Snowball Fight!

In preparation for "The Great White North", aka Canada,  I wanted my kiddo and my nephews to practice their snowball fighting. Of course I didn't want a ton of mess, as they will be practicing in a hotel after we do our Texas family Christmas Thanksgiving weekend.

Enter Pinterest! Duh... fabric snowballs!

Here's what you need:

Scissors

Rounded diamond (almost lemon shaped) pattern

Sharpie

Stuffing

Glittery felt (found at hobby lobby for 1.43 after coupon for 1/4 yard!)

Sewing machine

White thread

(Since I already had the stuffing from a previous project, the whole project cost $1.43 total!!)

I started with a rounded diamond shape as a pattern for my balls. Each ball needs 4 of these shapes.

I traced the shape as many times as I could, which gave me 10 balls in the end.

After all the tracing came the cutting.

Once all the pieces were cut, I was able to start seeing. (Make sure you sew with the glittery side in) sew 4 pieces, each attached to another by one side. For the last two seams, make sure to leave a slot for stuffing.

Now onto stuffing. My first couple I didn't stuff very much, which made it easier to sew but left them softer. My suggestion is to stuff them enough that they are firm, but leave room to sew the ball shut.

And there you go!! Now you have your balls! 

(I had a Santa basket that I bought as a photography prop that worked great to hold these!)

Cookie In A Jar Teacher Gifts

As I was walking around a mall, looking at all of the brightly lit and wonderfully colored displays, I started thinking about all the people on our Christmas shopping list. There are, of course, family and close friends, but there are also people like teachers. I started looking at potential gifts, until I took a moment to realize that Abby has 12 teachers! Of course that includes her actual school teachers, Sunday school, bible study and MOPS teachers. The fact is that they have all taken care of our kiddo this year.

That was when I realized I needed to find something to give each of them,  without breaking the bank. Enter Pinterest! In a short while of looking through Pinterest,  only getting distracted by everything else on there a few times, I found it! Something personal, practical, and wouldn't break the bank. Cookies in a Jar!

I had already bought lidded jars last year after Christmas,  because you have to take advantage of 75-90% off holiday stuff, right!!? So I had 12 jars just waiting for me to figure out what to do with them,  making my husband think I was nuts. Finally they would be put to use.

After a quick trip to Kroger, costing less than $20, I started to assemble my jars using a classic chocolate chip recipe.

Here is what I put in my jars:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups Chocolate Chips

I also made little tags to go with the cookie mix. Each tag has the rest of the instructions and recipe.