Craft-fever

Last week was a good one for crafting.  I've challenged myself to do a little bit of crafting everyday.  I want to spend about an hour working on something, with the goal of finishing it, or at least getting a good handle on it in that time.  It doesn't really matter what I make, as long as it gets the creative juices flowing.  I'll try to do a weekly update every Sunday to share what I've done!

My creative week started on Tuesday:

I did a little bit of ''art'', if you want to call it that :)  This is a 2 inch ceramic pot that I colored with a silver sharpee.  My son got in on the action and colored one of his own.  Were going to get some small flower seeds, plant them, and watch them grow.

Wednesday:

I did a little bit of beading.  The body is a straight jewelry pin and the wings are wire that are just twisted around the body.  I love the beads: the body beads look tye-dyed and the wings are alternating seed beads in bright rainbow colors!

Thursday:

 I quilled a birthday card for my Granny.  She turns 80 this month!  Wow!  I love the effect of quilling.  It is simple to do, and you can really create a lot with the little paper shapes. 

FRIDAY:
I made some more beaded dragonflies, although I forgot to take pictures before they were sent off to friends!  They were made with the same beads as above.

The weekend was (and often will be) devoted to knitting.  I always have something on the needles, so it's easy to grab and go for all that weekend business!

A Sweet Treat

I got a little creative in the baking department last week.  I had a little potluck dinner to go to and it was my turn to make dessert.  The full recipe and instructions can be found here.

The insides of the truffles were chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting mixed in.  After you mix the cake and frosting you roll them into 1 inch balls... 

 The outsides were a combo of melting chocolate and melting vanilla.  I melted small batches of the chocolate or vanilla, dipped each ball individually (the vanilla needed to be dipped twice), and allowed them to harden on a sheet of foil...

Next it was time to decorate!  Again I melted small batches of the vanilla and chocolate, then spooned it into a baggie, cut the corner out of the bag (making a very small hole), and drizzled the melted stuff over the balls...

Each ''truffle'' was placed inside a mini-muffin paper and then they were ready to eat!  The cake was so moist and sweet. 

 The coolest thing about this project was the fact that you could take the rolled cake balls (before they get dipped in chocolate) place them in a zip-top bag and throw them in the freezer!  Just take them out of the freezer and pop them in the fridge a day before you want to use them.  Then proceed as planned.  They still taste great and the cake doesn't dry out at all!

A Rant About V-Day

My husband and I do not celebrate Valentine's Day.  Never have, and likely never will.  Not because we are cynical, or against love, or anti-chocolate.  In fact, we are quite in love, affectionate and we (well, at least he) loves chocolate.  We decided a long time ago that it was more important to celebrate our love everyday instead of saving it up for one day a year.  It's the little things that are important.  Like when he empties the dishwasher before he goes off to work in the morning or the fact that he lets me sleep in every Saturday.  Or that I make dinner for his stinky friends (and enjoy it) or that 300 days out of the year there is some sort of sport on TV.  For us, Valentine's day is more like our own personal Thanksgiving.  It's when we remember what we mean to each other and how our lives would be incomplete without "us".  It is not about chocolate, stuffed bears, or flowers.  

We spend a quiet night at home with a home-cooked meal and (sometimes) a bottle of cheap champagne (less that $5... hey I told you it was cheap) and the two of us. That's all we need to remind us that we are in love.