Life as we go it: Gift Ideas

Showing posts with label Gift Ideas. Show all posts

Monday, October 5, 2015

Just add ice cream

Some friends of ours recently welcomed their third beautiful child into the world (yay cheese!). I'm well aware that the first few months post-baby are awesome-amazing-crazy-chaotic-tiring all rolled into one. A new baby takes up so much of your time. And if you have another kid or two or three in the house already, add a newborn to the mix and the other kid(s) miraculously NEED your attention every second of the day too :) Am I right?

So what is a friend to do in this situation? Maybe do something nice for the mom, dad and preexisting kids that EVERYone can enjoy? Something fun and yummy that gives everyone a bit of a break from the normal day-to-day craziness (meals, diapers, naps, etc).

I took to Pinterest to look for some ideas and came across a little 'care package' basket that was ice cream themed. Basically, you fill a basket with ice creams toppings so the family can set themselves up a little 'ice cream bar' at their home when they find the right time!

So that's what I did. Because I'm pretty sure all kids and adults love ice cream, right? And marshmallows and sprinkles and cherries?

Here's the quick little box I put together for our friends. I had Matt drop it off on their front doorstep this weekend.

These little blue containers worked great for the toppings -

I found this box in our basement. A decorative basket would have looked much nicer but a) the box was free and 2) they don't have to return it to us, which is important!

And a quick little note -

Hopefully the kids are over their ice-cream-sundae-induced sugar high by now..... he he he :)

Monday, May 11, 2015

Trio

My friend Erin is pregnant and expecting her third baby girl soon. So the Crafty Club ladies and I decided to 'surprise' her with homemade baby/mama gifts at our last Crafty Club night! My friend Sarah who hosted last month's festivities still planned a regular craft for us to do (see the last photo) but then we surprised Erin with pink food & drinks and our homemade gifts :)

There were lots of things I wanted to make for her, but most of them involved sewing. And sewing isn't an option for me right now because a) I lack skills in the sewing department and b) it would have taken me forever just to sew one straight line. So I wanted to make something that was pretty, quite simple and didn't involve sawing or sewing anything!

I perused Pinterest and decided to make some girly headbands for the new baby. There are a ton of DIY headband ideas out there. I looked at hundreds of ideas, went and bought some supplies and then 'winged it' as I went along. I made three of them. Here they are:

Here's a list of supplies I used between the 3 of them:

Scissors, pencil

A hot glue gun + glue sticks

2 elastic bands

1 pink & 1 green 9x12in sheet of felt

1 floral design 9x12in sheet of felt

Assortment of buttons

Aqua gauzy fabric

Grey stretchy cotton fabric

Pink ruffle trim

Mustard ruffle trim

Here's the first one I made. I used felt/ruffle ribbon/button/elastic band:

The underside of these are going to be up against a precious little baby's noggin,

so I fastened a soft circle of felt on each one.

Here's the second one.

I used the grey stretchy fabric to make the band/aqua gauzy fabric/both colors of ruffle trim:

And the third one. I used buttons/both colors of felt/elastic band:

I hope Erin and future Baby E enjoy these :)

Here are a few photos of the pink food we all brought along & surprised her with:

And this is the craft we did that evening. Sarah printed photos of our children (which we sent to her via email ahead of time) onto fabric. We then embroidered colorful accents on them (like a bow tie or hair bow or flower). Mine are not finished yet, but I'll share some photos once I'm done.

I'd love to make more of these headbands. I'm planning on making some for Chloe when I find the time. If you're interested in one, two, or all three of these, send me a message & make me an offer :)

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Pots de basil

A friend of mine recently moved into a new home with her hubby and two kids. And last week she hosted July Crafty Club in her new digs :)

One of the Crafty Club ladies came up with a great idea a few weeks ago --- to shower our friend with housewarming gifts when we showed up at her house for Crafty Club last week!

We all started brainstorming (and Pinteresting) ideas for cool homemade housewarming gifts. Each of us created something totally unique and brought it along with us the night of Crafty Club.

I'll share all of the homemade gifts the ladies made in another post, but for the time being I'll just share with you what I made for my friend.

I went the 'simple' route because the only time I had to make this was the day before Crafty Club & while the kids were napping (I procrastinated...big surprise).

I used painters tape to create a simple design on a cute little pot and then plopped a plant into it. Easy and inexpensive.

I found a cute 6" clay pot at Menards on sale for $1.50.