Hot Chocolate & Peppermind Marshmallows

Another year of homemade gifts. This year's projects included an especially delicious treat. Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows and Hot Chocolate on a Stick! This year, a group of girls I had coffee with were talking about gift giving. And so we made a plan together to make food gifts together. It was a blast! We scoured the internet (thank you pinterest) and thought peppermint marshmallows and hot chocolate on a stick sounded like a fun combination. (We used recipes on the above links above, but increased the sugar in the hot chocolate, and decreased peppermint in the marshmallows.) If you plan to make these one day, let me know. It was a pretty big project, and I have some tips I could share with you!Cutting, Dipping in extra chocolate, getting ready for their packages!My list of recipients is growing - More teachers, more neighbors, more relatives, more friends! And I packaged these up several ways for a variety of recipients.

Thankfully, I found these free downloadable labels online too! Hooray!

Here are 2 other cute packaging ideas if you decide to try this on your own! Here and here.

Snowman Milk

Here's a project that I found on the internet, which claimed to be "quick" and "easy." That's partially true, if you don't exclude all the time it takes gathering all of the supplies! This took much longer than necessary. But it turned out super-cute, I think! If you decide to give this a try, here's what you'll need:
Here are the supplies (because it took me a while to get this figured out.)
-Milk Bottles (or Starbucks Frappucino bottles, with labels removed by Goo B Gone or Turpentine)
-Orange Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds (I called around, and got the last pack from my local TJ Maxx!)
-Icing to affix the "nose" to the "face"
-Chocolate Nonpariels (only works if you use a thick cakelike donut)or a Edible Pen (works for airy or cakey donut)
-Powdered Donut Holes (this was a toughie! I went to 10 locations looking for the right ones. They were either not covered with enough sugar, irregular in size, too small for the bottles, or would not work with the sprinkles) If you are in Middle TN, Fox's Donut Den makes the only ones that will fit.
-Straw & Milk
-Felt for Scarf (the craft-sized felt is too short. Must buy yardage at your local fabric/craft store)
-Buttons & Glue Dots (or with Hot Glue, or stickers, etc.)
-Egg Carton for transporting donuts

Family Photos

We got our family photos back a few weeks ago from photographer Tec Petaja. Wow - he captured some amazing shots! Click here to see the highlights!

Thanksgiving Table

Some more fun projects I made, based on stuff I found on pinterest! Pilgim Boats, made from felt, craft foam & a straw!The kids table placemats. A free download from here. I had them printed at my local Kinko's, since it is larger than a 8-1/2 x 11 format.

Trick or Treat Bags

This is a late post...but I decided to make some more trick-or-treat bags for my other kids. One kid always had a cute one, while the other had a grocery sack! So I finally bought some felt to make 3 other bags. The one in the back is the original. Lance & the kids designed the faces (can you tell which is Ethan's and which is Katie Belle's?), while I made them into bags. I haven't finished the upcoming new baby's bag, but I think that at 7 months old, she's not going to be needing any candy anyway! Now they are stored away, ready for next Halloween!

Snowman Handprint Ornament

Are you on pinterest yet? It's a treasure trove of great ideas! A friend & I just completed these snowman ornaments for Katie Belle's 3 year old class Christmas party! Kristen each child's handprints this morning, and I made the snowmen! Here was the original idea on pinterest. (Details: A dozen frosted glass ornaments for $5 from Hobby Lobby!