Celebrating Valentine's Day

I can't believe January is done and Valentine's Day is just around the corner!  Wow... time flies fast  when you're having fun! In honor of the traditional hallmark holiday, my lovely and I celebrate very low key.  This is because although the pink stuff tickles my fancy, it's overrated! The expensive dinner, the crazy gifts and of course, the hectic and busy restaurants! Don't get me wrong... we did it our first couple years together, but after that we changed things up to something more simple. For the past several years we celebrate each other and our relationship.  

A great way to get into the spirit of this is to exchange mini cards of love. We did 14 reasons why I'm in love with you, exchanged them and read them to one another.  We have our version of a fancy dinner in our backyard complete with candles,our fireplace, wine (beer for lovely) and a 3 course menu we've never made before.        

For our place setting, I used a favorite dress of mine which had ripped and was put in the salvation pile, cut it up and used as our napkins.  

There are many other ways to celebrate which I discovered online and found as inspiration. Maybe we'll incorporate some or all of these one year.  I really loved this bingo set.  Although it would be fun to play bingo, we would need more than just the 2 of us!  

bingo set

The idea of writing "52 things I love about you" would be very similar to the "14 reasons why I love you" we have already done, but how cute is this deck of cards? A very simple, but expressive way to show your love how much they mean to you.    

52 reasons why I love you

Breakfast in bed? SURE! How cute is this how to! A very simple, but festive way to say I love you and appreciate everything you do for me!    

Breakfast in bed

Whatever you plan on doing, make it special and about who you are as a couple. Want to make some Valentine's Day sweet love cards too?  Feel free to download them here.  Have a Happy Valentine's day!   

Share

The holiday's are here!

It's an exciting time of year and whatever you celebrate.....

MERRY everything and HAPPY always!  Count your blessings and do what makes YOU happy!  Be safe and see you in 2012!!!  To many more years of happiness... 

and our precious bundle of joy as a gift from god!

Share

It's beginning to look a lot like....

CHRISTMAS!!!! 

Share

Peacock Inspired Birthday

Yep, we're having a birthday bash because I'm turning the BIG 3-0!!!  Ekks!  It's an exciting time with everything else going on in our life that we really need to celebrate!  And I'm so excited!  Because my birthday falls on Thanksgiving day this year, we are still reminded of what we are most thankful for, but we're taking this day to party and celebrate! Cheers!  

Share

Happy Halloween!

What are you dressed up as and how will you be celebrating? I wish I can create this adorable candy display.  I found it on One Charming Party and it's such eye candy!  Have a safe and Happy Halloween!   

Chic Candy Centerpiece

Share

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To celebrate, I'll be cooking my favorite homemade chicken enchiladas served with some chips and salsa and of course, we'll be having a few adult beverages! I was watching the Food Network when I came across this recipe, but since I'm more of an "on-the-rocks" kinda gal, I changed it up a bit. It's delicious so give it a try!

Chunky Strawberry Daiquiri (on-the-rocks)

10 fresh strawberries cleaned and cut into 4

1 cup lemonade juice

1 cup orange juice

coconut or pineapple rum (my choice is coconut)

triple sec (optional)

lime wedges

sugar

Mash strawberries in a bowl and place in pitcher. Add juices, rum, optional triple sec to the pitcher and sprinkle sugar to sweeten. Rub the rim of the glass with lime and roll the glass in sugar. Garnish with strawberries. Pour into glass, serve and enjoy!

Share

Happy Valentine's Day

I thought I'd share with you a little love and I think you should too! Tell the people special in your life you love them not just today, but everyday... your significant other, family, friends, pets, teachers, troops... I can go on and on! Normally my lovely and I don't exchange gifts for V-day because we feel each day together is a gift, but to remind each other of that, we're going to exchange mini notes that say why we love each other, 14 notes each!

Now, I'm going to tell you 14 things about me that I personally LOVE:

1. I LOVE laughing! It keeps me happy, especially with my best girlfriends!

2. I LOVE that I'm blessed with the best man to be by my side... all the time!

3. I LOVE my parents! They have and always will be there for me.

4. I LOVE warm, white sheets and towels fresh out of the dryer.

5. I LOVE everything white! It's so plain, yet fresh and clean looking!

6. I LOVE simplicity. Things don't always have to be so difficult.

7. I LOVE Minnie Mouse. I think I have everything with her face on it!

8. I LOVE traveling. Visiting new places and seeing how people live excites me!

9. I LOVE Oprah! She encourages me to "live my best life"!

10. I LOVE the sound of the ocean. It really calms me.

11. I LOVE that my lovely calls me everyday, even for just a moment!

12. I LOVE craft stores. I could literally spend hours in there!

13. I LOVE desserts and sweets! It's so bad for me, but so hard to resist!

14. I LOVE Dolldine Designs. Our clients, vendors, industry pals, family and friends is what keeps us going. Thank you so much for all your love and support!


What do you love? I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day and remember to spread the love!

Share

Valentine's day desserts

Since Valentine's Day is coming around the corner, I thought I would share some tasty treats. I'm a sucker for desserts and have a really bad sweet tooth! I'm doing a little lifestyle change where I cant eat everything I see, but who says we still can't look! Some of my favorites come from Martha Stewart.... If I can fit baking into my schedule, here are some I would choose.

Bittersweet Chocolate, Chocolate Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches,
Triple Chocolate Cheesecake, Molten Chocolate Cake

If I were to just go out and purchase something (or hint to my lovely to purchase something for me), I have my list of favorites too! So here they are...

1. Macarons! I first feel in love when I had them at Bouchon in Napa. They are so divine! And if you're in the SoCal area, check out Sweet and Saucy Bakeshop. My lovely had business in Long Beach so he brought some for me on his way home and they were delish! Only if we lived closer. (BTW- if anyone knows of any spot in San Diego, please advise!)

Sweet and Saucy Shop

2. Ice Cream Cake! You can never go wrong with ice cream. We've had this before special ordered with strawberry cheesecake ice cream and vanilla cake! I also love the size. It's perfect for 2!

Baskin Robbins

3. Neapolitan Cake! OMG! This is by far the best cake I've even had! It comes from the filipino bakeshop Goldilocks which describes it as a layer each of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla chiffon cake filled with chocolate ganache and strawberry butter cream iced with vanilla butter cream. If that doesn't make your mouth water, I don't know what will!



So there you have my favorites to bake and take. All so good and if it weren't for my new lifestyle change, I'd have them all! What are your favorite desserts?

Share

Minnie Mouse Candy Box

photo via Disney

My favorite character of all time is Minnie Mouse! Since I was a little girl, I've always adored her and I still do! So when I saw this come through my inbox from Disney, I had to share.

Share

Sweets and treats party

I know I'm a couple weeks behind in posting, but I figure this party can be good for other holidays too. Since "happy hearts day" is coming up next month, it can also work for a valentine's day party! Any reason to get together works for me!

I invited some of my gal friends to come over for a fun night of sweets and treats! After each guest received an invitation, we were all ready to party!

I created a place setting for each guest and used gable boxes as a dual purpose; a place card and after the party, they filled their boxes with sweets and treats to take home.

I wanted to create a centerpiece that hung ornaments so I took branches off a tree and spray painted them gold. I then put it in a vase with red tinsel, placed white poinsettias and taaadahhh!

This is the dessert area where each guest was asked to place their treats on the platter provided. It worked out well and by the end of the night, everything was gone!

Some of the desserts we had were my red velvet whoopie pies, chocolate smore's bar, peppermint brownie cupcake and chocolate toffee brittle! hmmmm... yummy!

And of course, we had to have some fruit sangria! The party was a blast and I can't wait to host another one!

Share

Red velvet whoopie pies

There were so many different types of desserts at my sweets and treats party. Because my to-do list was getting longer to the days leading up to the party, I knew I wanted to make something easy and tasty. What more do you need, right? So I baked red velvet whoopie pies. These were soooo yummy, I still dream about them. Give it a try yourself!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
1 box red velvet cake mix
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix all ingredients until combined
• Drop spoonfuls of batter onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart
• bake for 10-12 minutes until cool

Cream Cheese Filling
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 2lbs. bag of confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla

• In a mixer, cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla
• gradually add sugar and mix until smooth

Makes about 12 whoopie pies


Slightly altered: Via Bakerella and Recipe from All Made Cookies

Share

Invitation: sweets & treats party

Happy New Year! We've had a busy holiday season and we're now finally getting back into the swing of things around the studio. Before Christmas, I hosted a sweets and treats party for some of my girlfriends and I wanted it to be very similar to a cookie exchange. Instead of asking each guest to bring several dozen of cookies, I figured it would be twice as fun with an assortment of different desserts. Below is the invitation I sent out to the lovely ladies...

When you open the invitation, it had all the details of the party and what each guest should expect on the left side. It was my first time doing this so it was new for all of us!

For the reply cards, I asked each guest to send back their responses with their dessert of choice that way we didn't have any duplicates.

And lastly, I included recipe cards in the pocket for each guest to fill out. They were asked to bring the cards with their dessert so that each guest can take it home.

Stay tuned because up next is my recipe of my dessert! It's so yummy and easy to make!

Share

Our holiday wishes to you...

We wish you the happiest holiday season, the Merriest Christmas and a joyous New Year. Don't forget to always spread the love, joy and cheer!

Share

Holiday Cards

Happy 1st day of December! That means there's only 24 days left until Christmas and if you haven't ordered your holiday cards, you better get your order in quick! Contact us today and we'll design your custom holiday card. And if you're newly engaged, this is the perfect time to send out save the dates. Now let's get this holiday season started!

Share

Tablescape

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Holiday! I just wanted to share our tablescape since we had a non traditional Japanese dinner. It was an Asian Fusion theme and I think it can be used for any occasion. For easy decorating, I hung green lanterns over the table that matched the place mats I bought. They were the inspiration for the color scheme and it was 12X12 scrapbook paper I laid over red place mats.

I then purchased some pretty green spider mums (to match the lanterns) and put them into single vases. The middle vase was bigger so I put 3 flowers along with black river rocks and lit tea light candles across the table. For the table runner, I used bamboo place mats.


And the food was yummy! We had sushi, ahi tuna poke, seared albacore, bacon wrapped asparagus, fried rice, beef yakitori, teriyaki salmon, edamame and fried gyoza!

I hope you had a great dinner whatever you served! Our tree is up, lights are on, weather is cold and now... it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Share

Spread some LOVE

Have a Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you enjoy this day and spread a little love.... with your other half, your best friends, your family near and far, your pet, a stranger... everyone!

Share

A New Year

Happy 2010!!! Where did 2009 go because it seems it flew by so fast! Time just feels like that, wouldn't you agree? It was a great year and I can't wait to see what this years brings. I'm so happy to announce I actually kept up one of my "New Year Resolutions", Project 365! I finished an entire year with a photo every day and it feels so GREAT to have it completed!

Becky Higgins released another kit called Project Life which is the same concept and I finally got mine in! It's so pretty and it has so many things included, I cant wait to get started. I like how I created my own for 2009 because it's unique, but this kit makes it easy!

I'm just torn whether or not I should do this year again taking a photo every single day. I love the idea and it's so great to look back at the days, but I think I may change it up a bit.... just to keep things interesting!

Share

Celebrating?

Whatever it is.... 'Tis the season! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Winter Solstice!

Found Via Flickr

From our family to yours in beautiful San Diego, have yourself a wonderful Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year! Here's to great things in 2010!!!

Share

Hand Made Hand Wrapped

For Christmas this year, I thought I should do something different with wrapping presents. On one trip to the grocery store I figured instead of using our fabric bags, we would asked for paper so that I can reuse it for this purpose. I cut them open and sponge painted it red. To embellish and make it pretty, I used a red glitter ribbon for the bow and put a silk white poinsettia and added a gold snowflake. I even made cute gift tags for them. It's beautiful, affordable and GREEN! Here's a completed gift...

Share