DIY Fire Starters for Valentine's Day

Hello! Today I am back with an idea for an easy Valentine's Day project. I'm excited to be participating in a Heartfelt and Handmade Valentine's Day blog hop hosted by Jennifer at Town and Country Living to bring you lots of great ideas for a thoughtful and creative day.

When I think of Valentine's Day, I think of a quiet night at home. A rushed dinner in a crowded restaurant is not our idea of fun so we will save dining out for a different night. A home cooked meal by the fire is our activity of choice at this time of year.

These little fire starters were a fun and quick activity that we have been using in our home this winter. When the weather outside is cold, there is nothing like a wood burning fire to cozy up a home. There is almost always a fire burning in our house in the winter. These little fire starters make starting a fire a breeze and they also add some great fragrance too!

So let's get started. To make these, you will need a few items that can easily be purchased at your nearest craft store. I used:

1. Soy Wax
2. Baking Cups (burnable)
3. Candle wick
4. Fragrance (I used pine scent)
5. Burnable Items that also smell good (I used pinecones from my yard, cinnamon sticks and rosemary)

I melted the soy wax in our microwave in a disposable container to save time on clean-up.

Then I simply poured the wax into the baking cups in an old cupcake pan. Once the wax begins to set up after a couple of minutes, I added the cut wicks (2 per cup) and the rest of the kindling items.

They look great and smell even better.  

The perfect item for a night in with my favorite guy to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Be sure to check out the other homemade ideas to make your Valentine's Day special!

MONDAY

Town and Country Living† |† Finding Silver Pennies† |† Duke Manor Farm† |† Maison de Pax† |† Shabbyfufu

Making It in the Mountains† |† Tidbits† |† Taryn Whitaker† |† House by Hoff† |† Clean and Scentsible

TUESDAY

So Much Better with Age† |† The Happy Housie† |† Shabby Art Boutique† |† Paint Me Pink† |† VinYet Etc.

Unskinny Boppy† |† Sincerely Marie Designs† |† A Burst of Beautiful† |† The Wicker House† |† Zevy Joy

WEDNESDAY

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia† |† In My Own Style† |† Golden Boys and Me† |† Seeking Lavender Lane

On Sutton Place† |† Happy Happy Nester† |† The Chronicles of Home† |††Craftberry Bush

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Winter Living Room & Kitchen

After all of the color and clutter of the holidays, I always find myself enjoying keeping things neutral for the winter months. Everything feels fresh and cozy for hibernating season.

I decided to flip flop our living and dining rooms. Again. I get bored with furniture arrangements and sometimes it isn't necessarily about what works better, but just changing things up! I also got out my wide angle lens for the photos in this post so I could share more of what the space looks like as a whole.

We installed the DIY pot rack shortly before decorating for the holidays, so it is fun having that new item to style. I have some gift cards from Christmas that I plan to use on copper pots to add to the pot rack.

I am considering a new location for our DIY baking company sign. The lantern chandelier in this location blocks it a bit here.

The pot rack started as a more decorative item, but I have to say it has proven to be very useful. I keep items like our colander, grater and measuring spoons just above the island and I don't have to dig through any drawers to find what I need.

Somehow, this fiddle leaf fig is still alive and growing. When I decorated for fall, I relegated it to my son's room because he was away at college. I *think* he may have watered it a time or two when he came home. And other than a few brown edges on the leaves, it is going strong. So if you're like me and don't gave much of a green thumb, you might want to try your hand at one of these.

Thanks for stopping by today! We have been enjoying some warmer temperatures and I am getting very excited for spring, even though it is still pretty far out. In the meantime, I will try to embrace the comforts of this quieter season.

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Happy New Year and Winter Vacation

Happy 2018! We are just getting back into the swing of things after the holidays and a week in the mountains. For the second year in a row, we celebrated Christmas with our families here in NJ and then packed our cars to arrive in the Adirondacks for Christmas Eve.

We love winter and this year we've had A LOT of winter so far. Snowmobiling is an activity that our entire family enjoys and we have gotten to do a bunch of it. The Adirondacks are beautiful at this time of year.

It was truly like spending a week in a winter wonderland! Which was exactly the boost our family needed. As is true for everyone, life ebbs and flows and 2017 brought a lot of changes into our lives - many we could have lived without that added a tremendous amount of stress. And 2018 will bring even more. So it was nice to have a week together to re-charge. And think about what is next for us.

We took a day trip to Vermont where we visited Manchester and the surrounding area.

It has become a tradition for us to visit the Northshire Book Store each year. If you love an old book store, add this one to your bucket list! There are creaky old floors, handwritten book recommendations and an iron stairway that leads to the most magical children's book display that I have ever seen.

We like to visit the covered bridge in West Arlington too.

Then we headed back to New York to check out some communities that are just over the Vermont border. We are researching areas to live in after retirement and NY offers some better tax advantages than VT. I was amazed by how much charm this area offers as well.

We even found a covered bridge in Eagleville, NY. Such a beautiful area!

Back at the cabin, we alternated snowmobile rides with relaxing by the fire. It is a challenge to dress for below zero temperatures, but we have gotten pretty good at it and didn't let the frigid temperatures stop us.

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