Welcome to Love Month!

ove. That's how I feel about this artist I discovered recently. I have a soft spot for color and words together, especially when the words are inspirational. That really surprises you, doesn't it? The piece above is a perfect transition from one month to another... January is over and gone. That feels really good to say out loud, given how gray and long it seemed. And here we are at February, which will pass in a flash, I know, with everything that's on tap. And hopefully contain a wee bit more sunshine? We can always hope, right?!

Before it all whooshes by, here are some lovelies to kick off this month of love!

From paperfinger, a bunch of pretty cool stamps. Check them out.

From Make Something Happy, a beautiful vintage locket or two. Sweet.

A little DYI for a recessionary V-day, from How About Orange! A good one for the kiddos and you, together.

And of course, the choices at etsy are endless!

Red heart pins from The June Bride shop.

A sweet cupid hear lariat from Bbel's shop. I'm hankering for this one, especially.

Beautiful carved heart from Dean's Woodshop.

Lovely letterpress from Sweet Harvey's shop.

Sweet little crochet patterns for the kiddos, from anapaulaoli's shop.

And for a sweet pal, from aPassionforFashion's shop.

And because we just can't live without a few Valentine goodies from the kitchen...

Beet ravioli from Dirty Kitchen Secrets

Cake balls from Spork or Foon... originally billed as Christmas cake balls, but would easily do double duty for Valentine's too!

And a true original for lovers everywhere: coeur a la creme.

This one solves two food issues (for me!) at once: chocolate AND cupcakes. Nice. From bakeaholic.ca.

And last but not least, the basic, beautiful, sugar cookie. I have collected a few promising-looking recipes to taste test for my pick this year! (This pic is from sugarcoatedkitchen. That sounds like my kitchen some days!)

I hope these lovelies have inspired you! I know they have done the desired trick for me... I'm ready to get rolling on a little V-day crafty-kitchen action. Happy February!

A prepped kitchen is a happy kitchen

Last week I had a recipe taste test and photo shoot at work on Monday, so Sunday I got everything prepped and ready to go. It reminded me of when I was catering and needed to get things ready for an event, or just the week coming up, and I would spend a few hours cleaning and chopping and getting everything ready to go. It is a great way to run a kitchen, even if it's just a home kitchen, because cooking is ALWAYS so much more fun, and efficient, if everything is ready and prepped.

I had to take a picture of all the pretty vegetables all ready to go. I made three soups, a salad, a pasta dish (the only one that didn't pass the taste test) and rice pilaf, lickty split the next morning! If you're interested in healthy recipes, we take all of our recipes from a couple of sites that allow reprinting, as long as there are NO changes to the recipe... so even if I want to tweak a little here or there, I can't. It does take quite the willpower, I must say.

American Institute for Cancer Research

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Happy prepping! It was glorious to get up and be able to cook without all the muss and fuss. I will give it a try in the future, just for me!