Fast, easy, fantastic: quick thank you gifts for teachers!

We often give gifts to our kids' teachers at the end of the school year. A couple years ago, I hit on a gift idea that became a favorite: a "spa kit." (This may have been inspired by a birthday gift from Mom.) After a long, stressful school year, teachers need to relax! What better way than a spa kit?

I made the spa kit easy on myself: I hit up the dollar store and put together a basket or gift bag of things like exfoliating scrubbies, eye masks, bubble bath, bath pillows, lotion and scented candles. This year, I made the spa kits even more special with the addition of handmade "spa cloths."

The handmade gifts add an extra touch, and they're super quick to make: it took under three hours to make the first set of five hearts. I already had the yarn from another project, so it was no extra cost. Plus, there are tons of cool crochet or knitting patterns online for free (Ravelry lists over 4500 patterns, but you might need to be logged in to see them)!

The spa cloths came especially in handy with my two-year-old accidentally spilled her water bottle all over us and one of the gift bags. They got their very first use right away!

Want to make your child's teacher gift even more special? Have them write a thank you note, mentioning their favorite activities or memories of the school year!

My spa cloth projects on Ravelry

Patterns
Sweet Somethings (heart) by Julie of Simply Notable
Leafy Washcloth by Megan Goodacre of Tricksy Knitter (with mods from Ravelry user Penserosa--decreases at edge)
(Also to come: Starfish Cloth by Dione Read of Sew Funky)

Yarns
Hearts
Peaches & Cream in Hot Blue
Lion Brand Microspun in Red


Leaves
Knit Picks Shine Sport in Green Apple (held double for the larger leaf)

(Starfish will be done in Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Snapdragon)

Centerpieces

For our centerpieces on the tables at the reception I wanted something not on Pinterest. Not that Pinterest is bad, I just didn't want to have the same reception as everyone else. Then I was stuck. It's kind of hard to think of these things on your own. Jordan had beta fish in cool vases. Jaime had cornocopias of flowers (she got married right around Thanksgiving). Brooke (who also got married right after Christmas) had ornaments. The bar had been set! I thought of something but I Googled it just to see what it would look like. There weren't many options on Google but it looked like it could work. So it was settled. We would have books as centerpieces.

I wanted thick, hardback books that had red covers. In order to save money we went to every thrift store around us. We nearly cleaned out all the red covered hardback books! But we found some pretty good finds. Plus, if you're like me and love the smell of old books it was great. It took us some time to do this but we bought about 4 or 5 books for each table.

Now came for the set up. We placed 2 table runners on the table over a white tablecloth. One was wider and was red. The other went on top of the red and was the gold color. We found square and circle mirrors at the dollar store and also battery powered candles (off-white and darker red.) We placed the candles wrapped with a band of ribbon on the mirrors and gave each table two candle and mirror combos. We then sorted the books in size order so it was easy to put them on the tables in nice stacks. We then plopped a Harry Potter book or Lord of the Rings book in the pile because these are our favorites! Now, our centerpieces were personalized.

To top it all off, we put 4 framed (gold frames from Target, Wal-Mart and the dollar store, not too hard to find them) pictures of us on each table. Three of the pictures were from when we were little and one of the both of us. And voila, beautiful centerpieces!

When deciding centerpieces think of the theme your wedding has or stick with the wedding colors. Pictures are always and easy go to and they're also fun. There are a lot of things you can do with pictures. Pinterest is a pretty good place to look for ideas of things to do with pictures or anything else, really. Think of something that fits both your personalities even if it's subtle.  If your venue allows candles, those create a wonderful glow to the room and can be more pleasing than regular lights. Battery powered candles work great too. Flowers are also a simple and elegant option. Flowers are especially welcome at spring and summer weddings. Centerpieces should enhance the overall feel of the reception hall and the wedding itself.