My friend Sarah and I threw our 2nd Annual Galentine’s Party this past weekend! Sarah got this Fika cookbook for Christmas and it was the perfect starting point to planning the party.

Fika is a Swedish social tradition, meaning “to have coffee.” The daily event allows people to take a break from work to enjoy baked goods and coffee and tea. While I’m sure fika is more a 15-minute break to get up, refresh coffee, and get a snack in the office break room, I like to imagine it as a whimsical, happy time to go down the street to the cute neighborhood café to grab a warm croissant.

Our Galentine’s Party was all about small, mostly sweet treats and taking a break in our lives to relax, catch up, and celebrate friendship.

Sarah made Chokladbollar (chocolate, oat, and coconut balls) and a cardamom cake. Both are from the cookbook and were delicious!

We also had cheese (Swedish and brie) and crackers, carrot cake balls made by Sarah’s sister, chocolate cake, and cream-filled churros.

Sarah also made rhubarb cordial to mix with champagne or sparkling water.

For the DIY, we decorated mini succulent valentines.

We wrapped them in tissue paper, dressed them with washi tape, and made a punny tag. We started with “Life would SUCC without you” and others included “You don’t SUCC” and “You Succulent!”

This DIY craft was SUPER easy, not messy, and customizable. And how cute are the mini succulents?! Do you know any other succulent puns?

How are you celebrating Valentine’s this year? Let me know in a comment below!

P.S. Check out our first Valentine’s Party here!

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My friend Sarah and I hosted a sweet, little Valentine’s Day Party with some of our favorite gal pals this past weekend. We threw together this fun party in a little more than a week! Sarah and I had been emailing back and forth about DIY projects we wanted to do, and the look and feel of our ideas seemed perfectly made for a Valentine’s get-together. Take a look!

Valentine’s is a very versatile party theme. You can do up the room with hearts or use a classic black and white base with splashes of girly pink or red. Sarah’s open, minimalistic kitchen was the perfect setting for the latter. A few pops of color here and there with flowers, a heart garland and a table runner tied in the Valentine’s theme.

Sarah made this excellent strawberry shrub with red wine vinegar for our drinks. One or two tablespoons of the mixture was topped off with Topo Chico or cava.

Getting some fun #diy #valentinesday ideas with @wanderlustanita, @kathyphantastic, @mjsoko & @pbchipses. Pop tarts, chocolate dipped Rice Krispie hearts, Herb infused syrup cocktails/mocktails, flower pepper shakers and more!

A photo posted by Amy drohen (@sushigirl_atx) on Feb 13, 2016 at 1:04pm PST

For our DIY snacks, we decorated rice krispies and made pastry tarts. For the pastry tarts, we used pre-made puff pastry and a selection of jams, including a homemade jam by Amy’s mother-in-law! With a little mix of lemon juice, powdered sugar and food coloring; Sarah made a icing and we topped the treats with sprinkles.

For the rice krispies, I pre-made the rice krispies with my favorite Smitten Kitchen recipe. We used a heart cookie cutter to get our shapes, and then we drizzled chocolate and finished them off with sprinkles.

For our other DIY, we made colorful pepper mills with dried flowers and peppercorn. Sarah first saw this DIY in the Near and Far cookbook. You can find a similar recipe here. We layered peppercorn with dried calendula, roses, hibiscus and lavender. It’s a pretty result that can be cracked onto yogurt or ice cream.

Finally, we also decorated cards for our valentines!

It was a fun time celebrating Valentine’s Day with some of my favorite gals!

#GalentinesDay crafting and baking with @WanderlustAnita and @SushiGirl_ATX pic.twitter.com/kW9EdGSaUP

— Kathy Phan (@kathyphan) February 14, 2016

I’m on a mission to throw 12 celebrations in 2016. This is #3 of 12. See all of #Celebrations2016 here!

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Valentine’s Day was a starting point for my love of letters and crafting. In third grade, my teacher had everyone bring in a creative Valentine’s box. Mine was a computer made out of two boxes and Valentine’s were slid into the floppy disk opening. (#nerdalert, anyone?) In the last couple of years, my valentines have included hand-drawn robots, anatomically correct hearts and various creations with paper hearts, glitter and glue in some form or fashion.

While I’m a tad late sending out my valentine’s cards this year (sorry, friends!), I did finally get them done! With the marbled paper I made for my DIY Marbling Party, I cut out pretty hearts and glued them into unique designs on blank craft note cards and envelopes. I also tried rectangles like the one below.

(Ok, I didn’t actually send JJ a valentine, but he totally deserves one. *wink*)

People have many thoughts about Valentine’s Day and I’ve heard them all this week. Some think it’s absolutely unnecessary while others love the opportunity to add a few hearts and guilt-free chocolate into their day. I’m a fan. While it gets slightly out of hand with giant teddy bears, big bouquets and thought-less gift-giving, I think it’s a nice reminder to stop and show appreciation for the people around you. I’m not great at consistently sharing my feelings verbally, but Valentine’s Day reminds me to take some time to create something unique and to write thoughtful words. It’s always fun getting snail mail, and sweet handwritten notes make it even better.

If you need some pointers on what to write, try these prompts to spur your thoughts.

• I think you are ______. (name some adjectives)
• I appreciate you most when you _______.
• My favorite memory of us is _______.
• I’m thankful for your _______. (name some talents)

Hope you are having a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Have you ever made homemade cards? Tell me about them!
What’s your favorite Valentine’s memory?

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Some of the Valentine’s cards I made this year. They included photo strips I made through Artifact Uprising.

Valentine’s Day
My Valentine and I celebrated well! I loved the gorgeous bouquet waiting for me in my office on Friday morning. We enjoyed dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant and celebrated a friend’s birthday. I made creme brulee (his favorite) for the first time. We dressed up as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum for an Alice in Wonderland tea party.

My special Valentine’s delivery

What is Love?
On the subject of love, I wanted to share this sweet post from one of my favorite blogs, The Fresh Exchange. Reflecting on five years of marriage, Megan wrote about what love means to her. My favorite lines: “Love is about vulnerability, opening up and letting someone in. It is about being known and knowing someone else, that makes love something hard, but what I have found is that it is the greatest gift we can give to each other is the opportunity to be known and loved.”

A view from our February Brunch Club

Read: Committed
I finished the book Committed this month. A great follow-up to Eat, Pray, Love, the book is about the author’s findings in researching the history of marriage and includes conversations with people around the world. It’s a fascinating look at how things came to be and why we think the things we do about marriage.

The Sweetest Photo Shoot
A local Austin photographer published a sweet photo shoot of her grandparents who have been married for 63 years. At the end of the post, Photographer Shalyn Nelson talks about her thoughts on marriage and I loved this line: “It’s letting love win, always, no matter what.”

What do people say at the end of their lives?
Chris Guillebeau posted this. They talk about love. All the time I realize more and more that this is what life is about, the purpose of life. To give love, be love, and feel love. For things and people. From that love comes things like inspiration, life-changing experiences, and life-changing relationships.

Listen: Favorite Songs Lately
The New Basement Tapes – Kansas City
BORNS – 10,000 Emerald Pools
Jessie J – Masterpiece

Cheering on Austin Marathon runners at mile 24

Ashley ran another marathon!
My friend Ashley ran her second marathon on Valentine’s weekend, smashing her previous PR! I love the electric energy of races – running them and cheering runners on. We had a lot of fun being there and seeing Ashley rock it!

My friends made an app!
After lots of hard work, my friends released the geoPulse app in the Android store. The app lets you save cool locations and share your exact location for safety or fun with your friends. This is great when you’re meeting somewhere, whether it’s “by this tree in the park” or a specific bar. The app sends the exact point through SMS so friends can easily access the map. The app also helps you stay safe. It sends your location to a specific contact list in certain time intervals. This is great when you’re going on a date, walking to your car alone or making a solo road trip, among many situations.

Bravery
I often deal with head trash – the voice inside that tells me I can’t accomplish something and my efforts are pointless. I loved this post about bravery. Are you doing brave things every day?

Chinese New Year
While I didn’t throw a Chinese New Year potluck like I did last year, the holiday was still fun. My valentine and I went to Dallas to spend time with my family. We missed seeing lion dances but we did enjoy walking through the Crow Museum’s celebration, eating lots of Chinese food, visiting the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, eating dinner with my family and brunching.

What captivated you this February?

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