A Girl After My Heart

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching. It’s one of those holidays that your either love or hate. For me, I choose love. I am a girly girl, so a holiday that focuses on love, hearts and pink is A OK in my book. I think that it is a holiday that can be celebrated a few different ways. If you are new into a relationship, you may want to show your love with a card, candy and Valentine’s Day Flowers. It’s a day of romance and celebrating your coupledom. I used to look forward to spending some one on one time with my husband. I have been with my husband for 16 years, and we now have two girls. Valentine’s Day, to us, is more of a celebration of family, and the love we have for each other. It’s not about the two of us any longer, but the family as a whole. The girls and I like to focus on making a few sweet treats and a few handmade cards to pass out to friends and family. We love to put out pink decorations, then make a few crafts. 

 

All of us moms know how our hearts light up when our kids bring home something they made at school in art class for us, but Allison just stole my heart the other day. The one thing I love about my children getting older, is they can take the initiative on what kinds of crafts they want to make all on their own. That’s exactly what Allison did.

“Here mom. I got started on your Valentine’s Day gift early. I wanted to make you something, but I didn’t know what, so I got on Pinterest for some ideas. Here you go!” And she handed me her finished gift.

Yes, it looks like the art work of a 9 year old, but the fact that she got on to one of my favorite sites to find inspiration for crafting a gift for me, well, that’s just priceless. She is surely a girl after my heart.

 Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Do you do it as a couple or as a family? 

 


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Homemade Puffy Paint

My niece and nephew came over for a visit on Saturday. Since it was going to be rainy out, I knew I had to come up with something to do that would entertain them for a few hours. I remembered reading about homemade puffy paint from Delaware County Moms and thought that would be a fun craft project. They kids had a blast creating their art projects!


What you need:

Equal parts water, all purpose flour, and salt.
Food Coloring (I used Wilton's Gel Food Dye)
Squeeze bottles (I bought an 18 pk at Michael's. They were $13. I used a 50% coupon and got them for $6.50. If you don't have a 50%, they usually have a printable 40% on their website)

Directions:

Mix flour, water, and salt together in a large bowl with a wire whisk until smooth. Separate about 1/2 cup each into separate bowls. Put a few drops of food color in your desired shade into each bowl. Stir until color is blended through.
If you have a funnel, pour each paint mixture into plastic squeeze bottles. (I didn't have a small enough funnel but it was easy enough pouring it in with a spoon).
Now go make some awesome puffy paint art!

*Kids like to pile on the paint, so it does take a while to dry. You may want to put cardboard under their paper because some of the moisture from the paint does soak through. (Not the color, but the water does get the backing of the paper a bit wet!)

Don't mind Allison's crazy hair. She just got out of swim class :)

Damian with his masterpiece. You can see where the paint is lifted from the page pretty well by the sun.