Teacher Gift Idea

I had hoped to post this earlier in the month but I somehow lost a little steam in my Christmas prep once we hit December and actually just finished these baskets over the weekend.

Our son's last day of school is tomorrow and so I thought I'd show you what we made for his teachers (he's in a teacher shared class where he has 2 teachers.)

This year I decided to make a Hot Chocolate basket.
I started by making a jar of hot chocolate mix:

Then I made a set of cute little coasters. I love how they turned out. They were super easy and super cheap to make. All you need are tiles (I found mine on clearance at home depot), Christmas napkins, cork board, modgepodge and acrylic sealer. Check out this awesome tutorial.


I also included 4 Christmas mugs and some of the chocolate dipped candy canes and oreos we made. Mmmm, a hot cup of cocoa with a chocolate dipped candy cane to stir and oreos to dunk.
Yup, sounds good to me!

Then I just threw it all in to a cute Christmas basket. And wrapped it up pretty :)

Simple and easy works for me!

Yummy Flowers

Mother's Day is just around the corner.

I thought I'd share with you a fun and frugal idea that looks really "fancy" but is SO simple that anyone can master it!

Instead of giving mom the traditional flowers, try something new and make a cute little cupcake bouquet!

Here are the easy step-by-step instructions that I followed.



Making a yummy bouquet of pretty flowers works for me!

Homemade Fun!

All of my childhood birthdays are filled with memories of the awesome homemade cakes my mom would make.
She did everything from a "Sweet Shop" (for me) to an "Enchanted Castle"( for my sister) to a "Six-car Train" (for my baby brother) to a "Robot" (for my older brother.)

Our birthday cakes were always the highlight of the party, and it was just a very "sweet" *grin* way that my mom showed her love for us.

When I had kids I wanted to do the same for them. It is just a great way to pass on a tradition from one of my favorite memories of my mom. Plus, I really do love making them!

Last Thursday was our big girls 2nd birthday and I made her this Dora cake. So easy and she absolutely loved it!
She actually shares her birthday with her Papa (Chris' Dad), but because he had to work the night of their birthday (bummer!) we celebrated his birthday on Saturday. My job was to bring the cake. Now, normally when I am making a cake for an adult I tone it down a bit. But this year I decided to have a little fun....

My father-in-law LOVES fishing!


Now I realize that it is not the most professional looking cake but I enjoyed making it and his reaction was priceless!
:)

Making Homemade Birthday Cakes Works for Me!