Homemade Sugar Scrub

(A Valentine's Day present for you...and for me!) 

If you're looking for a nice way to pamper yourself today or a gift to give for Valentine's Day (or Random Acts of Kindness week), then there is still time to make this SUPER easy sugar scrub! The recipe for this easy scrub with the cute (and cheesy) printable are my Valentine's gift to you! :)

The recipe though isn't here, it's over at the Happy Housewife! And, that is a Valentine's present for me!

 

I am the new DIY contributor and this homemade sugar scrub is my first post, which Toni (the fabulous Happy Housewife) had go live on Valentine's Day! Fun all the way around!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

i heart my boys (and the color red)!

With it being Valentine's day & i heart faces' "RED" challenge in support of Go Red for Women,  I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share one of my favorite photos of my favorite little guys. And, one that happens to be well, very RED (as in "GO BIG RED")! 

This was taken on my little point & shoot, before I embarked on my real dslr photography endeavors. After taking a photography workshop this weekend from Val Westover (which by the way was totally fantastic and I have so much to share with you, including a very cool giveaway in the works), I now know some "technical" things I could have done differently, but that's ok as it's just priceless to us! 
Their matching hats, the lollipop, the way they are looking at each other...swoon! But, the thing the makes the photo all the more special to us (aside from it being on the grounds of our college campus where we met), is that we didn't pose them that way! Big brother did that all on his own and thought it was "fun" to have their hats touching...melts.my.heart!


Whose faces do you "heart" this Valentine's Day? What's your favorite picture of them?

Valentine's Oreo Truffles Take 2...

Remember the oreo truffles that I found out about this past week? Well, they were so good, we decided to make a big batch to give out for some Valentine's sweet treat gifts. So, we headed out to Smart & Final to get our ingredients! 

On a side note, while we were there I was SO excited to find a large section (or large compared to all the other stores I've been in here) of canning products...

 and, this totally outstanding price for kiwis! 8 for $1.49--less than 20 cents each! Fantastic!

 Ok...back to Valentine's day treats. Here's what we got:

 ...some pretty sprinkles to put on our truffles, cream cheese & oreos of course. Also, we got a loaf of french bread for our special Valentine's dinner tomorrow night! And, we picked up some round containers to package some of the truffles up for my husband to take to work. Not as cute as the Valentine's boxes from before, but much more practical since with these, I can use for a variety of things and decorate as appropriate! And they were inexpensive too! If you need any kind of food storage containers, Smart & Final is a great place to go!

 I really liked Smart & Final's oreo packages too! Perfect for this recipe. There are sleeves of about 15 each. The oreo truffles recipe calls for about 30 cookies to one package of cream cheese. So, having sleeves of cookies like this is perfect!
Big brother was very excited to help with making them--especially the cookie chopping! 

 This time, we shaped a few like hearts and used red & white candy/chocolate coating to coat the oreo mixture in. They're not quite as fancy looking as the first truffle go-round, but I guess that's what happens when you have a little helper in the kitchen! And, that's just fine by me!
Now, we have multiple tins full of truffles waiting to be given as gifts. Grammy & Grampy will be getting a package tonight when the babysit while we go out with friends. Those friends will be getting a package and some will be going to Mr. Mom Endeavors' work tomorrow! Fun!

These are such a deliciously easy treat to make that could be adapted so well for any holiday! 

How cute would these be in green or shaped like shamrocks for St. Patty's Day? Or maybe like eggs for Easter! My mind is spinning with possibilities! 
*To see if there is a Smart & Final in your area, visit their website for locations.

Disclosure: I was compensated by Smart & Final as a member of Smart & Final Smarties and Collective Bias, but all opinions and experiences are my own. For more information, read my disclosure policy.

Strawberry Valentine's Cake

This recipe is a Valentine's family tradition! My grandma made it for my mom and uncles...my mom made it for us...and now I've made it a few times too! The original ingredients call for a white cake mix. For some strange reason (it's not something I remember buying and don't usually), we had a strawberry cake mix, so I went with that this time!

Ingredients:
Cake
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1 box (small) strawberry jello
- 1 C chopped strawberries (can us frozen or fresh)
- 1/2 oil (I use 1/4 oil, 1/4 applesauce)
- 1/4 water
- 4 eggs
Frosting:
- 1/2 C butter
- 1 8oz. block of cream cheese-
- 1/2 C strawberries
- 4 C powdered sugar


Directions:
- mix cake mix and jello (dry)

- add all wet ingredients and mix until combined

- poor into heart-shaped pans and bake at 325 for 40-45 mins. Let cool completely before frosting!

- while the cake bakes, mix up your frosting. cream butter & cream cheese together first (this works better if they are both at room temp). then add strawberries & powdered sugar until the desired consistency & taste is reached.

*note: this will not be like thick buttercream frosting...it's somewhere in-between frosting & glaze. So, it will be somewhat runny.

- frost your cake & garnish with fresh strawberries if desired. Don't put the strawberries on until you plan on serving--if you put them on too far in advance (day/night before, they will start getting runny).

Voila! Now serve & enjoy your very pink, moist, and sweet strawberry cake! 

Does your family have any Valentine's food traditions or favorite sweet treats?

Fun Heart-Shaped Foods

So, it seems as though there are a million ideas out there for cute & yummy treats around Valentine's Day--like the Valentine's truffles & strawberry cake I made. 

But, throughout the day, we can't just be eating sweet treats. So, here's a round up of some adorable heart-shaped food ideas that can be used for the WHOLE day--not just a Valentine's dessert!

Breakfast:

Why not start the day with these raspberry pancake-crepes? They look soooo good!  

Or, I bet the kiddos would LOVE these love notes in a pancake! Maybe with some yummy strawberry sauce drizzled on top?  

If pancakes aren't your thing, you could make some heart-shaped toast or heart-shaped eggs in a nest!  

Snacks:

Make some of these healthy heartbeet cookies with the kiddos!

Or, make some super cute heart apples!

Lunch/Dinner:

We all know that many pizza places make heart-shaped pizzas for Valentine's day (and some try to make a heart-shaped pie themselves. But, had you thought to just make a regular pizza with some heart-shaped pepperonis? So cute!! 

Serve up your pizza with a salad complete with some heart-shaped beets, some heart-shaped carrots some cupid heart tomatoes!

Or, if you don't go the pizza route, maybe a side of hot-pink rice would be fun!!

Such great ideas! I think some of them would be fun to do for an anniversary too!

Do YOU make anything special for Valentine's Day? Please share or leave a link in the comments! 

*Linked to some of these fantastic sites and the virtual Valentine's Party

Valentine Oreo Truffles

Oh my! These oreo truffles are delicious, rich, and one of the easiest treats I've ever made!

This was our Valentine's "craft" at our MOPS meeting today and it was perfect! Simple & yummy! 

Aside from the taste, the best thing about these treats is the easy prep. Want to surprise your husband tonight? Have a party or get together to go to today? No problem--these can be made in NO time!

Ingredients:

Oreos, cream cheese, bakers chocolate/candy coating (& sprinkles if you want). that's it!

To make a full batch:

- Crush about 35 full oreo cookies--with cream and all (either in a food processor or the old baggie & rolling pin method)

- Mix the crumbs with an 8oz. brick of cream cheese

(we each made a small batch today--enough for four each. To do so we used about 1/4 C of crumbs mixed with a small section of the brick of cream cheese)

 

 - Continuing mixing until areas of white are mostly gone & all crumbs have been incorporated.
- roll into small balls (these are rich, so don't need to be big)

- roll into small balls (these are rich, so don't need to be big)
- dip into melted chocolate, knock the drips off, and place onto wax paper. Decorate with some fun holiday sprinkles if you'd like, then put them in the fridge to harden.

 - put them in a cute little Valentine's box or other fun packaging and you have an adorable & yummy gift!

Other fun ideas with these: 
- use different "flavors" of oreos
- use the colored chocolates/candy melts
- shape the oreo-cream cheese mixture into other shapes, like hearts! :)


Have you made these? Any special/fun thing you do with them? 

*Linked to some of these fantastic sites and the virtual Valentine's Party

Family Love Letters in a Valentine's Mailbox!

Have you checked out the dollar bins at Target recently?  If so, then you might have seen these little cuties:

They come in white, pink, and (obviously) red. It's no surprise that we opted for the red one. Eventually, I think it would be adorable for each family member to have their own Valentine's mailbox. But since the kiddos are still so young (little brother only 10 months), I decided a family mailbox would work better for now. While I certainly have no complaints about romantic things and would have no problem with roses, diamonds, chocolates this Valentine's Day (or any day for that matter), I would like really like to not just focus on that romantic love. Instead, I think love letters/notes for the whole family is a great plan!

So this little mailbox is perfect for not only teaching big brother about mail, but sharing a little love with each other. First though--the mailbox needed to be spruced up just a bit.

 

I opted for some very simple decorations. A few minutes of cricut-cutting & modge-podging later, and the mailbox is a bit more cheery.

And, after all, "A cheerful heart is good medicine"!

 To keep our hearts cheerful, I've printed off some different items for our love notes! I'm keeping them in a little basket, then everyone can choose what they'd like to put in the "mail" and who to "send" them too. 

Here are some a few of the items we're using for our family Valentine's that you can download too!...

With little boys in the house, dinosaurs are very popular! So, these are din-o-mite and you can even personalize them with text and photos! :) 

I think it will be fun to ask big brother for reasons he loves everyone and this card from Beauty & Bedlam is perfect!

I also made a bunch of different hearts like this that we can color, cut out, write on, and "mail". Feel free to download the file--you should be able to then resize, cut & paste, etc.

*Linked to some of these fantastic sites and the virtual Valentine's Party

What are some ways that your family celebrates Valentine's Day?