fashion styles women: valentine

Monday, February 14, 2011

Sweet Treats: Valentine's Cupcakes

Today, I made cupcakes. Once again, I used the rainbow chip mix, and dyed my frosting with the gel food coloring. Gel coloring seems to be much brighter than the liquid ones.

The little scribbles are so cute and easy. Just melt chocolate, stir it ( food color it if you wish) and pour into a ziplock bag. Lay out a long strip of wax paper and snip a tiny hole in the corner of the bag. Pipe the chocolate into shapes on the wax paper and allow to dry. Before piping, you can draw shapes on paper and place the sheet under the wax paper so you can trace those shapes. After about 20 mins or so, carefully remove and place on frosted cupcakes, (this is why I made tons of extras, for all the ones that I broke while removing). A much, much better tutorial (with pics) of this technique is here on i am baker.

Our family delivered some cupcakes to neighbors, friends and children I teach in Sunday school. But it got dark early and people weren't home, and we were getting hungry...

...so we grabbed pizza, went home, and gobbled cupcakes, along with these ginormously, beautiful strawberries the hubs brought home.

Aren't you loving our 5year old's, double black eye? He acquired it yesterday from jumping from our coffee table to the sofa and banged his pour little nose on the sofa arm. The same day, our 3 year old got a bead stuck up his nose. Oh the painful joys of childhood!

Our 3 year old having a melt down b/c the wrapper wasn't peeled perfectly from his cupcake.

Oh, and my husband brought flowers too. These lovely purple ones, because he didn't want to be "too cliche'" and get roses.

I hope your Valentine's Day was as sweet as ours!

Homefront: Valentine's Mantel Decorating

My mantel post is late this month! I kept it low key with only one obvious Valentine decoration, my large glittery red love bird heart. I couldn't find my Valentine decor box, but that's fine. After seeing the photos, there are some changes I would make, but I'm trying to not be too fussy right now. One thing I miss though, was my heart doily arch from last year in our old home.

This little tiny pic of us was when we were engaged about 8 years ago. Our first Valentine's Day, was a tad over a month after we met. We exchanged Fossil watches (total coincidence) and was the first time he officially told me the "L" word... unless you count the other time he said it on accident when we were hanging up the phone one night, so we totally pretended it didn't happen ;)

I finally found our family pictures, so while I have no frames, I thought it looked cute on the clipboard for now.

I made my paper heart garland out of a newspaper and twine, it took 15 minutes to make, and my 5 year old helped. Just cut out lots of hearts, stick some tape on the backs and hole punch over the tape. Thread it on the twine and you're done. I got lucky in that my paper had lots of valentine and marriage references in it. Justiana Blakeney has a good tutorial on this at Design*Sponge.

I am rally wanting to hang this mirror above the mantel shelf. Can you spy something that doesn't belong in this photo?

*More beautiful mantles here and here.*

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Valentines Favorites

valentine arrows tutorial by the thompson family via design sponge

As with all holidays, I enjoy learning a bit of the history, who was the Saint, what were the pagan beliefs, how was it commercialized and spread worldwide? Go here for some excellent reading on Valentine's Day.

But I also love the treats, the warm feelings declared by not only lovers, but friends and family as well. The decorations and of course, the treats are definately a huge plus as well! What is your favorite association or anti-reasoning of this holiday?

valentine cookies by i am mommy ... cookie and frosting recipe here

valentine fort tutorial by justina blankeney via design sponge

shakespearean paper garland by bookity

valentine heart cake tutorial by i am mommy

vintage inspired paper heart garland by edge inspired

love swan valentine shadow by by jessica jane

lots of free valentine printables complied at living locurto (those shown by pepto girl)

valentine cards free pdf images and garland idea from vanessa of a fanciful twist

valentine mice by betz white

valentines mantel by the stories of a2z linky

(her mantle here

valentine strawberry chocolate cupcakes recipe by tidy mom

*Bakerella's valentine baking round up.

*Living Locurto's valentine baking round-up

*I am mommy valentine baking round-up

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Monday & Giveaway Winner

And we're off to the start of another week darlings, and one week closer to Spring as I'm counting down; quite ready for flowers as opposed to snowflakes. I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day and I would love to hear your stories if you have any!

What better way to start off your week than with a wonderful prize! The winner of the Vey Court Cottage giveaway is...

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:6Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Entry #6: Anna of Around the Way Girl Blog!! Anna is a sweetheart and you should definitely make her blog a regular read, I love it! And don't forget to keep shopping at Vey Court Cottage for lots of cute accessories to Embellish your life!

So lets hear em Embellishers, what are your best Valentine's Day stories?

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Day of Love Embellishers! I hope that no matter what your dating status may be you can find a way to appreciate a day dedicated to such a wonderful sentiment. I myself am normally single on Valentine's and this year is no exception, but that has never stopped me from loving this holiday. Blame it on the eternal optimist inside me or maybe my persistence to be girly and love anything that celebrates with pink, red, hearts, and ruffles....and chocolate, champagne, flowers...you get the point.

I thought I would reserve today to introduce you to a very amazing photographer from my hometown, Charlotte, NC, whose work never ceases to amaze me. Cheyenne Schultz is a wedding photographer in Charlotte, and I only hope I am fortunate enough to one day have her and her husband Geoff work their talent at my own wedding. I learned of Cheyenne last year, as her husband works on staff at Elevation Church, my church, and have regularly visited her blog ever since. So, without further ado I introduce The Schultzes.