You're Smokin' hot

I found this message website a while ago. It is so much fun. If you haven't yet done anything for Valentine's Day (or even if you have) this is a great last minute Valentine. You can send smoke signals or crop circles (or a few other things) that say anything you want, via email, to anyone you want. You can go to a google map and the smoke signals will come from your own chimney or the crop circles can be in your own back yard or anyplace else you want them to come from. It's free and immediate. If you want to see mine it is here. Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to get it to show on my blog. To send your own message go to MapMSG.com - Smoke signals

My Heart Pops For You

This pop corn is sooo yummy. I made a batch tonight and put it is small cellophane bags. I'm giving it to the girls at church tomorrow. You could put a note with it that says, "My Heart pops for you", or "Just poppin' in to say Happy Valentine's Day", or Hope your Valentine's Day is good to the last pop".

Cherry Cordial Popcorn

4 quarts popped corn

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. Cherry Flavoring Oil (available at baking supply stores, Baker's Cash & Carry)

red food coloring

molding chocolate

white molding chocolate

Keep freshly popped corn warm in large baking pan in 200 degree oven. Combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt and cream of tartar in medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Cook to 250 degrees without stirring. Remove from heat. After boiling actoin ceases, add flavoring and color. Add soda and stir in quickly but thoroughly. Pour at once while foamy over wamr popcorn: mix gently to coat popcorn. Spread on parchment paper and breatk in pieces when cool. Melt molding chocolate 1 minute at a time at 30% power in microwave until barely melted. Drizzle over popcorn. Melt white chocolate (same as chocolate) Drizzle over popcorn.

Enjoy.

Glamour Gloves

These made me laugh. I actually got these for my birthday from some friends. But I think they would make a cute Valentine as well. It would be great for your mother or sister or daughter of best friend. It probably wouldn't be great for your husband, unless you are my daughter, who gives her husband things she wants. She gave him an ice cream scoop with a note that said, "Here's the scoop, I love you".

Buy a pair of rubber gloves (preferably pink or purple). Glue a piece of feather boa around the top. Use a good glue that is flexable and water proof, like E6000.

You can put a note with it that says something like, "I can count on you for a helping hand", or "Hands down, You're a great friend".

These almost make me excited to go scrub the toilet.

I HEART Pizza

I made this pizza for my family for dinner tonight. It turned out pretty cute, and was fairly easy to do. All I did was fold each pepperoni in half, and used kitchen shears (or you could just use regular scissors) and cut out the hearts. My boys LOVED helping me make it.


Here is a closer look:

Or, if you HEART pizza, but don't want to make your own, you could just buy one. A lot of pizza franchises make heart shaped pizzas for Valentine's Day. Here is a link to Pier 49 Pizza's website, in case you want to learn more.

A Token of My Love

I put four of these in my husband's coin purse with his change, over a week ago. It took him until yesterday to discover them. I think he will keep them there, with his change. I like that. Then he can be reminded of me every time he uses coins (which apparently isn't all that often).

I bought washers at Home Depot. I used 1 1/4 inch with a 3/8 inch hole. Then I used 1/8 inch metal letter stamps to write on them. I got the stamps at Harbor Freight (if there isn't one near you, you can order them online). It took a little "Good 4 All My Love". One says, "Hug Token" and "Good 4 a Hug". One says "Kiss Token" and "Good 4 A Kiss". The last one says "I Love You" and has our names on the back.

(Sorry the picture is so blurry

Heart Brownies

I think these brownies are pretty cute. I guess you could just use a regular cookie cutter and cut a pan of brownies into heart shapes. But I used a Wilton brownie cutter. It is a rectangular cutter that is divided into two hearts. It is taller than regular cookie cutters so you can use it to cut thicker brownies or maybe even cake. Because of the shape of it, there is very little waste from the pan of brownies. But I guess the waste isn't really wasted anyway. At my house someone will always gladly eat the scraps. I got 22 brownies out of a 9x13 pan. I got mine at JoAnn's using a 50% off coupon, so it cost about $3.00.

Ice Cream Cake

I recently found a set of cake pans that I think is really cool. You can make a cake with them and put a filling in the middle (I used Raspberry Ice Cream). The filling is in the shape of a heart. This cake was surprisingly easy to make and looks pretty impressive. I used a white cake (one cake mix was perfect), but I think a chocolate cake would actually work better (the darker edges of the cake wouldn't show as much). I froze the cake before I put the filling between the layers. That way I didn't have to worry about smashing the cake. Then I frosted the cake with whipped cream. It was pretty yummy!

It is a Wilton pan. I bought the pan at Michael's and I used a 50% off coupon, so it only cost $7.50.

My daughters made these cute minature heart cakes using the DeMarle flower pan. They cut the full size cake into quarters, making 4 small hearts. The hearts end up being about 5 inches across. They decorated each heart cake differently. Cut cakes are much easier to frost if you freeze them before you frost them and frost them while they are still frozen (the crumbs from the cut edges don't get mixed in with the frosting as badly). The roses on one of the cakes was made out of fruit-by-the-foot. The instructions are here. The others were just decorated with colored sugar, cake crumbs or Valentine sprinkles. But you could decorate them any way you want. They would be fun to give to your friends or neighbors, but they are a little too large for single servings. DeMarle products are great. They are silicone based pans, but unlike other silicone pans, they brown things nicely. Things don't stick to them, so cakes come out of the pans really well. If you are interested in purching this pan (or other DeMarle/Silpat products) you can contact a representative at rosaliefullmer@gmail.com .

Scratch and Win Valentines

These Valentines are like the lottery tickets that you scratch off the silver spot to see if you are a winner. But with these, every heart is a winner. It's just that some might be better than others. We printed the cards, including the prizes, on the computer. Then we covered the row of prizes with clear packing tape (you could use clear contact paper). Then paint over the prize answers with a mixture of 1 part liquid dish detergent (I used Dawn) and 2 part silver paint. It may take more than one coat. I think I was in too big of a hurry so mine turned out a little bumpy (the dish detergent makes the paint bubbly). It would probably be smoother if you could do several thin coats of paint. Make sure you print "Scratch One" under the hearts. I made some coupons and some plain cards. You can say what ever you want on them, but, mine said:

Good for 1 Movie (Your choice), (My choice), (Forget the movie, lets do something else).

Good for 1 (Kiss), (Chocolate Kiss), (Evening Full Of Kisses).

Good for 1 Massage (Shoulders), (Feet), (Full Body).

Good for Dinner at Choose 3 different restaurants.

Do You (Love Me, Too), (Want a Kiss), (Wanna Dance).

I Dream About (Only You), (Growing Old With You), (You, Even When I'm Awake).

You + Me = (Bliss), (A Perfect Pair), (Happily Ever After).

You Make Me (Happy), (Smile), (Complete).

Heart Attack in the Bathroom

I know lots of people put paper hearts around the room or the door or the yard to heart attack someone. But I have found that the jell cling stickies are great for heart attacking the bathroom. You can buy them at Target or Shopko or at the dollar store (I've even seen them at Home Depot). They stick to the tile or the glass and they peel right off when you want to take them down. I have used the same ones for several years. They just look so cute. CAUTION: DO NOT PUT THESE ON ANY NATURAL STONE OR ANY POROUS SURFACE (like caulk). THE COLOR MAY BLEED INTO THE STONE! (unless you like the look of permanent little red heart shadows around your tub). They work great on ceramic tile and glass

Holiday Towels

Last week I bought a quarter yard of Valentine fabric. I matched it to some hand towels. Then I cut the fabric into 3 inch strips, cut the strips about an inch longer than the width of the towels, folded under 1/4th inch on each side and sewed it about 3 inches from the end of the towels. They were very easy to do. I think they turned out rather nicely and they are different than the ready made hand towels you can buy at the store.

This year I started Valentines a little early because I had a great idea. My husband Loves KrispyKreme doughnuts, and they have heart shaped doughnuts so I thought I would do something with them for valentines, but the closest KrispyKreme is in Orem. I was going to drive down to Orem to get them for a surpise, but Craig took me down to Provo yesterday for my birthday, so I really had a hard time justifying driving down when I was just down there yesterday, so I started early.

I gave them to him and I used the doughnuts to spell love, I just printed off the "L" and the "E" on my printer and cut them out. I told him, "I Do-nut know what I would do without your love."

You're my Sweetie Pie

This is my contribution to our annual neighborhood Valentine exchange. I bought Hostess Pies and put notes with it that say, "You're the apple of my eye. I'm so glad you're my Sweetie Pie" or "I love you berry much. I'm so glad you're my sweetie pie". I think when I give it to my husband I will give him a real pie. It's a lot of fun to see all the ideas that other people come up with. Thank you, thank you for all your ideas.

Chocolate Puzzle Heart

Baker's Cash & Carry has a cute chocolate mold for a Heart Puzzle. You can put a note with it that says, "You hold a piece of my heart", or, "You complete me", or, "I fall to pieces without you" or "I love you to pieces". If you would rather just buy it ready made, it is available here complete with a gift tag. She has other cute Valentine candy, as well.

Personalized M&M's

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the wedding reception of some friends of ours. They had a candy bar at their reception. One of the candies at the bar was M&M's with their picture on them. They were so cute. Last week, my daughters took their families to Las Vegas. While they were there, they visited the M&M store. Their kids were able to pick out the color of M&M's and choose what they wanted printed on them. Then they got to watch as they were printed. They brought a cup of M&M's personalized just for me and my husband. How sweet was that?! These would be really cute as a gift for your honey or even your kids. This is a movie of my grandkids choosing the M&M's for me.

The people on the M&M's in the picture above are our friends who got married. The rest of the M&M's are the ones my kids got for me. You can order your own M&M's here.