Awards!!

MUCH to my suprise and delight I have been given 2 awards recently!
How exciting! And I am VERY appreciative!
First off from my fabulous friend BECKIE over at These Creative Juices , she gave me...

award!!
LOVE IT!
To receive this award you have to promise to share this with 10 other BLOGS that you think are Trendy too! Easy peasy.
Just post about your award in your blog
List your Top 10 Trendy Blogs
Share with them
Leave a link to the Trendy Blog Button
Tell them they need to give this award out to 10 as well.
My Ten Picks(in random order) are...
Curbside Creations
Its Sew Stinkin Cute
U create
Sutton Grace
thirty handmade days
Poppies at Play
Cluck Cluck Sew
I ♥ Naptime
Oops, I Craft My Pants
Making the World Cuter

I also received

From Julie over at Its Sew Stinkin Cute
How sweet is THAT! :)
Rules for this one are....
Rules:
(1) Thank the person who gave me the award
(2) Share 7 things about myself
(3) Pass the award on to 15 bloggers who I have recently discovered and I think are fantastic!(in no particular order).
(4) Contact the bloggers I have picked and let them know about their award!

Anne, again... thank you so much for the award, it was so sweet and I REALLY appreciate it!

7 Things About Myself
(1) I have two adorable boys named Ryan(9) and Collin(5).
(2) I just celebrated my 30th birthday in April.
(3) Along with crafting, I grew up learning to play the flute(9 years) and piano.
(4) I am married to a wonderul man who is the best dad ever!
(5) I use to make and sell childrens clothing on Ebay under the id of precious*denim. LONG LONG AGO!
(6) I would LOVE to take a vacation with my family to any sunny, sandy, lovely location!!
(7) I live in a house that was built in 1895 and after living here for almost 5 years I am finaly realizing how much I LOVE its unique structures and potential!

I'm passing this award onto
These Creative Juices
A girl and a glue gun
barefoot in the kitchen
THAT'S SO CUEGLY
Nannygoat
Thrifty Decor Chick
The Homemaking Cottage
365 Crockpotting
Sisters Stuff
Life Frosting
Little Birdie Secrets
Keeping it Simple
Mod Podge Rocks
Sew Much Ado
Craft Rookie

If you haven't heard from me yet, congratulations!! You are all an inspiration to me!!
♥Mindy

More Teacher Gifts!

Here are more of the teacher gifts I promised.
You can find the first couple here .
We've been lucky to have some wonderful teachers so far! One of my favorite gifts to give is our handprint pillow! It used to be my signature end of the year gift for our preschool teachers. They loved them!
The pillow is about 8" x 8". Not very big and I attach a ribbon so they can hang it!
This is the front with an adorable poem I found...

Poem reads...
I chose this special present
because I wanted you to know,
That I'm grateful for your hard work
in helping me to grow.
For your constant understanding
and for always being there,
To tell me I can do it and
to show me that you care!
And this is the back! I traced my childs hand and applique it on and satin stitch the edges. :) So cute! Then they sign it with permanent ink!

Another gift is Stationary with little clips.

These clips are super easy to make. Small pieces of scrapbook paper and modpodge! Simple and very cute. I found this idea over at Make It and Love It She used fabric for her clips, which works great too.


My favorite gift of all time was given last year to Ryan's 2nd grade teacher. She looped with her first grade class and that was so awesome! The kids spent 2 years with her and she was amazing. For her end of year present, I sent home a paper with every child asking for a $5 donation, if they could give, and for their children to answer 5 questions. They then returned them to me and I(along with my WONDERFUL friend Robyn) put them together.

It was adorable and our teacher REALLY appreciated it. In fact she read the entire thing to the class and cried the entire time. It was GREAT!!
I found the idea here .


Along with the questions the kids answered about their teacher, was 100 one dollar bills. I also added a picture of the class and quotes about teachers throughout the stack! I love it.
I hope if you appreciate your teacher, you will thank her/him with a thoughtful gift. :) They really do so much for our children. :)

♥ Mindy

Recipes I've tried

I have come across some yummy recipes from some very talented bloggers and thought I'd share my attempt at them!
First off, my friend Beckie from These Creative Juices ! Check her out!! She's awesome!
She recommended THESE yummy looking pretzels awhile back and I knew I'd have to try them!! Boy was I glad I did!! They were GOBBLED up in no time! My kids and hubby loved them!! Thanks Beck. :)


She also recommended a delicious looking BBQ Chicken Pizza . Since i just happen to have all of the ingredients to make it, I gave it a try. Hers looks SOO much yummier, but I think its because I was limited to my toppings. Hubby doesnt like onions and he could do without the cilantro so unfortunately, we omitted those.
Here is mine. Its was still super yummy, but someday I will make it again with all the ingredients!! :)

If you are wondering where the other quarter of the pizza is, that portion got spaghetti sauce and cheese. ;) Ryan is just as picky as his dad. :)

Yesterday I made a yummy dessert I came across Saturday from Brown Paper Packages .
They are called Caramel Shortbread Bars
SOO yummy. It was very easy to make and i will for sure be making some again!! I gave some to my mother and my mother-in-law! They both loved it!!!
Look at how yummy!!! Here is the shortbread before the caramel drizzle!!

And after...YUM!

Thank you ladies for your awesome recipe ideas!!
♥Mindy

Teacher Gifts

Happy Monday morning. :) Although I am freezing, the sun is shining!
This past week was Teacher Appreciation week! I love my boys teachers!! They are wonderful. Along with the mini clip boards I posted last week, we gave the teachers these beautiful Flowers in pencil vases.


While Blog surfing last year I came across THIS
neat idea! I have used it a few times with great success!!! Super easy and very cute. Also very affordable!
The glass tumblers are from the Dollar Tree and pencils are really cheap. Perhaps you have a bunch lying around!
For Collin's teachers I made this adorable poster to hang on their door!!

They loved it! One teacher even cried!! :) Success!

I saw this idea here , but cant find the original post anywhere. If anyone knows, I'd love to give them credit.

For one of the teacher's birthdays, we painted a big terra-cotta pot blue and thumb printed every kid in the class!! I turned those prints into bee's!! We added a beautiful plant and she loved it. I wasnt able to get a finished project picture, but this is the pot! Soo easy and very cheap!!

Any of these ideas would also work for an end of the year teacher gift! Love your teachers! They care for your most precious sweeties!

Linking to...
You're So Crafty Monday @ Miss Crafy Pants
These Creative Juices
♥Mindy

Adorable Mini Clip Boards

Are these adorable or what!!!

I needed a quick idea for teacher appreciation week and I remembered seeing this adorable clip board a LONG time ago and thought it was perfect!!
The ones I have done are actually mini clip boards. :) Soo cute and perfect for a small gift of appreciation! I obviously modified the original version to fit the scale I was working on, so monogram was just the thing it needed!!!
I went by the color likes and style of each teacher!! I am loving how they turned out!
Before...just look how cute and tiny they are...

After...

I love them!




Thanks for stopping by! I'm linking to...
These Creative Juices
Get Your Craft On Tuesday @ Today's Creative Blog
Make It Yours Day @ My Backyard Eden
DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land
Making The World Cuter
Hoo's got Talent @ Night Owl Crafting
Hooking up w/ HOH @ House of Hepworths
If I get enough interest in these, I will add them to my Etsy store!
♥Mindy