Valentines 2014

On this snowy Sunday, Miss M and I made these for our classes.  We found the fabulous (and free!) printable at www.lilluna.com .  I used hot glue to attach the bubbles and flutes to the cards.  Each card is 2.5" in size.  Miss M chose to add flutes and I chose bubbles for my students.  I hope they are a hit!

~peace and blessings~

Lisa

Valentine's Day Treats

Our Valentine's Day was pretty mellow.  We went to school and work.  I made a heart shaped snack for Miss M and had it ready for her when she got home from school.  J brought home Chinese for dinner.  We then attended ds's hockey game against my school's team, then settled in for the night.   Below is a photo of one of my students (in black) and our son during the game.  I love this photo! 

 



 Miss M took in the treats pictured below for her classmates.  We packaged the starburst candies in a clear bag and stapled the printable tag from BHG.com onto each one.  Cute and easy! 

 

 

 

For dessert and my school friends, I made some peanut butter heart cookies.  I used a basic peanut butter blossom recipe, and used heart shaped chocolates instead of kisses in the center.  They were really tasty!  Who doesn't love peanut butter and chocolate together?!

 

 

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

 

~peace and blessings~

Lisa

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 (1 ounce) bottle McCormick® Red
Food Color

2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla
Extract

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese,
softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla
Extract
1 (16 ounce) box confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat cream cheese, softened, butter, sour cream and McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Enjoy!

~peace and blessings~

Lisa

Valentine's Day 2012

I'm so very late in posting about Valentine's Day. We had a lovely evening at home and enjoyed our time together. You can see the Smilebox for all the photos. Above is the gift I made for dd's teacher. I found the idea on Pinterest, of course! You can view the printable here.

~peace and blessings~

Lisa

Student Valentine's Day Bookmarks

I am "new" to teaching Middle School, but my elementary teacher self wanted to make/do something for my students for Valentine's Day. I teach approximately 100+ students every day. I saw these on a fellow teacher's blog, Controlling My Chaos, and thought they would be perfect for my kiddos. First, I ordered 4x6 prints from Walmart and cut each print in half.
Then each half was folded in half.

Then I used a roll of magnetic tape to add 2 small squares of tape to each folded bookmark.

Here are my completed bookmarks! I love them and my 13yo snatched one from the counter to use in his books, so I am sure my students will love them too!

~peace and blessings~

Lisa

Cupid's Munch Mix

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. Today we made Cupid's Munch Mix to share with family and friends.


First we combined a bag of microwave popcorn, pretzels, Valentine's Day candy corn, m&m's, and peppermint mini marshmallows in a large bowl. Be sure to take out any unpopped kernels from your popcorn.

Miss M wanted to show us the mixture in the bowl. Next, melt one 12 oz. bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave. Start with 30 second increments, stirring after each time until chocolate is smooth. It took about 2 minutes total in my microwave.

Pour the chocolate over the popcorn mixture in the bowl. Stir to cover mixture with chocolate. Spread on a foil lined cookie sheet. Let cool until hard.

This is what it looked like after drying for about 2 hours. Break into pieces and store in an air tight container. Enjoy!



Cupid's Munch Mix


1 package Light Microwave Popcorn (3.3 Ounce Package)
1 cup Pretzels
1 cup Valentine M&ms
1 cup Valentine Candy Corn
1 cup Mini Marshmallows (I used peppermint since they were pink and white swirled)
1- 12 ounce package White Chocolate Chips




Pop the popcorn in the microwave according to package directions. Remove any unpopped kernels. Pour the popcorn into a large mixing bowl. Add the pretzels, candy and marshmallows and mix to combine.
Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl on medium power for 30 second increments. Stir well after each 30 second heating. Continue heating until chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour melted chocolate over the popcorn mixture. Stir well to coat. Pour mixture onto a cookie sheet and allow chocolate to harden. Break apart and serve.


Enjoy!

~peace and blessings~

Lisa

Valentine's Day Prep

As many of you know, our Miss M had surgery to have tubes inserted in her ears on Thursday. She had a successful surgery and is making a great recovery. She stayed home from school on Friday to recover and we did some Valentine's Day prep for her classroom party on Tuesday. Above she is writing out her valentine envelopes.
Here she is in her jammies, with one of her ipod valentines. I ordered them from Current.

This is the Heart Man Valentine collection man we made for her to take to school.

Here are the treat bags for her classmates. I printed the tags from Glorious Treats and Miss M labeled them with her classmates' names.

Happy Valentine's Day!

~peace and blessings~

Lisa

Valentines for Book Lovers

Pinterest is one of my favorite places to visit on the web these days. I saw these adorable stitched felt bookmarks from Thirty Hand Made Days and just had to make them. Since I'm fighting the flu, I didn't want to do anything too labor intensive and thought making these would keep me from going nuts. It's hard for me to relax or keep still. You can find the printable cards here. If you receive one of these from me for Valentine's Day, please act surprised! *wink*
These are the bookmarks I stitched, then hot glued to paper clips. I chose silver, but Staples had paper clips in a rainbow of colors that would look really cool as well.

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Crafting!
~peace and blessings~
Lisa

Sunday Brunch

I hosted a brunch today for my parents' 41st Anniversary. In the photo above they just opened the gift of a new roaster from us. At Christmas my dad was going on about how they needed a new roaster while doing the dishes, since their 30+ year old one was chipped, so I thought it would be the perfect gift. ;0)

I did a love theme, using hearts and snowflakes. The menu included French Toast Casserole, Egg and Sausage Casserole, Apple Cinnamon Muffins(ww) and Fruit Salad. I had coffee, tea, and juices for beverages as well.

I also decorated the house this weekend for Valentines' Day. I found this printable via Pinterest. I mounted it on red paper and framed it for the buffet area. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the food!

Thank you for stopping by!

~peace and blessings~

Lisa

Valentine's Day at Our House

On Valentine's Day morning, the kids found their Valentines and gifts waiting for them before school.

DD got the DVD edition of Beauty and the Beast. (or as she used to say: Judy and the Beast)

DS asked for Miracle, a hockey movie, of course. ;0)


After school, we had dinner together. We had Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Veal Parmesan, Salad and Garlic Toast. The flowers on the table were my gift from dh.

Here's my place setting.

We each had a German Chocolate cupcake for dessert. DD and I made them together.

Blessings,

Lisa

Valentine's Day 2011

My beautiful flowers from John. He bought 12 roses and had them add 8 carnations for our 20th Valentine's Day together.

Blessings,
Lisa

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing you a very happy Valentine's Day!

May today and every day be filled with love and happiness!

Peace and blessings,

Lisa

Valentine's Day Crepe Paper Flower Heart

I saw something similar to this on a blog, but can't tell you where. I do know that the directions for making the crepe paper roses is from House of Smiths. I have the "picture" on my mantel with a Boyd's bear dh bought me one year for our anniversary.

Now to make the banner....

Peace and blessings,

Lisa

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

DD and I made cupcakes today for Valentine's Day. We baked chocolate cupcakes, then frosted and decorated them with coconut (for me!), read and pink sugar and conversation hearts.

Here's a photo of my little helper in her ballerina apron.

Ds is filling out his valetines for his classmates. I'm sad that this was his last year exchanging valentines.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Lisa

LOVE Mini Banner

I have a small shelf in my kitchen that needed something hanging from the pegs on it, so I made this mini "love" banner. It's about 2 1/2 inches in width and 10 inches long. Of course, I used the cricut! I used the George and Jasmine cartridges. I chose love in honor of Valentine's Day.

Thanks for stopping by today!


Blessings and peace,
Lisa

Valentine's Day Tin~Teacher Gift

This is my first tin for Valentine's Day. I made it using Recollections Basics Scrapbook Paper, Bazzil Cardstock in red and my Cricut. I used the George and Basic Shapes Cartridge and the Jasmine cartridge for the font.

This is the top of the tin, which we'll fill with Hershey's Kisses for the kids' teachers. I am probably going to add some red ribbon to the tin above the heart....just don't have any red ribbon at home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Lisa

Valentine's Day Family Dinner

Valentine's Day started on Friday morning at our house. I gave our kids their heart shaped baskets filled with a Valentine, books and one candy treat. The fun continued at school with a party for the students in my class. The kids had a fabulous time and shared cards and treats with each other. When dh arrived home, he greeted me with a half dozen of long stem red roses. Then we left for our romantic getaway. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed being a couple. It was so nice to have nothing to do, no time limits and no distractions.

I can't forget to send thanks to my in-laws, Barb and Gene, for taking the kids for the weekend.

We returned home today. This evening dd and I made dinner and dessert. We had heart shaped pizzas with heart shaped pepperoni on top for dinner. For dessert, we had Molten Chocolate Cakes . They were delicious! We had a lot of fun cooking together. Then we had family movie night and watched Madagascar 2 together.

Blessings,

Lisa

Valentine Treat Bag Toppers

A bag topper is my latest Valentine's Day project. For the 4" x 6" cellophane bag pictured here, I cut a 4" x 4" square, folded it in half, and attached my stamped image to the front. I added ribbon through two holes that I punched on the topper. I hid the staples with the stamped images. Cute and simple.

Blessings,

Lisa