Yesterday, as you all know, was Valentine’s Day. It was also the 15th anniversary of when my husband and I started dating. That’s the reason we celebrate it, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be that into it. We don’t do cards though, usually just dinner and being extra nice to each other!!

Side note: I actually never purchase cards, it is a huge waste of paper, so I always make my own from recycled materials.

Anyways, I woke up really early Valentine’s morning and decided I wanted to make cupcakes both for my husband and to bring to work. So I searched Pinterest as I always do for recipes and other ideas. I came across a pin for sweetheart cupcakes from http://www.glorioustreats.com.

These are by far some of the richest, moistest chocolate cupcakes I’ve ever had. The batter is made with eggs like typical cupcakes, oil like brownies and boiling water (seriously) like, I don’t know, hot chocolate?!? I didn’t have the cherry juice for the frosting so I experimented with cooking down raspberry jam and deglazing with red wine. The color was good but the flavors were very subtle. Regardless, these cupcakes won over all of my co-workers and more importantly my husband! Oh I also didn’t have a heart-shaped cookie cutter but was able to improvise with a mini heart-shaped candy mold and some sprinkles.

In keeping with the Valentine theme, tonight I decided to give a little romantic makeover to an army green jacket that I got for free. It is cute and fits well, but oddly had fake zipper pockets on the front. The zippers were functional, but there were no pockets inside. That was my first step, adding pockets. I followed a tutorial from http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Add-Pockets/step8/Tack-down-the-Pocket-and-Done/, also found on Pinterest. The fabric for the pockets were some old floral curtains that I got through my local freecycle network.

Another side note, if you are unfamiliar with freecycle, “It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.” Check it out in your area, https://www.freecycle.org/.

I love the vintage feel and shabby chic style of this fabric, so I decided to add some cute heart-shaped elbow patches. I hand stitched these and they look adorable. I have to admit though, ever since I got my sewing machine this Christmas, any time I have to hand stitch I feel sad.

I’m planning to add a bit more romance to the jacket, such as with more floral fabric on the lapel, although I haven’t committed to that yet (see pins in pic). I recently inherited a trash bag full of vintage fabric and doilies, which I would love to try to incorporate somehow. I pinned one of the dis colored white doilies to the back, but I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. Here’s the look so far:

I’d love to hear what you think about the jacket. I’ll be spending more time on it tomorrow and I’ll try to post a quick update when I’m finished!