Recipe: Sweetheart Fruit Salsa

Happy Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day has put me in such a good mood that I decided to post something. I know a lot of people hate this holiday for a lot of boring reasons, but I've always liked it. It's a good excuse to be a little flirtier than usual, and even during the years where I didn't have a valentine, I always liked pampering myself.

And I still do.

Poncho isn't big on Valentine's Day, which is fine so long as he's not being an absolute turd about it (which he isn't), so I always get myself a treat for the holiday. This year I made myself fruit salsa, with cuteness as an extra ingredient. Bonus: It's almost healthy! Almost.

Sweetheart Fruit Salsa
Tools

• knife
• cutting board
• bowl
• measuring devices
• heart-shaped bento or fondant cutter

Ingredients

• 2 crunchy red apples
• 12-16 oz strawberries
• 8 oz raspberries
• 4 oz blackberries
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tbs white sugar
• 3 tbs any fruit preserves (I used blackberry)
• cinnamon and sugar pita chips

Instructions

1. Slice the apples and strawberries so that you can press lots of heart shapes. Toss the hearts into the bowl. Chop the leftover apples and strawberries smaller than the hearts (big chunks will distract from the cute shapes) and toss that in the bowl.
2. Roughly chop up the raspberries and blackberries (and any other fruit you want; kiwi and crushes pineapple are popular additions) into kind of a mushy consistency and toss those in the bowl too.
3. Add the preserves and sugars. Mix it all up. Serve cold with the pita chips for dipping.

This is Halloween[-ish]

I love Halloween! It's, like, the only holiday where you can have a party and aren't expected to spend time with your family. And you get to wear a costume, which I love.

Unfortunately, I don't have many Halloween decorations.

So I made some.

Perhaps other people would like to make some too.

Halloween Lanterns~!

I know, my setup is very Halloween-y.

You will need:
1) cardstock - one sheet per lantern
2) vellum - one sheet per three lanterns
3) electric tea light candles
4) scissors
5) exacto knife
6) cutting mat
7) pencil
8) glue stick
9) the lantern pattern - get it here

Step 1:
Print the pattern, cut it out, and trace it onto the black cardstock. I used white cardstock so that (a) the stencil would be sturdy, and (b) I can use the stencil to make another lantern when I'm done.

Step 2:
Cut it out. A sharp exacto blade will make all the difference here. If your blade doesn't cut the paper with little effort from you, do yourself a favor and buy some new blades.

Step 3:
Score the fold lines. Score the fold lines. Really, it'll make the folds cleaner and easier.

(Psst, "score" means you scratch it, like with scissors.)

Step 4:
Find some images for your vellum windows. You're going to want to shrink and crop them down to 2"x2". Karen's Whimsy, The Graphics Fairy, and Google Images are all good places to find graphics for your lanterns. You can also download the images I used for my lanterns here. The file is in Microsoft Word format to (hopefully) make it easier to drop in your own images. The images are from a scrapbooking collection entitled Ravenhead Manor.

Anyway, print them out, cut them up, and glue them to the inside of the lantern windows.

Step 5:
Fold it up, glue the tabs, and drop in one of those battery-operated tea light candles. Close the top and it's done!

Finished~!

Alternatively, you can make an open-top version that can hold a real tea light candle. Though keep in mind that you're putting a flame inside paper, so don't leave them unattended.

You can get the open-top pattern here.

Or, if you are feeling so inclined, you can fill it with treats!

To review, here are the files available for download:
pattern for the closed-top lantern
pattern for the open-top lantern
sample vellum windows