gifts – The Good Stuff

Though I don’t blog much about specific agriculture topics, I still label myself as an ag blogger to some degree, because it is the industry that I work in and am passionate about. Last year, I joined a Secret Santa exchange for ag bloggers and really enjoyed it, so I decided that it was something I wanted to participate in again. It is a great way to get to know more people in the industry, and obviously it’s fun!

I was given Gracie Weinzierl who blogs at A Farm Kid’s Guide to Agriculture. Gracie is also in ag communications, working at an agency in St. Louis, where she works with a variety of clients in agriculture. She is originally from Central Illinois where she grew up on a small corn and soybean farm. Right away I saw that Gracie had some things in common, like our love for coffee and DIY. She wrote all about the gifts I sent her over on her own blog post, which you can read here. I did have to laugh though. Gracie is a HUGE cat lover, something that I don’t understand AT ALL. I mean don’t hate them, but I’m not really a fan. My sister is the complete opposite though, so I am used to buying gifts for “those kinds of people,” and buy the sound of it, the quirky little cat pen that I gave Gracie was a hit.

My secret blogger was Hannah Neuenschwander who blogs over at Texan Meets Midwest. Hannah is a Texan who relocated to Illinois for her job as a entry-level manager at a Monsanto soybean production facility. My first thought when I was looking through her blog was how much I appreciate that there are other young professionals in agriculture that make big moves like I did for my career, and those like Hannah are willing to share about it on a blog.

I was a bit late to open my gift (not Hannah’s fault) because I wasn’t able to get it from my apartment office before I went home on a long holiday vacation. Which is quite all right because who doesn’t like opening gift on a random day! When I picked it up from the office, the manager was very enthusiastic and said, “Oh Amanda, it looks like your new TV came in, you must be really excited.” Instead of trying to explain to her that I was positive that it definitely was not a TV, I just went along with it. But it definitely made me really curious and excited to get back to my apartment to open it!

Now I wish I could have had someone taking a video of me when I opened my gift from Hannah, because I literally shrieked out loud. Hannah did a great job “stalking” my social media and blog to learn that I love decorating my home in styles that I love and personal touches that reflect who I am, and also that I LOVE a good quote. So she had a local friend and small business woman (Tina Gonnerman at TMG Designs in Ashton, IL) make this sign specially for me. I have a few of my favorite quotes and verses on the left sidebar of my blog, but Exodus 14:14 is my FAVORITE VERSE. Up until now I have kept it written on the white board in my kitchen. Plus, the colors and style go perfectly with my decor in my living room! Really Hannah, you could not have sent me a more PERFECT gift than this. Right now I have it propped up on a book shelf in my living room, until I decide whether or not I am going to hang somewhere else or just leave it there.

Isn’t it great!?

Thank you to Darleen and Jenny for being this year’s hosts for the blogger exchange. I really enjoyed participating again!

Be sure to check out the linkup, where all of the other participants are sharing their posts.

Cheers!

With school, work, life and what not, I have to work pretty hard at balancing my distractions. That’s why I am pretty proud of myself that while Pinterest is an awesome website, I am able to keep myself from wasting too much valuable time on it.

With that said, I am also proud to say that I have put some of that pointless browsing to good use and joined the “DIY” fad. (You would be amused to know how long it took me to figure out that DIY stood for ‘Do It Yourself’)

Here are my projects and attempts at “oh my goodness that is so creative” so far.

1. Makeup boards

These were Christmas presents I made last year, the pink one for my roommate Megan and the purple one for my sister Janci.

Instructions:

For the boards I used a white dry erase board for the pink one and a piece of sheet metal and a frame that my mom painted for the purple. I covered them both in fabric.
Then I just used spray paint, ribbons and random decorative stuff to personalize each one. To hold heavier things like makeup brushes I used kitchen drawer organizer baskets and pencil cup holders

Finally with both gifts I included a package of magnets that they could hot glue to the back of all of their compacts and other items. It’s not shown but Megan took a rectangle magnet strip and keeps her bobby pins organized that way. I would definitely suggest using as strong as magnets as you can and the hot glue is nice instead of super glue because you can peel the magnets off and reuse them.

2. Necklace Hanger

This was a birthday present that my roommate Kyla and I made for our other roommate Megan’s birthday. It was super easy. We found both the wooden plaque and assorted drawer knobs at Hobby Lobby, spray painted and decorated the plaque and then with a little power tool help from the boys, drilled the knobs in. I hung it by stringing wire between to two hooks.

3. Map picture

So this is more of a modification of two projects that I saw on Pinterest. Here my Grandma let me cut up one of her U.S. maps and so I cut out hearts that were stenciled around my two homes in Oregon and Kansas. Really this is more her project because she free-handed the stencils and wrote the words. But I get creativity points, right?

4. Cake dip

Obviously food does not go under the “DIY” category, however, considering how baking and cooking anything dessert related does not go under the list of skills that I have, I definitely consider it a tally for the win column. Plus I have been the hit at all birthdays, watch parties and tailgates this semester.

Ingredients:

one box of cake mix (just the mix not all of the things it says to add for a cake,) a 8 oz. tub of cool whip and a cup of plain yogurt.
Mix. Refrigerate. DONE. So far we like scooby snacks, graham crackers and animal crackers best to dip in.

5. Earring holder

This was actually my very own idea. Go me.

Instructions:

I got chain link from Ace Hardware and strung two different thin ribbons through each link
The bows are a product of being raised in a floral shop. Sorry, but can’t really teach that one. But my mom can 🙂
Then I just draped the chain across 3 finishing nails

Happy Pinning!
– Amanda Jae

Tag: gifts

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