I has a wee little update for you in my Etsy shop! I’ve got conversation heart fingerless mitts, Valentine cake hair clips, lollipop necklaces, aaaaaaand cupcake and petit four ring boxes. Everything is in limited quantities, and I will upgrade all domestic shipping to Priority Mail until February 14th, with the exception of any “made to order” items, because those still take time to make. Check it out!

Here’s a quick list of my Valentine’s Day crochet patterns that you can find for free!

Sparkly Heart Lollipop Necklace

Sweetheart Sugar Cookie Brooch

Chocolate Truffle Scarf

Conversation Heart Garland

And the XOXO Sugar Cookies pattern is now in my shop.

I will be updating the shop with finished Valentine’s Day items hopefully tomorrow! I thought it might be today, but I had a few phone meeting, and I lost my good light for photos, so let’s try tomorrow!

On Sunday, I thought it would be funny if Manda came over to watch the Superbowl. I am not a sports fan, and I have no idea what is going on in football, but it seemed like a fun excuse for us to get together and eat a bunch of junk food.

A few days ago, I had been craving chocolate chip oatmeal cookies from Trader Joe’s. They are bite-sized, and they are crunchy and delightful. I figured I could just try making them at home, so that’s what happened on Superbowl Sunday.

I used this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker.

Okay, here’s a classic Me Move. The recipe instructs you to make dough balls out of 2 heaping tablespoons, so for my first batch, I plopped on 2 TBS of dough, but didn’t roll it into a ball or anything. For my second batch, I wanted smaller cookies, so  I just scooped out what I’ll call a small “bloop” of dough (as pictured above), and then rolled it around in my hands.

I was kind of surprised when the baking time seemed to be kind of longer for the small balls than the big plops. About 8 minutes in, I realized, THAT MY OVEN WAS OFF. Because for my first batch, I had apparently turned off the oven when I meant to turn off the timer. GOOD ONE. So don’t even ask me about baking times, cuz I just winged it at that point.

Overall, I think this particular recipe was a bit on the sweet side for me. I don’t know anything about baking, and I’m not sure what would happen to the whole recipe if I took out like 1/4 cup of sugar in there somewhere, but that would be my amateur inclination. Also, they were not light and crunchy like the Trader Joe’s ones, but I knew that going in, since the recipe called these thick and chewy.

Otherwise, I had a fun time with these cookies, because I felt like there weren’t a lot of steps or ingredients to wrangle. I still need to remember to always make a half recipe, though, because I’m the only one in the house who really eats what I bake, and now I have like 80 million cookies to deal with!

EDIT: This crochet pattern is now available in my Etsy shop. Thank you!

I’m posting the crochet pattern for my Valentine’s Day X’s, O’s, and Hearts Sugar Cookies (that you may have seen in Crochet Today magazine) for FREE all weekend! Then on Monday, I will remove the pattern from my blog and load it up to my Etsy shop. The heart cookie may look familiar since it’s one of the free patterns I put together for Michaels.com, but I felt like it would be weird to leave out of this set!

You can turn these cookies into brooches and hair clips, and even patches and appliques. Big ol’ fridge magnets would be fun, too!

Are you in Chicago? Do you want to take a super fun crafty class?

Steff Bomb, winner of TLC’s Craft Wars, is here to help!

Chicago Makes presents: A Plush Toy Sewing Workshop by Steff Bomb. Wednesday, February 5th, 2014 7pm – 9pm. @ Sew Crafty Studios, 2320 N Damen Ave, STE 1E, Chicago, IL 60647. Learn how to sew a plush piece of cake! $35 per person, materials included. Free booze, snacks, and cake! Beer provided by Revolution Brewery. Must be 21+ to attend. For more information visit sewcraftystudio.com or email: info@sewcraftystudio.com

I have taken the liberty of showing y’all some of my favorites from Steff’s plush portfolio!