Already the requests are coming in: Can you bake for the Valentine’s Day class party? For the Valentine’s Day Family Fair? For the Valentine’s Day fundraising bake sale? For the class parties of your other three school-aged children? For the bake sales of their other two schools?

Why, YES. Yes, I can. I’m not going to make roll-and-cut cookies (I would rather volunteer to be in the fundraising dunk tank, in my bathing suit in front of everyone, YES I REALLY DO HATE MAKING ROLL/CUT COOKIES THAT MUCH), but I can still bake things in heart shapes. (Or, alternately, I can go to the grocery store bakery department and purchase them, then transfer them to baggies so it looks like I made them. But I am not going to get a post out of THAT.)

Wilton heart-shaped cake pan, about $10 (photo from Amazon.com). This is the classic. You can frost the cake in any pastel color, and if you can write with frosting you can write “LUV U” or any conversation-heart message. Or don’t write on it, it’s still pretty. Or frost it white and use red sugar around the edges. If you don’t want to buy a heart-shaped pan, use a round pan and modify the easy bake-sale Christmas tree cake: put it on a red or pink or white paper plate; and instead of a tree, rough out a heart-shape in red sugar. One cake mix makes two bake sale cakes.
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I had such a nice Christmas! Paul gave me these sweet earrings:

(Bird Girl earrings from Marmar on Etsy) (photo from the shop)

and the new Lynda Barry book I would have had to buy for myself if I hadn’t gotten it as a gift, because I couldn’t wait ONE MORE MINUTE:
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It is time to CHOOSE A CALENDAR, and I am not even a little bit kidding when I say this is one of the purchases I most look forward to each year. I had trouble limiting this post to only twenty possibilities, and in fact caved and added one more at the last minute. (All photos except the last one are from Amazon.com.)

1. Charley Harper. I had a Charley Harper last year, and I don’t usually repeat. But if you’re looking for a good calendar, I REALLY liked my 2010 one. Plus, the 2011 one is half off.

2. Master of Illusion. I’m not fond of people calling themselves “Master of” anything, and usually optical illusion is more my kids’ thing than mine. Still, this one appeals to me this year, and it too is half off.
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There are times, like when I’m trying to kick a path through the playroom, that I feel like we can’t add even one more toy to this household and in fact would be well-advised to jettison fully half of them. This creates a problem five times a year at birthdays, and a problem-times-five at Christmas. I like to find gifts that are fun enough to be gifts, but that don’t have to live on the toy shelf (or floor, whatever).

1. Character (or otherwise special) bed sheets (both images above from Amazon.com). Bonus: if the child needs sheets anyway, and you spend $20 on Little Mismatched sheets that would have cost $10 if plain/boring, you’re making some of the money work twice: $10 sheets plus $20 gift = $20. (The Wonder Pets set is probably a better example of the kind of sheets a child would actually be happy with, but I got distracted by the ones _I_ would want for ME, and besides the Wonder Pets ones are more expensive so they don’t make my money-working-twice point as impressively.)
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This year my parents are hosting a day-after-Thanksgiving lunch for my brother’s in-laws. My mother is happily fretting about things such as tablecloths and centerpieces, and every week when we go shopping together we consider more possibilities.

Today I thought to look online, and I found a lot of stuff like this:

Harvest Blessings Autumn Centerpiece by FTD (photo from FTD.com). It’s pretty, and I like the way it’s nice and low (a lot of floral centerpieces are tall enough to block people from seeing each other), but it’s FIFTY clams, and that’s not including the shipping or the handling or whatever other fees there might be (the last time I ordered flowers from another flower place, there was a $6.95 “florist fee,” in addition to the delivery fee of $9.95, which brings the price up to $17 before I’ve ordered a single flower). And the storage would be a pain.

And looking at it, it occurs to me that this is a wreath on its side with a jar candle in the middle. And I’m pretty sure my mom has autumnal wreaths and jar candles. If YOU have an autumnal wreath and a jar candle, this is a centerpiece you can make easily (and FREE), and then you can put the pieces back wherever they were afterward.
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Do you guys play the “What if you had to spend $100 RIGHT NOW?” game at your house? We play it all the time at ours. It’s almost always Rob, the sixth-grader, who wants to fantasize about shopping, and I’m happy to play that game. Today’s answers (from me, clearly, because what he wants is video games):

John Derian nest coasters (photo from Target.com). I wish these were plates instead of coasters, since I never use coasters.
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Paul and I came late to alcohol, so we’re later than most people in acquiring wine glasses. Paul got a book about wine out of the library, and it suggests newbies look for two things in a starter wine glass (other than wine, ha ha more coffee QUICK):

1. a lip that curves in, as opposed to one that flares out, and
2. a stem, as opposed to stemless.

I love a quest.

It took about 5 minutes for me to realize that I dislike thin stems: they make me feel nervous, like the wine glass is fragile and unbalanced and will snap or tip in my hand. I like the kind of stem that flares out a little to support the liquid-holding part, like this:

Libbey Footed Goblet (photo from Amazon.com).
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In the past year or so I’ve been finding that wall art from Etsy is very satisfying to buy. I’ve bought several things for the kids for Christmas and birthdays: not only does it last longer than a toy (sometimes I fantasize about them decorating their adult homes with it later on), we REALLY DON’T NEED MORE TOYS. And whenever I’m in the kids’ rooms I feel happy seeing the picture all over again. Two favorites: Little Dinosaur (for dinosaur-loving Henry’s birthday) and a custom name portrait from WirlyGrrl (for Edward, for Christmas).

Here are some “seasonal” Etsy prints that might be a fun way to commemorate a child’s first year of school:

My Favorite Book is Blue print by TrafalgarSquare on Etsy (photo from the shop). My sister-in-law bought several prints (including this one) from this shop, and when I saw them I was like “???” and she was all “!!!” and I replied “!!!” and then I went home and added the store to my favorites and that brings us up to date. The greeting card version of this print would be great with a teacher gift.
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I have been MOODY and GRUMPY recently, and so I have been buying a number of little things that seem like they’d increase the cheer levels around here.

Zak Designs Happy Spoon (photo from Amazon.com). These are about $5.00 each online, but I sometimes find them at Home Goods, TJMaxx, and Marshalls for $2.50 each (or, on one happy occasion, on clearance for $1.00 each). There are also cheeky (winking) and surprised designs, but I only like the smilies. I have them in white, green, and orange so far, and I bought one each of red, white, orange, and green for my cousin for a wedding present. (The $5.00ish shipping for a single spoon is daunting, but it’s not per spoon: that is, if you order, say, four spoons, the shipping is $8.00ish. And the set of one cheeky and one smiling is free shipping.)

Cheap fun glasses (photo from ZenniOptical.com). Eight bucks a pair, baby. I ordered a bunch of pairs a couple of months ago and have been very happy with them: they’re just as good as the prescription glasses I got at the optician’s office. So I ordered a few more pairs, including the ones above. You’ll need your prescription to order, but your optician will have that on file and it’s easy to get a copy (call or stop by—the prescription is right in your file and legally belongs to you). A little trickier is getting your PD, which I think stands for pupillary distance: the optician measures it but it’s not part of the prescription so you have to ask for it separately.
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Let’s see: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th—FOUR days until Mother’s Day. Um, obviously I am totally on top of this for MY mom (hi, mom!), but just in case YOU need something quick for YOUR mom:

Restless, by William Boyd (photo from Amazon.com). My mom, my sister-in-law, and I all really liked this mother-daughter spy novel. Excitement! Suspense! Romance! And one sex-scene detail you will not want to imagine your mom reading, but my mom claims it didn’t shock her. She said she was glad it was just REGULAR sex, and I will leave you to decide for yourself whether that makes things better or worse. (And if she then gives multiple examples of scenes in other books she DID find shocking? And you’re in Wendy’s eating lunch at the time this conversation is taking place? How about THAT, better or worse?)
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