Valentine Card Round-Up

... "Now that Little K is in Middle School" ...

I seem to say that a lot these days.  It's true - they really do grow up so fast.

Most times I'm excited to see how she has matured into a beautiful and kind young girl who is confident and independent.

Other times - I miss some of the Good Old Times from when she was in Elementary School.

One of those times is Now - around Valentines Day.

We LOVED making Class Valentines Together.

Here is a Round Up of some of our favorites we made in Past Years:

(click on the links below each picture for details)

 Puppy Love

Tweety Bird

Fortune Cookies

Wearable Mustache

Card Holder

If you have kids in Elementary School - it's time to start thinking about making those Valentine Cards.  Hope these ideas spark something creative in you.

If Not - I am always happy to consult.  I've got dozens of Kid Valentine Card Ideas that I'll probably never get to make.

In Middle School - they send each other flowers - Aaargh.  

It's way too soon for that. 

Torn Strip Fabric Wreath

I'm currently editing pictures from the Cream and White Party we hosted last weekend and will be posting all about it soon.

Here is a Sneak Peek of some of the decorations.

One of my favorite things we made for the party were these Torn Strip Fabric Wreathes that greeted guests at the Front Door.

 

 I've posted details on how they were made over at The Pink Elephant for my Project Thursday contribution this week.  

I'm loving all the Neutral Colors and Textures....considering keeping them up for just a while longer.

Halloween Boo Bag Sweet Treats

I'm finishing up our Neighborhood Boo Bags.  Just a few more details and they will be ready to be secretly delivered.

Every Year we try to include a Home Made Sweet Treat.

Our families current favorite is Peanut Butter Bars - but they are not very colorful (shades and brown and beige), so I decided to switch up the recipe and make them more Halloween Themed.

 White Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

INGREDIENTS

20 Halloween Oreo Cookies

1/4 Cup Melted Butter

1   Cup Butter

 1 1/2   Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

2   Cups Graham Cracker Crumbs

2   Cups Confectioners Sugar

1/2   Cup Chocolate Chips

1 1/2   Cup White Chocolate Chips

2   Tablespoons Shortening

DIRECTIONS

1.  Melt 1/4 cup butter in medium bowl.  Crush Oreo Cookies (using a food processor) into small crumbs.  Add to melted butter and stir until well coated. 

2.  Spread cookie crumb mixture onto bottom of 9 X 13 pan and refrigerate until firm.

3.  Melt 1 cup butter and peanut butter in large bowl in microwave - stirring frequently until smooth. 

4.  Add graham cracker crumbs and confectioners sugar to melted mixture and stir until well combined.  Set aside.

5.  Melt chocolate chips in microwave until smooth.

6.  Spread melted chocolate over cookie crust (this helps keep the cookie crumbs together and adhere them to the peanut butter layer).

7.  Spread peanut butter mixture evenly over cookie/chocolate crust and refrigerate until set.

8.  Melt white chocolate chips and shortening in microwave - stirring frequently until smooth.

9.  Spread over peanut butter mixture.

10.  Sprinkle with festive Halloween non-pareils, jimmies or quins.

11.  Refrigerate until firm - at least one hour.  Cut into squares.

More tips and details for this recipe are included on my Project Thursday Post over at The Pink Elephant Blog.

Chocolate Nutcracker Mice

Each year we try to make something to share with Little K's fellow Nutcracker dancers.

She has danced the role of a Mouse in the Fight Scene several times.  Once as a Baby mouse when we lived in Arizona.  You can see more on what we made that year in this post. 

Now that she is a little older - and dancing with a different Ballet Production since we moved to California - she had the opportunity to dance as a Mouse once again. 

This time it was a bigger - more scary mouse.  But we managed to find a sweet treat to share with her fellow rodents in the show. 

They were easy to make.  Just a few purchased pieces of candy assembled with melted chocolate.  You can read more details on how they were made here. 

We created an entire Army of mice.  Ready to go into battle.

With the Mouse King in charge. 

Each delicate little creature was packaged into an individual box, lined with paper shred to keep him safe during transit.

Then we made Holly Tags from various sizes of circle and scallop punches and tied up the box with bakers twine.  The holly leaves were free hand cut and sparkled up with some iridescent glitter glue.

The Mouse King - because he is special, received a special package as well.

The same tag - but boxed into a frosted vellum Chinese take-out container with a tuft of tulle.

I hope you get the chance to see a local Nutcracker Performance this year.  It just wouldn't be Christmas for us if we didn't see at least one show (or two, or a dozen).

Decorated for Easter

I don't think we put out any Easter Decor last year.  Not quite sure why - because I love all the sweet pastel colors that come with Easter and Spring.

I really enjoy putting together a different seasonal display for the shelves in the Kitchen Nook.  

Remember when we made the Paper Banner for Halloween?

The same ideas works great for Easter as well.

Chick - Carrot - Bunny and Easter Eggs - all made from cut and punched paper shapes.

I think the bunny needs fatter ears - it's looking a bit like a Pig - but not bad for the first attempt.

The polka dot bowls are from the dollar bin at Target and I made the word art using Wordle.

I found the ceramic bunnies at Dollar Tree several years ago.  

I've wanted to display pretty cupcake liners in a jar on my Kitchen counter (like my bloggie friend Cindy did here) but the colors don't work with my everyday decor.  But they look great as part of an Easter and Spring decor.  

It's not Easter without marshmallow Peeps (or in this case bunnies)

I fell in love with these paper chicks and lamb.  They look like they are covered in tiny paper flowers.  So Sweet.  

The full view of the shelves in our Kitchen Nook.

Hope you all enjoy a wonderful Easter Weekend. 

Happy Valentines Day

Hope you have wonderful fun things planned to celebrate the ones you LOVE.

Little K is have a small class party today

No fancy home made treats 

(at least not from me)

No Craft/Art project 

(the kids could make their own valentine box/bag if they wanted)

I'm not even needed to volunteer in the class

(frown face)

Such is the life of a 5th Grader. Time for me to get used to the fact that they are more independent.

Even though it was optional - I think most of the kids will be exchanging Valentines

Here is what we came up with:

(sorry for the bad lighting - had to finish homework and music practice before working on the Valentines)

I was so excited that we made these using things entirely from my Scrap/Craft Stash.

There are dozens of different combinations of Red, White and Pink - as I was using only cardstock I had on hand.

I even had enough Black felt on hand to cut  30+ mustaches (or is it moustache?)

and a few extras just for Fun!

I got the idea for these cards from this cute post at The Craft Monkey Blog.

I'm resisting the urge to point out to my (very minimalist) husband how great it was that I had all this stuff on hand to make these cards at the last minute.  I might not want to share just how much I have hidden away.

Little K's lunch was made of everything Pink and Red in honor of this Day of Love

and there will be some sweet treats when she gets home from school.

Peanut Butter Heart Cups

Easy Peasy - a teaspoon of your favorite peanut butter cookie dough plopped into a mini muffin pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes and as soon as they come out of the oven - push  a Dove chocolate heart into the top so the peanut butter wraps itself around the sweet chocolaty goodness. 

I'm currently cooking dinner for tonight - Crock Pot French Dip.  Served with our favorite Petite Sirah and a Crusty French Roll and maybe a peppery Rocket Side Salad.  That's romantic - right?  

 Have a Wonderful Valentines Day!

Valentine Vignette

Last year I decorated our Mantle for Valentines Day.  You can see it here.

As much as I love the brick fireplace surround - it does not make for a great backdrop - so this year I decided to decorate the Shelves in our Kitchen Nook for {Happy Heart Day} instead.

I used the same paper flower punch Heart Wreath that I made several years ago.

I love paper crafting, but don't like that they don't hold up very well - it needed a few repairs before being able to be displayed.

This year I incorporated some Black into the usual the Pink and Red color scheme.

The subway art was a free printable

(sorry ~ I can't remember where I got it from)

Candy always makes a great display.

Pink, White and Red flowers on the dark wood kitchen table.  I love the contrast.

A new smaller scale garland to string from the shelves.

Paper Hearts (using leftover papers used in the wreath) simply sewn together with red & white thread. 

It needed a little more black to tie it all together.

So I made these stacking wood blocks.

Leftover bits of 2 X 4 wood, painted, sanded and embellished with words cut with my Cricut.

I made another one while I was at it. This one was supposed to go to my Mum...but it's still sitting on the counter waiting to be mailed. Maybe next year (sorry Mum).

The completed Vignette.

We are almost finished with Little K's Valentine Cards - but I have to wait to share those - don't want to spoil it for any classmates who might be reading.

{Happy Heart Day}

Happy New Year

Hello Again. I'm Not Lost. Still Here.
Just Spending Time with the Family

December kept us busy, but we managed to have some great times together. I did get quite a few pics of all the Holiday projects we completed, but didn't get around to blogging about any of them.

I know lots of you have already taken down your decorations, so the last thing you want to read about are Christmas Activities and Crafts.

Maybe I'll wait and post about them next year.

As for me - we'll keep the trees up for at least another week. I'm not ready to move on just yet.

We ended up celebrating New Years Eve with an impromptu Neighborhood Progressive Dinner. Usually I plan for months in advance - but this get together was decided on just days before (as in 2 days before).

5 families - 9 adults - 7 kids



I was in charge of the Entree Course:

Boeuf Bourguignon
Pureed Root Vegetables
Mushroom Ragout
Sourdough Crustini
Parsley Buttered Noodles
Chicken Nuggets

An individual Petite bouquet at each place. Mixed white flowers in a mini beaded vase (they are dollar store votive holders, painted, rolled in glue and beads).



Silver napkin rings - wired with glass beads.



Sparkley Clock Name cards.



Marshmallow Snowballs in a cellophane bag tied with silver, pink and purple ribbons.



Dinner (for the adults) was served in the dining room which is decorated for Christmas in pastels, silver & pewter. You can peek at it here. It was a nice change from the traditional Red and Green Holiday decor in the rest of the house, and an easy transition to a sparkley New Years.

In case you are wondering how I pulled this of with just 2 days notice - when I am known to plan and work for months before an event....

I Cheated!

I have used this color scheme in the past, and had the napkin rings and votive/flower holders already made.

There has to be a benefit to moving a lot....you can re-use your decor and No One will ever Know.

Happy New Year!

Fall Mantle

We've finally gotten some cooler temps and I'm Feeling like Fall. Slowly I've been putting up some Harvest decorations.



This is the fireplace in our Office. It's technically the formal Living Room - but that's not what we use it for.



The mantle used to be Honey Oak (our house was built in the 80's), and we added built in shelving and painted everything white. Some day I'll show the Before and After pics of that project.



I wanted this display to be rustic and natural.



Using burlap, gourds, acorns and leaves.



I grew the birdhouse gourds in our garden at least 5 years ago. They have been sitting in a crate in the garage all that time waiting to be turned into the perfect little birdie home.

A quick seal of acrylic to add a little shine - and they mix perfectly with the fresh gourds.



The sap bucket was purchased years ago at my favorite Flea Market in Chicago. I wanted to use it as a flower bucket - but it leaks.
No problem for this display - everything inside is dried.



I'll be using burlap at my husbands staff Party in a few weeks - for the table decorations - so I've incorporated it in several places throughout the house.

You can sure tell Burlap is a HOT decorating trend right now - I had to go to two different stores to get what I needed. Fun & Cheap to work with.....but oooh soooo messy - and itchy.

I have a few more details to finish up on some other fall decor - so I'll share the rest of the house later.