Valentine Pasta Dinner

Hello. Welcome to Valentines day season 2012!  I have only been blogging for about a year now, and I have decided that Valentines day is by far my favorite time of the blogging year! Its all about the love people!

This is the first post for 2012's " Valentines day food extravaganza!" I have been brainstorming Valentines day food for some time!

If you have any fun Valentines day food that you would like me to share with my followers and Facebook followers, please e-mail Makethebestcrafts@gmail.com.  I also require that you like us on Facebook. 

I know I don't have the most followers in the world, but I hope this can be fun for everyone.  I am looking for submissions of " out of the box" Valentines day food. 

The point of this, is to think healthy.  Families can still celebrate valentines day without loading up on candy and cakes.

I will start with my Valentines day pasta dinner.

This is a simple dipping plate with Olive oil and a heart made with tomato paste ( tomato paste that comes in a tube). I got inspired for this Valentines day appetizer, when recalled a visit to" Little Ital"y in New York City.   My husband and I  received our bread dipping plate it had olive oil and tomato paste mixed together.  We both love it!

I purchased this heart cookie cutter set at Hobby Lobby to use for my Valentine pasta dish.

I cut a zuccini with the two smaller cookie cutters to make them look like hearts. Cute. Right?

I also cut a few hearts out of a red pepper. ( although this didn't go with the same ease as the zuccini).

I sauted the veggies in some olive oil. 

I threw them over pasta with a white sauce. 

Wa la!

Easy Valentines day pasta dinner!

Santa Claus Ice Cream Sundae

One Day, I was rooting around Pinterest. and I saw

This

Totally amazing ice cream sundae kit!

I decided I wanted to make one for our new neighbors, but with an extra special Christmas twist!

So, I came up with a Santa Sundae kit!

Since this is a Christmas theme, I put a fun Christmas twist on all of the Sundae toppings!

Rudolph noses AKA Red cinnamon candies.

Christmas Toys.  AKA Gummy bears.

Broken Christmas lights. Or, Christmas M & M's

Elf Ears. Or, slivered almonds.

North Pole Rocks. Or, Crushed Candy Canes.

Christmas Sprinkles

Christmas Snow ( Marshmellow fluff)  and Mrs. Claus's hot fudge.

I placed all the toppings in a Box and wrapped it up. I used cars stock, markers and puff paint to decorate. 

I really feel like puff paint helps with that finishing touch. don't you?

Get creative with it! the topping ideas are endless!

Some afterthoughts I had were....

Santa's chocolate chip cookie crumbs.

Gingerbread man crumbs.

and

Chocolate chips as " Snowman eyes"

Merry Christmas! Hope you will make one too!

Madeline costume....And a desperate plea for help.

I LOVE making gifts for my nephews and niece. ( and I will Love making gifts for my son too. Although, right now, he is only 6 weeks old)

My niece is the " Princess of the family" She is 4, the only girl in the family, and she is also adorable. 

Audrey has a great amount of princess dress up clothes.  What a great idea to make her a costume that would introduce her to a literary character.

 I chose ...

Madeline!

I also purchased a Madeline book, just in case she was not familiar with Madeline.

I have been starting to sew some simple things.  I don't have a sewing machine, but trying to decide if I should get one.  My mom brought hers with her when she visited for  Thanksgiving, and helped me with this project.

We found fleece remnants at the fabric store. for about a dollar apiece. With fleece, you don't have to hem the ends and its durable for a little girl to play in.

The Madeline dress is made out of a little girl PJ patternl  My mother has been sewing for a LONG time. She has pretty much every pattern you can imagine. 

The Madeline cape is made out of a basic children's cape pattern. We then just added the white collar ( also fleece) and I hand stitched the ribbon on for the finishing touch.  

I measured the ribbon longer than I thought it needed to be.  If this is too long, it can always be cut.

Here is the finished product.....Almost finished.

Initially, when I posted my Madeline costume, I posted a plea of help in the blog world.  How would I make Madeline's hat that goes with this costume?  You guys left some great comments below on how to make a yellow hat.  I looked into yellow hats, and straw hats.  

I ended up purchasing a straw hat from Hobby Lobby and sewing on black ribbon.  I could have done more with Madeline's hat, but I had a 2 month old at the time and I didn't have time to visit this further. 

And lastly, here is a Eiffel tower made from a pipe cleaner. This is from my " breakfast toppers" post.  I just thought this would be cute to incorporate into the gift wrap somehow. Also would be a cute cupcake topper for a Madeline themed party.

Happy Holiday crafting everyone!!