra" the night before.  We had a busy day so I got our dinner all setup the night before as well.  It felt very fancy.

 Teacher Gifts:  The kids and I made a batch of our FAVORITE Chocolate Chip Cookies, recipe HERE  And wrapped them up cute for the kids teachers.

 Of course they wouldn't be complete without notes from the kids!

 The Valentines:  I LOVE the process of making the valentines. 

The Girl Valentine-  Every year I let my daughter make her own.  This year we came up with the idea of cutting out hearts in different color papers and sew them together with M&M's in the middle.  They turned out so cute!  We were doing them by hand at first, but we had to make 32 of them!  So we ended up stitching them on the sewing machine.  It was so much faster! 

The Boy Valentine-  I saw this adorable Valentine on Shindig Parties to Go and just HAD to make them.  They are linked HERE.  SOOOO cute!!  We only had to make 14 of these so these were more doable.  The only problem I had was finding Rolo's.   I found some but they were 1.76 per Rolo!!  I did not want to spend that much.  So I found some 3 Musketeers candy bars on sale for .79.  But then the template didn't fit!  So I had to remake all of the templates :-(  I copied Shindig's design so it turned out so cute.  But I hated spending the time to do all of that when it was already done for me.  Oh well.  My son LOVED his rocket.  He wrote his name on the back of all of the tags.  So cute!

 The Outfit-  My daughter always has a new outfit for Valentines day.  I made this dress from an actual pattern.  I got the pattern for 99cents at Walmart.  It was really cute and super easy.  It only took me a little over an hour.  It has a little cap sleeve.  I made it a little big but added a tie in the back.  She'll definitely be able to wear it the rest of the year.  I love how it turned out, especially since the whole thing only cost me $5, including the pattern.

 We had such a fun day!  My kids loved their litte gifts, we had a fantastic dinner (steak, chocolate dipped strawberry's, homemade french bread were some of the highlights), and a really fun day delivery valentines and partying!  Happy LOVE day!

Cheesy Corn & Potato Chowder

My kids LOVE this recipe.  It's super easy and has the best flavor of any Potato Soup recipe I've ever tried.  This is perfect for a cozy winter weekend!  Recipe is by Jackay on Allrecipes.com. 

Ingredients:
2 T Margarine
1 C. chopped Celery (I leave this out)
1 C. chopped Onion
2 (14.5 oz.) cans of chicken broth
3 C. of peeled and cubed potatoes
1 (15 oz.) can of whole kernel con
1 (4oz.) can diced green chilies
1 (2.5oz) package country style gravy mix
2 C. milk
1 C. shredded mexican-style cheese

In large saucepan, melt margarine over medium high heat.  Add celery and onion.  Cook and stir until tender, about 5 min.

Add chicken broth; bring to boil.  Add potatoes; cook over low heat for 20-25 min. or until potatoes are soft.  Stirring occasionally.

Stir in corn and chilies; return to boiling.  Dissolve gravy mix in milk; stir into boiling mixture.  Add cheese;  cook and stir over low heat until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!