Saturday, January 31, 2015

Red Velvet Brownies

What are you making your Sweetie for Valentine's?

From Pintastic Projects I give you...

Red Velvet Brownies

The title really says it all.  I made these for my coworkers and they were VERY popular!

The Pinspiration:
The Project:


The recipe was really simple.  It’s just Red Velvet Cake Mix, 1/2 C melted butter, 1/4 C brown sugar and 2 eggs baked at 375 for 25-30 minutes.  My coworker also suggested adding cream cheese frosting, which would have been amazing.  You could also really do this with any kind of cake mix!
Courtesy of Pintastic Projects

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Valentines without Cavities

As as a parent of three young children, I am not always perfect with managing all the sugar in my kids' diets. It's really hard with class parties, birthdays, holidays... the lists go on. So, with Valentine's Day coming up I am planning on doing Valentine gifts that are toys or novelties if I can, just because I know they will already be overloaded with cupcakes, candy, etc. from classmates and parties. It's a gift to the other parents, myself, the teachers and the kids - believe me.

First up is my 4 year old son. He loves slinkies, and I thought that would be the perfect gift for both girls and boys - gender neutral - score! Upon research slinkies are really expensive! I don't want to spend more than a dollar per each kid's toy. And I don't want to hand out cheap throw-away mini plastic slinkies. Finally, I found the right price on standard size slinkies 3 inches in diameter for $1 each. The trick was using the generic name "Springs" on Amazon.com. So, My son's Valentine will have these slinkies found here Springs

And because I have a newborn and am in no mood to craft with paper (though you should feel free to do so), I wanted to keep it really cute and simple buying already printed Valentines. I found that sites like Tiny Prints and Minted have very reasonable valentines that are custom printed and ready to go. So I tweaked a design at Tiny Prints for about .44 cents a card and I have it reading, "My Heart Springs for You". It has his name already printed, simple - boom! And if I want him to write his name out, I will just have him sign underneath or on the back, if we have time. His card was purchased from Tiny Prints and they have a sale going on 20% off and free shipping on classroom Valentines right now. I always get my coupon codes from Retailmenot.com - I'm a budget shopper - this is an awesome free site if you haven't been there, go before every purchase. 

Total cost $1.44 each. Super cute. Personalized. And ready to go once they arrive at my door.

Next up will be my 7 year old daughter's. I plan to use rubric cubes and say something to the extent of "Valentine, you Puzzle Me". Will update this post, once I finalize.

Happy Love Day, everyone!

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Landocolors Valentines Day Launch


Guess what's happening on January 15th? At 9 PM EST It's our Valentine's Day launch. There will be more than enough handcrafted items filled with love to make you run and skip and say "I Do".

You can find the link to our group page, here: Landocolors Group Page.   

Here are just a few of the lovelies:













Friday, January 2, 2015

Sweetheart Pops

Get Ready for a Great Launch with Landocolors
You will find all kind of cute Valentine's for you and your little one's. Don't want to miss this! Here is a little recipe for you to try while you wait!

Sweetheart Pops
Sweetheart Pops

Ingredients
  • 24 mini candy canes
  • 12 6″ lollipop sticks
  • 1 cup white candy coating
  • Sprinkles
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. On a parchment lined baking sheet, arrange the candy canes as hearts with the lollipop stick centered in between the two candy canes. Bake for 3 minutes. You want them to be malleable, but not melted.
  2. Remove from oven & shape candy canes into hearts by pinching the the bottom of the heart into the stick and pinching the top ends together. I also pulled the edges out to make my hearts more round and full. They will be hot & you need to work fairly quickly. If the candy canes harden before you have them shaped, just stick them back in the oven for a couple of minutes. I re-heated mine a few times before I got the hang of shaping them the way I wanted them.
  3. Melt candy coating in the microwave at 30 second intervals on medium power, stirring between heatings, until smooth.
  4. Spoon the melted candy coating into the center of each heart, then top with sprinkles. Cool the pops before serving or wrapping.
  5. From http://inspiredreamer.com/sweetheart-pops/