Valentine's Snack Mix

Now that we're into the new year, I've already started thinking about Valentine's Day. This year I'm planning on hosting a Valentine's Day playdate for a few of AG's friends.  When hosting playdates, I always make a snack mix for the kids. 

Snack mixes are usually a big hit at our playdates.  Chances are there is usually a few things in the mix that all of the kids will eat, no matter how picky. Kids can also help to make the mix, which makes things even more fun (and messy!)  I make sure to have little cups or even the small waffle ice cream cones make things fun for serving and even more fun for the kids to eat!

If you're looking for little Valentine's Day gifts, you can also package the snack mix in a cute jar with a tag and you're good to gift. Lots of possibilities, just a few ingredients and some happy littles. Enjoy! 

Ingredients: 

Berry Kix

Stick Pretzels

Strawberry Goldfish

M&M's

Mini Marshmallows

Vanilla Chex Mix

Directions: 

Mix ingredients in a bowl and serve! 

Red Velvet Donuts

Looking for the perfect Valentine's Day breakfast? 

You've come to the right place.  

These cake mix donuts are a family favorite and oh so easy to make.  

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Donuts

Ingredients:

1 box of red velvet cake mix

1 cup of milk  (I used almond milk)

2 large eggs

1 stick of butter (melted) 

Icing: 

Confectioners sugar mixed with milk.  I started out with a 1/2 cup of sugar and a tsp of milk.  I added and mixed until I had the consistency I was looking for.  

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350. Grease donut pan.  

Mix eggs, butter, milk and cake mix.  

Stir until smooth. 

Pour batter into donut pan (1/3 filled). 

Bake 11-13 minutes.  

Let them cool completely.  

Prepare the icing.  

I dipped some of the donuts and drizzled frosting over the others. 

 After I was done with the frosting, I let them set out for a bit to let it harden.  

Store in an air tight container for 3 days.  I also froze the leftover donuts in a freezer bag.  

Valentine's Sweet Treats

Now that Christmas has come and gone (and my decorations are FINALLY put up), it's time to think about Valentine's Day.  I'm not sure about you, but the one thing that comes to mind when I hear Valentine's Day is CHOCOLATE (and sweets). 

This year I'm hosting a Valentine's play date, will be sending in sweets to hubs' work and will be planning a dessert for Valentine's dinner.  That is a lot of sweets to make.  To get a head start I started browsing Pinterest for recipes.  I decided to share some that looked amazing with you.   Here are 20 sweet treats that caught my eye.  I can't wait to try some out for Valentine's Day.  

Now I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do for hubs this year.  It's going to be hard to beat my Date Night In Jar and Basket full of Love from last year! If you have any ideas, I'm all ears! 

 Red Velvet Brownie Truffles from Cookin' Cowgirl

 Be Mine Cherry Brownies from Gooseberry Patch

Red Velvet Puppy Chow from Your Cup of Cake

 Valentine Dipped Wafer Cookies from Craft-O-Maniac

 Cupid Crunch from Plain Chicken

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies from Simply Made with Love 

 Sweetheart Cupcakes from Echoes of Laughter 

Chocolate Cherry Bark from Confession of a Cookbook Queen

 Rice Krispy Valentine's Treats from Chef It Up

 Chocolate Cherry Valentine's Scones from Betty Crocker 

 Marshmallow Cherry Kisses from Kraft

Valentine Oreo Truffles from Mom Endeavors 

Chocolate Cherry Glazed Cookie Bites from Simply Made with Love 

 Sweetheart Cupcakes from Posh Pink Giraffe

 Valentine Petite Fours from Echoes of Laughter

 Valentine Cheesecake Nibbles from Very Best Baking

 Valentine's Day Brownies from Ingredients, Inc

 Brown Sugar Blondies from The Recipe Critic 

 Chocolate Cherry Chip Cupcakes from Bird on a Cake

Fudge Cake Truffles from Koot Hoot

Candy Heart Valentine Frame

Here is a simple and cute Valentine's decoration for your house. 

Materials: 

8x10 frame

candy hearts

heart tracer

red cardstock (or your color choice)

hot glue

How it's done....

1. Take the paper out of the frame. 

I made sure the background paper was the same size as the paper I was taking out.

2.  I used my Crucit to cut out a heart tracer.  I glued the tracker onto the background paper I chose, which was red card stock. 

3. Put the frame back together.  

4. Line up the hearts on the tracer.  I made sure to put them all on BEFORE I started gluing. 

Once everything was the way I wanted it, I glued down the hearts one by one (with hot glue). 

Once they are all glued down, you're done! 

Date Night In- Jar

2016 updated date night jar 

One of the goals hubs and I set for the year was to have date nights in.  With a baby, getting out of the house for a date is not as easy as it used to be.  So, we decided we would try to do two date nights in a month.  He would plan one and I would plan the other.  For Valentine's Day, I'm giving him this jar filled with ideas for our date nights.  It's easy for me to come up with things to do but not as easy for him.  Now, he'll have a whole bunch of ideas at his fingertips!

All I used for this project was the printables below, a glass jar, ribbon, crinkle paper and card stock in red and white.  

I printed the ideas for date night on white cardstock. 

I made a red tag that was 3 1/2 inches on my Cricut.  

 Then, I printed out the date night in sign.  I made sure it was no bigger than 3 inches. 

I used this handy dandy puncher to round the edges. 

My tag for the jar was complete!

Next, I cut out all the date night ideas.  I included blank ones on the printable and decided to put the blank ones in the jar.  That way hubs can fill in some ideas that he thinks of along the way. 

Once they were all cut out, I put them in the jar on top of some crinkle paper.  

I added the crinkle paper to help fill the jar.  I wanted to use a mason jar but didn't have one in my stash. 

You can use any embellishments or fillers you'd like. 

Last, I used some thin red ribbon to attach the tag.  I made sure it hung on the front of the jar.  

Simple as that.  

Hopefully this will prevent the "what do you want to do?", "I don't know, what do YOU want to do?" conversations! 

Download the Date Night In Ideas Pages Here & Here 

I think the date ideas are pretty self explanatory.  But if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! 

Valentine's for Him & Free Printable

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. 

 Like usual, I've waited until last minute to make a gift for the husband.  

I love making him baskets filled with goodies. 

Since we don't do big gifts for Valentine's Day, a basket of little gifts is the perfect way to go. 

It shows him how much I love him and satisfies his sweet tooth at the same time.  

I can't wait to give it to him on Thursday.  

You can download the printable tags here.
If you have trouble downloading them, comment with your email and I will send the PDF to you.   

Here are some of my other gifts I've made for hubs:

30th Birthday Gifts

Daddy Survival Kit

Simple Love Banner

When cleaning out my craft room a few weeks ago I found a pack of unused doilies.  I knew just the project that I was going to use them for.  It had been one I had been eyeing on Pinterest for a while now! 

How I Did It:

My supplies were 4 doilies, red card stock, white card stock, white yarn, Cricut machine and tape. 

I laid out 4 doilies. 

I used my Cricut to make 4 4inch hearts. 

I taped the hearts onto the doilies. 

Next, I used my Cricut to make LOVE out of the white card stock paper.  My letters were 2 1/2 inches. 

I glued the letters onto the hearts.  

After that, I cut a large piece of yarn.  I laid it on the floor and placed the doilies on top.  After I checked the placement, I taped the yarn onto the back of the doilies.  

Last but not least, I hung it up.  I taped the banner to the inside of this cabinet.  I'm in love with the end result. I know I'm not going to want to take it down after Valentine's Day!