The Valentine's Tree

OK -- so I’m pretty sure people think I’m certifiably crazy for putting up a Valentine’s tree! When I told some friends and family about my plan, there was a joke or two thrown around...like, what’s next Dion? A St. Patrick’s day tree? An Easter tree? Hahah. My response: don’t. tempt. me.

I guess I just feel that life is too short not to celebrate each holiday to its fullest AND I’ve never been a big fan of Valentine’s haters. You know, those who complain about how Valentine’s day was invented by card companies and that if you really love someone you should demonstrate it every day...blah. blah. blah. I just really don’t see the fault in setting aside a special day to press pause on life’s crazy treadmill and do something extra loving for your loved ones!

So, when I heard that my friend Devon put up a Valentine’s tree each year, I knew I was going to do the same one year--and this year was my year people.

It looks pretty cute, don’t ya think!?

So how’d I do it?  I kept an eye out during the Christmas season for heart ornaments, and found packages of five at Target (RIP Canadian Target!) for super cheap--I stocked up on these. Pier 1 is also a great place to look for Valentine’s decorations, but they are a little pricey, so I bought the cheapest ornaments I could find there and will start looking for deals closer to Feb. 14. And fortunately, the beautiful grey mercury glass heart ornaments I already had on my Christmas tree! I don’t think I spent more than $30 putting this tree together! Not bad if I must say so myself.

Here’s a summary of where I bought everything in this photo:

Heart ornaments & small bulbs - Target

Grey Mercury Glass Heart ornaments - Urban Barn

Light Pink and Dark Red ornaments - Pier 1

Heart Garland (on tree and mantle)- Target

Heart Wreath - Target

Gold “M” - Chapters/Indigo

Another great idea that Devon had was to create an ornament each year for each child with a tracing of their hand. I purchased (from Dollarama) glittery foam hearts, traced Gemma’s hand on the back of one, and let her go to town sticking more glittery hearts to the front. It fits perfectly with the jewel tones on the tree and makes a great sentimental piece!

I’d love to see pics of your Valentine’s decor! Tell me Devon and I are not alone in our Valentine’s day love!

To unashamedly having my tree up from November to February,
♥ Dion

Creating an Enriching Environment: Ba Ba Black Sheep

Gemma’s favourite diaper changing song is ‘Ba Ba Black Sheep’; hardly a day goes by when she doesn’t want me to sing it to her or that I don’t hear her serenading it to her dollies. So when some friends offered to take us to their parents’ sheep farm to meet the new baby lambs, we jumped on the opportunity.

One of the best things about having a two-year old is seeing her face light up at every new experience. And as her parent, I want to make each day meaningful, encouraging her enthusiasm to learn and fully live life! Today was one of those really special days.

At the farm Gemma got to pet the little lambs and see lambs that were not even an hour old! She told us later that she liked how the sheep were “fluffy”! I didn’t even know she had that word in her vocabulary! With toddlers its easy to underestimate what they pick up by osmosis -- all the more reason to enrich their environments whenever possible!

If you’re looking for a similar activity to do with your kids, check out Fort Saskatchewan’s internationally acclaimed sheep grazing program. Our town has a flock of sheep who graze in the city’s parks each summer, keeping the grass trim. It’s always a highlight, bringing in families from all around to watch and interact with these fluffy guys! Click here for more information.

To little lambs and a little lady,

♥ Dion

How to: Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Excitement cut through the frigid Alberta air last weekend as we celebrated our sweet Gemma’s second birthday! In many ways celebrating her second year of life was more emotional than her first -- it felt like the first of, what will be many, leaps in our little girl’s life journey. We now have a toddler, and with the exception of her being in diapers, it seems as if there is little “baby” left.

Like many toddlers, Gemma is OBSESSED with all things Sesame Street, especially Elmo and Cookie Monster. So, a Sesame Street themed birthday party seemed fitting. I decided to tone things down from Gemma’s first birthday party (a Hawaiian Luau theme which basically took over our Christmas holidays that year!) and keep it simple.

The central component to her birthday were the cupcakes (of course! I LOVE to bake so naturally that’s where my focus was).

I went with these cookie monster cupcakes:

Cute hey!? The best part is, they were very simple.

What you need in addition to the obvious cake mix and liners:

• 
  

  blue gel paste food colouring

• white Merckens wafers
• black decorator’s icing tube
• piping bag with a medium sized star tip
• chocolate chip cookie dough or a box of cookies

Here’s the step by step to making these:

Step 1: Use your favourite recipe/boxed cake mix for the cupcakes (I must admit, I often use boxed mixes...they are pretty good!). Line your tins with greaseproof liners (I always order mine from etsy) so that the colour of the liner stays vibrant.

Step 2: Make your buttercream icing and colour it blue using gel paste food colouring. This is key! The type of food colouring from the grocery store will not give you the vibrant colour you need. I used the Duff brand (found at Michael’s) in electric blue, and toned the colour down a smidge using a TEENY TINY amount of black.

Step 3: When your cupcakes are thoroughly cooled (do not try to ice warm cupcakes or the icing will melt), use a star tip to pipe on Cookie’s fur. You basically plop one star on and another right beside it, going around the whole cupcake. Along the top half of the cupcake I added some more stars to give his face a more three-dimensional look. Be sure your icing is very cool (and not warming up inside the bag from the heat from your hands) so that the icing is firm. We want Cookie’s fur to look furry!

Step 4: Lay out enough white chocolate wafers (you can buy these at Bulk Barn) to make the number of eyes you need. Pipe on small circles using black icing (just buy a small tube from Bulk Barn). Pay attention to where you pipe the pupil so that Cookie will have the ‘googly’ eye effect. When the black icing is dry enough to transfer, place the eyes on the top of the cupcake.

Step 5: For the mouth, bake small cookies using Pillsbury dough. I made sure the cookies were small enough to fit Cookie’s mouth and I made sure they were very chocolate-chipy, sometimes adding extra chips to the dough. I cut ⅓ of the cookie off and placed the remaining ⅔ rds of it in Cookie’s mouth. This was a little tricky, so I ended up piping some icing on the hidden portion of the cookie to keep it in place. You could also buy packaged cookies to save time!

Step 6: Refrigerate or freeze immediately so that cookie stays in place! If you freeze your cupcakes, be sure to take them out of the freezer two hours before serving.

Some other ideas for her birthday were:

• Use the leftover cookie dough to make a giant cookie! I piped ‘Happy Birthday Gemma' since I couldn’t really do that on her cupcakes and it doubled as another centrepiece.

• Use Sesame Street wrapping paper to wrap presents. If the presents are large enough, they actually serve as decor for the party!

• Use your local party store supplies. It’s tempting to go all pinteresty for your kid’s birthday, but let’s be honest, most people don’t have the time to re-create everything they see on pinterest, and the focus should be on your kid anyways. I got balloons, napkins, plates and table confetti for around $30 at the party store, and Gemma just loved seeing all her favourite characters’ faces on everything.

To cupcakes and cookies, and making a little two year old’s day,
♥ Dion