Weddingbee Blog

Like last year, I made little packages to send out as valentines. This year each box is built based on lyrics from this beautiful song (press play):

Since the very first time I heard it, I had wanted to ’put the stars right in a jar and give them all to…’ ehh… somebody, ANYBODY! Valentine’s day finally came around and gave me an excuse to do this without creeping people out:

Initially I wanted to baked some Green Tea cookies for the project. MOH-Ho brought over a recipe from Martha and we made some freaking adorable star cookies: but DUDE, they tasted like @$$!

So we switched gears and turned to a basic sugar cookies recipe. We made what felt like a gazillion batches of these puffy little suckers before getting them to turn out just the right size to fit in those tiny glass hinged jars:

The package wouldn’t make much sense without the song, so I burned the song onto these business card size mini-CDs. For the label, I drew a simple bird silhouette sitting on a ’wire’ of the corresponding lyrics ’I’d teach the birds such lovely words and make them sing for you’:

[Keeping it legal: It turns out Amazon doesn’t let you purchase the same MP3 more than once, making the purchase of multiple copies difficult (I assume it’s similar on other music sites). You can get around it by buying different versions, set up multiple accounts, use the spouse’s account, or purchase from various sites.]

To illustrate the final part of the chorus ’wrap the world in ribbons’, I printed the lyrics with an antique world map graphic background on linen paper. I hand tore out each map for the frayed edges effect, rolled it up, and wrapped it with coordinating ribbons:

Then I packed them up in little boxes and off in the mail they went:

… though not before I DIYed coordinating packing materials that made EVERYONE roll their eyes. That will have to be another post, but I’ll leave you with the lyrics of…

If The Stars Were Mine by Melody Gardot

If the stars were mine
I’d give them all to you
I’d pluck them down right from the sky
and leave it only blue
I would never let the sun forget to shine upon your face
so when others would have rain clouds you’d have only sunny days
If the stars were mine
I’d tell you what I’d do
I’d put the stars right in a jar and give them all to you

If the birds were mine
I’d tell them when to sing
I’d make them sing a sonnet when your telephone would ring
I would put them there inside the square, whenever you went out
so there’d always be sweet music whenever you would walk about

If the birds were mine
I’d tell you what I’d do
I’d teach the birds such lovely words and make them sing for you
I’d teach the birds such lovely words and make them sing for you

If the world was mine
I’d paint it gold and green
I’d make the oceans orange for a brilliant color scheme
I would color all the mountains, make the sky forever blue
So the world would be a painting and I’d live inside with you

If the world was mine
I’d tell you what I’d do
I’d wrap the world in ribbons and then give it all to you
I’d teach the birds such lovely words and make them sing for you
I’d put those stars right in a jar…and…
give them all… to you…