Teacher Gifts

Hi there, it's me, that girl katie, This years I went with homemade pumpkin bread wrapped in a nice tea towel with some simple ribbon and packing label.

Sources:

tea towel: your local kitchen store or www.williams-sonoma.com ribbon: www.paper-source.com gift tags: www.staples.com

Pumpkin Bread Recipe:

Pumpkin Bread YIELD: 2 loavesPREP TIME: 20 minutesCOOK TIME: 60 minutes INGREDIENTS: 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree 4 eggs 1 cup vegetable oil 2/3 cup water 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 2 1/2 cups sugar 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice

DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8.5 x 4 x 2.5 inch loaf pans. 2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, vanilla and sugar until well blended. 3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice until well combined. 4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour batter into the prepared pans. 5. Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

DIY POINSETTIA BASE

Hi there, it's me, that girl katie, Make your poinsettia POP by sprucing up the base with an easy DIY project.

Ingredients:

-poinsettia - fabric -ribbon -rubber band -scissors

Steps:

1. cut fabric into a square. Make sure it's large enough. 2. Place poinsettia in the center of the fabric. 3. If fabric appears too large cut excess 4. Pull fabric up and use rubber band to hold in place 5. Tie bow to cover the rubber band & style to desired look.

Recycle any left over fabric as a bow on a package.

Gingerbread House Party

Hi there, it's me, that girl katie, My friend Molly & I hosted our 2nd annual gingerbread house decorating party with our Mommy group.

A few ideas incase you want to host one:

1. I ordered the house from: http://gingerbreadtraditions.com/

2. This year we simplified it and had everyone bring 2 bags of candy and or cereal. I delegated items so we didn't have overlapping candy and it also helped in reducing the email train.

3. We hosted it at Molly's restaurant, www.eleavenfood.com which was really helpful.

4. Put together the houses at least 1 day before the party.

Happy Holidays!

A special thanks to my friend Airin who got me hooked on this party idea.

Chevron Sample Rug

Hi there, it's me, that girl katie, I have been working on a rug for my daughters room but did a sample rug first.

I will have a blog post as well as video post tutorial on the steps that worked for me to complete a hand-painted rug with a chevron rug pattern.

The rug turned out better than I thought and I am super excited to share it with you all.

DIY Disaster or Beautiful Opps

Hi there, it's me, that girl katie, I have been wanting to make our laundry more cozy and knew a lamp would make that difference.

My plan was to have a cool and creative lamp and have fun doing it.

My Steps:

1. Bought a glass lamp from Pottery Barn 2. Spend the morning on the river with my son collecting river rocks 3. Wash & dry rocks 4. Wanted the wet look of the rocks so I spray varnished them 5. CAREFULLY put rocks in glass lamp 6. BROKE lamp 7. Think of book, Beautiful Oops.

Stay tuned for how I turn it into a Beautiful Oops...