Saturday, February 12, 2011

be mine....but not in a possessive way...

Hey, Valentines Day is Monday! Have you gotten your loved ones a card or a lovely little something. I am off to make something for mine right now. Usually I send out cards to friends, but this year it just kind of snuck up on me.

I had a co-worker recently express surprise that I like to celebrate Valentines Day. He seemed to expect that because of my natural rebellious nature and unconventional leanings that I would just ignore it as a day that was invented to blah blah blah, you know the rest.

It's a good guess from someone who knows me only in a work setting, but he has no idea how much I love paper sentiments and little handmade pretty things. I'm very old fashioned like that. I've always felt like Valentines Day is about just giving sweet surprises to the ones you love - and for most of my life that was friends only. It's nice to now have a romantic valentine (well, actually it's been over 7 years), but I've never thought it was necessary to celebrate Valentines Day.

If Monday snuck up on you, too. never fear. There are lots of handmade projects and printables available out there. Here are some of my favorites.


You could make some lovely fruit themed stickers and place them on your Valentine's fruit. Pack them in lunches or leave on the breakfast table. Super cute idea from Twig and Thistle.



I'm a fan of glitter and I'm a fan of banners, so this is a win win. Easy tutorial on the Lovely Indeed blog via Creature Comforts.


There are some really cute free printable valentines at the blog Gifts.com from Hello Lucky.

Also check out the great printable Valentines from artist Amy Rice. I really love her work.



There are also more ideas that I like on my Valentines Pinterest board, including this cute Valentine award seen above made from cupcake liners.

And if you need more ideas, here's my Valentines Day post from last year.

Okay, I gotta get going on my own Valentine making. Happy weekend!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

nice smells

Don't you love yummy smelling soaps? I don't mean perfumy stinky soaps like you often find at at some chain stores. I mean rich earthy smelling soaps made from natural oils. But really, how often can you go through those soaps? It takes forever and I actually don't even use soap as much as shower gel, so then I have an abundance of soaps (especially if you are also gifted with lots during the holidays).

My favorite thing to do with them is distribute them in drawers and linen closets and between sweaters and all over. The smell seems to last even longer than sachets and you get to keep the soaps in their lovely packaging.



There's something about holding a bar of soap in nice packaging. It's smells nice, looks pretty and feels good in the hand - like a rock covered in fabric. Is this just me? I'm kind of weird that way.

I love opening up my linen closet and having the most wonderful scent come out.

These small Sweet Petula soaps are some of my favorite to use for this purpose. I just love the way they look, too.



Do you have any tips for making the closet and things smell nice? I would love to hear them. I am in serious cleaning/reorganizing mode these days. Nice smells make clean closets even nicer.

Happy February!

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