Homemade teacher appreciation gift: DIY Stove Top Potpourri

Hey, y’all! I know it’s been a minute since my last post, but saying I have been busy is an understatement! I finished my finals for school about a week and a half ago and since then I have been doing all the errands and doctor appointments for Marek and me! This week, I had a super fun day date with Matt at Aquatica, the Seaworld water park. We dropped Marek off at daycare and although I was feeling guilty for taking him in because we were free from any responsibilities, Matt insisted we take advantage of having daycare and I am so glad we did! It was a much needed time to reconnect and date again. Times like these I am reminded why we have so much fun together and fell in love in the first place! Random fact: one thing I love about our relationship is we laugh A LOT. We will make up some random jokes or over-exaggerate any situation and just feed off each other and go back and forth. Ah, so good!

During the holidays, it is so easy to overdo it on gifts for your loved ones but honestly, it’s really not worth it for me to overextend myself financially and stress about how I am going to do something nice for the people I care about. This personally takes away my peace and it doesn’t make the holidays magical or enjoyable. If you are like me, don’t do that to yourself! I feel like it means SO much more when someone takes time to make or pick out one thoughtful gift from the heart. Plus, the holidays should be about spending time with loved ones, embracing the moment, and being so thankful for the year you have had with all the good and bad.

The aroma of this potpourri is similar to the cranberry sauce I make from scratch during thanksgiving and it smells SO. GOOD. One of the best things about it was I only spent $9 for everything, including the wrapping, and cards! That brought it to $2.25 per teacher on this little gift! I did also buy some fuzzy socks for them over Black Friday weekend because they were on sale $1 at Old Navy so I will be gifting those as well!

Below is the list of items you will need to make the Stove Top Potpourri goodie bags! (This will be enough to make 4)

• 4 Treat Bags
• 4 Blank Christmas cards or you can print the tag I created below
• Curling ribbon or twist ties
• 4 Oranges
• 1 bag of fresh cranberries
• 4 sticks of cinnamon
• 1 container of whole cloves

– This is the tag I created! –

Now you can layer all your ingredients into the treat bag. I would suggest you place the whole orange at the bottom first so that the weight of it doesn’t smash the cranberries. I made my bags using 1 orange, 1/2 cup of cranberries, 1 cinnamon stick, and a tablespoon of cloves per bag.

Once your bag is assembled, you can hole punch the edge of your tag or card and attach it to a string of curling ribbon for a decorative touch! Add a sweet note on the back for a more personalized gift.

Please don’t forget to add the instructions on how to use this potpourri! Can you imagine handing someone this bag of fruit for the holidays with no instructions? I can just hear it now! “Whatchu talkin’ bout Willis!?” you may go into the new year with a few bumps and bruises!

I hope your loved ones enjoy this homemade gift that is simple and affordable!

Lots of Love,

Melinda

Hi! Mindy’s ADD here! Ok, so I wasn’t planning to add this, but during the editing process, one of my favorite memories popped up in my brain when I was writing about how much fun Matt and I have together. I immediately had a smile on my face thinking back to this moment. I feel compelled to share it, so that’s what I am going to do! Alrighty, gather around for storytime!

One random day near the end of my pregnancy, Matt and I decided to go to TJMaxx to do some shopping for baby stuff. We got what we needed from the baby area and continued to browse the rest of the store and made our way to the men’s clothing area. I was following behind Matt with our cart and decided to take a rest in the middle of the aisle because he was looking for pants. I propped my foot up on the bottom of the cart where the extra rack is and in a split second, my legs start sliding apart! The cart was rolling forward I started yelling “Ah, ah, ah!” my sandal somehow got stuck in the bottom rack and I had slick bottom sandals on so neither of my feet had a grip on the floor.

I had a big ol’ belly and I was so scared my water was going to break from me going into a split. Matt’s face was priceless! he was frantically trying to help me but had no idea my sandal was stuck so he was looking everywhere for the problem and I pointed at my foot but I couldn’t stop laughing and get the words out for him to help me.

At last, my little engineer figured out the problem and we both were laughing so hard we were crying for a good five minutes trying to recap the event but we couldn’t get the words out. I bet the only thing you could hear out of our mouths was, ” My sandal!… I didn’t know!… I was so scared!… YOUR FACE!” All jumbled in laughter. I was unsure what his initial thoughts were on why I was screaming but he was searching the area so hard to find the problem and his face was priceless! During all of this, one guy around our age stopped us and said he saw the whole thing, how cute we were and how he hoped to have a relationship like ours someday. It was super sweet! We were so in the moment we had no clue anyone was watching. It was the best moment.

Now that I got it all out there, I think why I felt the need to share this story, is because this blog is my therapeutic journal. Even though my main motivator is to be of support for all of my readers, I also chose to start this hobby as a way to get my own thoughts out and share life experiences. I continue to remind myself to stay true to my “why”. This is my way of doing that.

Reflecting on this moment is so bittersweet. Our lives have changed so much since then, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything. We are far from a perfect couple but the love we have for one another individually is truly one in a million. I am so very blessed for you Matt.