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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day - Share yours with Starbucks!

Happy Valentine's Day!  To start your morning on the right foot, here is a pretty spectacular offer from Starbucks!!

"Share Drinks with Someone You Love"




This offer is valid TODAY ONLY (2/14/2013)
Just print the coupon, present, and you and your sweetheart (or stranger!) can enjoy a Hot Chocolate, Vanilla Spice Latte, or Caffè Mocha.  

SWEET!


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Bacon Rose Bouquet

Let me start off by saying that I wasn't originally going to post this.
I found the idea on Pinterest, BUT, after posting my final creation on my personal Facebook page, I received so many responses with compliments, questions, and "Will I make them one?"

As you can see, they were all welcomed responses, so I figured this is a service you all NEEDED to be provided with!

Now...apparently, I didn't read through the whole PIN on my pinterest board.  I just thought they were cute and did them.

After having several people ask me if I ruined a muffin pan creating them, I was like "Huh?"
The original PIN says you need to drill holes in a muffin pan.
While that's creative, there is certainly no need to do that.


Now...I do not have step by step pictures, because like I said, I was not planning on doing a blog post on this.  However, I will try my best to provide you all with as much information as I can since tomorrow is V-day and this would be absolutely presh to give your man!

I did go back through and try to take some snap shots of dissecting your flower pieces. That and how to build the roses were by far the most popular questions.  Again, I will do my best to explain, but feel free to comment or ask questions.

Let's start.

You'll need:
1 package of bacon - Whatever flavor you like.  (Note - I have not used turkey bacon.  Let me know if you try!)
1 faux flower bouquet
toothpicks
cookie sheet with lip - I used a jelly roll pan
foil


To start; begin by taking off your faux flower heads off the stems.
Most come off with a gentle tug, but the reenactment, which will hopefully benefit some. FYI: I did not do a reenactment of the roses.

Gentle Tug

Flower Detaches from steam

Pull Plastic Nub Piece Out, Remove Flower

Reattach the Nub to the Greenary

And there you have it.




Alright - Time for bacon!
Preheat your oven to 350.
Line your cookie sheet with foil.
Lay your bacon out flat. (I worked right on the cookie sheet)
Roll bacon into a spiral, keeping it nice and tight. Fat side of bacon will be on the bottom.
Tip: One thing I wished I would have done was focus more on the bottom of the "rose"  make sure it stays nice and tight.  I found that they're not easily transported if the bottom (the fatty side) doesn't have a nice "seal" (I guess we'll call it) on the flower steam.  Mine stayed fine for presentation purposes, but I wouldn't have wanted them to ride solo in the passenger seat of my car.
Fat side (bottom) you will secure with toothpicks in a criss-cross fashion.  I put one closer to the bottom and one right through the middle.
Continue same steps with the remaining pieces of bacon.
Tip:  If you plan to use just the amount of bacon you need - I highly recommend doing a couple extra's in case some look better than the others.
Cook bacon for 20-25 mins or until cooked through.
Let the bacon cool before handling.  About 5 min's.
While you're waiting for the bacon to cool, grab your vase and your stems.
Tip: If you're doing a small bacon bouquet, like I did, I couldn't find a vase small enough to hold them upright, so choice to use a decanter.  Worked fabulously!
Once bacon is cool, attached the individual pieces it to the tops of the stems, and Present.

I gave this to my husband for our 10 year.
His reaction?  At 1st he thought they were real flowers!  He had to do a triple look!!
A week later, he is still talking about these and even told the girls at work, they  needed to do one for their husbands.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say he liked it ;)

I know the men in your life will too!

Enjoy,


Monday, February 4, 2013

I love you because...Valentine's Day Special

My husband and I have a sign in our room that says "I Love You Because..."

It's fun.  We've been together almost 10 years (this THURSDAY!) and it's nice to see, hear, read, and pass love notes to each other after so many years.

For Valentine's this year - I'm taking a spin on that for for my daughter.
She loves, loves, LOVES getting mail, so it's been a fun little game these last several days.

It all started with this cute little mailbox I found at Target in their $1 bins.  Yep $1!  I added to the mailbox the word "Mail", and each day when she wakes up and sees the red flag raised, she knows she's got mail.

It's all very exciting.  She'll open her mailbox up each morning, to find something special about her each day!


To apply the sayings/mail, we simply use scotch tape.  I place the tape at the top and she applies it to the wall.

Today, was Day 4, so her wall isn't full just yet, but it will be soon enough.

With that said - There will never be enough wall space on this earth, to show how much I love this little girl! *Muah*