Chocolate covered strawberry bouquet

Oh, how peeeeeerdy!! Oh, how yuuuuuuummy! That's what you're going to hear from your significant other (chick or dude) if you make them one of these. I know Valentines Day was a bit ago (I couldn't post this before then, duh)...but you can always pin the idea for next year, or do this for a birthday or anniversary, OR be the sweetest person in the world and bring this baby home for a random "I love you" mid-week surprise for your lovey. You know what that'll get you?? I'm not telling...but I'm sure your imagination will get you near where I'm thinking.

 

This particular fruit bouquet was a gift from my bossman to my bossman's girlfriend for Valentines Day. Look at that thing, you guys...raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and angel food cake all covered in dark chocolate (we tried for some white chocolate swirls but they didn't work out too well).

 

To start, we lined a vase with some tissue paper so you wouldn't be able to see our sticks in the clear vase. Then garnished the vase with a bunch of parsley for foliage, which I think turned out mighty nicely. We used kabob skewers for all our fresh fruit, and mini dip crockpots to melt our dark and white chocolate chips. An angel food cake was cut with Valentine-y cookie cutter shapes and then dipped in the chocolate fountain along with the fruities. We dipped and then set the sticks into another vase to put in the fridge to chill and harden the chocolate, so that we wouldn't have marks from laying the chocolate down to harden on some waxed paper. I think that kept the finish very "I bought this" looking over "I made this" looking.

Adding the sticks of undipped berries gave the bouquet some color, and just all around finished the look, in my opinion. The sprinkles were also a stellar finishing touch. Arrange all your sticks at different heights and mixed throughout...and there you have it! Oh, and I would recommend doing all this the same day you want to gift it to your lover dover...the parsley will tend to wilt after a bit, and all the veggies will be best when supa dupa fresh.

I got to take a couple extra sticks home to Main Man that night...although with his upset stomach, I'm the one that ended up eating them. Dark chocolate is heart healthy, riiiiiight? Right. So I had a strawberry that was divine and an angel food heart that made my real heart sing. Not even exaggerating. You ever heard your heart sing? It's beautious. But even better if you make your Valentine's heart sing...so do this. Experience that. And live to see another dark chocolate filled day :)

1st Christmas ornaments

I'm scared to say hello. It's been a hot minute since I've posted...but I pinky swear promise I haven't forgotten about you. For some reason I always lose my blogging mojo after the holidays. This year was no different, and was actually worse with everything we have going on in our lives. We had our normal number of Christmas get-togethers, hosted a NYE party, helped to plan a surprise 30th birthday party for a good friend, celebrated the life of one of Main Man's uncles after he lost the his battle with cancer, and have been preparing to embark on our honeymoon...finally! The first thing that tends to go is the blogging when I get overloaded so I hope you can understand. Oh yes, and just so we're on the same page...I'm not back for good yet. We fly out to sunny Florida to hop on a 7 day cruise for a week of fun in the sun, and I don't remember the last time I was so excited (well, I was pretty pumped for our wedding day, but this is a different kind of excited)!

 

2012 was a phenomenal year for us, as well as a lot of our loved ones! Our group of girlfriends was lucky enough to welcome four new little ones to the family (Greyson John, Ashlyn Michelle, Ava Marie, and Aiden Gregory), and it's been such an amazing ride watching each of them grow into their personalities and become little people right before our eyes. When one of my ladies has a baby, I always drop off a couple of freezer meals (no mama wants to spend all night in the kitchen after all that labor jazz) and a trinket or two for the new arrival as a keepsake.

 

In the past, I've made mini photo books of their mommies throughout their pregnancies so they can see how loved they were before they even got here, when they're old enough to understand all that. I've also ordered handmade gifts from etsy.com, one being a onesie with a facebook status announcing the name, birthdate, time, weight, and length of the new arrival, and another being a block in the nursery colors with the baby's stats on it. This year we had two little ones arrive right before Christmas so I wanted to do a "baby's first ornament" for them. This was a Pinterest idea...but you know things don't always turn out like they picture them on Pinterest. MOH and I had a heckuva time getting the little ones to uncurl their feet or stop moving their hands when we were trying to get their perfect little prints on these ornaments. Aiden's (pictured below) only had feet because he wasn't cooperating with his hands...the other two we did had a hand on one side and a foot on the other. I think they all turned out well though...and hopefully they enjoy these later in life as much as we enjoy watching them become the people they are meant to be.

 

On the first couple of these that we did, I tried to use marker for the names and year but the stickers worked so much better and looked cleaner too. I love the font on the black stickers I found in my scrapbooking nook, and the white block letters worked well to make the year stand out better. These are just cheapo clear glass ornaments from Hobby Lobby, which I believe were $4.99 for a box of four. I got washable red paint and had the stickers on hand already so this was a very cheap project.

I would make sure you do this in a warm room with newborns (or when they have pants on instead of a onesie you have to take down all the way), as we learned that when they get chilly, they don't cooperate as well as they do when they're toasty and sleeping. No babies were harmed in the making of these ornaments though :)

It will take two people, there's no way I could have done it without MOH...one to hold the baby and make sure the paint isn't spread everywhere when it's on their hand/foot, and one to place the ornament on the painted hand/foot to discourage smearing. The prints aren't perfect, but as long as you can tell it's a hand or a foot, I think you win. We put paint on a paper plate and dipped the foot into it, wiping off excess with a paper towel. It took us a few times to get one we liked (you can rinse the wet paint off the ornament and start over however many times are needed). After letting them dry, apply your stickers and you're good to go!

 

I really liked this idea and will hopefully continue this tradition for Winter babies in the future. I'm kinda a Christmas freak anyway, and love getting out my old childhood ornaments when decorating the tree each year, so I hope these kids will do the same as they grow into adults.

 

Anyway...I have now made my first post of 2013, and have realized that I miss my little corner of the interwebs, so don't worry, when I get back I have a lineup of amazing holiday food to share with you all! Also some skinny kid recipes I've been experimenting with since the start of the new year. I hope you all had as amazing a 2012 as I did, and can only hope to imagine the great things that 2013 will bring to you and your loved ones!

 

Loeffelholz baby shower

I suppose we better get to posting Baby L's shower before Baby L actually arrives! He/she will be blessing his/her parents with his/her presence before we know it, and I for one CANTFREAKINGWAIT to find out if we have a little Miss or a little Mister. Our group of girlies has gotten pretty great at planning, organizing, and executing bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and baby showers in the last few years as we all enter into different stages of our adult lives. It was Amanda's turn to be the one in the VIP chair as we threw her a shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of her first bundle of joy!

 

Usually, I volunteer for food duty, for obvious reasons. But this time, I was put in charge of the games, so I was determined to find some fun games that didn't involve melted chocolate in diapers or eating baby food. I'm sorry folks, not all of us have babies yet, so eating out of a diaper does seriously freak me out. Not saying you moms eat out of diapers, but you see them a little more often, and maybe even when you're eating chocolate? Anyway, I had gone to a friends baby shower earlier in the year and they played some nice games without the gag factor....so I stole their ideas like a good shower thrower does :)

 

The first game involved only a paper and a pen. It was like baby Scattergories so the paper was lettered from A-Z and participants were asked to write down a word involving pregnancy, labor, babies, or motherhood corresponding with each letter. You only get a point for a word if someone else in the room doesn't use it so being creative is a plus! 

 

The next game involved a few more purchases. I filled a tray with each and every baby/mommy item I could find in a store and walked it around the room slowly, before stashing it where no one could see it. The person who remembered and wrote down the most items from the tray, won! Both games were very simple, took a bit of time, and the Mom of Honor got to take home all the extra baby gear used for the games....

 

 

Yummy, yummy cake on the gift table!

 

Brandy Sue's first ever diaper carriage, it turned out AMAZINGLY! She used a tutorial I sent her from Pinterest, so if you're interested in trying one of these, you can check out THIS LINK. I've made a couple diaper bikes before too, if you want to go that route.

The spread...bagel bar, fresh fruit, egg bake, lemonade punch...

Bagel bar with lots of different jams and cream cheeses...

 

Part of the planning crew :)

 

Mommy to be enjoying her cake!

 

Baby L is due to make his/her appearance on December 3, so I will keep you posted on the newest arrival to our friend family! Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday week...

 

Diaper motorcycle

I had full intentions of making step by step instructions for this project and took photos throughout the entire thing....but then I realized it would be really counterproductive for me to basically mimic the instructions that I used from another blog, so I  will just send you over to Sweetaprils for the picture tutorial that I used to construct this little guy!

Amanda and I made one a few months ago for Cynthia's baby shower, and I loved the look of it so much, I couldn't resist making one for Kristyn's baby shower a month or so ago. All the items used to make it are completely usable for the coming baby (the baby sunglasses are to die for on an actual kid)...or you can use it as a nursery decoration, whatever floats your boat! I got tons of compliments on it, and they really don't take long once you have all the necessary materials (listed in the link above along with pictures and step by step instructions)....I think I had the whole thing put together in under an hour!

Duct tape roses

Welcome to Valentines week! Yes, I know it was a couple weeks ago, but I have our splendiferous meal to post this week so I thought I would start with a crafty post.  Valentines day has never been much of a big deal to me, I feel like it's a made up holiday and although it sure feels nice to get flowers or something, I would much rather have them on some day when Justin was just thinking of me than on a day when they are twice the price, and pretty much forced.

Anyway, last year we went on our cruise to the Bahamas the week before V-day, so we decided to just make each other presents...homemade cards and all. He made me a paper rose (crunched up paper from his office secured to a wire stem with a zip tie) from things he found in the shop....and I just LOVED it (it's still perched in my printers drawer on the wall and I smile when I glace at it) so this year I decided to make him roses out of duct tape!  I found a tutorial online and away we went....

How to make a duct tape rose courtesy of Duck® brand tape and Todd Scott, the Canadian Duct Tape Sculptor.

Cut several strips of duct tape – about 2 inches each.

Sticky side up, fold one edge over itself, leaving some stickiness on the side and bottom.

Take the parallel edge and fold it over, leaving only stickiness on the bottom of the strip.
Roll this across tightly; this is your center.

Repeating steps 2-3 with strips of duct tape, loosely bind the strips around the center (these are your petals). Continue until you’ve reached the desired size.

For the stem, take a thin piece of floral stem wire, and a large strip of duct tape (the duct tape should be about a 1/2” shorter than the wire). Place the wire on the strip (parallel) and roll the wire across, wrapping the tape tightly around.

Insert the end with the 1/2” of wire (the end that doesn’t have tape on it) into the rose. Make a petal (steps 2-3) and secure the stem to the rose.

I think they're just as beautiful as real flowers....and they'll last forever too! If there ever was a manly flower, one made of the almighty duct tape would be it!  :)

Cowboy cookies gift jars

I waited a long time to post these because I had a bunch of Christmases to get through and didn't want to give up my secret before gifting these out! I finally remembered I had started this post a while ago and should probably post it before next Christmas....

These things are just so cute, and so versatile, you can make them for any occasion. Cynthia made some the other day with pink M&M's for Valentines day, you could do green ones for St Patty's, red for the 4th of July, and so on and so forth....just choose your material and ribbon to match your candies.  Done and done!

Layer all these dry ingredients in a large mason jar, packed tightly.

1 1/3 cup flour
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 cup cooking oats
3/4 cup m&m's
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3-1/2 cup chopped pecans (I left this out because it was $7 for a bag of pecans...call me cheap but it was a principle thing)

Directions (taped to the bottom of the gift jar): Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir jar of dry ingredients from jar into a large bowl and add:

1/2 cup butter (almost melted)
1 slightly beaten egg
1 t vanilla extract

Combine thoroughly and roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and bake for 10 minutes. You can download the handy dandy FREE .pdf label printables at the link below so you don't have to design your own too! How convenient :)

Bakerella's printable labels

Bridesmaid boxes

Although I realize this is not a crafting blog, I did warn you fair and square that you would be seeing more posts that have nothing to do with food since my mind currently always has at least a small percentage of itself tied up with wedding ideas. This one, in particular, came from Pinterest....surprise, surprise!  I read somewhere that Pinterest is the female equivelent to fantasy football for men, which pretty much means it takes up all your spare time, and I would believe that.

I have a couple of bridesmaids who live out of state (shout out to Beatrice in Arizona and Amanda in Texas!) so at first this was just an idea to ask them to be my bridesmaids in a unique way over Skype.  But I decided I really wanted to do it for all the bridesmaids, the maid of honor (I guess she's a matron of honor since she's married, huh?!), and my personal attendant...so I got started.

You should have seen how many times we had to try these photos, as this was before Santa brought me the nice new camera, and the light was all wrong so it would glare off the paper and you couldn't see what was written. Justin proved his fiance worthiness by taking as many photos for me as it took to get decent shots where you could actually read the papers....and he didn't even whine about it!  What a catch! :)

So my handwriting is not the best....

I used these photos to make trifold cards out of cardstock, with each picture on one page asking them the question.  I used some of my scrapbooking tools to make embellishments in the wedding colors (grey and yellow) so it was personalized to our ceremony a little.

Besides the card popping the question, I lined the boxes with grey tissue paper and filled it with knick knacks for the girls.  I found these napkins and wrote a little note on them, I had bridal party buttons for bachelorette parties included with each girl's title on there, I had a miniature calendar page from October with the 20th (the wedding date) circled in red in each box, a magnet with a picture of me with each girl was included in everyone's box, as well as paint chips from Lowe's in different shades of yellow and grey for them to help me choose which combinations work the best for the actual colors.

I bought these unpainted cigar boxes on Amazon on the cheap, and spraypainted them in a dark grey.  It took a couple of coats and the color didn't turn out quite how I would have wanted it (it had a bluish tint if you looked at it long enough) but it worked for the purpose.  I then used my scrapbooking tools to cut out the letters of each girls name in yellow to glue to the corner of the box.

I just loved this ribbon although its a very bright yellow and not what I will use in the wedding, it worked great for this project!  I gave all the girls who live around here their boxes at the same time at Cynthia's house for girls dinner one night. I'm very happy with how they turned out and everyone's reactions to my little project!  Although this is probably more trouble than you would ever have to do normally to ask your bridesmaids to be your bridesmaids, it's very important to me that each and every one of my girls feels special and understands how much they mean to me, and how important it is for them to be by my side on my big day...and I hope this showed them that appreciation I feel for their friendship.  And what an easy way to do it! I won't lie and say this was all for them and I didn't enjoy making these though, Justin teased me about the fact that I was smiling from ear to ear without even knowing it while I was working on these things by myself in the office....creepy how I love to feel crafty :)