And Then I Made Some Cards...

I just got a whole bunch of pictures back from Snapfish, so I wanted to send some pictures of Belly Boo to her great grandparents as a little surprise.  I also used this as a chance to bust out my new Cricut and make some cards myself.  Here is how they turned out!

I Got a Cricut

So we know that I love to scrapbook.  A lot.

And I've got a whole slew of supplies - ya know, paper, stickers, stamps, but the only thing I didn't have at my fingertips was a Cricut.

Well, for my birthday, the hub's mom gave me a gift card for me to get a Cricut when it goes on sale.  So basically I've spent the last 4 weeks checking the JoAnn Fabrics website and watched to see if it ever went on sale.

Regular price is $199.  I watched it hang out at $99, then it went up to $120, and FINALLY on Monday when I checked it was only $79.

So it's mine!  All mine!  And the first word that I cut out with my new Cricut?  

Hi.

Oh so original.

photo via

Weekend

My "little" brother came out to spend the weekend with us.  Belly Boo was in heaven all weekend long and would squeal in delight when she went into the living room in the morning and discover that he was still in her house and on the sofa.  It was so cute.

For those of you that don't know, my brother and I look a lot alike.

I think that's why Belly Boo likes him so much.  Speaking of Belly Boo, I got some cuteeeee pictures of her while it was nice and sunny out last week.

Adorable.

And right now we're sitting pretty with six inches of snow outside, which is really hard to believe and accept considering that Thursday and Friday it was 70 degrees outside.

Uncle Blake

Man oh man...Belly Boo just seems to light up when her uncle is around! :-)

Fondant Adventures

I got really adventurous and decided to try making my own fondant for covering cakes.  I wasn't exactly sure how it would go because every recipe that I found was either too complicated or didn't get good reviews.  I finally found a recipe that I liked and went for it.

It was so easy.  So, so so easy.

After my red velvet cakes were cooled, I dirty iced them.  Which, by the way is seriously....dirty.  Then I rolled out my fondant and covered each of my little cakes.  I was surprised how well it was going.  In the back of my mind I figured it would be a disaster.

But the cakes needed some color...so I dyed some of the fondant light pink (for me) and red (for the hubs).  I put cute little heart cut outs on the top of each cake and rolled out some little fondant balls to put around the base of the cake.

Finished product:

Sweets for my Sweetie

Even though Valentine's Day is over, I made my hubs some yummy chocolate treats instead of buying him chocolate...because really, what's the fun in just buying chocolate?

Here's what you need:
chocolate wafers (I used dark chocolate)
wax paper
candy molds (I used an silicon ice cube tray)
assorted toppings (I used mini marshmallows and peanuts)


Start by melting your wafers.  I used a double boiler method but you can always speed up the process by melting the chocolate in your microwave.

Once my chocolate was melted, I filled my ice cube tray with chocolate and set them in the fridge.  Then I put wax paper on a plate and arranged marshmallows in little piles.

Then I drizzled chocolate over the marshmallows and chopped up some peanuts to put on top of the little candies.

After all the candies had set, I packaged them up so they looked cute enough to give to my sweetie!

Something New...

trying out bloglovin...let's see how this works!

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My Valentine

Unfortunately I can't be with my Valentine on Valentine's Day (bummer) but we had a lovely little date on Saturday night and I'll be making him a yummy dinner when he returns later this week.  Yay!

To my Valentine:

You are the most caring and patient person that I know. 

 I love how goofy we can be together, and even love how you tease me all the time.  

I like how we can learn something new from each other, and how helpful you are.

You are my sweet heart.  

My better half (seriously).    

My best friend.

And I love you, a little bit more every day.

Happy Valentine's Day, love. 

<3

It's a Valentine's Day Mix Tape

Though I'm not so much a big old fan of Valentine's Day (even though I'm guaranteed to have a Valentine from now until eternity) I am a sucker for a good love song.  And since I love music, I figured I would share a little mix tape with you.  

Track One:  Halloween by Matt Pond PA (amazing lyrics. just love it)

Track Two:  Love, Love, Love (Love, Love) by As Tall As Lions

Track Three:  West Coast by Coconut Records

Track Four:  Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional (even though this video is for the newer version I'm a fan of the original acoustic version.  so much better!)

Track Five: The Luckiest by Ben Folds (duh, this is a given)

Track Six:  Simple, Starving to be Safe by Daphne Loves Derby

Track Seven:  Smile Upon Me by Passion Pit

Track Eight: Gravity by Embrace (these guys are soooo good!)

Track Nine:  Passenger Seat by Death Cab for Cutie

Track Ten:  Come Away with Me by Norah Jones

Track Eleven:  Sleep by Azure Ray

Track Twelve:  If You Can't Sleep by She & Him

Track Thirteen:  She Paints Me Blue by Something Corporate

Track Fourteen:  Time for Love by the Shout Out Louds

There ya go.  Fourteen songs for February 14th.  Enjoy!

Longest Week Ever?

Does anyone else feel like this has been the longest week ever?

Maybe it's because the hubs hasn't had any snow days at home with us this week?
Or maybe I'm spending too much time planning and re-planning an awesome post Valentine's Day dinner?
Or because I haven't been sleeping so great this week.  And Belly Boo is sick.

That's probably it.

Let me think, anything new....oh!  Yes!  Belly Boo blows kisses now.  My mom taught her how to do it a few weeks ago and it has totally been making my day.

So adorable!  Also adorable?  Our cat, Rev, who decided to snuggle up in my arms and sleep like a baby.

So this weekend we're going to good old Lancaster County.
And the hubs and I are going out on an early Valentine's Day date.  Can't wait!

Dreaming

I know that I'm (probably) dreaming, but I would love, love, love to open up a bakery one day.

As of right now, that's one thing that our cutesy little down doesn't have.

And then I could make tasty cupcakes and pretty cakes for everyone to enjoy.


But until that actually happens (read: we win the lottery) I will keep on dreaming and just make goodies for my friends.

Feb. 4

Honestly, I'm having a hard time believing that it is already February.  I'm not quite sure when this happened (okay, it happened 4 days ago), but this year needs to slow down already.

Let's see...what happened this week?

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had an icky ice storm, so the hubs had two days off of school and got to spend them at home with us!  I made a big batch of chicken noodle soup on Monday night and we've been eating that all week.  So good!

Major Ice!

From this storm we also had a tree branch casualty.  It fell onto the roof right over Belly Boo's room.  None of us heard it fall.  Luckily with the help of a neighbor we got the branch off of the roof!

I also found some projects that I want to work on for this month.  Here are the links:

• Mini Quilt: Courthouse Steps from Purl Soho 
• Valentine's Day: Fabric Window Valentines from Purl Soho
• Bathroom Curtains
• Up-cycling some candle stick holders we have around the house

and I would love to re-purpose an old wooden coat holder that we have laying around.  I think it would look really cute, especially with these as knobs.  

I also need to plan something special for Valentine's Day!  

So much to do in such a short month!  Lots of creative posts to come!