Dozens, Dozens & more DOZENS of cookies!!!

Kim and I must've gone CRAZY this year because we decided to give the gift of sugary treats to all the folks in our SPED department!  We made boxes for all the aides, teachers, clerical secretaries, bosses, etc!  We had found these really cute bakery boxes in Visalia at Hobby Lobby on one of our road trips in search of creativity and bargins.  I think we made 10 different kinds of goodies by the time we filled up all of the boxes!  We had peppermint bark, snicker-doodles, pumpkin bars, toffee chip cookies, spice cookies, haystacks, chocolate covered peanut butter patties, peanut butter covered Nutella patties, sugar cookies with a white chocolate peppermint Hershey kiss, and chocolate chocolate chip cookies!  They were VERY well received!!!  I then made some plates of cookies that I had left over to take to family!       

Cute Creativity...

These wooden blocks were hand-painted, lettered, and dressed up with 4 corners of mini-crystals for subtle bling...really a cute idea.  Lena created this and it hangs at Dad's house over their entertainment center in the living room.

Holiday Bazaar!!!

Kim was able to participate in this Relay for Life fundraiser thanks to her sister's connection to the Kern County Police Department so we decided to team up!  Kim had learned to make cute hair bows after her daughter was born and so she had a bunch of those on display.  Her and her sister also made some cute baby onesies that had added crystal bling on them.  I had a BUNCH of diaper wipes cases on display, some key chains,  along with my dog collars and leashes.  Just for fun (and hoping I'd sell some) mom and I wrapped up some pretty sagos and took them along too!  Truly, this day was long and a total bust when it came to profit margin!  By the time we donated (AKA Paid) for our booth I'm not sure if either of us broke even let alone made any money!  We had to remind ourselves that it was a charity event to make ourselves feel better after putting in so much crafting time!

Thanksgiving 2011...

We were at Grandma Nita's house for Thanksgiving when I saw these really cute "turkeys" that she had made.  Had to take a picture and share!  :-)

Food Coloring & Fireworks!!! July 4th, 2011

It is Monday July the 4th and although I don't have any big exciting plans, I do have one primary goal to try and keep my girls calm with all the loud booms, crackles, and screeches! 

With summer school over I'd spent the weekend getting my house and kitchen put back together and by Monday afternoon I guess I was glutton.  I decided to use some of the leftover cake mix and white chocolate from our cakeball baking day in summer school to create a more patriotic version.  Baking occupied my afternoon and kept my girls fascinated waiting for me to drop something tasty for them to snatch up! 

By the evening we'd settled in for a movie in attempt to drowned out the fireworks to keep the girls calm.  Once it was fully dark the fireworks were in the full force, the girls wouldn't quit barking or

running back and forth showing their confusion and panic.  I gave up on the movie idea and went outside into the backyard with them instead in hopes of helping them stay calm  while getting to

enjoy the free show!  I of-course took my camera with me to see if I could capture any of the overhead illegal bursts of color.  I live on the outskirts of the city and it seemed like I was surrounded

by such fireworks and these were not simple bottle rockets, they were the next best thing to the real deal!!!  Enjoy my humble attempt at capturing their beauty!  

Classroom Upgrades...Spring Break...April 2011

Highland High School went through modernization a few years ago and most teachers were given brand new blue desk chairs...I actually opted out of the order because they really weren't very comfortable and my old hand-me-down chair was actually quite comfy--just a bit of an eye sore!!!  To be honest, I forget exactly when I decided to reupholster my chair but I'm pretty sure it was over my Easter break sometime after I'd run across the most PERFECT (albeit gaudy) plaid material!!! Highland's mascot is the

Scotsman and he dresses in a Royal Blue and Kelly Green plaid kilt and this material was IT...and at a low low clearance price of 70% off (which brought it down to less than $2.00 a yard) a downright steal!!!  For my

first reupholstered desk chair I gotta say it came out looking pretty good!  Thanks to mom giving me the idea to use the old material as the pattern because I was trying to decide how to measure everything out and was a bit

scared I'd get it all ripped apart and never be able to get it put back together again!  Admittedly there were a couple of humpty-dumpty touch and go  

moments where I had one stripped screw and a couple extra parts with no place for them to go, but with a bit of frustration and some creative thinking everything seemed to come together in the end!  Once I got it back to school a bunch of people wanted one just like it!  :) 

Rainy day Projects

With 2 weeks of Christmas vacation ahead and nothing but rainy days forcasted...I started some indoor projects. The first was more simplistic but I'd never made one myself--it is the no-sew fleece tie blankets. This fabric caught my eye in Joann's on Black Friday when all the fleece was like 60% off! Mom loves daisies and is always cold so I thought it would be a good gift for her (and if I didn't get it perfect given it was my first attempt, I knew mom wouldn't judge ). In the end I thought it came out pretty cute...lord knows the girls liked it! In fact, the minute I put down the fabric in preparation the girls immediately came over and sat on it. They didn't understand why it wasn't for them so most of the time I just had to work around them! :)

My second project was a bit more involved but I've been wanting to give it a try ever since I saw the ones the speech therapist at work was cranking out every time someone was due to have a baby! These are called rag quilts and they have 2 layers of cozy flannel making them super soft and perfect for baby gifts! I had bought yards and yards of various flannel when I'd decided to brave the black Friday sale and Joann's Fabrics because they'd reduced the price per yard of flannel to under $2.00!!! This price is fabulous for those of you who don't frequent fabric stores. For my first quilt I wanted to stick with a color scheme and chose pinks and chocolates. I then began cutting out my squares and trying to lay them out in a pattern I liked--let me tell you, this was one of the most difficult parts! I was determined not to have any two of the same patterns touch diagonally or be side by side and it took me hours! When I'd nearly given up, I recruited a new pair of eyes...finally between mom and I we got it arranged into a pattern I was satisfied with! Then it was onto the sewing process, which started out smoothly or so I thought! Once I had all the squares sewn into rows I was ready to sew the rows together. THIS became the hardest part because I had to make all the seams match up! You see, all of the surplus from the seaming ends up on the same side making one side a perfectly sewn standard looking quilt and the other side the cute frilly rag quilt. Once I made a few adjustments, I was able to get all the seams to line up pretty well and then came the slightly tedious process of snipping all the surplus edges. Last but not least, it was time to wash it--this is the part that makes the flannel fringe curl up and look cute and fluffy! Ta-Da! My first one came out pretty darn well if I do say so myself and I've already started planning out new color schemes to make more! :)

More Baby Shower Gifts

There are SOOO many people I know that are pregnant right now and either due in November or December 2010! So I've been using what little spare time I've had recently creating some handmade gifts to add in with whatever store bought ones I picked out. Anyway I always take pictures of these sorts of gifts because each one is different and I rarely make 2 alike. The cake was made on a smaller scale than I have made in the past but I still think it turned out pretty cute. Anyway, I made it and the 2 cases of

wipes for a former student of mine that I home schooled for 2 and a half years. We stay in touch here and there and she invited me to her baby shower...her theme was baby zoo animals.

I had a hard time finding fabrics that had wild animals that weren't all in blue and green boy colors. When I came across these with giraffes and zebras I was happy to see girlie pink flowers along side them! After completing these I figured I might as well keep going considering the supplies were out and the mess had already been started! I might have gotten a bit carried away, but I'm sure they'll all have a place in a diaper bag sometime! :)