My Sweet Valentine

For Christmas, Phee's class made calendars as gifts for the parents. 

Each month has hand print art and a short poem. 

February's picture is sweet Phee's hands.  My favorite little hands.

I'll post the whole calendar soon!  Lots of really adorable hand print project ideas.  You'll love them!

Shared at Texas Women Bloggers: Sweet Tea Social.

Heart Door Hangers

After making our heart banner last week for the fireplace, Phee was on a roll and excited for more decorating.  I asked her what she had in mind.  As she scanned the living room, she decided that maybe she would like to hang something on the doors.  Works for me- I love to decorate!

Along with some paper I'd picked up at Target in the dollar spot, I had gotten a little pack of ribbon.  I didn't really look at the ribbon, and it turns out, those rolls only have a very small amount of ribbon.  But, that amount was perfect for door hangers!

I'd been wanting to make something similar to these since Halloween and just never had time to do it.  So, this turned out to be fun for me, and fun for Phee as well.

Materials

• patterned and colored paper
• ribbon
• adhesive
• stickers and embellishments

Directions

1. Cut your ribbon to your preferred length.  Ours hang down about 10 inches.
2. Tie a loop in the ribbon so that you can hang them over doorknobs.
3. Cut out small, medium, and large hearts to fit on your length of ribbon.  If you want the hearts to match up evenly when you adhere them to the ribbon, be sure to keep an eye on your paper when you cut them.  Some of our paper was only patterned on one side, but I forgot to put the white sides of the paper together, with the color/pattern facing out, when I cut the hearts.
4. Lay out one side of a set of hearts, from smallest to largest (top to bottom).
5. Spread adhesive or glue on these hearts and then lay the ribbon over the center.
6. Place the other side of each heart over the ribbon to sandwich it between the layers.
7. Continue with all hearts and ribbons.
8. After the hangers are assembled, you can decorate them with stickers, stamps, markers, glitter or whatever else you may want to use.
9. Hang the ribbons up on your doorknobs and enjoy your lovely decorations!

Another cute and simple Valentine decoration for your house!  The best part is that if one gets stuck in a door, you can always throw another one together.  And, when the holiday is over, you can hold on to them for another year, or just toss them.

These would also make a cute decoration to give a friend as a Valentine, or to use as a simple classroom decoration.  What's your favorite Valentine's Day decoration?



Looking for candy-free Valentine ideas?  We made oatmeal valentines last year!  And check out some other crafts and treats we've made for Valentine's Day.

Linked up at Life of the Party, momnivore's dilemma: Sunday Best, Just Us Four, SITS Girls, Recipe Critic, Heather's French Press, We Made That, The Wednesday Roundup, Bloom Designs, Nancherrow, P is for Preschooler, momnivore's dilemma, Simply Gloria.

Grandma's Valentines

Ages ago, at this time of year, you could find my grandma in the kitchen baking dozens of Valentine cookies.  For everyone.  She brought them to us next door, to my aunt and her family living on the other side of her house.  The other relatives in town.  And she mailed them to the out-of-towners.  Everyone got these amazing Valentine cookie creations.

{source}

And they absolutely were creations.  She used what heart shaped cookie cutters she had, some with smooth edges, some with old fashioned scalloped edges.  But none of them were ever big enough.  Grandma would cut out paper hearts and use those to trace large heart shaped cookies on top of her rolled out cookie dough.  Seriously large, like 6 and 8 inch tall cookies.

When everything cooled, she would frost them and decorate them and sometimes stick them together.  Cookies decorated and layered atop each other like a paper valentine.  Colored sugar, sprinkles, and little cinnamon red hots jazzed up tinted frosting on simple sugar cookies.

These were her Valentines, her little love notes to us all.  I looked forward to those cookies every year.  Grandma was just next door and we had access to her cookies, cakes, treats, dinners, whenever we wanted.  But those Valentine cookies were magical.

I can still remember the taste of the little cinnamon candies after they'd been stuck in frosting for a day or two: slightly soft, a touch sweeter, but still with that biting burst of cinnamon.  It was always so much fun to get one of the giant cookies so you could bite off the teeny cookie adorning it, trying to leave the larger cookie intact. 

I don't remember the last time I got those cookies.  It may have been in high school, or it might have been early on in college, before Parkinson's took its toll and kept her from doing so many things she enjoyed.

February rolls around, and every year I think of those cookies.  I wish there were some waiting for me in the mail.


Linked up at Controlling Craziness, 5 Minutes for Mom, Nancherrow.

Valentine Heart Banner

Christmas was barely over before Phee was talking about Valentine's Day.  I don't think we even had our decorations down before she was ready to put hearts up all over the house.  I managed to hold her off for a few weeks, but this past weekend she was ready to deck the house out in pink, purple, and red.

Our first project for the holiday was a simple heart banner to decorate our fireplace.  A couple weeks ago I grabbed a pack of Valentine's Day themed scrapbook paper and some conversation heart stickers at Target in the Dollar Spot.  We used those, some ribbon I had on hand, plus a bunch of Valentine stickers leftover from last year.

Materials

• solid colored paper or cardstock
• Valentine themed paper
• Valentine stickers
• crayons/markers/pencils
• ribbon (the length depends on where you plan to hang your banner)
• adhesive
• stapler

Directions

1. Cut hearts out of the solid colored paper.  Mine were all about the same size, but they certainly don't have to be.  Get creative!
2. Cut smaller hearts out of patterned paper, if desired.
3. Decorate the solid hearts with stickers, smaller hearts, crayons, or whatever else you have in your craft stash.
4. Staple the hearts to the banner.  Try to get them somewhat evenly spaced; it makes it easier to balance out and hang.  
5. Hang your banner up!

We had so much fun decorating this banner together.  It looks bright and festive over our fireplace and Phee's very proud of it.

Do you decorate for Valentine's Day?  Do you make the decorations or do you have some old favorites stashed away that you dig out every year?

Looking for candy-free Valentine ideas?  We made oatmeal valentines last year!

Linked up at The Recipe Critic, The SITS Girls, Pieces by Polly, Creations by Kara, 5 Minutes for Mom, Controlling Craziness, We Made That, Heather's French Press.

Oatmeal Valentines

There are any number of candy-free valentine ideas out there.  Whole collections of them.  And, if you're a big Pinterest fan, like me, you've seen a bunch of these really cute ideas.  I didn't want to duplicate something that Phee might see anyway, though, and I wanted her to have something unique to give to her friends.

I have no idea how I came up with this, or what even made me think of oatmeal.  I imagine I was daydreaming while Phee was having an oatmeal bedtime snack- one of her favorites.  But, "You oat to be my Valentine" stuck in my head and made me giggle.  So, we went with it.

Cute, simple and healthy.  You can't go wrong with that combination, especially on a holiday full of chocolate and candy.  Phee gets to share one of her favorite snacks with her friends and I'm happy that we didn't add to the sugar rush of the day.

Materials

• individual oatmeal packets
• individual raisin boxes
• plastic baggies
• cardstock
• adhesive
• stapler

Directions

1. Print out the oatmeal valentine page and cut out the sayings.
2. Cut card stock to 6.5" by 3.5" (3.5" is a good minimum, but 4" works really well) and fold in half.
3. Affix the oatmeal saying to one side of the folded card stock.  Kids can write their name or personalize the valentines on the back of the folded card stock.
4. Put one oatmeal packet and one raisin box in a ziplock baggie and seal it.
5. Put one folded piece of card stock, with oatmeal saying affixed, over the top of the sealed baggie and staple it in place.

{the labels for the baggies- just copy and paste it into Word to resize it}

What fun things are your kids giving out for Valentine's day this year?  Are you looking forward to any of the treats they're likely to bring home?

Linked up at

Cupcake Diaries
Whipperberry
Creations by Kara 
Pieces by Polly

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day exploded at our house over the weekend.  This isn't a holiday we make a big deal of, but I saw so many fun things to do this year.  Plus, Phee and I like to do projects so we try something every holiday.

I made recycled crayons for Phee's school party Valentines.  (I'll post about that Thursday.)  then I made the Valentines themselves after she colored her part.  Luckily there are only 6 kids!

{rainbow crayons}

Phee and I made some decorations Friday night.

{Phee's fun artwork}

 I made some pink pancakes Sunday morning.  And then pink heart cupcakes with lavender frosting for her school party today.

{look like they should be strawberry flavored}

{sort of heart shaped cupcakes}

And, just for fun, because I thought it looked like a neat craft, we made necklaces yesterday.  Phee likes wearing hers, but we definitely should have waited another year before we made them.  She preferred eating the beads to wearing them.

{Phee and her necklace}

Make the most of Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day- either you love it or you hate it.  Many people often find themselves disappointed once the day has come and gone because there wasn’t a big fuss made about it.  To some people, the day isn’t much more than a “greeting card holiday” full of sugary treats you don’t want to eat and meaningless red and pink “stuff” that sits around cluttering up the house.

Avoid the disappointment!  Shun the commercialization!  If you really want something that day, some token of love and affection, just tell your significant other.  Just because you've been together forever or you've been dropping hints for weeks, it doesn't mean they're going to figure it out.  They're not mind readers. Besides, everyone would probably benefit from some honest, straightforward communication. Most importantly, though, if you want the day to be special, make it so.  Cook a special breakfast treat that you don’t make very often.  Have dessert with dinner.  Do a special crafty or fun activity with the kids.  Leave little notes for your family.

You can make it a meaningful day for your whole family by doing something for others.  As a family, make Valentine’s for a local nursing home.  Bake a batch of pink and red cookies for your elderly neighbor.  Take dinner and Valentines to a sick friend or new mom and her family. 

At our house, it's usually a pretty regular day.  There might be some cards, but that's about it.  For the last 5 years or so, we've gotten a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and watched a movie- usually something along the lines of The Godfather or  Run, Fat Boy, Run.  This year, I want to make a cute little painted doily shirt for Ophelia.  Since her class is very small, she and I will be making the Valentine's for their little party.  Why buy a whole box of commercial Valentine's when you can print out 6 or 8 of your own design and your child can color them.  To add a treat to the cards, I'll be making recycled crayons for her friends.

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate and share love.  Do that!  Share the love with your friends and family.  Show them that you care about them, not about what they give you or what you bought for them.  Show your family that they are cherished and loved and you’ll find that you thoroughly enjoy Valentine’s Day.