I had originally purchased all the supplies to make these for Michael's first year in preschool which was two years ago.  With all the things happening in my personal life, these amazing gifts fell by the way side.  Since last year was Michael's last year at his preschool, I knew I had to get the gifts done for both sets of teachers.  Here's how we made them.

I know that most of our kids are probably already out on Summer break, but here in Northern Virginia we have the rest of the week before break starts.  Yep, that means that I'm working on my end of the year "thank you" gifts.  Here's how I made these adorable pencil vases for Michael's teachers last year.  Perfect for those Handmade Sunflowers or even real flowers.

I'm always looking for fun ways to make gifts for teachers or family members.  Last year we made these handmade sunflowers for Michael's teachers during Teacher's Appreciation week.  You could make these for pretty much anything and is such a great keepsake.  Here's how I made the flowers (look for a post about how to make the vases soon).

Last summer my mom handed me several of my brother's t-shirts from his childhood.  Some of them I have added to Michael's t-shirts, but she had asked for these three t-shirt to be made into some type of wall art for her Christmas gift.  The big thing was that she didn't want the shirts cut.  So, what to do when you are not allowed to cut them?  Here's what I came up with and I think it turned out pretty well.

Since it's supposed to be Spring, even though the weather doesn't seem to feel like it, the birds should be starting to show back up.  We actually had some birds that were hanging around the neighborhood back in January and decided to make them some feeders so they'd be able to survive.  Here's how we made them.

In creating our kitchen command center, which is almost complete, I never really imagined having a cork board in it.  It just so happened that I purchased the wrong size frame and so Jon and I decided to make it into a cork board.

Since it's extremely hard to find wall art for an Octonauts themed bedroom, Jon decided that he would make his own wall art.  I originally thought that he would just paint a picture of the Octonauts logo and we would frame it.  He decided that he want to do something better than a framed painting.

Several months ago Jon and I started working on our command center in the kitchen.  Originally we were not going to have a message board, but decided to have one since the original plan for this photo frame with glass didn't work.  For the past few months, it's just been a white background, but I wanted something to add some color and character to the center.

This week is Teacher Appreciation week and today was bring in a sweet treat for your teacher.  When I was at Walmart last night buying the candy, there were several other kids getting candy for their teachers.

Last year, I was invited to two baby showers of some friends who were both having girls.  I had been searching on Pinterest for some neat and different ideas to "jazz" up my gifts.  I ran across the idea of making Diaper Babies.  So simple and cute.  Both girls absolutely loved them.


You use newborn sized diapers and roll them up, swaddle them with baby washcloths, put 0-6 month size socks on the top as the hat, and glue on googlie eyes.  Simple as can be and so very cute.

The diaper babies with all the other baby essentials.

I decided to make this to try and help with our meal planning.  It seems that we eat some of the same meals every week.  Was thinking that if we had a calendar to see what we ate a week ago and two weeks ago that it might help us come up with different meals every week.

There's so many different ideas out there in the Pinterest world.  Have you ever taken different ideas and combine them to create your own?!?  I have and probably will do it more in the future.  This is what I did:

Everyone needs to have some type of emergency kit in their car.  I had pinned this idea on Pinterest (Rips in My Jeans and One Good Thing by Jillee) and decided that I would make a kit for each of our cars and one for my mom and brother's as part of their Christmas gift last year.

I took these two ideas, combined them, and geared them to my family needs.  Since I had a child still in diapers, I had several empty wipe containers so no extra cost there.  Most of the items were purchased at Target, some at Walmart, and at a reasonable price.

Here's the list of everything that I put in and with some finagling, I did fit them all in.

• two 1 gallon bags
• travel first aid kit
• antiseptic wash
• additional band-aids - I ended up putting them loose instead of keeping in the box to help fit everything in the wipe container
• lotion - travel size
• anti-bacterial gel - travel size
• mini flashlight
• small travel pack of wipes
• travel pack of tissues
• little tin of mints
• a pen
• pad of paper
• travel toothbrush
• travel toothpaste
• scissors           

I actually had to open the one in my car up a few weeks ago to get a band-aid for my son.  I like the idea of knowing I have stuff in the car if anything should happen while on a trip or not at home.