I am so excited for this give! It’s a $100 gift certificate to use at any of Select Registry’s B&Bs in the U.S. and Canada. Read on for details and to see how to enter.

My favorite vacations are the ones where I have a local show me around. I just love being shown a little fish place they know or supporting the independent book shop or ice cream parlor. And I love getting to see a place more like the locals do.

Which I why I am in love this association. Brent and I learned about it a couple years ago while staying at one of their B&Bs. The company is called Select Registry, and it is a list of nearly 400 premier B&Bs spread across the United States and Canada, all of them crazy-beautiful and all of them independently owned. (You can browse all their inns here.) And making the registry is kind of a big deal.

Select Registry sends independent inspectors to visit the inns on their list. Inspectors do everything undercover, they’re like Select Registry’s minion of spies. They arrive as any other guest, spend the night, enjoy the inn and the breakfast, and only then do they reveal their secret identity. The inn needs to pass the detailed questionnaire to remain on the registry.

Greystone

Do you realize what this means for you and me? It means we can pick any inn on the list, show up and be treated like royalty, then saunter down to breakfast the next morning and get personalized recommendations of the most delightful way to spend the day. (These are B&B owners, they know how to live.)

So, with your $100 gift certificate you can go to any of Select Registy’s B&Bs, in—say—Maine, British Columbia, New Mexico, Prince Edward Island (!), or anywhere else. Pick up a gift certificate any time at Select Registry’s online shop. They’ll send it out with one of their guidebooks, so you can leaf through page after page of dreamy B&Bs.

And the giveaway isn’t over yet. A second reader will win this beautiful volume: Distinguished Inns of North America. It features several of Select Registry’s inns. Drop it on your coffee table and browse it from time to time to plan a dream getaway.

You can enter four different ways. Feel free to do just a couple or all four if you really want to up your chances.
1. Leave a comment telling me which of the Select Registry B&Bs you think looks dreamy. (It doesn’t have to be the one you’d visit if you win. Just one that catches your fancy.)
2. Leave a comment telling me one of your favorite items from my gift guide or pretty packaging guide (where I collect gift and wrapping ideas from talented bloggers and exclusive vendors).
3. Twitter about the giveaway with a link to this post.
4. Post on your own blog about a favorite independent shop or restaurant. It can be a favorite from where you live or vacation. Just a little place you love to visit and that would break your heart if it ever closed its doors. Make sure you link to this giveaway. Then leave a comment here with the name of the city where the shop is and a link to your blog post.

I will use a random number generator to choose a winner on Friday. Just in time to announce your getaway to your Valentine if you like. Good luck to all my wonderful readers. And happy inn browsing!

Geneva on the Lake

I put this Valentine together for my daughter to give with pencils (12 pencils in a pack at the dollar store, why don’t I go there more often?) and thought I’d post it here in case you’d like to use it too.

If you get a chance, stop by a little later this morning. I’ll be posting my big giveaway, and I know you’ll want to see it.

Happy Monday, everyone. I had to share this fun package that came in the mail. A box of one of my favorite things. paper.

It’s a new line from papermakers SEI called Claire, and it is luscious. Some sheets are shimmery, some quilted, some bursting with big florals. Yum.
This week I’ll be taking over at the SEI blog. Their tagline is “paper beyond scrapbooking.” I love that, since I’m always putting paper to work elsewhere. Stop by and say hello to me there if you get a chance. At the end of the week I’ll be putting something together with my package of yummy paper, so stay tuned.

I was looking for a the perfect Valentine to mail and I found it. Look at these! Did you know Junior Mints come heart shaped in February? This alone is cause to celebrate. (They would go perfect with a sappy love movie, any recommendations?) Plus it could get messy mailing Junior Mints in the summer. So I’d better mail them while I can. I’m off to the post office!
Check out 13 ounces or less on flickr for more mailable fun.

Coming next week:
My biggest giveaway. ever.
Kuddos to a couple men who gave really great gifts.
One more freebie.
And much more Valentine fun.

Wow. It will really be a good week. Can’t wait to see you then.

I’ve mentioned before that I grew up an Idaho girl. I like to think it explains my love for Winco, country music, and good vinegar and salt potato chips. A few months ago one of my Idaho peeps told me about the talented bunch at HowDoesShe, and I’ve been hooked ever since. These ladies are always reading my mind. They come up with the best solutions for all my day-to-day needs. I now play this game with my kids while we’re waiting for food at restaurants, talk about these when we’re having dinner at home, and really want one of my local friends to throw this kind of party so I can attend (ladies?) Today we get a chance to hear from Shelley, who somehow manages to write for HowDoesShe while mothering twins +1 and being fabulous. Super fabulous. You are about to see what I mean. Shelly, thanks for being here.

The three charming ladies behind HowDoesShe.com

Meet Shelley

In my previous life I was an Interior Designer, I loved window shopping, and I was 2 pant sizes smaller. In my current life, I am a young mother of 3 beautiful children. A little boy who is 2 and twin baby girls whi are 8 Months. My ‘me time’ is basically gone, but motherhood is worth all the sacrifice. In any spare second I have (which is usually found in the wee hours of the morning) I am usually on the computer working on HowDoesShe,…or googling absolutely nothing of importance. It’s the only ‘me time’ I’ve got. It’s glorious.

And now that we’re acquainted,
five gifts that WOULD or DID make Shelley happy

A morning to sleep-in. I know,…totally cliche. But I am answering honestly. Hubby,..are you out there reading this? I’ll take it this weekend please. :)

A tube of Desitin. Ha. I can never seem to find it when I need it! ;) But seriously,…If I’m going to get a ‘tube of something,’ it better be foot lotion! It’s one of my favorite gifts from my husband because it is always followed by a much needed foot rub!

A pair of shoes. DUH! High heels. Stilletos preferably. I prance around in them whenever I get the chance and I feel completely transformed from frumpy mom, to ‘oh so sexy’ woman.

A bouquet of Albertsons flowers,…OFTEN please! :) Yep. That’s right. When I get a simple $5 bouquet I am thrilled. They are usually beautiful, I swear they last longer, and I get them more often than the $75 arrangement coming from the florist. {my husband does this often and it brightens my day. Come on guys…$5,…$5 measly dollars!!!}

A bundle of joy. Aren’t babies the best gift/blessing ever?! There is nothing like a bundle of joy. It truly is the greatest gift of all. Two at once is fun too! ;)

a few gifts that WOULD or DID make someone else happy

A copy of old video footage transferred to DVD. I recently stumbled across an odd shaped video recording from about 10 years ago. On it was footage of my hubands mission to the Philipines he had never seen. For Christmas, it was sitting under the tree transfered to DVD. He loved it {yes I am patting myself on the back ;)}

A book of sheet music. It’s sentimental, it’s personal, it keeps giving, and others get to enjoy it.

A day to be spoiled. My little boy often gets a special day that we focus just on him. From bouncy houses, to ice skating, to junk food,…it’s a gift that means the world to him (and us).

A visit from a friend. A best friend. A surprise visit is even better.

A pack of gum. My dad is always slipping gum, mints, and other treats in others purses, diaper bags, and cars. It tugs at my heartstings every time he does this for someone. It’s so simple, yet so sweet.

I put together this tag for you to add to your Valentine sweets and tokens of love. I have a version in black and white, and of course, I had to make a version in pink. I hope you find something lovey-dovey to attach it to.
Heart Day Tag, black and white (147)
Heart Day Tag, pink (96)

I’ve begun collecting a few favorite ideas for paper Valentines as I see them pop up. I thought I’d post my collection so I can share all these fun ideas with you. I’ve started the collection here, and will continue to add ideas as I see them. Here is one I really love.

It’s 3D. How great is that? (originally found over at Lauren Makes.)

Have you done any fun Valentines? Stop by soon and I’ll share a free printable for a Valentine we like giving out.

And since I’m sending you over to my gift guide index, I just want to let you know, I have some site maintenance going on over there. Both my gift guide index and gift wrap index are getting a little renovation. There are a few things I’d like to have working more smoothly, so I have a talented woman doing her thing to whip them back into shape. Then I’ll get to some regular posting over there. Thanks for being patient in the meantime.

Are you starting to notice I have cake on my mind?

I thought you might like a little extra fun for your Valentine cupcakes this year, so we did some experimenting over here.

Here’s what you’ll need to create your very own, fully edible, cupcake stands, and impress all your Valentines this year.
1. White candy melts
(I chose candy melts over real white chocolate because they’re so much easier to melt and work with, and they don’t have to be tempered when they’re melted)

2. One Recipe Royal Icing, mix together
3 tbsp. meringue powder
1 lb. confectioners’ sugar
6 Tbsp. warm water
(Just beat on low until it forms peaks and looks like icing).

3. Cookie cutters or other impromptu molds you find around your kitchen.

Here’s how we went about it. First we opened every drawer in the kitchen and pulled out anything that looked like it could be a mold.

Then we made some royal icing and scooped it into a pastry bag.

We set out all our molds over a piece of parchment paper. If you have trouble making the molds stay in place, add a little icing to the bottom. But we didn’t find this to be necessary. We just plopped a few cookie cutters down.

We melted the candy wafers in the microwave (one minute at a time at half power, stirring between) and poured them in our molds.

We tried a nesting effect. Next time I’ll decorate with colored icing rather than melting in more colored candy.

After they cooled in the fridge, we leveled a few.

Then glued them together with our royal icing. Here are the ones that turned out to be our favorites. We liked the ones that used surprisingly small cookie cutters. But really the possibilities are limited only by what you can turn into a mold. Just make sure you try out one model cupcake stand, to make sure it can hold up a cupcake, before you make dozens of them.

There, won’t your Valentine be impressed?

For those of you who want to expand your cupcake repertoire, here are a few recipes I’ve been dying to try. Do you have a favorite cupcake?

Lucious Lime Cupcakes (My friend made these for a baby shower last night. They were amazing. I wish I had a picture because they were beautiful, piled high with airy whipped lime mousse. Biting into cake and lime mousse all at once is a pretty great thing).
Fluffernutter cupcakes by the awesome Michelle of One Ordinary Day
Chocolate, banana, and teff cupcakes (gluten free and amazing looking)
Salted caramel chocolate cupcakes
Cotton candy cupcakes
Vanilla cupcakes with blackberry buttercream
Blue velvet cupcakes
White chocolate cupcakes
Dark chocolate cupcakes with milk chocolate buttercream

I’m so excited, I had to share this with you right away. I was just contacted by a lovely woman at one of my favorite companies ever, and I’m going to be offering a giveaway of something very fun here next week. Here’s a little hint.

I promise it will be one

pretty

great

giveaway.

Stop by next week for details. I also have a lot more Valentine fun on the way, plus a few talented ladies I’m dying to introduce you to. It should be a good couple of weeks.

I’ll be back soon with today’s post.

Yesterday we decided to combine two of our favorite things about Valentines: paper + cake (singing along to sappy love songs is also on that list).

We stopped by a local bakery and asked if they had any wafer paper. They did. We’d never tasted it plain before so we all snipped of a slice. It tasted like, um, paper.

When we got home we poured out a little food coloring. I dug out my calligraphy pen…

and the kids ran for their paintbrushes.

We made and frosted some cakes (we baked them in ramekinsand used this trick for keeping the frosting smooth), snipped our designs
a bit, and found ourselves with

three edible Valentines.

I think my 4-year-old’s turned out to be my favorite.

Stop by tomorrow to see what we came up with to display them on.

UPDATE: Since this was our first time every playing with rice paper, I thought I’d add a few extra words of advice from here: “In order to make the rice paper stick to the cake…, you need to use some clear gel.” (Note, I didn’t use anything! I just stuck the paper right on the frosting.) “Carefully cover the bottom (the rough side) of the paper evenly with a layer of clear, edible gel. Then, turn the rice paper over and position it on top of the iced cake. …The rice paper should disintegrate after a short time of being on top of the cake, but even if it doesn’t completely disappear, don’t worry! It is completely tasteless and odorless, so it won’t be detected.”

A few gifts you can leave behind at your friends’ cabin the next time you go, that everyone who visits can enjoy.

1. A nutcracker that doesn’t send shrapnel when you crack the nut (available here in the U.S., don’t hesitate to bring along a bag of chestnuts for roasting over the fire).
2. A pizza cutter that’s will respect your host’s nonstick pans.
3. A bowl that is just begging for popcorn
4. A first aid kit you can grab on the go (and if you have pups on the trip, you can pick up one for them too).
5. Fun mittens
6. A few pairs of thirty below socks (okay, maybe this one would be better if you hosts kept them for themselves)
7. An apron or two that will make a chef out of anyone (I love group cooking, it’s one of my favorite reasons to go on vacation).

I have a lot of valentine fun coming this week, so be sure to stop back and get in the mood. Also, it’s been a while since we’ve had an interview stock full of gift ideas, so you can look forward to one of those too. I also wanted to say a quick thanks to Joy for her kind words last week. These things keep me blogging. Hope everyone’s week is starting out great.

It’s been one of those weeks that wasn’t supposed to be hectic but then was. So I really wanted to escape here and wind down before the weekend, to scrap all my other plans and just talk about something wonderful. Can we talk books?

Do you have a really great book recommendation? Maybe not the book to read before you die. That feels like a lot of pressure, but a book that would be nice to fit in if you can. A book that changed you in some way?

Here’s mine.

I mailed a copy to my sister a while back and tried to mark a few favorite parts but couldn’t stop. When I first ordered it, Brent got his hands on it before me, which is fine because he can read a book in half the time (and I’m the English major, so jealous). I’ll never forget the day he finished it, it shook him up. Brent never gets shook up. He’s such a cowboy that way. The day I finished it I felt changed. Changed in the way I see people,  friendship, God, motherhood. It was something. And though this isn’t really the point, I dream of rereading it and going to Paris.

And one more note I have to add. I had so much fun mailing the frisbee. (Courtney, you were right, and I mailed just one, not 236.) One of my favorite postal workers helped me, a retired hippie I think with these great long gray curls, and he was grinning and saying things like, “well, I can’t be sure what you want, you are mailing a frisbee.” I’m starting to get a reputation. And the man next to me kept trying to act like he wasn’t looking at me. It was great fun. I drove away grinning and laughing to myself.

And with that, I wish you a great weekend. I have oodles of Valentine’s goodness planned for next week. Hope to see you then.

It seems such a shame for something as pretty as ribbon to be shut up in a closet, wouldn’t you agree? I have this fantasy of storing all my wrapping in plain sight, as a sort of functional art, and this super simple project has me one step closer.

look at this pretty ribbon, all it asks is to be set out and appreciated

I’d call this a tutorial, but really, it seems too simple to be a tutorial. It’s just a trip to a couple of stores I’m guessing you already visit. A few minutes later, you’ll be set with a place to store every spool of ribbon or twine in your closet. Should we get going then?

Start with a trip to the thrift store.

Have you ever noticed many candlesticks have a hole that goes all the way through? Do a little searching and I’m sure you’ll find several. On my last trip I picked up five. They are ripe for the picking, my friends. If you don’t like your color options, pick up a spray can of Krylon at the hardware store and do a quick paint job when you get home.

Often you’ll need to unscrew something. It wouldn’t hurt to have a Philips and flathead with you when you go.

The next stop is the craft store. Pick out a wooden dowel that makes a snug fit. Mine was pretty snug. The wood was soft enough that I just screwed it right into the base. If your dowel is a little thin, you have options. Pick up a wooden disk while you’re at the craft store. Drill a hole so you can use the wooden disk as your base, then plant the dowel in the hole (again, make sure it’s a snug fit) and slide the candlestick right over. You also have the choice of picking up one of these from the hardware store, they’re called allthreads and work great for this project if you prefer them to a dowel.

That’s it. Once you find a dowel or rod that fits, there’s nothing left to do but stack the candlestick back together, and display in your studio, office, or right on your mantle.

If you haven’t had a chance to stop by my first ever flickr group, 13 Ounces or Less, I hope you will.

And to make it official, here are the group rules. (I feel so important, making up rules. This feels just like making a club at recess.)
1. Real mail
2. that weighs 13 oz or less (368 grams)
3. sent to make someone’s day.

Simple enough, right? If you have an Etsy shop and are sending off something pretty, or if you’re mailing a clever save-the-date or some fun Valentine or birthday surprise, you’ll think of me and snap a picture, won’t you?

a few shots in the group from paper pastries, whisker graphics, and jengee

And while we’re on the topic of packages that weigh a little and delight a lot, have you heard of the garland of the month club? You know I love garland. Nicole of DeliaJude came up with this happy idea. If you stop by her shop, for $36 she will mail a garland a month for six months to the lucky person of your choosing. I already know where I’d hang mine.