Home made Valentine's Chocolates!

Valentine's day is tomorrow!  Do you need a last minute idea for a valentine's gift?  Why not some home made chocolates?  They're quick and easy to make and gives a personalized touch to each piece of chocolate.  So I don't normally make or give out Valentine's gifts but I was watching an anime a couple of months ago (Fruits Basket) and there was an episode about Valentine's Day and White Day and I was determined to make my own chocolates to hand out for Valentines to hand out to my friends.  

So for those who don't know here's a quick recap from the wiki page on White Day.  In Japan Valentine's is typically observed by females to present chocolates and gifts to males to show their affection - in my case friendship.  Handmade chocolates are usually preferred because it shows sincerity    and emotion put into the home made item.  On White Day, March 15th, the reverse happens where the recipient of the gift returns a gift that is typically something white.  It's silly, but I also secretly hope for something in return on White day ^_^.  I blame it on me watching so much Japanese anime although I live in America.   

So here's how I made the Valentine's day chocolates.

• 2-3 different colored candy melts (candy waffers)
• Chocolate Waffers of your choice (I used dark chocolates)
• Peanut Butter Filling and/or nuts for fillings
• Note: I don't have step by step instructions for this but check out the link.  They have to chill for 1 hour so be sure to do this step first.
• Requires: Butter, Pb, powdered sugar
• Zip lock bags
• 1-2 candy trays
• I used the Roses & Hearts from Hobby Lobby

Big thanks for my friend A for the chocolates in bulk and showing me the PB Filling recipe.

DIY Fabric Flower Necklace

Original Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/231724343298734063/

Original blog: Little Inspirations

Pin rating: 5

Duration: 30-45 minutes

I love making fabric flowers but I never thought of making a fabric flower necklace until I saw it on pintrest.  This is super easy and such a beautiful end result.  My flower template is a little different from the original tutorial but this was the way I taught myself to make the flowers so I just kind of stuck with it for this tutorial.  I also tried out the Fray Check for the first time and I kind of like it except for the fact that it's noticeable when it dries - granted Fray Check is probably better used for clothes that will be washed.  Also, my pictures this time around are all a tint of blue...I'm not sure why but I tried to fix and adjust them as much as possible so please bear with me as I'm still learning the photography aspect of blogging.

• Small flower template
• Fabric
• Felt (not pictured)
• Chain
• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• Scissors

Optional

• Needle & thread
• Fabric pencil
• Fray Check
• Jump rings
• pliers to break the chain
• Necklace clasp

DIY Marble Necklace

Did you miss me?  My boyfriend took a pretty bad spill on the tennis courts on Sunday so I've been making sure to be available for him in case he needed anything.  He's no longer bed ridden so things are slowing going back to their normal routine.  Hopefully I can also get a blog post up for tomorrow.  If not let's just hope next week I'll be back to my MWF posting schedule.

So, there's only 1 week left until Thanksgiving and I haven't done a single Thanksgiving related post!  Can you believe it?  I can't.  Where has November gone?  Maybe it's because the stores go directly from Halloween to Christmas and Thanksgiving doesn't really get much love.  Since everyone is gearing up for Christmas I decided to as well.  I decided this year for Christmas, seeing that I'm on an unemployed budget, I'm going to make Christmas gifts for my friends.  Since I have quite a few gifts to make I decided I have to start early,  especially since some of my friends live out of town and are visiting in early December so xmas gifts need to be ready to go in a couple of weeks!  I'll probably post a Thanksgiving post later next week when I actually have Thanksgiving dinner and use a recipe from Pintrest, but for now, let the Christmas crafting begin!

Also, friends and family who do read/follow my post I hope you're still surprised to see your gift when you get them since the blog post won't reveal who the gift is for.  :)

(Original pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/231724343298624586/)

Pin Rating: 3.5 (Keep in mind this is a pin rating and not a rating or the final product b/c I love the way it turned out)

Level of difficulty: Medium (If you don't already have sewing experience this may be a bit difficult)

• Marbles or Accent Gems (I picked some up at the Dollar Tree)
• Tulle or some sort of transparent/see through fabric (I used Organza since I had A LOT laying around)
• Sewing items (Sewing machine, pins, measuring tape, scissors, needle, thread, safety pin)
• Cute accent button