Valentine Posies

Posies for Valentine's day, paired with family snapshots that seemed to exude just the right amount of gentlemanliness and romance for a Valentine-y ode to love.

To all of you gentlewomen and men: wishes for a day full of sweet notes and sweeter treats (even if only for the birds).

More about these pink posies over on Gardenista.

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an avian valentine.

I'm a big proponent of small-scale additions to public places. If it's the kind thing that blends into a landscape or eventually disappears altogether, even better. For Valentine's Day this year, I'm decorating the back alley with valentines for the birds.
They're little love notes left in birdseed as an afternoon snack for the chickadees and a bit of whimsy for neighbors passing by. The only thing nicer than receiving a valentine is making one for someone else, don't you think?


other things:
friendly gestures.
anonymous love notes.
tiny envelopes.
heart strings.

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blushing sugar cookies.

In preparation for this week's love themed festivities, I rolled up my (pajama) sleeves on Sunday morning and got to baking something appropriately heart-shaped. Fittingly for a girl who lives in a tiny apartment, I decided on miniature cookies and used just the inside of my linzer heart cookie cutter to make treats only barely bigger than your average conversation heart.
I used Mark Bittman's sugar cookie recipe, which is an awfully good thing to have in your real or imagined recipe box. It's tried and true and can serve as the base for any number of sugary delights.

I've never aced cookie rolling. If you're like me and and can't quite manage to get an evenly thick dough, my only council is to watch your cookies carefully in the oven. Thin cookies will brown much more quickly than their heftier traymates. For softer cookies, consider taking them out of the oven after only five or six minutes. 
For the glaze, I wanted something subtle enough to not scare off the valentine-weary but pink and tasty enough to encourage gobbling. I mixed vanilla extract with bottled pomegranate juice and confectioners sugar. About two cups of confectioner's sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a little less than 1/2 cup of pomegranate juice was right for me, but glaze making is one of those things that you're better off winging. A little of this, a little of that, until it's just right.

I think that next time I endeavor to make something valentine-y, I will crush up pomegranates myself for a slightly pulpier glaze in a slightly less bashful hue. If you want to achieve a more eye-popping shade of pink  (verging on purple), you might consider the mighty blood orange.

Happy love week.

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make-believe: valentines

I know there are a lot of folks out there who could really rather do without Valentine's Day.  February rolls around and I begin to hear sighs about the hype of what's essentially a commercial holiday.

Well.

I won't deny that the consumer push around this holiday borders on outrageous, but I will say that a wholesale disregard for the day also seems sad. What could be better than a day devoted to sending little messages of love? I say that we all take a lesson from our friends in kindergarden and get crafting.

Here is an assortment of things that you could purchase--and some you likely already own--to get you in the spirit. A valentine can be made with a few snips of a scissor and a few strokes of a pen and it doesn't take much money or extravagance to do into that.

1. flowers and sentiments notecards 2. pen 3. hearts 4. washi tape  5. baker's twine  6. scissors

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a job well done.

on valentine's day, while i was out, james ventured to our local florist and handpicked the blooms that would go into a sweet bouquet just for me.

full stop.

now, i don't mean to sound ungrateful for past flowery surprises, but suffice to say, we've have come a long way from the day of gerbera daisies in plastic straws. impressive, no?

also, james would like you all to know he did not pick out the dark purple sweet peas. apparently the florist went rogue with those guys.

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linzer hearts

yesterday, my friend carrie came over to make cookies. we filled the tiny space between these four walls with the smell of so much butter and sugar it was almost stifling. almost.

wishing each of you the happiest valentine's day. i hope you're all wearing red and eating sweet treats.

other things:
the cookie recipe {we made a few changes, but stuck mostly to it}.
inter-stellar space love {best between min 1:32-6:46}.

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paper hearts.

i scrounged around in the boxes under our bed and found these guys from last february. new city, new wall.

the sun's coming out in bits and bursts today and i'm home from work, tying up loose ends and making doctor's visits. nothing extraordinary, just the routine stuff.

wishing you all a lovely weekend.

other things:
this awesome duo, just in time for love day.
if you can get your hands on this piece, do.

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