So, today I got home and checked the mail, and then said out loud “God, you SO speak my language!” You see, there have been several little moments today where I have seen the Lord giving me grace. Unmerited blessing and favor. And, He knows, I needed it today. And He totally “spoke my language” today by encouraging me with uber-fun mail! I mean, really, who doesn’t love something *real* in the mail?

Have you ever gotten mail from Australia?? If not…live vicariously through me today… cuz it’s pretty fun! The only other time in my life I can recall mail from Australia is when I was little I had a real life pen pal. We wrote each other letters about the sorts of riveting things that 8 year old girls write about. Her name was Simone… and I remember something about horses and gymnastics classes.

And *then* it was wrapped like this! Red and white twine! And tissue folded to look like an envelope! CUUUUTE!

My lovely package was from a lovely girl named Nancy X who runs an incredibly cute blog called Wolf and Willow. She ran a little contest asking who your childhood hero was. And while I had to rant on about the “Pippi Longstocking” that somebody else wrote about (we watched Pippi’s movie all.the.time as kids) I ended up writing about my Grammy. (You can read my comment here, click on show more comments at the bottom and it will pop up). She liked my story, and sent me a fun little prize… all the way from Down Under.

All of it is branded with the most adorable vintage childhood storybook illustrations that are just so stinkin adorable.

What was inside the package, you ask? Well, how about this adorable cotton pouch? Nancy had even asked my favorite colors… and I got one that was hot pink and turquoise!!

And I also got this adorable handmade card. Is this dog not so sassy and adorable? The paper and envelope are really rich and shimmery too, which makes me happy.

And more vintage children’s illustrations!! LOVE!

You can see now why my mail merited a blog post today!

BUT, believe it or not… that wasn’t all! See that logo?? Does it make you giddy like it does me??

Starbucks is discontinuing their Duetto Visa, which I have. So, as their way of thanking me for being a good customer and to apologize for shutting down the credit card, they sent a booklet with coupons good for one beverage of my choice every month for the next six months. Oh yes they did.

Happy Mail Day to you all.

“Happy Valentine…”  It’s what Lee kept saying to me yesterday when I would try to tell him Happy Birthday. He would respond with “Happy Valentine.” Never “Valentine’s Day“– no, that would be too normal. Lee is a Valentine’s baby… and, as I liked to keep reminding him yesterday, he turned 29 (and I’m still just 27 He is such a humble man who doesn’t ever prefer to be in the spotlight, that he always is trying to deflect the attention from himself. For this reason, we couldn’t just have a birthday party for him. Instead it was a “Lee and Jason (his roommate)’s birthday/ V-Day/ Chinese New Years party.” To round out the celebrate-everything nature, I had Christmas plates and a few other random holidays thrown in there.

Our first dance was actually last year, on his birthday, at his cousins wedding. The song? Frank Sinatra’s “My Funny Valentine.”  I think that makes an appropriate caption for this picture:

(I think he was a little tired of getting his picture taken… what do you think?)

Sometimes I like to pretend that I’m Martha, and I collected a few ideas from the internet and elsewhere that I just had to make happen this year.

First, I got SO inspired by these Red Velvet Cake balls by Bakerella. And let me tell you, they were a HIT!

You begin by baking a red velvet cake from the box. Let it cool and then crumble it all up in a bowl. You mix in a tub of cream cheese icing and incorporate it. I went ahead and used my fingers, which is messy, but probably the best option. Then you roll them into quarter sized balls, place on a cookie sheet and chill in the fridge for several hours. Then they look like this:

Then I melted chocolate almond bark in a bowl in the microwave and began the dipping:

Then, decorate away! I used valentine’s sprinkles, some white almond bark that I dyed pink, red hots, crushed pistachios, white sugar and these adorable pearl-like sprinkles.

I had some leftover white almond bark, so I made a few of these yummies. Take two Ritz crackers, spread peanut butter between them and then dip in chocolate– sooo yummy. I think its the sweet and salty combo- so good and easy!

After they were done, I threw some in some packages to send to my family, including these cute robot cards I made!

My sister got these cute flips:

And everybody got some of these tattoos from the dollar spot at Target, which they were instructed to apply and take a picture to send me. I especially liked my brother-in-law who had them all over his arm (thanks to his lovely wife, I’m sure).

On to the NEXT project!

It was something in the kitchen, involving these–

What could I be cooking with pink water balloons? Well, everything is better with chocolate, right?

I got this awesome idea from this cute site and couldn’t resist! Basically, you melt chocolate chips, transfer them to another bowl (that step is important, I found out after all my balloons kept popping b/c the bowl was hot!) Dip them in chocolate and set them on parchment to harden. Then comes the fun part–

And you end up with this beautiful-ness.

At the party I loaded them up with homemade whipped cream and berries.

I think she liked it.

I also made a heart-shaped cookie cake, well, because I had the pan and it felt sort of obligatory. Plus, they needed to blow out candles on something! But obviously, I do not excel in my cake decorating skills

We currently have three bouquets of flowers at our house. People love us. It’s wonderful.

I do have more to report, but I’d say that is sufficient Valentine eye candy for now