Handmade Teacher Gifts

Teacher gifts have become a special time mainly because I want to give these wonderful people something meaningful for their efforts in being my children's educator.

In previous years, I had Gary cut out a small wood board and I painted a little saying, "It takes a BIG heart to teach LITTLE minds" and they loved it.

This year, I took the time to individualize their Christmas gifts. I know they will cherish them since all of the teachers sent me personal thank yous. I had fun making them now that I don't really paint and sit down and spend time in the studio anymore. 

I made 5 gifts, but honestly needed to make many more. These were for my sons' homeroom teachers but admin and other elective teachers deserve a small thank you too. 

Obviously there was a floral theme 😀. One of the teachers mentioned their favorite flower was an orchid and I have never painted one, so I was a bit overwhelmed. Painting on the wood plank was very forgiving and easy, I didn't even prime it because I wanted the grain to show through. 

All of them were painted with acrylics. I especially loved the floral Christmas ornaments because of the freestyle I used. I also used some 'inspiration' from Marisol Ortega floral lettering for Jonah's teacher. 

I ended up finding the awesome white shadow frames from Hobby Lobby and removed the glass. They were perfect. 

Pretty soon, Teacher Appreciation Week will be here and I like to give little plants to them. Not as personal to each teacher, but it gives me an excuse to go plant shopping 😉

christmas photos, finally

another year full of blessings and traditions, beginnings and ends. gosh, it was such a good year!

this is the final installment of christmas guys, i don't want to bore you anymore with stuff from 'so last year'! it's 2015 and let's start new! yes! but in a minute....

our family gets together christmas eve to make tamales. we've done it for years and this year, they were the best ones yet. tamales de rajas, de rojo, de todo! boy they were good! 

i helped a bit (really, a lot) and i reaped the benefits. i ate entirely way too many tamales. 

 

i think a couple of years ago we took a picture but with a missing sister. here we are again, but with a missing cousin (missing you Nat!) and by the way, look how grown up my little sis is (second from left)!!! 

this was our first christmas with all the babies born + together and i'm so happy we sat them down to document!

that whole day was so exhausting. never mind that because i still had to wrap the last of my gifts to the people i love, fill up stockings and pretend to be santa. unfortunately, we completely forgot to make cookies for the big guy, so scones had to do. i really hate scones. 

the sun wasn't even up on christmas and these guys could not contain their excitement about their gifts from good ol' st. nick. tenkai knights for andrew and big huge monster truck legos for jonah.

told y'all i gifted photos this year :) 

the husband managed to surprise me with a new lens this year. it was pretty amazing actually. i mean, since i sent him the link where to purchase it ;) 

christmas gets pretty boring in previous years...but this year, the boys spent the entire day playing with their legos and being outdoors since it was such a beautiful day.

there's always something fun to do at moomies. we also went to watch dreamworks' Penguins of Madagascar. it was hilarious. 

and these sweet pictures, i managed to take while my nephew was still with us. i will always cherish these! 

you guys, elena does not like moomie. this is what she does when moomie carries her: all day long. it's pitiful really. by the end of our vacation there, she did fine with my mom. no more screaming, but oh lord!

don't fear mom, it's phase. she has to love you. 

and that's the end of that! onto new beginnings now! 

i've been binge watching Call the Midwife (and crying every.single.episide) and finishing up projects around the house because enough is enough! 

we have been making plans on what to do this year like planning a family vacation during hubby's only true vacation: spring break. 

house plans and budgeting our projects by prioritizing (anyone have any good advice on this? i feel so scatter brained with this!)

and elena's 1st birthday party next month, whaaaaat? yeah, 1st birthday--already almost here (freak out now!)

and we've been talking about where to take our handmade store: Shop Witty next.

we also want to hop back on our diet, since we fell off it so hard during the holidays and hopefully keep on the journey of tightening up! 

what plans have you got going around your head?! 

have a great week everyone! 

quick post on christmas gifts....

so, Christmas is done and over with but I still have a few pics of the gifts i got my peeps this year. i totally have to share because i "committed" this year. i committed to doing things for the people i love. like with my hands. using my god-given talents. like, it took a long time. but let me just say, it was very rewarding. 

but first, i wanna share our little december wall art we (jonah and i) did in the boys room: let it be known (jonah, i know you will read this some day) that J's attitude was horrendous. he was very upset that his snowman didn't look as good as mine. soon he will have to realize he can't give up, to keep trying and to pay close attention at details that will help him succeed at drawing such a great snowman. i know he'll pass on that knowledge to his kids one cold, december day. 

keeping with tradition, i did my yearly christmas cards like a boss! i love doing them so much, kinda wish i would get some work that was just addressing envelopes. ha! 

a really good friend of mine is going through the process of adoption-through-foster and i thought some wall art would be appropriate for the room she recently made over for a sweet little babe. i didn't take a photo of it framed, which is a pity because it looked so pretty. 

and starting in november, i think, i began to embroider a kitchen towel for my beloved aunt. she once mentioned that she would like a towel with the saying and i finally made her one. she made a comment that it looked like it was machine-made. how dare she...

but you wanna know what? embroidery is not my thing yall. i'm sure with practice, i would be decent. but paintbrush? oh yes. 

and when you have the cutest daredevil watching you from the other end of the table, well, it just makes it much sweeter to work on christmas gifts.

next up, i hand stamped wrapping paper.  you know, everyone does it at christmas--especially the diy community. i swear it only took me 10 mins, tops, to do this. it was actually very therapeutic, as long as that little daredevil wouldn't get into the stamp pads! 

i used this wrapping paper to do one of the most coolest gifts to a dear little nephew of mine....

that's right. now, leo has TWO favorite Freckles. One for real that he can torture, and the other well, stuffed that he can torture. i painted the portrait of his dog onto cotton canvas with acrylics, sewed a back onto it and stuffed it. it's a pretty sweet pillow :) hope he enjoys it. if not, i know a sister who might (....dawna). 

here's the picture i used:

so there ya go. it was pretty freaky having the pillow in my studio because i swear it was the real thing until i did a double take. i miss you freckles. you were a great studio companion.

this is just half of my gifts to people. mostly, i gave out framed photos. i've gotten so bad about printing out the good photos that it was time i spent doing that and share the joy. 

hope you all had a great time with family and loved ones and that you were blessed in 2014. i know i was and i am forever grateful!

now it's time to take down all that christmas stuff and begin the new year---i'm excited about that part!