giftage.

last weekend was my sister* kristin's birthday. she has not yet embraced her age, so i shall leave that part undisclosed, but we had a rolicking good time. (tattoos! baptisms! red velvet cake!)

i was pretty stoked about her gift, i must say, so i did what i generally do when stoked with giftage and immortalised it in a photo.



where to begin. the soap? ah, the soap. the soap is handmade and so fragrant with the scent of ripe fruit that i was thisclose to eating it. in fact, we drove through a veritable blizzard to get to kristin's place, and i was all, don't worry folks. if we get stranded in some ditch for two days, we can totally live off of my soap.

[soap from dulcet apothecary on etsy. you can't go wrong with the raspberry creme, pomegranate, or apricot&oatmeal.]

the smallish tote i made from rachel's friendship bag tutorial. its self-standing trick is clever, and allows this bag to easily double as a desk-containerish-box-thingy. you know, for stray paper clips and stuff.

* * *

in other news, i drew a name at random for the necklace below. jena of organizing mommy, it's your lucky day!

also: thank you all who left me a note sharing bits of the stories behind meaningful dates in your lives. so many of your entries made my breath catch...such stark loss, and such sweeping joy. sometimes this life is so huge and intense it's almost unbearable. i'm fairly certain this is part of why God surrounds us with other people whose hearts carry the overflow we can't begin to hold alone.



and now i am off to finish sewing and then hang with the kiddos, who are loving this snow day.

happy tuesday, friends.

*so technically, kristin is the hubby's sister, but she's this rare brand of amazing and so i like to conveniently allow people to believe we hail from the same gene pool. nobody can actually read this, right?

'to love would be an awfully big adventure.' -peter pan

the earth outside my windows is gathering snow, the fat, feathery kind that makes me think, inexplicably, of soap flakes. it's mighty clean out there.

inside we have light and the warmth of coffee cups, and a smallish gal who can't wait till i get up each morning so she can press her nose into my stomach and hug me.

february isn't half bad.

in other news, i have a few new pieces up in my shop, and this one in particular i am just in love with. so much so that i'm itching to give one away.





i love the simplicity of a date. it could signify an upcoming wedding or the day you first laid eyes on your beloved, or it could commemorate the life of someone dear to you. i'd also be happy to stamp a name or phrase if you'd prefer.

would you like one for yourself? for your valentine, or a friend, or your favorite aunt? i'll draw a name at random on monday at midnight (est) for one lucky reader.

per usual, if you follow this blog (yonder right) or are a fan of sweetTea on facebook, your name is automatically entered in all giveaways.

you may gain extra entries in the following ways:
-leave me a comment telling me what date you'd choose and why
-share a link to this post on facebook, twitter, or in your blog (please let me know you've done this in the comment section below)

yay!


and now, a quote from arguably the most memorable love story of all time:

'The Queen's Pride was his ship, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It is raining today and I love you. My cold is better and I love you. Say hello to Horse and I love you. Like that.)'

if you are the first person to name the novel (or author) that quote heralds from, i'll give you an extra three entries. no googling (or other search-engining) allowed; i'm trusting you, folks. :)

**update 2/9: congratulations, jena of organizing mommy! your name was selected for this necklace. i'll be contacting you to discuss the details.**

ALSO: the quote hails from the princess bride (by william goldman). a few of you correctly identified it (rock on!); i gave amanda three extra entries for being the first. :)

inculpable.

i tell my boys quite frequently: there will BE no grousing in your late teens about how we have a paltry two photographs of you and roughly thirty-eight million of your sister, and how your therapist agrees that this is clearly indicative of Favoritism And General Injustice and as such, any and all misery or woe you sustain in life will have this early grievance at its root.

because PEOPLE.

the reality here is that when i bust out my camera (or, okay, sometimes i'm wearing it already), my older three dive for cover while the youngest cheerfully humors me.

clearly a case of It's Not My Fault, right?

* * *

so i'm playing along at beth's you capture challenge, this week's assignment being faces. can we all guess which lone face my camera captured?

Photo Of Elle Number Thirty-Eight-Million-One



and to atone for the fact that i only have one face to share here, i've processed this image several different ways. i always marvel at how variation in coloring can alter the mood of a photograph.





i really do have four children. i promise.

you will spend the afternoon making paper fortune cookies.

as fiercely as i hanker for some krabby patty valentines, these fortune cookies are even better. or, well, almost as good. honesty is the best policy.



this year i'm making some for the kiddos, plus helping my third grader craft a whole batch for his class. (how serendipitous is it when your kid inherits your yen for paper crafting? very, i say. so very very.)

paper fortune cookies are charming and simple and can even hold a bit of customized humor as well. in other words, the perfect stand-in for a cardboard valentine.

and grab your glue guns; i'm feeling a tutorial coming on.


ingredients: scissors, a cd, pen, white paper, other paper, and either double-sided tape or a hot glue gun.


1. first, write up your fortunes and lucky numbers.



in the photo above, the first is for one of my children, the second an example for when the recipient is a classmate. if you're crafting for a child's class, i'd recommend printing them from your computer (and remember to add 'from' and your child's name).

sidenote: here's a sprinkling of my favorite fortunes:
The love of your life is a small, bespectacled man named Rajiv.
The answers you seek are in Norway.
A closed mouth gathers no feet.

but moving along.

2. on the back of your decorative paper, trace the cd to form a large circle.




3. cut that baby out.




4. pinch the circle in half, creasing just the center.



i personally like to pinch the wrong sides together (above), even though it's counter-intuitive in light of the next step. somehow it works out better for me. but you may want to pinch it inside out, like so:




5. depending on your pinching preference, you'll end up with one of the following:


see the x's i added via the magic that is photoshop? we'll be joining those spots together, so place a piece of double-sided tape or a dot of hot glue on one of those guys.


6. press together.




7. so. every tutorial has a tricky part. this here is it.


gently fold the paper in half along the pinch-crease you formed in step whatever-that-was-up-there. four. in step four.

8. release and ADD IN YOUR FORTUNE. trust me: you will be very sad indeed if you glue this little guy together and then realize that you left out the fortune part of the fortune cookie. not that i would know this from experience.

after ADDING IN YOUR FORTUNE (did you add in your fortune? please do it now), dab a bit of hot glue or tape near the crease and press the sides together again.

9. voila.



insider tip: these cookies look fantastic in any paper, so no need to go out and buy schmancy scrapbooking paper. above, we have pages from pretty magazines and an old novel, a paper bag, and notebook paper. i'd also recommend leftover fabric; that's next up on my list.

anyhoo, that's it. enjoy!

ps ooh! please leave me a zany fortune in the comment section if you feel so inclined.

happy tuesday.

:)

easily amused.

so i spent the afternoon making heart-shaped bokeh.



groovy, eh?

quick primer: bokeh is lens blur, or the quality of the out-of-focus areas in a photograph.

turns out you can make a ghetto lens hood and shape your bokeh any which way you'd like:



i am totally doing shamrocks come march.

today, in pictures.

free to a good home.

while experimenting with apron styles and methods of construction, i quickly stitched up a matching mom and daughter (or aunt and niece, etcetera) apron set from a delectable cupcake print. the stitching on these are not quite up to the standards i'd require to sell them in my shop, but they are functional and super cute and would love to hang out in your kitchen and bake lemon sponge cake with you.

any takers? i'll mail them to the first person who leaves me a comment saying that you'd like to have them. (please be sure to give me a method to contact you for a shipping address.)


* * *



newish news: in another bold move to Organize My Life, i've opened an additional etsy shop devoted solely to my textile goods: skirts and aprons and dresses and such. right now i've a dozen or so pieces listed, but i'll be adding more as i destash, and also as i cut into some beautiful nicey jane prints. (i tried, internet. quite valiantly. but in the end they were too bright and sunshiney and joyful, and i found i simply couldn't resist new fabric.)

please meet charlotte and elise, the first two aprons available in the shop:



as with my jewelry shop, all income from sweetTea clothier shall help us meet our adoption expenses.

may your tuesday be full of color.

Good Things.

1. bhf's.

is there any piece of clothing quite as fantastic as a hoodie? it's all fleecy warmth and softness, like a wearable hug, plus you can pull your hands up into the sleeves and keep them toasty for the whole of january.

right now my bhf is in the laundry, and i am missing it. i am composing country songs in my head about it. if you know me in Actual Real Reality, you know exactly which hoodie i mean (yes, the oversized grey one with the red top-stitching) because i wear that comfy thing so close to always that you secretly believe it is the only outergarment i own. which is, well, largely the case now that you mention it.

dear spin cycle, please do hurry.


2. volcanoes and classic sci-fi.


during my favorite parts of saturday, elle fashioned play-doh bracelets and pink volcanoes with me, while my oldest boy read quietly beside us at the kitchen table. (and can i just say? there's something mighty satisfying in watching my son devour a book i relished at his age.)

which reminds me:
If you have never said "Excuse me" to a parking meter or bashed your shins on a fireplug, you are probably wasting too much valuable reading time. ~Sherri Chasin Calvo

(ok, so i had to look up 'fireplug;' it's another name for fire hydrant.)


3. google.

clearly i'd know nothing without it.


4. togetherness.

this past christmas, the kiddos opened some nifty gifts. among the most cherished were coupons from the hubby's parents, good for A Golf Outing With Grandpa, or A Fishing Trip, or An Afternoon Shopping With Grandma. today grandpa owens traveled the nearly three hours here to take my littlest boy for a rollicking outing at chuck e cheese's. em played arcade games and purchased cotton candy and managed six pieces of pizza, but best of all, he cashed in on some Exclusive Grandpa Time.

what great people.