Teacher appreciation Week

So, all this week it is teacher appreciation week.  A time to let your teacher now just how much they mean.

Our elementary school has a special day designated for the teachers favorite things.

Monday-wear your teachers favorite color

Tuesday-bring your teachers favorite drink

Wednesday-tell your teacher how much you appreciate them

Thursday-bring your teachers favorite snack

Friday-make your teacher a card (which I think is pretty much the same as Wednesday, but whatever)

So, yesterday the kiddos wore their teachers favorite color.  CX wore teal and Lil' Sis wore purple.

Today is the drink day and I wanted to do a little something besides just bring in 20 ounce drinks.

I decided to dig into my recycle clothing bag and make a bag of sorts for the bottles.  This is what I came up with.

I took a shirt of CX that he had outgrown and was stained pretty good.  I don't feel right donating it to goodwill when it is stained, so I hold onto it for situations like this.

And I cut the sleeves off, right at the arm pits.

Then I turned the sleeves inside out and sewed a straight line right on the edge that I cut.

Then I made a small hole in the cuff of the sleeve.

I then took some ribbon and pinned a safety pin into the end.  I then pushed the pin thru the hole and threaded the cuff with the ribbon.  And then turned it right side out.

I then put the bottle inside the sleeve bag and tied up the ribbon.

And, ta da, you are done.  And you have a cute little bag for a rather ordinary gift.

It didn't cost me a dime and now the kiddos have super cute little gifts to take to their teachers.

Thanks for coming by!

I'm linking to these parties...

Talent Tuesday

Take a look Tuesday

Just Something I Whipped Up

Gettin' Krafty With It

Sew Darn Crafty

Creative Juice

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Fringe Shirt

Okay, so can I just say that I am loving WobiSobi and all of her wonderful re-styles!

Seriously!  Check these out!

Updated Capris

T-shirt to cute shrug

Updated tank

She inspires me every time I pop over to her blog.  She makes me look at my clothes in different ways and think, "Hmm....what can I re-style?".

Well, when she said that she has a favorite blog that inspires her I HAD to check it out!

I SPY DIY

And, OH MY GOSH!  I wanted to hang out on that blog and read about all her DIY's!

Like this...

Awesome necklace

Okay, do you know what that is made out of?!?!?!?  Do ya?  Do ya?

Straws and shoe laces!!!!!

Anyway, while I was there, I was inspired by this.

 

So, I made this.

First, I started with a plain white t-shirt.

Then I laid out my tassel trim onto the collar to make sure I had enough.  And cut it where I the seams on the shirt are.

Then I whipped out the old glue gun and got to work.

Then I took a little bit flashier trim and glued that on top of the fringe.

And, TA DA!

Honestly...it took me no time at all.  And it didn't cost me anything either, well, $5 for the shirt, and around $5 for the trim.  Plus it was a present for my SIL if my brother ever asks her to marry him!  I still claim her as my SIL!

Thanks for stopping in today!

I'm linking to these parties...

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Creative Juice

Gettin Krafty With It

Talent Tuesday

Make It Yours Day

Sunday Showcase Party

I'm Crafty Party

Relay Goodies

Before I start this post I want to remind you all that the pictures in this post were taken with my camera on my phone.  No judging!  I tried to tweak them as best as I could in Picnik, but they are still bad.

So without further adieu...

The Relay Recess is this Saturday.  We are having all kinds of fun for the kiddos, but the weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate with us.  Oh well...we are still going to do it anyway!

I made a butt load of goodies to be available for the Relay Recess.  We aren't selling them, well we are, but no set prices.  Whatever you want to pay, we will take.  Some with take advantage, but others will go above and beyond what we would be charging.  It all evens out in the wash.

So, I got to work and make some cake pops.  I am sure that you all know how to make these.  I have been making them for a few years now and really enjoy them.  They are super easy to make and they just look so cute!  Plus, they are pretty cheap to make and you get so many out of one batch.

If you haven't ever made them, this is what I do.

I bake a cake as directed on any boxed cake mix.

Let it cool completely.

Crumble it up into a giant bowl and then add one container of frosting.  Any flavor you prefer.

(I used a butter cake with chocolate frosting.)

Then I make small little balls.  I use my pampered chef melon baller, it works perfectly!

Then I freeze them.  The longer the better.

I then melt some almond bark or candy melts.  Dip a lollipop stick into the melted goo and stick into the frozen balls.

Then back into the freezer for at least an hour.

Then I dip them into more melted goo and add sprinkles or whatever I have on hand.

Viola!

Out of one box of cake mix and one container of frosting I got over 60 cake balls!

But I came up with a new confection of sorts to sell as well.

"Bunny Ears"

I got inspired from Krafty Kat's Easter Egg Marshmallow Pops.

I looked everywhere for those bunny ear marshmallows, but all I could find were the actual bunnies.  That was not what I wanted.  So I improvised.

I bought a bag of these bad boys.

Each mallow is 1 ounce!  They are honkers!

Then I cut it on the diagonal.

Don't see how it is going to look like bunny ears.  Let me help you out.  Use your imagination!

Then I took my melted almond bark, dipped my lollipop stick into the goo and stuck it into the bottom of the mallow.

Stuck them into a styrofoam wreath to dry.

Since where I cut them is very sticky I decided to take advantage of that.  I dipped it into a mixture of clear and pink sprinkles.  I think it makes them look kind of like fur.  Remember, imagination!

Then I dipped the very tip of the ears back into the melted goo and then into assorted colors of sprinkles.

I then wrapped them up in a clear bag and thought they were good to go.

Nope!  The kids said, "I don't think they look like bunny ears.  They need eyes and noses."

Turds!

Yes, I agree.  You can tell what they are supposed to be now.  Fine, you brats win!

I made three dozen of these bad boys.  When I dropped them off to the coordinator of this lovely event, she thought that they were "boobies"!  Thank goodness I put the eyes and nosed on them!  Yikes!!!!

I also whipped up some Oreo truffles for the Relay Recess.

Then I wrapped them into foil and put them into cute little boxes.

And now some shots of the second half of the cake balls.

I sure hope we have people show up now!  The weather supposedly isn't going to cooperate for us.  Figures!

Well, I gotta go to bed.  It is going to be an early morning.  Wish us luck with our Relay Recess!  We are already over half way to our goal so hopefully this will bring some more of the moolah in.

I'll keep you updated.

Thanks for stopping here today.  I appreciate you all so much.  Just reading my ho-hum writing and looking at  my cross eyed pictures makes me so happy!  I just wanted to say thanks!

I've linked to these sites

My Backyard Eden

Someday Crafts

Krafty Kat

Momnivore's Dilemma

On the road again!

I walked this morning again!  Yep two days in a row, I am on a roll!

I weighed in this morning at a whopping 145.  I am thinking that I only need to weigh myself once a week.  Otherwise I might get discouraged and stop.

Since, it is very obvious that I am not losing weight, I don't seem to mind right now.  I just feel really good about myself.  My attitude seems to be better and I am getting more done during the day.  Weird, huh?!?!

So, I wanted to share with you all that I taught my first jewelry class last night!

EEK!

I was nervous, but very excited.  I knew everyone that was there, and the ones that I didn't know that well it gave me a chance to chat with them a little bit.  We made the bracelets that I blogged about here.  Just had to tweak them a little bit.  I put a clasp on them.  And the fun thing about the class was that I had a general plan and everyone just went with it.  They had their personalities come out in their pieces...not one was alike and I love that!

I think that is why I love to craft.  I love how we all have similar ideas and strive for the same things, but our individualism just peeks thru here and there.  I think that is why it is so hard for me to buy mass produced things.  Especially if I think I can make it!  It's a challenge!

Well, I am off.   Have things to do and people to see.

Thanks so much for stopping in.  I am really wanting to create something for you all, but without a camera it is very hard to do that.  I do have my camera on my phone, but the pictures aren't always the greatest.  I might have to break down and buy me a cheap-o.  Although, it would probably be more advantageous to just bite the bullet and get a good one.

Any recommendations on a good camera?  I'm not a professional by any means, but I would like to be able to take pictures at CX's games and Lil' Sis's programs without them being blurry.

5 minute bracelet REALLY!

The church that I attend has blessed me with the opportunity to come up with a craft for one of the ladies ministry meetings.

How cool is that?!  They think I'm crafty!

I wear my own jewelry creations and get compliments on them quite often.  Well, someone asked me to come up with a jewelry project and this is what I made.

Now, here is the tricky part.

The project has to be easy and quick to make.

Not everyone is at the same skill level as you.

It has to be rather inexpensive.

Don't want to spend a lot of money on something someone may not want in the first place.

It has to appeal to 16 year old as well as 60 year old ladies.

We have a broad age spectrum for our ladies ministry.

Okay, now what to make.

I came upon a creation in an old beading magazine that I picked up at a flea market months ago.  I have no idea who created it...the magazine was in pretty bad shape, so I can't give credit where it is due.  Sorry, but if you made this and its your idea, please let me know and I will fix my post.

What are they?  I call them inspiration bracelets.

Lets make one and maybe it will inspire you too!

First thing...supplies:

1.  1mm leather cord (any color will do, I picked black)

2.  Silver tubing or spacer beads

3.  Head pin or eye pin

4.  Charm of your choice

First I measure the circumference of my wrist.

6 1/2"

I then took the leather cording and cut the leather adding one inch, so I cut a total of 7 1/2" of leather cording.

Trust me...it's 7 1/2"!

I then grabbed my silver tubing and stuck 1/4" of the leather cord into one end of the tube.

Then I took my crimper and crimped the tube closed over the cord.

I then took my eye pin and put the charm onto it.

I am having a really hard time taking pictures and explaining how to make a wired loop.  So, click on here to see how.  She explains it so much better. 

But I made a wired loop, strung it onto my leather cord with the tubing already attached to one side.

Then I took my crimper again, and crimped the bead close.  Remember to add just about 1/4" inside the tube.

Ta Da!  You are done!

The bracelet should be big enough that you can slip it over your hand.  One is a little bit snugger than the other, but I made it work!

Seriously, do you know how difficult it is to take a picture with one hand?!

And there you have it!  The 5 minute bracelet!  This post only took me about 10 times as long to make!

Thanks for stopping by today!  If you make one, I would love to see pics!

I've linked to these parties...

Sew Many Ways

The Girl Creative

Vintage Wanna Bee

Someday Crafts

Momnivore's Dilemma