My Rose Among Thorns

Spreading Holiday Cheer!!!

Ideally, I see this blog being a lifestyle blog.  At this point, it's impossible for me to talk only about infertility.  I work, I exercise, I have kids, I pin things on pintrest....so I want to incorporate my life into this blog.  

Tomorrow is the last day before winter break in the schools.  The students are bouncing off the walls, the teachers wish they could bounce off the walls with them!  Anyway, thanks to Pintrest for the money pit DIY projects, I found some cute holiday gift ideas.  I had such a hard time deciding where I would draw the line for gift giving; if money was not an issue-I would have bought for all the staff members!  I work in a room with 3 paraprofessionals in charge of discipline and 3 special ed teachers. Besides them, I figured I would give to the 1 principle and 2 assistant principles as well as the pay roll secretary and my mentor because they have been phenomenal and have volunteered to help me with countless tasks around the building.  This is my first year, so there was a lot to figure out upfront (i.e. insurance, pay, tax form, etc).  

These are the two pins from Pintrest that inspired me.

*I just want to say that I am not sure exactly how to credit Pintrest.   The picture I pinned isn't necessarily the original and I don't feel like it is my place to be publishing someone's name or blog on my blog without their permission...if you search for: thanks a latte and/or for your mistle toes, these WILL come up!

 

 

Thanks a latte:  I was not interested in the printable, it just seemed to "fluffy" for me to be giving out to co-workers.  So I just went with the cupholder and the gift card.

Please forgive my pictures!  One day I hope to replace my regular camera with a fancier version :)

I made sure to ask for some cupholders with the purchase of my gift cards, thoroughly confusing the baristas. 

 

Then, I hot glued the bottom closed.  Simple...the tutorial I had read glued the top so the opening was "secure" for the gift card.  However, I put the gift card in and pushed it down and it seemed snug enough that I didn't do any additional hot gluing.

That was after I shoved the gift card in....it was pretty snug, so I wasn't worried...

Then I used an Elmers Painters in metallic, ultra fine to write my message: Happy Holidays!  Thanks a latte...Aaryn 

For your mistle toes:  I ordered the Essie mini collection off of Amazon; really nice colors, I almost kept them for myself and ordered a second to give...why is it that every season new colors come out that are so similar you can't tell them apart from the color in your drawer from last year, but you order the new color anyway?  The tutorial I read, the lady had a special stamper, which I don't have. So I figured I would just type out the message and print in color.  I also bought the scissors that cut with a boarder from Michaels.  I didn't have any ribbon, so I figued I would just hot glue on the nail polish. 

Anyone notice my tiny big blunder?  Piggy Toes?  Not sure what happened there....what's worse is I handed them out today like it was no big deal and it wasn't until I went to do this post that  I saw my original and realized I printed the wrong message!!!  But it still looks cute, and was a big hit amongst my female office mates :)  

I really loved these  projects because the materials themselves were very cheap, and the prep time was extremely minimal, even I'm surprised.  But most importantly, the wow factor was off the charts!