Simple Things Make A Big Difference

This week is a crazy week! Yesterday was the first day of school here in NYC. Yesterday was also the LAST day of school for the week. Crazy, right? Yesterday was also my daughter's 7th birthday AND the first night of Rosh Hashana. (the reason why school is closed today and tomorrow)

Normally we celebrate Rosh Hashana by having a big holiday dinner. We're not religious here in my house but do celebrate all the holidays - usually involving food. Since the birthday and holiday fell out on the same day, the birthday won out! You only turn 7 once, right?

So, my sister and her family ended up going to other relatives to celebrate the holiday and tonight we'll be doing our family dinner together. Since my sister was going to be a guest at some one's house, she wanted to bring something. She really likes to bake so she baked up a slew of treats yesterday.

Now that the baking was done, she needed help with the packaging to make it even more special. This is where I come in - the packaging queen! We didn't have much time so I came up with a quick solution.

She went to a local bakery and asked if she could buy some plain bakery boxes from them. Definitely a good tip to remember!!

It needed some sprucing up. I created a label for each of the items she baked and we decided on a yellow and brown color scheme. I added some brown ribbon and the label and this is how it turned out.

She told me today that they were really impressed! Here's another shot of the before and after:

See how just a simple label and some ribbon completely transforms this plain white box? Something you can try at home and it only takes a few minutes.

As I was saying previously, it was also my daughter's birthday which means she gets to choose her birthday dinner. I call her my "vegetable girl". She can eat veggies all day. Amazing, right?!? So she requested eggplant, zucchini and escarole - 3 of her favorites. I rounded it out with pasta, meatballs, sauce and garlic bread. I was in the kitchen all day yesterday!!

Fortunately when it came down to the dessert, I had it pretty easy. I was expecting to make some elaborate cake but all she requested was rice krispie treats. How easy is that?!? Woo Hoo!! She's saving the big time treats for her party this Sunday.

So, I whipped up a batch of the rice krispie treats in just a few minutes but when it was time to serve, I wanted to make it more special. I got out a heart shaped cookie cutter and popped out the hearts. So, it went from ordinary rice krispie treats to something way more memorable!

This would work really well for Valentine's Day also! I'll remind you again as it gets closer.

Pop in some candles and you have an instant birthday treat!

She really enjoyed it!

So, as you can see, even simple enhancements can make a big difference!

I hope I've inspired you to "spruce it up" a bit.