Heartwarmers

I was looking for a Valentine's Craft for the kids when I came across some "heart-warmers". If you head on over to "lovesome", she has a great tutorial and a free download of the cute little card to go with it!   All you need is felt, rice, and a sewing machine (or you could handstitch).

My 10 year old daughter has recently learned to embroidery, so she handstitched this...

She has a special friend from church that she wants to give it to tomorrow, which means I need to get off the computer and start sewing!  Keep warm and have a blessed day!

What Valentine's Crafts will YOU be working on?

Thanks a latte!

Looking for a super cute and easy gift to say "thank you" this Christmas season!?  I found this on eighteen25 and couldn't resist making it for my kids' teachers.  All I had to do was print it off, add a "java jacket" (I made mine out of brown cardstock), tie some jute around it, and add a GC to a local coffee shop.  We also gave each teacher a coffee mug to go with it. 

What do you give your teacher for Christmas?

Homemade Dog Biscuits

The kids and I have been enjoying our Summer Fun List again this year. (You can see our 2009 list here.)  Recently, we crossed off "make a gift" by making Homemade Dog Biscuits and delivering them to the neighborhood dogs.  Rumor has it they were a hit! 

Basic Dog Biscuit Recipe

 Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups unbleached flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup skim milk powder

1 Tablespoon (or 1 pkg) dry yeast

3 1/2 cups lukewarm chicken or meat broth

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm chicken or meat broth. The richer this broth is, the better your dog will like the biscuits.  Let yeast broth mixture set 10 minutes.  Then stir in flour mixture (which is everything else).  Roll resulting dough out 1/4" thick.  Cut dog biscuit shapes from dough.  Brush biscuits with egg wash.  Bake on greased cookie sheets at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.  Then turn off oven and leave in overnight to finish hardening (we made our in the morning and then let them set all day).  Makes 60 medium-sized biscuits.

Reasons we LOVE you

My husband's Grandfather just turned 88. For his birthday, the kids made him a GIANT card filled with "88 reasons we LOVE Great Grandpa!!" It was fun to make and even more special to watch his reaction as he read them all. Some were sweet enough to make your heart melt ("Because he took me out for ice cream after my softball game was canceled so that I wouldn't feel sad."), while others made us laugh so hard ("Because he is old.")

"Because he gives great hugs."
"Because he comes to our soccer games."

"Because he is proud of us."
"Because he plays basketball in our driveway with us."

"Because he is flexible."
"Because he can do a headstand on top of a horse." (see picture that follows for proof!)

"Because he serves people at Thanksgiving."
"Because he delivers meals for Meals on Wheels."
"Because he takes good care of animals."
My favorite..."Because he loves us!"

I thought this idea might come in handy for Christmas...let someone know all the ways that you love them!!!

Pancake Spatula

My cousin is getting married at the end of the month (Congratulations, Jenny!), so I was looking at her gift registry online. I always think this is so much fun...do you? It made me start thinking about some of my favorite wedding gifts and kitchen gadgets. This is one of my FAVORITES...


It's a PANCAKE SPATULA from Crate & Barrel, given to us by a friend that knows how much we LOVE pancakes! You can read about our favorite pancake mix in this blog post and then you should go get some (you can even have it shipped to you)!!

This spatula is the perfect size for flipping pancakes. The WHOLE pancake fits on it, so no flopping and breaking!! I LOVE IT!!!!!

Now to find a good griddle...ours broke. Pancake Deprivation is setting in.

Last Day of School

I am finding it hard to believe that another school year is coming to an end. At 11:30 today, I will pick up these 3 beautiful, sweet, perfectly mannered children for the start of Summer! This is why I prefer photographs over video...see you looked at the picture and you BELIEVED my words about how perfectly mannered they are with their hands nicely folded in their laps (BTW, I didn't tell them to do this!). If I would have had the video, you would have seen how my youngest tried to put her arm around her brother because she adores him. He wanted nothing to do with it and promptly told her so. She then began to cry. I put my camera away...thankful that the one picture I snapped was a good one!! ;) Really...it's going to be a GREAT Summer, isn't it!? No, REALLY, I am excited...I think. ;)

An update on the Monogram Crayons that I blogged about. I finally got my done! The kids helped pick out paper and color schemes based on what they thought each teacher would like. I think Michelle must have used a bigger frame for hers. I used 8 x 10's and hers may be a true 12 x 12. I also chose to hot glue my crayons for the sake of time (I couldn't find my other glue!). It worked just fine. Here's the final result...

Thank you Mrs. Pacey, Mrs. Mulch, and Mrs. Porter for being such wonderful teachers!

Monogram Crayon Teacher Gift

My friend, Michelle, made this...isn't it adorable!? She made this Monogram frame for her sister to put in her classroom. I think it would make a great teacher gift as the school year comes to an end. I am planning on making them for my kids' teachers this weekend, so hopefully I will have some pictures for you later. It's just crayons...some broken to make the shape of the letter and glued to scrapbook paper with embellishments of scrapbook paper, ribbon and some stickers...perfect! She found the original idea here and then this one gave her additional ideas to help her create her own unique monogram. Thanks for sharing, Michelle!

What do you give your teachers for the end of the year?

A DATE A MONTH

This is the gift that I gave my husband for Christmas this year. I had spent time shopping in different stores and just couldn't find the right present. You know, that one thing that he REALLY wanted. On his list...a ladder (um...how am I going to hide THAT!?), hunting pants (now, THAT's exciting! HA!)...and then it hit me! He's always saying that he enjoys the time we have together...just the two of us. With 3 kids, jobs, a business, and other activities that time is sometimes hard to come by. When we DO have time alone, we often start in on some project that needs to get done because it's "so much easier and faster to get it done when the kids aren't around." Can you relate to that!?

So, I decided to give him "A Date a Month in 2010." I made the book out of chipboard and covered it with scrapbooking paper and stickers. Tied it together with jute. Keep in mind, this is for a man so I didn't need all the bling and fancy stuff. I kept it simple.

I went downtown to some of our favorite spots (the ones we never manage to get to) and a few NEW places that would be fun to try out. I bought gift cards or certificates for each place. 12 places total...one for each month. If they had one, I tried to pick up a business card from the business. It served as the "pocket" to hold the GC (see November's page above). I then attached them to each page, along with a little note.

He liked it! Really, he did! AND we are both looking forward to our "January Date"...breakfast at the the coffee shop!

In case you're interested, I did try to pick a variety of places AND times. Here are a few examples:

January - gift card to The Well. The note said, "Pick a morning. We'll drop the kids off at school and head to The Well for coffee and cinnamon rolls!"

March - 2 movie tickets. "MOVIE NIGHT (Popcorn's on me!)"

April - GC to Main Street Deli. "Block some time on your calendar and join me for lunch!"

May - GC to AutoZone. "Need some company while you're working on your car!? I'd love to join you for a good conversation and maybe to lend an extra hand." Note to readers: My husband has an old car he is working on in the garage. Your "date" doesn't have to be going out to dinner...be creative!

August - Chamber Check (these can be used at businesses that are part of the McPherson Chamber of Commerce). Used scrapbooking paper with a deck of cards as the background. "It's your lucky month. Pick a place and I'll join you...maybe over some BBQ!?