Happy Donut Mail

Since Christmas is practically right around the corner, it seemed fitting that my littles and I should take a moment this month and create a laundry list of things and people we are thankful for in our lives. 

And I thought an even more fun idea would be to not only create a list of things and people to be thankful for but to give those people a small gift as a token of how much we are thankful for them!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I like to share pictures of Happy Mail with you. Happy mail is either stuff I have received in the mail that makes me happy and brightened my day or things I have packaged up to give to someone else to make them happy. Isn't it so fun to get something...a card, a little note, even a small package...in the mail!

The kids thought, "Hey, everyone loves donuts!" and I thought, "Heck ya, they do!" so we took that happy mail idea and ran with it and came up with Happy Donut Mail! 

We spent one weekend making sweet chocolate-dipped donuts with happy orange sprinkles for some sweet people in our lives. Although you could also just buy them at the store or your local donut shop too!

We packaged them up in pretty little kraft boxes I found at Target. And wrapped them in lace and gold tinsel.

And strung a little card on the side of each box with a handwritten note telling each recipient how much we appreciate them, and how we are thankful they are a part of our lives. (Handmade with Love printables found in this post here!)

Then we dropped them off at each recipient's home to brighten up their day like they have brightened up ours!

It was such a fun activity, and something I am sure my littles will remember for years to come! In fact we have plans to do more Happy Donut Mail deliveries in our upcoming weekend plans, how's that for a fun Sunday afternoon project?

The Best Part is an online community that's dedicated to brightening your day--every day. How? By Spreading optimism, one share at a time. The Best Part posts inspirational stories, encouraging quotes, good news and other upbeat items to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram--and encourages fans and followers to share that optimism with their friends. Because when optimism is shared, it grows, making an even more positive impact on our world. Check out what others are sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

This post is brought to you by Folgers and BlogHer.

XOXO,

Thankful November: Happy Tags

Here's another fun idea we did as part of Thankful November, where we are doing little acts of kindness each day this month and bringing some good cheer to others (see a few other ideas here and here)

At the beginning of the school year I bought a few packs of journaling cards at Michaels to use as lunch notes for my kids thanks to Ashley's brilliant idea here. I really like journaling cards, and have become quite addicted to them. They are the perfect size for so many things (lunch notes included!) and always have cute fonts and colors. I happened to buy quite a few of the Recollections brand a while back but I also love the Project Life ones too...so pretty! Each pack contains little 3 x 4 inch cards with a writing prompt on each (as they are meant for journaling and/or scrapbooking) but there are always a few of the designs in each pack that have inspirational phrases or cute sayings too.

I thought it would be fun to pick out of few of the cards with inspirational phrases and cute sayings and glue them to a large manilla tag decorated with washi tape. On the other side of the tag I attached a small glassine envelope in which we could tuck in a small token or gift to brighten someone's day.

I bought some gift cards and scratch off lottery tickets to place in some of the envelopes and in others we added a few dollar bills. Then my littles and I ran errands and placed the tags all over leaving a trail of happiness wherever we went.

We left them at the dollar store, the gas pump, the Target cafe, on a vending machine, on a parking meter, with the bananas at the grocery store, next to the cream and sugar at a coffee shop, on a bench at a park, attached to a swing at a playground, and then we handed a few to some cashiers too!

We saw a few people find the tags and I so wish we could have had the time to stick around and watch more as it was so fun to see...I don't think my littles will ever forget this.

Hope this idea inspires you to brighten someone's day!

Thanks for stopping by!

 XOXO,

Simple and Pretty Gift Card Packaging

Here's another simple and easy idea to say Thank You to someone this holiday season. The kids decided they wanted to give their teachers gift cards to Starbucks as a thank you for working so hard to teach them every day. They know how much their mommy loves her Chai Tea Latte with soy, so they figured their teachers would love something from there too, haha!

We placed each gift card into a small kraft bag and folded it closed with a gold paper clip with a touch of lace. The kids flattened some colorful polka dotted cupcake liners, stamped "a surprise for you" in the center of a paper doily, and then we glued them together and tucked them underneath the paperclip.

 So pretty...and a simple enough project that all of my school-aged kids could help put them together :-)

I hope this inspires you to thank someone today!

Thank you for stopping by to read!

XOXO,

Pillowbox Surprises

Here is a fun idea we did as part of our daily Thankful November this month (see more about that here!) These Pillowbox Surprises are super easy to put together and are really fun for your recipients to open.

I was at Target, of all places ;-), one day and found these cute little pillow boxes for $1 on an end cap. They came 3 to a pack so, naturally, I bought a few packs of them! 

They are perfect for dressing up with colorful washi tape and twine.

The only unfortunate thing about them is that they are just a touch too small for a gift card. Darn it. So plan B was that I ended up taping gift cards to the backside and then wrapping them in twine so they were nice and secure.

You could put all sorts of goodies inside but we thought what would be the most fun was to put in a little glittered banner that said, "You Are Special" cause it's nice to hear that you are, isn't it? :-)

I made the banner with my Silhouette using pretty gold glittered scrapbook paper and then hot glued it to some gold twine.

Then I taped the end of the twine with the beginning of the message near the flap of the box and tucked the rest of the message inside nice and gently.

I made a little flag out of washi tape, wrote PULL HERE on it, and taped it to the other end of the twine which we let ever-so-slightly stick out of the end of the box once it was folded closed.

And then, when our recipients opened up their pillow boxes.....

A little message appears :-)

Just a little something for some special people to make their day a little brighter!

I'll share more of our Thankful November ideas next week! Happy weekend to you all!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Thank You! and a Super Simple Boston Creme Pie Recipe!

Thank you.

Two simple words that really carry a lot of meaning.

Have you thanked someone recently?

Recently, we visited a local fire station for an open house and the kids were super interested in the amount of things the firemen do for the community. It got all of us thinking, and the kids decided that we should do something nice for them as a thank you. I thought that was so sweet of them and such a great idea, so we got to it and made a list of ideas of how we could thank them.

It was finally decided that we should make them dessert since everyone loves dessert. I mean what says Thank You better than a homemade cake or a plate of cookies! The kids also decided to make a card and draw something fun on the front to go along with our thank you gift because every gift needs a handmade card, right! ;-) Did I tell you how nice it is now that Noah can read and spell words on his own? LOVE it! He wrote out the card all by himself with Penny and Ellie dictating to him how it should go.

We decided to make a delicious Boston Creme Pie and a couple dozen yummy gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies in case any of our firefighters had issues with gluten. Two great desserts for a station full of wonderful firefighters.

We chose to give food since, in our family, that is the way to our hearts, but you can say Thank You in so many different ways; the possibilities really are endless and don't have to be these big crazy ideas. It is all about doing something kind for someone else. Here are a few things that were on our list, seriously, my kids came up with these!!!

1.   Make them medals for being good helpers a la the Olympics.
2.   Send a letter thanking them...everyone loves getting snail mail!
3.   Give a gift card to Starbucks (they know their mommy well!).
4.   Give a plant or flowers.
5.   Make a thank you video (anything to use the iPhone!).
6.   Give them a hug.
7.   Bring them bagels and jam for breakfast.
8.   Make them cookies.
9.   Bring them balloons.
10. Bring them donuts (we usually do this during Christmas!).

Once the cake was iced and the cookies cooled, we packaged them up carefully in little pink boxes tied up with twine. Then we headed out to our local fire station to make our special delivery. The kids carefully carrying their packages to the fire station door.

The guys loved them and as a bonus the kids got a special tour of the big rigs as a thank you back to them! No good deed goes undone! :-) 

Here is the Boston Creme Pie recipe in case you wanted to make one as a Thank You to someone you know. 

Boston Creme Pie (serves 10)

1 box yellow cake mix made into two 8 or 9 inch rounds, made via package directions

1 package white chocolate flavored instant pudding

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp milk, divided

1 1/2 cups thawed whipped topping

1 oz unsweetened baking chocolate

1 Tbsp butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

Once cakes have cooled, carefully slice off each rounded top so that you have two flat layers which are easier for frosting. In a medium bowl, mix pudding mix with 1 cup milk and whisk for 2 minutes. Stir in whipped topping. Spread all the pudding mixture on top of one of the cake layers and then place the second cake layer over top. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and butter until melted. Stir in powdered sugar and the 2 Tbsp of milk, mix well. Pour over top of cake, letting chocolate icing run down sides. Refrigerate for at least one hour before eating. Enjoy!

The Best Part is an online community that's dedicated to brightening your day--every day. How? By Spreading optimism, one share at a time. The Best Part posts inspirational stories, encouraging quotes, good news and other upbeat items to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram--and encourages fans and followers to share that optimism with their friends. Because when optimism is shared, it grows, making an even more positive impact on our world. Check out what others are sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

This post is brought to you by Folgers and BlogHer. 

XOXO,

Thankful November

We started off our November with a bang this year by spending a few moments each day writing down what we are thankful for in our lives. I like the idea of taking a little time to do this since it gears us up for Thanksgiving at the end of the month and then will hopefully carry over into December too. I really want my kids to think of others especially during this time of the year when it is so easy to get carried away by all the things we want.

And although we like to do as many Random Acts of Kindness we can fit in each December (see here some things we did last year) I thought it might be fun to do one Random Act of Kindness each day in November too to up that Thankful factor!

We've been having fun creating in my studio. It's been so fun to see the lists of ideas my littles have for spreading kindness, I love how their little brains work!

There are just so many ways to spread kindness and joy.

I'll share a few of the things we do throughout the month, it's always fun to see what others do, right?

And, if you have time you should spread some kindness too! It would be so fun to get a whole bunch of people participating!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Homemade Applesauce Mason Jar Gift Packaging

We went to the apple orchard last weekend for the first time this fall, ahhhh one of my most favorite activities :-) It was the perfect weekend outing, the weather was cool and crisp and the apples were plentiful which is exciting in itself as last year the apple crops here were a total fail due to an earlier than normal heat wave and then a horrible frost that killed off so many of the buds. 

Of course we taste tested all the varieties to find our favorites...Jonagold, Snow, Honeycrisp, Lustre Elstar, and Mutsu were definite winners in our book, so we picked and picked and picked some more. And then, as we carried our bushel of apples back to the barn we stopped by the big wagon of windfall apples. They were calling to me, really.

Did you know that windfall apples make the best applesauce? Yup, they do! They are usually all the apples in the orchard that have dropped to the ground but are otherwise in good condition. That randomness means you are getting a nice mix of sweet, tart, acidic, sharp flavors as well as a variety of white, yellow, soft, crisp, and buttery flesh. So basically, the makings of the perfect applesauce!  And since I was itching to make my Crockpot Applesauce (recipe here) as the kids eat a container full of applesauce almost every day in their packed school lunches, the windfall apples (at half the price of pick-your-own) were a calling my name...another bushel of apples it was!

I feel like I have been making a crockpot full of applesauce everyday this week. Our house smells so good! And if you have ever had homemade applesauce you know it is one of the best things in the world to eat. I thought it might be nice to package up some of that apple-y goodness and share it with others.  Why not share the love, right?

I ladled some into pint-sized regular-mouth mason jars, the perfect size for sharing, and decorated them all cute cause the only thing better than getting a little gift is getting a cute little gift, am I right?! 

I used my 2.5" circle punch to make a label for the top of the mason jars out of kraft paper.

Then I grabbed some felt and cut out little apples by hand and glued them on the center of the label with a regular Elmer's glue stick. I hand-stamped "Applesauce" underneath.

I added a doily, wrapped the jars in twine, and clipped on a tag decorated with washi tape for each of the recipients :-)

Easy peasy, apple squeezy! 

Such a fun and simple way to dress up some homemade goodies.

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,