I Made Stuff! Successfully!

It's been more than a month since I last wrote. All I can say about that is our family has survived a very busy time and it is with a sigh of relief that Christmas vacation began this afternoon. Oh, and the sound of 2 overly tired children screaming at each other about which top goes on which playdoh container. See the family picture up at the top of this blog? Imagine that for the last 4 weeks that is me screaming, "I am going INSAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!"

Oh, and I turned 34 this week! We found a new cupcake bakery nearby and had a Cupcake Wars style date night.

But, today I'm going to talk about making stuff. Because I did that! A month or two ago (or maybe it was last year for how horrible my sense of the passage of time has been lately), I was invited to be a part of a facebook group of local friends who love Pinterest and want to get together to make projects they found there. The only problem? I didn't really know what Pinterest was. Apparently someone got the mistaken impression that I am crafty and/or have some kind of artistic ability. I can bake and do some minimal sewing, but artistic ability and craftiness don't reside in this body. I'm a joiner though, so I made a Pinterest page and started looking at people's pins.

And then Christmas time was suddenly here! And I was one of two parents in charge of the kindergarten Christmas party! And I wanted to find something cute, useful and a little bit unique for the 4 teachers that have so wonderfully taught my kids so far this year. But there is a budget to consider, unfortunately, along with my aforementioned lack of crafting ability and not a lot of time. But then I found the perfect thing!!

These were done by someone who is crafty. 

What teacher wouldn't like something like this? A post-it note stand. Personalized! So we did a little shopping, picked out some fun scrapbooking paper, ribbons, flower embelishments, alphabet stickers, post-it notes and plastic picture frames.  And then I thought "I have a whole tub of random buttons!"  So the kids were actually able to give input into the gift. They picked out their paper (we used two different pieces for front and back plus a third for their "made for you by ____" tag on the back).  They got to pick the ribbon and embellishments.  

And, here is how they turned out!

I actually made these!! 

I can't even tell you how excited I was about how they turned out. And so far it sounds like the teachers really like them.  I have supplies left over to make more, so if you want one, wink my way and I'll see what I can do! 

So then I was on a Pinterest roll! I ended up digging around to find some snack ideas for our Christmas party. I ended up making two things I found on there. 

The first was this.  Apple slice with natural peanut butter, oats, dark chocolate chips and chopped pecans. Mine were not quite as cute as these, but they fit the bill for what I was looking for: kind of fancy looking but also healthy.  (This photo is not mine and these are not the ones I made)

And then I made these!! 

So easy and also cute!! Square pretzels with a Hershey's "Hug" on top, warmed in the oven for about 5 minutes. Put an M&M on top. Take the pan outside where it is freezing (or put it in the refrigerator). About 10 minutes later, they're done! Easy to transport, easy to throw on a plate, taste yummy and are festive looking. And SIMPLE! 

Whew!! My "making" for this year has been all used up in a matter of a week. It's time for me to take a nap. =) 

Merry Christmas!!