Birch Baskets

The snow has melted here on the east coast, and as the grass (yet to be green) appears I am dreaming of spring days without coats.  I found these wonderful birch baskets on New Hampshire Creation's Etsy shop.  These birch baskets are made by hand from by floral designer Allie and her husband, Chuck.  The baskets are made to order from already fallen trees.  The pair also make birch vases, grapevine baskets, boxes and accept custom orders.

Can you imagine this basket filled with colorful eggs for Easter?  Perhaps it could be a hostess gift of flowers for the center of the table.

These smaller baskets could be take home party favors filled with a few eggs and candy, or for an adult gathering some pretty spring flowers.

A mayday flower door hanger for your neighbor, or perhaps multiple cones hanging in a row to brighten a celebration?

I'm imagining a great photo prop for a flower girl or just a young child's first Easter.  We saw our first robin this weekend, spring can't come soon enough!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

I was inspired by a wonderful garland on the How About Orange? blog.  She made a similar garland out of stiffened fabric.  It's just beautiful.  I wanted it!!!  Since it's a busy week for me, and I didn't have time to visit the fabric store - I sifted through some scrapbooking paper that I already had on hand.  I made the heart shapes with a paper punch, and then sewed the hearts together with a sewing machine.  (Frankly, the sewing machine is only out because my daughter ripped holes in the knees of her winter PJ's and I can't locate another pair in her size - spring clothes are out in the stores!)  Then, because I didn't think about sewing the string of hearts together first, I used a hole punch to connect the hearts with a ribbon.

So now I'll show you the lovely garland by Jessica of How About Orange?  The fabric is so pretty and I love that the hearts are more demensional with extra layers.

  You can get the complete directions from Jessica here.  I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day, and took the time to tell all of your family and friends how much you love them.

Valentines Day is Monday?

Monday will be Valentines day!  How did it arrive so soon?   Don't fret, you can find some unique printable Valentine's day cards online that you can print at home.  Here are a few of my favorites:

My daughter chose these to give to her classmates:

These sweet valentines are designed by Linnette of Paper Glitter to be labels, but we printed a Happy Valentines Day message onto each and voila, they are class cards.

http://paperglitter.blogspot.com/2010/02/free-valentine-labels-printable.html.  You can see more of Linnette's designs in her Etsy shop here.

Aren't these just too sweet?  This is what I would hand out if I were still in elementary school!

You can download these cards for free from Northridge Media's site:

http://northridgemedia.net/blogs/create/freebies/free-download-printable-valentines/

My son will be handing these out:

These super cool cards for boys are available on Kat Wright's Etsy shop.  Once again, easy as pie to print at home.  She even includes envelopes!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/katwright?ref=seller_info

Our son was excited to find a "boy" valentine that wasn't pink and girly.  Since he couldn't decide, he will also be giving a few of these to his friends:

These designs are free to download, designed by Samantha Hahn of Maquette.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samanthahahn/2192813085/in/set-72157603708838101/

I love these, and wish our school was allowing a few sweets!  Well, we'll just do them for at home anyway.

You can purchase the file print these out at Paper Party Creation's Etsy site.  I think Kristie did a great job with these.  You can print them out at home on label paper and use a scrapbook punch to create the perfect circles, or get one with a scalloped edge.

Winter Wonderland Snowflake Cookies

My children's school had a winter wonderland fundraising evening, so I made some snowflake cookies for the bake sale table.  I love the robin's egg blue and tiffany blue so much so they were fun to make.  I packaged them in clear goodie bags with ribbon for the children to buy.  

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

 This is what I'm bringing to Thanksgiving dinner.  

I found the recipe at the Martha Stewart website and followed it to a T.  The only change I made was to bake the pies on Silpat sheets instead of parchment paper.  Be careful not to over bake them, they taste so good when they are moist.  The cream cheese filling is incredibly delicious!  What are you making for Thanksgiving?

Autumn Cookies

Now that fall has arrived, we've been busy getting into the spirit of colorful leaves and brisk nights by baking some cookies.  The oven warms the house and the cookies smell so good.  I added some lemon to the cookie dough and it tastes wonderful.

What are you doing to cozy things up this fall?  

A Vintage Craft Party

Every since I can remember, our daughter has liked tape and scissors.  It was only natural that she wanted a craft party to celebrate her 6th birthday.  We started out with the idea that we'd put craft supplies on the table in old blue mason jars, so we used that aqua blue color and pink on invitations.  Carli at Dimpleprints found a vintage scissor images and put together this wonderful invitation.  (I've deleted the contact info and address for web privacy.)

Colored pencils, scissors, markers and paintbrushes filled the jars.  Alongside is some of Elise's original artwork.  (hmm, I think she was 3!)

I found these old fashioned striped paper straws on 62cards' Etsy shop, and added the flags to them.  Don't they look sweet in the old mason jar?  I found quite a few at a local antique shop, and I borrowed some from my mother in law.

We made "windsocks" out of embroidery hoops and crepe paper.  I found the directions in Better Homes and Gardens magazine.