Simple Valentine crafts

With Valentine's Day approaching, I thought I would share a few simple crafts. Some of these could be done with the kids or grandkids or even a Sunday School class, Scouts, etc.

First up, these sparkly heart ornaments made of felt and trimmed with glittery beads and sequins.

You'll find the directions here: Sparkly Heart Ornaments. These look nice on a wreath, too.

Valentine banners are easy to make and can be personalized to look nice in any room with any decorating theme.

Basically, you cut paper shapes -- either a pennant or scallop shape would work well -- decorate them with Valentine doilies, stickers, etc., punch holes in the top edges of each shape and string them on a ribbon or cord. You can decide if you want to spell out a word -- I used L-O-V-E -- or a saying like "B-E * M-I-N-E", or you can make these without any lettering at all. Letters could be stenciled on or you could print them on or use rub-ons or cut-out letters as I did. You could even decide to string the shapes vertically like a bell pull. I used plaid scrapbook paper for my pennant shapes, but it has not held up really well over time. I think if I made more garlands (and they would be fun for any season!) I would first glue the scrapbook paper to card stock or lightweight cardboard. Fused fabric would work well, too.

Beaded hearts like these are easy and fun for kids to make.

You take a chenille stem and cut it in half. I usually use red stems, but gold, silver, or iridescent would all be pretty, too. Bend one end of the stem up about a half inch to hold the beads in place. Then string red tri-beads onto the stem to within a half inch of the other end of the stem. Twist the 2 ends of the stem together to secure -- it will be basically a circle shape -- then, bend in the middle to form a heart. Add a hanger of gold or silver cord or even fishing line. I like to dangle these hearts from my kitchen cupboard knobs,

but they are pretty as suncatchers or hanging from chandeliers or, as here, on a ribbon board filled with Valentines.

Lastly, felt Valentine cookies

are fun to make, both for use in play kitchens or at doll tea parties, or just for decoration. (I plan to put a few on a plate inside a little glass cake dome.) There are tutorials out there to make these felt cookies, but here is what I did: simply traced a heart cookie cutter on cookie-colored felt and cut out the "cookies" -- 2 felt shapes for each cookie. A lighter tan would have been nice, but I was using what I had on hand. (The nearest store with felt squares is a good 40 minutes away.) Then I traced about a half inch inside the cookie cutter on pink felt and cut that out for the frosting -- one shape for each cookie. Again I would have preferred a lighter pink, but this sort of rose color is what I had. Then I blanket-stitched the frosting onto the top cookie shape of each pair, using pink thread, and sewed on beads for "sugar crystals". Red and pink beads would look nice as "sprinkles" if preferred. Then I blanket stitched the 2 cookie shapes together, using tan thread, with the frosted one on top. Done!

Here are a couple of cookies in progress. I am experimenting with a white embroidered chain stitch on the second one, to look like white frosting trim. Just an idea I had -- we'll see how it works out!
Oh, and don't forget these pretty votive holders: Sparkly Votive Holders. They are especially fun to make with Valentine stickers and plenty of glitter.

Hope you have fun with these Valentine craft ideas!

Valentine sweets

With Valentine's Day coming up, why not make some candy to share with family and friends? Even better, send a care package to loved ones far away (as long as they are not in a location where chocolate will melt). Valentine surprise packages are a special treat to college students, elderly relatives, or faraway friends. Here are links to some of my favorite candy recipes:

Heavenly Delight is our family's favorite fudge. Christmas cannot go by without me making at least one batch of Heavenly Delight. I will probably make another batch for Valentine gifts, or maybe just for the potluck at church.

Chocolate Peanut Morsels are another fun treat. These are very, very easy to make. I think they would be yummy with raisins added, too.

Chocolate-Covered Almond Brittle is a little more work, but still not difficult, as the candy part is cooked in the microwave. This is a delicious homemade candy.

And Peanut Butter Balls are a favorite treat of ours. I've included two recipes for them in this post. You'll note that one of the recipes can be made with a white chocolate coating as well as regular chocolate. The peanut butter balls with a white coating are very pretty for Valentine's Day decorated with Valentine sprinkles or red and pink sugar.

One more treat to share: Chocolate Pizza . I had not made (or even thought of) these for years, but they used to be a staple in my college care packages, so here's the recipe for old time's sake! I always made a number of little individual pizzas from this recipe, using muffin tins, little pie pans, or doll size layer cake tins. And rather than the red and/or green cherries, I used red and green M&Ms®.

Have fun with these recipes and make some sweet treats for your Valentines!

A small indulgence ~ Chocolate Pudding for One

Photo by Taste of Home

I found this recipe more than ten years ago in Taste of Home: Chocolate Pudding for One. It is a quick snack to microwave when one has a serious chocolate craving. Much better for you than a candy bar -- the only fat and sugar would be what's in the chocolate chips -- and more satisfying, too. You know those times when only something seriously chocolate will do? Here's my answer!

Shifting into Frugal Automatically

A number of years ago, we owned a car which developed a somewhat alarming problem: while the driver was merrily tootling down the road (hopefully a country road), the transmission would suddenly, without warning, shift into neutral. Usually, one could shift back into drive and all would be well until the next occurrence. My hubby, who can be as pessimistic as the next person when he chooses, elected to put a positive spin on this problem and explained that the vehicle was simply "shifting into neutral automatically". Ever since then, this phrase has been in common use in our family whenever we need to put a positive spin on a situation.

Often, when the need for flexibility comes up in my daily schedule, I find that I think of it as shifting my gears. And it is amazing how this shifting does take place almost automatically when each day is yielded to God.

Over the past few years, I think many of us have come to the conclusion that becoming a bit more frugal would certainly be a wise move. I've been thrilled to see that I haven't forgotten how to be frugal ... that, indeed, it came back to me almost automatically.

There was a time, many years ago, when I was very frugal indeed, buying chocolate chips, for example, only for very special occasions. I well remember baking cookies for Vacation Bible School and decorating only the tops of M&M cookies with the M&Ms, using perhaps 4 to 5 on each cookie top, and none in the cookie dough, to make the candy go farther. Early in our marriage, we got by spending only $15-$20 per week for groceries. Later on, when our children were away at school, we chose to eat meat only on weekends when they were home. While they were in college, we ate many a meatless meal -- and enjoyed it!

Over time, the kids married and left home, and we were spending less on food and other necessities but, because it was just the two of us now, we could pretty much buy what we liked. I don't mean that we routinely bought shrimp or expensive steaks -- not at all -- but if, for example, I wanted to bake cookies I would be sure that I had parchment paper on hand -- and I would throw the paper away after each use.

And that is why, when I began to realize I needed to reinstate frugality, I was so delighted to find myself, one cookie-baking day, reaching automatically for my much-used, reusable, teflon cookie sheet liners. Shifting into frugal automatically!

2011 goals ~ January update

New Year Goals update for January

Inspired by Carrie at Life on a Back Road , I thought I would try and post an update each month concerning where I'm at with my goals. I'm hoping this accountability might be helpful in attaining my new year goals.

So here are the goals in italics and my progress report in regular print.

1. To go to bed earlier than I do now. How I'm doing with this: right now, not well at all. Mr. T's work schedule has undergone a change and I'm staying up later than usual. Still getting up early, however!

2. To exercise and drink plenty of water every day; to eat more healthfully and get more sunshine and fresh air. How I'm doing with this: Poorly, except in the area of eating healthfully and getting enough water and those could use improvement too. So tempting to hibernate in icy cold and falling snow...

3. To make my daily quiet time with God ever more meaningful. How I'm doing with this: very well.

4. To grow in the areas of perseverance, self-control and unselfishness. How I'm doing with this: hmmm... I see growth in all three areas as a result of this schedule change, but of course much more growth is needed.

5. To continue to grow in the practical skills of homemaking, money management, and time management. One specific goal in this area is to spend less money on groceries in the coming year, remembering the principle that money not spent is money saved. How I'm doing with this: Not too badly. We are spending a bit less money on groceries, plus I'm getting back to weekly and daily scheduling. There's still plenty of room for improvement, of course.

6. To get back to and then stick with the housekeeping routines that work for me and to declutter the entire house. How I'm doing with this: making progress on the routines, and have done some decluttering -- of magazines, in particular. I'm hoping to really get back on the routine track and get lots of decluttering done during the month or so Mr. T is on this new schedule.

7. To continue to grow spiritually and to use my talents and my spiritual gifts for God's glory. To spend more time in Bible study in the coming year, and to apply what I learn to my daily life. One goal is a study of Psalm 119. How I'm doing with this: seeing progress. I'm currently working my way through a couple of other studies, so haven't started Psalm 119 yet.

8. To use my God-given interests and abilities to help bring in some household income. How I'm doing with this: still in the thinking and planning stages.

9. To be more of a help to my husband; to make our home more of a refuge from the world for both of us; to nurture our relationship with little getaways and regular dates. How I'm doing with this: fairly well.

10. To learn and profit from the lessons that God has for me so I that I won’t have to learn them more than once. How I'm doing with this: too soon to tell, although I have recently identified several more character flaws that I've begun praying about.

11. To stay in closer touch with my friends and to be a better friend and encourager. How I'm doing with this: I feel as if I have fallen down miserably in this area, but I have had several good conversations with a friend recently.

12. To do something creative, no matter how small, every day. How I'm doing with this: Fairly well; I do seem to be finding time for something creative, even if small, every day.

Two-Tone Cookie Crinkles (and more!) for the Cookie Carnival

Okay, so some months ago I heard about a fun monthly blogging event called Cookie Carnival, held at Tami's Kitchen Table . Each month the hostess, Tami, sends out 2 cookie recipes for people to try and then blog about, and link to that months' Cookie Carnival. There was no pressure, and it sounded like fun, so I signed up to be notified about each month's recipes.

And every month, I haven't taken part. Either the cookie recipes didn't appeal to me, or I didn't think they would appeal to my family, or I didn't have time to do any extra baking... you get the picture. Enter the email with January's recipe links. Oh, they both looked so good! I decided I would try them both. One was Raspberry Limoncello Linzers, and the other had the inexplicable title of Two-Tone Cookie Crinkles . Oh, I get the two-tone part all right -- each sandwich cookie is made from one vanilla and one chocolate cookie. But I don't get the "crinkle" part. Not only are these not like any crinkle cookie recipe I have ever seen (they are rolled cookies, not molded), they have nothing crinkly about them. Well, maybe the fluted edges.

I had great plans to bake both of these cookie recipes -- they both seemed like the sort of thing that would be good for teas, luncheons, etc. or also for Christmas cookies. I even bought the lemonade concentrate to substitute for the Limoncello liqueur. But the month went by and the baking just didn't happen.

Finally yesterday I decided I had to do it. I hauled out both recipes and ended up deciding to only try one. The Linzer recipe called for powdered egg whites in the icing. I did have them on hand but was afraid they were old. So the Two-Tone Crinkles got the nod.

First I mixed the dough and made the chocolate ganache filling, which needed to chill.

I substituted half & half for the whipping cream, which may have made a difference, but it's what I had on hand. Oh, and I used 4 ounces of chocolate chips rather than the high-quality chocolate called for. That undoubtedly made a difference. I thought the ganache turned out a bit grainy, but it tasted fine.

The recipe said to chill the dough as well, but that wasn't necessary. My dough was just a bit crumbly -- not too much to roll out, it was just about right for that, but I think the problem may have been that the egg I used was rather small.

The dough rolled out well at first, but as I added back in the cut-out shapes and the scraps, it eventually stopped rolling out well. I ended up throwing part of it away. And I also baked the remaining little cut-outs along with the cookies.

I didn't have the fluted rectangular or square cookie cutter called for (though I would like to get one, I think) so I used a fluted round cutter. I also didn't have a canape cutter so just used a small heart cutter for the center holes.

Here are the baked cookies cooling on racks.

When ready to fill, I placed the plain cookies upside down on a tray.

Here are the fancy halves of the cookies ready to top the filled cookies.

Here are the cute little heart cut-out cookies.

And here are the completed filled cookies.

I must have counted wrong because I ended up with 2 plain cookies at the end. One of them should have been a fancy one. I ended up spreading them with ganache and topping each one with 2 of the small heart cutouts. Here's a closeup showing those.

The recipe said it would produce 30 sandwich cookies and I got 26. I thought that was pretty good, considering that I had to throw some of the dough away toward the end.

Final evaluation: The cookies look pretty good and taste okay too (at least the components -- I didn't try a completed cookie, just tasted the ganache and a small heart cookie). These went over quite well at the potluck I took them to. I did try a cookie then and I thought they were quite good. Not sure if I would make them again, but I probably would. And I still don't know why they are called crinkles!

Part 2 -- Well, on Saturday morning, while I was posting the above, my 7-year-old granddaughter asked what we were making for dessert for the church potluck on Sunday. I pointed out the cookies and said we were taking those.

"You baked without me?" was the response. She also remembered that I had originally planned to try two recipes, not one, and suggested we try the second one that afternoon. So we did. Just like that, Raspberry Limoncello Linzers were on my agenda.

The dough was easy to make and easy to work with. I didn't need to refrigerate it to be able to handle it, but I divided the dough into quarters and we worked with one quarter at a time, leaving the rest in the fridge. By working with only a quarter of the dough at one time, I hoped to avoid having to throw any of it away. But that didn't happen. I found I could roll it out and cut once, then gather up the scraps and roll it out only one more time successfully. After that, the dough wouldn't hold together. So I was really thankful I had thought to divide the dough and only work with one portion of it at a time.

Cutting out cookies:

When cleaning up the counter, we found a perfect heart shape in the flour.

Here are some of the finished cookies cooling on the racks. The recipe said it would make 2 dozen, but I got lots more... probably 3 to 4 dozen. I forgot to count them.

The recipe called for boiling the seedless raspberry jam and bringing it to a certain point on a candy thermometer. I skipped that step, as what I had was raspberry preserves (not seedless) and they seemed plenty thick enough already to me. I am not sure, maybe the boiling step would have made the jam less sticky, but that thought was in retrospect. Here are the cookies ready to fill.

I put about a half-teaspoon of preserves on each cookie and spread it around.

Here they are with the jam filling all in place.

Then I made the lemon glaze. I made only half a recipe of the glaze, since in my experience glaze recipes always seem to make too much. This turned out to be a wise move; I still had glaze left over. I used lemonade concentrate in place of Limoncello liqueur. I added the lemon juice called for but skipped the rind. The glaze was plenty lemon-y as it was.

I got the glaze just a tiny bit too runny, but it was really hard to tell until I began drizzling it on the cookies. I thought they looked fine anyway, and it seemed to me that the more glaze over the jam, the less sticky the tops of the cookies might be, since the glaze was supposed to set.

You were supposed to let the glaze set up before attempting to cover or store the cookies. I let them set around three hours, I think, and it finally did set nicely.

But I found that the minute I placed waxed paper over them, they became like magnets for the waxed paper. I was even chilling them in between adding the layers of waxed paper. Finally I placed a layer of cookies on a large tray (for the potluck) and, because I simply had to go to bed, placed a sheet of waxed paper very, very loosely on top. Predictably, in the morning, it had settled down atop the cookies and stuck to them. I carefully peeled it off. Most of the cookies looked fine. Those that didn't, I drizzled a little extra glaze over. Needless to say, when transporting them to the potluck, I did NOT cover them.

Final evaluation -- these cookies looked quite pretty and tasted fine, but not outstanding. The lemon glaze was the best part. The cookies themselves (containing both pure vanilla and almond extract) were sort of bland. I think they might have been better with some lemon rind added to them. Would I make them again? Probably not. And I still don't know why they are called Linzers, which in my experience are usually a sandwich cookie and nearly always seem to have some chopped nuts in the dough. It was a fun and interesting experiment, anyhow.

Winter decorating around here

Here are a few photos of my winter decorating.

This is the back door. A dear friend made the "January" garland for me. I think it looks just perfect with the snowman sign beneath it.

Here is my kitchen island. Love the idea of a baking day while the snow falls outside. Here are vintage cookbooks, vintage spices and cookie cutters (note the 5¢ sticker on one of them!), a vintage recipe box which my mother used in high school. The milk bottle had been on my Christmas hutch. I moved it to the island for a touch of whimsy.

Here's the simple snow-themed table runner I made. I wanted something blue and white and yet with touches of red. Would you believe I had the perfect piece of fabric in my stash? Occasionally my daughters will give me lengths of fabric as a gift, and I'm quite sure one of them gave me this.

I love the candleholders and the basket that look carved from ice. My husband had bought me the basket and one votive holder at Mikasa some years ago. This January when we were off on our little getaway, I found a matching votive holder in a thrift store for 50¢!

Here's a closer look at the glass basket. Isn't it beautiful? I put a piece of white cardstock underneath to show up the design better.

Now I have replaced the basket with this cute snowman lamp. I love how the lamp looks made from snowballs!

And here's a closer look at the runner fabric.

And now here is my hutch decorated for winter.

The top shelf has just my favorite Proverbs 31 cross-stitch and 2 Thomas Kinkade candleholders, plus a glittery house I got last year at Marshalls and a bottle brush tree I found for 75¢ in Rite-Aid.

Next is the glittery snowy stuff. The tag on the left was made by me and the little kids in the picture are me, my brother and cousin. The "Snow" card was made by the same crafty friend who made the January garland. There's a cute little glittery house and a bottle brush tree, all from Gooseberry Patch, in the cake dome. The cross stitch in the middle is one I did some years ago. I love getting it out every winter. The 1950s plastic reindeer is from my childhood.

A closer look at the left side of snowman-themed shelf. Love those little papier-mache snowman containers with their wire handles and felt noses! The red mittens are actually floating candles, but I can't bring myself to use them. I've had the basket and card for quite awhile -- they're by the same artist -- Jan Shade Beach.

And here's the right side of the snowman shelf. Can you believe these snowmen came from a dollar store? I put a second 75¢ bottle brush tree with them.

The glittery church was a $5 find at Marshalls after Christmas. I didn't know when I bought it, but it's fiber-optic. It's pretty lighted up, but I like it better unlighted. The grandkids ... well, now, that's another story. They love the changing colored lights!
Hope you have enjoyed this look at my winter decorating!