Let's get carried away....Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope that you all had a lovely Valentine's Day.  My day started off with a surprise gift from my husband, a fun-filled trip to Grandma's and ended with a delectable dessert including mascarpone cheese, dark chocolate and whipped cream.  

Tomorrow my little man will be delivering these Valentine's, complete with attached red balloon, to his friends at school.  I think they turned out so cute...if I do say so myself! 

P.S. I apologize for the lack of posts as of late....I guess I've been in a bit of a funk.  Hopefully, the nice weather this week will snap me out of it!  

Great Day St. Louis: Valentine's Day Doily Crafts

Tomorrow morning I will be back on Great Day St. Louis (and if you are visiting from Great Day, "Welcome!") sharing doily crafts for Valentine's Day--"these are not your Grandmother's doilies!".  I'm sharing several fun ideas including this, this and this.  

 

 

 

Stenciled: Heart Doily Chalkboard

This simple craft continues the heart doily theme for this Valentine's season.  I used a small heart doily as a stencil, taped it to the chalkboard ($2.99 from Michael's), and used an extra fine Sharpie paint pen to trace around the heart and fill in the spaces.  The gold is subtle; so, it will not interfere with any potential chalk writing.  Then, I decoupaged a small piece of festive scrapbook paper at the top and attached a piece of twine in the back with a couple of staples.  That's it.  Quick, easy, and toned-down; yet, it's a sweet gift or decoration for Valentine's Day.

  

 P.S. You can find me tomorrow morning on Great Day St. Louis sharing this idea and more simple ideas for using doilies in your Valentine's Day crafts like this and this! 

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Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog

Coconut Raspberry Surprise Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

In an effort to get out of our snow comas today, the kiddo and I made these Coconut Raspberry Surprise Cupcakes.  It was great fun; after our cupcake indulgence, we ran around the house and bounced-off the walls!  While the kiddo would have loved to spend the day out in the snow, I just wasn't up for it today.  Mid-winter exhaustion has set in, I guess. 

Coconut Raspberry Surprise Cupcakes

They are a basic white cake with coconut and a raspberry or two in the middle for a sweet surprise.

2 c all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c shortening or unsalted butter

1.5 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg whites

1 1/3 c buttermilk

1/3 c sweetened coconut flakes

24 frozen raspberries tossed in flour

1. Grease your muffin pan or line with cupcake liners; I used Baking Joy spray.  Sift dry ingredients together.

2. Mix shortening, sugar, and vanilla until well-combined into course crumbles.  Add egg whites one at a time. 

3. Mix in buttermilk.

4. Stir in coconut flakes. 

5. Fill cupcake pan; then, push two flour-dusted raspberries into the center of each cupcake. 

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes. 

For the icing, I actually used Pamela's Vanilla Frosting Mix and colored it pink in celebration of the upcoming romantic holiday.  Typically, I would make my own icing, but I had purchased this mix on a whim and it's actually pretty tasty and extremely easy to whip up.

Sharing with...
Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple
Sugar and Spice at 733-A Creative Blog
Free For All at Young and Crafty
Weekend Wrap Up at Tatertots and Jello

Happy February: A few faves from Pinterest

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P.S. Do you belong to Pinterest?  If you don't, oh how you should.  Leave a comment with your email or just email me directly and I will send you an invite.