Reason Number Five Bazillion Why I Love IKEA, And a Surprise

Cute little heart shaped ice cube trays

Plus Swedish chocolate (Seriously, YUM)

= cute little heart shaped chocolates!

My oldest daughter decided to make these for her teacher this year instead of cookies and sprinkles, and I think next year it will be what all the teachers get. Don't get me wrong, our little gift bags with the cookies, frosting, and sprinkles were really cute, but they were a lot more work than I had time for. And Since IKEA's chocolate is not only delicious, but cheap (3 big bars for $2.50) we figured out that each heart only costs $.10! Not bad at all for a really awesome treat.

And since today is the day that we celebrate love, I wanted to let you know how much Jenn and I Love all of you who actually read this little blog of ours even though we are somewhat unreliable bloggers at times. So, I am going to give away two sets of these cute little trays. 

I will automatically give two trays to the very first person to leave a comment, and then on Monday I will randomly select another person to receive two trays. And just maybe, if you leave really nice comments, I will send you some chocolate with it!

I don't care what you comment on, all I ask is that you leave an email address so we can contact you if you are the winner.

Happy Valentines Day! Hug your loves just a little bit tighter today! 

Homemade Sprinkles

A couple weeks ago, after much debating, I finally started Laila on solids. I started off with rice cereal, but she gagged on every bite, so I bought a few little jars of baby food, and sweet potatoes were a big hit! After  she finished off the first jar I just couldn't throw it away because it was so tiny and cute. I knew there had to be something I could do with it. It only took about 30 seconds. With Valentines day coming up, I decided that heart sugar cookies with some frosting and  homemade sprinkles would be a perfect gift to give to the kid's teachers. I don't really do anything for Christmas since it's such a crazy time of year, so I try to make up for it on Valentines day.

Most baby food jars are kind of short and squatty, but the Earth's Best brand are a little taller and thinner. Perfect for sprinkle jars. They cost a little more than the Gerber ones, but are still only around fifty cents a jar, so they won't break the bank.

I did some searching online for sprinkle recipes, but most people had you pipe out the frosting in long tubes and then cut them up into rectangles and it just wasn't very cute. Then, I found this recipe and it was exactly what I was looking for. One thing I should mention though is that these need to sit out over night to dry so don't expect to whip them up and use them right away.

Start by combining 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1 Tablespoons of milk and 1 Tablespoon of corn syrup. Next add a few drops of food coloring and 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of Lemon extract or whatever flavor you want. I happen to think that lemon goes the best with sugar cookies and isn't overwhelming. 

It should look like this. You want this to be pretty thick so it doesn't run all over the wax paper. If you need to, you can add another teaspoon of milk, but you really shouldn't need more than that.

You can either put the sugar mixture into a pastry bag or just a regular zip lock bag like I did and cut a small hole in the corner, and then squeeze out your sprinkles onto wax paper. One small word of caution. Making the sprinkles too small will take you forever! And only fill up one jar! Trust me, my first round were tiny. However, making them too big means they will take a long time to dry. It's hard to say what the perfect size is, but if it's taking a long time and seems really tedious, that's probably a good indication that you need to cut your hole just a little bit bigger.

Once I had all my dots drying I set to work cleaning up my little jars. I found that orange oil worked really well to get off that little bit off glue left behind once the label was peeled off and it also took off the date that had been stamped on the glass.

I also spray painted the lids white, but you can see in the picture that the dates that were stamped on the lids still showed through so I put white glitter on them as well. If you are like my Aunt Maria though and refuse to even have glitter in your house than I would suggest trying a darker color of spray paint. I didn't think black would look very nice for Valentines day though.

After the lids were all glittered, the only thing left to do was to add a few quick embellishments to the jars and they are ready to be taken to school.

For the red sprinkles I just did your basic add food coloring to sugar, except I used In The Raw Sugar since the crystals are larger.

Easy, cute, and very inexpensive!

Valentine's Day Blocks {Reversible!}

I am so excited about this. I finished a project that has been close to a year in the making! Remember THIS post from last year? I finally made the Valentine's Day side (and if I do say so myself it's way better than the St. Patrick's Day side....I might need to revamp a little!).

My blocks were already sanded and painted so I was able to get right to work. I started by cutting out some v-day scrapbook paper 3"x3" (slightly smaller than the blocks). And then I inked the edges with red ink to make them stand out a little more.

Next I modge podged each paper to the blocks and then used my Cricut to cut out the letters "I", "L", "O", and "U".

I had a little trouble decided what to do as my "heart" so I made a few different options. I ended up deciding the felt heart embroidered with pink embroidery floss worked the best. It stood out the most.

The final steps were simple. I used modge podge to glue on my letters and hot glue for the felt heart. When I was done I felt like it still wasn't quite finished so my final touch was to add a few gemstones.

And the opposite of this:

Is now this:

I am so happy with how they turned out. Now I just need to decide where to display them.

I know it's still a month away but I already got out my Valentine's Day wreath too. I remember growing up that my mom always had a little valentine for us on the table either in the morning or when we came home from school. And when I was a teenager my dad always put a flower on our (his daughters) beds. I'm excited to come up with something fun and creative to do for my girls and hubby this year. Do you have any special Valentine's Day traditions?

Linked up at i heart naptime

Ruffled Heart Tee

(My camera is still at the shop so, sorry again for the bad camera phone pictures!)

A couple weeks ago I went to Old Navy to buy my 8 year old another pair of jeans. This girl has already destroyed four pairs of pants and one pair of snow pants in four short months. The snow pants only took one month! I'm giving up all hope that she can ever wear pants that don't have holes in the knees. Anyway, while I was at Old Navy I saw THIS tee and thought it was cute, but immediately thought about how I could do it not only cuter, but cheaper. And with Valentines day only a week away, I have come up with something that is not only super cute, but super easy. I'm talking NO SEW, if you graduated Kindergarten you can do this, easy!

Here's what you need:

*Plain colored shirt (I wanted to use ones that my girls already had, but they were all covered in stains. Good thing Old Navy had them on sale for $2.50!)

*A yard to a yard and a half of trim or lace depending on the size of the shirt and how many layers you want the heart to have. (I got mine at Jo Ann's and I had a little bit left over from both of the shirts I made, but they will make cute hair accessories)

*Fabric glue

*Fray check

*Disappearing ink pen- optional

*Construction paper and scissors

Start by cutting out a basic heart in whatever size you want. Just remember it's going to get much bigger the more layers of trim you put around it so you might want to start small.

Trace it onto your shirt using a disappearing ink pen. You could use a regular pen as long as you completely cover it up with trim.

I did actually start out intending this to be a sewing project, but when I discovered that it worked just as well with the fabric glue, I abandoned my sewing machine altogether. You could sew the whole thing if you really want to, but I'm all about fast. Anyway, start by putting a dab of fray check on the end of your trim and glue or sew it down starting at the top of your heart.

Continue all the way around your heart. Add another dab of fray check to the second end and then tuck that end under before you glue it down so it has a more finished look.

Start again with your second layer using the outside edge of the first layer as your guide. I wanted to hide the stitching on the trim so I laid it just under the outside edge of my first layer.

Glue and glue some more!

And then proudly show your daughter her awesome new Valentines shirt!

I went with an opposite color scheme for my youngest daughter and the lace that I bought for hers was a huge pain! I thought it would be so cute because it was kind of sparkly, but it had elastic down the middle and it just didn't look right so I ended up folding it in half and sewing it together before I glued it down. I still think it turned out cute, but I would not recommend buying anything with elastic down the center or using a tee shirt that has pleats a the top. Another annoyance.

I grabbed a quick picture of her when she tried it on and wasn't planning on posting it, but I thought it might be a good idea for you too see what it actually looks like on. Just ignore our messy closet in the background.

See, So easy! It will take you an hour tops, and you still have a whole week to whip one up before the big day.

PS. For more fun craft ideas, check out THIS party and THIS party that I'm linking up to!

Spreading The L.O.V.E.

It's almost 10:00 and I should be in bed. I really (okay, kind of) want to be but I'm glued to the computer. I'm blog jumping and it is so addicting! There are so many fun blogs out there with great ideas. I've only been at it for (wow, longer than I thought!) 2 hours and I'm sure I could go on all night. The blog world is endless.

In the interest of saving time (for you) I thought I'd bring some of the blog world to you here. There are a ton of Valentine's Day craft ideas out right now and since I haven't gotten around to making my own here is a smorgasbord of some of the cute V-Day crafts I found tonight.

**All of these crafts have a tutorial. I didn't post any "check out this awesome thing I made. The End." stuff.**

I have a thing for wreaths. I think you will find at least 3 wreaths here today but I can't help myself. I love them all. I think I might try to get some V-Day fabric on sale after the holiday and make this Valentines Wreath next year. I think it's adorable!

This Yarn and Rosettes Wreath is simple (not to be confused with easy) and elegant. I think it'd be a beautiful indoor decoration for any room in the house.

I thought these Conversation Hearts would be cute strung above a window.

I think this Valentine's Day Tree is so cute and it was different from most of the other crafts that I found. I also think it would be cute if you used fabric to match a room and made it a permanent decoration.

This Rose Wreath was inspired by a Target wreath and it is Sally's personal favorite. It was originally posted without a tutorial but one was recently added. Yeah! isn't it beautiful?

If I had a fireplace mantle these L-O-V-E Letters would definitely be on top.

This Valentine's Picture Frame is the perfect place to store a picture of you and your Valentine.

Well there you have it. I've done the searching for you. Now all you have to do is the real work!