For some reason this month has gone by SO slowly. I originally wasn't going to do this month's challenge, but the end of the month came so slowly I had enough time to do it. Weird. That will never happen again. I'm very glad I did it. Although I think I messed up a little. I may or may not have whisked the egg whites too much, and may have cooked the cake too long. I used Trader Joe's Pound plus Dark Chocolate, next time I'm going to use milk chocolate for a sweeter cake. I love how this recipe only has 3 ingredients, and no flour or additional sugar. Genius. I served my cake like an over sized Oreo; sandwiched with chocolate whipped cream and chocolate ice cream on top. This is the chocolate triple threat. Delicious.

Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes 16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped ½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter 5 large eggs separated 1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often. 2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment. 3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls. 4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). 5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together. 6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate. 7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration} 8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C 9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet. 10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold. Chris and I had a great time eating the oversized flourless Oreo, but we couldn't quite finish it. Too rich. MMmmmMMMM.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I made this little number for a friend's baby shower. I really hope that her baby will have chubby little thighs. MMmm. Nothing like a little baby thigh. Check out Brooklyn Bean's machine smocked dress tutorial to make your very own spring/summer smocked dress. The bloomers are my own design and incredibly easy to make [tutorial coming soon].

I'm in a sewing craze right now. Seriously, I'm day dreaming in patterns, and I keep thinking up ideas for outfits for Penelope and other little girls [I have a few pregnant friends]. I've got to get cracking before my motivation wanes. Last Friday when I was feeling particularly ambitious, I sewed a skirt! I can't claim the pattern my own; it's been modified from Simplicity's 3673 1950's retro dress pattern. I can't express how much I love this skirt. It fits me PERFECTLY, it's slimming [at least I think so] and it's amazingly comfortable. This is the best sewing I've done in my life. Period. End. I should mention, however, it has one little problem: I can't squeeze into it from the top. I have to unzip and shimmy into it from the bottom. I should have put in a longer zipper. OH well. It still works. The original pattern has a very high waistline and darts in the front [I hate front darts, they never seem to look right]. I nixed the front darts and made puckers in the back instead [adding a little umph to the blegs]. I also sinched up the hips to follow my hips a little better. Now I'm looking for any excuse to wear this little number out. Chris, you wanna ask me out on a date? P.S. I'm totally addicted to the Sartorialist right now. I love that blog.

I took some more photos this weekend while on our V-day stroll. I was happy that a) it wasn't raining at the time and b) the sky was moody and overcast. My favorite. Thanks to Shutter Sisters for motivating me to look at things differently. I can't wait to see what next month's oneword will be. ALSO, Don't forget, I have a giveaway for an awesome stationery set going on right now! You should enter!

Using my spooky prints tutorial and Martha's business card holder pattern, I've made a stationery kit to spread the love the remaining months of the year. And I've given it away. This stationery kit comes with a leather pouch [7" x 5 1/4"] with three heart cards, three "love" cards and six matching envelopes. The pouch was made by cutting out leather from an old jacket & fusing it to polka dot fabric using ultrahold Heat 'n Bond. I did a satin stitch around the edges for a more finished look.

I just spent the last three minutes jumping up and down in my livingroom. Chris didn't really know why. "Craftzine. . . Honorable Mention. . . Contest. . . Tiddlywinks!!!!!!!" Chris just had to come over to the computer to really make sense of my excitement. Happy V-day everyone.

Dear Valentine,

I love you. Period.

Love,

Chris

I know you do. I love you, too.

Thank you for the sweet, sweet Valentine notes this year!! You're my favoritest of them all.

While lying in bed deciding if I should get up or not (it was like 9am), there was a loud knock on the door. Chris and I are hyper-paranoid of random knocks on the door, because a) we don't like solicitors AT ALL and b) we have recently been victims of credit card fraud. So, when I open the door, my first thought was:

Close the door! She's trying to sell something!

All she asked for was my signature, THEN I'm thinking:

If I scribble it and she decides to use my signature for fraud, I'll totally know. YES.

Then handed me a large gift bag and left.

WHAT the. . .

I opened the card to find out my parents had sent me chocolate dipped strawerries. For Valentine's day. Thanks Mom & Dad. Chris and I had a great breakfast this morning. Penelope enjoyed them, too.

Dear Valentine,

The sparks

from your welding

torch blind me.

Love,

Chris

NO. The sparks from YOUR torch blind me. It's funny that over the last few years we've switched roles. You brandishing the torch, and me watching with fire extinguisher in hand. I guess we've finally settled into our gender roles.

Dear Valentine,

Don't worry. I won't divorce you.

Let's NOT get a divorce.

Love,

Chris

Agreed. 100% agreed. I love you way too much. I love you. I love you.

Christopher is banned from my blog from today until Valentines, mostly because I'm too excited about his Valentine to wait. So if you read this, DON'T talk to Chris about it. He already knows too much. I got this genius idea from a friend [although, she didn't know it] who signed off an email with "the Tiddly Winkels". It reminded me how much I love the nearly skill-less, almost pointless game of Tiddlywinks. I'm sure there's skill involved, I just don't have any. I got to thinking; revamping my old Tiddlywinks game would be PERFECT. The box was missing, no instructions, just the winks, mats and pot were left. I made the box, added an additional area for winks to land [the handhold, lobsters*, footsies and hugs areas], cut out [and embroidered a little heart] pink mats and made it all lovey-dovey. Here's the genius of the game: you can make it whatever you want! You hit the winks into the pot to get points, add up the points for a kiss, lobsters, whatever. And, the scorecard I made, is fill in the blank, so at the beginning of each game the players can decide what action would occur at what points. Sweet? or Saucy? I have yet to play the game with Chris, so I don't know how well it'll work. I'll report back as soon as I find out. You know what else I did? I made a free downloadable PDF for anyone else who wants to play this imaginative, couple's game. Download HERE. I think it all turned out pretty nicely. I just entered it into a Craftzine V-day contest, so wish me luck!! By the way, did you hear Craft will no longer be in print? Bummer. At least they'll keep the website going [unlike domino :( Blerg ]. *Lobsters are what Chris and I call backrubs. Don't ask me why, but we like it that way. *ALSO, I thought I was being all cute with a little tag saying "will you be my tiddlywink?" I just went on urbandictionary and looked up the term tiddlywink. LAME. LAME. LAME. I probably shouldn't have entered those photos on the contest page. BLAST you awful slang!! Why do you have to ruin ALL of my fun?!? BLERG. I guess I'm going to have to re-shoot the box tomorrow, minus the inuendo.

License,

Registration,

Phone #,

Insurance?

Thank you.

That'll be

all.

Will you be

my Valentine?

Love,

Chris

Dear Valentine,

You're covered in

grease. Grease makes

me sick and puke.

Love,

Chris

In my defense, I do shower. On a weekly basis. If Chris gets lucky, I might shower every other day. ;)

One of my new blog obsessions: Shutter Sisters. SO cool. So girly. But not. Just this month they started a photography challenge. The prize: a lens baby composer--these things are SO stinking sweet. This month each person gets to pick out a word and take photos relating to that word. Upload to flickr. There you go. If you want to join in on the fun, read about the rules here. Hmmm... It was so hard to choose just one word. Grow. I've been thinking that I really need to expand my interests beyond the hobbyist/enthusiast level. I've got it in me, right? So this month, my photos are about growing my talents. Pushing my photo skills and photographing subjects and scenes that I haven't really mastered yet. Here they are. Growing. I'm learning how to take pictures of the outdoors. Capturing breath, or life and hopefully conveying it in a still image. More are on the way. P.S. I <3 you, San Francisco.

Dear Valentine.

You are at least

as attractive as

her.               

        Love,  

       Chris

 

I'm glad you like the way I look Chris. I guess it doesn't really matter since you're stuck with me anyway.

I <3 you SNOW

Much! Will you be

my Valentine?

Love,

Chris

Yes of course. I'll be your Valentine any day, Christopher dear.

I fell in love with you

When into my life you kung-flew.

Dear Valentine,     

Thanks for

 Not being

pregnant.

        love, 

        Chris

  Umm. . . You're welcome? I'm glad I'm not pregnant right now, too. I love how a magazine will make such a big deal about a celeb going to Peet's Coffee. Serious? Is it that monumental? I guess some people need proof that entertainment 'gods and godesses' are just like us. Thirsty.

 

Dear Valentine,                                           

This girl was very cute. Now she's 105 years

old and can't walk to the toilet by herself. 

                                                 Love, 

                                                 Chris

For some reason I have to call my etsy store the Shoppe (pronounced /Shop E/). And by the way, do you know that I have one? I've been secretly listing hand bound books on there without really telling anyone. So here it is, I have a shoppe, and it's awesome and you should probably buy a book. A perfect gift for someone cool. I just listed these two lovelies:

Mini Handmade Date Book (blank)

Leather Handmade Flat Back with Hidden Monkey

So hop on over to the IS•LY Etsy Shoppe and peruse all of the goodies I've made. Just for you.

Oh Dearest Melissa,

You win the Golden Award for best wife.

Love,

Chris

Dearest [Valentine],

I want to eat you up like a bowl of snow.

Love,

Chris

My husband is ingenius. And all it took to make me feel special was construction paper and magazine cutouts. Note: these are Valentine's he gave me when we were first dating and our first year of marriage and for some reason we can't remember what we did last year. Guess it means we need to make up for it this year. Right?

I've been a little busy recently. Mostly I've been working on this and this. Yeah, uh if you need any survival gear, go here. It's probably the spiffiest-looking outdoor/survival gear e-store you'll ever see. So, I haven't had much time for arts and crafts. Nope, not very many at least. And since I've been so busy, all of the tutorials I promise myself I'd put up have been put off. Not for long, though. Promise. About a week ago, I got an idea to make regular frames into an accordion frame set. I think it turned out sweet. Pictures of the family sure do spiff up an apartment. Want to do this project, too? Click HERE to download the free tutorial. Looking around for more tutorials? Click on the DIY button in the right nav bar for my original tutorials, or click on the tutorial category link in the left nav bar for links to other tutorials. Thanks for reading. ISLY.