Tea Mix - Quick Gift Idea

Hello! 
I have just a few minutes to spare, so I thought I'd share with you a quick and simple gift idea.  Don't we all love and need quick and simple gifts to have around?  This is a little jar filled with Friendship Tea Mix.  With a few minutes and some cute paper, the jar is ready to give away. 

Here's the recipe for the tea mix if you're interested.  We call it Friendship Tea, but it's also known as Russian Tea.

Friendship Tea Mix

1 + 1/3 c. TANG (orange flavored drink mix)

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. instant tea (unsweetened 100% tea)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Mix it all together and divide up into jars.  Makes 2 cups total mix. Directions for making tea:  Stir about 1 Tbl. mix into a cup of hot water.  Enjoy!

God Bless you today!!

-Rachel-

Coordinating Set of Notecards

Hello!
Hope you've been enjoying your weekend.  The kids (and I) have had off since Thursday, so it's been a nice break for all of us.  We celebrated our oldest daughter's birthday on Thursday with a full day of shopping, so I was thankful for a few extra days to recover!  We've been having such beautiful fall weather here, and I've been trying to enjoy and savor that as much as I can.  My youngest daughter keeps saying "I can't wait for winter", because she LOVES playing in the snow, but I can definitely wait a while for that.  Last year we did get snow in October (very depressing!) but at least we don't have any of that in sight. 

I do have some cards to share with you here today. I made this simple set of notecards that I think would make a nice gift.  I'm finding out that it's so much simpler and time-efficient to buy coordinating paper and make several cards at one time.  I have some extra little plastic cases from Stampin' Up stamp sets, so I covered one of those to put the cards into.  (Actually I decided that first, so I knew what size cards I should go with.  For once, I was happy I had planned ahead!)

I think I bought the patterned paper at Michael's but I'm not sure of the name. (sorry)  The rub-ons were from Stampin' Up - I have loved that set and wish I had more of them!

Thanks so much for visiting!  Enjoy your day!  

-Rachel-

Tis the Season?

Yes, I know it's only the beginning of October, but you can never start too early on Christmas planning!  Actually this all came about because of the challenges going on at Cath's Moxie Fab World blog.  A couple of weeks ago they were celebrating their new issue "Holiday Cards and More", and then designed some challenges to go along with it.  I'll admit to you that I don't make my own Christmas cards.  It's the time of year that I need to go simpler and quicker.  But I do LOVE making cute little gifts, especially fun ways to give away treats at Christmastime.  I'll also admit that I save a LOT of different items throughout the year, thinking that some day it will be perfect for making it into something else.  So for the Season's Giftings Challenge, I made a little treat container that would be perfect for the neighbor, teacher, or friend.

It started out like this:

And this is what I turned it into.   

The house paper is from Fancy Pants, the alpha stickers are from Cosmo Cricket.  I printed out the house sentiment from my computer and die cut it with my cuttlebug. 

So next time you're about to toss that empty container, think first about what you could make it into.  I think anyone would be happy to receive some treats in just about anything!

Have a great week!

-Rachel-

Back to School Treats

Hello!  Hope you're having a great week so far!

Well, two of my kids headed back to school today and my youngest goes back tomorrow.  I'll admit my eyes were a little watery today to see my oldest walk into high school.  Doesn't seem possible.  Wasn't it just yesterday that I was walking her into kindergarten? (I definitely had watery eyes that day, too.) 

My youngest is starting 1st grade tomorrow, so I came up with a little bag of treats and a card for her teacher.  It's always nice to start the year off with a little chocolate, right?!  The card is made from some Cosmo Cricket paper (red polka dot) and some October Afternoon (school ledger).  Love these papers together!  I used my computer to print out the sentiment and used my circle punch to make it into a little tag.  The pencil was just glued onto the paper with the ribbon tied onto it.  Pretty simple, but a fun little card to make.

The cookies were just put in a cellophane bag and topped with a simple paper topper.  The "ENJOY" are Jenni Bowlin stickers.

Here's a closer look at the card:

By the way, these cookies are one of our favorites:  Monster Cookies.  If anyone's interested, here's the recipe:

Monster Cookies:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 c. sugar

1 c. + 2 Tbl. brown sugar

3 eggs

2 c. (18 oz. container) peanut butter

1/4 tsp. vanilla

4+1/2 c. regular oats

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 c. m&m's

3/4 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter, gradually add sugars.  Add eggs, peanut butter and vanilla and beat well.  Add oats, soda and salt.  Stir in m&m's and chocolate chips.  Drop onto lightly greased cookie sheets.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. 

I get about 5 dozen smaller size cookies, but they taste great as monster size, of course. 

Thanks so much for visiting!  Have a great rest of the week!

-Rachel-

Birthday Gift

Hello everyone! 

Hope you all had a good weekend.  My daughter was at Bible camp all last week, so it was so nice to get her home again on Saturday.  Yesterday we went to an Express baseball game in Eau Claire, which was fun.  Since it was Donavon's choice for what we did yesterday, shopping wasn't at the top of his list, but he did give us about 45 minutes in the mall while he looked in Scheels.  Brooke needed a birthday gift for a party later this week, so we found a little something at Aeropostale.  And this morning she made a cute coordinating card to go along with it.  Since I'm still struggling to find any time to create something around here, I thought I'd show you her card along with the gift. 

I know I'm her mother, but I do think she did a great job!  :)

Well, have a great week, and hopefully I'll be visiting with you here again soon. 

-Rachel-

Flower Cookies

Hello!  It's been a busy week around here since it's the last week of school.  Plus, my oldest daughter and I are heading to Washington D.C. on Monday for her 8th grade class trip.  We'll be spending the week in D.C. and New York, which we've never been to before.  So we are getting very excited for it all.  (Except maybe the 24 hour bus trip!)   Unfortunately, with all of this busyness, I haven't had any time for card-making.  So today I thought I'd share some treats I made for Lexie's kindergarten party. 

I just made chocolate chip cookies and put a popsicle stick into the dough before baking.  Then we used frosting to adhere m&m's in the shape of flowers.  We finished them by putting them in a baggie and tied them with green ribbon..  While I was making these, I had a thought of doing something more with them as a little gift for her teacher.  So I bought a clay pot and some floral foam, stuck some of the flower cookies into the foam, and then covered the base with some tissue paper.  Here's the pot of "flowers" all wrapped up in cellophane:

Hopefully I'll get back to some paper-crafting after our trip.  I miss it!  Until then, enjoy the beginning of summer!

-Rachel-

Small Gift Idea

Happy Thursday! 

I was in need of a small gift for someone, so I put together this little package.  I know she likes spice chai tea, so I picked up a few packets from the coffee shop and put them in a glassine bag.  (I love these for packaging things - I ordered these from Emma's Paperie.)  Then I just made a paper wrap with some Pink Paislee paper, some punches, and some alpha stickers.  So simple, but it makes a cute, fun, little gift. 

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!

-Rachel-

100 Ways to Enjoy Life

Happy Friday!  After a busy but l-o-n-g week, I'm ready for the weekend.  I've been doing several projects around the house this week, so I haven't been making cards like I'd like to.  So instead today I'll share with you a gift Brooke gave me recently. 

It's a little jar (I save all my used candle jars) that's filled with 100 slips of paper.  Don't we all get so busy sometimes, that we almost forget to enjoy the life God gave us?  Well, I have 100 reminders for me to do just that.  I'll share ten of them with you:

1.  Sing in the car.

2.  Invite people over.

3.  Make brownies. (yep, she's my daughter!)

4.  Jump in puddles.

5.  Blow bubbles.

6.  Be unique.

7.  Help others.

8.  Smell candles. (we love to do this when we go shopping)

9.  Be optimistic.

10. Do random acts of kindness.

And I have 90 more!  Yes, they're all simple things, but that's what makes life enjoyable, for sure.  At age 14, she sure has a depth of wisdom! 

What is your favorite idea for enjoying life?  I'd love it if you'd share it with me!

Have a great weekend and God bless!

-Rachel-