hearts day

Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you haven’t seen Jennifer’s print you can download for free – check it out here!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. Love to you all!!

Here are some snippets from our week and day (out and about today!)…

More brownies, with a little extra love…

heart pancakes. of course

Drove an hour to go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Oh yes we did.

Sitting by the double-decker carousel while we ate ~ priceless.
And nauseating.

Kind lady who gave us tokens for all my kids to ride ~ a Valentine’s Day angel! (especially since hubs despises paying major dollar for a barely two minute ride… He was gonna splurge today, but didn’t have to!) Thank you sweet lady that we’ll never see again! You made our day!

the cute straws (that are grossing me out)

This is a quirky post today. Completely off topic from anything – neither here nor there.

But………..

Am I the only one who gets grossed out by these straws after they’ve been used as –

well,

STRAWS??!!?

The gag reflex seriously kicks in a bit, I must say, when I have to grab these “suckers” out of my kids’ cups to throw them away. They not only take on the color of what’s being slurped – but they get mushy and lose the cuteness factor pretty much immediately.

Even hubs threw one in his smoothie the other morning as he headed out to work – took a couple sips, and got this look on his face like “Yeah, this isn’t going to work.”

Is it funny/strange/odd/crazy that this bugs me so??

Oh well.

So I guess this means I’m sticking to using these paper tubes as crafty only items now.
And I’m fine with that.

Which reminds me ~ link me any cute straw crafts you’ve created or seen. Gracias.

Happy hearts week!

book suggestions?

I need some fresh book ideas for my {soon to be} thirteen year old daughter
and my oldest son – age ten.

Hope is an old soul who loooooooves to read. Anything from ancient classics to new-on-the-scene. She can roll with any of it.

Robert, on the other hand, needs something to catch his attention in a big way. Once he starts reading he’s fine. But sometimes motivating him is tricky. He’s my constant thinker/creative mind.

Thank you, friends!!

more Knits

I’ve been knitting away on some mini rags for the littles.

They measure approximately 6 x 6 – which I found to be the perfect size after tinkering a bit with my larger sized dish rags. These are purely for wiping hands and messy faces at mealtimes.

Great way to use up the ends of my yarn rolls! That and I’m going on a napkin buying strike. I absolutely despise buying napkins. We go through them like crazy and my three year old literally wipes his mouth once with one and balls it up, never to be used the rest of the meal.

So the mini’s work great. The kids love to pick out their favorite patterns/colors and they can’t wad them into balls!! I dampen them a bit, especially on pasta nights. And it’s so nice not having to use my big rags for cleaning them off. They’re super soft, machine wash and dry, and really could be used as sweet little bathing squares for babies. That would make a cute shower gift!

I was asked about the knit necklaces from last week…
These are merely a two-stitch knit for whatever length you desire. Cast on two stitches and knit those like crazy. With a simple knit like this the yarn naturally forms a twist. Bind off. Tie knots in both ends, then tie together or fasten withe a cutie bow. For my youngest daughter and her friends a 20 – 22 inch length is plenty long for tying into a necklace.

Feel free to ask if you have anymore questions! And if you don’t knit but know someone who does, have them show you some basics. Very doable.

Next on my list… DIY cloth napkins : )

TheShabbyCreekCottage
FlamingoToes
TheDIYDreamer

Sweet Treats

Don’t forget your furry friends this Valentine’s Day! Yes, I’m talking pets.

We made these simple treats for our Wheaton terrier during the Christmas season. A little special something for her because, after all, our pets are family members and deserve unique “I love you’s” too. : )

Yogurt Treats

*32 oz container of plain, or vanilla yogurt
(we use Stonyfield organic)
*1/2 – 1 cup peanut butter
*Honey (op.)

Mix yogurt with peanut butter in a medium bowl. Add a tablespoon or two of honey.
(We go heavier on the PB because our Emma looooooves it!)

Dollop into your favorite molds, or ice cube trays. Freeze.
Pop out and store in a ziplock bag in freezer – OR – toss a batch into a cute container with a fun bow on top for your pet’s BFF!!
———-
*Always check your breed’s allergy tendencies – most breeds of dogs are fine to eat these ingredients – yogurt is very good for a lot of breeds, but check for yourself because I am no expert!

We used heart molds. The approx 2 inch sized hearts were the perfect size. We even packaged some in a Chinese takeout container for Emma’s favorite friend, Annie (gma and gpa’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniel). Both girls loved these treats on Christmas Day! We still have extras in our freezer from that batch. Bonus!

And definitely let them lick the spoons!!

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Linking with…
Monday Funday
twelve0eight
TheShabbyCreekCottage along with a huge link party:
Karly from Buns in my Oven
Tiffany from Eat at Home
Liz from Hoosier Homemade
Myra from My Blessed Life
Amy from MomAdvice
Kellie from Nest of Posies
Amy from Positively Splendid
Lisa from The Pennington Point
Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage
Heather from WhipperBerry
Clean&Scentsible
The36thAvenue
My entry into The 36th AVENUE sponsored by [Appliances Online]

Knit Bits

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’m working on lately (aside from the blog update coming soon! – oh, and house re-organizing stuff, and that thing we do called homeschooling, minor details ;) lol)…

Some cuties for my Cuties : )

More to come on these soon!
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Happy to be linking up with StudioJRU

Monday Funday
thediydreamer

twelve0eight

Pretzel Dippers

Using up those Christmas sprinkles!!

PRETZEL DIPPERS

Melt 2 cups milk chocolate chips with 1 Tbs butter in microwave on high, for one minute
– then in 20 sec intervals, as needed – (stirring each time you check choc) until melted and smooth.

Break pretzel rods in half and dip broken ends in chocolate. Sprinkle sprinkles (ha!) liberally over dipped rods with your hands, turning rods as you sprinkle.

**I mixed all my leftover Christmas sprinkles together for a fun, festive mix of stars, trees, candy canes and circles! Use a valentine mix of sprinkles next month, green sprinkles for March, pastels for Easter (white choc would be pretty for the springtime dippers) and so on…

Place on waxed paper to harden completely.

Happy dipping!

These harden quickly so I was able to easily make these 2 hours before they needed to be at church for the kids’ AWANA snack. Easy peasy.

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Linking Up:

This week’s giveaway on TT&J: a $250 Target gift card from GroopDealz!!

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