Happy Day-After-Valentine's Day!

Valentine's day is one of those holidays that, in my life, is either completely understated or completely over-the-top. My husband's birthday is on the 14th. Some years, I make a huge effort to downplay Valentine's day so that his birthday is not overshadowed. I mean, he has to buy ME a gift on HIS birthday? Other years, I miss cupid so much that I totally blow it up so that BOTH holidays have a huge bash.

Before we had kids, we lived in a cool downtown city loft and had a bunch of cool downtown city friends who liked to get together. One year, I submitted to my urges to buy Valentine related party-ware and an addiction was born. I found myself frequenting the downtown TJ Maxx on my lunch break looking for red and white stuff, and since I have a long history with polka dots, I was especially drawn to red and white polka dot stuff. That year, there was such a line of tableware, and I had to have every piece. I planned a huge birthday party (with a Valentine's Day theme). I made heart-shaped cookies, heart-shaped cakes, a heart-shaped pan of brownies. We ate off of the most darling red and white polka dot plates, and I set it up on this fabulous red tablecloth.

This year... was not so dramatic :)


I managed to make a carrot cake (my husband's favorite), and some cupcakes, which the kids helped decorate. Overall, it was a simple day, and was just perfect. My polka dot plates can wait for another year...

Yay! New products have arrived! Have I told you how awesome my mom is? These are great! She is getting really good at her watercolor painting. She painted these images, then photocopied them to create the tag for the seed pots. I just love the bunny and the cat (and the frog, too)...
Each pot is one of a kind since she is using found items for the handles and embellishments. I bet she had a lot of fun making these!

Below is a picture of the back of the bunny pot - "Happy Easter" with some vintage buttons holding the tag in place. I photographed it in front of this cute little mouse I have made of faux concrete. I hope buyers understand that the mouse isn't included!


Mmmm, that candy looks good - but it's not for sale either! I'm going to have to make it very clear that one only gets the pot, not the grass and not the Cadbury Mini Eggs. There is a great blog post about Cadbury mini eggs here.

I just love this photo (above) that shows a close-up of the dainty little daffodil silk flowers. Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers. Okay, maybe my *favorite* flower. When I was in highschool, my roommate and I took a paper grocery bag out one night onto the grounds of the campus and just filled it to the brim with daffodils. Which was, technically, not allowed... I mean, they DID have like a MILLION. You couldn't even tell we had picked any.... They smelled so nice in our room, and nothing makes you feel more like spring than a lovely little (or big) bouquet of daffodils.