Teacher Gifts

We just delivered our teacher gifts, and I almost got a little weepy, especially with R's teachers. Both M and R had them for 1st grade and they are such great teachers. Both kids had amazing teachers this year, but it's a little easier to say goodbye to M's teachers knowing R will probably have them in 2 years. N won't be in school there for a while, so it makes it a little harder to say goodbye (I don't even want to think about how I'll feel going through this with my last).
Anyway, here's what we decided to do this year. I got reusable cups (from Costco) and filled the bottom with plain and peanut butter M&Ms. We wrapped a thank you note from the kids around the straw and then filled it up with Lipton iced tea packets. I printed the cute straw flag toppers from here. The cups came with extra straws, so I taped them to the back of each cup. I thought they looked cuter without the extra straw on there, but I didn't really want 6 extra straws floating around my house.
We did one for each of their teachers (they each have an English and Spanish teacher), the classroom aide, and the wonderful secretary who saved me last week when R got a stacking ring stuck on his finger before school. I couldn't get it off at home, so I brought him into the office and she was able to finally pry it off.

I think they turned out really cute, and the teachers all seemed to really like them.

No green thumb required

I saw these cherry blossom branches here (6th picture in the sideshow) and thought they would be prefect for me and my lack of ability to keep any kind of plant alive. I just love cherry blossoms, and they seem to only bloom for a week or so too, which made these all the more appealing to me. :)

I have them sitting up on top of our bookshelves in the dining room, but I took them down to get a better picture. I would like to add a ribbon around the vase, but haven't found the right one yet.

This wasn't a very hard project, it just took some time. I used white and light pink tissue paper instead of bright pink and light pink. I think if I was going to do it again I'd get a smaller gauge floral wire, it was pretty hard to wrap around those tiny blossoms and my thumbs were very sore by the end. I think I used four sheets of tissue paper total (two pink and two white). I made a couple flower templates out of cardstalk and loosely fallowed them while cutting a whole stack of tissue at once which made the cutting go a little faster.

I just love how they turned out. :)

Spring Wreath

I've been seeing moss popping up all over blog land, so after looking at an empty front door for a little too long I decided to jump on the bandwagon. I'd really like to cover a "B" in moss for inside somewhere, but that will have to wait until I can get a B, and some more moss. :)

I had everything on hand for this except the wreath form, which I picked up at the Dollar Store. I used hot glue to cover the front and sides with moss (I thought I might run out, so I didn't do the back), and then I made a few more cupcake toppers and stuck them on there. I just did them on toothpicks broken in half so they're not actually glued on at all and I can switch it up really easily if I want to. I bought some Easter egg picks at the Dollar Store too that I might add to it in a few weeks.

While I really like how it turned out, I'm not sure I'm totally loving it on my front door. I don't think the colors go well with the red door, and it's a little small. It's better than nothing though, so it will stay until I think of something else to do. I think it would look great hanging inside somewhere, or maybe with different color flowers and ribbon...

Cupcakes

Here are the cupcakes I made for M's party last night. I actually used a recipe for the frosting for the first time in my life (Martha's Buttercream) and it was SO yummy!! I just made 1/3 of the recipe, and there was plenty to frost all 22 cupcakes (I can never get the batter to make 24) plus a bunch of "doll" cupcakes (see below). I also bought a frosting tip and pretended I knew what I was doing... I think they turned out pretty cute considering I really didn't have a clue how to use it. I really want to take a cake decorating class, my mom and I need to figure out a time that will work!

Here's M's cupcake with the doll cupcakes. I made them by frosting Reese's minis, they were the perfect size for the dolls!

Both cake plates were made last week from things I found at the Dollar store. The top one is a disposable tray on top of an ice cream bowl, and the bottom one is a candle plate on top of a candle stick.

The party was fun... we had 9 crazy little girls here. I'll try to get some pictures up soon. We're getting ready for round 2 with the family tonight.

Cupcake Toppers

My fingerprints are now melted off, but how cute are these?

I saw the idea on Icing Designs and I thought they'd be so cute for M's birthday! Mine are not as fancy, no leaves or stamens, but I still think they're cute. :)
I used mini cupcake liners (5 per flower) and toothpicks (because I forgot to get lolly sticks when I was at Michaels, and with gas over $4 a gallon I wasn't going back). I can't wait to see how they'll look on the cupcakes tomorrow!