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 :)

the classroom ... for those who want a peek into our home school room :)

this is our new classroom ... it is a wonderful space for learning, reading, and the odd bit of pinterest creating! actually you can see heaps of pinterest inspiration and past pinterest creations in these photo's ... see i really do use all my creations!

the storage cube (pinterest idea) made of three bookcases  and a board on top for the laptop.
the white board is down low for mat time with pollyanna.

moving around the room, next to the laptop and storage are their desks and some more storage.
the map of new zealand and the pins of where they have been is also one of my pinterest creations!

i love storage and in a classroom you can never have too much!

moving around from their desks is our blackboard we painted and that also cemented a long term relationship and overuse of black board paint!  the craft table where we can all work together.  in the corner is the world map with the pins of places they have been and a bed which the peeps use for reading on ... nothing better than curling up in all the cushions with a good book!

some more pinterest creations and inspirations in this photo, in fact i think i can count 7!  my favourite pinterest creation in this photo has to be the library baskets on the wall.

and moving right around to the start (see the white board, this is our entrance and yet more storage in the form of a big bookcase.  love that there is still plenty of floor space and that everything has a place to be put away so the peeps can concentrate on what they have in front of them and not anything else :)  that's the theory anyway!

day 248: lunch notes for the peeps

such happy looking lunch notes all laminated and ready to write on :)

day 248 and it's another quick but thoughtful solution today, lunch notes ... today's creation isn't for valentines but will definitely let your peeps know you are thinking of them ... even at school ... or for us home schooler's a good thing to put under a sandwich or on their plate as a bit of fun.  there are heaps of lunch notes available to download for free, but i liked these ones from chickabug which can be personalised.  i have a whole bunch pinned to my home school projects board on pinterest.

the chickabug notes are freely downloadable for personal use.  i decided to laminate them so lunch wouldn't ruin the notes before they found them  ... who am i kidding, i just love to laminate things! these notes are ideal for those of us who have both sexes as there is a boys colour combination and a girls one so no one should be unhappy with the colour palette :)  there are also blank ones and helpful starters in each colour combo so you don't even have to think too hard in the morning or whenever you are going to write on them .... something i will definitely appreciate as morning is my favourite part of the day ;)


and for a little bit of fun these school joke lunch notes from peonies and poppy seeds (cute name for a blog) are also cool so i printed and laminated them as well. i figured the best idea for lunch notes was to print a whole heap off and then have them ready to go otherwise in the muddle of the morning it might be one of those things that just gets forgotten about :)

love that she provides the versatility of blank lunch notes and ones that are for certain occasions

who doesn't love a good school joke?

does anyone else love laminating as much as i do?  or should i seek treatment?

i love that i now have a huge pile of lunch notes ready to last me through term one ... then i can find some more!

outcome:  i am a bit of a romantic, so i love this type of thing!  hopefully it these "things" my peeps will remember as adults and make the extra effort for their peeps if and when they have them.  these lunch notes i never would have thought to do without seeing the inspiration on pinterest, and that's just another reason why i adore ben for starting up pinterest with his crew ... the inspiration and the 'get up and create' it has given me  is beyond words :) (ok, gush over!)

my thanks to chickabug and peonies and poppy seeds for the gorgeous free printable lunch notes ... and the fact they were freely available is just awesome.

i am still not able to sit for very long at the computer or a sewing machine thanks to my hamstring, hopefully given another week i will be back to being able to do more craftiness instead of little tidbits :) don't forget my new zealand give away starts tomorrow and i WILL have photo's of the classroom uploaded for those that wanted to see ... in the meantime, enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

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 246: betty crocker mixes made at home!

the home made betty crocker mix, ready in a jar to gift to my sweetheart :)

day 246 and i am in the swing of all things valentine's at the moment!  i am also on a 17 day diet and don't feel like making too many sweet things for anybody seems as i can't taste test them ;)  i did find a solution to this on pinterest today, home made betty crocker mixes ... SWEET!  much like you do with the cookies in a jar, i figured i could put one of these mixes in a jar and give it to steve as a valentines present ... then i would be giving him the ability to bake biscuits without me having to actually do it .... sneaky aye!

the mix recipes come from fake-it frugal and are pinned to my recipe must do's board.  what a cool website that is, i have spent heaps of time trawling around looking at all the goodness she has to offer!  i made the chocolate chip cookie mix first, then made the oatmeal cookies mix.  i made the oatmeal cookies (steve's fav) as his valentine's gift and put all the ingredients straight into the jar.  i added in dried cherries and chocolate chips to fill the jar AND because i know he loves both those things in his oatmeal cookies :)

the ingredients for both the chocolate chip and oatmeal cookie mixes

all you do is put the ingredients in a container, shake to mix :)

then store them in individual bags for using at a later date, or gift them in jars :)

outcome: well he clearly hasn't got the jar yet, but i know i will score some brownie points with this jar!  it's a definite favourite of his and this present took me ten minutes to make ... seriously, 10 minutes.  there are no excuses for buying betty crocker mixes anymore my friends, this is way too easy.  tomorrow i am going to enlist the help of my peeps and make a whole lot more up to put in the cupboard ready for baking when i am pressed for time ... who am i kidding, every day i am pressed!

my sincere thanks to heather at fake-it frugal, i love when the things i buy at the supermarket to make life easy are even easier when you know the tricks of the trade to be able to make them at home without the huge cost ... LOVE THAT!  thank you so much heather for your awesome blog, fake-it frugal it's a fantastic read :)

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 244: bear hugs for valentines

day 244 and for those who don't do too much for valentines, i apologise for the next week of valentines inspired creations.  i figured as valentines was so close i should get busy and make some effort to spread the word of st valentine ;)

we are going for an quick and easy valentines gift today as i wean myself back into crafting with schooling!  today i am making polly some valentines for her to gift to her mates ... she's seven so this idea using bear cookies is perfect for her age group.  the idea comes from family fun and is pinned to my st valentines love board on pinterest.

for this project you need some cellophane bags, some teddy bear cookies, ribbon, and some card for tags.  i made up some cute tags for polly that she could then write on to personalise them for her friends.  we then worked together to put the bears in the bags and i tied the ribbon while she wrote on the tags.

outcome:  my favourite part of this creation was spending time with my daughter working on gifts for her friends. she loved the idea of giving her friends something on valentines day and i loved helping her make them :)  definitely do this with your little girls, they will love you for it, it gives them a nice sense of doing something for someone else, and it's not hard so it makes it fun :)

my thanks to family fun for posting this idea, it definitely was fun spending time with my littlest peep making today's creation.

now for the boy child tomorrow ... wonder how that will go, wish me luck and stay tuned for tomorrow's creation, where i attempt to get him in the spirit of 'love' ... do we think i might be pushing @#%&@$% up hill ;)

new zealand give away starts monday :)