Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Shmalentines








"Valentine’s Day... may be a good idea in theory, like communism, or the carb free diet, but in actuality it is pretty much oppressive." (source)




Hope you all have a fantastic unimaginative, consumerist-oriented, entirely arbitrary, manipulative and shallow interpretation of romance Valentine's Day ;-)


(Who am I kidding? I love any day where as a general rule, chocolate is a requirement.)

Monday, February 14, 2011

For My Valentine




Dear Ralph,

I can never seem to find the right words to tell you how much I love you. That's why I am forever grateful for sites like Cake Wrecks, as they have something for every occasion and they know just what to say.



Happy Valentine's Day, Honey.






Love,
Your co-dependent Ball and Chain.





Last-Minute So-Easy-a-Guy-Could-Do-It Valentine's Day Gift

Ladies: Thank you for your patience while I walk through this project with the men. You can just skip down to the pictures if you'd like, since I know you're all intuitive enough to figure this out in 4 seconds flat.

No offense to the menfolk out there; I'm just sayin' that I know you last-minute types are super stressed right now and can't imagine taking on a big project for a gift. This will take you less than five minutes. Seriously.

And you have everything already at home. Or if you don't, you can race to the grocery store on your lunch break and get what you need:

• jar

• sugar

• dishwashing liquid
(bonus points for nice-smelling and pink)

I used Ajax's Ruby Red Grapefruit liquid; it makes for a perfect pink for Valentine's Day and it smells AWESOME.






I found this super easy recipe here:




She has lots of awesome ideas and I loved this scrub recipe of hers because it doesn't use oil, which I found to be a bit cloying in other recipes I've used.

Okay, so here's the play by play (like my sports lingo guys?):

1. If you don't have an empty jar, find one in your fridge and clean it out. I know you have at least a jelly jar or one with spaghetti sauce in there. Or, if you're already at the store getting sugar and dish soap, look for canning jars. [Bonus: canning jars come with cute labels you can use. I didn't realize this until I'd already made mine.]


2. Pour about a cup full of sugar into a bowl and then squeeze a dollop of dishwashing liquid in after it.



See how pretty?



Kind of cotton candy pink.


3. Mix the liquid and sugar around until you get a nice consistency, not too dry, not too runny. You do NOT need a lot of dish soap. Start with a small squirt and work your way up. Add more soap or sugar as needed.

4. Dump it in your jar.



5. Add a label. (Guys, you can make one of these at work [I used InDesign] so that all you have to do is slap/glue it on when you get home. Handwritten is fine.) Greenbean had a great idea for decorating the jars, too.



I put contact paper on one side of the label so that it could get wet without ruining it. Then I Mod Podged (Guys, that's craft talk for a product that's similar to white glue) the back of the paper and stuck it on the top of the jar.

The moisture from the Mod Podge discolored the paper a bit, but I actually like the different variegated colors it created.

I made these for women at work, and they all loved it. It's soooo easy! I might just add a drop of food coloring next time and use it for other holidays. St. Patrick's Day scrub, anyone?

So there you have it guys.* Super simple. And cheap.

And your lady won't think it's either one.

Now hurry!




* and lovely ladies who were so nice to click on my link!



P.S. Ladies, feel free to make this for your man. When I was making my batch, my too-cool teenage stepsons came in and tried it out of pure curiosity. They LOVED it!





Linking to:

BecolorfulSumo's Sweet Stuff





Making

The Girl Creative



UndertheTableandDreaming


Friday, February 11, 2011

My Funny Valentine

Ralph and I don't get too mushy. One of our favorite jokes is that the closest he can come to saying "I love you" is "I tolerate you." [Don't worry, he totally tells me he loves me. After I passive-aggressively force him to.]

Seriously, though, he's awesome at this kind of stuff. Me? Not so much. I tend to lean toward humor in order to express my emotions, as "romantic" isn't exactly in my repertoire. Plus, I get vaguely ill when I try to express eternal love and adoration in syrupy-sweet terms. So here are a few of possibilities that he might be getting in his inbox on Monday.

What? You mean I'm still expected to use snail mail? Good grief.


Timely:




Literal:




Honest:





Thoughtful:




Eternal Pledge:



Succinct:


Hey, it gets the point across.

Yeah, I'm quite a catch.




images from someecards and mmmcrafts, respectively