Free Printable: Dinosaur Valentines

Admittedly, Valentine's Day is not one of my favorite holidays. It's ok... I know it's fun for kids, so I might try to come up with something special and fun to do with my girls on Valentine's Day. But beyond that, I really just don't get into it. I'll play along, but I don't go all out. And I don't expect Kyle to either. I'd rather do something more extravagant for our anniversary, a day just for us.

That being said, I made some valentine's for Hailey to hand out to her classmates in preschool. The big Valentine's Day party is next week, of course, and she needs valentines to share! I do remember in elementary school having fun spending the time writing my name on them, packaging them up, and sharing them with my classmates. I thought Hailey would enjoy the same, so I elected her to help me assemble some awesome dino valentines.

I grabbed our two dinosaurs, (Yes, we only have two. I think we need to add a few more, they need friends.) and did a little photoshoot. Belle even made an appearance. Lucky us!

I took those pictures into photoshop, did a little photoshop magic and cut the dinosaurs out. I brought them into Illustrator and being playing and creating.

One thing I knew I wanted was Hailey's cute handwritten name on them. So, I had Hailey write her name with a sharpie on a piece of paper for me. I then scanned it into the computer and did some quick photoshop cropping and brought that image into Illustrator as well.

When the design was finished, we printed the cards out on cardstock. Hailey helped me cut the cards out and round the corners- this she loved. We picked up some dinosaur fruit snacks at the store and taped the cards onto the fruit snacks. And now her valentines are ready and waiting for the big day!

Look! Even the dinos like them.

They are already trying to rip into the fruit snacks. Looks like we will have to hide them until next week! :)

Looking for some valentines of your own? Here, try ours. Click on each of the images below to download a PDF file with 8 valentines per page.

Linked up at: the36thavenue.com, blog.peekaboopatternshop.com, roubinek.net

[Recipe] Pineapple Sour Cream Pie

I know I said I was hoping to have pictures (and a tutorial) posted of the pillows I recently made, but I made a mistake. I forgot about Pi Day. (Gasp!)

Seriously? How did I forget!? I have celebrated Pi Day every year since 2004, during my freshman year of college. 9 straight years of Pi Day festivities. Pi Day is one of my absolute favorite holidays. It comes right after Christmas and Thanksgiving (including Canadian Thanksgiving- another tradition that started in college.)

Today is Pi Day! 3.14. (It’s also the birthday of my long time friend, Tiffany. Happy birthday Tiffany!) To celebrate, I want to share with you my favorite pie. Pineapple Sour Cream Pie.



Don’t let the name fool you, it is so good. I’m not a sour cream eater, but I love this pie. Seriously. I make it every Thanksgiving, and for every Pi Day, without fail. Since marrying Kyle, I also make his family’s favorite, Chocolate Pudding Pie. Last year I made individual ones for Kyle’s coworkers. Check it out.

Anyway… On to business.

Pineapple Sour Cream Pie

9” pie crust, baked

filling:
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 can crushed pineapple, undrained
2 beaten egg yolks (make sure to save the whites- you need them for the meringue)

meringue:
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 c. sugar

For the filling: In a saucepan, mix the sugar and flour. Add everything else except the egg yolks. While stirring, let it cook until thick. Once it is thick, add a few spoonfuls of the mixture to the egg yolks and stir. Add the egg yolks to the entire mixture. Cook it a little bit longer. Let the filling cool.

For the meringue: Using an electric mixer with the whisk beaters, beat the first 3 ingredients to soft peaks. Add the sugar and beat until it is completely mixed.

Pour the filling into a baked pie crust. Spread the meringue on top.

Bake the pie at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.



Enjoy! Happy Pi Day!

(The pillows post is coming next week. I pinky promise!)

Happy Halloween! & Eyeball Cake Balls

Yay! Halloween is here!

You know what I love about Halloween? Sugar, candy, goodies, treats… yes, I have a major sweet tooth. But actually, even more than all of that, now that I’m a mom, I totally just love that Hailey gets to dress up and that she’s so excited about it all! I told her yesterday that tomorrow (today) is Halloween. She got so excited. But also so upset when she didn’t get to go trick-or-treating after her nap (not that she took one). She insisted that she would be trick-or-treating after her nap. I know, a whole day- it’s a long wait for a little girl.

I’m not one to go all out for holidays. I just don’t really do much decorating, ever. In high school I used to love it- but these days I’m just not that motivated or interested. But, when I saw this pin on Pinterest to make eyeball cookies, I got really excited.

Instead of using oreos and making cookie eyeballs, I decided to try my hand at cake balls. I’ve eaten many a cake ball before, but never have I actually made any.

They turned out out ok. I haven’t tried one, but I’m positive that they taste delicious. The problem is they lack presentation. As is the case with any baking or cooking I do. Making good looking food and treats is just not my forte. Kyle and I have joked since we were engaged (6 years ago!) that we would someday open a restaurant or café called the Ugly Pie, with the tag line, It may look like crap, but it sure doesn’t taste like it.

Anyone remember the birthday cake I made for myself 3 years ago? Go on, check it out, have yourself a good laugh.

Anyway, I made some eyeball cake balls for Kyle to take into work.  I wish I had put a little more effort into it and made fun apothecary jars and labels and make it all spooky and gross, but… like I said, just not my thing. I do love that the cake itself is red velvet cake, so you bite into it and looks like blood. Now if only there were a way to make them gush a little red liquid when you take a bite… ha! That’d be great.

Yes, I ran out of candy melts, so there are five with no coating. But I’m sure they’ll still get eaten. I know I would!

Christmas Treat Making

Along with Christmas comes baking. I have been doing way too much of it. Seriously. It makes me a little sick to look at all of the treats sitting on our kitchen counter.
I had Hailey help me with some of my baking. We made Holiday Pretzel Treats. Hailey loved it. She had so much fun unwrapping all of the candy kisses. She even did a great job sorting the wrapper from the chocolate. I’m not gonna lie, I was very pleasantly surprised with how well Hailey did with making these treats. She didn’t try to eat a single kiss. And she did a great job putting kisses on the pretzels. I put the kisses on the pretzels all in order in a line, but Hailey chose to be random. Even stretching to the very farthest pretzel from her. Cracked me up.


After the pretzels came out of the oven, with the chocolate soft, I let Hailey try to smash an M&M into the chocolate. Can you tell which one she did? After that I decided that wasn’t the best idea. It wasn’t long before I heard Hailey complaining about her eye.

Hailey had gotten chocolate on her hand, and then rubbed her eye. She also couldn’t wait the 4-6 minutes for the chocolate to soften and began eating M&Ms. Actually, sucking on them in her hand and making a mess. So, things went pretty smoothly until it was time to bake. Which was still great. This was definitely the least stressful and messy recipe we’ve made together. I’d totally do it again.

Dragon! Beware!

Call me crazy, I just spent one entire week making Hailey’s Halloween costume. Worth it? So totally! I love how it turned out.


I used McCall’s pattern MP440. It was one of those patterns that was on display near the cutting counter at JoAnn’s. And I got sucked in. I was planning on making Hailey a dinosaur costume, but then I saw this pattern for a dragon and loved it.

Let me tell you what, it was no easy pattern. First off, I haven’t actually sewn with a real pattern very often, and it’s been a while. I prefer using tutorials online that have full color pictures (not illustrations) and detailed instructions. So just reading the pattern itself was a challenge.

I definitely was confused more than once how something went together or worked. Especially the feet. Wow, I was lost. Thank goodness for Kyle and his mind. He didn’t need the pattern to figure out what was supposed to happen. That’s why he does what he does.

I learned a few things with this project: a better and easier way to sew on a zipper, how to make a dart, and all of those markings on the pattern pieces really are important… it may look like jibberish when you mark it, but it totally makes sense once you start sewing. Too bad I didn’t mark all of them…

I made a couple changes/additions to Hailey’s costume from what the pattern said. I realized that Hailey was totally going to look like a boy. A dragon isn’t a typical girl costume. So, I made a quick bow and stitched it to the top. The gloves in the pattern were supposed to be stuffed, like her feet are. But, how was she supposed to be able to hold anything? So, I traced Hailey’s hand and made my own three fingered dragon hands-with no stuffing.

ROAR!