Should I Use These for Grocery Bags?

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Juliet Tiu

You know when your family or relatives go on vacation and they bring back a little something as a momento from their trip? It’s a nice gesture, right? I think it is. Normally. But why these designs? Seriously, is my sense of style that hard to read that my relatives purchase these very, uh, unique totes?

Totes from afar

It’s not that I don’t appreciate my family’s thinking of me while away on their tours. The tote on the far left is beaded, crazy beaded. Where would I use this? And the tote with the woman came with it’s own makeup/satellite bag. My daughter thought that bag was slightly creepy. And, the one on the bottom is newly acquired, even though the date on it is the year 2000. Note to family: if you feel like you want to buy something, really, just spend it on my kids. They LOVE it when you come with small treasures from abroad. They have stories to tell their friends like, “My grandparents got this for me in Paris.”

So, do I take these totes to the grocery and use them until they fall apart? I suppose they could be good dress-up material for the kids. Library book bags? Ooh, white elephant gift!

More (teacher) gift ideas

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Juliet Tiu

…and maybe something for you? Read on.

June just went by like a blur, and as the end of the school year approached, I was giving myself headaches thinking of small, thoughtful gifts for Abby to give to her teachers. As my husband so nicely pointed out, “We don’t have to give everyone a gift, you know?” I know, but at the same time, I think Abby really enjoyed every one of her teachers, the classes and everything she learned. And, I felt it was appropriate to give a little (let’s stress little) something.

For the reader, reading teacher, librarian – a handmade book wedgie. Sounds a bit nicer than book THONG. Haha. Abby picked out the beads and the charm at the bottom says, “Inspire”.

For her main homeroom teacher, (along with this) we compiled a cookbook with favorite recipes shared and handwritten by the students. A couple of parents and I did all the scrapbooking layouts, and it took a few hours. Each page is different and the recipes range from “chocolate milk (pour syrup until your mom says stop)” to “Greek lentil soup (you don’t have to be Greek to eat this)”. This page was my daughter’s. She picked shrimp de jonge. Surprised?

Abby would tell me about her art teacher and how he taught her class that a little glue goes a long, long way. “A dot is a lot, that’s what he says, Mom.” So for the art teacher, a custom print that my husband and friend did, and stationery to match (printed at home). I just printed the picture at home on photo paper. It’s intentionally made to look like those motivational business posters or the funny de-motivational posters.

I cannot take the credit for the card layout. My cyber-acquaintance, author and designer, Amy Karol at angrychicken made these great cards with sayings. Please, check it out!

So, this might be fun. Would you like to share your teacher gift ideas or end-of-school-year traditions? If you do, we’d like to share some craftiness with you! We’ll randomly select a someone on Saturday, July 11 to receive an Abby-Julie book wedgie or custom 8-pack of stationery with your own quote. Leave your comment between now and Friday night (7/10, 11:59 CST) with an e-mail or some way so I can contact you. Many thanks, friends!

UPDATE: As of 7/12/09, no comments on this post.