Teachers are craft machines

Teachers are the most creative people I know. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a teacher, but because it's totally true. Each holiday, especially during Christmas, my colleagues amaze me. They come up with some crafty homemade gifts and treats to share. Let's see I've received delicious and colorful white chocolate bark, homemade personalized note cards, personalized magnets (which all teachers love for their white boards) and many more I can't remember. Last year I sewed together some felt gingerbread ornaments all dazzled up in Martha Stewart glitter. This year, I have tons to do so I just made some Snow Man Stew, curtsy of my sister Gens. So now it's my mission to share all of their fabulously crafty gifts with you so maybe you can replicate them. The first teachers to make it to my craft wall of fame are my friends;

La Monica= made the lovely hot pink scarf
Yadira, =made the decadent chocolate spoons
Stephanie=gave me a bag of Snowman poop
Inger  (picture not included, because I scarfed down her present)= made Pumpkin Cream Cake.

A few of my favorite homemade ideas for this WEEK!

Here are some sweet homemade ideas for your last minute craft or bake-a-thon!

This is from Hostess with the Mostess blog. If I had more time I would totally do this…guess ya know what I'm thinking about baking for next year:)

Super cute ornament for all ya'll baking addicts:) See how they glitter at Prudent Bay.

Too simple but oh so sweet! Again, if I only had time….try it at eighteen 25 blog.

We give THANKS

Thanksgiving 2010 was held at our home. We had a full house filled with family and friends. This year we gave thanks for many things; but the most precious of them all is the new life growing in my belly!

Our feast started with these organic tomatoes from my new little garden.

The heavyweight that came to get knocked out:)

Place cards that later turned into the leaves for our Thanksgiving tree.

 Our new Thanksgiving tradition: We wrote what we were thankful for on the back of our place cards and then hung them up on our thanksgiving tree. I think its too easy not to do something like this. Here is what I used: 

-an old vase

-branches I found on our daily walk

-fall colored card stock

-embroidery thread

I am thankful for the new life in my tummy, our health and family & friends!

Our tootsie pose:)

I especially give thanks for this guy!

Peacock Mask

Animals & Insects. This is the theme that my first grade colleagues chose for our school's annual Halloween parade. Every year we play dress-up, as a grade level, to get into the spooktacular Halloween spirit. I'm gonna be a peacock! Sounds kinda fancy for a school parade, right? Not really. We all decided to just create a mask to mimic our animal/insect's best features. I love fancy things so a peacock was an easy choice! Here is the before and after of my mini-craft Halloween costume.

All of the materials came from Michael's.

Viola!

DIY: Fireplace make over

I like, no love, no I'm obsessed with HGTV and DIY. Especially now that Mr. G and I have a dvr I totally record all my fav HGTV shows and one of my ultimate DIY favs, Sweat Equity. Home improvement is never ending. Although its hard work and takes a lot of savin' up to do I can't complain because who doesn't love making their house prettier. Here is our very first DIY blog. Project fireplace make-over. Tune-in soon to see the After:)
BEFORE