May Day Baskets

April 30, 2021April 30, 2021 Natalie Larson

Did you give out May Day baskets when you were a kid? I loved the tradition. On the first day of May we would make some sort of little basket with treats in it and bring them to our friend’s houses. Leave them on the step, ring the doorbell, and then RUN! Even as an adult I love to make something and give them to our neighbors. It is such a fun tradition to do and with May Day being on Saturday this year, I think it will be even easier for more people to participate!

I usually end up forgetting that May Day is coming and then I make something last minute on May 1st. These May Day baskets are perfect for that! I got everything at the dollar store. They came out super cute and really affordable!

Here’s my shopping list:

2 packages of favor boxes (found in the wedding section)
2 packages of stickers
1 box of popcorn
1 bag of suckers
2 bags of Laffy Taffy
1 bag of Smarties
1 bag of Tootsie Fruit Chews
16 packets of marigold seeds
2 stems of silk flowers

This came to a grand total of $17.12. I made up 16 May day baskets, making each one cost $1.07. Pretty good if you ask me.

I started by making all of the favor boxes up and then putting a sticker on each one. I found these adorable spring themed stickers that were perfect for May Day.

Then I just placed a packet of flower seeds in the back of each basket. I filled the basket with popcorn ( I used two bags for 16 baskets, leaving one bag of popcorn leftover) and then placed the pieces of candy on top. I started doing one of each kind of candy, but I had a lot leftover, so each of my baskets ended up with two suckers and at least four pieces of candy. I had enough candy and popcorn leftover that I could have made quite a few more May Day baskets if I wanted to. I then snipped individual branches off of the floral stems and placed one branch in each basket.

I love how these turned out! So fun for spring, easy to do, affordable, and anyone will enjoy receiving one of these! Do you do May Day Baskets? I would love to hear about your May Day traditions!

Crafts

Valentine’s Day Paint Chip Banner

February 5, 2019February 5, 2019 admin

I love hanging up banners for any and every holiday! Two Christmases ago, I made a banner out of paint chips and I loved it, so I decided to create one for Valentine’s Day. I love using paint chips for several different reasons. First, they’re free! Which makes this a super affordable craft. Second, you can use any color scheme of paint chips you desire, so you’re guaranteed to match your room no matter what colors of decor you have!

I wanted this banner in my kitchen over the big window, so I went to the store and picked out paint chips of several different pastels, all of which match my kitchen.

While I was at the store I also picked up some pink ribbon, letter stickers, and a hole punch.

First, start by folding your paint chips in half.

Then, I cut out the shape of half of a heart with scissors.

When I got a heart shape that I was happy with, I used this as my guide to cut around on all of the other paint chips so that they were the same.

You definitely don’t need to do this. You could use a stencil, or template if you want, but half of a heart is pretty easy to freehand, so I just did that. You could also just freehand every heart and have each one be a little different. Totally up to you.

Once I had all of the hearts cut out, I took the hole punch and punched two holes in each heart.

Then, I threaded the ribbon through the holes.

I started out with the ribbon on the front of the hearts, but I decided I liked the look better when the ribbon was behind the heart. Again, this is up to you.

Once I had all the hearts strung, I used the pink, glittery letter stickers to spell out “Happy Valentine’s Day.” This is totally optional, but I liked it. Another idea would be to get smaller letters and make each heart look like a Sweetheart candy with little sayings like “Call Me”, “UR A QT”, etc.

At this point, your banner is ready to hang! This is one of the simplest and quickest crafts I have done in some time and it is so adorable! Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Crafts, Gift Ideas, Tips and Tricks

Date Night At Home Gift Basket

December 21, 2017January 7, 2019 admin

Well, it’s only 5 days until Christmas! Have you got all your gifts bought? No? Need some inspiration? I hear you. I give you (drumroll please) the romantic date night at home gift basket!

Gift baskets are one of my favorite things to put together and give! See example here.

Gift baskets are wonderful because you can adjust their contents depending on your price range, plus they are just adorable in general and so fun to put together.

This year for Christmas I decided to make this gift basket for Alex’s parents. I wanted the theme to be “romantic date night at home” which was inspired by a floating waterproof Bluetooth speaker that I found for them that I thought would be perfect for their hottub. (Now obviously I know that not every has a hottub, but that is why gift baskets are so great! You can personalize them for whoever you’re giving them to!)

Anywho, here’s what I put in their basket. I just picked things that I thought they would enjoy using on a night at home with eachother. You could definitely adjust these items to fit the personality of who you’re gifting it to, but for the most part I think all of these things are pretty well liked universally so it makes a great gift no matter how well you know the couple. (Side note: this is also a great way to gift a couple instead of each person individually! Two for one! Yay!)

Waterproof floating Bluetooth speaker (for hot tub!)
A candle (for ambience)
Bottle of wine (duh)
Matching slippers (to wear to hot tub!)
Ingredients for a romantic Italian dinner: pasta, pasta sauce, garlic cloves, garlic flavored olive oil, garlic powder grinder (I like garlic okay!?!)
A movie (for snuggle time)
Dessert: I chose different varieties of chocolate truffles and pirouette cookies

A Christmas basket and Christmas sign (for holiday cheer!)

I hope this gives you some inspiration! Here are some other ideas of items you could put in your date night gift basket:

A blanket
Matching robes or pajamas
Chocolate covered strawberries
Champagne
Fresh flowers
An album, iTunes gift card, or CD for some romantic tunes
Lotion or massage oil

Have fun putting together your gift basket!

Crafts, Gift Ideas, Tips and Tricks

Thanks for “Bee-ing” So Sweet Gift Basket

November 4, 2017January 7, 2019 admin

I purchased a house two months ago now. I can’t believe it’s already been two months! Anyway, my house is conveniently only three doors away from one of my very best friends from high school! I still can hardly believe my luck. I knew that living so close to Liz and her husband would be so fun and exciting, but I never could have dreamed what incredibly generous neighbors they would be.

The night I moved in, I went out to dinner with Alex. I didn’t rush right home because honestly, I was a bit nervous and scared to be in a new place all by myself. But I needn’t have worried. When I got home I found a beautiful gift basket on my front steps. It was so incredible and generous! I was blown away and completely comforted knowing I had such great friends so close by.

Then just last week I came home from work to find Liz mowing my grass, raking my leaves, and filling up five bags worth of twigs and leaves! With all that she’s done for me, I knew I wanted to do something special for her to show my appreciation, but what? I didn’t have a clue until I came adds this cosmetic bag from Bath and Body Works.

I couldn’t not buy this bag! I instantly envisioned the gift basket I could make with it. While I was at the Bath and Body Works store, I also bought some honey hand lotion and honey soap (pictured inside the bag) as well as a “bee happy” hand cream! They also had adorable “bee happy” gift cards, so I had them load one of those up so Liz could get some things of her choice too.

Then I bought a honey bear of local honey, some Burt’s Bees honey lip balm and face mask, as well as some honey cinnamon almonds.

To tie together the theme I just used a plain notes are that I already had that sort of matched the cosmetic bag. I drew little bees and colored them in with colored pencils, and wrote “Thanks for bee-ing so sweet” .

Once I finished, I stuck everything in this adorable little basket that came from the dollar store! (Shhh…..don’t tell Liz).

This basket was so much fun to put together! I hope this gave you some ideas on how you can brighten someone’s day. If you can’t find a cosmetic bag to go with this theme, that’s okay! This basket would still be adorable without it. Some other ideas of things you could pick in this basket would be more variety of Burt’s Bees products, baked honey cookies, sugar cookies decorated like bees, a honey pot, honey sticks, Winnie the Pooh products, or really anything that you love or think is cute!