Holidays I Missed

I wrote a lot about Valentine's Day, but I forgot to share this picture of the roses Caleb bought me:

(I married a smart man; he had them delivered the week before Valentine's Day to save money!)

I also never shared pictures of the beautiful and delicious pies I made to celebrate Pi Day (March 14).

Here's my Dutch Apple Pi Pie:

And my first-ever lemon meringue pie!

It was scrumptious!

Love and Rhubarb,

Leah Joy

Valentine's Day Truffles

Valentine's Week is almost over, but I saved the yummiest post for today!  Number 38 on my 101 Things in 2014 list was to make and sell truffles for Valentine's Day.  After making several different kinds for our Christmas parties with the help of my sister, I also took several photographs for 'publicity'.  I loaded them into a Facebook album and re-shared the album every once in a while.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Coconut Truffles

Dark Chocolate Truffles - available with cocoa dusting, rolled in almonds, or dipped in chocolate

White-Chocolate Lemon Truffles

Chocolate-Covered Fruit Creams - available in lemon, orange, strawberry, and peppermint

I only ended up selling 5 boxes, and while it would have been nice to sell more, I'm also okay with that number.  For this project, I ordered 100 1# candy boxes from Nashville Wraps (very pleased with their service, by the way, and I couldn't find a better price anywhere else), and I also, of course, had to purchase ingredients.  The price of the 5 boxes I sold just covered all my expenses, so while I didn't make any money, I didn't lose any money, either.  Plus, I still have all the extra boxes, so if I do this again next year, I won't have to factor in that very large cost, and can start making a profit more quickly.

My most popular flavor was the Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough Truffles.  I piped the chocolate drizzle on top using a little zip-lock bag with a tiny hole cut in the corner.  They turned out so gorgeous!

Two of my orders were for a full box of just cookie dough truffles.

Some people ordered a variety box, which was so much fun to put together, and looked so pretty!

Isn't that colored chocolate fun?  For Christmas, I received a set of Wilton's candy colors and was so excited to try them.  You can't use regular food coloring in chocolate, because regular food coloring is water-based.  I got to practice with the red, yellow, and green (combination of yellow and blue, actually) for the strawberry, lemon, and peppermint fruit creams.  

I bought this red organza ribbon from Hobby Lobby, which is so pretty, but I also love the heart ribbon I found there:

All in all, I consider it a success.  Nothing bad came of it since I didn't lose money, but all these good things happened:

- I got to use my new candy colors.

- I got experience in halving and quartering certain recipes that weren't as popular.

- I got experience in packing candy boxes and tying cute bows.

- I made 5 people very happy!

- I had some extras and was able to pack 2 boxes to give away, so I made another 2 people very happy!

- We still have some leftover coconut truffles, so that's another 2 very happy people! :)

Love and Chocolate,

Leah Joy

Scratch-Off Valentine's Day Cards

Here's another Valentine's Day craft inspired by Pinterest!

These scratch-off Valentine's Day cards were also in my 101 Things in 2014 list, so I'm scratching multiple things off that list this week.

I went over to my parents' house to make these, because they have the acrylic paint and cardstock, and I'm a craft moocher.  Chloe and I got out all the supplies, ready to make a mess.

I also shopped at the Dollar Tree for an extra Valentiney effect, and I found foam heart stickers, pink glitter heart stickers, and this cute pink and red glittery heart 'table scatter' (which becomes a sticker when one applies glue to the back).

The original post had some really cute ideas for cards, but instead of printing any, we drew our own.

At some point, Claire got out of school and came over to make cards, too!

We didn't have any silver acrylic paint, and we were going to be using lots of different colors of cardstock, so we used black, because it matches everything.  In retrospect, it looks a little bit awful to have black hearts on a Valentine's Day card, but we decided to say it looks like chalkboard paint and then also to pretend that we don't hate that trend.

The paint/soap mixture dried really quickly.  Chloe was able to scratch it off after only 15 minutes.  We only applied one layer of the paint, but it might have been nicer with two.

Now let's all thank Chloe for being willing to scratch off her Valentine a few days before Valentine's Day - and also for letting me post it on here! :)

I made a few other scratch-off Valentine's Day cards (as did Chloe and Claire), but I also made regular cards for the other family members:

Plus this fabulous pink one for Claire, the pink enthusiast.

Love and Glitter,

Leah Joy

Valentine's Hearts

I've seen this pinned a dozen times by those I follow on Pinterest, and it was also on my 101 Things in 2014 list.

What a sweet idea - and what a great way to encourage your children!  

Well, I modified it for my husband, which is why these photos are blurred out. :)  And, not surprisingly, I made a more colorful version of this project.  I've been adding one a day, so of course it's not done yet, but this is what it will look like on Friday:

Because Caleb goes to work early, I can't have the new heart on the wall before he wakes up, so instead, I make sure it's up before he comes home from work.  Here's what it looks like at this point:

Love and Dental Hygiene,

Leah Joy

The Monday Rant: Anti-Valentine's Day

Welcome to Valentine's Week - yes, a whole week!  Not just a day.  Why would you want to limit your celebration of love to just one day?  We all know my favorite holiday is Christmas, but Valentine's Day is so much fun, too.  Yet, there are some people who seem to think that it is a terrible holiday and do everything in their power to spoil other people's fun.

Now, it might seem pretty pointless for a happily-married woman to argue that you should love Valentine's Day, too, no matter what your current romantic situation, but just hear me out.  This will only be my 3rd happily married Valentine's Day, meaning that I have spent a lot of Valentine's Days un-married.  I've had single-and-happy Valentine's Days, dating-and-happy Valentine's Days, dating-and-wondering-why-I'm-still-dating Valentine's Days, single-and-lonely Valentine's Days, and once in college, I even had the classic single-and-still-got-3-unsolicited-Valentine's-cards-from-creepy-guys Valentine's Day.

So I get it.  I get that that 'evil' redhead rejected you 5 years ago and you still can't get over it and be happy.  I get that you were only trying to be nice to those guys who didn't seem to have any other friends and they took it the wrong way.  But I'm here to remind you that there is more than one kind of love!

Some of my favorite Valentine's Days were spent with my family and friends!  My mom and sister and I would get out the craft supplies and make Valentine's cards for our family members.  My little brother would share his leftover Halloween candy (kid is a health nut).  My dad would buy us flowers and chocolate.  And we'd bake cookies and eat conversation hearts.  I'd give cards and cookies to my best friends.  Does that really sound so terrible?

We're celebrating love here - and it doesn't have to just be romantic love!  We can celebrate friendship and family!

Now, for those last few remaining skeptics: yes, you in the happy relationship who persists in remaining anti-Valentine's Day because "it's just a holiday thought up by greeting card companies".  Think again - because that's not true.  Look it up.  (That is true, however, for Sweetest Day.)  Besides, you don't have to support big businesses, greeting card companies, or any business at all to celebrate Valentine's Day.  Make a homemade card.  Bake cookies.  Do something special for your loved ones: take a walk with them, watch a movie together, take them out for dinner - whatever makes them feel loved.  Take time out of your day to notice them and love them!

Now go forth and celebrate love!

Love and More Love,
Leah Joy