A little Valentine's Day love...

How awesome is my sister? So awesome.

She sent me the cutest handmade Valentine:

mmmm...cupcakes. I love that she even has crinkly paper for the little paper cupcake cup.

And because she is the greatest sister ever, she also sent new scrapbooking toys for me to play with:

My friend and I have started running - er, trotting and wheezing, whatever, tomayto, tomahto - so Emily sent me all of these great papers and embellishments for a running journal. I'm not buying the whole running = fun thing yet. It still kicks my butt every time we go out, but playing with paper and scissors = fun. A little injection of craftiness can only help with my motivation.

(I'm a little nervous that she gave me a pack of "2008" rub-on dates. Does this mean I'll still have to run a year from now?)


On an unrelated note, but since red things seem appropriate for a Valentine's Day post, I found a use for the red cotton yarn I had leftover from my toddler vest:

Fetching! Still a fun pattern the second (third?) time around. This time I tried the picot bind off. Or, at least something resembling the picot bind off.

Magically, Lion Brand Wool-Ease, Rowan Calmer and mystery-brand mill end cotton (post washer and dryer) all gave me the correct gauge for this pattern on size 6 DPNs. Maybe some day I'll give this a go with the cashmerino that is recommended in the pattern.

We'll see. This pair is beagle-approved and off to Michigan. My aunt subtly hinted that she would like a pair, so hopefully she'll like these. And hopefully Michigan will get some fingerless gloves weather soon (a bit too chilly this week).