Valentine Coupons You'll Love to Give and Receive

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My love for homemade valentines isn't just for the kids! No, sir! I love to make them for the hub's, too.

One year I even hand drew cards for him expressing that my love was larger than my ass and some other nonsense.

This year, I made him a tiny coupon book. This way he can carry them around and not be embarrassed when he needs to turn one of these love tokens in!

3 of My Favorite Homemade Valentines

I adore valentines!

I sometimes wish the Hubs would run out and buy a box of those store bought ones, just to give me one. Yes, this is silly but I just adore them!

I'm also a fan of the make-your-own variety. Over the years we've made a few!

Here are three of my favorites (plus one) and the links so you can make them yourselves.

O-FISH-ally Awesome Valentines + a printable

I was so excited to find Fortune Teller Miracle Fish on Amazon (affiliate link) I knew it would be perfect for my fifth graders valentines.

We've made some fun valentines over the years, but these are my favorite only because they remind me of the fun we had with them as kids.

According to our fortune, my fifth grader and I seem to have a jealousy issue, the Hubs is passionate, and baby girl is a dead fish also known as tired.

Frozen Inspired Personalized Valentine Idea

Valentine's Day is so much fun when you have little ones. As my oldest gets, well, older, helping with the class party and making valentines is just not as cool as when he was younger. Sure I can make treats and they have a party but Valentines are pretty boring, and usually store bought. Now that RD is in preschool, you better believe that I am doing something cute!

I have done some pretty darling things in the past for my oldest. One year, I made the "Write" kind of Valentines.

printables for this here

9 Manly Valentines That Will Make Him Like Valentine's Day, Too

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A few days ago I wrote a list of what I would like to get for Valentine's Day and I thought, "Self, what would you get the father of your kids, the main man in your world, the love of your life..."

9 Manly Valentines That Will Make Him Like Valentine's Day, Too.

7 Surprising (and Pinable) Valentines Day Gift Ideas for this Mom

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Love is in the air! As I look for ideas for Valentine's Day in my son's class room I keep getting distracted with what I want. All of the pretty, sparkly, and frilly stuff they have for the day of lovers.

Sure it is selfish but what can I say - I like pretty, sparkly, and frilly stuff and sometimes I just like what I like.

7 Surprising (and Pinable) Valentines Day Gift Ideas for this Mom

Just the "Write" Kind of Valentines (free printables)

Valentine's day is tomorrow!  Ever since Pinterest entered my life I find it hard to buy a box of valentines.  

Don't get me wrong, they are swell, and all but now I feel this pressure for us to make something.  This is completely my own doing especially after the cards we made last year!

This year I decided to go low key and do something practical.   

I thought this year we should go sensible so I turned to Pinterest, of course, and found some great ideas incorporating a pencil (because they are always losing them!)

MiBellaDesigns on Pinterest.

But what's Valentine's Day without something sweet?!??! 

So, I came up with my own printables, using the brilliant ideas above as inspiration.

Click on the images to enlarge them or download the cards here if you would like to make your own.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Need another idea? Make a sweet and easy - customized photo valentine

Tasty Tuseday with Cory - a Coffee Cake and @CafeEscapes

Hello everyone! I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and New Year!

I recently had the opportunity to host a CAFE ESCAPES Keurig party through HouseParty.com! This was my first ever HouseParty and I really didn't know what to expect but boy was I surprised. I got my party pack a few weeks before the party and it was FULL of CAFE ESCAPES flavored coffees and lattes, chai and hot chocolate drinks!

That's me!

Along with the coffees the pack came with some cookies, a banner, a chalkboard sticker in the shape of a coffee cup, 2 glass cups and saucer (which I used as part of my decor) and vanilla coffee flavored lip balms. Café Escapes also included assorted coupons and items to giveaway plus disposable cups, plates and napkins. A party in the box and all I needed to do figure out WHAT I was going to SERVE for my coffee party!

I invited about 30 guests and about 8 showed up which was plenty. Everyone brought a little something to nosh. We had cakes, cookies, veggie pizza and chocolate Oreo balls among other things. I made a "TUNNEL of CHERRIES” coffee cake in a bunt pan! Super simple, impressive looking and YUMMY!

left: Mary, her husband right: My mother-in-law and a friend

It's basically a boxed cake mix. I happened to have yellow cake mix and you still follow the basic cake instructions but, since it's a coffee cake and a little denser, I OMITTED the oil and used sour cream 1x (1/2 c.) instead, besides, oil is flavorless and nutrient less (regular or Greek style yogurt (1/2) cup can be used as well). To that I added, 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons water, almond extract (if you have it) OR 1/2 tbsp. vanilla (which I used) and a can of cherry pie filling for the filling.

I also made a strudel layer with a 1/2 cup of quick oats, a few tablespoons of brown sugar, crushed walnuts 1/4 cup and a few tablespoons of butter and hand mixed it till it was pea sized crumbles oh, and added some cinnamon...

Cory’s Tunnel of Cherries Coffee Cake

1 box of cake mix
1 can of cherry pie filling
3 eggs
*might need water up to 3 tablespoons
Oil (1/2 c.) OR you can sub. 1/2 cup sour cream, or Greek style or regular yogurt
1/2 tablespoons almond OR vanilla extract

Strudel layer...
1/4 c. (walnut, almond or pecan) nuts crushed
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/3 cup of quick oats,
2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar
A couple pats of butter.

Mix together till it forms pea sized crumbles set aside

Make cake mix- adding oil OR sour cream OR yogurt and extract of choice... beat with a mixer till stiff dough forms...

Place 1/2 of strudel mixture on bottom of the pan

GREASE a bunt pan liberally, or use PAM cooking spray

Pour 1/2 the cake mix in pan and spread evenly

Gently spoons cherries in a layer over cake batter and top with remaining strudel

Top with remaining cake batter and spread evenly...

Preheat oven to 350 and bake 40-50 minutes... Let cool completely and serve.

You can dust with powdered sugar before serving. Serves 10-12 people.

This recipe can be tweaked for any cake flavor and pie filling.

I want to try chocolate cake with cherry pie filling or lemon cake with blueberry filling!

ENJOY!

Sweet and Easy 3D Customized Photo Valentines

I just love Valentine's Day now that I have a kid old enough to trade them at school.  I envied the kids whose mom made the ones that they handed out.  Not that there is anything wrong with the store bought ones because they were cool, too, but there seemed to be something extra special about the ones made out of dollies and covered in glitter. 

For as crafty as I think I am, I can not see myself cutting out (or helping to cut out) twenty red hearts, gluing them to dollies that easily tear and then coming up with cute sayings to write on them.  Besides, the box cards come with candy!  Then that damn pinterest came along and I found that there are some really cute ideas that don't involve glue or cutting!  Hooray for pinterest!  What did we do last year?

Some ideas I considered...

But seeing as I use to be a photographer and happen to marry one, this idea stood out...

And this is what we came up with...

I made a slit  just above and just below his hand with an exact-o knife and then the photo was glued to card stock. I did the same for Superman photo but off to the side.

Now to tackle a treat for the class...

Check this out idea... plus a free printable!