Looking for something sweet for the breakfast table? These napkins use a heart hole punch to make a stencil for printing on napkins. The heavy clunk of the metal punch is almost as satisfying as the resulting shower of confetti hearts.

Materials: Napkins (washed, dried and ironed), stencil sheets or Mylar (I used frosted Mylar cut into 4 ½ x 6” sheets), heart hole punch, painter’s tape, textile or screen-printing ink, stencil brush, paper plates, iron.

Step 1: Using the heart hole punch, cut hearts in the stencil sheet. I made three sheets – one for each color I wanted to print.

Step 2: Print the napkins by taping your stencil to the napkin. This gives a buffer for the paint as well as holding it in place. Pour small amount of ink onto a paper plate. Dip your brush into the ink and then remove excess ink by tapping the stencil brush onto plate. Apply ink to stencil using a straight up and down motion. Carefully peel away stencil and move to a new area.

Step 3: Apply a new color by repeating Step 2 after the first color ink is dry to the touch. Repeat with a third color if desired.

To make your ink permanent, follow ink manufacturer’s instruction for “heat-setting” the ink. This means ironing the fabric after it has air dried to make it permanent so you can wash and dry your napkins over and over to repeatedly brighten your table.

Big thanks to Michaels for sponsoring these posts.  I hope everyone gets just the right amount of sweet this Valentine's Day. xoxo

I know it’s the thought that counts. But I also believe that if that thought is dressed up pretty, even cookies can taste sweeter. The variations on what supplies to use are endless, but here’s what I used.

Materials for the labels: Plain shipping tags, circle stamp, ink pad, pink marker, red card stock, hole punch, scissors, spray glue, embroidery thread, letter stamp. Materials for the cookie packages: white take out containers, striped waxed paper, polka dot paper, scissors, spray glue, washi tape.

Step 1: To make the arrow labels, stamp a circle on a shipping tag and draw an arrow through the center. To make the fluted corner labels, use a fluted hole punch to cut a circle. Place the cut-out circle atop the shipping tag and cut along a corner of the tag. Use spray glue to affix to label. Add an XOXO stamp.

Step 2: To add a pennant effect around the container, cut a zig-zag length of paper long enough to wrap around the container. Spray glue the back side of paper and affix to top edge of container.

Put a piece of wax paper inside a container, add cookies and affix labels to the top with a piece of washi tape. Send to all your valentines.

A note about recipes: I used this recipe for almond lavender shortbread. And this one for the chocolate cookies – it’s like a brownie in cookie form. If you are eating or serving at home, feel free to make marshmallow fluff sandwiches with fluff mixed with a little strawberry or raspberry jam to tint pink. Be forewarned: they get goopy fast. But the goop is worth it.

Big thanks to Michaels for sponsoring this post and encouraging us all to be creative and sweet in our Valentine's Day celebrations. xoxo

I’m going to come right out with it. The thought of batting my eyelashes across a candlelit restaurant dinner on Valentine’s Day creeps me out. I’m just not that kind of girl.

What I do go for, however, is cooking a great meal and making sweet somethings for the people I love. A cluster of these lightweight veneer hearts hung in a corner or over the dining room table creates a dreamy little heart forest and transmits a 'modern love' kind of vibe.

Materials: Strips of wood veneer (available in different widths in hardware stores), scissors, awl and cutting board, brads, glue, yarn or ribbon, clothespins, paint, decorative tape or glitter for decorating

Step 1: For each heart, cut two pieces of veneer the same length (I used 10” strips for the smaller hearts and 18” for the larger hearts). Bend one strip and then the other, so the cut ends line up and pinch together.

Step 2: Using a awl and a cutting board or mat, push the awl through to make a hole through all four layers of the veneer. Once the awl is all the way through, flip the stack over and push awl in through the other side so the veneer doesn’t split. Push a brad through and open ends to secure.

Step 3: Add yarn or ribbon to hang by sliding the central “stem” of the heart open and squeezing a line of glue. Position end of yarn over the glue, slide the veneer back and clothespin together until glue dries.

Step 4: Decorate with paint – acrylic gives opaque coverage and watercolor creates a softer effect. Alternatively, add strips of decorative tape to create stripes or add glitter.

Step 5: Hang in a cluster, or tie the hearts to dowels to create a mobile.

Big thanks to Michaels for sponsoring this post and encouraging us to be creative in the way we celebrate Valentine's Day. xoxo

I need some lazy mornings with rumpled sheets and dozing. I hope that’s in the cards for you too.

In miscellaneous news, you can see Melissa’s roundup of our Alt Eve dinner right over here. And big thanks to Jenn and Hostess with the Mostess for telling all you party people about Weekend Handmade. It posted while I was at Alt and I’ve been remiss in sharing. It’s quite a compliment considering the source!

Here’s to afternoon naps and eeking out small moments of slow-paced happiness this weekend.

I’m particularly drawn to the night sky in wintertime. Neck tipped up, cold air, close stars. So the inky beauty of these watercolor paintings made me gasp.

They’re from an artist named Christine Buckton Tillman and if you scroll through the drawings section of her site, your heart will become buoyant with happiness and light.

Here was the sound of Sunday night, getting ready for Downton Abbey, with melted butter and smoked paprika waiting in the wings.

A little more about that pickling session. Sarah and I lead the group in making pickled shallots, with a buffet of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Pickle-Spices: juniper berries, bay leaves, star anise, mustard seeds, peppercorns, on and on.

We call this a “Kitchen Sink Pickle” because you can throw in whatever vegetables you want. You could also add honey or sugar with you prefer your pickle with a punch of sweetness. This is a quick pickle, meaning you can make it before you start other dinner prep and it will be ready when you put everything on the table. It's enough time for the vinegar to take the raw hotness off the shallot.

We served this with duck confit and – this is the awesome thing about pickles – the addition cuts right through heavy, fatty dishes and brightens up the whole thing. I am a pickle convert. So I give you our recipe, as well as some ideas for different ways to dress up the final jars.

1 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup water (plus more, if needed)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2-3 teaspoons of your preferred pickling spices

2-3 shallots, sliced thin

1. Combine cider vinegar with water, salt and spices in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil.

2. Place shallots in a clean, dry glass jar just large enough to fit. Pour the brine over to cover completely. If there’s extra room at the top, add cold water to cover.

3. Cover with lid and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. The pickles will keep for about 10 days.

When Sarah and I committed to cooking dinner on the night of the eve of Altitude Design Summit, I didn’t quite realize that it would feel like creating a small wedding in one day. Like a wedding, it was creative and stressful and exciting. And ultimately, a whirlwind of happiness that felt reflective of our personalities.

We landed at HoJo’s on Tuesday night and got to work binding the booklets of recipes and photos and ironing birch veneer strips into what would become the overhead table decorations.

After a few hours of sleep, we roared into a professional kitchen the next day with grocery carts, a crate of wine, a suitcase of craft supplies, and a big case of nerves. The Alt team lined up the Roth showroom kitchen in Salt Lake City, run by Marie. In the final moments before the guests arrived – as we were frantically whisking and stirring and putting on mascara – Marie IRONED OUR DRESSES. She and her team of Jamie and Brenda went so above and beyond. We were family by the end of the night.

We chopped and prepped and decorated and at 7pm, a dozen bright, glittery, stylish ladies arrived. The energy lift was awesome. We clinked champagne glasses, made introductions, ate cheese and onion jam, and then moved into the kitchen classroom to decorate dinner napkins with hole punch stencils and fabric paint.

After that, it was onto a DIY pickling session. Then finally, the sit-down dinner, where everyone sounded like old, reconnected pals. As Sarah and I shuttled plates of food back and forth from the kitchen, we made dorky, over-the-top happy faces every time we passed each other because hearing the bubbly chitchat and oohing and ahhing seriously warmed our hearts.

Then it was all over, and we released the happy group into the cold Utah night.

Before I took off, Mike and I spent a weekend night with friends in Marin, where it smells so good and is so seductive. Part of the plan was to raid my pal MJ’s closet. But along with an armful of polka dots and stripes, I left with some other ideas too. Like patterns tucked into every concievable corner. MJ's oatmeal breakfast buffet. Her kids’ rad wood toy that I wanted to steal. Inspiration from Edward Emberley’s woodcuts in Paul Bunyan. And the best salt cellar ever – made from a Shrinky Dink.

We cracked into a jar when we ran out of brandied cherries, and we tried them in an old-fashioned the other night. Holy deliciousness. I think at our next dinner party, I’m going to serve the blueberry brandy straight up as a digestif. It sounds like something that a 15-year old would sneak out of their parents’ drinks cabinet but it’s actually very grown-up tasting. Mellow and not sugary-sweet at all. A taste of summery berries to warm your bones in winter.