tutorial: make your own valentine's day candy!

I love certain holidays. I love Valentine's Day possibly because I love the color red and I think hearts are adorable. An excuse to make cute stuff that's red with hearts on it? I'm in!

For a few years when I was in college, my circle of artsy/crafty friends would have outdoor craft sales a few times a year. One of my favorite traditions is that we'd have one just before Valentine's Day. And I would always make these chocolate hearts to sell. This year I made them to take to a Valentine's Day party that my friends Jessica and Chris are hosting tomorrow. I'm really excited for it! We have been instructed to wear red and pink, and I think I've come up with the perfect outfit. I'll be sure to post pictures.

This candy is delicious, easy, adorable, and at least as affordable as buying a big bag of already-made Valentine's Day candy. I already had most of the supplies I needed, but even if you don't, there's not too much to wrangle up.

- heart molds--I use silicone ice cube trays! You could also buy real candy molds.
- chocolate--I use Ghiradelli chocolate chips. Whatever you do, no almond bark!
- add-ins--I made a batch with espresso beans and a batch with graham cracker pieces. You could stir in anything small.
- tiny bags--I bought mine at a craft store in the jewelry making area.
- colorful cardstock
- stapler

Step 1: Melt your chocolate. If you are using big pieces, chop it up. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 25 second intervals, stirring in between. Be careful not to overheat/burn it! You could also use a double boiler, if you lack a microwave or want to feel more like a real candy maker.

Step 2: It might be time to stir in your add-ins. It depends on what they are. For my graham cracker pieces batch, I stirred in the graham crackers at this point. For my espresso beans batch, I placed 2 espresso beans in each heart by hand. Use your judgement here.

Step 3: Time to use the molds. I bought these cute ice cube trays several years ago, allured by the idea of making heart-shaped ice. The ice cubes it makes are actually way too small, though--as in, you need to use almost a whole tray for one drink! I kept them around and eventually had the idea to make candy in them! You can always get real candy molds if you can't find any heart-shaped ice cube trays (though I think those are fairly common).

Step 4: Here you see how I dropped two espresso beans into each chocolate. I then pushed them down with my finger so that chocolate would cover them. You also want to shake the trays from side to side to make the chocolate fall down into place and eliminate air bubbles. You don't have to fill each heart completely, depending on how big your tray is. Mine makes a piece of chocolate that just feels slightly too big if I fill it all the way.

Step 5: After pouring the chocolate, I let it cool in the freezer. Otherwise, it takes a long time to become solid (a reason why people use almond bark...but don't do it! just read the ingredients...it's not real chocolate and it doesn't taste like real chocolate).

Step 6: Once my chocolates were cool, I immediately put them in my tiny plastic baggies. I left the baggies unzipped until the chocolates reached room temperature, to avoid condensation on the insides of the bags.

Step 7: I then got to work designing some labels. I did a very simple design using MS Word. It included a dingbat heart shape from the font Webdings, Happy Valentine's Day in a script font I downloaded awhile ago, and a description of the candy (very important warning in this case for those who don't like coffee! eep!). I printed them out on red cardstock, cut them out, folded them in half...

Step 8: ...and stapled them in place. Adorable! Now wasn't that easy?

Now I need to decide if I will make these for all of my students, or buy them pre-made candy...I promised them candy for Monday (we don't meet on Tuesdays)!

How will you be celebrating Valentine's Day?

glasses, etc.

I'm moving tomorrow! I'm excited for my new place.

I got new glasses in the mail...but I had them sent to Corey's house because I thought I'd already have moved when they arrived...and then they came a week early. So I don't have them yet! But I will get them tomorrow. I got them from Zenni Optical, thanks to Amanda's recommendation! Zenni Optical make really inexpensive prescription glasses that you can order online--starting at $8.00. I currently have one pair of prescription eyeglasses which are from my eye doctor. I need to send them in to get new lenses in them, but since they are my only pair, I'll be without them for a week, so I decided to go ahead and order others from Zenni. They will be good back-up pairs and also provide other options to me...fashionably speaking...because I don't really want contacts but sometimes I get tired of wearing these same glasses every single day. So anyway, I ordered two new pairs of regular glasses, and then I picked out a pair of prescription sunglasses, which is very exciting to me! Here's what they are going to look like:


This is my most reasonable pick. The you-can't-go-wrong-with-a-pair-of-plain-black-glasses glasses. $12.95.


This is the more "fun" pair that I chose. In brown tortoise shell. I hope they don't make me look ridiculous. $9.95.


And these are the sunglasses. In brown/clear, with brown lenses (not pictured--but you can choose to make any style on the website into sunglasses for $5 extra). I know they are kind of funky looking, but they are just sunglasses, after all. I think (hope) they will be cute. $14.95

Also! Corey sent me this adorable, adorable screenprint in the mail! It's from Wonder Thunder:


It was so sweet of him! I can't wait to decorate my new place with all the new art I've bought, been given, & made over the past few months. :)

And! Yesterday my brother surprised me with my favorite candy bar in the world. It's the Kinder Bueno, made by the same people who make Nutella. I discovered it in Italy, and they're a rare find in the U.S. He made another trip to the Indian grocery store I wrote about the other day, to get some juice he really liked, and found them there at a very reasonable price! How sweet of him!

Also, movingwise/apartmentwise, I can't find:
- A desk...? I've looked everywhere...new, used...need to find something under $100...I saw some online that I liked but when I went to the stores to locate them they were not there. That's annoying. All of the used ones I saw were in particularly awful shape.
- Size Y vacuum bags? I'll hopefully locate these soon...apparently places are discontinuing them!?