Hearts 'n Things

Coming to you from Portland

I was inspired to get crafty for Valentine's Day after reading the February issue of Better Homes & Gardens - That is where all of these ideas came from. Click here if you want to see more ideas from BHG and get templates for these crafts.

These are just single servings of different candies/snacks that have cute little messages on them like "I Love You to Pieces" on the Reese's Pieces or "We're Mint to Be" on the York Peppermint Patty.  It was actually kind of difficult tracking down all of this candy in the perfect size to fit the templates I printed off of the website.  In the end I made some adjustments on a couple of things anyway. 

This is my favorite one: "I'm Bursting With Happiness That You're My Friend."  I just bought some little 3x3 ziplock bags to put the Starbursts in, folded the message over the top and secured it with double stick tape.

These are just large Hershey's dark chocolate bars that I wrapped in Valentine paper, ribbon and cut-outs.  Craft Warehouse had a miscellaneous package of paper cut-outs that said things like "Made With Love" and "All Love is Sweet, Given or Received."  They just added a little something extra to the design.  (Side note: Ribbon is very expensive! In order to get a variety I had to buy most of it by the yard and even that added up.)  I also bought the paper in a variety pack along with a few 12x12 sheets.  Paper is also really expensive and variety packs are usually the most cost-effective. 

I also did a few miniature Hershey bars.  After I purchased them I realized that the small ones come in plastic packages instead of paper and foil, so I had to wrap them in foil myself, but it turned out to be really easy - just like wrapping a present. 

I like this website, because it gave a lot of good ideas for things to get men for Valentine's Day which is always difficult - it's not really a holiday designed for men.  This is a homemade scratch-it and it was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be (go here for directions).  You just print off the template and write something into each of the hearts like 30 min. back massage or home-cooked dinner.  Then you trace the heart shape four times onto some contact paper ($7 a roll and I only used about 1/1000th of it! But now I will have it for a lifetime) and paint over them with two coats of a mixture of dishwashing liquid and metallic paint.  Then you just cut out the heart shapes and pull the clear part from the paper like a sticker and stick it over each of the messages you wrote in the hearts.  Add a shiny penny and you have the perfect homemade gift.

This is another easy gift for a guy.  I just went to the store and bought a nice case of beer with a red label.  Then I wrapped it in Valentine paper and velvet ribbon and added a little tag with a message. I also covered the handle with some white paper so it matched.

These are sugar cookies I made using a recipe from the website that I wrapped in cellophane and sealed with paper and ribbon.  They are not frosted, but I added some pink food coloring to the dough to make them more interesting.  All I did was cut a piece of paper to slide in behind the cookie and another one to fold over the top.  Then, using a small craft hole punch, I made two holes through the paper and cellophane and then strung a ribbon through and knotted it in the front.

Unlike Michelle I was not bombarded with Valentine's (I think I just got one from my mom and someone from work), but it really doesn't matter, because I had so much fun making everything, and I got to spend my Valentine's Day with the Trail Blazers :)

Recipe Box Wedding Gift

Coming to you from Portland

Hopefully Mo and Nora have already opened their wedding presents, because I wanted to share this project, but I don't want to spoil the surprise.  They registered for a Martha Stewart recipe box at Macy's and I wanted to include Martha recipe cards, but I couldn't find any.  Instead I just bought some rainbow colored index cards from Fred Meyer that fit perfectly.  The colors are a good way to sparate the recipes between the different tab categories that are included in the box. 

I picked about a dozon or so of my favorite recipes and copied them onto the cards to include with the gift. 

Then I made all of the recipes, and took a picture of them to print off and put on the back of each recipe card.  I know I am much more likely to make something if there is a picture of it so I thought those would help.  I'm always looking for a way to do something beyond the registry and this was a really fun way to personalize and put a little extra thought into something they asked for.  Michelle did a great personalized gift for them as well using her magnent idea that she posted about before. 

Recipe Extravaganza

Coming to you from Portland

I decided to finally go through all of my bon appetits from the last two years and pick out my favorite recipes.  I will rarely cook something if I don't have a picture of it to be tempted by, but luckily this magazine pretty much includes a photo with every recipe.  I cut out my favorites and organized them into my recipe book.  Hopefully this will entice me to start cooking again.  I hate getting stuck in a rut and just cooking the same old stuff over again.  There are so many unique and amazing recipes out there, most of which are very simple. 

Isn't that picture on the left gorgeous! They are homemade ice cream sandwiches dipped in melted chocolate, then coated in sprinkles and crushed up candy bars. Yummm!

The recipe on the left here was featured in the restaurant issue and a Portland Restaurant called Laurelhurst Market was named in bon appetit's top 10.  It's steak with onion rings.  I'm planning on making the dish myself and then going to the restaurant and ordering it to compare.  I'm sure mine won't come close, but I'd like to try. 

I spent all day making this cake from a two page recipe in one of my magazines.  The ingredients cost me $24 which included eight sticks of butter and 32 ounces of chocolate.  I was determined to ignore the cost and avoid shortcuts so it would come out perfect.  However, I couldn't find a pasta machine at the store, which was required to make the ribbon for the top.  I thought I might be able to roll it out, but the chocolate just stuck to the wax paper I rolled it on.  Out of desperation I rolled out chunks of the chocolate and molded the ribbon with my hands.  As you can see, this compromised the aesthetic of the cake.  My mom told me it was beautiful, but once you see the picture of what it's supposed to look like it looks like a major fail.  This is the hardest recipe I have ever followed and I am determined to get it right, so I ordered a pasta machine from Target.com (they only have them online), but I got free shipping and maybe it will one day inspire me to make fresh pasta.  Another thing I would do differently is to save more of the butter cream filling from the layers to smooth out the sides of the cake.  The recipe only says to save 1/2 cup, but the cakes end up cooking with a little hump on the top, which makes the stack have huge gaps, leading to the lumpy sides on my version of the cake.  I spent about eight hours making this cake and lots of money and now most of it is sitting in the fridge, because it is so rich that we can only eat a sliver of it at a time.  Was it worth it?  The jury is still out on that one.