11 Free, Creative, and Instagram-Worthy Experiences at #CreateGood

Today we’re teaming up with Studio Ink to show you how to host the most epic Galentine’s Day brunch. We’ve got everything from red velvet heart waffles to DIY centerpieces to Galentine card writing stations. Studio Ink has an awesome collection of cards that are the perfect mix of sweet, sentimental, funny and cute. It’s not truly Galentine’s Day unless you send your besties Valentines… I mean, Galentines! Alright, let’s dive in.

What does Galentine mean?

Galentines are like Valentines, but for the girls! Though you may have a lover in your life, this holiday is all about celebrating your platonic friendships with your girl friends and just having fun with it! The holiday is slated for Feburary 13, the day before Valentine's Day, so you can have all the time to cherish your gal pals. Funnily enough, the day was coined by none other than the iconic Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation.

What food is eaten on Galentine's Day?

Your Galentine's Day grub is really up to you and the girls, but the most popular bites include dips and chips, stuffed peppers, veggie skewers, waffles, cookies, cupcakes, cake pops, deviled eggs, bruschettas and charcuterie snacks. Finger foods are always a good way to go for any gathering.

What do you bring to a Galentine's Day brunch?

For a Galentine's brunch, you can bring food items like cute snacks, desserts (topped with heart sprinkles, of course), healthy meals, drink mixers or mocktails. You can also bring handmade cards or gifts for each of your friends, and of course you have to bring your love!

The Spread

First, let’s talk about the food. It’s not brunch without a fabulous array of treats. For our Galentine’s Day brunch, the perfect setup includes: berry parfaits, donut skewers, mini muffins, bellinis and a red velvet waffle bar, displayed under a simple backdrop of letter balloons, paper hearts and tassels.

Decorate your table with a few gold bottles and single flower stems. You don’t want your table to be too cluttered, because you’ll want to also have space for all the card writing you’ll do!

Galentine’s Day Card Mailboxes

All your Galentine’s Day cards now have a home.

Add some stickers to your mailbox for extra cute flair. You can download these Studio Ink Galentine’s Day stickers here. Just print on sticker paper and cut them out!

Cards

Check out some tips and tricks for making your cards.

You’ve got mail!

I see more mail in the future. <3

Check out how cute these cards are!

I don’t know about you… but all this card writing is getting me hungry. Which brings me to….

Galentine's Brunch Foods

These red velvet waffles were a hit when we tested the recipe at the Brit + Co kitchen, and they certainly will be a hit on your Galentine’s Day brunch table.

Red Velvet Heart Waffles With Cream Cheese Glaze

Make these waffles with your favorite mix or from your go-to cookbook. Place the waffles on a platter along with the glaze and other toppings. We’re using heart-shaped sprinkles, obviously.

Drizzle the glaze on your waffles with a spoon or with a pitcher. No matter how you do that drizz, your waffles will be delicious!

Mmm, delightful!

Okay, I already know I want seconds. What better way to wash down your second (and maybe third) helping of waffles than with a bellini? Check out this downloadable signature recipe here!

Brunch babes!

Celebrate International Women's Day With These Fun Ideas

Tip 1: Build a group playlist of your all-time favorite feminist anthems.

Good tunes can make or break the mood of a get-together, but there's no need to play DJ all night. The best hosts do a little work up front to make sure they can join in once the good conversation starts! Before you Zoom or have a few pod friends over, set up a shared playlist and ask each of your attendees to add their go-to empowering female artists to the musical line-up. You'll end the night with the knowledge of new songs and feel accomplished knowing that you all contributed to the party. Here's our Female Empowerment Playlist to get the evening started.

Tip 2: Invite everyone to bring a book that has impacted their year and inspired them to take action. Share + swap for good measure.

With 2023 in full swing, everyone is already itching to see what the year has in store. Your best gals have amazing taste and will know just what to recommend to motivate one another to make a difference. Allow each friend a moment to share about their newest book and make the trades. Bonus points if you have a take-home goodie to give, like this mouth-watering english toffee!

Tip 3: Treat your ladies to a bottle from a female-operated winery.

Everybody knows that the best conversations happen over a nice bottle of wine. This get-together is no exception. You'll want to stock up on our go-tos: Cambria Julia's Vineyard Pinot Noir and Cambria Katherine's Vineyard Chardonnay. Don't forget to mention to your pals that by sipping, they're also supporting a winery that recognizes and inspires female leaders. Unlike many others in the industry, Cambria Winery is women-owned and operated from top to bottom! Sounds like a win-win.

Tip 4: Serving a Pinot Noir? Pair it with a simple chicken recipe, like this Cheesy Mustard Chicken.

The hearty flavor of the chicken will pair well with the flavor notes in a red wine, like Cambria Julia's Vineyard Pinot Noir. See the full recipe in our chicken breast recipe roundup and get ready to impress your guests!

Tip 5: For a Chardonnay, whip up some smoked salmon deviled eggs.

These picnic apps are a modern twist on a classic recipe (move over, paprika!) and will complement a tropically lush white wine, like Cambria Katherine's Vineyard Chardonnay. You'll score extra kudos for serving a dish that is low-carb too! Get the full recipe here.

Tip 6: Use ice breakers that will prompt purposeful discussion.

When you’re surrounded by smart and interesting women, there’s no need to default to chit-chat about the weather.Help your guests skip the small talk in favor of some more stimulating dialogue by posing a few conversation starters throughout the evening:

What women inspire you and why?

What qualities make a great female leader?

How are we teaching the young girls in our lives to be strong women?

How do you want to make an impact this year?

Leave room to hear each unique perspective by separating into smaller conversations or going around the room in a group setting.

Tip 7: Most importantly: Remind your pals why you value their friendship and take time to encourage them.

Use the evening as an opportunity to lift up the women in your life for their strengths and courage. After all, your ultimate goal for the night is that everyone will leave feeling appreciated and inspired to continue to grow and lead!

"I feel so fortunate that I got to work with all of them in one front," Melissa Barrera says of director Caroline Lindy and costars Kayla Foster and Meghann Fahy a few days after the premiere. "They're so talented and so generous and so lovely and it just kind of felt like working with friends." Despite the fact the group already knew each other, Melissa was welcomed with open arms. "It was such a safe space, you know, it was so safe and unjudgmental and truly collaborative and it was all about propping each other up all the time."

"Even behind the scenes, there were a lot of women too," she says before exclaiming, "Women in film! It's great because also, it's about female rage. It's a story about female rage. So it makes sense that it would be women that have been through this, that understand what it's like, that know what Laura is going through to tell this story."

I loved seeing Melissa reunite with the cast and crew at the premiere, but this isn't the first time she's formed a bond with a costar. After the release of Scream 6 in 2023, videos of Melissa and her onscreen sister Jenna Ortega laughing during the press tour went viral — and considering how much the moment reminded me of my relationship with my own sister, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask about it.

"I was so sick during the whole press," she says. "We were laughing because I would start choking on my cough, so it was hilarious — or I would start laughing and it would make me cough and then I couldn't stop. So yeah, we were laughing a lot during that press run because I was sick as a dog."

But a relationship with Jenna, and laughing, weren't the only things Melissa went viral for last year. After posting about the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream. Jenna Ortega left the franchise a few days later, citing scheduling conflicts with Wednesday season 2. Earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Your Monster, Melissa revealed how "grateful" she was for the experience because, in the long, run it helped her "finally figure out who I'm supposed to be." And now that we're at a time of year where people are retrospective, she feels even more grounded in herself — because while others are just now reflecting on the year they've had, she's been reflecting since long before January.

"Everybody's kind of like thinking of like, 'What does the future hold? Like, how do we make it better?' And I have been thinking that for a year," she says. "There's people that have actually been on this journey for way longer, and it's them that we should be thanking for our world not being like over with right now, you know? They're the ones that continue to make changes for the better and to fight for better things for all of us."

"I definitely feel like a changed person. I definitely feel like my priorities are completely different than they were a year ago," she continues. "I see the world through different eyes now, I see people through different eyes. I see the industry through different eyes, and I'm so grateful for that. I'm so grateful for everything that I went through, even though it was really hard, I'm so grateful that I lived it and that I survived it, and that I'm stronger for it. And that I know I have a focus of what I wanna keep doing, not just for me and my career, but like, how can I contribute to the industry and to the world to make it better and safer for everyone?"

And Your Monster is a beautiful contribution to the industry. I was really struck by the idea of not only confronting your childhood monsters, but befriending them. "I want people to come out of [Your Monster] having had a good time, a good laugh, and just feeling good," she says. "Because I feel like a lot of times you come out of the theater feeling so heavy because movies are so dark [but] that's what Caroline wants with her films. She wants to make movies where people can feel safe in the movie theater."

"Second, I hope that people catch on to the layers of the story and how deep it actually is, and Laura's journey, and the metaphors for how repressed we are," she continues. "And I keep saying women, but it's not necessarily just women, anybody can feel that way. And this idea of befriending the monster in your closet is such a life hack. Imagine not being scared of the thing that scared you in your childhood anymore! Like how liberating and how beautiful to actually fall in love with it and to make peace with it and then be able to go through life fearless like that. I wish that for everyone. So I hope that it makes people think and that they wanna re-watch because there's every time that you watch this movie there, you'll see more of the genius that Caroline injected in like tiny little details."

And for an actress who went to school for theatre and describes it as her "first love" (not to mention the fact she stunned as Vanessa in 2021's In The Heights), she was more than happy to step back onto the stage...kind of. "It was so fun," she says. "Being able to portray that world so accurately too, we had a lot of actual New York theater people come in and do little one-scene things."

"There are people like [Laura's ex] Jacob out there, there's that nervousness, the tension, the excitement, the anticipation, and it's such a beautiful process," she continues. "I love being able to live vicariously through Laura and live out that dream of the Broadway debut. And I think there's such a stigma against theatre and musicals in film, such, like, a rejection that I don't understand because there used to be a time where every movie was a musical and it was amazing! What happened? But to show another side to it through not full face musical, but a little taste of that in a movie that otherwise is a normal movie, I think for me as a theater nerd, as a musical theater geek, it's great to be able to lure people in and be like, 'Look at this beauty, so cool. Maybe go watch musicals!'"