A Christmas Breakfast Gift Basket

Who doesn't love breakfast?
With just a few fun and quick-to-put-together items you
can warm the cockles of someone's breakfast-loving heart!

Once upon a Christmas we had a fabulous neighbor
help us out with something a little challenging.
To thank them I put together this breakfast gift basket.

It was pretty simple and fun to do.

I picked up most of the non-food items at HomeGoods or TJMaxx.

Start with some really cute Christmas plates.

There are four in this set packaged in a nice box.

Sorry I didn't take a picture of them alone.

Pile in the goodies.

I've thrown in some maple syrup sporting a Santa hat.

Next add some ready-to-mix pancakes in a mason jar.

I can't remember which recipe I used, this one or this one...

but I'm leaning toward the one that adds butter.

Because butter makes it better, right?  Right.

Just mix up the dry ingredients and add a tag for

the instructions to add the wet ingredients.

If you want to deliver the whole package...

include some milk, eggs, and butter in the basket.

My basket also included a bag of Christmas Cappuccino mix...

perfect for chilly mornings...or evenings...or lazy afternoons!

If you can, add in a jar of homemade jam...this one's peach.

Stick some cute labels to the tops of your mason jars.
Make it festive!

Tuck it all in a basket with some tissue,

or as I have here, a snowflake canvas bin.

Add a fun dish towel - which may or may not ask a dubious question - and

some absolutely necessary red and green striped straws!

And there you have it...
A fun and easy gift you can throw together at almost the last minute.

Now, I just have to ask you...
Have YOU been naughty or nice?

I refuse to answer that question on the
grounds it may tend to incriminate me.

At any rate...
I hope you and your family have a wonderfully magical
Christmas surrounded by love and joy and the peace of the baby born in Bethlehem.

A Stenciled Dresser Makeover

In a shocking news release...

I have NOT dropped off the face of the Earth!

But that is a story for another day.

Once upon a time I wrote a little story about a clock.

In the course of that tale you were introduced

to a started, although long neglected, project.

Enter the dejected dresser...

This dresser, or chest of drawers, once belonged to my mom.

While it was the first real furniture she had growing up,

it wasn't particularly pretty, and she had no sentimental attachment to it.

You can see in the picture above that at the time I took this

picture, 4 1/2 years ago, I had already started the redo.

However, that had been another 2+ years before that.

I know, right?

It had these mid mod grooves and sharp, tarnished, and

deformed metal pulls where the knobs are now.

You can see the color of the metal on the top pulls,

although those aren't the same style.

The ones I had already removed were bent hook-like things that

gouged your flesh should you get too close when passing by.

Since it is actually solid wood it made my job a little easier.

I filled all the grooves with wood filler and sanded them smooth.

I also filled the holes for the top pulls so I could drill new holes

for the wood knobs to match the other drawers.

I somehow neglected to take any pictures between the beginning and end.

I painted the bottom with home mixed chalk paint.

This was a sample I had of BM Revere Pewter.

I started out painting the whole thing and didn't like it.

So I sanded the paint off the top and went with stain.

I usually cheat and use the stain/poly mix because I'm lazy efficient.

Once it was painted, I used this adhesive vinyl stencil I ordered from Etsy.

(It doesn't look like that seller is currently active)

It was just what the doctor ordered.

Perfect!

I distressed it ever so lightly around the corners and sealed it with wax.

Mmmm...mmmm...mmm.

I used the same stain from the top on the knobs, too...

(which are just basic wood pulls I picked up at Home Depot)

and the finished piece is beautiful.

And now for a few too many pictures...

Here it is in it's home in the guest bedroom...

which I will try to share sometime in the near future...

or before the end of the year at least!

I love this transformation!!!

I hope you'e enjoyed this makeover.

I do have a few other things to share.

I haven't been completely idle in my absence...

just unable and/or unmotivated to write about it.

I hope some of you re still out there!

I've missed  you!

Hope your having a great summer!

See you soon...

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