

Mr. Cupcake and I spent this past Easter weekend with his family in Central Pennsylvania. My family is not very religious, so over the years it has become standard for us to spend this holiday with his family every year. His is from a family of strong traditions, and this weekend was no exception.
On Saturday, we visited with his extended family in Lancaster. The day consisted of lots of food, catching up with family members (all of whom we were seeing for the first time since they received our save the dates, and everyone had great things to say), and having an Easter egg hunt for the little ones. At the moment, there are only two little ones, but everyone still pitches in to hide eggs and candy, and at one point there were five camera-wielding adults following these two little ones around while they filled their Easter baskets! It was quite the paparazzi moment.
One of the Easter Egg Hunt participants making off with some loot

I checked my call schedule for this month and realized that I’m on-call on Valentine’s Day! Blah.
I guess I wasn’t too disappointed about having to miss out on Valentine’s Day because we decided to celebrate a little earlier over this weekend by staying home and cooking some of our favorite dishes together.

Yes, perhaps you do - but we can go ahead and pretend we’re strangers so we can avoid that awkward silence where you and I both try to conduct a conversation without admitting we don’t know who the other person is.
Despite my recent hermitous (no, that’s not a word) behavior, I did crawl out of my hole and make valentines for people. I’m sorry to anyone who received one as I was going through some crazy ADD moment and they are entirely non-cohesive, and it doesn’t help that my handwriting is that of a 4 year old being forced to write with their off hand. This is why fonts and emails were created, because people wanted to stop hiring hieroglyphic experts in order to read their birthday cards.
See this cute packaging?
Yesterday I finally put my Valentines cards in the mail for the Weddingbee swap! I didn’t really know what I was going to do, so I went on a short visit to Paper Source to look for inspiration. Since I don’t think of myself as crafty as a lot of bloggers, my friend gave me the idea of using photos. I looked for cards that had slots to put pictures in, and I really wanted to go for the traditional Valentine card look. I wanted to go for that cheesy line “Will you be mine?”
Here are some pictures of the process. My puppy (that is now my cousin’s dog) was my model, although I had taken these pictures months ago.
I wish I could have participated in the Weddingbee Valentine Swap, but with so little time left before the wedding, there’s no way I could have cranked anything out, and let’s face it, I’m not crafty enough to make anything as beautiful as what any of our readers or other bees can do, so I figured I’d just concentrate on finding the perfect Valentine for Mr. Petunia.This darling Hello! Lucky card I ordered from Luxe Paperie will hopefully be here next week:
Mr. Snow Pea sent me this message today:
“Low-paw,
Sun nien fai lok.
Lnau oi lay!”
Translation:
“Wife,
Happy new year.
I love you!”
As the only married classmate, I readied myself for school today loaded with red envelopes and crisp dollar bills. I really look forward to passing out ly-see this year! Based on Chinese custom, as a married woman, I have finally entered the realm of adulthood and can pass out money to those who are unmarried. The envelopes usually look something like this and you can buy them in any store in Chinatown and even online at ChinaBridal.

{Image from here}
Tomorrow is Lunar New Year (I refuse to call it Chinese New Year, because many other Asian cultures celebrate the new year based on the lunar calendar).
Anyway, like Mr. Canary explains it, it’s like Christmas for my family. Mama Canary has been cleaning the house every day this past week. The Asian grocery stores have been packed every day with shoppers stocking up on lucky foods (sweet candies and nuts, whole fish, noodles, etc.) Find some recipes here for standard New Year fare. A lot of these same foods are prepared for Chinese weddings as well because the symbolism holds the same significance.
It’s that time of the year, ladies. It’s *gasp* Valentine’s Day and Mr. Kiwi’s birthday. His actual birthday is Feb. 10th, and I try to space out the gifts and/or affection! Usually for V-day, Mr. Kiwi and I have a dinner a home, with some flowers and goodies like that. This year, however, is a big year for him/us, what with this being his last year in his 20s (”I’m OLD”, he says), and our first married Valentine’s Day together.
The same question is, what to get for the man who wants nothing (that I can afford, at least), and is a total romantic? Since it’s been hella cold here in So. Cal, I am going to get him a scarf and some gloves- the manly kind. My aunt gave him a set of gloves for Christmas, and having never had gloves before, he loves them, but says those other gloves are “too fancy for work”, since he does work as a coach/PE teacher! So I must find him a manly scarf, and some toasty gloves. Warm heart, warm hands.
While perusing Macys for some ideas, I saw this kickass hat. Meaning, Mr. K would kick my ass if I bought him this hat. I understand Rocawear is a “cool” brand, but Mr. K would sadly look like Elmer Fudd.
In my defense, I posted this on my personal blog, but Bee suggested I post it to Weddingbee…I LOVE CHRISTMAS, Okay? Sometime in mid-April I should be getting over it.
Mr. Penguin and I started a tradition about four years ago where we would give each other an ornament for Christmas that represented a significant event in the past year. This year, the gift was pretty special, since we didn’t plan on getting each other much of anything else, since the wedding is fast approaching and could be better spent elsewhere. We’ve done a pretty good job at covering the range of “significant events” with our ornaments…one year I received a glass replica of the Pantheon, marking our trip to Italy, another year, I gave Mr. Penguin a little glass orb with a tiny house in the snow, representing buying our first home. Every year we mark and date each ornament with the year and what the ornament represents.
The best part about exchanging “significant” ornaments is that every December we get to unwrap the ornaments over and over, and relive the great experiences that we’ve shared together over the years. We’ve never gotten each other “similar” ornaments until this year, however.
We’re pleased to announce our first ever DIY Valentine’s Day Card Swap! We’re gonna keep it relatively simple and exchange 3 cards with other readers and bees (all readers will get at least one card from a bee). There’s no criteria other than the cards be DIY, so get creative and have fun! Before you send out your cards, please be sure to email me a picture so we can showcase all your inspiring creations on Weddingbee!
If you’re interested in participating, please email me (bees included) at bee@weddingbee.com with your full name and address by midnight tomorrow. I have no idea what kind of card I’m gonna make, but this should be a lot of fun - I can’t wait!

(Easy Doily Valentines, Doily Envelopes via Martha Stewart)