Eat Your Heart Out

This past year has been "the year of the cake" for me. 

As most of you know, I started my cake baking trend with Emily's 11th birthday moustache cake last June. Of course, that was followed by Matthew's 8th birthday F8 tornado cake. 

Well, the cake baking continued with Valentine's day and, yes, I got this particular idea from Pinterest. 

I used a red velvet cake mix and baked the batter in one round and one square cake pan. When the cakes cooled, it was time to "create" and what says Valentine's Day more than a heart. 

I cut the round cake in half and placed the half circles at the top of the square cake which was positioned in such a way to represent the look of a diamond. Ta da! A heart! 

The cake was iced with cream cheese frosting and Emily helped shape a heart out of mini M&M's in the middle of the cake. We also dusted the cake with some sugar sprinkles. 

It was a special dessert for the people I love and let me tell you it was yummy!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

How Do I Love You? Let Me Show You!

I remember during my freshman year of college celebrating Valentine's Day with my good friend, Marti, by jumping on the bed shouting at the top of our lung, "we hate Valentine's Day!" Okay, it is safe for you to assume that at that time neither of us were in a relationship hence our disdain for the holiday.

I'm happy to say that I no longer feel the same way regarding the holiday. God has blessed me with a wonderful husband and two amazing kids and although I tell them I love them all the time I do try and express my love for them in a special way on Valentine's day. 

Three years ago is when I started a more creative/crafty way to express my love to them. Oh, and I have to give a big shout out to Pinterest because of course, these ideas came from pins I found there. 

My first year of being "crafty" was my most ambitious. I made for each of them - Dave, Emily and Matt - a love jar. Several weeks before the holiday (which was not an ample amount of time), I started to make lists of the many reasons and specific things I love about them. Of course, the idea was to write 365 reasons, one for each day of the year, but 365 x 3 is a lot so in the end I actually did 100 for each of them. I even took the time to type them in a cute font, print them on colored cardstock and cut them to fit in the jars. Every now and then I catch Emily reading hers. But I didn't just stop there....like I said it was my most ambitious year.

I also made hearts that had cute valentine paper on the one side and a written reason of why I loved Emily and Matt on the other side. These hearts were hung from string and across their doorways. When the kids woke up Valentine's day morning, they had to walk out through/under their hearts. The really loved this!

Last year, I used these same hearts to string across their doorways mainly because the kids kept asking if I was going to hang them again. I guess they really liked them! Emily's went up easily but Matt's gave me some trouble, so while he was sleeping I laid all his hearts on his floor so when he got out of bed in the morning he had to walk though the hearts.

But of course, I didn't stop there. I wanted the kids to participate in expressing their love for each other and Dave and I so I made these love buckets.

Each family member had their own personalized bucket. In the middle one, I had hearts cut in red and pink paper. Each day leading up to Valentine's day we wrote on hearts reasons we loved that person and placed them in their bucket. The buckets were on the sideboard in the dining room for easy access. Of course, I needed to highlight this area by creating the "Be Mine" banner with my Cricut cutting machine. After our family dinner Valentine's day evening, we sat at the table and each person got to read the reasons why we are loved by our family members. Some reasons were hilarious while other's serious, but all were loved!

Last year, I also decide to make something special for Dave for the holiday. My first attempt at making a shadowbox! A plain wooden 8x8 shadowbox was purchased from Michaels. The outside was painted a matte black and the inside a deep red. Glued inside is a piece of scrapbook paper that repeats "I love you" on it. I used my Cricut cutter to cut the heart "lace" piece and attached "Scrabble" like tiles that spell out love, you and me. To finish it off, dark garnet gems were adhered as an outline on the scrapbook paper. This shadowbox currently sit on my bedside table. 

So, now we come to this year! I'll admit I was not as ambitious this year and I did take this idea from a fellow pinner Skip to my Lou on Pinterest and I started a day late. Basically, on colored hearts, each night I place a heart with a reason or attribute I love about that person on their door. Saturday morning I used my Cricut cutter to cut hearts in colors of baby pink, dark pink, sparkle pink, yellow, mint green and purple. 

In order for the kids to understand what the hearts were about, I cut with my Cricut cutter the "I (heart) U because". Now, I'm also doing the same for Dave but I place his hearts inside our medicine cabinet so that each morning when he is getting ready for work he sees the reasons that I love him. I always like to reuse something from the year past so I took the "Be Mine" banner and hung that across the scroll work that is hung above our fireplace mantle. 

This is only the lead up to Valentine's day. I have a few things up my sleeve for the special day, so stay tuned.

As always, thanks for stopping by! 

Shadowbox Valentine

I wanted to make something for Dave this Valentine's day and this is the outcome - a shadowbox valentine.

The shadowbox was purchased at Michael's. I painted the inside with Martha Stewart's Chipolte Red acrylic paint and the outside with a glossy black paint. The back is lined with scrap book paper that says "I love you". Then, I cut the heart "layer" using the Paper Lace cartridge with my Cricut. I chose to adhere it in the upper left side so that I could place the "scrabble tile" letters in the lower right side evening out the "weight" of the elements. To finish it, I glued in some garnet gems as a border for the paper background. 

Sadly, I finished it this morning. Better late than never, plus I do love him more than just on Valentine's day. I gave it to him today after work. He said "it is nice" and then "thank you for making it for me." 

Family Love Notes

This Valentine's day our family project was to fill small pails made for each family member with hearts that had reasons why we loved that person written on them. After dinner, we opened the cards we had purchased for each other and then read our hearts. 

I loved all the ones I received but the two funniest I got were from Emily. She wrote a message on the front and a special little "p.s." on the back.

Heart #1: I love you because you are beautiful just the way u are

Heart #2 : I love u because you give my (should be me) great bear hugs

Now hold on......here comes the part that will make you laugh, the back side of the hearts

Heart #1: p.s. wear a bikini.  Emily has been nagging me about wearing a bikini with high heels for 2 summers now.  UGH!!!  I keep saying "do you know how old I am?" Talk about putting me outside my comfort zone.  She is still hoping for this to happen this summer.

Heart #2: Stop making chicken!! Hmmm.....that one speaks for itself.  I keep trying to explain the economics of eating chicken but she still isn't buying my answer.

These are Emily's favorite hearts:

 

Heart #1: I love how you take good care of Jingle

Heart #2: I love how much you want to be a fashion designer

These are Matt's two favorites:

Heart #1: I love how much you love the Titanic - the boy is obsessed with it. For valentine's day, we got him two Magic Tree House books about the Titanic. One is a story and the other a fact book. He was so happy!!

Heart #2: I love you because you try hard at school.  Matt says this reads " I love you because you love tornadoes.  In addition to his Titanic fascination, he is just as interested in tornadoes. 

This was a great family project. Now to start brainstorming about next year's valentine family project.  

Dinner for Four

Valentine's day is a family day including the dinner part!

Once Emily & Matt came along, this holiday went from being "date night" to "family night". Valentine's day generally doesn't fall on a weekend and Dave's work schedule tends to run late making weekday dinner reservations a little rough. Our valentine's dinner consisted of salad, ravioli with red sauce and rolls. Of course, we added "a little romance" (as Emily would say) eating by candlelight.  

Dinner was followed by eating some yummy desserts. Earlier that day I went to Whole Foods and got a treat with each person in mind. Matt is not big on cake or pie but he LOVE strawberries, so I got him a chocolate covered strawberry. Emily is obsessed with cheesecake, so I fed that obsession. For Dave, I found a mini chocolate cake he & I could share. Everyone enjoyed their sweet treats, especially Emily. Look at that face!!  Dinner for four was a 5 star experience. 

Valentine's Day

Its Valentine's Day. Can you feel the love?!!!

Last night while the kid's were sleeping I hung the heart "curtains" that I made for them last year. Emily had asked me a few weeks ago if we would be decorating with the hearts. I told her that it was something for the night before. Sadly, Matt's "curtain" would not cooperate with being hung so I improvised and laid them all over his floor. This morning he had all the reason that he is loved laying at his feet. 

I woke a little earlier than normal this morning to be able to make the kids and Dave pancakes with mini red M&M's for breakfast.  

Tonight after dinner, we will be going through our heart pails to see the reasons why each of us is loved by the other.  

Yes, I can feel the love!!

Our Family Valentine Project

Valentines day is on its way and its time to "create".  

Last year, I made Dave, Emily and Matt "Love Jars". I wrote reasons why I love them on strips of paper that they could take out whenever they wanted to feel loved by me. This year I wanted to do something in which we could all participate.  

I'd recently read a book regarding the words we speak to each other. In the book, it told how a teacher had her class write on a piece of paper something nice about each person in the class. The teacher took the lists and gave each student the remarks made about them. At the funeral of one of these former students, his parents showed the teacher that in his wallet he carried the list his classmates wrote about him. It was worn by how many times he had looked at it. While the teacher was looking at the list, several other previous students attending the funeral showed her that they too still carried the lists with them. They would turn to the lists often to encourage and uplift them. I felt that if the words of classmates could mean so much, how much more would the words of your family mean. This story inspired our family valentine project.

I bought 5 little pails at Michaels and put each of our names on one of them, the girls have pink pails and the boys red. The white pail holds colored hearts that each of us can write notes of "love" on to each other and place in the pails. I explained to the kids that it could be a specific reason why they like each other like "you helped me with my homework" or a general one like "you are so funny". On Valentine's day, we will take the hearts out and read them. 

Because I didn't want to change all my winter decor, I decided to create a small valentine vignette on the buffet in the dining room.  

Of course a vignette wouldn't be complete without a banner, so I made one. I used the Pretty Pennants and Storybook cartridges for my Cricut. The patterned paper is paper I had bought quite a long time ago.  

The only thing left to do is to hang the heart "curtains" I made for the kid's doorways last year, which I will do the night before Valentine's day. 

Oh, I feel the love!!!!

Curtains of Love

I've been trying to do "different" things this valentines day. My biggest resources has been Pinterest.

I purchased some sticky backed hearts. On the sticky side, I placed scrapbook paper and on the other side I wrote reasons why we love Emily and Matt.

Last night while the kids were sleeping, I placed the curtain of hearts in their doorway - the paper side facing out and the "love notes" facing in their rooms. The idea was in the morning they would wake up and when coming out of their room they would see the reasons they are loved.

With the remaining hearts, I made a "curtain" in the pass through between the kitchen and the dining room. On the side facing where they eat breakfast, it says "We love you" and on the other side the white sides have valentines stickers decorating them.

Sadly, my "surprise" didn't go as planned. First, Matt was taking forever to go to sleep. Once he was finally down, Dave helped me hang the ones that go in their doorway. A little bit before 11 we thought we heard someone. Sure enough, Emily had gotten up to use the bathroom. She saw the hearts in her doorway. I explained that they have reasons why we love her on them and said "go to bed". LOL!!

What was the sweetest was in the morning I heard Emily explaining to Matt what the hearts were about and how they had reasons why we love them.....and then they read them aloud. Mind you neither of them had ventured out of their rooms to see where Dave and I were, they were truly caught up in the moment.

I'm so glad that I did this.......now, I just have to do it every year. Hmmmm, what have I started? :)

Later today, they will get their love jars and I'm curious to see their reaction to those. Hopefully just as good as the "Curtain of Love".

Love Jars

I got this Valentines day gift idea from the site Pinterest. I love that site!!

I made Dave, Emily and Matt a jar that holds little notes inside telling them reasons why I love them - making them "love jars". Technically I should have done a note for all 365 days of the year but I just ran out of time. Sadly, I did not stick to my "schedule" of how many notes I calculated must be written per day when I originally decided to make these jars. So, I am going to tell them they can take one each day or when they just need a reason to know why I love them. I also figure I can add to the jar as time goes by.

I am excited to see their reactions - somehow I think the kids will wish they had gotten a toy instead. Oh well, maybe next year. :)