First Time Mom and Losing It

We love celebrating every holiday in my home. Things are even more fun when you have a preschooler who can finally help with the festivities. When I celebrate a holiday I love to incorporate it into the breakfast, snack time and with something cute to wear.

The first thing I love to give my preschooler on Valentine's day are the most special (and easy) pancakes I can think of. It is so easy to just make your favorite pancake batter and put it into a condiment squeeze bottle. I like to cut the tip of the bottle so that the batter passes through a little easier. Then you can create a heart and the word love with the batter. Make sure when you are writing, that you write the letters in reverse.


I then love to make these easy Valentine's Day Berry Skewers as a healthy snack that is just as festive. They are so easy to make that your preschooler can make them by themselves.


For something festive to wear I created this Tutu adorned with hearts that my preschooler can dance around in. It is so easy sew a piece of elastic into a waistband and then to knot pink and white tulle all around. To make it extra special I sewed on the felt, glittery hearts.


We love creating our own Valentines so the "You are a Bowtiful Valentine" were perfect for my daughter to give to her friends. I made all of the print outs and bows and then had my preschooler help clip them onto the cards.


Valentine's Day would not be complete without a sweet treat. I created these super easy Valentine's Day doughnuts. I had my daughter help mix all of the ingredients and then she had fun watching them come out of the doughnut maker. I added the icing and then let her sprinkle on the sprinkles.


What do you do for Valentine's Day? 

As soon as I found out how easy it is to make a tutu out of tulle I quickly starting working on one when I found out my sister was having a girl over three and a half years ago. It was so easy to make and extremely affordable compared to the prices in those little online boutiques and stores.


Making a tutu is super easy were you just take strips of tulle and knot them onto elastic. First I started by buying yards of tulle and cutting out the strips. If you have ever cut tulle before you know how long the process can be because it slips. My strips never came out even but it was OK because the fluffiness of the finished product hid all of that.

Then I came across another amazing method of cutting the tulle strips by buying the tulle in rolls and wrapping it around a piece of cardboard the length you want. Genius!


To make a tutu for my 2 1/2 year old I measured from waist to knee at  15 inches. I took a piece of cardboard that was just as long by 12 inches wide. Then I wrapped away until the roll was gone. Then I took a pair of sharp scissors and cut across the bottom loops of the wrapped tulle. I then took some pink tulle and repeated with about half of the roll. Set the strips of tulle aside.


Measure around the waist and add 1/2". Take the elastic, overlap the ends and sew with a sewing machine in 3 different spots with reinforced stitches.


Take the elastic loop and place it around the piece of cardboard you used to wrap the tulle. Fold the tulle strip in half and place the loop in the elastic like shown and thread the end pieces through the loop. Continue until you have filled the elastic loop with the tulle strips all around. I did a pattern of two white stripes and one pink strip.



Print out the Hearts Template and pin on top of the red glittery felt. Cut out all of the hearts.



 I placed the hearts randomly around the tulle skirt and pinned them in place. Using a sewing machine, stitch back and forth a couple of times on each heart.



I slipped it onto my sweet little cupid and around and around she twirled with it. She loved it so much that I let her wear it at dance class!

Last week I shared my tutorial for my "You Are A "Bow"Tiful" Valentine. My daughter will be giving these out to her dance mates at her dance studio. I wanted to make something cute and delicious for her to give out too so I decided to make them little donuts.

I bought this cute little donut maker about a year ago to make healthier donuts and never got around to using it. I decided to make it simple by using some regular boxed cake mix for the doughnuts with a  vanilla glaze made from store bought frosting.


First I turned on the mini donut maker and let it heat up. Then I took the mix and prepared it following the instructions on the box. To make it less messy to fill the donut cups I placed the cake batter into a gallon sized zip top back and cut a little bit of one of the corners. I carefully filled each cup and closed it to let it cook.


About 3 minutes later the donuts are perfectly done. I took them out and cooled them completely.


To make the glaze I took 1/2 of the container of frosting and microwaved it for 30 seconds. Carefully remove from microwave and stir.


Then I dipped each doughnut into the glaze and sprinkled on some red and pink sprinkles. I waited for the glaze to completely harden and them placed 2 in each cupcake wrapper with a pick in the back.


To make the Valentine Mini Donuts (Printable Version)
Supplies:

• Mini Donut Maker (or donut pans and oven) 
• Cake mix (and ingredients to prepare cake)
• Vanilla Frosting
• Valentines Day sprinkles 
• Valentines Cupcake Picks
• Valentines Cupcake wrapper

With the busyness of life and having a very socially active toddler I see myself reverting back to my old ways of no make-up, hair in a ponytail and throwing on yoga pants! I just has a conversation with my fellow dance moms about getting stuck in a rut and not dressing up for our husbands. We all agreed to give our husbands an extra treat for Valentines Day by dressing up!

My husband and I don't usually go out on Valentines Day because we don't like the long wait time at restaurants. Since V-Day falls on a Saturday and my mom is all in for keeping my daughter overnight we decided to hit the town and go out to a restaurant and then lounge after.

It feels kind of exciting because we haven't gone to a lounge in a long time so I am already planning ahead. I know what I am going to wear, how I will do my hair and what makeup to wear. One of the best things is I get to use my SinfulColors Flirt With Hearts collection of nail polishes! How can you go wrong with names like Love Sprinkles and Pinky Glitter!


These colors are perfect for Valentines Day as they come in pinks, reds and glitter! You can choose from 8 different colors that includes:

24/7: Our hottest pink
Daredevil: A pop of neon pink
Decadent: Dazzling red with metallic flakes
Dream On: A brilliantly induced boysenberry
GoGo Girl: A sleek and sexy candy-apple red
Love Sprinkles: Bubble gum pink gleaming with white hearts and flecks of glitter
Pinky Glitter: Bright pink with a splash of sparkle
Rise and Shine: The perfect teal

 I got to try the GoGo Girl, Love Sprinkles, Pinky Glitter and Rise and Shine. I tried them all and have to say that they go on so smoothly and dry up really quickly which is a plus for moms! I finally decided to go with a base of the GoGo Girl and a top coat of Love Sprinkles. I just love red and glitter together for Valentines Day.


Oh and the best thing of all, they are ONLY $1.99 each! You can purchase the Sinful Colors Collection at Walgreens, Rite Aid and many other big retailers.  Check out SinfulColors.com to see all of the other beautiful colors they offer. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest product news.                                                                                      


Which color is your favorite?

At twenty weeks pregnant I found out that I was having a little girl. The first thing I said was "awww" and then the first thought I had was all the cute little bows and dresses I could put on her little head. When my daughter was born with a full head of thick black hair I knew I had to create some beautiful bows for her.

She is 2 1/2 now and I still love making things for her. My favorite thing to do is to create bows themed to the holidays like my Boutique Easter Bow and Santa Belt Headband. Valentines Day is right around the corner so what is more appropriate than a Valentines Day Plush Headband. I had tons of pink fleece left over from the Foofa (Yo Gabba Gabba) costume I made for her a year ago so it was prefect to use some of it up.


First I created the Heart Template to make it easy cut out the hearts. I printed out the template and cut out the black hearts. Then I pinned them onto a double thickness of the light pink and darker pink, alternating sizes.




I then measured my daughter's head and added half an inch to the measurement. I cut out that length of the fold over 1" elastic. Next I put the ends together and sewed using a 1/2" seam. Then I opened the seam and sewed each end to the headband. Make sure to use reinforcement stitches to make it durable.

Then I pinned the hearts to the side of the headband and sewed them in place using the button stitch. I cut all the loose ends and then bribed my little model with a couple of organic gummies to get some shots of the headband.

I love crafting and creating cute holiday themed outfits and treats for my daughter like my "Bow"Tiful Valentine and Valentines Day Shirt. I also love creating holiday themed recipes and treats to continue with the festivities the entire day. Last year we made special Valentines Day Pancakes and Toddler Friendly Valentine Cookie Bars.

Since my daughter loves fruit I decided to present it in a way that would be perfect for the day of hearts and love instead of the standard bowl of fruit that I usually give her. I also wanted to make it fun for her to eat.


I went out to my local discount store and found so many Valentine decorations. I picked up some cupcake wrappers that came with these cute heart picks and some glittery hearts that we could tape to the windows. I thought the picks would make festive little skewers and the wrappers would be the perfect little holders.


I always have fruit in the fridge especially strawberries which are my daughter's favorite. I took out some blackberries, strawberries and blueberries and picked though them to find the perfect ones. I cleaned them and then cut the strawberries in half.

I wanted the red of the strawberries to pop so I skewered them in between the deep colors of the blackberries and blueberries. Then I popped about four of them into the little cupcake wrappers.


As soon as I gave them to my daughter she said "Ooohhh hearts!" I took one and showed her how to eat it. (Make sure to supervise your kids eating them with the skewers. The tips were not super pointy but you never know.) She gobbled them all up and started playing with the skewers and counting them.


Stay tuned next week where I will show you a deliciously sweet and easy Valentine Day treat!