valentine themed coffee hour

Every Wednesday at work, we have a coffee hour where different departments/groups host and provide goodies. Once in a while I'll pool together a themed event, like the one we did yesterday: a valentine themed coffee hour!

So many people brought in such yummy treats. It always makes me happy to see coworkers working together to pull off such a great event. That people take the time to make things - or even stop off at the store in order to contribute something - means a lot to me, and always makes my day. It's not even just the contributions that are awesome, but how people help set things up or help to clean up afterwards. Things like this really helps build team spirit and morale.

And I work with some extremely talented bakers and cooks, let me just say that. I mean, extremely talented! And they are very serious about their creations, taking the time to add meticulous little details. For instance, one of my coworkers brought the frosting for her vanilla cupcakes in so that she could pipe it onto each one when plating them. And they turned out beautifully!

We had quite a spread of food from savory things like spinach quiche bars and olive bread with cheese; and a huge turnout of sweet things like espresso marscapone cupcakes (homemade!), chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, chocolate and cardamom cookies, chocolate apple cake, apple pie, and tons of candies all around. We even had a mini fondue station full of marshmallows, strawberries, and bread for dipping!

It's a couple of days early but here's wishing all of you a
Happy Valentine's Day!

making valentines

My coworker came up with a great idea: making valentines at work! So we both pulled together some of our crafting supplies, booked one of the conference rooms last Wednesday, and let our coworkers drop in anytime during a three-hour period to make valentines. It was such a great success! We work with some really creative folks, and it was fun to see what people came up with.

I divided up some card bases, envelopes, stickers, glue, ribbon, and decorative scissors amongst three tables and set aside some rubber stamps, ink pads, paper scraps, and foam self-adhesive conversation hearts (found those at Michael's) for people to use.



Here are some of my coworkers busy making their valentines ...


And here are some of the beautiful cards that people made (click the photo to enlarge it so you can see the pretty details) ...

I found one on my desk later that afternoon, pictured here next to Pistachio ...

And speaking of my desk, there's been a new addition (see the cute striped fella) ... Gus Gus. He's made friends with Spike.

It's funny because I feel like we're so much more festive around this holiday than we were back during Christmastime. I guess there's a lot of love to be shared right now, which is a good thing. :)

valentine's day is coming

The proof is in my candy bowl at work!

Thanks to Emily for the idea of using (and for supplying!) the conversation hearts.

a few random things

A few random things to post about today. In continuing with the idea of reusing household items, I posted a how-to about reusing old magnets as the Friday Blogger on The Sampler site. Check it out here and leave a comment to let me know what you think about the project!

Alison from The Sampler will be at Magpie in Davis Square next Saturday, February 7th giving out a free mini Sampler to the first 100 customers. Each mini Sampler contains a variety of valentines, candy, jewelry, pins, cds - all sorts of things you normally get in the Sampler! I'll be donating some of my love-themed handmade greeting cards for her to include in the mini Sampler, plus she'll be giving out free cupcakes too! If you're in the area, be sure to stop by to get your free mini Sampler and Magpie will be offering 25% off all jewelry and valentine cards that day.

The snail mail valentines are available for purchase on the Fred Flare website! Read their blog post about the project here. You can buy them here, and if you enter the discount code "love" they'll give you free shipping! They are selling them as blind surprise so you can't pick the exact valentine you want, but all the cards are handmade by FF customers and there are some really cute cards in the mix. You can view them on their Flickr account here, too.

My coworker Lynn's husband, Wenxiong Lin, has some of his work on exhibit at Bloc 11. We went there this morning so I tried to snap some photos of his photographs and watercolors on display.

We have a small knitting group at work that gets together on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I helped one of my coworkers, Jeannie, by making an umbilical cord hat from the Stitch 'n Bitch book and they turned out super cute!

We both used the Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino yarn and size 3 needles. I love the greenish blue color that she used. I started a feather and fan baby cardigan from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders book last night with the same raspberry colored yarn so hopefully it'll be a cute set in the end.

One of our coworkers, Jessica, does an AMAZING job at crocheting. Seriously ya'll. She made this Noah's Ark toy for her neighbor's son and brought it in to show us the finished product. It just blew us away!

She didn't work with any patterns, isn't that so cool?! The giraffe was my favorite but all of the animals had such intricate details and little characteristics that are simply amazing. She used the Vanna's Choice yarn and entered the project into the contest so I am crossing my fingers and toes that she wins!

Speaking of contests ... I received this in the mail today:

I entered a couple of cards into the holiday contest at Paper Source and apparently one of my designs won! I submitted three different designs so I'm not sure exactly which one was sent to their corporate office, but according to this letter they're going to photograph them and use some of the designs in next year's promotional materials. So I guess I'll have to wait until then to see which one actually won.

Alas, such a long post. Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

mentioned on fred flare

Check it out -- the "thx" valentine made it into a photo collage on the Fred Flare blog!

Still no mention of when they will go on sale on their website (or in their store for that matter), but I bet sometime next week. Stay tuned and I'll let you know once I find out!

In the meantime, I have the designs available in my Etsy shop, along with the new ones. I have a couple of ideas brewing in my head for new designs which will get posted this weekend I hope!

giveaway winners

Can I get a drumroll please? Oh wait, my drummer is going to bed right now. Nevermind.

The winners of the Valentine card giveaway are as follows:

Comments 8 (Elissa), 1 (Traci), 7 (Joe), 9 (Jessica), 4 (Jordan), and 2 (Tulasmom).


Congratulations everyone! I have everyone's mailing address (surprisingly!) so I'll get the cards to you in the mail tomorrow morning. Enjoy and stay tuned for info on when they'll go on sale on the Fred Flare website. Keep your eyes peeled for another card giveaway! In the meantime, check out my latest card designs.

valentines for a good cause + a giveaway!

So what was in that box?!

Valentines!!

I read about this crafty charity event on the Sampler website and sent in 36 valentines to help raise funds for Elder Craftsmen, an NYC-based organization that brings craft programs to seniors.

They'll be sold on the Fred Flare website and in their NYC store sometime at the end of this month for $4 each. Be sure to check back here for an update on when you can buy one online!

In the meantime, I'm giving away one of each of the six designs! So if you'd like to enter the drawing, all you have to do is leave a comment and tell me which one you like the best. Easy as pie! The contest will be open until midnight (EST) Wednesday, January 21st. By midnight, I mean that after 11:59 pm on Tuesday, the contest will be closed. I'll all announce the winners (determined by using the random integer generator) on Wednesday afternoon.

Here are the designs (click to see larger image):

So be sure to leave a comment and tell me which one you like the best, and you just may win that design! :) Check out what other cards will be available here.

valentine's day stuff

So I forgot to post Valentine's day stuff! I managed to create a couple of cards and mailed them out in time (whew!) and then had a fun time making some treats, too.

(I must've had some sort of red-black-white bug going on here ...)

I really wish I wasn't allergic to raspberries because I sure do miss enjoying these linzer cookies. They're one of Tony's favorites. Lucky dude.

So for a little twist this year (and so that I could enjoy them too - LOL!), I made a few with melted chocolate in the middle instead of the raspberries. Yum yum!

new stamp

I saw this little bear stamp at Paper Source last night and couldn't resist adding him to my collection. So in a Valentine-making mood!

a little valentine head start

Our shipment from A Muse arrived yesterday and I couldn't resist grabbing a couple for this card idea I've had floating around in my head. It's based on one I did with the boxers + lingerie = and the pregnant camisole stamps with a little spin. Can't wait to make more Valentines this weekend! :)