Book Ideas for Valentine’s

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Cooking, Baking, And Making

Cooking, Making, and Baking: 100 Recipes and DIY Ideas for All Seasons and Reasons by Cynthia O’Hara

From the creative mind of the “Harried Housewife” blog comes a beautifully packaged one-stop-shop book bursting with DIY recipes and ideas for the entire year! Cooking, Baking, and Making includes 60 DIY recipes with bonus designs and 40 DIY ideas that tie your home together for all 365 days of the year.

For spring, serve Herbed Cucumber Tea Sandwiches and a make a Spring Centerpiece as you watch the flowers bloom. In the hot summer, delight your guests with Fresh Berries and Cannoli Cream and make your own decorative coasters. In autumn, admire the turning leaves as you bake Dilled Beer and Cheddar Bread and make Autumn Harvest Potpourri. And in winter, enjoy Creamy Eggnog Cupcakes and make Festive Votives while snuggling by the fire.

Cynthia O’Hara presents incredibly user-friendly projects and dishes that make replicating her flavors and designs as natural as the changing of the seasons.

Head over HERE for your own.

The Healthy Teen Cookbook 

The Healthy Teen Cookbook: Around the World In 80 Fantastic Recipes by Remmi Smith

Who knew healthy cooking could be so awesome and delicious?! This Chopped kid chef and entrepreneur is on a mission to bring healthy food options and easy-to-cook scrumptious recipes to a busy and heavily-scheduled generation of teens. The Healthy Teen Cookbook is not your typical teen cookbook: it’s written “for kids by a kid,” and is filled with tried-and-true recipes with budding cooks in mind, using limited ingredients and steps. Through the colorful, easy-to-read book, Chef Remmi sets out to inspire her peers to adopt healthy eating habits by introducing them to the glorious pastime of cooking. The Healthy Teen Cookbook takes you on a culinary journey across the seven continents, highlighting countries and their top foods. Each section features a map, a full menu (from appetizer to dessert), fun facts, helpful tips, and fantastic recipes―making it a geography lesson, a cookbook, and a social studies class all in one.

Head over HERE for your own.

The Crafty Gardener 

The Crafty Gardener: Inspired Ideas and DIY Crafts from Your Own Backyard by Becca Anderson

The perfect gift for any gardener! Gardening allows us to live in a much more human way, grounded in nature and connected to Mother Earth and all she provides. It adds pleasure to your life and gives you a sense of calm. With your garden, you are quite literally growing a bounty of blessings. Lifelong gardener and bestselling author Becca Anderson has put her love of crafting and of gardening together in this book of inspired DIY ideas. Along with gardening tips and secrets for growing flowers, herbs, and veggies, Anderson shares dozens of how-to’s in this delightful guide on making candles, potpourri, bath salts, essential oils, floral waters, tinctures, liquors, pickles jams, and even fountains, birdhouses, and fairy doors. Even if your garden is just a hanging basket of cherry tomatoes or a windowsill filled with herb pots, you will still reap the benefits of gardening.

Head over HERE for your own.

Making a Difference 

Making a Difference: Teaching Kindness, Character and Purpose by Cheri J. Meiners

Through positive and motivating text, Making a Difference assures children that they are important, and that what they do matters. Boost your child’s confidence and sense of purpose as you read and affirm that their hopeful thoughts, kind words and good choices can make a difference to themselves and others. Making a Difference is a book that can help build social skills and character, teach life lessons to your children, and put them on a pathway to kindness, courtesy, respect, and purpose. Beautiful hand-drawn illustrations accompany author Cheri’s purposeful storytelling as she shows us once again how children can help to make the world a better place. Back pages include discussion questions, scenarios, games, and role-play activities that help adults reinforce the book’s positive message.

Head over HERE for your own.

The Woman’s Book of Prayer 

The Woman’s Book of Prayer: 365 Blessings, Poems and Meditations by Becca Anderson

We are constantly communing with the Divine throughout our daily lives―even in the most ordinary activities. Sitting in silence, walking in meditation, using prayer beads, or folding your hands every night and talking to God are all forms of prayer. If you want something different in your life, you must pray a different prayer. The Woman’s Book of Prayer will show you all the ways you can pray, so you can find the methods that work for you. Comprised of mindfulness meditations, prayer practices, and selections of sacred texts, poems, and blessings, The Woman’s Book of Prayer gathers words of encouragement, comfort and sustenance for women.

Author Becca Anderson credits her recovery from a serious illness to the power of daily prayer. But she had to change the way she prayed and set off on an exploration of the myriad methods people use and uncovering the world’s best prayers. The Woman’s Book of Prayer shows how to change your life by changing your prayer. By carefully and consciously choosing affirming thoughts and deliberately looking for blessings at every opportunity, you will literally create a new life for yourself.

Head over HERE for your own.

A Pebble For Your Thoughts 

A Pebble for Your Thoughts: How One Kindness Rock at the Right Moment Can Change Your Life by Megan Murphy

It all started with a single stone on a beach in Cape Cod, and now the Kindness Rocks Project spans the globe. Founded by Megan Murphy, the Kindness Rocks Project is based on the profound truth that one kind message at the right moment can change someone’s day, their outlook, and their whole life.

Through visual photos of inspirational Kindness Rocks and encouraging messages, A Pebble for Your Thoughts will inspire you in the same way that the Kindness Rocks Project has encouraged thousands of people worldwide. Learn how to cultivate compassion and connection, how to grow through hard times, and how to share kindness with others, one small pebble of kindness at a time.

Head over HERE for your own.

365 Days of Love

365 Days of Love by Daphne Rose Kingma

There is love to be found in each day of our lives if we know how to look for and practice it. Daphne Rose Kingma provides daily meditations for each day of the year, perfect for starting or finishing our days. By reflecting on the words she shares about love, we are provided with a guide for living out the journey of life with a heart brimming with compassion. Each day brings with it a new opportunity to share in and spread love.

With the help of Kingma’s words, readers are able to see clearly the many-faceted possibilities that love brings. This little book serves to inspire, affirm, remind, encourage, support, and comfort each person who picks it up. With her characteristic prose and heartwarming style, Kingma has crafted a source of love in it of itself to be shared with readers of all ages.

Head over HERE to get your own.

Love You, Baby 

• Rip Proof—made of ultra-durable tight-woven material
• Waterproof—can be chewed on, drooled on, and washed!
• Emergent Literacy Tool—bright pictures and few or no words encourage dialogic reading
• Portable—lightweight books can go anywhere, perfect for the diaper bag and for travel
• Safe for Baby—meets ASTM safety standards

Head over HERE for your own.

Everything Grows With Love

Beautiful Words, Inspiring Thoughts

A Gift of Love…
…in words that encourage, inspire, affirm, and lift up, in quotes and sayings and private thoughts that put a bloom in the heart of the reader.

A Gift of Beauty…
…in hand-lettering and calligraphy, in paper-cuts and colorful collages, in drawings and prints—and in the joy found on every page.

Relish life, love, and friendship—and share it with everyone you love. Created by the editors of Flow magazine, Everything Grows with Love features dozens of uplifting quotes and sayings in original graphics and hand-lettering by 20 contributing artists and illustrators. On each page, affirmations, motivational sayings, and quotes are illuminated in gorgeous calligraphy, playful photomontages, and exquisite embroidery. These are sweet expressions of inspiration and wonder: From little things big things grow. You’ve got to have a little rain to make a rainbow. Love is all you need. Collect moments, not things. Life is beautiful. Be happy, so that when others look at you they are happy too.

Perfect for Valentine’s Day, wedding showers, birthdays, or simply as a pick-me-up for a friend or relative, it’s an ode to creativity, inspiration, and, above all else, love.

Head over HERE for your own.

Let’s Be Weird Together 

Weird meets weird—and the rest is history!

This is a book about weird couples and the tiny two-person universes they create.

It’s about accidentally wearing the exact same outfit. It’s about made-up songs. It’s about your rules for the thermostat. It’s about breakfast rituals, and funny nicknames, and long hugs, and that voice you pretend the cat has.

If you’re half of a weird couple, or if you have a favorite weird couple, or if you just love love, this book is for you.

Includes 1 sheet of temporary tattoos!

Head over HERE for your own.

Living a Loved Life 

Living a Loved Life: Awakening Wisdom Through Stories of Inspiration, Challenge and Possibility by Dawna Markova, Ph.D.

Discover your inner wisdom with Dawna Markova and Living a Loved Life, an inspiring and evocative book that will remind you that the key to living a life you love is found hidden in the stories you tell. Instead of hugs, Dawna Markova’s midwife grandmother used to kiss the unique marks at the very end of her fingertips, calling them “promise prints.” She said that the moment each of us is born, life makes a promise to the world that only we can fulfill. Nourished by this wisdom, Dawna grew to understand that discovering how you matter is what makes it possible for you to love your unique existence. Living a Loved Life is a particularly important book in these dark and fragmented times when so many of us have become convinced that we really can’t and don’t make a difference. This uplifting collection of stories can guide you and help you find an untapped reservoir of capacity within, a connective force, a steady light in the depth of darkness.

Head over HERE for your own.

Moon Spell Magic for Love

Moon Spell Magic for Love: Charms, Invocations, Passion Potions and Rituals for Romance by Cerridwen Greenleaf 

Magic influences desired outcomes, empowers us, and fosters growth. Take advantage of this influence with spells for love: spells that create the potential for love, draw the attention and devotion of a lover, strengthen the union between an existing couple, invoke sexual magic, heal a broken heart, and fill your own heart with love and compassion for yourself.

The moon magic in this book brings light and love into people’s lives. With desire, a loving attitude, a few natural ingredients, and a dash of magic, these custom-crafted recipes will cook up exciting flirtation, enchanted courtship, and encourage real, lasting love. It’s a perfect spell book for true romantics.

Head over HERE to get your own.

Heart Healing 

Heart Healing: The Power of Forgiveness to Heal a Broken Heart by Susyn Reeve

Is it really possible to free your heart and mind from the emotional wounds of the past? Are anger, pain, and suffering blocking you from the love and happiness your desire? Whatever the cause of your heartbreak, it is never too early or too late to courageously forgive and let go. In Heart Healing, author Susyn Reeve expertly guides you to put compassion and unconditional love into action in practical, easy, and lasting ways. With the insight of someone who has walked the road from heartbreak to forgiveness to living a life she loves, Susyn invites you to heal the emotional wounds in your life. Full of wisdom gained from decades of study with Joseph Campbell, Jean Houston, Robert Fritz, don Miguel Ruiz, and her thousands of clients and students, Susyn’s book is a refreshingly honest and practical guide to living a life of contentment, connection, and long-overdue love. This book is brimming with stories, proven exercises, and powerful affirmations to free you from any resentment and anger you are holding towards yourself or others.

Head over HERE for your own.

You Are An Awesome Woman 

You Are an Awesome Woman: Affirmations and Inspired Ideas for Self-Care, Success and a Truly Happy Life by Becca Anderson 

You know what they say about happiness—it comes from within. Use the affirmations, quotes, and ideas in this book as a set of tools for your own inner work. Incorporating positive thoughts as a daily practice will build mental muscle and help you achieve the all-important optimistic way of thinking.

Author Becca Anderson is a champion of undertaking the inner journey of working toward a better you. She is also a strong advocate for believing in yourself and loving yourself more each and every day. These are habits that can be reinforced by practices such as journaling, creating your own affirmations, and talking to yourself positively. Like an engine driving you toward greater things, self-belief brings you closer to your life’s purpose, your personal mission, and will absolutely make you a happier camper. So, give it a try! It’s as easy as pie and just as sweet.

Head over HERE for your own.

Say it Now 

Say It Now: 33 Ways to Say I LOVE YOU to the Most Important People in Your Life by Sherry Richert Belul

We never know how much time we have left with our loved ones. If there’s someone you care about deeply―a parent, grandparent, child, friend, colleague, teacher, or neighbor―don’t wait to express how you feel.

But sometimes it’s difficult to find the right way to say “I love you” to the people you appreciate the most in life. The emotions are there, but the words don’t come.

Say It Now shows you how to put your feelings into words―and actions, too. From activities that take just a minute to love letters, joy jars, tribute videos, surprise parties, and more, this book helps you celebrate the most important people in your life in the best ways.

Head over HERE to get your own.

U & I 

u & i: A Love Letter in Illustrated Poetry by Michael Hall

The illustrated poetry of u & i begins with a physical attraction that blossoms into a full-blown love affair. i imagines a marriage with u that includes world travel, children, and the joy of watching the kids grow. But things don’t go quite as planned.

Follow the relationship’s ebb and flow in a series of frank, funny, and surprising typographic illustrations paired with brief text that tells the story of attraction, marriage, family, frustration, antagonism, and ultimately, the deep appreciation of a lifelong partner.

u & i offers a comforting and realistic perspective on marriage. It takes you through the ups and downs of a long-term relationship in a whimsical, raw, and creative way. As a gift to your sweetheart or newlyweds on their first Valentine’s Day, u & i is a reassuring glimpse of the enduring spark of love.

Head over HERE to get your own.

Attitudes of Gratitude in Love 

Attitudes of Gratitude in Love: Creating More Joy in Your Relationship by M.J. Ryan

Gratitude is a simple, profound practice that can change your life. Research has confirmed its many emotional and physical benefits. Taking the time to notice and reflect upon good things opens our hearts, creates happiness, and restores us to a natural place where we notice what’s right instead of wrong.

In her characteristically down-to-earth style, author M.J. Ryan helps readers use the practice of gratitude to get back in touch with why they fell in love in the first place and deepen the love between partners, no matter how long they’ve been together.

Head over HERE to get your own.

Random Acts of Kindness 

Random Acts of Kindness by The Editors of Conari Press

The unprecedented success of Random Acts of Kindness has not only inspired many individuals to have faith in humanity again, but also led Congress to declare a National Random Acts of Kindness Week in February 1995! The inspiration for the kindness movement, Random Acts of Kindness is an antidote for a weary world. Its true stories, thoughtful quotations, and suggestions of generosity will inspire you to live more compassionately and be a kinder person. Sometimes the smallest gesture makes the biggest difference. This little book shows how to start―with the small, with the particular, with the individual―in order to make a difference in the world.

This inspiring collection presents many true stories of people who’ve committed, received, and observed voluntary acts of kindness. Hearing their stories reveals how these simple, small acts of goodness can have a profoundly positive effect in the world.

Head over HERE to get your own.

Friendship Isn’t A Big Thing, It’s A Million Little Things 

Friendship Isn’t a Big Thing, It’s a Million Little Things: The Art of Female Friendship by Becca Anderson 

The bond shared between girlfriends is like no other. Whether the friendship is decades old or just beginning, we share a unique, loving relationship with these women, a connection wholly different even from what we share with husbands or boyfriends.

Author and blogger Becca Anderson has long been moved by the inspirational quotes and stories of groundbreaking women. In this book, Becca reminds us just how valuable our bonds with our gal pals are. These are the women who answer the phone at 4 a.m., who drop everything to help a sister out. These women are there for both the tearful wine nights and the champagne-worthy celebrations. Following on the heels of her bestselling titles The Book of Awesome Women and Badass Affirmations, this book shares inspiring and encouraging female empowerment with us, reminding us of the love and joy we share with our friends.

Head over HERE to get your own.

It’s Your Weirdness That Makes You Wonderful 

It’s Your Weirdness that Makes You Wonderful: A Self-Acceptance Prompt Journal by Kate Allan

Depression and anxiety are topics that can be uncomfortable to talk about, but that doesn’t mean they should be avoided. If anything, it means we need to be more aware and have more conversations about them. With the help of her adorable illustrations, art blogger Kate Allan, author and illustrator of the bestselling book You Can Do All Things, urges us to be mindful of our mentality.

Kate, who suffers from anxiety and depression herself, understands what it’s like to deal with feelings that are difficult to fight through. In It’s Your Weirdness that Makes You Wonderful, she provides the kind of loving encouragement that she herself needs to hear. These encouraging words, along with writing prompts and illustrations, can help readers sort through and express their feelings.

Kate Allan’s creative journal meets us where we are―in the midst of the feelings that say we’re not enough, we can’t handle this life, we won’t make it. Her whimsical art and simple words lift trampled spirits and combat thoughts that lead us to believe our weirdness makes us weak. Instead, we are encouraged to love ourselves exactly as we are.

Head over HERE for your own.

Angelina Loves 

Discover all the things Angelina Ballerina loves in this super chubby board book that’s perfect for sharing with someone you love!

Angelina Ballerina loves lots of things! There’s her family and dancing of course—with her ballet class at Miss Lilly’s ballet school. And cartwheeling around the playground with her BFF, Alice. Fans of Angelina will love reading about everything Angelina loves (and probably things they love, too!)

© 2019 Helen Craig Ltd and Katharine Holabird. The Angelina Ballerina name and character and the dancing Angelina logo are trademarks of HIT Entertainment Limited, Katharine Holabird, and Helen Craig.

Head over HERE for your own.

One More Hug 

From Inside Edition’s national correspondent Megan Alexander comes a heartwarming picture book in the tradition of The Wonderful Things You Will Be that shows us there’s always time for one more hug as a young boy starts his day and his journey through life.

A tree branch tapping on a window, a pretend sword breaking in two, the skreeeetch of a school bus door: one more hug by mom is always needed to comfort and reassure a young boy that he has the inner confidence to carry on. As time passes, and he outgrows his childhood fears, he returns the favor by giving his mother one more hug as he goes on his way.

This timeless tale of unconditional love and comfort for an anxious young boy as he leaves the nest and starts his journey through life is a perfect story for mothers to share with their sons to show them that it’s okay to have fears and needs—even as they get older—and it’s okay to share those feelings with the people who love them.

Head over HERE for your own.

I Love You, Fred 

From the father-daughter team behind I Will Love You Anyway comes another heartwarming tale about a sweatband-wearing pug.

Fetch! and Sit! and Stay!
and Ball! and Walk! and Bed!
I know those words…
…but what is Fred?

Little ones will laugh out loud as you read Mick and Chloë Inkpen’s delightful second story all about a troublesome little dog who finally discovers his own name.

Head over HERE for your own.

Permanent Record 

From the New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact, which Rainbow Rowell called “smart and funny,” comes an unforgettable new romance about how social media influences relationships every day.

On paper, college dropout Pablo Rind doesn’t have a whole lot going for him. His graveyard shift at a twenty-four-hour deli in Brooklyn is a struggle. Plus, he’s up to his eyeballs in credit card debt. Never mind the state of his student loans.

Pop juggernaut Leanna Smart has enough social media followers to populate whole continents. The brand is unstoppable. She graduated from child stardom to become an international icon and her adult life is a queasy blur of private planes, step-and-repeats, aspirational hotel rooms, and strangers screaming for her just to notice them.

When Leanna and Pablo meet at 5:00 a.m. at the bodega in the dead of winter it’s absurd to think they’d be A Thing. But as they discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to defy the deafening expectations of everyone else, Lee and Pab turn to each other. Which, of course, is when things get properly complicated.

Head over HERE for your own.

Sorcery of Thorns 

“A bewitching gem…I absolutely loved every moment of this story.” —Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series
“If you loved the Hogwarts Library…you’ll be right at home at Summershall.” —Katherine Arden, New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale

From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an “enthralling adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom.

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

Head over HERE to get your own.

Virtually Yours 

Modern love plus online anonymity is a recipe for romantic disaster in this lighthearted new romance from the author of The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love.

How bad can one little virtual lie be?

NYU freshman Mariam Vakilian hasn’t dated anyone in five months, not since her high school sweetheart Caleb broke up with her. So, when she decides to take advantage of an expiring coupon and try out a new virtual reality dating service, it’s sort of a big deal.

It’s an even bigger deal when it chooses as one of her three matches none other than Caleb himself. That has to be a sign, right?

Except that her other match, Jeremy, just happens to be her new best friend IRL.

Mariam’s heart is telling her one thing, but the app is telling her another. So, which should she trust? Is all fair in modern love?

Head over HERE for your own.

The Very, Very Far North 

An inquisitive polar bear named Duane befriends an array of animals as he discovers where he belongs in this charming classic-in-the making that’s reminiscent of Winnie the Pooh.

In the Very, Very Far North, past the Cold, Cold Ocean and just below the hill that looks like a baby whale, you’ll find Duane and his friends.

Duane is a sweet and curious young bear who makes friends with everyone he meets—whether they’re bossy, like Major Puff the puffin, or a bit vain, like Handsome the musk ox, or very, very shy, like Boo the caribou. For these arctic friends, every day is a new adventure!

Head over HERE for your own.

I Yoga You 

Parents and children learn how to say “I love you” through yoga as they move through their day together in a perfectly mindful way.

I love you in the morning when we salute the sun.
Wiggle and stretch out of bed, our day has now begun.

From morning to night, I Yoga You celebrates the love a parent shares with their child while also teaching simple yoga poses. Sun salutations give way to mountain poses, tree poses, and more as families move through their mindful day together.

This padded board book teaches little ones a new way to say “I love you”—reveling in those quiet daily moments that shine with energy, delight, and surprises.

Head over HERE for your own.

Shatter the Sky 

“A top-notch dragon story…Both nuanced and real.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“I absolutely devoured it.” —Mackenzi Lee, bestselling author of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
“Perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce, Renée Ahdieh, and Cindy Pon.” —Saundra Mitchell, author of All the Things We Do in the Dark and editor of YA anthology All Out

A determined young woman sets out to rescue her kidnapped girlfriend by stealing a dragon from the corrupt emperor in this stunning fantasy debut that’s perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson, Rae Carson, and Rachel Hartman.

Raised among the ruins of a conquered mountain nation, Maren dreams only of sharing a quiet life with her girlfriend Kaia—until the day Kaia is abducted by the Aurati, prophetic agents of the emperor, and forced to join their ranks. Desperate to save her, Maren hatches a plan to steal one of the emperor’s coveted dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold.

If Maren is to have any hope of succeeding, she must become an apprentice to the Aromatory—the emperor’s mysterious dragon trainer. But Maren is unprepared for the dangerous secrets she uncovers: rumors of a lost prince, a brewing rebellion, and a prophecy that threatens to shatter the empire itself. Not to mention the strange dreams she’s been having about a beast deep underground…

With time running out, can Maren survive long enough to rescue Kaia from impending death? Or could it be that Maren is destined for something greater than she could have ever imagined?

Head over HERE for your own.

I Heart You 

This tender, rhyming picture book is a lively celebration of love.

Little ones adore being independent and trying new things. But they also need Mom and Dad’s reassurance and snuggles. With her spare, lyrical text, debut author Meg Fleming captures the exuberance, the affection, and the tender push-and-pull of life with a child. And illustrator Sarah Jane Wright’s evocative illustrations infuse the story with generous helpings of warmth and love.

Head over HERE for your own.

Happy Heart 

Celebrate the ones you love with this adorable glittery heart-shaped board book!

You are the sun in my sky.
You are the apple of my eye.
You mean the world to me.
You make my heart so happy.

Each page of this adorable board book is die-cut in a different shape. With sweet, loving text, bright, happy illustrations from Susie Hammer, and glitter on every page, Happy Heart is perfect to share with someone you love!

Head over HERE to get your own.

Friendship Saves The Day! 

Catboy, Owlette, and Gekko celebrate Valentine’s Day in this heart-shaped board book based on PJ Masks, the hit preschool series airing on Disney Junior!

It’s Valentine’s Day at school and someone has stolen all the Valentine’s Day cards! It’s up to the PJ Masks to solve the mystery and teach everyone a lesson about friendship!

Head over HERE for your own.