Category Archives: Gifts

Valentine gifts for my kids

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  I wanted to share with you the gifts that I’m going to be giving my daughters on Thursday for Valentine’s Day!  They could be an idea for a last minute gift because these websites are great.

For my oldest daughter who has a wonderful, creative mind and loves to draw, I got her this stencil set:

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It’s from uncommongoods.com and you can purchase it here http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/stencil-and-pen-kits.  It’s only $10 and they also have a stencil set with animals, called ZooBox.  I think my daughter is going to have a blast creating many different characters with these stencils.

As for my youngest, who loves jigsaw puzzles, I finally got her one personalized with her name:

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I love this website, frecklebox.com, and have purchased many personalized puzzles, coloring books, and stickers from here.  You can purchase this particular puzzle here  http://www.frecklebox.com/pink-pastures-personalized-puzzle-1738p.aspx.  Frecklebox also offers free printable personalized coloring pages.  How awesome is that?  I love it!

I can’t wait to give my girls these tokens of love along with my husband’s gift, which I can’t show you yet because he’s a follower.  🙂  I’m also going to make chocolate covered strawberries because everyone here loves them and hopefully we’ll have a wonderful Valentine’s Day.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

DIY Felt Gift Bow

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  I love wrapping gifts with unique wrapping paper that I either make myself, if the gift is small enough, or find at stores.  Recently, I wrapped up this gift for my god-daughter’s birthday.

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I found this polka dot wrapping paper in the dollar section at Target in Harrisburg, PA awhile back.  My god-daughter loves Minnie Mouse so I found this clip art and glued it on top and then I found a Disney inspired font and printed out her name on an address label for her card.

She’s going to love it!

I also love gift bows and after finding that DIY magazine gift bow pin on Pinterest and attempting it with great results, I thought, “Let’s try using something else to make a bow.”  HELLO FELT!  

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I’m definitely not a pro at sewing, but I do my best.  I love the final result of this bow and I used a long piece of thread so I could attach all the felt pieces together without having to cut and start again.  I only cut the thread for the last piece of felt, in which I sewed it separately and then tried to sew it on top of the bow without showing too much thread.  I wasn’t that successful, but that was my first attempt and I’m definitely making more of these bows so hopefully practice makes perfect.  I’m going to add a little bit of glue so it’ll stay on the gift, but hopefully still come off intact.  The gift above is my husband’s Valentine’s Day gift 🙂 wrapped up in another gorgeous print found at Target’s dollar section.  I can’t wait to show you what I got him.  It’s too freaking cute!  I also can’t wait to do more of these gift bows in different felt colors and designs.  Happy gift wrapping and bow making!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

DIY CHOCOLATE LOLLIPOPS

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Hello everybody! I hope you guys are well.  I am pretty well-known in my family to do chocolate lollipops with the help of candy molds.  I have a “small” collection of candy molds and I used to make them a lot for family and friends before I had kids.  Now, I make them once and awhile.  I decided to surprise my daughter with an after dinner treat.  Check out my process, it’s pretty simple:

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From my collection, I chose a heart-shaped lollipop mold with the word Love scripted in the middle, vanilla chocolate candy wafers, and a small bowl to melt the chocolate in.

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I melt my chocolate in the microwave.  Make sure you don’t put it on high or the chocolate will burn.

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With a small spoon, pour the chocolate into the mold.

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Pick up your mold and tap it against the counter until your chocolate spreads out evenly.

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You can add lollipop sticks or not.

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Put the candy mold in your freezer for about 10 to 15 minutes.

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Enjoy!

You can buy candy wafers in different colors.  I’m going to get them in red and using this candy mold make some lollipops for Valentine’s Day.

My sister and I are currently looking for a theme for our brother’s 30th birthday party.  We’re leaning towards a mustache party and while browsing through Pinterest, of course, I came across this:

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Isn’t that awesome?  I’m definitely going to be on the lookout for this candy mold, just in case.

Take care all.

Until next time…

sweet gift

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  My husband gave me a sweet gift yesterday.

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He had my blog’s name printed on a shirt.  Love it!

He’s my number 1 fan and I’m his.  His blog is www.workoutdrinkbemerry.com.  You should check it out.  He started blogging first and he inspired me to do my own so thanks luv for the support and the sweet shirt.  A special thanks to my newest followers.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Toy hangover

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  Christmas has come and gone and now we’re dealing with a massive toy hangover.  My daughters got so many presents toys that they’re walking around the house now dazed and confused.  It’s so overwhelming, even for me.  They’re jumping from one toy to the other while I’m running after them to clean up after each toy they dumped on the carpet before they move on to the next.  It’s crazy over here and I’m not even innocent to the crime of toy overload.  I’m guilty as heck.  I wanted to firmly stay at a two present limit per child, but I went completely over that limit.  I went totally mad, with happiness of course, when I saw this at www.walmart.com:

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Set of 5 plush dolls of Mario and company

My oldest daughter just got introduced to Mario, so when I saw this I knew she would love these little plush guys and boy did she ever.  I almost bought them individually until I spotted the set, which saved me a lot of money.  I simply couldn’t resist myself and when I told my husband, he certainly didn’t put a stop to my craziness.  In fact, he said, “I’m not going to deny them anything,” so we’re both guilty.

I’m seeking a new plan and some major will power for next year.  Also, I need to include books in their wish list, which I did this year, but nobody gifted.  I’m going to have to emphasize this to family members that books are great gifts as well.  Yes, most kids don’t want to unwrap clothes and other stuff that’s not toys, but we have to try to change that.  I’m trying to teach my girls to appreciate any gift that’s given and not to compare how many each one gets or if one is better than the other.  It really bothers me when I see kids not being appreciative or whining that they want more gifts.  I also understand that I do create this sort of attitude by supplying all of these gifts so I’m definitely going to scale back for next year.

So no more crazy, toy madness.  I’m going to take some inventory and try to place my children in an environment that’s not over stimulating, even though I created it.  Ouch, that reality does hurt me.  My solution for now is going to be to put away some old toys while they’re playing with the new ones, give away toys they’ve out grown, for example the baby puzzles with the pegs on them (I have a stack of those that need to be given to new babies) and read, read, read a lot of books.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Mason jar + chocolates = great gift

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  I wanted to share a gift idea that I put together in order to give several of my closest aunts and cousins.

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 I bought mason jars at the craft store (A.C. Moore) along with gold ribbon.  The candies I chose are Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares Limited Edition Peppermint Bark (delicious!) and Coconut Malted Milk Balls, which I ordered from www.ohnuts.com.  These are my absolute favorite and they were such a huge hit at my anniversary/renewal party that I decided to gift them again.

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I made a paper label and tied the gold ribbon around the mason jar.

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I put the coconut malted milk balls in a clear candy bag just in case they melted and placed 4 peppermint bark squares inside around the mason jar.  I like the way they came out and can’t wait to give them to my family members.  I hope you like this idea.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

DIY IRON ON TRANSFER T-SHIRT

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  My heart is still quite heavy regarding the tragedy that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut.  I’m a mother of a kindergartener.  I don’t know what I would do.  I do wish everyone love, support, patience, and peace.

I wanted to share with you something that I’ve done as a gift for my father for years now.  The other day he wore a shirt that I had personalized for him using iron on transfer paper and fabric markers.  I made that shirt a looooong time ago and I was so surprised to see that he still had it and that it still looked great.  My mom mentioned to me that he loves wearing the shirts that I make for him, especially the ones with his grand-daughter’s pictures.  She said, “those are his favorite because he gets to show everyone his grandkids!”  Love it!

Here’s my process:

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I purchased my iron on transfers and t-shirt at A.C. Moore.  The shirt was on sale for $2.99 and with a store coupon, I was able to get the transfers for half off.

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Choose and print out your picture.  For this particular brand, I had to print my image as a REVERSE IMAGE.

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You’ll need an iron and I use this piece of wood, specifically for my t-shirts so I just store it away when I’m done, along with a pillowcase.  I place the pillowcase on top of the wood so I can have a hard but smooth surface.  I always do the transfers on the floor so I can press down on the iron.

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Cut out your design or image and place it on your t-shirt right side up so you can see exactly how it’s going to look.

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Flip over the paper and center it once again.  I usually like to place the image one finger long down from the neck.

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PrintWorks instructions: “Iron transfer with firm pressure in a straight, non-stop motion top to bottom and side to side.  Keep iron moving at all times to prevent scorching.”  Make sure your corners are ironed down.

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Let your t-shirt cool off completely (this part is hard for me because I’m so impatient).  Then carefully peel away the transfer’s backing.

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I LOVE IT and I hope my dad loves it too.

I hope you guys enjoy this gift and crafting idea.

Take good care.

Until next time…

Personalized Jigsaw Puzzles

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.

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Here’s the countdown at my house.

My cousin, Janice, sent this little Santa chalkboard to my oldest daughter when she was about 1 or 2 years old, but she wasn’t old enough to grasp the concept so I stored it away.  I found it the other day when we brought out all of our Christmas decorations.  I showed it to Olivia, who’s five now, and explained what it was.  She absolutely loved the chalkboard and the fact that it was going to show her how many days until Christmas.  Thanks cuz!

As for gift ideas for children I absolutely love jigsaw puzzles, especially personalized ones because they can teach your child how to spell their own name.  There are many places where you can get a personalized jigsaw puzzle, but I like the web site www.frecklebox.com.  They have many personalized items (I also love their story books) and I have given many gifts from this website.  Sign up to receive emails so you can get discounts on their merchandise, which is very helpful if you’re on a budget.  Here’s a couple of their puzzles with my daughter’s first and middle name, which I got a long time ago.  They have a glossy finish to them and currently my youngest daughter is having fun putting these together.  I will be getting one with her name soon for Christmas.

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Once my girls are done playing with these I’m going to tape the puzzle together and frame them.

Stay alert, stay alive.

Until next time…

A year round gift

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  I can vividly remember the first time I gave my mother a custom-made family calendar as a Christmas gift to her.  She started crying!  It was of course tears of joy, but I wasn’t expecting her to cry.  Be overjoyed, yes, but not cry.  Needless to say, she absolutely loved it.  She completely immersed herself into the calendar.  It was as if the world around her suddenly disappeared and it was just her and this gift that she couldn’t wait to see.  I watched her intently.  She paused at each month and you could see her eyes darting here and there, taking in all of the images.  A loving smile would appear on her face and I knew she was looking at pictures of herself with my daughters, her only grandchildren, so far.  A small laugh would escape her when she saw the funny pictures.  I got a few “Oh my gosh,” and when she reached the end of the calendar, she let out a big, “I love it!”  Sweet music to my ears.

There are many places and web sites where you can make a calendar.  So far, I’ve made mine on www.shutterfly.com because they offer great promo codes and free shipping.  The calendars always come out great.  Since I like to include more than one picture, it usually takes me more time to assemble them into place.  Once you’re done and you complete your order, the calendars are on your doorstep fast!  My cousin loves taking her pictures to Wal-Mart and making her calendar there herself!  She’s the one who gave me the idea to give a calendar as a gift because she sends me one every year.  Another tradition that we’re forming and I love putting it on my kitchen wall and looking at my gift year round.

Stay alert, stay alive.

Until next time…

donating toys!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  This is the time of the year where the two biggest holidays, in my opinion, start approaching full speed ahead.  As soon as that happens, I start making mental notes on how we’re going to take our Christmas picture early, because Santa Claus is already at the mall mid-November, and I start the Christmas list. Also, there are several birthdays before Christmas so I have to buy those gifts well in advance.  But we all know what happens.  Yeah, that’s right.  I leave everything for the last minute driving myself completely insane and frustrated with the holidays.  Some days I really WISH I could be that type of person that is completely relaxed.  You know those people.  They’re so chill with everything.  Nothing bothers them, at all.  That would be nice, but then I wouldn’t be me and I think through my neurotic persona I’m able to accomplish stuff that makes me and my family happy.  At least, I hope.

In a previous post, I mentioned how last year I had my daughter go through her stuff toys and take out the ones that she didn’t really play with in order to donate them.  A few days ago, we did the same thing.  I took the bin where the toys are usually stored in and explained to my daughter that it was the “keep” bin.  Then I placed a big shopping bag next to the bin and told her that was the “gift” bag.  I asked her to go through her toys and see which ones she wanted to keep and which ones she wanted to donate as a gift.  My little girl did a great job!

These gently used toys are going to be donated and I hope we can find some more to give before the new ones come in.

Stay alert, stay alive.  Until next time…