SciFi Man pointed out to me yesterday that I forgot to mention the best part of his Valentine’s Day gift to me. Which is that the “stem” of the flower is actually a retractable pointer, so I can tap things with it. (Apparently, he noticed how much I enjoyed tapping things the last time we bought wooden dowels at the hardware store.) And he’s totally right. Here’s some tapping in action:

Although SciFi Man and I love each other dearly, we aren’t always very big on giving each other the traditional Valentine’s Day cards and flowers. This is for a reasons both environmental and frugal. It can be difficult to find locally grown, pesticide-free, affordably-priced flowers in mid-February. This year our plans were minimal and we actually ended up spending the day with a friend, instead of as a romantic twosome. SciFi Man still managed to be a sweetheart, though. When my friend and I returned from shopping for her wedding dress (of course Valentine’s Day is a fine day to do wedding shopping!), I found this sweet, unexpected origami flower waiting for me.

My sweetheart doesn’t often get crafty and make things, so this is extra special. He also told me that he came up with the center piece all on his own. (He found directions for the rest of the flower online. When I told him I would blog about this, he asked me to warn you to be careful when googling for origami flowers, as his computer was almost infected with a virus when he was searching.)

It may not be red roses and chocolate, but it’s perfect. Thank you, darling. You can be my Valentine any day.

A winter storm rolled in yesterday and it’s been snowing big, wet flakes ever since. While I love the dreamy, cozy feeling of being snowbound, the reality isn’t always so nice. Slippery roads and cars in the repair shop are not dreamy or cozy at all. The plan for tonight is to make up this Chunky Celery Soup and some warm homemade bread and maybe settle down for a movie with my sweetheart.

Staying home has given me some time to work on some new wristlets, though, and I’m so excited to share them with you! I’ve been thinking spring, and I think that’s evident here. Butterflies and other insects, pale pinks and greens, and richly colored french velvet ribbon. Some of the bags are adorned with the ribbon and some with pretty vintage brooches. Some of these are intended for S’more Couture, but if you see something you like, let me know. With all this snow, I’m not going to make it in to S’more Couture right away, so you could snag one of these bags first!

It’s Friday, and although for some reason I feel like it was just Sunday, it’s about to be the weekend again. I’ve got some fun lunch plans and a craft show I’m planning on visiting this weekend. I plan on doing lots of sewing, too. It’s been awhile since I sat down on my sewing machine, and I really need to fix that.

Some notes from the week…

• Did you see the giveaway Olive Manna and Hooray Design are doing together? It seems like such a lovely idea to team up like that, and the little cans of goodies are so sweet! You should check out the giveaway, and then stay for the blog, or something like that. They both have great blogs.

• If you like chickpeas at all, you need to give this recipe for Lemony Chickpea Stir-fry a try. Soon. It’s so very good, and easy. I made it on a last-minute whim this week, and I liked it so much I made it a second time. I served it with some brown rice, cooked in veggie broth. And while you are cooking, make a batch of these Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies. You won’t regret it, although your waist might.

• Are you on Twitter? I am, and I was thinking this week that if you aren’t following me on Twitter, you might be missing out on some of the little updates that I don’t think merit a whole blog post, but are still awesome. Like when I tweeted about this fashion no-no. I’d love for you to be my Twitter friend. :)
• I really loved this post on Cicada Daydream, Anatomy of a Cost Effective Project.

What are your weekend plans? Are you relaxing, doing something fun? Going somewhere interesting? Whatever they are, I hope it’s a wonderful weekend!