day 250: happy valentine's day

happy valentine's day everyone ... hopefully you have been shown some love by someone special today!

day 250 and we had a lot of hearts around our home today ... i was very lucky and woken at 6am this morning by my sweet husband who had made me a pinterest inspired crepe paper rose ... I KNOW ... apparently he figured he should do something pinteresty to show how much he loved me, well it took my breath away so i'm keeping him for good ;)

our very festive looking dinner for valentines :)

today's creations were inspired by all the hearts i have seen pinned all over pinterest in the last couple of weeks.  i started with making the peeps heart shape sandwiches for lunch .. they were very appreciated!

heat shaped sandwiches for lunch

i then made dessert for tonight in heart shaped moulds ... jelly topped with chocolate mousse :)  they went down an absolute treat this evening.

everything just tastes better in a heart i reckon!

for our actual dinner we had home made chicken burgers with heart shaped cheese and these egg in a heart shaped basket thingees!  the valentine's day egg in the basket things were inspired by these ones from petite kitchenesse.  it was a beautiful evening, so everything ended up on the bbq and it looked very romantic with all the hearts floating around!

the ingredients for the heart shaped egg baskets :)

the chicken burgers definitely tasted better with heart shaped cheese ;)

our heart shaped dinner was delicious ... not fabulous for the 17 day diet, but too good to miss!

along with yesterday's red velvet cupcakes and all the heart shaped eating today, the 17 day diet took a day off ... oh well, back to it tomorrow.  in the meantime, the valentine's food we ate today was absolutely delicious and perfect for getting us into the spirit created by st valentine :)

my thanks to all the wonderful valentine's inspiration i have seen on pinterest, especially to petite kitchenesse for inspiring such a cool heart shaped eggy bread.

finally don't forget to leave a comment, all those that do throughout this week go in the draw to win a box of new zealand goodies ... i will show you some things we have been collecting tomorrow ... :)

day 249: red velvet cupcakes

red velvet cupcakes for valentines day :)

day 249 and is there a recipe more perfect for valentines day than red velvet cupcakes?  i think they are the best idea for this day of love so today i am making them for my sweet husband and mum to take to work for their colleagues ... and, of course, the peeps and i will be saving a couple for morning tea tomorrow (totally taking morning tea off my 17 day diet so i can take part in eating one!).

i found this recipe on pinterest from joy of baking and it looked like one i could follow, even if it did require heavy machinery for the batter AND icing :)  it's worth it, after all valentine's day only comes once a year and we are talking about cupcakes here!  the recipe is pinned to my st valentines love board on pinterest.  i didn't sift the flour, i never sift, i should, but i don't.  apart from that, the recipe was followed according to instructions :)  i didn't watch the video clip, but for those who want a more in-depth recipe, there is a you tube demo provided.

there was a lot of red and pink at my house tonight ...

and things got even redder :)

lucky for me this was a family affair and everyone helped ...

even the peeps, pollyanna was in charge of mixing the frosting :)

and there they are ready to have their chocolate hearts added ... we made almost fifty of them!

outcome:  SO GOOD!  i love these, definitely going to do green ones for st patrick's and put gold coins on top! they are quite labour intensive and have ingredients for miles but they are totally worth it ... so cool looking and the sneaky taste i had was divine!  hopefully everyone at both workplaces will love them too :)

my thanks to the joy of baking website for this cool recipe ... no doubt about it these cupcakes are RED!  not surprised with so much red food colouring, totally perfect for valentines :)

day 247: valentine's decor

some valentine's decor thanks to some chocky hearts and a free vintage printable :)

day 247 and summer is coming to an end in new zealand so i figured some of our current décor could be upgraded to reflect a more valentine's feel around the place :)  i am determined to put more lovin' in my house ... teehee, i'm talking about the décor people ... the décor, come on this is a family show ;)

i found this awesome vintage print to frame and replace the summer subway art i had up.  given i wanted to reuse the blue frame (see below), i needed something with a hint of blue in it but that was also reflective of the season. the vintage postcard from tattered treasures is just perfect. i copied it into a word document and enlarged it to almost an A4 size then printed it out.  the other thing i did for my little valentine's decor was fill a lovely blue heart dish, a very sweet friend of mine gave me for christmas, with red chocolate hearts, keeping in the theme of reds and blues.

the before ....

the after :)

outcome: awesome, love the colours, i have lots of reds about, but i really like the blue accent ... a little untraditional but works really well with everything else going on in my house!  the vintage valentine is so cute i am definitely going to look out for more on pinterest that are allowed to be copied (like this one) to add around the place ... i really like vintage things and holidays, they just seem to go so well together!



my gratitude to nancy at tattered treasures for sharing this gorgeous vintage valentine's postcard AND for allowing us to copy and use it in projects ... very sweet :)

day 245: i "wheelie" like you

the finished boy friendly valentine's gift :)

day 245 and it is ben's turn to make some valentines for his friends.  it had to be the quickest creation today because i needed the buy in from my sweet but very boy like ten year old to come craft with me after dinner ... you're getting the picture now aren't you!

we went with cars for the boy peep as that was the least girly thing i could find on pinterest that a ten year old could give his mates.  this idea comes from mique at thirty handmade days and is pinned to my st valentines love board.  we went with hot wheels cars as we found we could get all his girl mates and boy mates their favourite colours ... thank goodness, hot wheels had the foresight to bring out pink cars for our creation today!

i made up some quick labels and ben decided as the cars where already pre-packaged we didn't need to put them in the cellophane bags i had thought we would, so we just staple the tags to the cars instead ... good compromise!

yes, i am using 'my memories suite' again!

i matted the tags in yellow (ben's favourite colour) to give them a bit of substance :)

thank goodness hot wheels do cars in girl colours too!

ben writing everyone's name on the tags ..

then carefully stapling them on to each person's favourite colour car!

outcome:  again, quick and easy ... just the sort of craft thing to do with tween boys!  hopefully his mates/matesses will like the token gift for valentine's day.  i think they are really sweet and totally perfect for boys.

my thanks to mique at thirty handmade days for coming up with something for valentines that tween boy's won't mind giving their friends ... it made my day to craft with my boy peep, so this was a really rewarding pinterest creation day for me :)

day 243: a fishy valentines gift

the finished "fishy" valentines treats for the peeps

day 243 and we have had our first day back at school today, tomorrow i will show you pictures of the classroom for those who are interested (it will be in a separate post for those who don't so you can pass it by!).  that meant i was a little tired after our first day back so i went for an easy creation this afternoon, a valentines treat for the peeps from me on valentines day.

i love this idea from sara at bateman buzz, love how simple this idea is but totally cute :)  the idea is pinned to my newly created st valentines love board on pinterest.  we don't have swedish fish candy but we do have chocolate fish in new zealand ... in fact, we specialise in them!

speaking of which i have a give away of new zealand goodies starting monday, so stay tuned if you would like a slice of new zealand to turn up at your door :) 

i used my memories (fast becoming my favourite publishing software) to make the tags that are attached to these little valentines gifts.  i used the my memories seaside whimsy kit, so cute and perfect for some fishy valentines!

these are the little tags i created for the chocky fish

ready to assemble ... 

the finished valentine's gift .. quick, easy, and really inexpensive ... we like that kind of crafting!

outcome: pending ... but i would be stoked if someone near and dear to me gave me a chocky fish for valentines ... are you taking the hint nearest and dearest!  i am guessing these will be a hit as neither will be expecting anything on valentine's day as it is a new holiday to new zealand where gift giving generally only happens between adults and teens!

thanks to sara at bateman buzz for giving me a really cute valentine to make on a day when tiredness has overcome me and i was looking for something super quick and simple to make ... today's creation definitely fitted all those criteria!

as for the 17 day diet, still going strong after eight days i have lost 4.6kgs ... not bad as we reach the halfway point :)  my favourite part of the diet is the yoghurt and jam at night!