Showing posts with label Marriage. Show all posts

365 Ways to Say 'I Love You'

Printable gift to remind the one you love everyday that you love them. What a great gift!

July is a special month for our family. This year, we celebrated 5 years of marriage on the 1st. Our wedding was a dream come true and made us a family.

Year of Dates - January

If you have been following along with my blog, I gifted my husband a year of dates for Christmas 2013. It wasn't very successful between a new baby, lack of babysitters and lack of time. So, as requested, I gifted it for him again this past Christmas {and gave you the tools to do so too}.

This year, we are determined to stick to it. Here is a recap of the gift and our January date.

Year of Dates Ideas - Our January Date - Cooking Class | Managing a Home

This year I went smaller..in packaging that is. I got a small gift box and I did more handwriting this year to make it even more personal than last year.

I used craft paper envelopes and craft paper cardstock to give it a more "natural" feel. I secured the flap with washi tape so it is easier to open than last year when I glued the envelope shut <insert evil laugh>.

As far as the date card itself, I went all out and purchased scrap-booking stickers to decorate the card. This month's date was a Cooking Class.

I pre-booked our babysitter {my mom} well in advance because I booked this specific class on this date because of the menu. It looked delicious!

We took our cooking class at La Cucina at the Market in Philadelphia. The company is owned by Anna and she offers great classes - ranging from Pasta or Sausage Making to Knife Skills classes. She offers wonderful options for "Enchanted Evenings for Two" which we took full advantage of on our date.

The class was lead by Chef Jacquie of Taste 4 Travel. She was an amazing teacher and brilliant chef. She showed us how to create each of these meals, butcher a pork loin, properly trim brussel sprouts, de-stem spinach {not a fun job by the way} and gave us great tips and tricks on all types of cooking and baking questions. Mia was the resident pasta maker. She made the dough for the raviolis that we all pressed, molded and filled. She really puts love into her dough.

It was a great opportunity to get to know other young couples and really enjoy ourselves. The company at the table was great, the company at the stove was amazing and knowledgeable and the atmosphere was very pleasant.

{all photos are courtesy of Anna at La Cucina at the Market}

Properly butchering pork loin. Year of Dates Ideas - Our January Date - Cooking Class | Managing a Home

Learning how to butcher a pork loin properly

Spinach De-Stemmers. Year of Dates Ideas - Our January Date - Cooking Class | Managing a Home

Master spinach de-stemmers

The amazing class we had - so many fun people

Overall it was an amazing night! We would definitely go back for this experience again. I encourage you if you live in the Philadelphia region, or would be visiting the city, to look up La Cucina at the Market's events or Taste 4 Travel to see if there are classes or tours that fit your style!

Any way you cut it, a cooking class would make a great gift for anyone. {See what I did there?} And it would make an amazing gift for your Year of Dates!

14 Healthy Days of Valentines

Let me start off by saying..

If you are my husband, do not read this post! You will ruin your surprises!

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get on with this post!

We are trying to be a bit healthier in our household, so when Valentine's Day comes around, we try to avoid the overpriced and often buttery restaurant meals and sugary chocolates and sweets by not celebrating the holiday. Well, now that we have a daughter, we need to start showing some love to the holiday. {pun intended}

Managing A Home | Healthy Valentine's Day Options - no sweets needed. Keep your New Year's Resolutions

I saw some crazy cute printables for significant others on Pinterest and on linky parties, but most of them included ideas for sugary and processed items that we are trying to avoid. So the search continued.

Then, I found these bad boys. They are super cute and offer healthy alternatives for daily gifts.

I went to the original site and only one of these were available to be clicked on and printed, so I decided to make them printable for you. Just click on the images above {each image has it's own link} to download and print for yourself.

I know, I know..there are only 12. For the other two days I plan on using these ideas:

I love this option with some much needed lip balm attached. We love Burt's Bees Lip Balm in our house. Head over to Five Little Chefs and print your own.

And for the final day/night February 14, I am going with this one found at Lou Lou Girls. {But instead of soda, I will get a mix and match 6 pack of beer for him}. I realize this isn't the "healthiest" option, but it's better than chocolate!
The Lou Lou Girls also have a toothbrush option in this post, which I thought about because my hubby wants a toothbrush at work. I was torn between that and the lip balm above. But chapstick won out.

There are so many other non-candy, non-sweet options. This will also help us all keep any weight loss New Year's Resolutions.

For more Valentine's Day inspiration, follow my Valentine's Day Pinterest board.

Have a healthy Valentine's Day!