9 Projects: Valentine-ish Things to Make

Are there enough yummy and lovely things out there to make for Valentine's Day?  It was really hard to whittle this list down to just 9 projects.  But I do love every single one of these.  I will be making some of those grapefruit bath salts, and those baked (yes, baked!) chocolate doughnuts with the blood orange glaze because what says love more than a cake doughnut?  Wish I knew how to knit because I would so be knitting some of those heart-heeled socks too (stripes + hearts = true sock love).  And that beribboned necklace made from gum balls is so sweetly pretty. Oh, and the minute-to-win-it candy valentine?  So frickin' brilliant (seriously, go to the post and read about the specifics of the challenge--uber clever)!  

You can find each of the projects here (listed clockwise from top left):  Heart Tote from Hrrthrrr; Grapefruit Bath Salts from Celebrations at Home; Kimono Robe by Atelier Joy found on Craftsy; Pink Heart Milk Cubes (will turn the milk pink!) by A Subtle Revelry; LoveSocks by Devon Clement found on Ravelry; Chocolate Doughnuts with Blood Orange Glaze from Heather Christo Cooks; Minute-to-Win-It Valentine from StacyJulian; Gumball Necklaces from Formal Fringe; Kid's Pencil Arrow Valentine Card Printable from Sweet Muffin Suite

Now go slip on your favorite pink shirt,  put on some dreamy music and get your Valentine's Day craft on because all you need is love (and a few crafting supplies).

Crocheted Hats and Conversations with My Fake Boyfriend

My friend Carrie crocheted the hats with the red initials Beeper and Mr Beeper are wearing.  They love their hats and like to wear them around our drafty old house.  She crocheted them during an afternoon she spent sitting on our sofa chatting with me while our husbands watched football upstairs and our kids made their own videos on an iPod, giggling hysterically the entire time.  I wish I knew how to crochet a hat in an afternoon.  

But what I really want you to know about Carrie is that she has this clever and funny Tumblr called Conversations With My Fake Boyfriend.  It features photos of guys--really attractive guys--and snippets of conversations she imagines they are having with her.  Here's a sample--a New Year's Eve post:

“Would I be standing in this library if I didn’t think staying in on New Years’ Eve wasn’t a capital idea? Wearing my jammies and smoking jacket? Of course not. Now put on your yoga pants, glug that Fresca and stay hip deep in your book, baby girl.”

I read it every day because it never ever fails to make me smile--plus it is a minimal reading commitment since it usually contains no more than 2-4 sentences.  Try it out--I mean, if you like to smile, laugh or just look at photos of hot guys.

Oh, and Carrie is actually a writer in her real life.  Her first YA novel is will be published this spring--it's called Sex and Violence--and yes, it does contain both sex and violence in the story.  You can find out more about Carrie right here. 

Our Wreckorated Sofa

So we purchased this lily-white Ikea sofa with two matching ottomans earlier this summer and foolishly put it in our heavily used all-purpose play/TV/rumpus room.  Let's just say it did not maintain its  virginal color qualities for long before it was sullied with spilled juice, dusty shoe prints, pizza sauce, melted chocolate, and whatever grime seems to come from simply sitting your bum on a sofa cushion over time.  Sure, I made an honest effort with upholstery cleaner at some point and managed a modicum of recovery with much vigorous scrubbing...but I already knew the battle was futile.   

So I just gave up and put out a mason jar full of Sharpies of every color and announced to every child and adult who entered our house that the sofa was open for graffiti and doodling if anyone was so inclined.  Did I get some, "Are you freaking crazy?" looks from parents?  Loads.  Did Beeper's friends look at me suspiciously from the corner of their eyes as they tentatively uncapped a Sharpie and moved toward the sofa?  Sure. But as you may imagine, the kiddos were pretty quick to embrace this notion of doing something normally completely forbidden and this is what we have today: our wreckorated sofa....

My only two rules for drawing on the sofa are: 1) no writing anything unkind about anyone else, and  2) no scribbling over drawings.  Adventure Time related drawings have been particularly popular with the kiddos--and tagging the sofa with their names, of course.  Best of all, the graffiti really does disguise the dirt and grime and spills.  And no, the writing does not rub off on your bum.  

I have found that I love all the color it brings to the room.  It is a design in constant evolution as people add more and build on one another's drawings.  Just this morning I came in and Beeper had added a rainbow platypus with a mohawk to one of the cushions.  Yeah, it made me smile.  I ask you, how often does your sofa make you smile?

Colorful Wooden Utensils

I had been collecting secondhand wooden utensils for the past year or so with the intent of painting the handles and giving them as holiday gifts to friends.  There have been loads of tutorials on how to make these popping up all over Pinterest for years now, so I had plenty of reference instructions before I began. These stripey ones were my initial inspiration (though I decided not to go stripey because laziness superseded the desire for stripes), but I also loved the more subtle look of these, though ultimately decided to go brighter, like these.    

Being secondhand, I did boil these for about 30 minutes just to kill off any wee beasties that may be lurking in the wood, then I just taped the top edge of the handle with masking tape, painted the handles with craft paint (anywhere from 2-3 coats depending on the color saturation desired), set them up to dry (TIP: place disposable cups placed inside glass ones, then place the utensils in the cups painted end up while drying), used a non-toxic shellac to seal the painted handles (lay down newspaper and use brushes you do not intend to keep--this stuff does not clean up easily--I managed to shellac part of a fingertip in the process), and finished them off by conditioning the unpainted portions of the utensils with a combo of beeswax and mineral oil (Stephanie has good instructions for how to make your own wood oil, found here).  That was it.  Pretty simple, really.  I mean, as long as you do not shellac any parts of your body...

Baby Come Back

Dear Blog,
I just have to tell you that I miss you.  Loads.  I know it has been months and months since I have come around to see you, but I still think about you all the time--most every day, really.  You see, I decided (very unceremoniously) that I wanted to try my life without.  Just to see what that would be like--returning to what life was like before you were ever part of it, reclaiming those chunks of time previously devoted to editing photos, creating tutorials, logging new entries--but what I have found is that I miss you so very much.  I yearn for you every time I make something, see something beautiful, admire something that someone else has made--my heart pauses for a moment and aches for you.

There are so many new things I want to share with you still--my iPad and all the inspiring apps I have discovered (no, please don't think of this as cheating--the iPad and I have a different sort of relationship than you and I), things I am creating--and the things I want to share so others can make them too, all the lovely things other people are making, all the new recipes I have made and some of the amazing cookbooks I have found, Beeper's latest moment, the wonder of the later afternoon winter light, some of the changes Mr Beeper and I have found time to make to our home...I need someone to share all of these things with because you are the only one who cares about these very same things.  We just get each other in ways no one else does.

I always knew you were important to me, but I guess this time apart has made it clear exactly how much we are meant to be together.  I promise you that I will be around here more from now on--I hope you can forgive my rude and extended absence--but I know we have a future and I am looking forward to this new year--together.
Love,
H.

Breakfast Cookies

So I made these breakfast cookies--the ones I mentioned here.  I have never made a breakfast cookie before but it has two of my favorite words in its name, so it seemed like a sure thing.  Then I got a little scared when I saw that they had no butter, no sugar, and no eggs.  I was suddenly put in mind of these all natural "healthy" cookies my friend Carrie's boyfriend in college once made (he was all into yoga and not showering and listening to the Dead--you know the type--you may have dated one in college yourself)--and how she described them as tasting like small rocks.  Just to be clear, rocks are not my idea of breakfast or cookies.  

Look, I like the idea of something healthy, but would Beeper actually eat them as he ran out the door to catch the bus? Would I eat them as I ran out the door to work?  The answer is YES--in fact, Beeper eats them for breakfast, and then he asks for one later as an after-school snack.  Okay, I did make a few modifications to the recipe.  I did not want them too be too overwhelmingly banana-y so I actually only used 1+1/2 bananas and then substituted 3/4 cup of applesauce for the remaining bananas.  Yep--that still kept it in the realm of all wholesome.  But then I thought they might be sort of good with peanut butter so I added about 1/3 cup of PB.  And then when I tasted the batter it did seem a little bland so I went ahead and put in 1/4 cup of honey to sweeten it a bit and after that it worked for me.  They are just mildly sweet and oatmeal-y and nutty and coconutty with an undercurrent of banana.  Mine did take an extra 5-minutes of baking time too.  But I would definitely make these again--and am thinking about how I could further customize the recipe to still be healthy but maybe taste a bit more like the Ranger cookies my mom used to make.  

You can find the original recipe here, at Blueberry Girl.  Recipe customization is at your discretion--although I would not think any less of you if you were tempted to throw some chocolate chips into these. 

The Amazing Mr. Finch

Oh, Mr. Finch.  How do I love thee?  There are so, so many ways...

...for the meticulously hand-sewn gills on the undersides of your mushrooms...

...for your dead-gorgeous spider with crooked legs of wire and teeny shell-buttoned posterior...

...for your sweetly macabre hand-painted trophy-mount rabbit torsos...

...for your way with the creepy and crawly, making it so utterly frighteningly lovely...

...for your hand-sized moths stitched from odd bits of upholstery and velvet...

...for your barn owl under a glass cloche with black kohl eyes...

...and for your beautiful vintage tapestry, rainy-water-stained butterflies (and your artful ways with a photo prop)...

These are but a few of the creatures the genius Mr. Finch brings into being from his self-described "rainy fairy-tale mind."  Mr. Finch is a British textile-artist, who stitches away to the sound of rain, in the companionship of his cats, whilst drinking cups of tea.  I wish I could find a corner of his studio in which to crouch and watch him stitch away for all the hours of a gray and dreamy afternoon.

You can see more of Mr. Finch's creations here, learn more about him and his creations at his blog, and peruse his fantastic creations (or buy your own!) in his Etsy shop.  Enjoy!