Yesterday I bemoaned how all holidays seem to have become Halloween in terms of candy handouts, but you know what I wouldn't be mad at? Turning every holiday into an occasion to give/get books! It would certainly be easy with Valentine's Day - it took me all of 5 minutes to come up with 5 titles that have "love" right in them, and that are all books I love!
Is it just me, or has every holiday turned into Halloween with how much candy gets handed out to kids? Granted, Valentine's Day is also a pretty traditional candy holiday, but with enough sugar in our lives already, I'm all about changing up the classroom handouts to something else. Hendrik and I are still working on this year's - going with cute little owl erasers as the fun gifty and some suitable puns to print on the attached cards (you know - "whooo's your Valentine?" or "owl be your Valentine!"). Meanwhile, here are a couple of similar ideas we've done in the past, which I still love...
Dino Valentines: you can inexpensively get a big pack of dinosaur figurines and affix them with fun washi tape to cards printed with things like "You're dino-mite", "You're tricera-tops", and "You make my heart saur".
Wild animal Valentines: along the same lines, with little packs of plastic safari-type animals, there are lots of fun puns to be had: "I'm wild about you" and "Wild thing, you make my heart sing" are my favorites, but you could also do things like "You're grrrrreat" or "Hippo Valentine's Day".
For both of these, Pinterest has tons of free printables if you don't want to make your own design!
Earlier this week I admitted to wishlisting all things in pretty blush pink - it just feels like such a perfect late winter color. Still soft and cozy for the season, but gives one a little hope for spring to come. And with Valentine's Day so close, I couldn't help but share a few more favorite finds (since there were so many).
I've snuck pale pink into our home decor with a few accessories in the new kitchen, so when items like this vase and basket stop me in my tracks at Target, it feels legit to look... And speaking of slamming on the cart's brakes - I saw this mini backpack hanging on an end cap, and it is so luxe looking in person. Highly tempting. As are the shoes and top - even if they are also currently highly impractical.
Hope you have a weekend as lovely as all this pink!
Is it just me, or is every holiday now a time to hand out candy? I feel like with Valentine's Day we can end up with as big of a collection as Halloween - and much as I love some sweet treats, I'd kind of prefer that Hendrik not have quite that much sugar... so thank goodness for a zillion adorable (and easy!) non-candy Valentines with clever wording on Pinterest. We've done animal and dinosaur figurines, and this year, play-doh!
In past years I've used the Pinspiration as a jumping off point to design my own, but this year I really went easy with a free printable. And even easier, instead of printing on plain paper and cutting out the circles, I printed them right onto circle stickers (left over from Hendrik's birthday treats), and he was able to assemble these fun-sized play-doh jars (found relatively inexpensive packages of them at Target) for his classmates all by himself.
There really are so many great candy-free Valentines out there, and free printables to go with them - here are just a few great examples spotted on Pinterest, plus links to where you can get your hands on the supplies, if you need more easy and inexpensive ideas!
That "slappy Valentine's day" is highly amusing to me, but I don't know about preschoolers and plays on words... Maybe for a future year. Do you have any non-sweet treats up your sleeve for this Valentine's Day?
Welcome to the month of love! It's extra lovey dovey around here with our wedding anniversary on the 4th, and then of course there's Valentine's Day closely following that, when everyone can get in on the sweetness - quite literally in some cases... Here are my favorite Valentine's treats and goodies as inspired by Pinterest in years past:
Definitely want to remake that yummy party mix for this season, and then I've got some new little projects up my sleeve as well - a sweet and salty treat, and a super easy (non-candy!) preschool class Valentine idea too. Stay tuned for those next week!
I don't always wear pink, but when it's Valentine's Day, you'd better believe I do! No matter what you're up to today, it's always nice to brighten up your mid-February with this kind of color. So here are a few from the archives:
for momming or out-and-abouting
How about some vibrant pink for your everyday stuff? With some classic basics for running errands or being on mom duty - jeans, flat boots, a leather backpack - the outfit is super functional but still nice and festive. My version of choice for today given the work-from-home mom of a 3-year-old situation.
for date night
A soft pink seems like just the thing to make an outfit elegant for date night, especially when you pair it with a little alluring edge, like a leopard print and some sexy heels. We don't typically go out for Valentine's Day, given that we always have a big date night 10 days earlier for our anniversary. But this one is subtle enough that it's pretty for this occasion, but still totally wearable for other nights out the rest of the month.
for the office
And a classic work-appropriate approach of pencil skirt + button down skirt becomes Valentinesy with a pretty floral print, and of course that pink sweater again. Nice to bring a little love to the office too, if that's where you're spending your day! Sharing on New Year Styled, Trend Spin, Hello Monday, What I Wore to Work.
Valentine's Day is next week already. So how about a few picks I heart for giving to BFFs? (Or just for treating yourself - I have no problem with that.)
There's much cute red heart stuff out there to make your heart beat a little faster... bonus: most of these things are available with speedy free shipping! All perfect ideas for some Galentine's Day fun, in my opinion. And the Galentine's angle is what makes this holiday the most fun for me - well, that and making punny cards for my kid to hand out. (Though if you're into the romantic side, I recently learned about Adore Me as a site for some very well-priced lingerie, and it all comes in sets, which I'm a total sucker for - I like matching! These cute heart print undies come with a matching bra, for example.) What are you hearting?
After how much we both loved last year's DIY wild animal Valentines, I decided to do something similar this year with another of Hendrik's loves: dinosaurs.
Based on a few ideas I came across on Pinterest, I settled on a few punny captions (which it turns out 3-year-olds just do not get - ha!) and then opted for a colorful design + using washi tape to attach a mini dinosaur figurine to each one after printing sheets of 4 cards on cardstock and cutting them apart..
I think these are especially great because it's nice to give a little something to all the friends at Hendrik's class party, but who needs more sugar on Valentine's day? This is just as fun and inexpensive, with much less inducing of bouncing off the walls...
Our house cleaner left us with a lovely gift - beyond the clean house! - just before Christmas: a box full of Hershey's Hugs + Kisses. And I mean full. Hendrik's eyes and mine went super wide, for different reasons... he was thinking he'd get to eat a lot of chocolate, and I was thinking, what will we do with all of this chocolate?
Well, Hendrik has been getting to choose one of these chocolates out of the box when he does a good job of eating his dinner (which is not a daily occurrence - not always enough of a motivator, it turns out), and for my part, I'm glad that Hugs + Kisses are perfect for another holiday: Valentine's Day! For our next delivery of snacks to the LGBTQ support group on at our local college, Hendrik and I tried out these chocolate sprinkle cookies I spotted on Pinterest. Yummy, super festive for February, and a great little 3-year-old project, with unwrapping a couple dozen Hugs + Kisses.
We taste-tested one before we sent them off - they're a nice soft brownie-like cookie, and so much chocolatey goodness. Hendrik and I recommend this recipe! But still glad that we could spread the love with our box of Kisses.
Valentine's Day is more about friend/family love than date night around my house; since it's not all about the romance, I especially love a funny or punny Valentine, like the wild animal Valentines I made for Hendrik's little daycare party. If you're still hunting for the perfect sentiments, here are five other free printable Valentines with a funny twist for everyone from your Galentines to your foodie friends to your old-married-spouse:
I recently discovered two half-packages of Chex tucked away in the pantry, and when I (surprisingly) discovered they weren't stale, I decided it was time to finally try one of these "crack mix" recipes I've seen on Pinterest a million times.
To make it festive for February, I used pink and red M&Ms, which look quite nice with the melted white chocolate, and I included some red and pink sprinkles to finish it off. I highly recommend making up a batch of this to get you in the heart day spirit or to package up as little gifts. It's so fast and easy, and so so good. (Actually "addicting" is more like it. We've already gone through 2 batches, which means that's twice that Hendrik has asked for more "chex with red things [sprinkles]" and been told that mommy and daddy finished it last night... whoops.)
Have you been making any treats for this weekend's holiday? Or maybe just bought a bunch of conversation hearts? (I admit to having gone through a whole package of those as well. Addicting again!)
If you have any Pinterest successes to show off, come share in the next Pin to Present linkup, Thursday, February 25!
Hendrik is way into little animal figurines lately (you should have seen his face when we walked by the display of them at Michael's recently), so I thought it would be perfect to pull out a wild animal Valentine inspiration I pinned some time ago.
With these as an inspiration, I decided to try my own version with an animal print that has a little wilder and pinker color scheme (which I found via a Google image search). I just made a 3x5 size document and filled half of it with the animal print, and then typed the wild animal Valentine messages on the other side in coordinating colors.
After printing them out on cardstock and cutting down to size, I just punched two little holes on the print side and tied on my animals (bought in a big pack from Michael's with a 40% off coupon, but these are even cheaper and will arrive to you in just a couple of days thanks to Amazon Prime!) on with baker's twine.
Super easy all around, but even easier if you just use the downloadable version from my inspiration source! And because he's my very favorite Valentine, Hendrik's getting a whole tube of animals to himself. What are you handing out to yours this year?
p.s. while this is the first one I've actually gotten around to making, it's not the only animal figurine DIY that I've pinned. With some leftover animals from this project, I want to do one of these next...
He'd give you ALL chocolate and hugs and kisses if he could. As it is, enjoy a lovey day with your special people! (And can you believe what a difference a year makes - 2013's Valentine.)
I love to hand out a little something to my lady friends for Valentine's Day, like last year's fabric envelopes, the previous year's embellished envelopes + hair ties, or these cute heart pouches and these heart pins in times past. For this February 14 though, they're all getting lucky... with candy-filled felt fortune cookies, that is.
Projects that utilize some supplies from my neglected craft stash are always a good thing - and as I have a stack of those 29-cent felt sheets from Michael's, this was a no-brainer one to try out after I spotted it on Pinterest. They're quick enough to make during a toddler naptime, and they're foolproof enough to turn out cute enough for gifting...
I filled mine with some Valentine's colored M&Ms and fortunes that I can pretty much guarantee will come true for the recipients: "something sweet is coming your way" and "chocolate is in your future."
Aren't they festive and fun for a little something different from your usual Valentine's? And here are some other cute little felt gifts I spotted (that can be made last minute - they're all quickies!) if you're looking to give a little love token to some ladies in your life.
I'm excited to introduce a special edition of the pin to present series today, a swap with Megan of Megan Spotted of Pinterest-inspired Valentine's projects. Megan is a fellow Cincinnati-area lady, and her blog's theme of sharing great things she's spotted fits perfectly with the "saw this on Pinterest and did it!" purpose of my series. So today Megan is sharing my XOXO hand towels (inspired by this pin), and here I've got her Valentine's Day treat...
Hi In Residence readers! I'm Megan and I blog over at Megan Spotted. My blog is a space to spot DIY projects, recipes and workouts!
Being a fellow Cincinnati area blogger, I was hooked on Anne's blog thanks to her beautiful pictures and clean design. One of my favorite posts that she writes is her pin to present series. I am so excited to be here today to show you how I tackled my own pin to present project.
I wanted to try one of the yummy recipes that I recently pinned to my recipe board. Seeing as its almost Valentine's Day I decided to go with a sweet treat.
These Peanut Butter Blondies not only looked delicious but they also fit the bill of being a delicious healthy treat to satisfy my extreme sweet tooth.
I decided to make mine more of a Valentine Blondie by using M&M's on top instead of peanut butter chips.
I can vouch for these and say that they are delicious! Especially with a big cold glass of milk.
Thanks for having me guest post, Anne. Be sure to stop by Megan Spotted to see Anne's project!
p.s. if you've been doing/making anything Pinterest-inspired lately, you can share yours too! Next linkup is on February 19.
