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Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts

Valentine's Day Bag Toppers

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     I know some people are not so in love with Valentine's Day but I admit that I'm NOT one of them. I adore the holiday!  I don't really need a romantic Valentine's Day but I do enjoy a festive one with cute decorations, valentines, and food. So I whipped up some Valentine's Day  printable bag toppers for the neighborhood kids!

holidays-animals-valentine-kids


There are 4 toppers on each printed page.


Here's a little throwback to some 4 more Valentine's Day printables too.
hearts-love-holidays-valentine

Have a great weekend!
Jenny

Snowflake Bentley & Winter Craft

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Are you familiar with Wilson Bentley? If not, I urge you to google him right away!  He is the subject of one of my favorite books, Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin,  which to teach when i was always tucked into my teaching toolbox (which isn't an actual toolbox) when I was a second grade teacher. His story is interesting and his art is magical!



Without going into a lot of detail Wilson Bentley, The Snowflake Man, lived in the 1920s and was fascinated by snow.  He developed a way to actually photograph snowflakes in that split second before they melted. What he created was image after image of the most beautiful of nature's art!






His photographs are considered part of the public domain so using them in my classroom (or here!) didn't violate any copyrights.

I would read the Caldecott Award winning book to the class and then we would spend a week on related activities such as writing snow stories, researching biographies of people from that era or other inventors, reading snowy poetry, using cameras to capture "small" objects in different ways, and we would use magnifying glasses to study snowflakes we caught on frozen black construction paper!  The kids loved it!

Although I don't teach full time anymore, I still love looking at Snowflake Bentley's photographs and his story.   This year, I used some extra fine platinum glitter and a wood snowflake form to create my own snowflakes.  I love the sparkle they give our home!


I used a metallic craft paint to completely cover the snowflake and, while the paint was wet I sprinkled on the glitter. I think superfine glitter looks the best and most classy. Once one side was dry I repeated those steps on the other. A piece of twine made a hanging loop.

It is easy to incorporate a little snowflake into your winter decor and I urge you to share Wilson Bentley's story with your children!

This post contains affiliate links.

DIY Letter to Santa Tree Ornament

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Ok, first things first. One of Amazon's daily deals today is a Silhouette Portrait for half price!!  Now back to our show.....



All couples argue, right?  Money, kids, in-laws...everyone has an issue that never seems to get resolved. Our issue?  Glitter. And there is never a more tense time in our household than during the Christmas holiday season when I am glitterfying everything that isn't walking and Jim is going to work look like a Bratz doll.


See, I love glitter. The more the better. Yes it gets around faster than a stomach flu in a kindergarten class but I don't mind. I love seeing everything sparkle, especially during Christmas. Jim, on the other hand, never learned to appreciate it. He really HATES it. And this is how I know he truly loves me because he puts up with it and he knows he'll never win this fight. Glitter will go on.

These cute little letters to Santa ornaments were so easy to make!

1. Tear white paper on either side to the width you'd like your ornament to be. I used two sizes, one about 3 inches and one about 6. You can tear your length to about 6 inches too.

2. Roll up your paper into a tube. I found rolling it around a pencil made it easier. Tie with a ribbon to hold the rolled paper together.

3. Dip easy end into glue and then sprinkle with super fine glitter. My color is platinum and it is a silver color with a tinge of gold.


4. Let dry.

5. Cut a little gift tag out of card stock. Using a metallic marker, write "To Santa" the tag and glue to the ribbon end.


6. Glue a sprig of evergreen (real or fake) to the paper roll under the ribbon if you wish.

So cute, right?  Kids could do these easily too.



And while Jim may not love glitter, he's stuck with it just like he's stuck with me! And I'm way tougher to get rid of than a little glitter.

Oh and don't forget that homemade pompoms make darling ornaments too if you need to plump up your tree!


Stay sparkly!
Jenny

Christmas House Decor

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I am not posting a full blown Christmas house tour but I did take a few pictures of little bits here and there. I thought I'd share them and maybe you'll pin something for next year!












I hope your Christmas Eve is happy and full of love!  

Cheers!
Jenny


Last Minute Christmas Centerpiece

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You can still have a pretty and festive table for Christmas!  Have no fear!  I put this centerpiece together in minutes with stuff I either had already or could find in the yard!

holiday decorating tablescape centerpiece
See that text filled wreath? Know what it is covering up?  Our unused exercise bike!  LMAO!  Talk about NOT staging.  And see that chair in the back?  It looks like it's losing it's underwear!  HA HA HA!  I want to change the fabric on that chair so I was trying out the new fabric to see if I liked it.  I would #reallifeblogger but # don't mean anything here. But you get what I mean, right? Oy. Moving on.

Holiday Entertaining: Easy Cupcake Decorating (Christmas)

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Here's another holiday entertaining post!  

 A few years ago I made cupcakes for Christmas and decorated them to look like little cups of hot chocolate. They were so cute and I thought they would be fun to serve at a party we hosted last weekend for a group of friends. But alas, when I went to put on the candy cane "handles" it turned out I didn't have them as I thought I did. What to do?


Free Christmas Printable

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I was fiddling around the other night and made a free printable for Christmas. I used my favorite Christmas carol (hymn) and wrote it in bold white against a black background. Hope you enjoy! Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is such a classic song with a simple message. It epitomizes Christmas for me.


free christmas printable chalkboard hymn


Frozen Birthday Party

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Ellie turns four this weekend!  She insisted on a Frozen themed birthday party and I've come to learn that Frozen merchandise is the Yeti of character merchandise. People swear they've sighted it but there is no proof.  So I used some stickers and wintery themed decorations to give her party some Elsa style!  She was so happy!  Here are some pictures. They speak for themselves so if you want more details email me at juniper20@gmail.com and I'll be happy to answer any questions!



Valentine's Day Games Free Printables!

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Oooooh, yayyyy. Another snow day. Great.  I am weeping at the thought of yet another snow day. We have baked cookies. We have made snowmen. We have watched movies. We have done every craft ever posted by any mother/teacher on Pinterest.  We have made cloud dough, cookie dough, moon dough, play dough, and lots of stuff that have cornstarch as its main ingredient. We are done with snow days. Hear that Mother Nature, you crazy hag?!! My kids NEED school! I NEED school! 
  But since there is no school tomorrow, I rounded up some cute, free printable Valentine's Day games to play with Molly and Ellie. 


Valentine's Day Dessert: Strawberry Fool In Love

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Hi friends!  Thanks for stopping by Days of Chalk and Chocolate!  I'm so excited to be part of this awesome Valentine's Day blog hop!  Today I'm sharing my quick and easy Valentine's Day dessert that I tongue-in-cheeky named Chocolate Strawberry Fool In Love.




 I adore strawberries and chocolate together and I thought combining them into a rich, creamy dessert would be the perfect way to celebrate Valentine's Day! Don't they look pretty?  They taste even better!


Valentine's Day Fabric Hearts

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valentine's day fabric hearts holidays decorations

I decided to bust my insane fabric stash the other day by stitching up some sweet fabric hearts for some Valentine's Day decor!  I always appreciate the soft colors of Valentine's Day and it feels good to add some hearts and flowers decor around...it makes me feel like spring will come someday!  Anyway, I'd love to show you how I created my fun fabric hearts!


10 Unique Valentine's Day Wreaths

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Everything is coming up roses!  And hearts and arrows and cupids and YAY for Valentine's Day decorations!  I love all the sweet, springy colors that Valentine's Day brings out. As soon as I'm all done with the heavy and dreary winter, Valentine's Day shows up bringing with it the soft reds, pinks, lavenders, and violets that remind me winter doesn't last forever!   Plus it's fun to incorporate other colors as some of these wreaths prove!  


Valentine's Day Free Printable

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Christmas Home Tour 2013

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All throughout the fall I had visions of my Christmas decorating. It was going to top all other years!  The theme would be sparkle and glitter!  I would ditch all my regular decorations and splurge on some new!  It was going to be all natural!  Hundreds of feet of evergreen roping, natural wreaths hung from every window, applesauce Cinnamon ornaments strung into garlands!  BHG was going to be at.my.door.  And well, let's just say I changed my theme to "Just put stuff up before Valentine's Day."

So in the spirit of easy going decor to fit with my easy going personality (HA HA HA HA HA!!!) here is our home decorated for Christmas. 



Make The Easiest Pillow Ever!

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You all know about my intense love of pillows. I make them constantly and Molly is always complaining about the plethora of pillows around the house. But I can't stop myself!  When I see a pretty fabric, towel, napkin, whatever, I immediately think about how I can turn it into a pillow cover. So when I found some winter napkins at Target last year after the season for $2  a piece I knew they'd be mine and I knew they'd become a pillow cover!  


I'm in the process of sewing two very sparkly pop star dresses for the girls for Christmas and frankly, I'm a bit burned out on sewing. So these had to come together fast.  This is how I made the easiest pillow cover ever.

Iron 2 napkins.



Cut 6-4 inch long lengths of ribbon and pinned them along one edge of each napkin facing in, right sides together. Make sure your ribbons are the same on both napkins. I didn't measure but I did put them on top of each other to make sure the ribbons lined up.



Stitch along each ribbon edge so they were secure. You will do this on each napkin.


Right sides together and ribbons lining up, stitch along the three sides that do not have ribbons.


Clip the corners to get a nicer corner when you turn them right side out. 


Turn the pillow cover right side out and insert your pillow form.  Tie each ribbon into a double knot.


Done!  It took me 15 minutes.  And now I have a little winter glam in my living room!  Happy!


You can check out some of my other pillows too, if you are interested!


In other news, I tweaked my gallery wall. I didn't do major changes but I added some things and moved some other things around. I am growing it over time as I accumulate things that appeal to me. I like how it's evolving.  Ack, the pictures are terrible! Click here for the before image.



I am still trying to get some Christmas pics up on the ole blog. I am in the process of editing the pictures so we'll see if I get them up this week. Hopefully!




Cheers!
Jenny