Holidays

From Decorations to Dinner 40 FABULOUS Valentines Day Ideas

1 · Jan 27, 2014 · 5 Comments

// From Decorations to Dinner… 40 fabulous Valentines Day Ideas //

It's the season of LOVE! Today we've rounded up some of the best ideas in blog land from valentine decor, treats, gifts and printable valentines to give, and even some recipes just in case you're planning a date night in instead of braving the crowds.

Enjoy!!

DIY Vintage Arrow Valentine / DIY Love Sign / Yarn Hearts

LOVE IS SWEET Garland {source unknown} / Valentine Heart Banner / Paper Punch Heart Garland

Doily Windowed Heart Garland / Yarn Pom Flowers / Crayon Heart Valentines

Free Printable Valentines / Free Valentine Printables / Triangle Heart Wall Art

Yoda Valentine Printables / Pencil Arrow Valentine Printables / Valentines for Boys Printables

Free Printable Valentines / Valentine Cupcake Printables

Toilet Paper Roll Heart Stamp / Valentine's Glitter Letters

Homemade Gift Tags / Heart Hoops

Baker's Twine Heart / Cupid's Arrow Wreath / DIY Heart Marquee

Valentine's Table / Valentine Mantel / Valentine Snow Globe

Sugar Cookie Braclets / Pom Pom Heart Wreath / Heart Gift Tags

Homemade Heart Mints / Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars

Cinnamon Red Hots Shortbread Cookies / Strawberry Donuts

Baked Sweet Potato Chips w/ Blue Cheese / Wild Mushroom Fettuccine / Salted Chocolate Tart w/ Kettle Chip Crust

Three Pepper Enchiladas w/ Homemade Sauce / Linguine w/ Clams & Bacon / Mussels in Meyer Lemon & Garlic Broth {link broken, similar recipe here}

Pizza w/ Fig Preserves & Chicken Sausages / Mushroom, Garlic & Parm Flatbreads / Stuffed Salmon w/ Sriracha Cream Sauce

Valentine’s Day Popcorn Pops

2 · Jan 16, 2014 · 4 Comments

Hello Whipperberry friends! Jenn here again from Clean and Scentsible. It seems like Christmas was just yesterday but Valentine's Day will be here before you know it! Today I'm sharing these fun Valentine's Day popcorn pops with you – they're a quick and easy way to spread a little love!

Ingredients

8 cups popped popcorn {this is approximately 5 tbsp. of unpopped kernals}
3 cups mini marshmallows
2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt
red food coloring
3/4 -1 cup Smarties {these are the Canadian Smarties which are similar to M&Ms in the States!}

Directions

Pop the popcorn and place it in a large bowl {I actually ended up using 2 bowls so I had more mixing space}
Heat the marshmallows, butter, and salt in a large heavy saucepan over medium to low heat stirring continuously until the marshmallows are melted. Add food coloring by drops to make your desired pink color. I just wanted mine a faint pink so I only used about 5-6 drops.
Pour the marshmallow mixture over the popcorn gradually, mixing it well. You can use a greased spoon to do this but I found that it was easiest to grease my hands with butter to mix. {The butter should help to protect your hands from the heat but make sure it is not too hot!} Add the candy.
Shape into balls or use a heart shaped cookie cutter if you would like to do hearts. If you are using the cookie cutter, grease the inner borders and press the popcorn inside the cookie cutter until your shape is formed. Press popcorn firmly together once the cookie cutter is removed to hold.
Insert sucker sticks. For mine I used the basic sucker stick and then added a paper straw over top of it to give it extra strength.
Wrap each ball in plastic wrap. Makes approximately 8 {3 inch diameter} balls.

There are lots of fun ways that you could package them up – add some baker's twine, tie them up in a cellophane bag, or add a cupcake liner and some washi tape! Feel free to get creative – I always find that the packaging is the best part! 🙂

If you would like any of the printables, just head over to Clean and Scentsible for a free download!

If you are looking for other Valentine's Day ideas, you might also like…

Photo Handprint Card / Valentine's Day Teacher Gift / Quick and Easy Valentine's Day Breakfast

I would also love to have you join me on my Household Organization Diet – a year long project to get organized once and for all!

You can always connect with Clean and Scentsible here: FACEBOOK / PINTEREST / INSTAGRAM / TWITTER

Thanks so much to Heather for having me! I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! 🙂

DIY Jingle Bell Ornaments

28 · Dec 9, 2013 · 8 Comments

DIY Jingle Bell Ornaments // One of my favorites at this time of year are jingle bells! I love the songs, the stories and the bells themselves. One time last year I walked into a beautiful shop in Colorado called Old Glory Antiques and they had a giant rustic German bread bowl FULL of jingle bells… I was in Heaven! Here is my Instagram collage of the place…

I knew I had to make something with jingle bells. It needed to be beautiful and easy to make, so I created my DIY Jingle Bell Ornament…

DIY Jingle Bell Ornament Supplies

48 inches of red 1/4″ wide grosgrain ribbon

24 inches of 2″ wide decorative ribbon

41 medium size jingle bells

2 inches of masking tape

hot glue or floral wire

DIY Jingle Bell Ornament Directions

Take your 48 inches of small red ribbon and cut in half (24 inches.) Then using the masking tape place little pieces of tape around all four ends. You are essentially making needles at each end of the ribbon. This will make it easier to feed the bells onto the ribbon.

Take one of the bells and feed it onto both of strands of ribbon.

This is going to be your center bell so, pull it to the middle of both of the ribbons.

Next, spread out the four different ends and add one bell to each end and pull to the center.

Now all you have to do is continue to add bells to each strand. Ten total on each strand.

Now, scrunch them down so that they are over lapping and close to the center.

Gather each of the ribbons together and arrange the bells to your liking and then gather the ribbon together and tie with a large loop at the top.

Make sure the knot is really tight and then trim the ends pretty close to the knot.

Tie a bow with the large ribbon and either hot glue the ribbon to the knot or use floral wire to wire it to the knot. I don’t actually tie the bow on the ornament because of the bulk of the wide ribbon. Voilá, you are finished!

It’s perfect for your Christmas tree, they are so easy, you can make a whole bunch for your tree. Or, you can use it to decorate a wreath. Either way, it’s super fun.

What’s your favorite holiday item? Are you a jingle bell lover too?

Want more do-it-yourself Christmas ideas? Get them below.

Yo, yo, yo... I'm hanging with my Gnomes this Holiday season! LOL!! This is actually a fun Christmas tradition that comes from our favorite Nordic friends up in Sweden & Norway. Gnomes have always been a big part of their Holiday traditions and I thought it would be a fun one to add to our family's Christmas this year. These cute gnomes are so easy to make and to add them to a yarn wrapped wreath form is a quick and easy way to introduce some new friends to your home. I grabbed all of my supplies at Michaels, my favorite creating store and set to work. Here's how I made them.

Peppermint Drop Cookies // Cookie Swap Recipe

21 · Dec 5, 2013 · 14 Comments

Peppermint Drop Cookie Recipe // The season is upon us… Holiday baking and general goodie making. I grew up with a Mom who created all kinds of goodies each year to share with friends and neighbors. This year I decided to experiment with a "cookie" or a meringue cookie really… to come up with a cute take on those traditional peppermint candies.

Meringue cookies are all over the patisseries in Paris in varies shapes and flavors. They are sooooo easy to make and are a fun unique treat that you can WOW your friends with. They are made just like a meringue for a pie, but you pipe them onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake them for quite a bit longer. They turn into these cute, crunchy, yet soft in the middle sweet treats. When you add a little red food coloring and some peppermint extract they get even better and are like peppermint candies, but WAY better!

Peppermint Drop Cookie Recipe

This recipe has been adapted from Martha Stewart's Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Filling Recipe // It will yield about 30 two inch size meringue cookies.

3 egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

red gel food coloring

Instructions

In a heat safe mixing bowl, place the egg whites and sugar. Place over a medium sauce pan filled half way with water at a low simmer on the stove. Slowly whisk the egg whites and sugar until the sugar has melted. The best way to test that is using your CLEAN fingers. Just pinch a bit of the mixture and see if you still feel the grit of the sugar. As soon as the grit is gone, this usually take a few minutes, the whites are then ready to whip into a meringue.

Place mixing bowl in mixer and with the whisk attachment, whisk on high until the egg whites and sugar form stiff peaks. Once you have stiff peaks, add the peppermint extract and whisk until fully combined.

Place a large star tip in a large pastry bag. Then using a clean brush or tip of a butter knife, draw some stripes onto the inside of the pastry bag with the red gel food coloring.

It doesn't need to be pretty, or exact… just four or five lines to add the red stripes to the peppermint drops.

Next, pipe the meringue onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Make the cookies about two inches in diameter. A quick note… Due to the nature of these cookies you may want to use masking tape to tape down the parchment paper on the baking sheet. That way you won't have parchment paper floating around wreaking havoc on your peppermint drop cookies. Make nice little drops with the pastry bag and then carefully pull up to create the nice peak at the top.

Place in a 175˚ oven for 3 hours. I also place a wooden spoon in between the oven door and the oven so that any steam that is created can escape. Once the cookies are hard, remove them from the oven and let cool.

These little meringues turn into these bite size peppermint treats that just melt in your mouth. They are a perfect addition to a goodie plate, because they add DRAMA. The nice thing is they can be made ahead of time and stored in an air tight container for a couple of weeks. You can even create a fun little goodie bag just filled with these little treats. Either way, they would be a great addition to your holiday treat list!

Santa will even love them on his goodie plate. They are a nice change of pace to your regular cookie!

I am participating in a fun cookie swap this week with a group of fabulous bloggers!!

You can head over and check out their fun recipes…

Tracie from Cleverly Inspired made some rustic Gingerbread Biscotti…

Chelsea from Two Twenty One made another peppermint treat… Peppermint Chocolate Cookies.

Tomorrow, Carmel from Our Fifth House will have another cookie to share with you guys! Make sure to head over and see what she's created.

Happy Holidays!