Valentine's Day Ideas

I admitted Sunday (and last year) that I love Valentine's Day. It makes me warm and fuzzy, but not in a romantic, overpriced dinners, Hallmark holiday sort of way. Rather, I see it as a more platonic day to spoil yourself and those you love. Flavio and I don't really do gifts, or anything too fancy, but we do exchange cards and celebrate with simplicity. We haven't quite worked out what we'll be doing this year, so I thought it would be fun to brainstorm ideas here, mainly based on past V-Day experiences, and then see what he wants to do.

Some ideas:

*Order your favorite takeout, have a floor picnic, and do a movie marathon. We did this last year, ordering Indian food, and watching the Princess Bride with red velvet cupcakes.

*Set a festive mood by decorating with these easy hearts on a string

*Make chocolate lava cakes and pair with some bubbly

*Treat yourself - new book, mani/pedi, or massage?

*Do a post-V-Day brunch and/or hike

*Go for an evening walk past an expensive restaurant and try to pick out the couples that are newly dating and thus awkward and uncomfortable. Thank your lucky stars you don't have to do that shit anymore. ;)

Black Thumb

I have a black thumb. Despite my best efforts, I have a hard time keeping plants alive - unless they are cacti, or just extremely stubborn/resilient.

In honor of spring, I bought this little calla lily kit from Trader Joe's. I planted, watered, decorated her pot and named her Lily Ledbetter. I am going to follow her directions for care and talk to her every morning (that helps, I'm sure!). She should bloom in 8 - 12 weeks. Please join me in rooting for her survival. Pun intended.

Poet Tweet

It's a cloudy morning, I have cozy cup of coffee in hand, Guiri is snuggled in bed with me, we're listening to Ray LaMontagne. I've spent the last hour trolling the interwebs for gossip, blog posts, Facebook updates and news (in that order). In my trolling, I found a little gem I'd like to share. 

I don't have a Twitter account - mainly because I can't understand #why #people #hashtag #every #thought #that #crosses #their #mind. It makes me #crazy - so I am slightly averse to Twitter, but I am not averse to these Twitter verses. This artist embroiders handkerchiefs with "poetry" she finds on Twitter. Below are some of her embroidered hankies. Some of the tweets are deep, some are hilarious, but all are 140 characters or less. :)

You can find more of her work here.

PS. Even though I'm not on Twitter, I like to check in on this page: The philosophy of Kierkegaard juxtaposed with always-wise tweets of Kim Kardashian - Kim Kierkegaardashian. Hilarious.

Gibigianna & Other Marvelous Words

I like to get lost in the "strange and lovely words"on Otherwordly, a Tumblr which pays homage to wondrous, mysterious, and sometimes inspiring words. I see myself, and want to see myself, in the following wordsmithery:

{Unfortunately, this is me. I can't hide my emotions, despite serious effort.
I wear my heart on my sleeve.}

{Yep. Not a good dancer, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it!}

{Sigh. Well, this was me pre-financial fast.}

{I aspire to be a quaintrelle.}

{I aspire to be a gibigianna.}

{Inspiring.}

Hearts On a String

I should've been a kindergarten teacher. Or, maybe I just have the mentality of a kindergartner, but either way these hearts on a string were so easy and fun to make! Flavio came home from a work trip and I had the fireplace decorated with them.  [An aside: This was more for me than for him because let's be honest, guys don't care that much about Valentine's Day or crafts - but he pretended to love them, because he's wonderful.] The heart decor, Freixenet, good conversation, Indian take-out and my red velvet cupcakes made for an easy and romantic Valentine's indoor picnic.

xoxo

{hearts on fireplace}

{Valentine mail - save the USPS!}

{little Valentiney surprises}

{Valentine made on PicMonkey}

Pomka Mules

I like a post-work cocktail every once in a while. Okay, I like it more than once in a while, and I like to mix up new drinks. This last Christmas we infused and packaged up some pomegranate vodka to give to friends and family. We included a pomegranate vodka (pomka) drink recipe card on the bottles for a drink we named Santa's Little Helper. I had one too many Santa's Little Helpers this holiday season and can hardly think about them at this point, so we've been thinking about a less-boozy way to mix up our leftover pomka. We came up with this little treat..

{Sunset pomka mules on our porch}

POMKA MULE

• Lime
• Pomegranate Vodka
• Ginger beer (this one is awesome)
• Sprigs of mint

Squeeze lime into glass and drop in half the lime. Add a few large ice cubes, then pour in the pomka (I just count to two slowly -- which is about 2 oz.) and fill the rest of the glass with cold ginger beer. Garnish with a mint sprig and enjoy!

BTW, infusing liquor is a fun, easy, and cheap gift. We decided to make this an annual holiday tradition. Next Christmas: jalapeño tequila!

Here's our recipe for Santa's Little Helper (documented so I can remember it next year when the memories of the hangovers will have faded). It's a sparkly take on the pomtini and could be enjoyed year-round:

SANTA'S LITTLE HELPER

{Our home-infused Pomka gifts}

Pour the following in a cocktail shaker:

• Pomegranate-infused vodka
• Pomegranate juice
• Squeeze of fresh lime juice

Shake and pour into glass.
Top drink with your favorite champagne.
Garnish with pom seeds and a twist of lime.

WARNING: Goes down easy. Too many will haunt you in the morning.