Peep Show Ticket - Easter Printable

This year on Easter, hubby and I will be with family. For packing sake, we decided to forgo doing Easter baskets for each other and instead just one small Easter treat. 

Here's what I came up with:

yup....a ticket to the Peep Show. Hey, don't look at me! I didn't come up with the phrase, I just found a creative way to present it. ;) Either way, it'll be a sure hit with most hubbies! 

However, I mentioned we'll be staying with family and I don't want them peeking at hubby's lil' treat ticket. Hence, the need for a disguise. 

See, once that ticket is tucked in it's sleeve, it's just an innocent little chocolate chick. No one will ever know that there's sa-more sugar tucked inside! ;)

Aaannyway.... if you have some big Easter shin-nan-a-gans (is that how you spell that?!) going on, feel free to incorporate this printable into your plans:

If you're doing an egg hunt for some-bunny special, roll-up a Peep Show ticket and place in one of the eggs. Hide this one good! (you don't want the kids stumbling upon this little treasure...)

If you've got a basket ready for him, hide a ticket in the grass. Not sure he's gonna care much for those jelly beans after seeing this...

So fun! I love Easter festivities! 

Here's your printable. Happy Easter!

Date Knight - Batman Movie Marathon

Lately, when planning Date Night, I try really hard to think of things that my hubby would REALLY enjoy. It's so easy to get caught up in the lovey-dovey dates that any girl would LOVE...but when I step back and think about what HE would really like, I find myself planning a date centered around Batman. I know, right? What is he.. 5? But seriously... the latest Batman Trilogy is really entertaining and they are one of his top picks right now! So, I now present:

Date Knight: A Batman Movie Marathon

Hubby was welcomed home by a colony of bats hanging out in the entry way...

The others said things like:
You can "bat" it's gonna be a dark knight...
I'm "batty" for you!
This date is going to be a bit "batty"

As he walked into the living room, the bat signal was shining on the ceiling (I took one of my bat cutouts, stuck it to a toothpick, and held it in front of the flashlight at different angles until it showed the way I wanted it to!)

His Batman Attire (a t-shirt from Target) for the evening was laid out on the ottoman with some movie treats. (Batman themed candy and treats are all the rage now...super easy to find if you look! Try Walmart and Target for starters.)

For dinner during the movie, I served... what else? "Bat" Wings from The Wing Stop. 

 *oh, ps--I was wearing all black with this little batman face mask when hubby walked in. you know, it's those details that count! ;)

 And a little later, let's call it "intermission", we delighted in this decadent Dark Knight Chocolate Cake washed down with milk via DIY batman straws. Yum!

Oh, and this movie marathon took place over 3 nights. I can hardly stay awake through even one really good movie, let alone three.

Here's a printable for you if you want to give this date a try!

"Our Love Rocks" Date

February 13th was our Valentine's Day this year since M had the day off.. I planned a rockin' little day for the two of us!

I presented him with a tube of chocolate rocks (World Market) to declare that "OUR LOVE ROCKS!"

This next little card introduced the first activity of our rockin' fun day together: ROCK Climbing!

(seriously...a ton of fun! We decided that we have got to do this more often! Something that made it even more fun were some [dirty] Rock Climber's Pickup lines from here and here. I memorized a few of my favorites and used them as we climbed. Seriously, hubby was cracking up!)

We worked up quite an appetite and this next card was ready for him as we walked out of the gym....

Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas. mmm...mmmm. (I'm referring to the food and the hunk there in that picture) :)

We headed home after our late afternoon lunch to this.... A Hot Rock Massage. (perfect for sore muscles after climbing)

DIY Hot Stone Massage

Miss Cheapo here didn't want to spend a lot buying a Hot Stone Massage Kit (they're kinda expensive!) so here's my version:

-River Rocks (smooth rocks with no sharp edges. a variety of sizes is best. Mine are decorative river rocks from World Market. I didn't have any large ones like a real kit would have, but these sufficed for an at-home rock massage. You can also search craft stores, your local river, or a rock quarry.

-Massage Oil or unscented lotion

-Crockpot (put rocks in, cover completely with water, heat on high for approx 45 minutes or 140 degrees, remove with strainer spoon, dry with towel, let sit for 1-2 minutes, then rock and rub!)

If you're really going to do this, I suggest these two links:
1. Creating Your Own DIY Hot Stone Massage Kit

2. Hot Stone Massage Techniques - a GREAT youtube video showing you how to give a stone massage!

After things get a little steamy with the rock massage, next up is:

There are bazillions of songs with "Rock" in it, but these were my favorites and the most fitting. Seriously, as the words play out, you'll know what I mean.

Rock With You - Michael Jackson
You make me rock hard - Kiss 
 Rock Me - Great White
Rock Me Gently - Andy Kim
Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake
Roc Ya Body Mic Check - MVP
Feel like a RockStar - Tim McGraw

Spending a WHOLE day with my hubby was pretty sweet, but there was still room for dessert! 

 Rocky Road Ice Cream is his faaavorite ice cream so that was a gimme, but I also made these Valentine Rocky Road Crunch Bars (a recipe found at Barbara Bakes). Super rich, but tasted great with the ice cream. 

Hopefully this gives you an idea for your own Rock Date. Some other ideas for activities?

-playing rock band
-if you're a guy, take your girl shopping for a new rock (a fasion ring)
-skip rocks down at the river
-watch The School of Rock movie

In case you want to do it the same way, I've got the printables for you!

The first set is for a Valentine's Day date. The second for any date (not V-day specific)

Flower Giveaway Winner!

And the winner of this beautiful arrangement of Red Roses from 1-800-Flowers

is......

Congrats, Clare!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Valentine Collection from 1-800-Flowers.com!

1-800-Flowers Giveaway: Long Stem Red Roses!

Okay, people....we are only TWO weeks away from Valentine's Day... I hope you've made some really special plans! I think today's giveaway is going to make one lucky reader's Valentine's Day all that more special thanks to 1-800 Flowers.com

You could be the winner of this BEAUTIFUL arrangement:  

Rose Elegance™ Premium Long Stem Red Roses

Long-stem red roses are just the gift for the one you can trust, the one you can turn to, the one who loves you above all else and knows your heart inside out. Give the ultimate expression of romance with this stunning, hand-crafted arrangement of long-stem red roses.

1-800 Flowers has a variety of other beautiful arrangements from their Valentine Collection that you can check out as well. But first, get entered to win!


How to Enter:

1. Be a Follower of Love Actually Blog --------->
2. Leave one comment on this post and include your email address.

Extra Entries:
(leave an additional comment for each entry)
1. Be a Facebook Follower of Love Actually Blog
2. Post a Facebook Status Update about this giveaway (with a link)
3. Follow me on Pinterest
4.  PIN the image above to one of your Pinterest Boards

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Giveaway ends on Tuesday, February 5th at midnight EST. Open to U.S. residents only. Good luck!

The Bachelor Premiere Party

...as some of you may know, TV's The Bachelor season is in full swing. For me, it's a guilty pleasure that I allow myself to indulge in every Monday night with the girls! and I looooove it.

A couple of year's ago, I planned the Bachelor Finale Party (and posted about it HERE...seriously, you gotta click that link and check it out! like, right now.) This year, it was all about the Bachelor Premiere Party!

Of course, the most important part of any party is the FOOD! I provided the mock-cocktails (sparkling white grape juice) to wash down the amazing appetizers everyone brought.

....and I provided a couple of sweet treats including Diamond Donuts, chocolate cupcakes, and heart ring pops! (hit the dollar store or walmart's valentine section now or right after Vday when all the candy and decor go on sale so you can be ready for your finale party!)

Seriously, these little Diamond Donuts are darling. If I were to do them again, I would have made the diamond red though... they're supposed to be gray (I know, it looks lavender!) The idea for these came from  EEADesign on Etsy.

There were no games at this party, we just really wanted to focus on Sean and all the girl-drama, you know? ;)  BUT, we did make some predictions for the season after we watched the premiere.

Would you believe I put Tierra as my finale winner? What was I thinking?! She's turning into quite the little brat. I'm anxious to see if any of the girls guessed correctly when it comes time for the Finale!

I rolled each blank prediction sheet and secured it with a diamond ring favor (found at Hobby Lobby) so each girl had one. You can snag my free printable below:

Instructions for the Diamond Donuts: 

1. Purchase diamond template or create your own using Photoshop (like I did)
2. Print your diamond shapes out on white or colored paper (as desired)
3. Using an exacto knife, cut the "diamonds" out.
4. If desired, spray cut diamonds with light layer of spray glue or brush with modge-podge and sprinkle glitter over. Remove excess. Let dry.
5. Use glue runner or tiny piece of tape to stick the diamond to a toothpick.
6. Stick diamond toothpick through each donut.


Oh, and in case you're wanting some more ideas for planning your next The Bachelor viewing party, I've compiled a list of 25 different ideas for you!

You can come check it out over HERE!

Digi-Scrap Love!

I'm a digital scrapbooker and love capturing all of life's moments, especially ones that are often overlooked and forgotten. Each year we take our Christmas card photo and instead of just letting it go out in those cards and saving one to pop in a shoe box (to be forever forgotten), I'll scrapbook a page with just the two of us. Here was last year's.... 

I've got a LOT of lovey-dovey digital kits in my files (as you can imagine the creator of a blog like this might have), but Quality DigiScraps helped me find a couple of new Valentine digital kits that can be used for not only digital scrapbooking, but all sorts of valentine gifts, crafts, and projects. They were too cute not to share!

Take a look at these:

 from Cinnamon Scraps

from the heartistic project

They're both FREE! Just follow the links to the designer's page to download!

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Pssst..... Have you ordered your Date of the Month Club kit yet? Time's a ticking... ;) 

Dead & Breakfast Inn - Halloween Date Night

You've heard of Christmas in July...but have you ever heard of Halloween in January? No, of course you haven't. That's because no one is SO slow that it takes 3 months for them to get around to posting a Halloween idea... except me.  But, actually... I'm just 10 months ahead of schedule. It's never too early to start planning for Halloween 2013. It's gonna be epic. 

 I was in charge of date night the week of Halloween... and I've been wanting to do a "Dead & Breakfast Inn" theme for quite some time! Here's what I did:

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Hubby was greeted at the Inn's "entry way" with a welcome card asking him to sign the guest book...if he dared!

an upclose look at the "welcome card":

He wasn't the first guest at this D&B....

Decor & Effects

I had our guest room all decked out with creepy Halloween decor, strobe lights, and some skeleton garland lights when he entered. You can bet I found everything I needed at The Dollar Tree: bloody cloths, mini strobe lights, black crows, skeleton head, black cauldron, napkins, foam gravestone, skeleton garland, etc. I used some of the decor from my living room (in this post). My husband agrees that the best part was the dark room lighting up sporadically with the strobes....really gave it a cool effect!

Of course, all the decor in the world won't do much unless I feed the poor guy! This "Dead & Breakfast Inn" served Killer Cuisine that was Drop. Dead. Delicious. 

 yummm...

Graveyard Greens with moldy dressing & Cauldron Chill-Eee with crumby crackers...all washed down with some Cursed Concoction (of course, it was brewed to imperfection).

And for dessert, a Toxic Mud Slab a  la wickedly sweet I-scream. It was to die for...

As if that wasn't enough, the Inn provided these toxic treats (crows bones and earth worms) for late night snacks.

The Inn also had plenty of other activities in store--including a Horror-ibly Hot Bath and a Frightful Film. Just for fun, I threw some green glowsticks into the bathtub (kinda like this blogger did) for a creepy and cool effect. Dollar Tree had some cool glowstick masks, axes, and such too that are fun. 

Since you have a LONG time to prep for this, you can make your own printables, right? No? Okay. You can take mine if you'd like.

You can download them HERE---it's a zipped file that you will have to extract/unzip before accessing the individual files.

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PS: wonder why all my images are labeled with lifedesigncraft.blogspot.com? That's my other blog where I primarily post. But, when I have a new date idea, I post it here so YOU can see it! You're certainly welcome to visit me over there, too! 

Vday Gift: Date of the Month Club

Have you realized yet that Valentine's Day is JUST around the corner... Once again, I have the perfect gift on sale for your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, fiance... you get the idea!

 It's the Date of the Month Club Kit...a completely personalized, unique gift for your love!

I designed this kit to fit inside a small box (mine is a Godiva Chocolate box). (When you purchase the kit, I will send you the JPEG files so you can size the kit pieces larger or smaller depending on the size of your box.)

Here's an upclose look at each part of the kit, which could be customized for YOUR valentine, of course!

First, the tag for the box:

then.... The Membership Enrollment Card:

then....

Explanation: (You'll give your Valentine a list of 12+ dates on this card. A few more than 12 would be nice. Keep in mind, these don't all have to be fancy dates from Love Actually Blog. Guys like simple dates, too...like, throwing a frisbee at the park. Put some of his interests in there as dates with you. Then, he will choose which date he wants for which month. Then, it's up to you keep that card and plan those dates each month (Hence, "date of the month club")

then...

Explanation: Give at least 2 vacation cards, but only give as many as you can handle having to plan throughout the year! (remember--these don't have to be REAL vacations...they can be "homestyle vacations" or recreations like mine).

then....

Explanation: These are "love coupons" of sorts...the trick is actually honoring them when he/she decides to use them throughout the year--no backing out! And, make sure you really personalize them (make them lovey-dovey, sexy, or whatever you want...well, whatever your valentine wants, that is!)

Finally, add your Hershey Kisses, (each redeemable for the real thing...a kiss!) along with this bag tag.

And there you have it! A year's worth of romance and fun....all tied up with a bow for Valentine's Day!

You can have a fully customized version of this kit for
$19.99!

Custom options include:
- Specific names on the To: and From: lines on the box tag

- Adding a name after "Congratulations" on the Membership Enrollment Card

- Your choice of 2 different Vacation Cards and related image (you can use the ones I gave for examples or your own!) Colors of text customizable. (each additional @ $2 each)
- 5 different Tickets with wording of your choice (each additional @ $1 each)
- the Kisses bag tag will be as shown

If you would like further customization, I'd be happy to let you know if it's included with the package or if it will be an additional cost.

How to Order:
Email lifedesigncraft@live.com

I'll send you instructions for getting started..it's a simple process!

How fun would it be handing over this unique, personalized gift for Valentine's Day? And the best part is all the fun to come out of it! Email me and we'll get started!

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Below are examples of wording to get your mind thinking of what you'd like included in your kit. Again, these are just options...you can completely make up your own if you want!


Vacation Card wording options (color & design will vary based on your custom requests) (*remember, these don't have to be "real" vacations or they can be....whatever you want!)

Ticket wording options (color & design will vary based on your custom requests)

Date Card wording options: (just common examples....you can make up your own, too!)

Don't forget that I have other fun digital kits for Valentine's Day including:

Love Checks
Valentine's Day Countdown Calendar/Advent
Spa Night Package