Valentine Hot Cocoa Bombs

Mallary kept wanting to make hot chocolate bombs, and I finally ordered molds after Christmas. They came pretty fast and we made some the next day.  I forgot I hadn't posted that video of her making them... I'll get on that... 

I got the idea to do a Yoda one from a Yoda cake I saw, and finally decided to try it.  I posted the first one I made farther down in the post, and it's pretty funny.  Contrary to popular belief, I have plenty of fails when I experiment. These aren't perfect, but they are still a fun idea!

The eyes need some work, but they are better than the others below.  

These are the molds we used:

  

To make Yoda's clothes I added some chocolate chips to the white melting chocolate. 

I have a big box of these I keep in my pantry for projects like this:

    

Of course I used my favorite hot chocolate!

Bahahaha! This was my first Yoda.  He's so funny looking! 

I used white chocolate hot cocoa because I knew it would keep a cool green color with the melts.  The kids liked the green hot chocolate, and honestly it tasted good!

Then, I thought... these kind of look like golden snitches!  I tried dying the melts with yellow food coloring and using a gold spray over them.  I also tried spraying the gold into the molds then adding the chocolate. Similar results despite the different methods. 

Just a little fun Valentine gift or activity!  Enjoy!

Show the love

 

Honestly, today as I put out these Valentine envelopes I made 11(!) years ago, I really wasn't feeling the love... 

When I made these, I had grand ideas of family members leaving kind things for each other. I thought John and I would leave notes or treats for the kids every day during the month of February.  I'm just a few days late putting them out, and I'm honestly not feeling very generous in giving things to my bickering, loud, squealing children right now.  (AND, I'm a little behind because Everett and Bailee still don't have one. I'll get right on that...)

Though, when we sat down to dinner tonight after a less than thrilling day, Everett said, "Mom, there's a card and candy in your envelope." He had written a cute note on an index card and found some leftover Christmas candy and put it in my envelope.  So, he's sweet, and well, I guess that's the whole point of them.  In the past, when John left things in the envelope for all of us, he would always sign them "From, Romeo."  The kids always got a big kick out of it and they actually thought there was a Valentine's elf named, Romeo. 

There's a link to my tutorial for these in the first sentence of this post.  Or, if you don't want to make some, you can order some to set out for your family.  There are some fun ones on Amazon that you can order and they can double as a craft project for your kids!  I figured since a lot of kids still aren't in school, it would be extra fun for families to do this.  

Here's some super cute ideas I found on Amazon:

Here's some big felt envelopes already made!

How cute would these be with names added to them?!  You could put them on kids doors, or add ribbon like mine and hang them over chairs. 

Oh, my word! How cute would this be?!? Each family member can have an envelope and it would double as decor! Genius! 

Or, you can buy the whole kit that comes with Valentine's and the box! One stop shop!

Happy love month!  If you've got good ideas of how your family shows the love during February please share!

I love you this much

I've added to my Valentine's Decorations! 

I saw this little saying a while back, and then couldn't find anywhere to buy it, so I just made my own in Microsoft Word with Clip art.  Fancy, I know.  But, it just makes me laugh.  Luckily, I had an extra red frame lying around with no picture in it. 

You could totally  make your own - but if you want a copy of it, email me at cookcreateconsume@gmail.com, and I'll send it to you. 

I loved putting out my Valentine Decorations I made last year:

Felt Valentine Mail Pouch

Felt Heart Valentine Garland

Heart Yarn Wreath

Valentine Yarn Wreath

I'm going to be honest, this was not one of my favorite projects. Sometimes, I have ideas for things, that just don't work how I envision them working. The final product is cute, but it was a pain to make. This took me a long time to make, because I kept getting frustrated and would put it down and do a little more on it another day.

I thought I could get away with just using an old piece of cardboard, and cut it into a heart shape, instead of buying a heart shaped foam wreath... let's just say it made it a little complicated.

I'll go through the steps of what I did, and tell you what mistakes not to make if you do one...

STEP 1: Get a sturdy piece of cardboard or foam board (NOT the kind that bends, like I used...) and trace a heart, and cut it out. (Or just buy a foam heart wreath...) Then, I folded mine in half and traced the inside heart, and cut it out.


STEP 2: Take your yarn and start wrapping. This was the annoying part - the points and the curves of my shape were hard to wrap. I ended up using hot glue to aid me in my efforts. Those parts ended up being thicker, making me have to do lots of layers of yarn to even it out. If you don't mind doing that, then you might not mind this project, but I thought it was a pain. Especially, because my cardboard started bending, making the yarn not wrap evenly. You can see in the picture below, I just gave up on the bottom point, and covered it with felt roses.


STEP 3: Embellish it with your choice of embellishments. I made some felt rosettes, and hot glued them on.


STEP 4: Hang on your door, and enjoy the results of your hard work!!

Moral of the story: Use a foam wreath, or if you use sturdy cardboard be willing to do lots of layers of yarn.

Felt Valentine Garland

I wanted to make a felt heart garland for Valentine's Day last year, and like everything else in my life, never got around to it.

I had planned on making some this year, but then decided I wanted to make something different. Though, still I may make one next year...

I was perusing the Valentine isle at Hobby Lobby, and came across these little babies, and knew my garland would be made! It was actually a hard decision to narrow down to these, because they had A LOT of cute options. Felt already cut out! So simple! So cheap! So perfect! They were 30% off of 1.99, and my garland only took two bags!


I threaded my needle with fishing wire, and just took my needle through the sides and middle of the felt top of the heart. So easy!


This garland was made in a matter of minutes! So easy! I love quick projects!!


I still haven't decorated the mantle yet... but the garland sure is cute!!

Did you even notice the new wall color?

We painted over the orange! Posts on paint to come!

Heart Shaped Beignets - UPDATED POST SCRIPT ADDED

Last year, I made these heart shaped doughnuts as part of my Valentine's Day breakfast post, but didn't think they were anything so wonderful. When I saw this recipe for New Orleans Beignets in February's Southern Living magazine, I knew I would try it (in heart shapes for Valentine's Day, of course). I liked this recipe much better!! Of course, I had to make a dark chocolate sauce (basically a thick fondue) to serve them with to make them more yummy.

They didn't take long to make at all! The longest part is letting them chill.

Get the recipe here.

The trickiest part for me was getting the oil temperature right. I'm too lazy to get out a thermometer (I know...), so my first few were very dark on the outside, and doughy on the inside. It took some practice getting them right.

And, that, my friends, is why it's going to take me forever to lose my baby weight!!! Enjoy!!

POST SCRIPT: I forgot to tell you that this makes a ton! They are also delicious leaving off the powdered sugar, and just eating them covered with butter and honey.... mmmmmm! John even came up with the thought that they would be perfect for Navajo Tacos! They would be! So, with this one recipe -you can make a few meals! The recipe that keeps on giving! You're welcome.

Valentine Mail Pouch Tutorial

I have wanted to make these since last year when I spotted them on my friend's sister-in-law's blog. She has a bunch of cute ideas - I love her hand made Valentine's Decorations. See her pouch and decor HERE.

I'm planning to make February a month of love at my house, and will make a mail pouch for every member of my family. I will leave a little something in every one's pouches every day, and will encourage the rest of my family to do the same. I hope this will help my kids focus on doing something nice for each other and us, rather than fighting over toys!!

I don't really have the patience to make tutorials, but since I had to make a template for myself, I thought I might as well share. I hope you don't mind my ghetto looking tutorial! :)

To make six Valentine Mail Pouches you'll need:

Card stock to make your template

Red Felt - Enough to make six hearts

White Felt - 1 1/2 yards

Embroidery Floss for the names (I used black, but I almost wish I used white, and then outlined my envelope with red thread...)

Ribbon - For each pouch you'll need two pieces about 47 inches long (but you could use felt and velcro for the straps as well)

I used a sewing machine on this, but really you could get away with just using hot glue...

First you need to measure the backs of the chairs you plan to put the envelopes on, and decide how big you want your envelopes to be. My chairs are pretty standard, and I decided to use a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper for my template.

Let's begin!

1. Start with three pieces of card stock and label them with a number 1, 2, and 3.

2. Your #1 piece is one whole piece of card stock - that is the back of your envelope. Here are the measurements for the envelope flap, #2:

3. The measurements of the pocket, #3:

4. Cut along the black lines to have your finished template.

5. You can use the discarded piece of your #2 to make your heart template:

Fold over one side, draw the sized heart you want and cut it out.

You just want to make sure your heart fits how you want it on top of your envelope piece (#2).

6. Trace your heart template on a folded piece of red felt and cut out your hearts.

7. Write the names on the hearts and embroider them. (I just roughly stitched mine, nothing fancy)

8. Next, trace all of your pouch template pieces onto white felt and cut out all of your white pieces.

9. Start with your envelope piece (#2), and pin your heart where you want it to go, and stitch around the heart, and the sides and bottom of your envelope flap. (Make sure you take note of the distance from your needle so your envelope borders can all be the same.)

Don't do the top - you make that seam when you are completing the envelope.

10. Take your #3 piece and find the middle (5.5 inches in across, and 3 inches down), and make a mark. Take your ruler from both corners to the middle and draw the lines that you will stitch over.

11. Stitch over those lines on piece #3. (Notice I don't go all the way to the corners, so they'll match up with all of the seams.)

12. Now cut your ribbon: You'll need two pieces both 47 inches long. Seal the cut pieces of your ribbon over a candle flame to prevent fraying. You'll need to figure out how your ribbon will fit on your envelope, by seeing how long of ribbon you'll need on each side to hang over your chair. I left 13 inches of ribbon on one side from the bottom, and 25 1/2 inches from the top of the envelope. Place your ribbon 1 1/4 inches from the edges of your envelope (piece #1) and pin. Do both sides.

13. Sew up both sides of both ribbons - 4 seams. Leave the tops and bottoms un-stitched, those will be stitched when finishing the envelope.

14. Place your #3 piece on top of the back of the envelope (#1), and pin. Then stitch around it. It is the bottom piece. (Please ignore my bobbin malfunction in the top right of the picture below - I was too lazy to fix it, plus no one will see it...)

15. Now put on your envelope flap piece #3. Pin and ONLY stitch the top seam connecting it to the back of the envelope (piece #1).

See how it opens? I didn't put the bottom piece all the way to the top because I wanted to leave space there so my kids didn't have to dig so much to get anything out of the pouch.

You're all done!!! Tie on your chair and enjoy!!!

Hopefully, that made sense!

I'm so excited to use these - you have no idea!!!