Category Archives: Holidays

Christmas Kids Lunch/Love Notes: Freebie!!

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lunch-notes_xmas img_6957Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend filled with loads of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, family and holiday decorating! We certainly did and what an effort it is. Every year I tell myself it’s too much, but then throughout the year I forget and get excited to do it all over again…who’s with me?!

I digress…the point of this post is to offer you some free printable Christmas themed lunch notes for your kiddos lunches this season. Why not keep the lunches festive and the cheer going while they are away at school? I came up with these cuties yesterday and my girls are getting their first ones in their lunches today. I am especially fond of the santa jolly one 🙂 I hope you enjoy! There are more general themed ones for the rest of the year in my Etsy Shop (see tab on home page). Enjoy this magical time of year and I’ll see you soon with some more holiday posts. Oh, and click here for the free downloadable PDF.

DIY Haunted House

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I’ll be honest, I love me some halloween decorations, but I’m not a fan of the gore. And to find simple halloween decorations, that also don’t lean toward cutesie is hard. So sometimes one must come up with their own and DIY it. I made this haunted house last year and I think I must have spied something similar, but didn’t want to fork over the large sum of money it cost. I have my limits on how much I want to spend on seasonal decor.

While I was at the craft store, I spied some unfinished bird houses and the idea popped in my head to come up with my own low cost version and I quite love it. And it’s super simple…like I would do anything that wasn’t 😉 So without further ado, here is what you need:

Supplies:

  • Unfinished wood bird house from local craft store
  • Black acrylic paint
  • Black glitter
  • Paint brush
  • Sponge brush
  • Clear household glue (like this one)
  • Cookie tray with low sides to catch the glitter and lined with wax paper (or any kind of paper to protect your cookie sheet from paint)

How To:

  1. Place the bird house in the cookie sheet and paint it black with the paint brush.
  2. Once paint is dry, cover the house with clear glue all over with sponge brush.
  3. Before glue dries, add the black glitter. Voila! You have a sparkly haunted house!

 

 

 

Father’s Day Card Free Printable!

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Fathers Day_Cool Pop_Digital IMG_5276Father’s Day is just a few days away – can you believe it?! Time to honor those caring and loving Dads out there and tell them how much they mean to us. For the Dad’s who are the fixers, the playful dads, the encouragers, the providers, the wrestlers, and the ones who are the soft spot to land for our little ones, we say thank you!

Click here for your free printable Father’s Day card!

Vote on Minted

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Merry Christmoose
Hey there friends! A little confusing seeing a Christmas card in June, right?! Well, I finally got around to submitting my first design (and hopefully not the last!) on Minted. It’s an awesome site for designers to submit their artwork and be voted by the people. And if your submission is one of the top voted, your design gets to be featured on Minted for consumers to purchase. Win, win in my books! But of course, they need to be ahead of the current season and ready for the next, so their holiday non-photo card competition just started it’s voting process. There are sooooo many talented artists out there. I respect and admire them all, but if you feel so inclined, a vote in my direction would be oh-so appreciated!!! Click here for my design. Many thanks for your kind efforts!!

Quick and Easy Hot Cross Buns

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IMG_4357I was determined to make hot cross buns for Good Friday today and although they came out differently than I had anticipated, they came out delicious and far quicker than I had planned!! I thought I had yeast to make the traditional version, but because just assumed I had some, when it came to the yeast step and went to grab it…sigh…I was out. So with a little improv and internet checking, I came up with a baking powder version for what I had already started and they came out yummy and easy!!! A little different in texture of course, but the flavors are there 🙂 The recipe is below as well as some instagram easter basket and egg decorating idea pics I posted for Easter.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 4.5 tsp baking posder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • zest of one navel orange
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3 Tbsp butter room temp
  • 1/4 cup sugar sugar
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup buttermilk

Directions: Makes 12

Preheat oven to 350 F

  1. Whisk dry ingredients, sugar, orange zest and fruit into a large bowl.
  2. Rub in butter with fingers until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  3. Whisk buttermilk and egg together and add to dry ingredients. Mix just until a soft dough forms.
  4. Turn onto a floured board, knead lightly.
  5. Pat out to approximately 1 inch thickness and, using a 3-4″ round cutter, cut into buns.
  6. Place onto lightly greased oven tray.
  7. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.
  8. Glaze: Mix 1/4 cup powdered sugar with buttermilk one tablespoon at a time until a paste is formed.
  9. Remove from oven and brush buns with glaze.  
  10. Cool buns on a wire rack. Cut slivers of dried apricots to make crosses and place on top of buns.

 

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Easter basket inspiration. Most of these items are from the Target Dollar Spot…ummm…super cute bunny tote, right?!

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I decorated some eggs and went the super simple, yet chic route: brown eggs and a white Sharpie – how easy can it get??!!

 

Easter Art Print: Freebie!!

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IMG_4313Here is a little free a Easter art print! Easter has not been much on my mind like everyone else because we celebrate Greaster (Greek Easter) and it’s not until May 1st this year…way far away!! But I didn’t grow up in a greek family so there is a part of me that still wants to celebrate this week with you all and so I got my Easter pants on and made a freebie printable art print to celebrate the occasion 🙂 And I will for sure be making some hot cross buns for Good Friday! One of my favorite Easter traditions my mom always did.

Click here for the PDF print.  …can you tell I’ve been in to watercolor lately?!

Valentine Class Bookmark Cards – Free Download!!!

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IMG_4015With sick kids, half days and a multitude of other unplanned stuff in our schedule, it’s been taking me longer than I would have liked to get these valentine bookmarks finished and shared for a valentine freebie! But, alas, I finished {sigh}.

I really try to limit the trinket quota in our house, but it always seems to be a loosing battle. However, I trudge on and hope someday my house will be a trinket free zone (wishful thinking, right?). That said, for valentine’s day, it’s a mecca of trinkets and so in the past I’ve just done some simple valentine cards (see my Etsy Shop) with a lollipop taped to the back. For fear my kids will get bored with my noncreative valentine efforts (however, I thought their cards were pretty cute, but kids could care less about the design…it was for me 🙂 ), I decided to create some valentine bookmarks. Not as exciting as candy, but my mom conscience feels much better about it! So here you have it…they are a free download for the next week and then they will be available on my Etsy Shop for purchase after that.  Just print (on card stock), trim and write on the back and you are finished! Enjoy 🙂

Christmas Dinner Place Card Freebie!

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IMG_3543This year we aren’t hosting Christmas for the first time in a looooong time. We are going to enjoy the day stress free at my brother’s house this year, which I am kind of relieved to not have to plan and host a big dinner. Aaaaahhhh! That said, I love to decorate the table for Christmas and come up with fun place card holders for the table. I always do something simple and pretty inexpensive…usually it involves my husband going out and picking some evergreen branches for me from some trees outside 🙂 Last year was one of my favorite tablescapes with skinny pine tree branches stuck in left over pieces of wood from what we cut off from our Christmas tree. My husband drilled a hole in the middle of the small stumps so the branches slid right in. It was simple, free and easy. I wish I had some pictures, but I sadly forgot to take any.

BUT, the other dressing for the table were these fun place cards (Click here for the free download!!). You can type in the names of your guests in the PDF or just leave it blank and write them in yourself. You choose! Click here for the free font if it doesn’t show on your computer. Enjoy!