Salty Pineapple | d.i.y. | parties | recipes

HEART NAPKINS

I was inspired by the origami heart garland Jessica posted a few weeks ago. With my magazine banners everywhere, I needed another way to incorporate the origami heart.

Introducing my neon heart napkins!

Reusable or disposable napkins can both be folded into hearts. The trick is getting the right size rectangle to begin with. Here are three different napkin sizes that I was able to fold into hearts.

1. Open up your napkins and assess the size of your rectangle.

2. Make necessary folds to get a long skinny rectangle. The red napkin was fine, and for the other two, I just folded them down in half.

3. Find your center point of the rectangle and fold each short end towards the top. Align the bottom edge with the center line like in picture three.

4. Repeat step number three to the opposite side. Your napkin should have a nice point like an arrow.
5. Following picture number five, fold down your two center corners to create the V of the heart.

If you like yourself and angular heart you could be finished here. Want a little more? Fold the out side corners in just a little bit.

You should now have an origami heart napkin ready to wipe your cute little face.

The fabric store had some nice neon quilting cotton that I couldn’t pass up. I serged up some big square napkins and folded them into hearts. The fabric napkins don’t crease and stay as easily as paper napkins. Iron your folds as you go along. The fabric hearts will be nice and flat.

I’m pretty excited about the pop of color these napkins are going to bring to our Valentine table.

Alright friends. Have a great Friday. My kids are home from school today, so I’m dragging them to day care while I treat myself to a facial. Oh, lucky me!

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FEBRUARY 9, 2012

ITALIAN SODA POP

Back in the day I spent my freshman year of college at a school in Washington. There was a Starbucks cart in the Union Building. Now I’m not a coffee drinker, but my friends that worked there would make me all sorts of Italian soda concoctions. I wish I could remember all the syrup flavor combinations! Peach and grape sound familiar, but I’m not sure it’s worth a test.

Italian sodas are a fun drink to make at home. This is what I am serving my family to drink at our Valentine’s dinner.

You should make some too.

Sparkling water, tonic water, club soda… it’s all the same. I don’t recommend Sprite or 7-Up because they already have syrup in them.
Flavored syrups come in lot of different flavors. Some are even sugar free. I picked up raspberry and vanilla from my grocery store next to the coffee. My Target and Walmart didn’t carry any that I could see.
Half & Half is optional. You could use regular milk or cream too. I like the soda with and without cream. Make it how you like it.

The process is easy. Pour chilled soda water in to a glass. Add ice cubes if you desire.

Next pour your flavored syrup into the glass. I like a few tablespoons per glass. (This makes you realize how much syrup is in every soda your drink.)

Now is the time you add the half and half for a creamy drink.

Drink up and repeat. It’s really that easy!

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FEBRUARY 8, 2012

SWEETS FOR ME AND YOU

Have you gone out to eat on Valentine’s Day? Wait times for a table can be ridiculous. Why not stay in and enjoy a nice meal at home?

This year I am putting together a fancy dinner for Mike and the kids. Place cards are the first thing you need to make any dinner go from normal to fancy. Okay, probably not, but it is fun all the same.

Here’s what I used for our place cards:

Small glass jars from the craft store
Various candies
Crochet string
Chalkboard contact paper and chalk
Tiny hole punch

1. Wash and dry your jars. 2. Fill jars with yummy candies.

See how cute they already are?

3. I used a scalloped heart punch to cut the chalkboard hearts. You really could use black cardstock too. If you’re using chalkboard paper, chalk it up a little. I used initials for our cards. If you have nice penmanship writing names out would look nice.

4. Punch holes on the right and left side of the heart.

5. Thread string through the holes and tie heart around the little jar.

If I’m quick enough, I can save these jars and tags to reuse for another time! We’ll see how that goes.

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FEBRUARY 7, 2012

I ❤ MAGAZINE BANNERS

Yesterday I shared a picture of the Valentine bunting hanging in my kids room. Today I thought I would share how I made it. This project is so easy, you’ll be making banners for every room in your house. I know this because that it was I have done. No, really!

This hot pink banner is hanging above the piano in the front room.

The lime and orange banner is hanging in the family room, and I won’t bother showing you a picture of the banner hanging in the kitchen bay window.

So, are you ready to make some little flags? Yes? Great.

Supplies:

Magazine or catalog that is ready to be recycled

scissors

hole punch

string

colored cardstock

sewing machine or stapler

1. Cut strips of paper that are 7 inches long and 4 inches wide. I cut these out of the card stock and magazine pages.

2. Cut a triangle out of the bottom (short side) of each rectangle.

3. Cut a bunch of hearts in varying sizes and colors. I’ve done this three different ways now. Once with a scalloped heart paper pun, second with my Silhouette, and lastly the old fashioned way. Doesn’t matter.

4. Lay your hearts on the flag pieces. Stacked or single, it’s all so cute. Some of my banners have the hearts sewn on with the sewing machine, and others are stapled together. Both work great. You could also glue, but it might be harder to get them to puff up.

5. Use your hole punch two punch two holes in the top corners of each flag. My punch is a 1/16. I love it, but it only fits a few kind of thread.

6. Last step friends… Take the string and thread it through each flag. Alternate, make a pattern, do what you like best. The banner can be as long or short as you like.

Time to hang your newest lovey dovey creation. See, isn’t it the easiest project ever?!

For those of you concerned with my lack of traditional love colors, rest assured. Tess is keeping it real with her paintings. I totally love her color blocked piece on the right. Probably because she included orange in the mix.

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FEBRUARY 6, 2012

A LITTLE LOVE GOES A LONG WAY

Hello Monday! Hello Friends!

Did you watch Madonna’s half time show last night? We loved it. I would totally sell a kidney to go to one of her concerts. (Not the good one, just the kidney that makes all my stones.)

So are you getting in the love dovey mood at your house?

This little banner, in the kids room, is the first of our Valentine decor this year. I haven’t been able to move on from the neon.

I do think when the day glow hearts are paired with simple magazine pages, they really look great. There has been a lot of Valentine planning in my head. Over the next few days come back to see what I have cooked up!

Oh, and I started a Salty Pineapple Facebook Page! Check it out and don’t forget to like me. All my self confidence weighs solely on how many ‘likes’ I have. Not really, but it would be awesome if you like me all the same.

We’ll talk soon.

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FEBRUARY 3, 2012

HOW TO THROW A SUPER BOWL PAR-TAY

There are only a few sporting events that we watch on television. The Super Bowl happens to be one of them. To be honest, the game is on, but we are really about the food. If we invite friends over to “watch the game,” we make sure they don’t really care if they watch the game.

In my book, if you are going to host a Super Bowl/Food Party there are a few rules you need to follow…

1. You have to know what two teams are playing.
➙ This year it’s the N.Y. Giants Vs. New England Patriots
2. You must know the teams colors.
➙ Both teams have similar colors. Red, blue, white and silver.
3. Your napkins have to match the teams colors.
➙ The grocery store sells colored napkins by the paper plates.
4. Chips and dip must make an appearance.
➙ Here are some recipes to get you started.
5. Before the game starts you have to pick a team to root for.
➙ Oh, still undecided here. I have a couple more days to choose.

Also, if you have some extra time on you hands, peanut butter footballs are a great treat to add to the festivities.

The how to? Use your favorite peanut butter ball recipe. They are all pretty much the same, but here is a good one if you don’t already have a fave.

When the dough is ready, roll into one inch balls.

Carefully shape the ball into a little tube.

Pinch the ends of your tube to create the football shape.

Now repeat a bajillion times. I mixed up half a recipe and ended with a little more than thirty footballs. Chill your footballs for a half hour.

After your peanut butter is done chilling, dip carefully into melted chocolate. Perfection in chocolate dipping is not on my resume. Go with the flow. Set dipped footballs back in fridge to speed up the chocolate hardening.

Time to finish these pigskins up. I used white icing to make the laces, but you could also melt white chocolate.

Not to bad for a cute treat. The footballs can keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
Warning: Making them ahead of time will likely cause you to more work. Only because you will have to make them again. For some reason chocolate covered peanut butter doesn’t last very long at our house.

Happy Friday Friends!

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FEBRUARY 1, 2012

FEBRUARY PIN BOARD

All right friends. Today is the start of a new month, and I need your help. I’m looking for a few friends to work on a collaborative Pinterest board with me.

source

The Details:
Theme – Pink+Red Don’t take the theme too literally.
Proper Source – You have to make sure your pin leads back to an original source! Let’s give credit.
Keep it Clean – I run a family friendly site here.
Description – Leave a description of your pin. It’s doesn’t have to be long, just no // or …
Round Up – At the end of the month I will do a round up of my favorite pins from the board.

If you are interested in playing along, email me: saltypineapple at gmail dot com. I will send you and invite to the board and we can get started!