Red Carpet Love

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I will admit, I haven’t seen a single movie nominated for an Oscar tonight. Heck, I don’t even know all the actors that will walk the red carpet. I am always a little out of the loop involving pop culture with no cable and lack of a sitter for going to the movies on a regular basis. At least I have Netfix. I see things eventually. No matter, I LOVE the Oscars! The dresses, the montages, and the memorable acceptance speeches….I will never forget Roberto Benigni’s!

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Last year I was with my best girlfriends in a northwoods cabin with the BIGGEST snack buffet, gold sequins, white wine and these cookies. We had so much fun watching it all and gorging ourselves from beginning to end.

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It didn’t work out for us to do it this year, but I will do my best to watch it without too many interruptions from small children here at home. Oooo, it’s almost showtime! Will you be watching? Let me know your favorites!

Enjoy the show!

(correction since press time: I DID see one of this year’s movies! Moonrise Kingdom. It was fantastic. Wes Anderson Rules.)

Spring Fever. Sort of.

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I swear I heard the cardinal sing his spring song the other morning.

Even though it was 15 degrees when I took the kids to school and we are expected to get 3 to 5 inches of snow in the morning, something in the air seemed as though we were on the cusp of soggy lawns and budding trees.

Premature thinking? Perhaps. We’ve gotten blizzards at the end of April and during our spring breaks, but I swear, something happens on the verge of the seasons changing in Wisconsin. The sunlight is different. The smell is different. The red winged blackbirds, we notice, come back every second week of March regardless. We must not be imagining!

In our new location, I have enjoyed winter this year more than I have in a REALLY long time. Surrounded by tree covered bluffs, covered in snow, who wouldn’t want to hunker down and enjoy it’s beauty? At the same time, I am itching to shed that down coat and take a run in shorts and t-shirt. The day will come. And so the inspiration hits for all cookies SPRING!

happy spring

Picket fences and flowers in bloom! Hooray!

retro flowers with swirlies

Some fun retro flowers! The colors were influenced by the kids swimsuits in the Garnet Hill catalog. Swimsuits! Yay!

melissa joy butterflies

Soon butterflies! These are my favorite to make. Yippee!

It was so uplifting to be surrounded by what was to come, when outside in reality the wind was wicked and howling.

I sketched the ideas out first, which I usually do when it’s something in my head or inspired by a pattern. One rockin’ cookie maker and blogger, LilaLoa, had a fun challenge to her adoring fans to show their sketched ideas and the finished product. Here was mine.

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While I will continue to dream about a new garden and tomatoes from the farmers’ market, I know I’ve still got snowshoeing to try and sledding hills to seek out. And we better get those shovels ready for tomorrow…spring-full thinking, y’all!

Love for All

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So maybe you don’t have someone to celebrate this Valentine holiday with, for whatever the reason.

two love birds

It doesn’t mean you have to be left out.

You could go out and DO something you LOVE. Like take a walk outside and enjoy nature.

valentine critters

Maybe treat yourself to something totally delicious. There has got to be something you absolutely LOVE to eat.

naked cookies

I love yoga and coffee and documentaries and baking and the arts and the beach and Downton Abbey.

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It can just be a day about LOVE. We’ve all got it. We all like to get it. Do something that makes you feel love today.

lotsa hearts

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A Whole Lotta Flirt

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One of the greatest things about making Valentine cookies is my free for all with the color pink. I have a house of boys, so the shade is usually left for me alone. Well, me and one very cherished stuffed pig, who is the favorite of my youngest. Here’s a group of my February romance with all cookies PINK!valentine mushroomsdouble hearts love birdslove bugs love treechocolate square lovechocolate cupcake silly hearts

Happy Valentine’s Day to you from our beloved Pig and Melissa Joy!IMG_0345

It gets better, Charlie Brown.

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The kids and I watched “Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown” last night. I felt so bad for old Charles and his empty mailbox. I always have. I guess you could say there was a time when I could relate.

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Good grief.

This is me sophomore year. No, I was not the substitue teacher for chemisty. I was a 15 year old student who sucked at chemistry. I wasn’t much of a fan of the holiday back then. I think only the popular girls with boyfriends did. It was so much better in grade school when everybody got Valentines.

Thank goodness time marches on and we grow out of certain phases. Or grow into those glasses? (NOT possible)

I can’t get enough of the holiday now, with all its pink and sugar and paper hearts. I hope your mailbox is full this year, Charlie Brown. Here’s my Valentine love to you!

Be My Valentine

100 Days Of (a new) School!

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This is a pretty momentous occasion for our household. In the past not so much, but this year it’s a bit more noteworthy.

This Friday will be the 100th Day of School for my boys, and being the new kids, that is something to give a little cheer about! It hasn’t been the easiest road, but it has gotten a bit smoother. I feel we are finally finding our way out of the fog of newness and settling into a familiar routine that is much less anxious than when we started. And that is something to celebrate.

100 Days Of School

So kudos to you, my little boys! You have done an excellent job and I know you will continue to do so for hundreds more! xoxo

 

Classroom Treats

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I remember, in first grade, making little handcrafted mailboxes to hold my classmates valentines in. By the end of the day it was filled with little paper notes, each signed with barely legible names. Since that time, they have somehow managed to add a sugary treat with each valentine, so much so, that my kids come home with a bag full of candy that makes it seem more like Halloween rather than St. Valentine’s.

I still manage to get my boys to handmake their cards though, because, well, I still love to craft and have a table full of colored paper, markers, glue and stickers. And the treat expected to be attached to them gives me an excuse to make some cookies.

Here is what was chosen to accompany this year’s Valentines…our favorite hedgehog and owls. A little woodland love!Valentine Hedgehog

Valentine Owls

I had a vision…

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My son came home from school a couple weeks ago really excited about a rap he learned in music class, based on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. He is always one for cookie ideas for me-some possible, some not so much-and he suggested I make MLK cookies. Hmmmm…….maybe, I told him.

Then it hit me later that night. I remembered that awesome picture that circulated the net…the one of the crayons, in all shades of browns and peaches, and they all are labeled as “flesh”. Such a simple yet poignant visual. Then I had my idea for a cookie tribute. The hardest part was coming up with just one Martin Luther King, Jr. quote to put with it.

So thanks E, for your idea. May MLK’s words forever continue to inspire you and us all.

“I have a dream. I have a dream that one day, people will be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Cookies