Valentine's Day Treats

I've been stung by the "I Dig You" Valentine's Bug.  These are just the cutest darn Valentine's I've seen.

Source

The kids and I had to make them for all of our friends and family :)  I found the tags here.  Here is our version:

Happy Valentine's Day!

"I love you a bushel and a peck" Valentine's Day Breakfast.

Last year, we had our first annual Valentine's Day Breakfast.  Looking back to last year, it amazes me how much has changed in our lives.  A year ago today, my life and many other lives in Wisconsin changed.  It's been a roller coaster of a year - hard to put in words. I lost friends, made some new ones, had to make life changing decisions and had to remind myself that the glass is half full. It's been a journey and it will continue to be one. I've made it so far knowing that good will prevail over evil. 

So onward and upward! 

The kids LOVED our Valentine's Day breakfast last year and I wanted to continue to make that new tradition happen for the kids.  Last year, I cam across these ADORABLE (and FREE!!) printables from Delightful Designs.

What I loved about the printables was (1) the theme - "I Love You A Bushel And A Peck;" and (2) that they were blue and red (of course!)  So, as most of my party planning goes, I saved them for a year, waiting to use them for our Valentine's Day Breakfast.

In preparing for our breakfast, I came across this sweet printable (and yes free!) from Tattered and Inked. It matched the theme perfectly!

I wanted to put my own little spin on the theme however.  I realize a "bushel" and a "peck" are types of measurements, but I wanted to make it even more sweet and twist the "peck" to use the other meaning - "a kiss."  So, that's what we did.  I also wanted to keep the breakfast to a reasonable budget given our new financial predicament.  Most of the things I used for the breakfast, I had from previous parties.  I am in love with doilies right now so I used a lot of them throughout the table.  Doilies and budget go very well together!  Some of the other things I used will serve double duty for Grace's upcoming First Communion/8th Birthday Party.  I love using things more than once!  So, here is our "I love you a bushel and a peck" Valentine's Day breakfast!  (Oh, and I apologize for the quality of the pictures.  It seems impossible to get good pictures in the morning in our kitchen/dining room.)

The frame was on SUPER clearance at Hobby Lobby (ignore the crack in it!).  The chevron fabric is from www.fabric.com. 

 

I used my Silhouette to cut out the lips.  Grace helped me outline them with glue and add the glitter. 

I've seen these ceramic fruit baskets at Anthropologie for $$$$.  I found mine at Kohl's on SUPER clearance last year!  Not knowing what I was going to use them for, I picked them up anyway.  Glad I did :)

The Mason jars are from my mom who inherited them from my Grandparents.  My Grandfather always had a massive garden and spent hours in his greenhouse canning tomatoes.  I love using items for parties/gatherings that have meaning!  The heart cakes are simple store bought treats put on a stick!

Discovering what "wax lips" were was one of the funnest things for my kids after we had our breakfast. Grace could not understand the concept of chewing wax. Ha! What our kids our missing out on these days.

I made the ruffled lace flowers using this tutorial from I Heart Naptime. They will definitely be serving double duty for Grace's First Communion/8th Birthday Party. So adorable and easy to make!

This is where I really combined the "bushel" and the "peck" - chocolate lips and wax lips in fruit pint containers!  Ha!

Powdered donuts with sugared lips :)

These mirrors are from Grace's Enchanted Prom Birthday Party.  I used my Silhouette to cut out lips from vinyl and adhered them to the mirrors.  Grace made the heart doily boxes (materials from the Target $1 aisle) during one of her Saturday morning craft sessions!

I placed these oversized kisses on cupcake stands I had made for Grace's Enchanted Prom Party.  I put a small doily on top of the stand.

The kids LOVED the breakfast :)  My heart was warm(er) when Grace kept saying, "I love when you make us our Valentine's Day breakfast!) I found their pajamas at Gymboree.

Have a great Valentine's Day.  Lots of hugs and kisses - a bushel and a peck!

The magic of winter....

This has been almost a snow-less winter here in Wisconsin this year.  I feel for my friends to the West - that was us a year ago!  Despite the lack of snow, nature has produced some pretty sights.  This was the picture I woke up to out my backyard this morning.

So I decided it was a good Valentine's Day picture opportunity :)

 Have a great weekend!

Target $1 Aisle Valentine Day Crafts

I'm finally back with a new post...  I don't know about you, but the Christmas holidays wiped me out this year!  With all of the Valentine's Day blog posts and the fun items stocked on the store shelves, I'm rejuvenated and back with some Valentine's Day ideas. 

First, I have to share that our Valentine's Day breakfast from last year was posted on a new and fabulous site, The Party Press.  What an honor!!!  Check it out here.

For those of you who have daughters, if there anything like my Grace, you are probably pulling your hair out trying to think of new craft projects to keep them busy during these winter months.  On any Saturday morning, Grace is asking to do a craft or art project by 7:00 a.m.  There are only so many paper plate ideas I can come up with!

I came across some cardboard heart boxes in the Target $1 aisle the other day.  There are lots of cute Valentine's day craft/art supplies out there right now.  I grabbed a few as well as a few heart doilies.  I'm on a shabby chic/doily/rustic kick right now.  Stay tuned for doily overload for our Valentine's Day breakfast this year and Grace's First Communion/Birthday party.

So, when Grace asked to do a craft project at 8:00 a.m. this morning, I let her loose on the heart boxes and doilies.  Add a little modge podge and some ribbon and here is what she came up with.  The fun part - I plan on incorporating them in our Valentine's Day breakfast table.  I love getting the kids involved in holiday/birthday party planning!

And for the next Target $1 aisle project...  I came across these heart chalkboards (okay, they are actually $2.50, but close enough...)  Last year I searched high and low for heart chalkboards for a similar idea for the kids.  Of course if I would have waited a year, Target would have made my project much easier (and cheaper!)  Here is what I started out with:

After a little vinyl applied to the chalkboard that I cut with my Silhouette and some polka dot ribbon, here is what I came up with.  I plan on giving them to the kids' teachers for a little Valentine's Day teacher gift.

Happy crafting and Happy Valentine's Day :)

Merry Christmas from our Family to Yours!

May you have blessed Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

Thank you to my FABULOUS Aunt Debbie and her colleague Ashley for our Christmas card!

(Imagine that the card is cut out around the yellow and is shaped like an ornament :)

www.debbiedaanen.com

Christmas Paint Can Gift Holders

When I looked at the calendar today, I could hardly believe that Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!  Not a single gift wrapped thanks to prepping and holding our Gingerbread House Party, but all in due time! 

Tomorrow we are having our Holiday Potluck at work and I know it will shock you that I volunteered to take care of the gifts for our administrative assistants.  It was too much fun and they are such great people that I wanted to do something special.

I found adorable snowflake pins and placed them in the Christmas paint can tins I found at Target in the $1 aisle.  First, I filled the tins with holiday kisses (who doesn't love a little chocolate), added the pins and then, using my Silhouette machine, cut out of red vinyl, "Ho Ho Ho."  I adhered that to the front of the tin.  I then cut out snowflakes out of the white vinyl, added that to the top of the tins and then added a coordinating ribbon.  All in all, I thought it turned out cute.  I am excited to give them out tomorrow!

 

Happy Holidays!