Happy Birthday Little Valentine

Three years ago today, one of the sweetest little Valentine's ever was born.  Even though Gracie lived just over one short year, the love she brought with her was enough to last one hundred lifetimes.  Her mom writes a blog called Beautifully Mended and she writes about that special day in this post.  Be prepared to feel the love.

A Valentine's Gift For You

Every year I bake heart shaped, sugar cookies with my girls, and then they invite a few friends over to decorate them the day before Valentine's. 

Baking cookies is a great excuse to wear my Minnie Mouse apron!

This year, for the first time, I made the cookies entirely with whole wheat, mainly because I've just plain ol' stopped buying white flour.  I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, since rolling whole wheat dough is a little tricky.

This girl LOVES to bake!

The verdict?  Awesome!  Way better than white, as they actually had some flavour, other than just sugar-y.  So my gift to you this Valentine's is the recipe!

Rolled Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

Cream the butter in a large mixing bowl.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl, and stir into the butter mixture a bit at a time, blending thoroughly as you go.
Pat the dough into a ball, cover, and refrigerate for at least three hours or overnight.
Lightly flour a cutting board, and roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thick.
Cut out cookies with cookie cutters.
Place cookies on cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 350 F oven until golden, about 8 minutes.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

SOOOOO good.  Especially 'cause I used real butter.  We were having such a good time making a mess decorating, that I forgot to take a pic of the finished product.  Anyway.  Trust me.  Soooooo good!

Crafting for the Clueless - Wax Paper Heart Garland

My little one had to miss her preschool party yesterday due to a stomach bug, so I wanted to do something special at home with her.  Decorating for the special days of the year does not have to equal going and buying another binful of stuff.  It's amazing what you can find on other people's thrifty, craft blogs!

I loved this Wax Paper Heart Garland, and this helpful tutorial as well.   I knew I had all the supplies I needed at home - wax paper, broken crayons & an old piece of ribbon.  FREE and REPURPOSED.  Love those words.  Even Martha Stewart (or at least one of her minions), has made some wax paper hearts. Yay for other crafty people who help Clueless Crafters like me!

Once Ellie was up and feeling a little better, I had her pick out some broken red and pink crayons.  I shaved them onto wax paper, covered it with another pieced, put an old towel ontop, and ironed.
I used cookie cutters to trace hearts and then Ellie helped with cutting them out.  This was great scissor practice for her since the wax paper becomes nice and stiff.  Then I hole punched in two places on the side and Ellie threaded a piece of ribbon left over from her big sisters' craft kits.  Cutting, threading....her occupational therapist would be proud.  Not obsessing over perfect hearts makes it more fun for everyone as well!

We hung the garland up over the patio window so the light would shine through and give it that nice semi-transparent glow.  (A sunny day would help with that!)  Plus, it's a little Valentine decoration for the birds who visit our feeder.  Or at least that's what Ellie said.  This took us about an hour total, but I'm sure it would take you less.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Crafting for The Clueless - Free Valentine's Printables

One awesome thing about the interwebs is that it is filled with lovely, artistic, design oriented people who are passionate about creating things.  And sharing the things they create.  For FREE.

For Clueless Crafting people like me, who'd like to make make your house special for Valentine's Day, but don't have the time or ability to craft, and don't want to get sucked in at the dollar store & fill yet another bin full of decorations that you have to find a home for the other 11 months of the year....

Behold!  The PRINTABLES!

A simple, sweet decor over my desk.

I had my three girls pick out which printable they wanted.  Don't they go wonderfully together?

All it takes is a click and a print and you've got some lovely, fun decor.  You can put them in a frame like I did, or stick them wherever you like!  On your front door!  On the fridge!  On the washing machine!  On your child's lunch bag!

At the end of the season if you don't feel like keeping them, it's no biggie.  Stick them in the recycle bin, or have your child enjoy cutting out the shapes and letters.  Just a frugal tip though - obviously, the ones with more colour will cost more to print.


THE LINKS!
Here's a site I used with lovely, free printables.  Leave her a kind comment if you used any.  I found another here!   Annnnnnnnd....  last but not least!

Thank you so much lovely, designing, crafty, generous people for sharing....I heart you.