Skip to main content

Gifts for her. From her.

Cake on a heart plate

Yesterday was my sister Robin's and my birthday. She gave me some heart-shaped plates that say Love, Hope, and Dream.

While out shopping, we had seen them and I had admired them greatly, thinking, "Oh, wouldn't these be just the perfect romantic gift?!" Except what guy—like Jay?— would even be caught dead in any shop that sold them?

Don't get me wrong. I love my husband Jay very much. He even on occasion buys me flowers or cool jewelry. But to be honest, one of the best gifts he ever gave me was a HUGE tackle box in which to store my beads. It's true. There's just a guy reality — washing their stinky gym socks, or dealing with guitars, well, everywhere (like the kitchen table...sigh). Then there's a guy fantasy — Ryan Gosling stocking up your tea because you're hosting Stich N' Bitch this weekend...

But we can do it for each other, can't we? We can buy our sisters and girlfriends all those frilly, lovely, girly things, like a lolly pop tea towel or filigree cupcake wrappers, rubber stamps or handmade dolls. So happy birthday to me. And happy birthday to all my sisters!

Wren

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Present-ation!

I've finished making a whole pile of frayed ruffle hearts . They're cute the way they are, but to make them extra special, I'm putting them in pretty cellophane bags, with curly ribbons and hand-made tags. Sometimes I get lazy and don't spend the extra effort on great gift wrap, but it's so worth it, isn't it? The other exciting part of this is I'm not just sending these hearts to family and friends. I've got 3 set aside for Aunt Peaches Valentine Swap ! Yea!!!

Lessons from BlogHer '13

BlogHer '13—my first blogging convention—was last weekend. And I learned a lot! For example: #1 No Russians are reading my blog. When I look at the statistics for who's looking at Smalltropolis, it's very impressive. For example, today I have 43 pageviews from Latvia. Switzerland is represented, as is France, Denmark, China. Just a world-wide appeal I have goin' on. (Gloat.) Thing is, as I learned at BlogHer, that's almost certainly because the analytics I'm looking at aren't very accurate. Lots of spam is included. To get the real numbers, I need to sign up for Google Analytics. Блин! #2. Great photography doesn't come from the womb. The kick-off keynote speaker was Ree Drummond. I'd certainly admired the beautiful photography on her blog, The Pioneer Woman multiple times, so it was pretty enlightening when she showed some of her early photos. They were, quite simply, dreadful. It really drove home how good writing and good photography a

Perfect pickle weights

Making pickles requires keeping the vegetables submerged in the brine so they don't get yucky. But what to use as weights? Stones? Hmm. This may be traditional but I have a hard time believing I could get them clean enough. Plastic baggies filled with pickling juice? This is what is usually recommended but it just doesn't appeal to me. (Does the plastic leach anything out during the fermenting period?) Hand-made ceramic discs? They're lovely but they're $22 (plus shipping) for three, and each jar needs a couple so that would get pretty expensive to do the multiple jars of pickles I've got going on. No, the perfect solution are these little glass candle holders from IKEA. They're called Glimma and at $1.99 for a six-pack, they're safe, sanitary, and cheap. And they fit perfectly inside wide-mouthed Ball jars. So, fill the jar with vegetables (leaving a bit of headspace) and top off with brine, allowing the liquid to flow into the glass dish,