I wanted to thank everyone who gave me some great ideas for the housewarming gift for my new neighbors who are having a party tomorrow. It came out so pretty that I wanted to share it with you. I found the “basket” at Big Lots on clearance. It is really a planter and looks pretty so hopefully they will be able to use it again. I wanted to get a little something for all of them- 2 parents, a 7 month old, and a dog. I bought the dog a tennis ball rope toy that I had Cooper pick out for his new friend. I went with what one of my readers suggested and bought the parents this Mosaic Stepping Stone Kit. I am going to include a note in there about making their daughter’s hand print in it so they will know why I bought it. And my favorite part of deciding on this gift……shopping for baby clothes!
My girls and I went to The Children’s Place to pick out an outfit or two for their baby. We picked out 3 adorable dresses that were on clearance and matching headbands to go with them since they didn’t have matching shoes or socks. Then my daughters decided that they each wanted to pick out a t-shirt for the baby because there were a bunch on clearance. My 9 year old found one that had princesses on it but it didn’t have a clearance sticker on it so I had her scan it. It was only $.99!!! And that’s when the scanning frenzy began. My girls scanned every baby t-shirt on the clearance rack and found a bunch in various sizes. I decided to buy her t-shirts in her size and several sizes up that she will grow into. For $.99 each it was hard to pass up and I must admit I got caught up in the baby size cuteness. I just hope that my neighbors don’t think I am totally crazy for getting so much for their daughter but I couldn’t help myself. At least I had a coupon!
I decided that instead of using cellophane to wrap the basket I bought an inexpensive curtain panel at Big Lots. It just looked so much nicer than using cellophane. I put the Mosaic Stepping Stone Kit inside and all the hangers that came with the clothes in the back of the basket on the bottom behind the stepping stone kit. I added tissue paper to cover the hangers and tissue paper in front of the stepping stone kit to build up the base to add the other items. I put the dog toy in front of the stepping stone kit and then came up with the idea to make a bouquet out of the t-shirts. It was really easy to make. I folded each t-shirt in half lengthwise and then I rolled them from the bottom up forming what looks like a rosebud. Use the center fold side for the rose, not the sleeve side for a smooth look. I tied them together with a ribbon to form a bouquet, added them to the basket, and placed one headband on each side. Then I folded the 3 dresses and added those to the back of the basket.
I laid out the curtain panel and put the basket in the middle of it. I pulled the panel up around the basket and closed it by wrapping a headband around it. I didn’t pill the panel all the way through the headband to create a pretty “poof” in front and then draped the excess curtain panel around the basket. Viola! I hope they like it!
