2011 in a nutshell

This year was one for the record books!

Christmas Craft 2

I love the holidays, and I love to give gifts.  This year I made crafty gifts for my teacher friends instead of giving out the usual bags of delicious but fattening candy.  My goal was to give them something they could use in their classrooms, so I made "Santa"tizer. I also made them teacher emergency kits, but I'll save those for another day since Amelia is going to want to eat soon.

I saw this idea on Pinterest, but there was no link to how they were created, just a picture.  So here they are, step by step.

Supplies:
hand sanitizer (I got mine at the dollar store because they were $2 each at Wal-Mart)
red paper
black paper
silver paper
white paper
double stick tape
clear labels

Step One:
Measure your sanitizer bottles, and cut your red card stock into strips that are tall enough to wrap around, but leave room for the white fringe at the bottom.

Step Two:

Scallop the edges of strips of white paper, and attach to the red paper with double stick tape.

Step Three:

Wrap the "coat" around the bottle, and attach with double stick tape.  My mom used hot glue on some of hers, but the glue made the paper bumpy, so I used tape.

Step Four:

Cut belts out of black paper and belt buckles out of silver paper.  I cut slits in the silver squares I made and threaded the black paper through, then attached them with more double stick tape.

Step Five:

Print your message onto clear labels and attach to the fronts!

Easy, inexpensive, and a great gift for teachers!

One down, Five to Go

Alright, I admit it.  I tend to take on more projects than I have time for.  I get it from my mom.  She's been retired for a whole two weeks now, and has remodeled her bedroom and bathroom, sanded and refinished her kitchen floor, made Christmas presents, etc.  I think the busybodyness runs in the family.

I've decided to make a bunch of our Christmas presents this year.  With me not having a paycheck right now, it only made sense to keep our Christmas budget a little smaller.  Besides, it was a good excuse to get crafty.

There are currently five projects I am working on finishing, and I will post them when they are done.  Here's the first one:

Amelia's hands are adorably small, so I made an ornament out of her handprints to give to the Grandmas this year.  They turned out pretty cute, and were relatively simple to make.  I say relatively because Amelia still clenches her hands up most of the time, so I had to have a helper to get her hand to lay flat.  Thankfully, Melissa's daughter is 6 months old, and we made some of her hands, too, so I had assistance.

So I present to you, my dear readers, my first tutorial for Christmas crafts:

Baby Handprint Ornament

Supplies:

glass ornament balls big enough for your baby's hand

clear embossing ink

embossing powder

embossing gun

q-tips

paper plates

paper towels

baby wipes

ribbon

extra adult to assist

The project was simple.  We used the clear embossing ink with a roller applicator to get the girls' hands covered, then stamped their handprints onto the glass ornaments.  I sprinkled the powder over the ink, making sure the area was covered.  Before I used the embossing gun, I used a q-tip to clean up the handprint and get the extra powder off.  After they were embossed, I tied a small ribbon to the top, and wrote the year and Amelia's name on the back with a sharpie.

I didn't get pictures of the process, because there was a small mishap with the ink spilling, and I was busy cleaning up as we went along.  Here are the supplies, though:

The paper plates were handy because I sprinkled the powder onto the balls while holding them over the plates, and I was able to use less powder because I used the excess powder for the next ball.

I think they came out pretty cute!

December Is Here!

Well it snuck up on my faster than I could have imagined, and now it's already December.  I can't believe this year is almost over!  My internal clock is now based on Amelia's birthday, and I am having a hard time believing that she is already 11 weeks old.  I'm having an even harder time believing it's been almost three months since I spent a day at work with my students.  I am also struggling to remember what it's like to work full time.  Sigh.  In one month, I'll be getting my back to work clothes laid out!

As much as I love my class, and teaching, I would rather stay here with Amelia.  I find myself getting a bit possessive of her with others.  Even Tim.  I just don't want to share her, especially knowing that I am going to have to leave her so soon.  I never thought I would feel this way.  I was so sure that I would be able to have her, get cleaned up, and get back to the classroom, knowing that she was in good hands with whoever I left her with, but that's not the case.  I'm going to go ahead and assume it's all the hormones that make me so very attached.

It also helps that she looks like this:

Seriously?  I made that?

I have a feeling that I will spend my entire first day back crying and checking my phone every five minutes to make sure everything is ok.  In the meantime, I have crafts to get done, a house to scour, and books to read.