Countdown Blocks

December is always a busy month for me. I try to make a lot of homemade Christmas gifts to give friends and family, which always ends up taking longer to make than I think they will. Then I'm ususally waiting in long lines at the post office, hoping that my gifts will even get to thier recipients in time for Christmas. 

The past many years I've felt like things were so hectic during the holidays that I've had a really hard time being able to enjoy the season like I used to. Every year I promise myself that next year I'll do things better, I'll be on the ball and get my gifts made and mailed early so that things are not so crazy with all the last minute preparations.

That's been kind of hard for me, because I tend to be a last minute kind of girl. It's when the pressure is on that I get the inspiration and drive to get things like this accomplished. So, December comes and I find myself once again rushing to get all the gifts made and sent, and as usual promising myself that next year will be different. 

Well, hopefully this will be the year that things are different! 

A couple of weeks ago my teenage daughter and I decided to get busy and start making some of our Christmas gifts. A little Christmas in July! 

Admittedly, I had some push to do it since I had a brother coming to visit who could deliver some of the gifts, which would save me a ton of postage over mailing them all to Canada. 

This also gave me a deadline, so the last minute motivation was there, even though it wasn't December! 

My Christmas list seems to get bigger every year. More and more of my nephews and neices are getting married and starting families of their own. This year I wanted to make something fun for some of them that they could use for thier young families. 

After lots of Pinterest scanning, my daughter and I decided that we should make them some Countdown Blocks (seen here). 

We have a set of Countdown Blocks in our home that we've used now for a lot of years. My kids have had a lot of fun using them to get excited about upcoming events. The ones we have were specifically made for Christmas, but we keep them up all year long, and use them to count down to other holidays and birthdays, etc. 

So, for these blocks we decided to make them general, so that they could use them all year long, not just for Christmas. I hope they'll like them! 

Note to my married nephews and neices: I'm pretty confident that none of you read my blog, but if you do... pretend you didn't see this post! Forget all about it, and be surprised on Christmas! 

Here's how we made our Countdown Blocks

First I cut some blocks out of a 4x4 post (I had some leftover from when I made this welcome post). The post isn't really 4x4, because of wood shrinkage it was 3.5x3.5, so I cut them 3.5 to make them square. I also cut a 2x4 7.5 inches long. I sanded all the pieces down till they were nice and smooth.

Then I picked out some coordinating paper. Picking paper is always a hard step for me, but luckily I had in my paper stash some already coordinating paper perfect for this project. I'm pretty sure I bought this to use for some other project that I didn't get to, but since I can't remember what that was it must not be important! 

Next we painted the wood. We painted a couple of coats of blue, focusing primarily on the edges, since that is what would show up. We did end up covering the entire block of wood with paint on our last coat.

After painting the blocks we modged podged on paper squares (cut to 3 inches) to the blocks, and a paper strip (cut 7x1.25) onto the long piece. We inked the edges of the paper with blue ink before we attached them for a little added extra effect. 

I cut Vinyl numbers and "countdown", though you could use stickers if you don't have a vinyl cutting machine. The numbers you need for these are 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. This makes it so you can count anything down for one month (or up to 32 days). Notice that there is no nine because the six gets turned upside down to become the nine. When choosing a font to cut (or stickers) watch that the 6 can interchange to a 9 nicely. I didn't think of that when I chose my font so it's not the best looking nine, but it will do.

We attached the vinyl... one block of the set getting a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The other getting a 0, 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8. And of course, the "countdown" going on the 2x4.

Once we were happy with how everything looked, we coated all the blocks with more modge podge and let them dry. 

Lastly, we carefully wrapped them, and happily sent them on their way! Phew, that eases some of December's burden! 

We made a couple more Christmas presents that week that I'll probably tell you about another day!

One Smart Cookie Teacher Gift & Best Ever Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Are your kids out of school yet? 

This was the last week of school this year for mine. So as usual I turned to Pinterest for some teacher gift pin-spiration. There are always several fun ideas to choose from, so after going over a couple that I liked best (here) with my kids we decided on making their teachers a fun little jar of cookies, with a tag that reads "I'm one smart cookie thanks to you!"
 

Putting the jar and tag together was pretty easy. Wide mouthed medium sized mason jars seemed to be the best option for this, and luckily they happened to be on sale this week at my local craft store! 

I used my silhouette to create and cut out the tags, and also to cut circles out of scrapbook paper to fancy up the tops a bit. I made the tags kind of big so that my kids could write a little personal note to their teachers on the back side.

It would be easy enough to design the tag on Publisher, or any other computer program you use (or find already designed printable tags that you'd just have to print out- I saw a bunch for free online), and just cut them out yourself. But, since I have a Silhouette I decided to make use of it! 

We popped about six cookies in each jar, sat the circle over the top before screwing on the rim, then wrapped thin yarn around the jar to make it look pretty and to attach the tag.

Easy as that! It really didn't take very long to put these together. 

I thought about painting the metal rims on the jars for a little extra effect, but decided to just leave them silver, and keep it simple this time. 

My three elementary school aged kids reported that the cookie jars were a hit! 

The cookies we made for this were the perfect size to fit in the jars. We used my favorite cookie recipe... The Best Ever Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

While I've tried a lot of different cookie recipes from Pinterest (and I'm sure I'll try many more), I seem to always come back to my tried an true oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's definitely a favorite in my family. What I love about these cookies is that they are filled with oats, which makes them stay thick and chewy, and maybe a teeny bit healthier, but you don't even realize that the oats are there. They taste so good, and the combination of two different kinds of chocolate in them makes them even more melt in your mouth delicious! 

My recipe comes from before the days of Pinterest, when recipes and ideas were passed around through e-mails. There was a recipe circulating that claimed it was the recipe used to make the famous "Nieman Marcus" cookies. 

You've probably heard of it... the story was that a lady ate a cookie there and loved it so much that she asked for the recipe. She was quoted "two fifty" for the recipe, and thinking it was a great price she paid for it with her credit card. Later she noticed that instead of being charged the two dollars and fifty cents she had expected, she was charged two hundred and fifty dollars!! So, to make up for it she mass distributed the recipe so no one will ever again have to pay $250 for it! 

I've made these cookies so many times since then that I've lost count. Over the years since I first tried this recipe I've made a few changes, but the main ingredients have stayed the same. 

This recipe makes about 80 cookies. I used to half the recipe, but have learned that there is never enough, so now I always make the full batch. I have made these and frozen them before (individually so my kids could take them in their school lunches), and found that they are great even after freezing and thawing. So, if you do make a big batch and find that there is too many (unlikely at my house!), just throw them in a freezer bag and freeze until you have your next cookie hankering! 
 

Here's the recipe for making the

Best Ever Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Makes about 80 cookies)

  2 cups butter or margarine

  2 cups white sugar

  2 cups brown sugar

  4 eggs
  2 tsp vanilla
  4 cups flour
  5 cups blended oatmeal
     *measure and then blend or            process into a fine powder
  1 tsp salt
  2 tsp baking soda
  2 tsp baking powder
  1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips
  1 8 oz Hershey bar (grated) OR
  1 1/2 cups of M&M's
  3 cups any chopped nuts - optional

1. Cream the butter and both sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla
2. Mix together flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda
3. Add in chocolate chips, Hershey Bar/M&M's, and nuts. 
4. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet
5. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees
6. Cool, and enjoy - But, resist the urge to eat them all right then. Trust me when I say that these cookies taste even more delicious the next day once the flavors have had a chance to mesh together!

**Recipe Notes: 

Instead of blending my oatmeal I usually just use one 8 oz box of baby cereal oatmeal. It is the exact right amount, and already a nice fine consistency. And it saves me a step... always a plus! 

I usually use M&M's in these cookies, though I have used the Hershey bar and that is really yummy too, just less colorful. This time I used mini M&M's which was fun for a change. You could probably exchange any other chocolate candy you like too.

I don't usually add the nuts (some in my family aren't nut-in-cookie lovers), but I think that they would be a tasty addition! 

These really are the best ever cookies... giving away eighteen of them to our teachers wasn't easy for my kids! The rest of them got gobbled up in no time. Luckily they are easy enough to make that I'm sure it won't be too long before we whip up another batch!

Personalized Picture Clock

This is a project I pin-complished quite a while ago. When I first came across this pin I knew I didn't want to wait long to recreate one of these for myself. I love having unique and useful ways to display pictures, so this was perfect. 

I also like easy, and this was really easy. I think the hardest part was gathering the supplies... I probably spent a good twenty minutes in the aisle at Michael's trying to decide which clock hands I wanted to use! 

I bet you could make this too!

Here's what I used: 

1 12x12 wooden board (purchased at Michael's Craft Store)

1 package of clock parts (also purchased at Michael's)

Craft paint to match my picture (I used black)

Foam paint brushes

Texture cream (purchased here)
      *You could also just use Modge Podge, but I love the texture cream because it gives it the look of canvas)

Spray adhesive

A favorite picture 

Here's what I did:

First, I used a photo editing program to crop my picture to a square and to add the clock numbers. To get the spacing just right I googled clock images and used one as a template over my picture while I added the numbers in the font I wanted (then removed the template). 

I had my picture printed professionally (just at Wal-Mart), and got to work! 

I painted the edges and sides of my board black. When the paint was dry I attached my picture to the board with spray adhesive. Then I carefully applied texture cream over the picture. I did a couple of coats of this to give it a nice criss cross effect and make it look like canvas. 

Once that was all dry I drilled a hole right in the middle of the board. I figured out where the middle was by drawing two lines on the back side of the board, each across from corner to corner. The middle was where the two lines met. 

Once I had the hole drilled I just attached the clock mechanism and hands. I inserted a battery, set the time, and had a beautiful way to display a family picture. 

I loved this project so much, and it was so easy, that I made three more of them right away for gifts. 

I wish I had pictures of those to show you too (especially the one I made for my sister with her cute family picture), but unfortunately my camera got stolen before I had transferred the pictures to my computer :(  (a very sad day), so you'll just have to trust me that it turned out beautiful too!