In the wake of this same girl turning 18 and every day bringing up a new aspect of what college life will be like, I nostalgically bought another amaryllis last month.  It finally bloomed a couple of days ago, leading me to a realization.  I need one of these every year.  Having that bright flower in the window is the perfect antidote for the dreary, post holiday month of January.  Even without a little blonde girl pointing it out.

For all the beauty of an amaryllis, with none of the watering, check out this lovely pop-up card from CardNotions on Etsy.

The flower on this Back to School Headband from Brassy Apple is simple enough to make with some motivated little girls.

I like the way this Fabric Flower from I’m Feelin’ Crafty is cut in a spiral, making it curve perfectly.

I love a tutorial that has no words, like these Paper Dogwood Flowers from La Manufacture, and what a fabulous re-use of a shopping bag and tissue.

Do you have an old necktie lying around?  Make it into a cute flower with this tutorial from My Heart is Yours.

These Felt Camelias from How Joyful would be perfect on top of a gift or attached to a headband.

I just love the ruffley-ness of these Ruffled Fabric Flowers from Quiltish.

I’ve seen these rick-rack flowers around, but didn’t understand how they were made until right this very minute.  Thanks to The Crafting Chicks for excellent directions on their Rick Rack Rosettes.

Buttons always make cute flowers, and here’s a slightly different take from Artsy Crafty Babe.

As if I needed a reason to want a rainbow of duct tape, I’ve added these Duct Tape Flower Pens from Seven Sisters to my want list.

Here’s hoping you find something to brighten up your day today!

I have a few fun things to share soon, including an expandable bag, a fabric inventory system, and an entire series of book-recycling projects.  I’m anxious to get moving again.

As a consolation, here’s a FANTASTIC round-up of Valentine projects I came across recently from Dani Marie Designs.  If you follow me on Pinterest or Facebook, you’ve already seen this.  My coffee cup sleeves are included, but there are also 100 other great ideas!

We left the kids in charge of themselves for the first time ever.  They’re old enough, and we would only be gone for about 48 hours.  When we left, it had been snowing off and on for a few days, with very little of it sticking.  We had to drive through some snow to get over the pass, right into some 70 to 100 mile per hour winds at the beach, but weren’t concerned about the conditions at home.  This is what it looked like on the way over.

The very first night, the kids called us at about midnight.  The power had gone out a couple of hours before and the snow was piling up.  My husband gave them some instructions and told them to call back.  Shortly after that, they heard a loud boom, and looked outside to find several very large branches had fallen out of one of the big trees behind the house and wiped out a good-sized chunk of the rail around the deck.  It’s worse than this looks – those branches in the photo are about the equivalent of a tree.

After spending most of that night awake, trapped in the hotel room most of the rest of the time thanks to the combination of my bug, the wind and the cold, I feel like I kinda missed the whole beach part.  Hopefully, that explains my odd choice of beachy stuff in January.  If not, be kind, it’s been a rough couple of days.

These Beach Shell Bath Fizzies from Beyond a Garden would be a fun use of those seashells that sometimes find their way to your home from the ocean.

There’s usually a lot of driftwood on the beaches here in Oregon, definitely enough to make this Driftwood Lamp from Sweet Something Designs.

I love this simple and cute Stars of the Sea Shutter Headboard from Jane Coslick.

If you have little ones, you may find yourself the proud owner of a few too many seashells after a trip to the coast.  Try this Shell Memory Game from About.com Family Crafts.

Maybe you just want a memento of a fun, family day at the beach?  Make this easy Beach in a Jar from Better Homes and Gardens.

These Shell Crabs from Kleas are just adorable.

This Coastal Mirror from Going a Little Coastal would be a nice addition to a beach-themed room.

I was a little fascinated with sand dollars when I was a kid – imagine if I had known I could make a Giant Sand Dollar like Crafts by Amanda.

This Beach Valentine from Shimmer Kai would be both fun to make and fun to give.

Now I think I’m going to have to go spend some time recovering from my days off.

Bakerella, queen of the cake pop, shares a simple recipe and pronunciation guide.  I’m pretty sure, when I make these, they’re going to have to be in multiple colors and no one is going to be allowed to eat them.

Macarons don’t have to be edible to be fun either.  Tell me this isn’t the cutest coin purse ever?  The full tutorial is available at Craft Passion. 

Felt French Macarons would be adorable little pincushions, and the kit from Etsy seller sweetemmajean comes with the pattern and enough felt to make 12 cookies.

I’m off to the kitchen.  Or the sewing room.  Hmm….

This week, my Friday Favorites are taking a tour around the house.  I have one project for each room, just in case you don’t already have a list going of your own. 

Front Door – This Pebble Mat from Meli Melo Art might not withstand the wear and tear of being a welcome mat, but it would be pretty next to the entry with a plant on it. 

Living Room – If you haven’t already seen this Faux Metal Wall Art from Suzy’s Artsy Crafty Sitcom, you might be a little surprised to find out what they’re made from. 

Dining Room – Table runners can be pretty simple, and they’re usually rectangular, but this Simple Spring Table Runner from Moda Bake Shop is made from buttoned-together rounds that can also be used as placemats.  Brilliant!

Kitchen – My KitchenAid mixer is the same color as the one in this photo, so I’m finding it really hard to resist imitating the makeover that Craft Bake Domesticate has given hers.

Laundry Room – My laundry room is ugly.  It’s one of the spaces that hasn’t seen any updating since 1973, so it could really use something cute, like this Lost Socks Board from Somewhat Simple.

Bathroom – I love the drapery grommet they used for the opening on this Tissue Box Cover at Sew4Home.

Bedroom – I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more of this yellow and grey color combination this year, but with the addition of papaya-orange, as shown in this Garden Fence quilt from Hyacinth Quilt Designs.  I’m ok with that.

Office – Finding old keyboard keys might be the hardest part of this Keys to my Heart project from Paper, Plate and Plane.

Kids’ Room – Based on the bumps and bruises my kids used to walk around with, I don’t think you can have too many pillows.  This Paper Airplane Throw Pillow from Craftbits would be a cute addition to a child’s room, as long as you can keep them from throwing it. 

Garage – Who says you can’t craft for the garage?  These Aluminum Shelves from House to Home would be a great looking organizing tool.

Personally, I’ve been sick all week, so I’m just looking forward to getting something done in ANY room!

I’m not sure whether to call this a dip, snack or a side dish.   Maybe appetizer?  All I know is, it’s fantastic and we eat it often.  My friend Melinda, who is an amazing cook, brought this to a party at our house once, years ago, and we’ve requested it at every one since.  The recipe she shared with me also has a place of honor in my cookbook AND I have a photo of the recipe in my cell phone in case I’m at the grocery store and decide we need to make it soon.  Yes, it is that good.

This is very easy to make, and open to variations if there’s an ingredient you don’t have or don’t like.  For instance, the original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of olive oil, but because we’re trying to eat healthier, I cut it back to 1 tablespoon.  Melinda recently started substituting Serrano peppers for the jalapenos, which gives it a little different flavor and is just as good.  We leave out the tomatoes because someone in our house doesn’t think they’re edible.

Cowboy Caviar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced or 1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin

1 (15 ounce) can blackeye peas (drained)

1 (11 ounce) can white shoepeg corn (not drained)

3/4 cup chopped cilantro

3/4 cup chopped green onion

1 – 2 jalapenos, chopped

2 avocados, chopped

2 Roma tomatoes, chopped (optional)

Combine all the ingredients, except the avocados and tomatoes.  Mix well.  Add the avocados and tomatoes and mix gently.  Makes about 4 cups without the tomatoes.

A few notes:

-  I usually chop the garlic, cilantro and jalapenos in the food processor because it’s easy, but I like the texture better when I chop everything by hand.

-  This tastes better if you make it the day before you want to eat it so the flavors get a chance to blend.

-  I almost always make a double batch of this and I’ve found that one bunch of cilantro and one bunch of green onions are the perfect amount.  If you’re making a single batch, you’ll need a half bunch of each.

-  If you’ve never heard of shoepeg corn (I hadn’t before this recipe), it’s a white corn with smaller-than-average, tender kernels.  I haven’t had a problem finding it from Green Giant in the canned vegetable aisle.

-  I use my home-canned dill garlic and dill jalapenos in this most of the time.

-  This is great with lime-flavored tortilla chips.  We tried it with Popchips this time and that’s also delicious.  If they start making lime-flavored Popchips it would be heavenly.

For those of you counting calories, 1/2 cup of Cowboy Caviar has 164 calories (without the tomatoes) and it makes a great salad when you throw it on top of spinach.  Enjoy!

Despite my inability to read the calendar and know I need to replace it, I have several in my house.  This Perpetual Button Calendar from Craft would be perfect for the sewing room.  I could see this made with magnets and an upcycled baking sheet.

This Printable Perpetual Calendar from S.C. Johnson is so simple.  It would be great in a little corner where you didn’t need a full-on calendar, like the laundry room.  I don’t know why you’d need to know what day it is in the laundry room, but just go with it.

I love how colorful and lively this Perpetual Calendar from Sandy’s Space is.

I love the idea of perpetual calendars, which is probably obvious by now, but the problem is you can’t usually write on them.  This Vinyl Wall Calendar from Etsy seller SimpleShapes solves that issue nicely.

This printable Words to Live By Calendar from Home Made Simple is pretty, but what I really like is all the different ways they show to display it.  They also give you to option to download the pages as desktop backgrounds for your computer.

This Perpetual Family Calendar from Lowes would be a fun project to make with older kids.

I’ve downloaded lots of fun backgrounds and screensavers from American Greetings over the years.  They happen to have a large collection of calendar desktop backgrounds, with several for each month.

You don’t often see a weekly perpetual calendar, but I love this Weekly Calendar from Next to Heaven.

This Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal from Design Sponge is amazing, and I wish I would have started something like this years ago.

I did buy a calendar for the dining room before Christmas.  It has nice, big squares for writing on.  The thing is, the front was shown in turquoise, and I assumed each month would be a different color.  Nope.  Every month is the same.  B-O-R-I-N-G!  What I need to brighten it up are these Cute Calendar Reminder Stickers from Etsy seller JoeyDesign.  I might just make up some appointments, just so I can put stickers all over it.

I hope your 2012 is off to a good start!

I actually wear them. As it happens, I DO have a cold neck. I have a cold everything, for that matter. Autumn, winter and spring can be a little chilly and unpredictable here, so I have to bundle and layer.

I love yarn and all things made from it, but I’m too heavy-handed when it comes to working with it. I want to pull everything tight. Really tight.  Lucky for me, I discovered knitting looms a few years ago. It’s my knitting crutch.

There are people who make very beautiful and complex items on these looms. I am not those people. However, Gettin’ It Pegged! has some fun patterns that really make me want to learn more. There are also projects available on Provo Craft, the maker of the Knifty Knitter line of looms.

You may remember my neckwarmer fail from last spring, as modeled by my dog, Max.

I loved this yarn, and since this project didn’t work out I decided to try again.  This time, I thought I’d go with a regular scarf.  This poor yarn has been through so much – I just wanted it to turn out right.

I started the scarf, then put it away for the summer.  I got it back out late fall to finish it.  By then, infinity scarves were everywhere, so the gears started turning, trying to figure out how I could make this project into one.  I had, what I thought at the time, was the brilliant idea to cast off through the loops of the opposite end so they would be attached when I was done.  You may have already realized my mistake.  I didn’t.

I spent about an hour and a half feeding my crochet hook through both ends, slowly removing the entire thing from the loom.  I was completely done and tried to drop the loom in my lap before I discovered this.

How did I not notice that?!?!?

Unless I wanted to wear the loom around my neck too, I had messed up yet another project from this yarn.  I laughed really hard for way too long before I gave a thought to what I would do about it.  My husband came to my rescue and actually cut the loom and screwed it back together.  At that point, the scarf was more valuable to me than the loom.

The good news is, I LOVE my infinity scarf.  The loom is currently being used by my daughter, who hopefully has better yarn genes than her mother.

Since this round-up is out of sympathy for my boy, most of these are based on his favorite things.  The hardest part will be deciding which to make for the weekend.

With eggnog season winding down, this Eggnog Cupcake from Annie’s Eats might be our choice  – while we still have some of it in the fridge.

This is how I know the boy is mine – he loves coconut just as much as I do.  He and I would have these Pina Colada Cupcakes from Glorious Treats all to ourselves.  Hmm…

If a cupcake is based on a breakfast food, you can eat it for breakfast, right?  I wouldn’t mind testing that theory with these French Toast Cupcakes from Housewife in Training.

You can never go wrong with this combination, so there was no doubt these Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes from My Baking Addiction had to make the list.

Whenever I’m in the mood to make cookies and I ask the house in general what kind they should be, my son always pipes up with “Molasses!”  He would love these Gingersnap Cupcakes from Picky Palate.

I can’t say I really care how these Cupcake Poppers from Betty Crocker taste.  They’re just pretty.

Just looking at these Lemonade Cupcakes from Cooking With Sugar makes my mouth water.

This is one of the flavors of pudding my son has been eating this week, so these Cookies and Cream Cupcakes from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen might have to wait a bit, but this recipe is still a keeper.

Root beer was my son’s favorite drink before I let him start having caffeine.  He still likes it, but not as much as he likes staying up all night playing video games once in a while.  He’d probably still like these Root Beer Cupcakes from Whatever Dee-Dee Wants on those nights he actually wants to sleep.

Speaking of his new favorite drink, how about some Mountain Dew Cupcakes from All Things Cupcake?  There’s a New Year’s Eve cupcake if ever there was one!

I sooo want a cupcake now.  Time for a pre-holiday test run.  You know, for the sake of research.

I did get a few things done, like our annual pickled garlic.  My husband helped me for the first time this year and found out what a big job this really is.  Probably the only reason it always gets finished is because I have to make it in September, when fresh dill is in season and the Christmas rush hasn’t started yet.

These are photos from last year, but it’s pretty much been the same scene for a few years now.

My grandma’s 80th birthday was near Thanksgiving, so I made a stained glass necklace for her.  I actually loved the box even more than the necklace.

My son kind of showed me up on the Christmas gifts, and made a rope toy for the dog.  It was a prototype, so he already has ideas about how he can make it better next time.  Max doesn’t care – he loves it.

I cheated and bought a couple of things from Etsy sellers.  My daughter loves tea, so she found some Organic Chai from NaturalEarthOils in her stocking.

The other thing I bought was REALLY cheating, because it was for me.  But I love these Crocheted Fingerless Gloves from LifeIsAJourney50 so much, I don’t care.

One thing I’m really happy about, though, is the fact that I was done with the kids’ Christmas Eve pajamas BEFORE Christmas Eve, which has to be some kind of miracle.

I used the same scrubs pattern as last year for the boy.  I went with a camo/military fleece, which he seems to like (once he figured out what it was).

My daughter has been hinting around for a pair of footie pajamas for a couple of years now.  Ok, not so much hinting as flat-out asking.  Two issues have stopped me from buying her any, and they’re the same two issues that always came up when she had them as a baby.  The first problem is that she gets too hot and I knew she would roast in them if they had feet.  The second is that she doesn’t have a common shoe size.  To put it bluntly, I think the foot portion of the pajamas would be too tight.

I happened to be looking through a pattern catalog at a fabric store a couple of months ago, and came across a pattern for what is basically footie pajamas without the footies.  Perfect!

This is actually a very easy pattern.  The hardest part is putting in the zipper, and that’s only because it’s so long, which makes it difficult to access with the sewing machine.  Other than that, these came together in a snap.  I used Batman fleece and she loves them.

Handmade, store-bought, or somewhere in between, I hope you had a fantastic Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, Festivus or whatever else you felt like celebrating!