Love Note in a Pancake!

I saw this really cute idea HERE a few weeks ago, and I knew it would be perfect for a fun Valentine's Day breakfast...or maybe even breakfast for dinner. While Henry and Grant were at school, Eli and I tested out the "recipe" and had a fun pancake lunch:) 

To make the Love Note in my pancakes, I added some red food coloring to a little bit of the pancake batter and my little helper stirred it up.

Then I put the colored batter into my squeeze bottles.

Here's a little tip....don't leave your opened squeeze bottle of red batter near your "helper"! They might just dump it all out and then you will have to remix your colored batter...and someone will be eating a giant red pancake for lunch.

I squeezed out the design on my griddle and let it cook for about a minute.

 Then I filled in the rest of the pancake with the un-colored batter, cooked it a few minutes {until the top is all bubbly}, and flipped it.

You can make shapes or letter....I even think some of the sayings from Conversation Hearts would be adorable! Just make sure to write all the letters backwards because they are reversed when you flip the pancake over:)

This is such an easy and fun way to serve up a plate full of love notes to your family {in the form of pancakes}!

Blog Swap with Stacy from Not JUST a Housewife!

Today I'm over at Not JUST a Housewife....and you get the pleasure of meeting the awesome Stacy! After you "ooh" and "aah" over all of Stacy's awesome-ness {I mean seriously check out that stenciled ceiling}, hop over and say "HI" to me too:) And don't forget my SUPER cute Valentine Dish Towels giveaway ends tonight, so get in those extra entries!

Hi! I'm Stacy from Not JUST A Housewife and I am so excited to be swapping with Kelli today!!! I just recently found her site and fell in love! She has so many cute ideas. So thanks Kelli for letting me post here today :)

I am a stay at home mom to 4 little boys and I love it! It can be challenging being a stay at home mom and keeping my sanity though. Creating things and sharing them on my blog helps.Here are some of the things you can find on my blog.

I refinished this antique desk. You should see what it looked like before! I have a tutorial on how I did it HERE.

I needed more lighting in my front room but my hubby was unemployed at the time and I had zero budget for one. So I made this one out of scrap wood left over from other projects. Then I hand painted one of my designs on a lamp shade I had. I did have to buy a $10.00 lamp kit but I think it was worth the splurge! See the complete tutorial HERE.

With 4 busy boys I am always looking for fun activities to do with my kids. They love this felt face activity! I cut out a bunch of different noses, different eyes, mouths, etc and they can make their own faces however they want over and over. See how to make them HERE.

If I can't find the right fabric I just paint my own!

See how I fixed up our old bathroom for around $75.00!

I also recently stenciled my entire bedroom ceiling. It took 4 days because I had 49 million interuptions, but it was worth it. I love waking up to a pretty ceiling! You can see more picture and how I did it HERE. There is also a tutorial on how I made the Chandelier HERE

 

I host a linky party on Tuesdays called Show me what ya got! So come party with me on Tuesdays :)

I have an etsy shop called The Housewife Boutique, too. I recently added a ton of necklaces, hair clips and headbands.

You can visit my shop by clicking HERE.

I also sometimes chat about "mom" things like BABY WEIGHT, bad days, traditions, cleaning, etc. So come and visit me sometime at Not JUST A Housewife :)

Buckets of Love

I mentioned a few weeks back that both Henry and Grant are escorting little girls in their elementary school pageant. Well apparently getting fun gifts at the pageant is half the fun...so I set out to find something fun for my two boys and their girls:) I've seen these cute clear paint buckets before in gift shops {and in our local gift shop that is sending gifts to the pageant}....but being the crafter that I am, I always think "I can make that for so much less than they are charging!"

So my quest for craftiness began {and ended} at Micheal's were I found these large buckets for $4.99 each. They also had a cute smaller size for around $3.

 I used my Cricut to cut a few initials and some small dots out of vinyl. {You could totally do this with scrapbook stickers if you don't have a cutting machine.} Then I filled the buckets with pretty shredded paper and some goodies: a teddy bear, an activity book, decorative pins, and just little bit of chocolate:)

 I decorated the top of the lid and tied a small ribbon on the washer attached to the handle. It took me a while to figure out that you use the washer to pop off the top of the bucket:)

 Here's another one using white vinyl. I think it kind of looks like a white M&M!

 And here is the boys' version...less colorful and no polka dots:) I think my boys will approve, especially since there will be a DS game tucked inside their buckets!

These would be SUPER cute for Valentine's Day full of fun heart shaped candy and toys with a pretty red or pink bow tied to the handle!