Getting ready for Valentine's Day

So I love Valentine's Day.  Not because I get an electronic every V Day.  But, I did pre-order my camera, hopefully it ships before Valentine's Day.  I love Valentine's Day because I love love.  I'm such a girl, I know.  I am a hopeless romantic and I just love what it stands for.  I love the kids giving out Valentine's cards, the heart shape boxes with chocolate, the balloons, the flowers.  Valentine's will be exciting the year because I have already planned a month ahead of time for what I am creating.  I want to do something special for Addison's teachers and our friends and family.  And since I have started making cards, the Valentine's cards this year will be extra special.

So I was going through my Martha Stewart Living magazine for this month and I found some really cute things for Valentine's Day.  Like these

You can download the template to make the cones. Just print it on white or cream cardstock and you have the cutest carnation cones.  I so want to do this for Addison's teachers.  I love it when Addison brings flowers to his teacher, it makes me believe he will have a lucky wife.  When his 2nd grade teacher's dog died he made me take him to  Whole Foods to get her some flowers.  I just love flowers and I feel like these cones make them really special.

I am also going to bake, of course.  I just bought Wilton's heart shape whoopie pie pan and I'm so excited.

I am thinking I will make red velvet, chocolate, and strawberry ones.  But they might just end up all being red velvet.  I do have the weekend to bake but I know what happens when I put to much on my plate.  

Oh and I will also be baking cupcakes.  I get the cutest cupcake wrappers at Bake it Pretty.  I order a month before a holiday and then can't wait to use them.  I purchased these this time.  

Don't they look like little hearts?

I also purchased cute boxes to carry all my goodies.

This in pink.  I'm also thinking about decorating it.

If you love to bake I would recommend Bake it Pretty, they are located in Asheville, NC but they have an online shop.  They have the cutest stuff.  They even have straws, that I haven't bought yet because I don't see the purpose of paper straws unless you having a party.  Maybe this will give me a reason to throw a party.  :)

So last night, we just made steak, green beans, and mashed potatoes.  But I would like to share two things.  One is a while back a purchased theses potato gloves, and potato ricer from Williams-Sonoma. 

I keep telling people I will share my favorite things I get from there because they make my life so much easier.   The gloves can be used with any hard vegetable, like carrots.  Instead of peeling you just scrub your veggies, so you keep all the good nutrients since a lot of the vitamins are in the peel.  We love these gloves.  They are so easy and fun that Addison scrubs the veggies for me.  The potato ricer just makes mashing potatoes a snap.  It turns your potatoes to rice like grains and also gets rid of the peel, which I still put a some peel in my mashed potatoes.  

I also baked desert last night.  I got a recipe for Ooey Gooey Taffy Tart Squares from one of my favorite baking blogs Sweetapolita. 

 I was worried if they had come out right at first, they came out really gooey.  But, after putting them in the refrigerator over night they turned out good.  They taste like little pecan pie squares.  Addison has been snaking on them all day.  I had to give some away to classmates so they would get out of my house.  They are addictive.  

Well, I need to go work on some Valentine's cards and desk calendars.  I will keep everyone updated.  Let the Valentine's Day countdown begin.