something beautiful (for peas?)

 this has got to be right up there on my wish list! i mean can you think of anything more pleasurable than serving pea's off one of these little beauties??

 me neither.

i'd just spend all my time looking at them!

 spilling peas...

these are the rather delightful creations of  nina from the netherlands. she uses vintage plates as her canvas but not satisfied with this she has fine art collages, cards and other crafty bits on  ninas blog. 

 she had me at the russian dolls!

not only this but nina does a whole personalised range too.

 

an easy way to bring beauty to any dark corners of your home.

you know the ones i'm talking about.

( the slightly dull areas that are void of colour)

   can be found in nina's etsy store.

 

and if anyone is wondering

'what might make a good birthday or christmas present for angie this year??' 

now you know!!!

cheers angie xx

teacher appreciation

 Teachers work hard! no question. they plan, they mark, they put up with kids being rude, active (mine), crazy (mine again), sad, slow, fast, you name it they deal with it. as primary school teachers they are expected to sing and dance too, not to mention teach drama! scary!!! so at the end of the year i think its only fair to give an appreciative token to these amazing educators.

But what to give to a teacher who will recieve gifts from possibly 30 other kids? its a mine field!  Last year my sons teacher expressed a great love of donughts. so come the last/few days of term he ended up with close to (if not over) 100 donughts! not all would feel this to be a bad thing but as a parent i felt a bit foolish!

i actually broke my coccyx at the very begining of this year, and it has taken this whole half of the year to recover and i'm still not there. so they have done loads extra.  as a result this year i wanted to focus on doing something useful and due to my husbands redundancy coming up fast, economical. previous years gift have included doughnuts (of course), notelets, mugs, sweets, chocolates, biscuits, bookmarks, bag charms etc...

for our teachers we have some special recycled keyrings. i'm always looking for new ways to recycle and i'm happy to see these work so well...

first i cut up some old leather boots (they were totally beyond repair) 

and some broken wellies (no one wants wellies that let water in)

then i drew & cut out the desired shapes allowing one side to be a little bigger for the actual ring.

adding the keyring cleaning the edges. perfect. 

I've gathered some other awsome ideas ou there in blogland, check these out...

its really american but i just love this DIY teachers survival kit found here

this teachers kit would is a bit easier to replicate

what could be cutter than these cookies here (look out for all sorts of ideas!)

lovely bookmarks here  and beautiful book covers here

gifts in a jar round up here thanks to club chicacircle

quilted notecards here

or quick note books with a difference here

for quick and easy treats that make you smile here

 for the 5 minute bread bag tutorial

  tutorial for covering pencils & jars with scrap paper here
i've actually seen this done with book pages. really great especially if you can find a favourite book. especially effective if the print runs the length of the pencil!

If the idea of making your own doesn't appeal then here are a few things i rather liked,

found here all thanks to not on the high street

 

i'm not a teacher but these happy apple brooches

feature pretty high on my own wish list!!

there are so many more options and i will be adding a couple more of my own shortly.
good luck!!

cheers angie xx

starwars partys and so much more...

i love star wars! i was born in 1977 and as a child the only two world events ever mentioned in relation to that year were elvis dying (not really my thing) and the release of the first starwars movie. since then i have felt a particulr affintiy to my dream movies. of course i have a massive crush on han solo (and later indianna jones), 

in truth can anyone seriously resist this lovable rebel??

I doubt it!!!

anyway i digress - sorry. i'll save my dreamy thoughts for later...

i now have other little jedi to worry about training,

and one who hasn't decided yet???

ok back to business!

if you feel the force needs to be more present in your home,or parties? inspired by my friends plans to throw a starwars party for her son,
i've stumbled (ok i admit i searched them out) upon these rather fun treats...

starwars. com inside look at starwars craft book

you get to make cool things like this...

for a site that makes me a bit ashamed at my efforts,
MADE shows us how its done.

i think the light sabers made from 'foam pipe covering' are well worth a look in.

 
Geekmom's starwars party plan

the cupcakes are just the begining...

find free star wars font she used for this great banner here

designdazzle have some great ideas
shared from their own party,

i particually like the build your own R2D2.

justjennrecipes
 has some great food ideas.
dive in and save han solo...

 

bite off yodas ears...

me?? i'm loving the ewok treats...

make and takes  brill and, dare i say 'easy'  death star pinata,

plus how to make your own darth maul light sabers

starwars colouring pages
always good to have extra activities,
and this sight has loads of printables to choose from

for pin the blast on the battle star,
de-head Darth Maul,

and other jedi training tips, tip junkie

unfortunately notorius to get over here, unless you don't mind international post and packaging plus the insane time it takes to arrive??

but the cookie and sandwhich cutters are hopefully enough to inspire you to create your own? find the originals here

cakeadelic.  do some amazing cakes if you need extra inspiration...

slice of the death star anyone??

visit  the starwars blog   if you feel you need more, and don't forget wookieepedia if you need a bit more detail??

thats just the start, there really is no excuse for it now. theres loads of games, decorations, ideas, and food out there for the best starwars party in the universe! just click and see....

cheers angie xx