Heart-Shaped Bird Feeders {DIY}

I've been feeling extra crafty lately - making essential oil diffuser bracelets and diffusers
for your car. Sitting in my office/craft room and creating is so relaxing and satisfying.
I don't take the time to do it often enough!

Semi-Homemade Heart Shaped Pop-Tarts

Hey friends! I'm coming at you today with a cute and easy dessert to make for Valentine's
Day. Semi-homemade heart shaped strawberry pop-tarts!
This recipe is super easy when you use prepared sheets of refrigerated pie crust.
Feel free to make your own pie dough if desired. I have yet to master pie crust, so I went
the easy route.

This recipe makes four heart shaped pop-tarts. You can easily double the recipe if needed.

Heart shaped homemade pop-tarts are simply adorable and my family loved them!


Semi-Homemade Strawberry Pop-Tarts

1 refrigerated pie crust (save the other half for later)
1/4 cup strawberry jam
2 tsp. corn starch
1 egg
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 T heavy cream (or more as needed)
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Sprinkles
Heart shaped cookie cutter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl mix strawberry jam with cornstarch. Crack the egg into another small
bowl and whisk.

Flour a large work surface and lay pie crust on top of it.  Roll out the circle.
Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out 8 hearts. You will need to gather the dough
scraps and roll out to be able to get 8 hearts. Place four of them on the prepared baking
sheet.

Spoon a tablespoon of jam mixture onto the center of 4 of the hearts.
Brush egg around the edges of filled hearts to form a glue.
Place a dough heart on top of jam. Using a fork, crimp the edges to seal.
Repeat with remaining hearts. Brush tops with egg. Using a knife, make a 1/4 inch
cut in the center of the dough to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden. Some jam may leak out of the sides, but that's okay!
Cool completely before frosting.

After pop-tarts have cooled, in a small bowl whisk powdered sugar, vanilla and cream.
Spread glaze over each pop-tart. Immediately top with sprinkles.
Allow glaze to set a bit before serving.

Yield - 4

You're the Balm Free Valentine Printable

Remember making Valentine boxes in elementary school? Carefully covering shoe or
cereal boxes with construction paper, heart cut-outs and stickers. Do kids still do that?

The best part was the actual Valentine's Day party when you stuffed your faces with sugar
cookies, red Kool-Aid, conversation hearts and red lollipops with white sugary hearts!
Once you were all hyped up on sugar you got to go around the classroom and place a
Valentine card in all of your classmates homemade mail boxes. Wasn't that the best!

Cupid's Crunch Chex Snack Mix

Chex snack mixes are one of my favorite things to make for holidays.
They are quick and easy to make and everyone loves them! Since Valentine's Day will be
here before we know it I decided to share a festive and fun snack mix that I like to refer
to as Cupid's Crunch.

Cupid's Crunch Snack Mix is made up of popcorn, Chex cereal, pretzels, candy and
fun Valentine's Day sprinkles drizzled with white chocolate - yum!

Cute & Easy Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Hello sweet friends!

I can't believe I have made four different types of cupcakes in the past six days.

It seems like I was on a long cupcake making break and it felt good cover my counter top
with cupcake liners and sprinkles again.

Paint Chip Heart Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Over the weekend Madison and I went to Lowe's to pick out paint for her bathroom.
It was time for a makeover and she wanted to get rid of the outdated wallpaper.

While browsing the paint chips looking for the perfect shade of gray, I noticed how pretty
the pink samples were.  As our paint was being mixed I picked out a few of the pink and
red paint chip to take home.  I had an idea :)

Valentine Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

Well it's February and you know what that means.
Valentine sweet treats!!

A box of chocolates and specialty cookies left over from Christmas make perfect Valentine's Day cupcake toppers.

Dipping the cupcakes into a little chocolate ganache before frosting makes them even more special.

Make Valentine cupcakes for the sweethearts in your life.
They will like you.
A lot.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

1 box Devil's Food chocolate cake mix
1 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line pan with 24 cupcake liners.

Sift cake mix into a large mixing bowl.
Add eggs, buttermilk and oil. Using an electric mixer, mix until ingredients are all combined.
Using a large cookie scoop, fill liners 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until done.
Cool on a wire rack.

Ganache:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 c heavy cream

When your cupcakes are cooled, place chocolate chips and whipping cream in a heat proof bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and then stir. Continue to microwave in 10 second increments and stirring in between until it's smooth.
Dip the tops of your cooled cupcakes into the ganache and let set before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting:

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

6 cups confectioners sugar
1 T whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In the bowl of your stand mixer add butter and mix for about 1 minute.

Add confectioners sugar one cup at a time.
Add whipping cream and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy.
Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Garnish with Valentine sprinkles and decorative chocolates and/or cookies.

 

You're my "Kind" of Friend Valentine {Free Printable}

I keep seeing the cutest do-it-yourself Valentines all over the internet lately.
I guess it is that time of year.

I miss making those sweet little cards and treats, so I decided this year I was going to make Valentine's for some of my friends and for Madison and her friends too.
So what if she is 20 years old and in college.
Everyone loves to receive a Valentine don't they?!?

Most of my friends are focusing on eating healthy right now, so I thought a Kind Bar
Valentine would be the perfect treat. 
Healthy and tasty too!

Purchase Kind Bars in your choice of flavor. 
They are available at Walmart, Target, Costco and most grocery stores.
Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate is my favorite!

Right click to save the image below to your computer and paste onto a Word document or
whatever program you prefer.
Print on white cardstock and tie a card onto each Kind Bar.

Deliver to your friends on Valentine's Day :)

Be sure to save a Kind Bar for yourself!

Linking to:
Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin' It Party
Serenity Now Weekend Bloggy Reading
Inspire Me Wednesday

Valentine Cheesecake Pops

Cheesecake pops have been on my list of things I want to try for about 3 years.
Well I finally had some leftover cheesecake AND I had all of the other ingredients on hand.
It was meant to be :)






















Since Valentines Day is this week, I decided to decorate them with pink candy melts,
sprinkles and candy hearts.

Aren't they sweet.

Valentine Cheesecake Pops

Leftover cheesecake or bake your own without the crust (try this recipe)
Pink Candy Melts
Lollipop sticks
Assorted sprinkles
Graham Cracker crumbs
Wax paper
Styrofoam block

Using a cookie scoop, scoop out round balls of cheesecake. 
I found that rolling them into some graham cracker crumbs helped to shape them better. 
Place them onto a wax paper lined baking sheet.
Freeze until firm, 20-30 minutes.

Melt candy coating in microwave, using directions on package. 
Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the candy coating and insert it into the cheesecake. 
Using the stick as your handle, dip the cheesecake ball into the melted candy coating.
Swirl to completely coat.  Tap off any excess and add sprinkles immediately if desired.
Place pops into a syrofoam block to dry and then store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Store any leftover pops in the fridge.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! My daughter requested this cookie after we saw the one that Bakerella made on her blog last week - it looked so cute. I had purchased the Wilton Cookie Pan last year and used a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe, but when we noticed that Bakerella used Butterscotch chips we thought we would give them a try. The cookie was delish, especially with the chocolate ganache! It was kind of an after-thought to post this on my blog or I would have taken much more time decorating it to make sure the candies were straight. Oh well, it still tasted yummy! Hope you all have a fantastic Valentine's Day!