It’s mid-January!!!  Can you believe it??  Valentine’s Day is just a month away.  As soon as Christmas is over and I have all my decor put away, it feels empty and plain and sad.  It makes me excited to bring in Valentine’s Decor.

On that note, we start baking everything in heart shapes around here.  I absolutely ADORE these italian sandwich cookies with raspberry preserves.  I used my little heart cookie cutter to cut out the middle of one side to make them more of a valentines cookie.  These are simple and soooo delicious!

Easy Italian Raspberry Preserves Sandwich Cookies:

Ingredients
3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I like to use vanilla bean paste)
3 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup good raspberry (or preferred fruit jam) preserves
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350˚ degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/4-inch thick and cut 2 3/4-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With 1/2 of the rounds, cut a hole from the middle of each round with a heart-shaped cutter (optional). Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes.  It’s important to chill them to keep their pretty shape (I may have learned this the hard way, wink wink

Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Now, my gas oven cookies super fast so I only did 10 minutes.  You may want to try that first and possibly do less, depending on your elevation.  Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread raspberry preserves on the flat side of each solid cookie. Sprinkle the cut-out piece of the cookies with confectioners’ sugar and press the flat sides together, with the raspberry preserves in the middle and the confectioners’ sugar on the top.

And how cute are those golden arrow measuring spoons?! You can find them here below by clicking on the picture:

Search through all my other Valentine’s here on my blog!  I have other fun recipes and gift ideas!  I sure LOVE this time of year!  Happy Baking!

xoxo, Summer

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Mid-January arrives and my kids are already wanting to plan what kinds of Valentines they want to give at school and to close friends.  Let’s be honest….they’re already planning what they want to be for Halloween and it’s driving me craaaa-zy {slow down}.  So, we sat down and brainstormed last week.  Everything we loved, that we haven’t done already, had a printable we had to purchase.  So, I whipped this up on Photoshop for Brooklyn last night and put together all her Valentines (I like to get them done early so I don’t have to stress).

As cute as the candy tubes were that we saw online, they were almost $1 a piece.  Hmmmm…no thanks.  But we did find these cute bags HERE on eBay and there are so many that we can use them again for another project or split them with friends.  They were just over 1″ wide so that our 1″ gum balls (Target and Walmart have pink, red and white) would fit.  There’s your “blow” part and then we added silver Hershey’s kisses for the “kiss” part.

So cute and easy, right?!!  Well….I’m gonna make it even easier and give you the printable for free here —-> Blow a Kissfrom SheLeavesALittleSparkle!

Just print them out on card stock and have your child sign their name in either pink or red.  Use a small hole punch in the corner and use pink or red twine or ribbon to tie the top (double not before you do a bow so that it stays).  Wait!  One more thing……

HOW CUTE ARE MY PJ’s????  They look like red lips but they are hot pink and oh so cute!!  Get them HERE at OldNavy.com (I called a million stores and they are sold out, so online is your best bet).  Happy Shopping and Valentines-making!  xoxo…

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I’ve had my Valentine’s decor up for a week now! I just loooove LOVE and although I really like neutral color schemes in my home, even during most holidays, Valentine’s is where I feel my love for red just burst all over anything and everything!  Red and pink…all over.

Here’s what and I’ve found and where I found it:

I spotted these cute hand towels this year at Home Goods (my 2nd home…Hobby Lobby would be my 3rd and where I picked up those cute gold glitter cherubs).  The darling red chair backers for the kids are from PB Kids and although they no longer carry that style any longer, you can still find them on eBay or find new cute styles here.  And stay tuned for more on that because starting February 1st I do what’s called the “14 Days of Valentine’s” for my kids and that is so fun!  I love the cute treats and cookies they have at Trader Joe’s this time of year and then there are the beloved bulk candy bins at WinCo just FULL of pretty and yummy Valentine’s candy that look so cute in apothecary jars.  And on that note…my kids know that we do NOT under any circumstance touch the candy in the clear jars because those are for looks (or guests) ha ha but they can have the candy in the other set of cute black apothecary jars (see easy and inexpensive tutorial here) because that candy is less expensive and easier to refill Anyone else this crazy?  I found a darling  printable here that I framed.  The red berry wreath was from Taipan years ago (found in Utah and SoCal…what a FUN store!) and they also added some online shopping now too so check them out.  Target has one here too if you’re in the market for one.  And they always have cute knick-knacks like ceramic birds and wall decor etc.
The fun Valentine’s Tic-Tac-Toe game is something I found for 25 cents at a garage sale a few years back and my kids LOVE it!  We keep it at the table and they’ll play sometimes while they’re eating or watching a movie or just talking to me while I’m making dinner.  I made the banners and wish sticks myself (tutorial coming soon), as well as the cute burlap and linen gift sacks (use acrylic paint to paint red heart and then sprinkle red glitter…easy). While I pride myself on a homemade banner, because they are usually the cutest and most unique, Target did have a couple that were okay and so I bought the $5 one pictured above (not sold online).

If you don’t have many Valentine’s decorations but you feel inspired to start…don’t get overwhelmed!  You don’t need to fill up your house or go overboard….at first, anyway  Collect things you love and that you can afford each year.  And head on over to Pinterest and find crafts and other things that catch your eye but also don’t feel overwhelming.  Plus, your kids will enjoy it! xoxo…

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Ordering all my Valentine’s sugar cookies for friends and family for Valentine’s Day and I’m soooo excited!!! Megan at Well Mixed Sweet Treats makes the CUTEST cookies I’ve ever seen and put together such cute little bags of cookies. I know my family will love their personalized cookies. Hurry and order yours now!  She ships all over the country and you can get yours right before Valentine’s Day!  Don’t forget to follow her on Instagram @wellmixedsweets and also on Facebook !

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