valentine crafting with friends

 my friend sent out an email about a week ago asking everyone over for a valentine craft day. i finally read the email fully this morning and realized that i was supposed to bring a craft and a treat. thankfully, morgana took pity on me and helped me get everything together. while i cut out blue felt hearts, she ran out to get little muffin cups for our chocolate coconut balls. since i've been on the gaps diet lately, i wanted to bring something gaps friendly so morgana mixed shredded coconut with coconut oil and coconut nectar. she then melted an unsweetened chocolate bar and dribbled the chocolate over the coconut balls.

they turned out to be delicious.

 we got the news this morning that the royal ballet would not invite chanda over to audition for their school after looking at her video. we were all a bit upset and cried a little but have now settled on an alternate plan. she will audition for another local school on sunday and hopefully attend that school or the gelsey kirkland academy for the next academic/dance year. then next january, or early february she will see about flying to london to audition for their program in person at their preliminary auditions. "the life of the theatre is certainly fraught with many spills and chills," (lou reed, wild child).

 morgana actually put together two crafts from us. we had enough material for paper valentine hearts, and felt hearts. here my friend carol is sewing yarn onto a red and white and gold paper heart.

 another friend dyed coffee filters a pretty pink and made paper flowers which were twisted onto green wooden skewers.

 these hearts were made by tracing a glue stick onto paper and then rubbing the shiny red paper (that can be seen to the left of the card) over the glue part. it left a sketchy outline that looked artsy and pretty.

 chanda working on her felt heart . . 

 ella's felt heart . . 

 morgana's paper heart . . 

 carol's cardboard heart . . 

 getting ready to go to ballet in the ten degree weather outside.

 we all got home late and walked in to a very messy kitchen and leftover coconut mixture. greg cleaned up the kitchen while morgana rolled more coconut balls . . 

 and also prepared the fish that i had picked up for dinner tonight (delicious monkfish with butter and onions cooked under the broiler since our oven is still broken . . oh that's sad).

 chanda made a birthday card for a friend's surprise party tomorrow.

 our new centerpiece . . 

and dessert!