Very Valentine

I am getting the flu and have 15 minutes to kill before my preschooler's bus gets here and then I can climb into my bed for a couple hours while my boys watch Netflix. Happy Valentine's Day! My husband is amazing and deserves so much more than a sick wife who has been too busy to do much for him. I did buy him a gift. It is shoe laces. Long story but I know he loves them! We are going out to celebrate for reals next week.

I love doing elaborate Valentines with the kids because it's like justified crafting for me. I found a couple of cute airplane valentines online this year. Both were cute and required much folding. Incidentally, I'm all caught up on my Hulu shows.

But Alden looked through my Valentines Pinterest board and wanted something like this:

We decided to glue mechanical pencils to the backs of the arrows and stick them into pink erasers. But did you know those erasers are like 50 cents each? And mechanical pencils aren't cheap either. So I opened up Illustrator and designed my own Valentines. And ended up with these. Hot glue holds the pencils on and suprisingly holds the arrows straight up too.

Roland was willing to practice his writing and addressed and wrote individual notes on 18 Valentines for preschool. He would tell me what he wanted to say, I'd write it on scratch paper and he would copy it onto the Valentine. That kid is going to write for Hallmark someday. Some of my favorites were:

You are kind of tough.
Sometimes I like your shirt.
You can do an awesome flip.
I like your voice.
I like that we are both 5.
Sometimes you say oopsy daisy and I like that word.

Man, I love that kid.

Illustrating Fool

If I could go back to college I would study design. Because despite not having artistic talent, I am drawn to creative design work. But because I can't afford the time or money to redo college I have opted for a few classes here and there. If you have ever heard of Nicole Hill Gerulat, photographer extraordinaire, you may have heard of Nicole's Classes. Nicole works with Mike & Alma Loveland, as well as other professionals to teach us lay people some creative skills. I have attended two Art Weekends, which are three day events that offer  lots of different two-hour mini-courses. I have taken screenprinting, Illustrator 101, pattern-making (in Illustrator) and Photoshop. And Illustrator is my favorite. I feel like I can create something that I can picture in my mind, without my hands having to draw at all!

For Christmas this year, my sweet husband paid for me to take an online course from Nicole's Classes. So this month I am taking Illustrator 101 from the illustrious Alma Loveland. And I am loving it! It's so nice to take a month-long class instead of just two hours. I completed week 1 and am deep in the throes of week 2. For anyone yearning to cultivate their creative side I highly recommend Nicole's Classes. I am very impressed with their online format and they offer classes in photography, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, flower arranging, sewing, and watercolors.

My first assignment was to make a typographic poster and I chose to make one for my friend that just had a new baby. I asked her about colors and used the sweet baby's name (isn't Piper Jane the cutest!). This poster is not fabulous design-wise, but it was fabulous as practice for all the things I learned in my first week. And I learned something about saving files properly so I was very pleased with the printed results. Costco prints a 16 x 20 size for only $6.

 

 

 

 

Foods to Try

I am a Bzz Agent, which means I sometimes get products or services for free to try out and review. Over the holidays I was part of two campaigns - Alexia Frozen Foods, and Private Selection (by Kroger) Foods.

Alexia is a line of all natural, gourmet-inspired side dishes. I tried three Alexia products - which are available in your grocer's frozen food case, sometimes in the section for fancy or organic stuff. Although I found it at my grocery store, they carry less than half of the line of products. I would be interested in trying more of the products, but am not sure I will venture out to another store just for that.

The julienne sweet potato fries were our favorite. My family ate these straight off the baking sheet and enjoyed every bite. The seasonings were perfect. They were a great side to serve and are much healthier because they are baked and because they are sweet potatoes. Plus they taste better too!

The oven fries with rosemary and garlic were not as great. They cooked up well and had a pretty good flavor, but were dry and needed a lot of salt.

The garlic baguette was very convenient for a Sunday dinner with soup. It certainly didn't taste homemade, but was probably better than other frozen breads I've tried. The butter and seasonings were good and not overdone, and the bread baked up crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

Private Selection is the gourmet brand by Kroger, which for me means my local grocery store, Fry's, carries all the products. I was already a fan of this line, particularly the ice cream and the greek yogurt, but was glad for the chance to try a few new things.

I tried a jar of fancy kalamata olives - and when I say "I" I mean my husband (because I hate olives). We actually served these at a holiday party and they were a big hit. They were higher quality than what we normally buy, but really were barely more expensive. We are switching.

We got a few kind of Private Selection crackers. We already buy these regularly and love them. My husband is strange and prefers crackers and cheese and fruit over chocolate for his dessert. I love chocolate, but with my weight-loss challenge I am starting to join him. (I started a new 8-week challenge yesterday). These crackers are higher quality than the cheap stuff, but much more affordable than the fancy ones.

We tried a bottle of the Private Selection Napoletana Roasted Garlic Sauce too. It was wonderful! I'm not a big fan of bottled tomato sauces, and usually just feed them to my kids or use them on pizzas. But I was impressed with the flavor and quality of this sauce. We are switching for sure!

My BzzKit also included some Private Selection coffee, but since we don't drink coffee we passed it on to my husband's co-workers.

Still Love My Books

Even though I don't write much on this blog anymore (I want to do better), I look forward to doing this post at the end of every year. In 2012 I read 72 books, which included 8 non-fiction - that's a lot for me. And I kept track of every single book, including my rating and review, on my Goodreads account. I love that website. Was waiting for it all my life. See all my books here. But just in case you don't want to go through all my books, the good and the bad, I'll list some of my favorites here.

Favorites 5 Stars

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt - my very favorite that I recommend to everyone!
I Am The Messenger by Marcus Zusak - loved The Book Thief, and this one too, even though it was very different.
He Shall Thunder in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters - #13 in Amelia Peabody series - my fave since book 1 and I recommend it to lovers of the series or of this genre.
A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George - 1st in the Inspector Lynley series. I was very impressed but only those who love British police mysteries will agree.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett - different than I usually read, and almost ruined at the end, but a fascinating look at a very different society and the things that drive us. Heart of Darkness-esque.
Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey - I was so skeptical and then totally surprised at how great this book was. Quick and easy to read, but very convincing to me. 2013 financial goal: get out of debt!


Notable 4 Stars

James Potter and the Hall of Elder's Crossing by Norman Lippert - great fan fiction but not dependent on the originals- so close to the feel of the Harry Potter series and free to read on the Goodreads app. will be getting to #2 soon.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - a classic that was on my must-read list for 2012. so glad I finally read it, and loved it - but the first third of the book was soooo slow and kept it from 5 stars.
Divergent/Insurgent by Veronica Roth - best YA dystopian I've read since Hunger Games (although I really liked Incarceron and Chaos Walking series too)
Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn - a fun, British, historical mystery - exactly my genre. can't wait to read the rest!


To Read in 2013

I am putting these six book on my must-read list for the year, in addition to whatever I can get to on my Goodreads To-Read list, which I try to keep close to 200 but is currently at 211. These books have either been on my list for a long time, or are popular or award-winning, come highly recommended, or just sound really good to me.

Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

And in addition to these, and in the name of pursuing a well-rounded reading list, I want to read more classic fiction, more non-fiction (specifically church/parenting/self-improvement books) and specifically a book of poetry, and a play.


Have you made a list of to-reads for 2013? What are your top faves that I should add to my list? Any suggestions for poetry or plays? Wish me luck with my goals and I wish you a very happy year of reading too!

A Sugar-Free Cookie Extrordinaire

With my new healthy lifestyle, I try to limit my sweets and desserts to one day a week. And then I try not to pig out all day long that day. But after being good for three or four weeks, I was craving some sweets so badly! So I turned to Pinterest and searched for a sugar-free recipe that looked palatable. Now I wasn't expecting miracles, but was hoping for something that didn't just use a sugar substitute. I bought some Stevia and tried to make my own hot chocolate. Yeah, it was nasty. Still need to try it in something else though - I don't want to judge it on that sole experience.

I found this cookie recipe that is not only sugar-free, but also flour, egg-free too. It is mostly bananas, so if you don't like those you should probably skip this recipe. I don't like to eat bananas on their own, but like them in bread, pancakes, etc. I love the oats in this recipe too! I did add a dash of salt and little Stevia to sweeten things up - just a single serving packet. The batter tasted great on it's own, and I wondered if it was even worth baking the cookies. Out of the oven they were okay, but the next day or the day after they were fabulous - just needed a day to meld I guess. I couldn't help but pass this recipe on. I give full credit to Once a Month Mom. You can find the recipe here. 

The cocoa and oats really satisfied me and kept me out of the real treats that do not help me!