Sometimes the things that you think will be the simplest turn out to be a huge candy pain in the …..

Last year for Mother’s Day I bought my mom and grandmother cute candy bar bouquets at Kroger for nearly $20 a piece. They were super adorable and everyone loved them…especially the men. I heard a lot of, ‘Now that’s my kind of flower bouquet!”  So this year as I was racking my brain trying to think of something sweet to get the hubs for Valentine’s Day that wouldn’t be a waste of money and/or end up in the junk drawer in his office I remembered the awesome candy bar treats.

Instead of shelling out another $20 I decided that surely I could make one on my own for much cheaper and besides, this would be a really fun project for me and the boy to work on together. It amazes me at how I misjudge myself and the child I have raised for the last 4 years sometimes.

The original bouquets were nothing but full sized candy bars taped onto a stick and arranged in a cute glass vase with a big bow on top. Simple right? Maybe if you had the proper crafting supplies and a full hour to painstakingly tape candy bars to tiny sticks without having to worry about a 4 year old and a 5 month old grabbing your pointy sticks and sticking them in an eye.

Long story short…I used miniature candy bars, scotch tape and some wooden skewers I had in the kitchen. I didn’t have the right size glass vase so I used a waffle cone shaped ice cream cup that I got at the dollar store last summer. I thought this project would be a no-brainer and to someone who doesn’t suffer from mommy brain it probably would be. But it took me an hour and a half with time out to feed the girl and countless attempts to get the boy to help me. He was over it after the second stick went in.

My first mistake was using the mini-candy bars. There were just too many and it took too long. 6-8 full size candy bars would have been much faster. My second mistake was that I didn’t have any florist foam to put in the bottom of the vase. I did managed to find some styrofoam so I stuffed that down in the bottom, but then I taped all the candy to the pointy ends of the sticks and the flat ends wouldn’t penetrate the foam. So I had to START ALL OVER.

It was brutal and it didn’t look pretty when I finished. Then I remembered by stash of tissue paper and tried to save it as best I could.

Not too bad but nothing to eww and ahh over either….but here’s what it looked like before I doctored it up with tissue paper. Next to this the above picture is a thing a beauty.

Yeah, that’s appealing. And romantic. Not.

Crafts are my kryptonite and I don’t know why. I’m very visual and creative. My goal for 2011 is do more DIY decorating and gifting and I have several projects that I want to work on soon. None of the other ones contain food or need to convey my love for my soul mate so I should be ok.

Tools Needed for Project:

2 Bags of mini-candy bars – or 6-8 full size bars (better)

Wooden skewers

Scotch tape

Ribbon

Pretty glass/vase

If I do this again I will buy a small glass vase at the dollar store and fill it with Hershey Kisses as a base then just use full size candy bars and a small mini balloon.

One of the ‘go to’ real mom recipes has got to be the good old rice crispy treat. The rice crispy is loved by everyone and it probably the easiest and most versatile treats that have ever been invented. You don’t even really need a recipe…just mix up rice crispy cereal with marshmallows melted in butter. It couldn’t get more real mom than that.

Since the actual making of the treats is so easy I usually have a little more time to funk them up. I’ve made Christmas wreaths, Valentines hearts, footballs, Spongebobs and Patrick’s and tons of other fun shapes. All you need is box of cookie cutters and the options are endless. And if you think your kids love rice crispies in the old school square shape..watch their sweet faces when you give them one shaped like a Bubble Guppy or on a stick like a fancy lolly. And don’t forget the sprinkles!!!!

Here are a few options of what you can do for the upcoming Valentine’s Day. Make the standard bars with a few red sprinkles, form them in a heart shaped pan, cut them with a cookie cutter..dip them in chocolate and put them on a stick. I can’t stress enough how viable and easy it is to bend these things to your will.

Just for fun…this old commercial shows that moms have been using the rice crispy trick for years! It makes me miss the days when homes were built with the kitchen detached with doors. Now we all have open floor plans and the kids are always sitting at the island doing homework while we cook..so we can’t really hide out in there anymore. Oh well..at least we still have the bathroom.

Original Rice Crispy Recipe

• 3 tablespoons   butter or margarine
• 1 package (10 oz., about 40)   regular marshmallows
• – OR -
• 4 cups   miniature marshmallows
• 6 cups rice crispy cereal

Directions:

Melt butter and marshmallows in small saucepan and mix in cereal. While still warm pour into pan. Then bend and shape into whatever form strikes your fancy.