Valentine day craft and gift ideas...

Valentine is almost here and I will share with some ideas that I like for gifts and crafts to make for your kids, friends and loved one:-)
Now valentines day is just a nice  excuse to make crafts , special dinner and decorate . I think we should show our love daily , to care and to be nice should be an every day thing and not once a year..
I also believe that buying expensive gifts is unnecessary , home made gifts are the better and more personal , putting the time and the effort to make them even the smallest gift is more appreciated . I like to send the kids to school with a little suprice in there lunch box and a homemade card. They love it.. We make cup cakes or cookies in the afternoon and prepare a special dinner for the 4 of us to have at night , the dinner table is decorated with crafts we make and the kids take so much pride in there projects and feel so special when everything is ready and set up.
Now lets go see some ideas about what to make and give..

This is so cute and simple. 

Save bottles and fill them up with goodies., you can  get boxes  from ikea that they have for putting glasses in and decorate them..

Buy canvas bags and hand print  heart on it with fabric paint..

These are so cute for kids school as class favors.

Heart garland made with card stock .. 

This is good for kids lunch boxes.

Ideas for reusing jars.

It's been a long time since my last post , now with the holidays long gone and schools and routine are back to usual and getting well after 3 weeks of being sick I finally get in to the mood to compose a post:-)

Well I don't know about you but I save all my containers ,boxes,bottles and glass jars from groceries ( milk, cereal , jams, jellies, spices ). 

Add  fruit in them for school snacks

Use old toys and hot glue them on  top and 

then spray paint them, I love this idea..

Today I am posting some ideas on what to do with your glass jars, so many cool and interesting things out there to make with them. I will post photos for you to get an idea. You could turn them in to vases to store pasta ,beans , herbs and spices, you could store your homemade shampoo, scrubs, conditioners, laundry powder, melt your old candles and make new ones, store buttons, pins, pencils, colors,erasers, make an indoor herb garden the possibilities are endless ..

Grow herbs indoors in jars

I just love this idea of jars as centerpieces with tea lights.so effective..

Make homemade gifts like body butters and scrubs 

Add caption

Store your beans ,lentils ,pasta and rice

Make labels from chalk paint for stationary .

Wrap string around them and make vases

 

Some of our Christmas diy decoration and activities

 This was the salt dough ornaments that we made ,I posted them in a previous post. I made them in to a door wreath.

 This little snowman was made from a bottle. I used felt to cover the bottle and an old sock for the details.

 I made gingerbread men and brownies for my sons school. They loved them...

 These are ornaments we made from Popsicle sticks. Kids painted them and glittered them..

And our christmas tree..

Homemade vapor rub

Just finished making our vapor rub, winter is here and so are those nasty little viruses and stuffy noses.  And so in our home we started with sneezes and stuffy noses:-) this vapor rub helps relieve this uncomfortable feeling and helps you breath a little bit better when it's  time for bed, especially for kids. Use it straight after a nice hot bath and get in to bed and keep warm.
Another good thing that you should do when your not feeling well with a cold is drink fresh ginger tea with a cinnamon stick, you could add honey for better results . If you can't have too much honey for any reason then just try to have at least one or two cups with the honey and the rest plain.
The other thing that should be done is a nice chicken ,onion and garlic soup again through out the day.  Now back with the vapor rub.
I used:
1/2 cup mango butter you could use coco butter too
1/2 cup olive oil
50 drops eucalyptus essential oil
40 drops peppermint
20 drops spearmint
10 drops tea tree.

Melt the butter and the oil in a double boiler and stir with a wooden or plastic spoon, remove from the heat and add your essential oils. Transfer the vapor rub in a glass or plastic container with a lid.
You could leave it out until it sets or if your inpatient like me put it in the refrigerator for about half an hour.. Remove and store in a cool and dark place.. Use it after a hot  bath or just when you need a little relief from a stuffy nose or bad chest.
This is nice effective and easy.. I don't like to use the store bought Vicks brand as it has petroleum and other chemicals in it that are not good for you and the thought off rubbing petroleum on my kids and my self isn't all that inviting:-) another thing you could do is put a spoon of the vapor rub in boiling  water in a bowl and put you head over it covered with a large towel and breath in the fumes with your nose.. This is super good and very reliving ..

Paper clay

Christmas crafts..

Christmas is a big deal in our home , we love to craft and bake in this time of year and we love making a lot of good memories. Christmas decorations are on through out the house and you can smell ginger and cinnamon everywhere.. Love it:-)
I would like to share  our yesterday's crafts with you, we made Christmas ornaments out of ice pops sticks. We painted them and glittered  them. Kids loved it.  We also made salt dough ornaments a couple of days ago. I will share the recipe with you below.

Salt dough recipe:
1/2 cup salt( I like to use a little bit more salt)
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp cream of  tartar
1/2 cup water.
Put all ingridients In a large bowl and make your dough.. Roll out and cut out your ornaments with cookie cutters. Don't forget to make a hole for the string . Use the back of a painting brush and poke the top of the ornament. Bake in the oven on 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes.
Take the ornaments out and let them cool down for a couple of hours or until the next day. Then you can paint them with acrylic paint and glitter.
Now some people say you have to put them in the over on low heat so they don't urn brown and burn for  3 hours, but I didn't have that kind of patience so I did mine in 20 minutes on medium and they turned out ok, just keep an eye on them.

Rolling out the dough

Kids cutting out there shapes

Happy happy painting

Some ready painted ones

Mr and Mrs Claus.

Lollipops stick house and manger 

Christmas trees

The 25 days of December Christmas movie list.

In our house we love Christmas and everything that involves Christmas. Decorations, food,treats and movie nights.. We have big movie nights in our house with snacks and treats. The fire place is on and Christmas lights are twinkling..
I wanted to share with you 25 movies for the month of  December . A movie every night up until Christmas Day.
Make the movie nights special with some yummy and easy snacks.
Ill give you some ideas:
1)pop corn off course
2) hot chocolate
3) carrots sticks

4) cucumbers
5) savory dip
6) potato chips
7) home made whole wheat pizza
8) gingerbread cookies
9) whole wheat toasted cheese and bacon sandwiches
10) fruit salad with orange and cinnamon sauce
11) apple slices with caramel sauce dip( yumm)

These are a few I can remember and think about right now.. But mostly something you can eat with your fingers ,something that doesn't make a lot off mess..
We all get together in the kitchen and prepare the snacks, kids take them in the sitting room while I clean the mess and Daddy Doolittle prepares the movie.. It's a family affair with everyone involved and helping out.. We have a movie night every Saturday on school nights and if its school holiday we have some extra ones.. With less snacks of course. Good memories for everyone.
So here's the list:                                                                                                              

Christmas movie list

1 A Christmas Carol (1938)

2It's a Wonderful Life (1946.                                                                                   

3 home alone 1990.     

4 home alone 2 lost in New York 1992.          

5 Miracle on 34th Street 1947

6 Christmas Vacation (1989)

7 White Christmas (1954)

8 The Muppet Christmas Carol 1992

9 How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) ( short movie )

10 the snow man ( short movie)

11 Father Christmas ( short movie)

12 Elf (2003) funny

13 A Christmas Carol (2009).            

14 How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

15 The Nutcracker (1993)

16 The Polar Express (2004) my very favorite :-)

17 The Santa Clause (1994)

18 Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) my kids love this one

19  "Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause

20 The Nightmare Before Christmas

21 Mr. Magoo's Christmas Special

22 Christmas Story, A (1983)

 23 Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town 

24The Little Drummer Boy 

25 Cricket on the Hearth

Christmas cartoons:

1 Mickey's Christmas Carol

2 Curious George: A Very Monkey Christm
3 Elmo's Christmas countdown.

4 frosty the snowman ( kids cartoon) 

5 Toy Tinkers (1949 ) Disney's

6  Mickey's  once Upon a Christmas

7 Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas