Craftgossip has a cool list of 9 different crafts you can make with conversation hearts. I never really cared for the taste of them, so maybe I should start making stuff with them instead!

• 9 Conversation Hearts Crafts

Great for the special person in your life, or just to add some sweet fun to any room, our new Jellio Seat Hearts are the perfect way to show your romantic side. Choose from “Love You”, “Be Mine” or “Hug Me”.

Colors:
Pink, Plum or Yellow

Size:
24” wide x 20” deep x 17” high.

Materials:
Vinyl over foam. wooden legs

Jellio makes the kind of cool furniture I just wish I had the money to buy. Be sure and check out all of their other cool furniture too.

• Jellio Seat Hearts

If you’re at a loss for what to get your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day, don’t worry. Just drive over to your local Target or other big-box all-purpose store or pharmacy and check out their special seasonal section, which is full of tons of great candy choices. Whether you prefer your candy romantic, sweet, silly, or weird, you should find a great selection at discount store prices. Check out what I found.

Romantic Candy

Target had tons of great choices for romantic candy, and almost all the options cost no more than $10. At the top of the page is a ruffly box of Russell Stover chocolates. If your gal is slightly girly and romantic, she’ll probably love this box!

Of course, there were tons of other heart-shaped boxes of chocolate:

This box of Dove chocolates has a less-traditional shape, and is filled with delicious Dove chocolate hearts. If your sweetheart is a chocoholic, this will do the trick.

I like these boxes that look like candy hearts with messages in Spanish. They’re also filled with Russell Stover chocolates.

Or, skip the heart-shaped box of bon-bons and get a candy rose. The Toblerone box is a standard Toblerone with a cardboard rose on the box, while the Dove box has a rose made of candy coming out the top. A tip from a lady to guys who need some help choosing a Valentine’s Day gift: this is a sweet gift, but because it’s smaller, make sure you tuck something else in with this one, like a gift certificate for a pedicure.

Manly Valentine Candy

There were several fun candy options to give to the manly men in your life! How about a candy tackle box?

Or, if your man is a little more of a player, you could gamble on some Lucky in Love candy poker chips.

For your handy man, here are some milk chocolate tools. I might go back and get these for my construction-obsessed son.

Valentine Candy for Kids

Target has some fun offerings for kid valentine candy. I would have loved to get these Fun Dip valentines from a classmate back in grade school!

There are a couple different candy jewelry kits, which are perfect valentines for your little girl.

No Valentine’s Day is complete without a few boxes of Sweethearts. Have you tried the Glam version?

These Star Wars Clone Wars heart-shaped lollipops are so cool! Hearts + Star Wars = Love.

I think these gummy candy skewers are cute — especially the cupcakes!

These heart-shaped boxes of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures come with a cute stuffed cheetah, which many kiddos would love. Or, if you want to give some special Valentine’s Day candy to a friend, co-worker, sibling, client, or someone who you don’t want to send the wrong message to, this would be a good choice.

Fun & Fantastic Valentine Candy

At first I thought this was a Valentine’s Day Voodoo doll, but when I looked at the tag, it said the toy was a “monster.” Hmm, a Valentine’s Day Monster, huh? Slightly creepy-cute, and completely perfect for your teen.

I got this Wonka Scrumdiddlyumptious Chocolate for my family to try. How could you not?

Don’t wait until Easter to get your Peeps fix! You can get marshmallow hearts and “I heart you” candy right now.

I’m a huge fan of candy sprinkles. They make everything more fun! My favorite of this group are the pink pearl nonpareils (although, the X’s and O’s are pretty cool, too). If you are the baking type, make your own Valentine’s Day sweets, and add special sprinkles to make your goodies that much more fun.

Slightly cheeky, this Spin the Bottle candy gift sends the message that you want to have a fun time with your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.

For some reason, you don’t see strawberries together with chocolate candy bars that often. In fact, these Ghirardelli Dark & Strawberry squares might be the first ones that I’ve ever seen!

This virtual tour of Target’s Valentine candy aisle should give you some inspiration about which sweet treat will be perfect for your valentine. Which of these candies caught your eye? What are you getting your sweetheart this year? Which candy do you want to receive?

Contest closed
Thanks for the winning comment, Amy! What a great memory! I once pantsed someone and am often reminded of it. ;) Here’s the winning comment:

i love the peppermint bark, but i was really intrigued by the caramel filled squares i tried last summer. great combination.

my favorite holiday tradition is getting to open one gift on christmas eve. as a kid, having to choose just the right one was soooo hard.

and i remember the year my mom gave us christmas themed underwear. each pair had rudolph or santas, etc… anyway, she told us we had to wear them, and she threatened to check later on. that was such a fun day. running around and being carefree. i miss that feeling of not having a care in the world. and the fear of being pantsed at any moment was pretty funny. oh, and she never checked. :)

Keep reading for more fun giveaways to come!
____________________________________________________________________

If it’s better to give than receive, we must be excellent! We’ve got a fantastic one-day only giveaway for our readers!

THE GIVEAWAY
To celebrate the holidays, Ghirardelli wants to give one lucky Candy Addict reader a Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Party Pack! To enter, post a comment below sharing your favorite Ghirardelli flavor and tell us about your favorite winter holiday tradition by midnight EST December 13, 2010. We’ll choose our favorite entry from all valid entries and you get the goods. Simple, eh? (Psst… we’re always interested in new ideas, so unique traditions will catch our attention. And, well, if your favorite flavor happens to be my own, you’re gonna get noticed, too!)

Be sure and use your real email address when you post a comment (it will not be shown on the site) and make sure emails from candyaddict.com don’t get labeled as SPAM. You can’t win if you can’t receive the winning email!

Offer open to U.S. residents only and prize must be shipped to a U.S. address. Limit one entry per person. Entries accepted until midnight EST, December 13, 2010. Winners must be 18 years or older to win. Void where prohibited by law. If the winner does not reply by email within 24 hours when we send the winning email, the prize will be forfeit and another winner will be chosen.

• Ghirardelli website

Which do you eat first?

• Chocolate Bunny Debate on Flashnews

Check out some past Easter articles:

• Caramel Easter Egg Roundup
• Best Chocolate Easter Bunnies
• Jellybean Roundup
• The Chocolate Bunny Test
• The History of the Chocolate Bunny

Just in time for Halloween, the Twilight film franchise has released New Moon themed Halloween candies. The folks at the National Confectioners’ Association sent me three flavors to try.

Do you remember Sky Bars? For those of you who have never had the pleasure, a Sky Bar is a chocolate bar made of different sections, each of which contain a different filling. So in one chocolate bar, you got caramel, vanilla, peanut butter, and fudge fillings. Awesome.

Well this classic candy is getting a modern makeover. Instead of putting all the fillings in one bar, now some of the segments have their own, individually-wrapped candy bar with different Twilight New Moon characters on different flavors. I tried the Edward caramel and the Bella creme. Edward’s chocolate is etched with a family crest and says “Cullen.” Bella’s is shaped like a heart and says “Bella.” Both are good-sized chocolates.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Sky Bar, so I can’t compare these to the originals. But I can say: yummy! The caramel flavor is loaded with a soft, sweet caramel that’s more liquid than chewy. The creme has almost the same consistency and the flavor reminds me of a Cadbury creme egg – really sweet but I somehow love it anyway.

Between the packaging, the cool shapes of the candies, the generous size of the chocolates, and the taste, I’d say these would be a huge hit with Twilight-loving Trick-or-Treaters.

I also tried the Twilight Sweethearts “Forbidden Fruits” conversation hearts. My box said “2 of 3″ and featured Edward. They are a bit glittery, and say things like “Soul Mate,” “With You,” “Live 4 Ever,” and my personal favorite, “Bite Me.”

For me, conversation hearts have always been more about having fun with what they say than how they taste, and this box was no exception. These still have the same chalky consistency I remember, but the flavors are much stronger. Flavors include orange obsession, tempting apple, passion fruit, and secret strawberry. They all tasted very sweet, very artificial, and, oddly enough, vaguely medicinal to me. I can’t say I enjoyed how these tasted. Fun to play with, yes. Fun to eat, not so much.

Since these come in a big box, they are not really suitable for handing out at the door on Halloween. But they’d be a lot of fun in a candy dish at work or at a party.

Given a choice, I definitely would choose the Sky Bars over the Sweethearts. Either way, enjoy your Twilight New Moon Halloween goodies!

Necco makes both the Sky Bar treats and the Sweethearts.

Candy Addict received this product as a sample. No payment was received for this review and all opinions represent an unbiased view of the product.

• Necco’s Website

It’s almost time for Halloween again and that means yummy treats for everyone.

The folks at the National Confectioners’ Association were kind enough to send me some treats to try, so I’m sharing them with you. I figured we’d start with the healthier treats, in case any of you want to add something healthy to your Halloween splurge.

First up,the bag of Florida Natural Au’Some Fruit Healthy Treats, which contain a mix of sour strings, nuggets, and stiks. I actually enjoy them all. All three styles come in orange, strawberry, and grape flavors and I like the strawberry the best. Since I love sour stuff, I particularly enjoy the sour strings, although I should warn you that they aren’t terribly sour. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the stiks – they are really tangy and nicely chewy without sticking to your teeth. The nuggets are fun, too, but I thought the orange flavor, in particular, could have a wee bit of vitamin taste to it.

Given that the nuggets and strings are only 50 calories a pack, and the sticks are only 35, these are a guilt-free treat, surprisingly tasty and satisfying. As a bonus, each candy has vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals, so these actually have a health benefit! Since these come in nifty little packets, you can hand them out to your Trick-or-Treaters, or take ‘em to work yourself.

While I was delving into the fruity, chewy goodness, I decided to try Welch’s Island Flavor Fruit Snacks. One serving boasts 100% of your vitamin C DV, and 25% of your A and E. And, at 130 calories per serving, this definitely qualifies for my “healthier Halloween” motif. I’m sorry to say I didn’t enjoy these nearly as much as the Au’some Fruit treats. The flavors were much more bland and had a weird, waxy taste to them. And the texture was odd: not very chewy and kind of powdery. Plus, my sample came in a bag that was too big to share with Trick-or-Treaters, although you could just eat ‘em yourself. If you’re into tropical punch flavors, maybe you’ll dig this, but it wasn’t really my thing.

Last on the list, Candy Coated Sunny Seed Drops by the Sunflower Food & Spice Co, Ltd. Back in June, Nico reviewed the regular Sunny Seed Drops Chocolate Sunflower Seeds, but mine came in Halloween colors with a Halloween-themed tube. Same flavor, but seasonal packaging. How do these stand up to other Halloween treats? Well, I love chocolate and I love sunflower seeds so these made me do the happy dance. The only bad thing I can say about these is that I had a hard time not eating the entire tube. The brightly colored candy shells are incredibly inviting, just begging you to have another handful. These are a little like sunflower M&Ms. I will say the chocolate is quite sweet, but somehow it works with the sunflower seeds. Oh yum! How did I go my whole life so far without having these?

According to the package, sunflower seeds are an excellent source of a number of vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber – healthy! There are 130 calories per serving – if you can manage to stop at the serving size, which is 2 tablespoons. Since this came in a good-sized tube, I’m not sure if you’d want to get enough tubes to share with Trick-or-Treaters or not. But I sure do recommend treating yourself because these rocked.

Overall, if you’re looking for a healthier Halloween but don’t want to make your Trick-or-Treaters or yourself feel deprived, I recommend you try either the Au’some Fruits or the Sunny Seed Drops. Yum!

• Au’some Treats Website
• Welch’s Website
• Sunflower Food & Spice Company’s Website

Did you know that houses with black shutters are 77 percent more likely to hand out Kit Kats than other houses? Yeah, me neither. Weird. If I had a black shutters (or even a house, for that matter), I’d be compelled now to ensure that I didn’t hand out Kit Kats. That’s just how I roll. But that and other rather odd facts can be found in a press release issued by Hershey’s.

They’re also happy to announce that this year will also see a variety of new snack sized candies (including Hershey’s Kisses) for trick-or-treaters. Apparently nobody bothered to read my scientific (ahem) study of smaller sized candies. But I will admit those Reese’s pumpkins are really darn cute.

• Hershey’s Dresses up Halloween with Frightfully Delicious Treats Press Release

Well, you know how it goes – I bought a stack of Easter items to review right after Easter, but then I got lazy. So now I’m stuck writing about Easter candy while everyone else has moved on to bigger and better things, like the fast-approaching All Candy Expo. But I swear this is my last Easter candy review until next year – unless something interesting comes up at the ACE, of course.

Anyway, Canadian chocolatier Laura Secord is another one of those middle-to-high-end chocolate companies like Purdy’s, and it’s known mainly for its chain of mall chocolate shops, but its products are also available in other stores, especially around the big candy holidays. The Secord Egg is Laura Secord’s answer to the Cadbury Creme Egg : a chocolate egg filled with a yellow and white fondant center. (The Secord Egg calls it “butter cream,” despite there being neither butter nor cream in the ingredients.) A higher-end Creme Egg? Sign me up!

Inside the cheery yellow and lavender box, the egg is wrapped loosely in waxed paper printed with Laura Secord logos. For some reason, there’s a crumpled little ball of shredded paper in there too – to keep the egg from rattling around and getting all broken, I guess.

This is one hefty egg – I estimate it’s at least twice the size of a Cadbury Creme Egg, and heavy to boot. (The Secord Egg comes in at least two sizes, of which this is actually the smaller.) The chocolate is a very thin, crisp layer over an enormous amount of dense, heavy fondant, and it’s not really very good chocolate – it tastes a little stale to boot.

Inside, the fondant is very white, shading to yellow in the center. It’s stringy like caramel and shiny like a very stiff meringue, which is oddly appropriate, except that there are no actual eggs in the ingredients. Like a Creme Egg, the fondant is really, really sweet, but doesn’t really have much flavor of its own, not even vanilla. It just kind of tastes like “sweet,” like cake frosting, though the texture’s not the same. Creme Eggs have a good balance of chocolate and creme, but here the massive amount of filling dominates, overpowering the small amount of chocolate with its sweet, gooey blandness.

If you think Creme Eggs are too sweet, stay far, far away from this. It’s an awkward candy to eat – Creme Eggs are gooey little sugar bombs, but they’re small enough that it’s a manageable feat to eat one all at once. The Secord Egg is way too sweet to eat in one sitting, but too messy to easily save some of it for later.

And definitely don’t eat this thing before breakfast, like I did (curse my early-morning candy habit!). Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to put some real food in my stomach before the sugar crash hits.

• Laura Secord Website