14 Songs for February 14

I apologize, I had no creative juices flowing when I compiled this list, so my commentary is lacking.


In no particular order, 14 songs for February 14:

1. In Your Eyes—Peter Gabriel

By far the corniest song on this list, but admit it: you wish John Cusack would show up outside your bedroom window, boombox held high. Well, maybe not John Cusack circa 2011, but 80’s John Cusack, for sure.

2. It Must Be Love—Madness

I declared to my retail coworkers the other day that if I were forced to listen to Madness all day, I’d be okay with it. And that was true.

3. The Way I Feel Inside—The Zombies

Try not to picture Owen Wilson’s casket being thrown off a boat a la The Life Aquatic, and it’s a cute little ditty about unrequited love, I suppose.

4. Crystalised—The XX

“Makeout music for cool kids.”

5. Maps—Yeah Yeah Yeahs

They don’t love you like I love you, Karen O.

6. Start To Melt—Peter Bjorn and John

So it’s not as whistle-happy as their big hit, Young Folks, and the words are pretty straightforward. Whatever, whatever.

7. The Dress Looks Nice On You—Sufjan Stevens

Banjo never sounded so sexy.

8. I Will Follow You Into The Dark—Death Cab for Cutie

This song creeps Significant Other out, so of course I love it.

9. White Mystery—Minus the Bear

The most obvious, straight-up baby-making song on this list.

10. True Love Waits—Radiohead

Because honestly, who doesn’t like a song that references the true story of a child being left alone in a house for a week to live on potato chips and lollipops? (Best week ever.)

11. Greek Song—Rufus Wainwright

In my opinion, the version from the Live at the Fillmore DVD is far, far better than the studio version of this song.

12. One Night, One Kiss—The Russian Futurists

Because of course you will find your soulmate at the bar.

13. This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)—Talking Heads

I think this might be their only song that isn’t subversive, or I might be missing the point.

14. Eventually—Zox

Dear Zox, when will you be touring again? Love, Heather

1-Up Cakes

Happy birthday Kevin.

 These are just vanilla cupcakes (out of a box) with vanilla frosting (dyed with green food coloring) and store-bought frosting polka dots. The white frosting is meant for icing cookies and wasn't the best for making polka dots on cupcakes; it was very runny. Next time around, I will make royal icing.

Christmas cookies

Oh, hey.

I am the worst blog writer on the planet. I think I aspired to too much this Christmas and then ran out of steam. Hence, no updates. I'm pretty sure I've done nothing crafty lately.

However, Significant Other's birthday is rapidly approaching, so I'm sure I will have some cake fails to share in the near future. Also, I received a large package of cardstock and other assorted papercrafting goodies in the mail (thanks DM), so once I sit down and play around with that, I'll share.

But here are the cookies I made for annual potluck. A month and a half ago. Sorry readers.

Wine jelly

Today I present you with wine jelly, or, my scariest kitchen endeavor to date. I was trolling the Intarwebs one day and stumbled across The Simple Dollar, a personal finance blog, and now I'm hooked. The blog's author, Trent, detailed how to make wine jelly as part of his homemade Christmas gift series. Somewhere in my wormy little brain, a lightbulb went on and I thought to myself, "I could do that!"

Backstory: My only other jelly making experience dates back to when I was about nine or so, and I was in 4H, a group I seriously did not belong in because I would have rather been outside getting dirty than inside learning how to cook and sew. I think jelly-making night turned into my-mother-wondering-why-I-couldn't-be-Susie-Homemaker night.

Here is what you need to make wine jelly:

3 1/2 cups wine (TSD says that a normal sized bottle of wine will yield about three cups, so you can substitute grape juice for the rest; I avoided this problem by buying a large bottle)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 package dry pectin
4 1/2 cups granulated sugar


Combine the wine, lemon juice and pectin in a pot and bring it to a boil.

This is the part where disaster struck. My wine mixture boiled over. I turned down the heat and took the pot off the burner for a minute until it settled down, then I tried again, but a minute later I smelled pure burning. I had to scramble around to turn on the fan and open a window, so there are no pictures of the actual jelly-making process. If anyone knows how to clean this up:

...let me know.

Once the wine mixture is boiling, add the sugar in and boil it some more, making sure to stir it until the sugar dissolves.

Next, ladle the jelly into jars (make sure you have sterilized the jars first). Leave about half an inch from the top, and put the lids on. Then, put the jars into boiling water for about five minutes to seal them up.

If you have survived, you now have more wine jelly than you will ever know what to do with! Put your jars in the fridge to keep them delicious.

 Here is my finished product to give as a gift.

Lightbulb ornaments

When Significant Other and I moved into the apartment together, I brought a couple of lamps from home to put in our office. I didn't realize that there was a ceiling light (with a CFL bulb!) in there already, so I had a box of lightbulbs sitting in the closet that were going to go to waste.

And then I discovered Etsy and saw this, and a la Adam Richman said, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!"

So, I present you with lightbulb ornaments.

First, I took a lightbulb (these are cheap ones from Walmart, I think they cost $0.88 for a box of four) and wrapped some wire around the threaded part. Finding an effective way to do it was frustrating, but the whole thing becomes much sturdier once you tie a ribbon on.

Next, I used paint pens to draw some snowflakes on the lightbulb.

Then I tied some ribbon around the threaded part, hiding the wire that is looped around it. I found the whole spool for 60% off at Michael's; it cost me $0.80.

The finished product.

Mixtape: Winter

I haven't been feeling too crafty these past couple of days, so here is another mixtape. Most songs were on the actual "Winter 2006-2007" mix (one of my favorites to date), but there are a few late additons. I don't know why (most of) these songs remind me of winter, but they do. Don't judge.

I'm noticing now that there are a lot of bands with animals in their names...


The First Song--Band Of Horses
Dear Prudence--The Beatles
Twin Falls--Ben Folds Five (it's a Built To Spill song, but I like their cover much better)
Death And All Of His Friends--Coldplay
A Long December--Counting Crows
White Winter Hymnal--Fleet Foxes
Hooray--Minus The Bear
Avignon--Pinback
No Surprises--Radiohead
Asleep--The Smiths
Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois--Sufjan Stevens
Omaha--Tapes 'N Tapes
I Was A Lover--TV On The Radio
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart--Wilco

Magnets

These are fun, easy and less messy to make than orange chocolates. The idea came from Not Martha and I have seen a bunch for sale at Etsy too.

Sorry for the poor photo quality.

First, I looked through a whole bunch of old magazines for some little pictures to cut out. I used a couple of issues of Rolling Stone that somehow ended up in my mailbox. Then, I traced circles around the pictures using a dime and cut them out with a pair of scissors.



I also cut out circles of the same size from white cardstock. I happened to have this already, junk mail would work too, or you can find cardstock at Walmart or any craft store.

Then I used a cheap brush to apply some craft glue to a small round magnet. Make sure that you put the glue on the side that repels from the refrigerator. I used a glue called E-6000 that I know nothing about, but it looked like it would be strong and the packaging said that it was clear. It worked very well, but smells terrible.

Then I applied the cardstock circle to the magnet. This helps keep any picture on the other side of the magazine cutout from bleeding through. Next, I applied the glue to the cardstock and stuck the magazine cutout on it.

Next, I applied the glue to the flat side of a piece of clear vase filler (basically marbles with a flattened side). You can find vase filler at Walmart for sure; I tried looking around Michael's first but had no luck finding a clear package.

Take the piece of vase filler and press it down as hard as possible onto the magnet to force out any air bubbles.

Voila! You have a pretty cool magnet. Just let them dry completely before you use them.