Roses Are Blue...

Cookie Time

These are some Valentine's Day cookies that I made for an event in my town. They are sugar cookies with tinted glaze, sugar, and nonpareils. Very simple, but I love how they turned out. My aunt Jill helped me decorate them all (there were a lot).

I think Valentine's cookies might be my favorite cookies to make. I am a sucker for all the pink and red. I used a sugar cookie recipe from Martha Stewart (she has several - this one is my favorite) and the glaze recipe is from King Arthur Flour. Add a pinch of salt and use half and half instead of milk for the glaze - and the cookies will taste as good as they look. I put the glaze in squeeze bottles and did an outline and then filled in. This technique is super simple and takes very little practice. You could also make the glaze thinner (add more half and half) and pour or spread it on the cookies and then put on the sugar or decorations. Either technique gives you lovely, delicious cookies.

Voulez-vous decoupage avec moi, ce soir?

Faux bois and woodland themes were everywhere this Christmas. Everything from ornaments to wrapping paper was showing up in woodgrain. This red woodgrain tissue paper that I found at Target was especially lovely. I bought a ton when it went on clearance, knowing I would use it for something soon. Voilà! 

I decoupaged the tissue paper onto a posterboard heart cutout that I had on hand and then stamped the letters on after it dried. I pasted another heart cutout on the back to cover the mess and have a place to write some purple prose. It was super simple - the hardest part was getting the Mod Podge out of the bottle. (Is there a phrase "Slow as Mod Podge in January"? There should be.) All the romance of carving intials into a tree without doing any damage. 

I Feel Like A Cup Of Tea

I was so sad to read recently that Remy Charlip had died at the age of 83. When Kara and I were kids his book, Arm in Arm, was one of our very favorites. I just wrote a longer post over at LetterB about this book and how special it was to both of us but it inspired something that I wanted to show off here.

There are a few plays in this book of very serious nonsense. Kara and I often acted them out, sometimes even with costumes and props. This one was especially fun:

We must have performed this play (complete with our own added improvisations and flourishes) a hundred times. I can recite every line from memory, in an English accent no less. I'm sure Kara can as well (my accent is better, though).

On my birthday a few years back Kara told me she'd made me a present. I was excited because she's so talented and I wondered what I was going to get. In the mail arrived these tea towels.

I can't even tell you how much I adore them. Of course they have never been used and never will be.

Simple flour sack towels instantly transformed into cherished one-of-a-kind objects with a little colored thread. This is the power of the handmade gift. 

Rainbow Connection

I have a rainbow-loving 4-year-old. This dovetails nicely with my own lifelong obsession. I kept wanting to make a rainbow ribbon headband for her and finally got around to it recently, as part of a fund-raiser for her and her brother's school. When coming up with the design I decided it needed a puffy cloud, too, because puffy clouds are a vital part of my 80's rainbow nostalgia. I did make one concession - felt instead of satin - but I love the way it came out.

I made a ton of them for the craft fund-raiser and they sold well. I have seen a couple around town on girls' heads which makes me smile. I can only hope that I am doing a small part to pass on rainbow obsession to the next generation.