christmas class gifts - brownie trees

please allow me to introduce you to the idiot (me) who thought it would be a good idea to make these adorable brownie christmas trees for each child in my two (school aged) childrens classes.oh they'll only take an hour she said. she was wrong. 58 trees and 3.5 hours later, i was seriously regretting all my life decisions.

oh. my. word.

courtesy brownie recipe:

200g butter

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup plain flour

2 eggs

1. preheat oven to 160 deg celcius (fan forced)

2. line a 20 x 30cm pan

3. melt butter and brown sugar in a pan gently over low heat until combined. do not boil

4. add cocoa and vanilla essence and stir until combined

5. add flour and mix well

6. add eggs and stir until completely combined

7. pour into lined pan and bake for 20-25 mins (in our oven - 22 mins is perfect!)

i baked the 3 trays of brownies during the day, that was not the issue. they were easy as anything. it was the decorating and packaging that got me.

step 1. cut each tray into triangle pieces, which actually takes ages just in itself.

step 2. pipe icing onto each tree in a tinsel kind of motion 

(icing is simply a mix of icing sugar, just enough milk to make it pipe-able but not enough that it won't dry, and a little green food colouring.)

step 3. add "baubles and stars" from any random supermarket sprinkle mix

step 4. add candy cane trunks in the base of each tree 

step 5: wrap each tree in cellophane bag, add individual tags (created with canva then printed off at our local harvey norman) and tie off, then curl ribbon ties.

would you believe this process took me three and a half hours?! i nearly died - mostly of tiredness because by then it was 2:30 in the morning. augh. but they looked amaaaazing and i was so proud of them.

and it was all worth it in the morning, because joseph took one look at them and said: "oh mum they are amazing! my class will love them." day = made. that is why we mums do stupid things like this.

merry christmas school kiddies! ❤

p.s. maddie has two lovely girls in her class that don't celebrate christmas as they are jehovah witnesses. we chose to give them something else instead, a handmade school tartan scrunchie with a non christmas label. respect for others beliefs, in turn brings respect for ours. 

teacher/class gifts 2020

here we go again... what to get for the teachers for an end of year gift. i feel like i was onto a real winner last year with beaded lanyards as i have seen all of them being worn again and again during this school year. so that's what i did again. i let madeline and joseph choose one for their teachers, along with a giant gingerbread cookie from baked on benrua and a jar of infusion tea sachets for water bottles. done and dusted.  

but. there was still joseph's second teacher to sort. his full time teacher was made associate principal for term four and so with staff changes he was allocated a new teacher, a male teacher! first time we've had one actually. he was super nice and we loved him, so i sussed him out and he was into plants, so i bought this gorgeous pot from a local business called cemented and the thank you stick from wrapt kokedama co. he loved it!

i like the kids to be able to give a gift to their classmates at the end of the school year too, so this year i made chocolate lollipops for them to hand out with these cute little labels i made on canva. i thought they would take forever but they were so easy, just melted chocolate in a mould i got from ebay, sticks added in, christmas sprinkles on top and left to set. done.

then pop out and bag. easy.

winning. plus they looked so festive so my christmas loving self was very happy with the end result.

teacher and class gifts, sorted!

teacher and class christmas gifts

i was ready wellll ahead of time this year for the end of year class and teacher gifts, after stealing this idea from my friend who had found these christmas chupa chups at her local coles. perfect size - 25 to a pack - it's like they are meant for classrooms!

but of course, our local coles had none, neither did any of the surrounding ones. ugh. my mum to the rescue, their local coles had a shelf full and she delivered them with a smile.

add on these cute cardboard santa cutouts from ebay to hold each lollipop - class gifts done!

then - for the teachers! madeline's teacher always wears a cute lanyard with her keys on it - and when i suggested to madeline she get her a personalised one, she loved the idea. we ordered here on etsy and not only was it beautifully done, it was completed with a personalised tag and it arrived super quick. we were stoked!

but then joseph wanted one for his teacher - which was fine by me! cause she wears them too and that was one more off the list. done and dusted! joseph has a shared class (one teacher teaches m-w and the other tf) and we've had the other teacher a few times over the years and know her well. all she wanted was wine. very specific. the cheap stuff. don't waste your money on me - as long as it's white and alcoholic i'm happy. hhahahah. so wine for her it was. this has got to be the easiest year ever! done.

class christmas gifts

as much as so many mums think giving little class gifts is totally extra and not necessary, but i looove the idea! something cute to hand to your friends instead of the standard christmas card with the candy cane... this year, i decided to prove that they can be as cost effective and busted them out cheap as.

madeline:

-personalised card (made with the canva app) printed for 10c at big w

-pencils that say cute things such as "stay grateful, stay happy" etc $2 on sale for a 5 pack from decjuba at dfo (40c each)

- mini chocolate santas in a mesh bag from the reject shop (approx 13c each)

total cost 63c each, plus a giant glue gun burn on my thumb. ouch!

*************************

joseph:

-personalised card (same as madeline's - made with the canva app) printed for 10c at big w

-glittery bouncy balls from kmart $2 for a pack of 6 (approx 33c each)

- christmas gummy lollies from kmart $3 for a pack of 30 (10c each)

-plastic bags from the reject shop $1 for a bag of 30 (3c each)

total cost 56c each, plus my sanity!

but... i was super happy with them and the fact they didn't kill my bank account - and the kids seemed to be too... hooray! ♥

easter class gifts

sorry for the terrible picture... but i just wanted to show how easy it is to make a treat for the whole class (side note, compared to last years effort of making vanilla confetti cupcakes for maddies pre-primary class, i guess this is a bit of a fail haha. lucky for me neither of the kids seem to remember that.)

these were so easy to throw together, it's simply a card made on red stamp, i made them two to a photo size print and printed them off at our local big w (10c each, so 5c per piece once cut) then taped on one of these cute easter animal chocolates from aldi. (bag of around 18 for $2) took me all of 10 minutes and the kids will love having something to hand out to their friends tomorrow. easy!

an organised mum

a couple of weeks ago, i was browsing facebook and came across these adorable candy cane sleeves from giggles party design. 30 sleeves, four different designs, personalised with your childs name, posted... all for $15. where do i sign? i had madeline choose some candy canes the next time we were in kmart (is it a surprise to anyone that she chose rainbow ones? really?) they arrived last week and they are now sitting in a bag in the cupboard ready to go. they worked out to be 60c a piece which i am more than happy with. i am hoping this is the year i am super organised and ready for christmas well in advance so i can actually enjoy the season. here's hoping!