***If you haven’t entered our baby quilt giveaway go HERE and enter now!!***

Phew!  Just finished passing out the last of them!!  Neighbor gifts!!  I LOVE thinking of new ideas each year, you know something cute and simple…  There were tonz of ideas on Pinterest of course…

For my kids’ teachers, I mod podged a clipboard, addeded some vinyl, cute ribbons, and voila!!

Throw it in a basket with some fun school supplies, a treat, and a card from your student, super easy teacher gift!!

For my neighbors this year I made some tea towels, (see Tutorial HERE) wrapped them around some bread, and tied with a ribbon and a card.

I’ve been on a popcorn kick lately and wanted to throw that in the mix as well.  THIS recipe for caramel corn is soooo good!!

I thought it would be fun to dress up a little jar to hold the popcorn.

Thanks to Silhouette, and their holiday promotion I got this “Joy” Christmas art for free!!  So I added the vinyl to the jar…

mixed the popcorn up inside, and added a square scrap of fabric to the top.

Just tie on a label with a ribbon and you’re good!!

The backs of our labels had our family picture for the year…

What about you?  What gifts did you give this year!!!  You still have 3 more days!!!

Merry Christmas you cuties!

Happy Holidays!!

HaHa, I love saying that!! I’ve got my Christmas tunes blasting, a few Christmas wreaths under my belt, new decorations purchased (thank you Hobby Lobby 50% off sale:), and I even made some Christmas Candy this last weekend!

I kinda got the hook-up from a good friend of mine who happens to be the marketing director for Thermoworks. He sent me the coolest cooking thermometer ever to try out!! Just in time for all of my Holiday cooking and baking!!

My mother-in-law has the best toffee recipe EVER.  I make it every year for Christmas to give as gifts.  I’m going to share the recipe with you all:)  And show ya how to use this fabulous thermometer:)

Shirley’s Chocolate Chip Toffee

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter

• 2 cups sugar

• 3 T water

• 3/4 c milk chocolate chips

• 3/4 c semi sweet chocolate chips

• 1/3 c white chocolate chips

• 1 cup almonds chopped and sautéed in oil

• 3 T malted milk powder

Directions:

Combine chocolate chips and almonds together in a bowl, pour half of the mixture into a 9X13 pan lined with foil extending over the edges.  Sprinkle malted powder evenly over first layer.

Combine butter, sugar, and water in a saucepan, and heat until it begins to boil.

Stir frequently, measuring the temperature every so often.

You want an even boil right at the surface, for 15-20 minutes.

You want the candy to get to the hard crack stage, about 300 degrees.

As you can see from the picture, it happens really fast!!

As soon as it reaches this temperature, pour the boiling mixture evenly over the chocolate nut mixture.  Immediately pour remaining chocolate nut mixture evenly over the top of toffee.  Allow to cool for an hour, and refrigerate if the chocolate is still not firm.  Break into pieces and enjoy!!

For a festive treat, wrap a bundle of toffee up in some colorful tulle, and tie with a ribbon!

(Yeah, my pictures were taken at night, and therefore look yellow!!!)

Enjoy your toffee and share with your friends:)

I’m not saying I have a teacher.  My kids all have teachers.  This was an apron I made for my sons’ teacher, and heck you could make it for your kids’ teacher too:)

I’m trying to say that it’s a “teacher apron” meant to be worn by a teacher…

Ok, now that we have that cleared up:)

What do you think?

Mrs. Booth said she wanted a “bright, colorful apron”  I was happy to oblige:)  It’s definitely got bright and colorful going on!!

I think I need to make ME a bright colorful apron, come to think of it:)

I need to make a separate category on my blog labeled “ruffles” for all the posts that have to do with ruffles!!!

Just wanted to share a new product I added to our shop this week!!

Introducing the Jersey Ruffle Scarf with Felt Flower Brooch…

in plum,

or castle,

Chocolate, and Scarlet colored scarves to come:)  These were sooo fun to make, and I love the feel of jersey knit!  Fall makes me excited for scarves, how about you!!

***Giveaway now closed***

My kiddos are starting school today!!!  Where in the world did our summer go!!!

Last week we had lots of fun shopping for school clothes, school supplies, meeting our teachers, and doing all things school related…

I’m already sooo impressed with my kids’ teachers, I wanted to make them a little goody bag with some handy dandy items for the school year.

I saw this darling idea on Pinterest… and followed the tutorial found HERE.

This is another super simple gift idea that would work for any occasion!! Would you like to make one??!!  Grab your supplies and let’s get to it:)

I decided to place one of the doilies in the center of the bag, and one of them toward the corner of the bag.

Cover the entire outer edge of the doily.

You should do this while the fabric paint is still wet.

This is how the bag looks with the doily along the corner…

I found this free printable HERE, and decided to frame it, and throw it in with the mix…

My mom just happens to be a totally awesome 2nd grade teacher.  She mentioned a few items that are always nice to have throughout the year:  clorox wipes, kleenex, hand sanitizer, and ziploc bags.

The only thing missing is a personalized tag from my little student:)

Here’s another look at the other bag…

My little rascals on their last “free” summer evening!

Hope you all survive your “back to school” weeks!!

Ok!  Ready for the giveaway!!

I will make the winner their very own personalized doily canvas bag, and fill it up with a few surprise goodies from my Etsy shop.   Sound good!

To enter this giveaway:

1. Become a public follower or subscriber of Just Sew Sassy (1 entry for each)

2. Follow Just Sew Sassy on Facebook (don’t forget to say hi:)

3. Follow Just Sew Sassy on Twitter

4. Blog, Facebook, or Tweet about this giveaway (1 entry for each)

I will draw the winner as soon as we reach 1000 followers!  We’re sooo close so spread the word:)

PS. This giveaway is open worldwide:)

Linking up HERE this week:)

Including:

In case you missed us last week… we were on Tatertots and Jello!!!  We ADORE the fabulous Jen, and thank her for spotlighting our lil ‘ol blog:)

We’re sharing our super easy, teacher gift tutorial with our sassy readers today!!

Don’t you LOVE starburst mirrors!!  They’re such an elegant accent for any room.  These are just a few I’ve seen around blogland recently…

We wanted to create a fun, memorable, and reusable gift for our kids’ amazing teachers this year.

How ’bout a starburst mirror with an “old school” twist!!

Tutorial:  Penciled Starburst Mirror

You’ll use about 54 pencils, depending on your spacing

Hot glue, stick ‘em on, repeat:)

(The ribbon part is optional)

If your silhouette is behaving, (mine wasn’t), you can use transfer paper to make the placement of the vinyl much easier

Personalize your gift with a cute lil tag…

We’re having a month of giveaways in June to celebrate 1 year of blogging!!  Make sure and check back this week for some fabulous prizes!!

Hope you all make it through the rest of this crazy month of May!!!

Linking up HERE this week…

It’s the time of year when we appreciate our teachers, (I personally think it should be all year)!!  The end of the school year is coming up fast as well, can you believe it!!  I’m on the look-out for some great teacher gift ideas, and these stood out to me this week!  What do you think?

Homespun with Love created this darling cookie bouquet, I love the little quote in the middle…
This is soo cute and simple, Smile Monsters created another clever teacher gift…
Practically Living shares a printable for our fabulous teachers that I’m using for sure, soo fun!

Soo clever right!!  I’m loving these ideas, can’t wait to whip some up for my kids’ fabulous teachers this year!!

Thanks ladies, grab a featured button if you’d like!

You won’t believe how SUPER easy this dessert is!

AND… It’s the perfect gift!

These were little Easter favors I whipped up for my family this Easter.  Attach the recipe to the jar, and Voila!  Instant treat:)

Easter S’mores

I cut this in half, b/c I used smaller Mason jars, you can pretty much just eye-ball it!

Found this idea on Trendy Accentz

Linking up HERE this week!

***Giveaway Reminder***  Don’t forget to enter our stocking giveaway!!  Winner will be chosen Friday:)

I’m sooooo behind this year, I’ve got 3 more days, and it will be a miracle if I get everything done!!  I just wanted to quickly share a couple of easy, fun, neighbor gift ideas if you’re running a little behind like me:)

Idea #1, Holiday Pins, I got from Becca at Blue Cricket Design, and knew I wanted try this out…  I LOVE how they turned out…

They’re just dressed up clothes pins (found at the dollar store).  I spray painted some of them red, and mod podged Christmas paper over top.  Finish them off with a little distressing  ink and some cute buttons.  Add a magnet to the back if you would like multi-purpose pins:) 

 Package it up with a little note, and some twine for a festive holiday card garland!!

Idea #2, Magnet Rosettes.  I am pretty much obsessed with making rosettes; necklaces, hair pieces, jewelry, pillows, you name it, rosettes make them all better!!  So stick a magnet on the back and you’re set!!  Package them up cute with a tag, and voila!!

Idea #3, Homemade Fudge. 

Once again, packaged up all cute, there’s nothing better (for a chocolate lover that is:)

I hope you have lots of fun gift-giving this holiday season!!