valentines – the joy of five

Beauty, Families, Family Life, Flowers, Gifts, Memories, Reviews

Valentines Big Night In With Moonpig

February 5, 2021February 5, 2021by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment

[AD] As with most things at the moment Valentine’s Day is going to be a little different this year. There won’t be any candlelit dinners in cosy restaurants or celebrations over cocktails in swanky bars, but this doesn’t mean the celebrations have to stop – we can have just as much fun indoors and I have got some fantastic ideas from Moonpig to help with the fun.

Moonpig cards are a staple for any celebrations in this house and they couldn’t be handier than they are right now. From humour to romance they have it covered and the abitltiy to personalise your cards with your own photos or even handwriting make them all the more special.

Valentine’s Day and flowers are probably one of the most traditional ways to celelebate and Moonpig offer a fantastic range, with my favourite being the dozen red roses – simple and beautiful.

With the flowers to set the mood then a gorgous sented candle is the perfect accompaniment to set the mood for your date night. Yankee Candles are always a winner and the fresh cut rose scent works so well alondside the bouquet.

Next up would actually be a little treat I would buy myself…we all need to treat ourselves sometimes don’t we! The Valentine Beauty Gift Set from Birchbox has a great selelction of gifts such as lip gloss, nail polish and pillow spray to pamper yourself with.

For something a little different then the At Home Date Night gift card is a great way to plan a night of quizzes, puzzles, musical challanges and more. This alongside a few gin and tonics like the Edinburugh Pink Valentines Gin will make this somewhat different Valentine’s Day go with a bang!

Families, Family Life, Friendships, Gifts, Large Families, Marriage, Memories, Weddings

Feeling Guilty This Valentines’s Day

February 14, 2018February 14, 2018by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment

The 14th February comes around again and the shops are full to the brim with stuffed toys carrying hearts embellished with heart felt messages,huge bunches of bright red roses and boxes upon boxes of delectable chocolates.

Our Instagram and Facebook feeds are full of gushing posts to loved ones and pictures of romantic dates and gorgeous gifts…then reality hits me that yet again I have made zero effort for the man in my life!

The man that always goes out of his way at this time of year, not with extravagant presents or over priced days out but simply with loving gestures and beautiful words that mean the absolute world to me, even though I don’t let him know this enough.

This year it really hit me that I can’t use the excuse that I’m not romantic and we don’t need a day to celebrate our love as in reality our busy lives find it hard to share a cup of tea together, let alone a entire meal on our own.

So from hear on in I will use this special day to celebrate the kind, loving, thoughtless man I was lucky enough to find all those years ago and make him feel as appreciated as he does me.

Arts And Crafts, Children, Crafts, Families, Family Life, Uncategorized

Hanging Hearts For Valentine’s with #BostikBloggers

January 31, 2018by thejoyoffive3 Comments

Crafts are something that sadly got sidelined a little last year and something I have really missed doing with the children. Life seemed to get so hectic that sitting down to be creative was always put on the back burner; so I was really pleased when I was asked to become a Bostik Blogger for 2018 as it has given us all a great opportunity to put of thinking caps on and let our creative juices flow once again.

Now that Christmas is over the house is feeling empty with the distinct lack of decorations filling each and every corner, so with Valentine’s Day just round the corner there is no better excuse to fill the house with pretty things once again.

The lovely people at Bostik sent a box brimming with pink and glitter that I was itching to get up around the house.

I decided upon hanging hearts that would look great hanging from the branch in my conservatory that had been looking pretty sparse since the baubles had been taken down, but they would look equally great hanging from just about anywhere you fancy.

Take a look below at how we got on and have a go if its something you think you fancy:

Valentine’s Hanging Hearts

What You Need –

Glitter foam sheet
Corrugated card
Brown card
String
Felt hearts
Jewel hearts
Patterned paper
Glue dots
Glue stick
Scissors
Hole punch

With these hearts there really is no right or wrong way to decorate them. Once the basic heart is made then simply use your imagination to decorate however you wish.

Start off with either paper, card or foam sheet to simply draw on a heart to the size of your choice and cut out ready for the next step. You can have a variety of different sizes like me or more uniformed if that would be your preference.

Next up you need to get your hole punch and make a hole just under the dip in the heart. This then makes it ready to thread through a small length of string to make a loop to make it ready for hanging.

Lastly is where the real fun starts! pick a variety of different paper, foam, felt of jewel hearts and attach to the main hearts with glue dots of the use of a glue stick.

They are now ready to adoren the house in time for all your Valentine’s celebrations.

*We were given a craft box for the purpose of this post.

Allergies, Allergy Free, Arts And Crafts, Children, Chocolate, Crafts, Families, Family Life

Chocolate Playdough Sweets For Valentine’s Day

February 5, 2017by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment

I am literally going stir crazy this weekend staying in with the children due to number five’s chicken pox!

The only thing for it was get crafting and with Valentine’s Day just round the corner I thought I would try something that would allow the kids to get involved in the celebrations too.

Mine always love playdough so I made an allergy friendly chocolate playdough that they could create chocolates from and wrap up to use in role play.

I used the same recipe that I use for my lavender playdough and just substituted the lavender for cocco powder.

It literally smelt good enough to eat and I had to stop the boys several times from doing so!

They had great fun rolling the balls to form the chocolates but had more fun creating poo!

When the balls were ready I popped them into the freezer for a while to harder up and then wrapped up in a square of cellophane and finished off with a piece of ribbon tied into a bow.