The One With the Valentine's Day Preparedness (2): Easy-Peasy Valentine's Cards

Love is in the air, don't you think?
Valentine's Day is always a great excuse to make hand-made cards. You know, it's the grown up version of those Disney Princess ones you used to hand out at school.
If you're anything like me, you may have seen hundreds of beautiful handmade cards that require a million tools and gadgets and embellishments that you don't have. Well, here you'll find cards that require literally four things you could probably scrounge around for:

1. Paper
2. Scissors or a cutting board
3. Double-sided tape
   
4. Ribbon (which is even optional)

Think you could find those?

I cut my own cards out of cardstock and used some envelopes left over from previous projects. I used the Brenda Walton Sweet Talk Postage Stamps paper by K&Company. I found it at Michael's a while back. But you could write your own lovey sayings, use stickers or any kind of embellishment from the glorious papercrafting aisle.


And of course you'll need some random paper to spice things up. All of these were made with paper I had lying around or in my scrap box. That's right - a whole box devoted to tiny shreds of paper left over from other projects. Don't have one? You should. I toss just about anything in there - even cards that I receive. You never know when it might come in handy.


And ribbon adds some extra fun. It's not necessary, but if you have some, use it! If you are afraid of the ribbon fraying, you can melt the ends of it with a candle flame. Don't get it too close to avoid burning or melting too much.
If you want, you can also use a marker or a stamp pad to ink the edges of the paper and add a little contrast and dimension.

And voila! You have some easy, yet personal, cards to send to all your friends to wish them a Happy Valentine's Day.

The One With the Valentine's Day Preparedness (1)

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorites. I mean, what's not to love? All the pink? All the chocolate? All the adorable Valentine's cards and gifts?

When Steve and I were first dating our freshman year of college he remarked on our first Valentine's Day together, "Ahh... Valentine's Day. A day when everyone else pretends to be as in love as we are." Of course it made me weak at the knees back then and still does.

So in honor of this most lovely holiday, the rest of this week I'll be posting about Valentine's Day! Yay!

Although I love this holiday, it has been a little less at the forefront of my mind this year as we get ready to welcome our new little one. She's due in less than a month and I still have lots of things to get ready for her - not the least of which is ordering the art for her nursery. You may recall the mood board I put together for her Woodland Nursery featuring lovely art from the very talented Kit at Trafalgar's Square on Etsy.com. It is just too adorable. Well, Kit has added some beautiful Valentine's prints to her collection. Check them out at her blog Lullaloo. The SweetHeart Badge set is too cute for words. And! She's having a giveaway, so check it out!

And speaking of cute, here's a picture of Ellie as Cupid for last Valentine's Day. I wonder if she'll let me get any good pictures this year...
I'll be back soon with some cards and gifts and possibly some more Valentine's Day picks from Etsy... because everyone should be spending their money there. They have much better gifts there than all those silly flower websites. I mean, seriously, who would feature a Justin Bieber Fan gift set. It doesn't even make sense.

The One With the Pretty Things (I Want to Make Edition)

I'm always collecting ideas from blogland of things I want to make. This seems as good a place as any to keep track... and maybe inspire you to make something, too!

1. So many adorable baby projects out there... of which these little baby blankets is not the least. It would be so simple I'm thinking I might want to whip some up before the baby comes.
2. One of these days I'm going to get around to making one of these handmade dolls for Ellie.
3. The next three should be evidence enough that I'm pregnant: All I can think about are delicious baked goodies that I simply must try! I'm gathering all the supplies today and starting with this Melt-In-Your-Mouth Mint Chocolate Cake. (via How Sweet It Is)
4. My mouth is already watering just thinking about these Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars. (also via How Sweet It Is)
   
5. Pistachio Cake? Yes, Please! (via The Pioneer Woman)
   
6. If only Ellie were a little older, I would have loved to make her these Valentine Gumball Necklaces. I wish I had a legitimate excuse to make them for myself. (via One Charming Party)

Well, this has sufficiently reminded me of all the things I should be doing. So I'm off to go do them.

Ellie v. The Powdered Sugar

Truthfully, I should have been more suspicious of the silence in the kitchen. In my defense, Ellie just recently established a little spot next to the heater under the bistro table in our breakfast nook as her reading spot. (Extra points if you can count all the prepositional phrases in that previous sentence.) So I assumed she was just reading away in there.

But then I came upon this scene.
Yes, that's powdered sugar.She was using the bag's obviously ineffectual clip as a dipping apparatus.Am I a bad mother for taking pictures of her (and therefore letting her eat a little more) before I cleaned her up? Maybe. But look at how cute she is. It's hard to resist such a great photo opportunity.

The One With the Little Farmer Quilt

In preparation for opening an Etsy shop, I have returned to my first love: quilting.
Check out this adorable Little Farmer Baby Quilt.
The little farm animals are so cute! This quilt would be perfect for a crib or tummy time and teaching animals and the sounds they make.



It is machine quilted and hand-bound. I love it so much it will be hard to let it go, but I'm also excited for some little baby to have and love it, too.

The One With the Hair Flowers

I've recently begun a new series of projects. They're called, "Projects I can do at the kitchen counter while Ellie plays." As it turns out, the afternoon nap is not a sufficient amount of time to get everything done that I want to get done. So, I've turned the kitchen counter into my new craft area. The criteria for these projects is that they require limited materials and no sewing machine - as the sewing machine is in the real craft room where there are also lots of other things Ellie shouldn't play with but wants to.

Project number one: Hair flowers. These will soon be available in my Etsy shop. They'll be available in different sizes so they can be either hair or sweater accessories.


I think this sparkly one would be a great hair accessory for prom.

Ellie was nice enough to model some of the flowers for me. Isn't she just the cutest.

The One With the Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am a happy girl. I found a recipe that combines 3 of my favorite things in the baking world: toffee, chocolate chip cookies and almond flavoring.
Maria over at Two Peas and Their Pod made this delicious recipe for Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies... and boy, is it awesome!

I am an especially big fan of the almond flavoring. I didn't have any almond paste on hand so I substituted 1 tsp. of almond extract and it does the trick.
I think my new baking resolution should be to use almond flavoring in everything I make. It's that good.


Josh and Maria are my new kitchen icons! Why? Because under the recipes tab of their site they have 94 cookie recipes. Yep, 94! That's twice as many cookie recipes as main dish recipes... which, in my opinion, is the only way to go. If I could subsist on desert and never cook a main dish again in my life, I would. Also, they have a whole bunch of breakfast recipes I can't wait to try. Did I mention their my new kitchen icons? Because they really are.

Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is. Fortunately for me, I still have some of these in the kitchen, so I just might go snag one.