Week 29: New Way to Show Some Love

I am REALLY excited to share my new thing with you guys this week! I have literally been working on this for a year and I finished it yesterday. Let me explain:


The New:
On July 22, 2013 my boyfriend told me he loved me for the first, and it was super romantic and gushy the way he did it. So I decided the very next day to keep track of all the reasons why I love him, one each day for the next year, and that's exactly what I did. I called it my "Because Project," since I was writing things that finished the sentence "I love you because..." (If you are trying to find this post again later, it will be on my craft page under the title 'because project') It took 8 pages in a microsoft word document, single spaced. That's a whole lot of reasons, let me tell you!

So anyway, I wasn't always sure about what I wanted to do with all these reasons or how I wanted to give them to him. I thought of a few ideas, but nothing really stood out to me... Until one day I came up with the perfect idea. I decided to tear index cards in half and write on reason per card, then I sneaked into his house while he was at work (hence me doing it a few days early-he was working and I had the day off) and hid these reasons EVERYWHERE. He will surely be finding them for the next several months :)

To get him set up with this, I bought a binder and some of the clear pages that people use to collect baseball cards so he can keep them all together and they will be easy to look at. I put the first and last reason in the binder to get him started and to let him know what to look for. I also typed up a love note/explanation of what I had done and put it in a sheet protector as the first page of the binder. Then I met him at work as he was getting off, gave him the binder, and once he got home I let him find them from there. He was having so much fun! It almost reminded me of a small child on an Easter egg hunt :)



The Evidence:

The Verdict:
This was definitely worth all the time and energy that I put into it. I was such a simple (and relatively cheap!) way to shower my man with a little bit of love. Plus, the huge smile that invaded his face after reading each card is something that I could never get tired of seeing.
Doing a reason for each day of the year is definitely a lot, so if it's too overwhelming but you like the idea, try doing 52 reasons-one for each week of the year. You could even write the 52 reasons on a deck of cards.

Have you already done something similar? I would love to hear about it in the comments :)

Week 28: New Sweet Treat

Have you ever had the avalanche bars from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory? Well, I have stumbled upon the homemade recipe for it! You're welcome :)


The New:
In case you haven't ever had these magical bars, let me tell you why you need to! They are like rice crispy treats, but the 2.0 version. And so easy to make! Check it out:

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. bag of white chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup of peanut butter
• 3 cups of rice crispy cereal
• 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
• 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Melt the white chocolate chips. I did 60 seconds in the microwave and it was done. Stir in the peanut butter.
2. Once white chocolate and peanut butter are well combined, add the cereal and stir. Let it cool for about 15 or 20 minutes.
3. Next stir in the marshmallows and mini chocolate chips. They might get a little melty if it hasn't cooled off enough. 
4. Pour the mixture into a greased 9x9 pan. (I imagine lining it with parchment paper would work too!) Press it into the pan using a spoon, but don't press too much or too hard, otherwise they become very dense and less fun to eat :)
5. Cut the bars when they have completely cooled. I stuck mine in the fridge to speed up the process.

The Evidence:

The Verdict:
These are delicious and simple! The white chocolate-peanut butter combination reminded me of these reese's puffs cereal, so to have that taste in a rice crispy consistency was awesome! Also, everyone who tried one, loved it: My boyfriend, my roommate, her boyfriend, my dad, and even my mom who despises white chocolate. Needless to say, these were a crowd-pleaser! I will definitely be making these again, maybe with more chocolate chips next time :)

Week 27: New Cookie Recipe

Guess who has two thumbs and took advantage of her 3 day weekend to catch up on blogging? This girl!

The New:

For the first time ever, I made cookies from a cake mix, and they are delicious! But more on that later : ) Here’s how I did it:

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

Strawberry cake mix

Baking powder

2 eggs

1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil

Vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.       Combine cake mix and baking powder. Set aside.

3.       Whisk together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Add to cake mix and baking powder.

4.       Stir together. Once it is well-combined add chocolate chips.

5.       Plop balls of dough onto cookie sheet and be aware that they will likely spread out.

6.       Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 3 minutes and then let finish cooling on a rack.

The Evidence: 

The Verdict: 

I never thought of using a cake mix to make cookies, but it worked out really well and it was incredibly easy! Plus, they were soft, which is enough to convince me to do it again. I might even get creative and try a different cake mix next time. For now though, I’ll be munching down these pink beauties!

Week 26: New way to answer the question "What do you wanna do today?"

My boyfriend and I often fall into the what-do-you-wanna-do-today-I-don't-know-what-do-you-wanna-do-today trap. And so we agree that after watching something on Netflix, we will take on that challenge again. But we don't, and it becomes a vicious cycle of watching lots of Netflix and never doing anything fun or new. So! I've got a solution to that now :)


The New:
Remember that jar I made two weeks ago? Well I'm putting it to good use this week. Here's what I did:
I looked up date ideas on Pinterest and found several good lists with fun things to do. Then, I wrote out all the dates on popcicle sticks with an ultra fine point sharpie and split them into 3 categories: free, $20 or less, and lets plan for it.
I used nail polish to paint the ends of the sticks, based on the categories they were in. If you look at the picture below, purple is free, pink is $20 or less, and sea foam green requires the extra planning and money. I'm debating the need for a 4th category that's between $20 and $100, but I'm sticking with these 3 for now to see if it solves the problem.

Anyway, whenever we get bored now, we will have a way to fix that problem :)

The Evidence:

The Verdict:
I must admit, I just finished this little project and I'm still thinking of new ideas to add, so I have not had the opportunity to actually try this out yet, but I have no doubt that it will work!




Any questions on how I did this? What variation did you make to it? What ideas did you write on your popcicle sticks? Let me know in the comments :)