Staying Home Sawyer

Real Life Living on a Real Life Budget

DIY

Strawberry Baskets!


 You are Berry special to me - Strawberry Basket of Appreciation

Now that school is out and summertime has begun, it’s officially strawberry season. Grab your best friend, a few bowls of fresh strawberries (in margarita form maybe?), and enjoy the summertime sunshine. Add to the occasion by telling them how special they are to you with a little strawberry gift basket.

I don’t know about you, but I always have a bunch of these little strawberry baskets hanging around my house. I’ve been collecting them for a while now, telling my husband that I’ll find something to do with them. “Don’t Throw Them Away!” (This is my second life motto). Well, after over a year, I finally found something to do with them. There’s no stopping me now.

Note: In case you’re not a hoarder like I am, just visit the farmer’s market and pick up some fresh berries, you’ll be sure to get your own basket.

Ingredients for a Strawberry Basket of Appreciation

Once you’ve got your strawberry basket, add a little shredded fluff, and fill in with whatever Strawberry items you can find. Print the tag here, the individual strawberry here, and tie onto the basket. You’ll have a fun little summertime gift basket for your friends!

Strawberry Gift Basket - You are Berry Special to Me!

Today marks the start of my husband’s thirty-sixth year on this planet. I thought I’d give him a little birthday shout-out for being such an amazing husband, and an even better best friend. So because he is Berry Special to me (see what I did there?), this post is dedicated to him. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the gift basket, those went to my lady friends. Sorry babe, you’ll get your gift later, I promise.

DIY

Orange You Glad I’m Back?

Orange Gift Basket Perfect for a congratulations gift!Any way you slice it, you’re pretty amazing to me. Every one of you. Except my hacker of course. You, I despise. But for the rest of you, I intend on treating you with the utmost respect, the way a lady (and gentleman) deserves to be treated. You know, because I’m a lady. So before I wine and dine you, I might just show up to your door with a little gift basket to prove my admiration, because who wants flowers anyway? I’d show up with a bottle of wine too, but that’s being a little presumptuous wouldn’t you say?

Ingredients for an Orange Gift Basket - Perfect Congratulations Gift!So in the off chance that you have someone you’d like to show a little appreciation for, you should make them this orange themed gift basket. It can never hurt to spread the love. And if you really want to express your support, add in a bottle of wine or two. Or maybe a bottle of Fireball. Hey, that’s orange too!

Orange Gift Basket Ideas - Perfect Congratulations Gift

I’ve recently grown quite fond of Party City’s individually sold candy spot. It’s perfect for your color themed baskets, or if you just feel like indulging in a bunch of orange candy. Just don’t be exclusive. You should probably throw in a red or green piece so everyone feels included. We wouldn’t want anyone to be offended, now would we?

Orange Gift Basket Ideas

Once you’ve picked up all of your orange candy and basket fillers, grab an orange basket from the dollar store and fill it with orange tissue paper. Pack everything inside, add the label tag, and make yourself a little card if you want to go the extra mile (which you should do). Everyone likes to read a card detailing their amazing-ness. Trust me. If you want to send me one anytime, let me know. I’d never turn down a supportive vibe.

Orange Gift Basket Ideas - Perfect Congratulations Gift

Personally, I think this gift basket is perfect for just about anyone. But I made mine for someone I work with who won a very important award. And not an award where everyone else got a participation ribbon either. A real-life, one person wins, award. So she clearly deserved my support. Can I get myself a participation ribbon for making this basket? Anyone?

Create an Orange Gift Basket for Congratulations!

If you know someone you’d like to make this orange basket for, here’s the file to print for the label/card. You can size it to fit whatever basket you choose. Here’s a file to the individual orange, if you’d like to add it to your orange candies!

DIY

Dr. Pepper Thank You Gift


 Dr. Pepper Thank You Gift

For those of you that missed my post yesterday, let me catch you up to speed (and then I will forgive you for not reading my blog religiously):

About two months ago someone hacked into my blog and installed a crap-load of viruses. I guess I should take it as a compliment that someone thought my blog was important enough to infect, but I’m still getting over the fact that it was a huge pain in the ass. After being told it would cost an exorbitant amount of money (in relation to the zero dollars that this blog brings in) to keep it running, I decided to throw in the towel. That is, until I told my incredibly intelligent tech-savvy friend who said he could fix it for me. For FREE. Yeah, I was on board with that. I think I owe him a cheeseburger for his efforts.

Since I haven’t been able to get much blogging done lately, I’ve had to occupy myself with other, more important things. You know, things like eating cheeseburgers, getting a tan, and traveling the world. Losing my blog (or so I thought) was secretly forgotten while I was on my trip. I mean, who has time to worry about a measly little blog when they’re chilling on an overwater bungalow in French Polynesia? Or swimming with sharks in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean? Not me. I was especially busy worrying if one of the sharks was going to decide that I looked like shark bait.

Dr. Pepper Thank You Gifts

While I’ve been pretty busy outside of work, my 8-5 hours are a little slow at the moment. However, I’ve had some serious help from a co-worker on a few very tedious projects. Seriously, without her help I probably wouldn’t have survived the day. So in honor of her, and her Dr. Pepper obsession, I made this little tag, tied it to some candy, and showered her with my appreciation. I’m sure she’d prefer a gift card or something, but isn’t it the thought that counts? (On a side note, I think I’m always using that excuse – it should be my life’s motto).

I wanted to share it with all of you, to say THANK YOU for supporting me through my unfortunate blogging mishap. I’ve had plenty of my blogging friends (and real-life ones too) reach out to me to say they were keeping their fingers crossed that I could get my blog back. Well, thanks to you (and my handy-dandy, technology geek of a friend), Rae of Sparkles is back in action.

Dr. Pepper Thank You Gift Idea

Lifestyle

I’m Back!

i'm back

I’m back! Did you miss me? It’s only been a few long months since I’ve been able to access my blog, after a very unfortunate incident with a hacker. Seriously, who decides to hack a mediocre blog, that has no value other than to it’s author? I mean, clearly the wisdom that I impart on you on a regular basis is very rich in content, but that’s about the extent of value to a hacker. I guess he (or she) didn’t think so. Because after being hacked, I was promptly alerted by my hosts that my site was going to be permanently de-activated unless I could pay them to clean out all of the ‘malware viruses’ that my hacker conveniently installed. It’s quite a good thing that I also have a very smart, very tech-savvy friend who was able to clean it out for me. I think I owe him a dinner or ten.

I hope that my hacker was able to steal some good life wisdom, such as ‘How to be a Good Person,’ or ‘How to Get a Life.’ I’m sure I’m not being transparent enough about exactly what I’d say to him if I could have a little chat. Regardless, I’m going to take a page from my own book of wisdom, and “Let It Go” while I attempt to forgive and forget. Or at least forgive. Let this be a lesson to my hacker: I will never forget. 😉

PS: Thank you so much to all of my favorite people, for supporting me when I thought I lost my blog, and continuing to follow me on other social media accounts. I really appreciate all of you! More posts to come very soon!