Teacher's Gifts {Reindeer Feed}

Good morning and Happy Sunday to you! "This is the day that the Lord hath made, and I will rejoice and be GLAD in it!" Due to the unavailability of a church building (our new church building is yet to be completed), the church we attend has only evening services on Sunday evening. It has been different, but we have adjusted. Thus, I have a little time to blog this morning!

Is your season merry and busy yet? The business will pick up for us this week. We have one Christmas party tonight, after church, and two parties tomorrow. Grace's GEMS (God Expects My Service) club, and Elijah's Cub Scout  parties are both tomorrow...ugh...does anyone have any extra energy to spare?  I am still working on getting all the party food, teacher's gifts, and friend gifts completed. Grace's GEMS club requires for her to make a homemade gift for her Big Sister, and I wanted to be able to do something for the kids' teachers. So...where to go for inspiration, but Pinterest?

Yes, I am actually using some of those hundreds of ideas I have pinned to my boards on this amazing but addictive site. Well, maybe not hundreds, yet, but getting close to it. 

Years ago, someone brought some Reindeer Feed to the clinic I worked at, and I ate so much as to about get sick! It was delicious! I have looked for the recipe, in vain, since then, and finally find it this year. {I pinned it to Pinterest, if you are interested}. So I made up a batch of it yesterday, and packaged it an original, festive way....inspired by....yep, you guessed it....a pin from Pinterest. Gracie and I stayed up last night working on it together. What a lovely time of mother/daughter fellowship it was!

Here is how they turned out:

The one on the right is for Elijah's Cub Scout master, and Elijah would not hear of putting a bow, even if it is made of twine, on a man's package!

Did you think I was going to leave you hanging without the recipe? Here you go, enough for one batch:

Reindeer Feed






2 1/4 c. Cheerios
3 1/4 c. Rice Chex
1 1/2 c. pretzels
3/4 c. M&M’s
3/4 c. peanuts

Stir gently with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
In the microwave melt one bag of white chocolate chips according to package directions.  Let cool slightly and then mix into bowl a couple of spoonfuls at a time.  As soon as everything is well mixed, dump mix onto your cookie sheet and spread out evenly.

Watch for little (and big) hands snitching your stash, it's sooo good to much on! :) 
As for the packing, well, that will have to be a different post. Little ones are up and needing Mommy's attention. Have a great day!

Homemade Christmas Gifts

Last year, my Mom, SIL & I agreed (challenged each other?) to make something for one other for this year's Christmas. OK, now, whose idea was it exactly? Surely it wasn't mine? Cause I'm kinda getting nervous. Christmas is right around the corner. I gotta get busy! As if I'm not already! I've come across a few things here and there that are doable (hopefully), but as my SIL reads my blog (Hi, Monica), I can't reveal everything. But I will share a few things I have come across. Please advise as to the level of potential cheese-factor or flop-risk these may have for an amateur.

Ruffled T-shirt:

Check out the tutorial here.

Rag Bag:

Tutorial from Nesting Place.

Memo Garland:

Again, from the Nester. Gotta love that Nester!

Notice these are non-sewing-machine-requiring projects;as is appropriate for the sewing machine challenged :).

I do have some other ideas up my sleeve, but I have to keep something a secret.

If you have any suggestions, please leave me a comment and share :). I LURVE comments (hint, hint). Even if you do not have a blogger account, you can still leave a comment by going to comments and choosing "anonymous". It would make my day!

A Frugal Fix (Using What You Already Have)

Today was the last straw. I decided I've had it! Enough is enough! I drew, I aimed, and I fired....the water hose, that is. At my icky, dusty, yellow-pollen coated front porch. Aaahh...clean. A job accomplished.

Then I realized I have a problem with the also pollen-covered cushions of my wicker porch furniture. How do you clean these things? So I didn't. I dug around and found a vinyl tablecloth I bought a while back that was the wrong size and clashed with my dining room (bad shopping choice). I grabbed my trusty bottle of safety pins and recovered them babies (the cushions, not the pins)! (yes I'm weird, I reuse baby bottles for storage purposes).



The result: a clean, fresh front porch to enjoy! The only thing new on my porch this year is the flower arrangement by the door. I'm usually more selective when it comes to silk flowers, but the green hydrangeas I wanted were $10.00 EACH at Wal-Mart. I went with the $5 bunch of fake-os. But from a distance they don't look that bad.


Gracing my front door is a $8 flower wreath I found on Clearance at Target about two years ago. I really wanted a roll of that pretty mesh stuff to make a wreath with, but at $14.95 a roll, I'm gonna have to have a yard sale first and raise the money :). I just can't justify spending that kind of money on a decoration accessory.



On to another area...my foyer. This picture was in the house when we first looked at it, and I loved it! The previous owners were nice and left it here for me! It's been lonely on that wall for two years now, needing a nice little table to go under it. Well, a few weeks ago my Mom was visiting and we went yard saleing and I found this table for $10. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have bought it if I had been alone, but my Mom just wouldn't give up until I did so here it is and I guess it's OK. I'm really not a fan of this style. I'm more attracted to chunkier, more natural-looking pieces that I can distress and paint. Anyway, but I'm glad to have it! So, I found this planter thing at another yard sale for .50 and used these flowers I've had for AGES to gussy it up a bit.

I'm happy with the result, and although I'd prefer a gorgeous new flower arrangement from Hobby Lobby, new chair cushions from Target, and a mesh wreath for my front door, beggars, I mean, frugal people can't be choosers! :)

The Skirt Made from Pants

Here is the skirt Mom and I made last week, from a pair of jeans. Mom actually did it, which means I still have not really hands-on made one myself. I watched her through the entire process, but really wanted to say, "STOP! I want to do it!" But I didn't, I just kept my mouth shut because, well, she's my Mom, ya know?



Just look at that face. Isn't she beautiful?

I'll be scouring yard sales for more jeans to practice on.

Oh, and the couch in the background is the new-to-us couch and loveseat given to us by J's family a couple of weeks ago. It needed a home and our den needed some seating, so it was the perfect blind date! :) Another blessing!

Happy Monday!

I've Been Busy!

This week, my Mom has been here helping to keep me from getting lonely while DH is away. I am so glad she has been here, for else the days would be terribly long and lonesome! There has been no watching the clock this week! I look up and say, "Wow! Is it lunch time already? Is it time for supper already?" We have been very busy, completing those all those little projects that I have started and got stuck on and had to stop, and also the ones I've had in the back of my head and never even started.

The first matter of importance on our list was to make a cover/cushion for this storage box/bench thingy in my dining room. The previous owners installed it and I've always thought it was kind of odd, but it is pretty handy for storage. Here is how it has looked for the 1 1/4 years (can you believe it has been that long?) that we have lived here:



And here it is after our little "makeover"! Better, eh? I got the fabric at Hobby Lobby, off of the remnant table for around $9.00. The cushion was not so cheap, and I was not so happy with the thin-ness of it, but it does the trick! I love it!



Project #2:
Mom got me this white lamp base at a yard sale when we first bought the house. I dunno how much she paid for it, but I'm sure it was a steal. Since my daughter's furniture is white, I thought it would need something to make it pop a little. I bought a pack of vinyl wall stickers at Target on the $1 rack.
I've seen other people blog about recovering lampshades and thought, "I can do that!" Have you ever thought that? You know what? You CAN! Just DO IT! It's liberating! And if you mess up, oh well! So I watched yard sales for a nice lamp shade, and finally found one for $3. I bought a yard of fabric at WM for $1.50. Grand total=$5.50. I was very pleased with how it turned out.



Project #4:
My girls' hairbows were taking over. Spilling out, over, and everywhere. And of course I keep making them and adding to the loot. So they needed a new place to call home. I found a canvas board at Goodwill one day for $1.99, and bought some fabric at WM, again on the $1.50 table. Ain't it cute? It looks even better with all the bows attached.



Project #5:
Kitchen curtains!! Yeah! And I sewed these on my own, with a little over the shoulder guidance from Mom. I'm so proud. I think they probably cost about $2 apiece. Pretty good when compared to the $15.00 valances I wanted at Target. These are to hold me over until I can get what I really want. But until then, I love these!


Project #6:
We made Grace a skirt out of a pair of jeans. It's so hard to find skirts long enough these days. Sorry but I don't care to have my 3 year old dressing like a hootchie :). FYI, I got these jeans at a yard sale for $2. No pic yet, but I will take one of her sassy little Highness wearing it soon and you can see.

We also cleaned out my den/computer room/storage room/study/computer repair shop. I have 8 garbage bags and 3 boxes of stuff sitting in my foyer waiting to be taken to Goodwill. The room now looks more like a den/computer room/study/computer repair shop. And a lot more tidy at that. No pics of that yet (tomorrow).

Can you see why I've had nooo problem falling asleep at night? The evenings after the kids go to bed have been spent in companionable silence, reading a book and eating popcorn. Don't we sound like two little ole ladies?? Even old ladies can have fun!