Happy Heart Day

 Thank you for your visits and taking the time to leave me a nice word or two.  It just makes my day to see your mail in my Inbox.  Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

xoxo  Jenn

I Couldn't Wait

I was bound and determined to wait until Feb. 1 to start anything Valentine-ish.  However, after seeing this beautiful doily at HaakKamer7 I was all aflutter to stitch it in pinks and reds.  Yesterday I pulled the junkiest yarn I have out of storage (100% acrylic and murder on my left index finger as I was hooking) and got to it.  I hooked like a madwoman, almost forgetting to pick up the kids from school.  I would have posted a photo last night but the lighting was bad, so at least it makes it's debut in February!

I can be truthful in saying it's not the prettiest thing in the world; in fact, a couple of years ago I would have cited this as the perfect reason not to take up crochet.  It's thick, and uses gross acrylic yarn; the colours clash and it's totally like something from a 1970's bad church bazaar.

 However, I love it.

I love that crochet has given me another way to play with colour in a way that cross stitch doesn't so much.  I love that my sense of sight and touch are both fulfilled at the same time when I'm doing it.  I love that I can sit down and bang out a project in a few hours.  I love crochet so much that the time spent ripping out stitches - and believe me there is a lot of that, even with this project - is perfectly OK with me.  This doily is a perfect example of all the above, and that's why I am still swooning over it.

Thanks for visiting and your sweet comments:)

Jenn

February Things

Our spring teaser weather has disappeared, leaving us in the cold and gray today.  I am supposed to be making doll dresses for Easter but it is hard to find the inspiration.

I am slowly getting ready for Valentine's Day; that is to say I have been playing around with my decorations.  I frou-froued with the mantle a fair bit yesterday.  I had a super early wake-up yesterday morning so puttering was really all I was good for. (Pictures are click-able to get a better view)

The decoration to the far right is new:  I made it yesterday after seeing something similar on a blog.  The internet is just full of crafty inspiration!  

Once I had my button arrangement I had to carefully take each one off and add the tiniest drop of glue before putting it back ex-ac-tly where it was before.  Once the glue dried I stitched each button on with red thread.  

The frame is a garage sale find from a few summers ago.  I got two for 25 cents each and spray painted them white.  They are actually made of wood and not resin so I think they were a really good deal. 

My blanket is growing: this thing is going to be a monster at almost 8 feet long!  I don't know how that happened, but it's too late to make changes now.  On the plus side, it will be big enough to cover two people on each end of the couch so there will be no blanket tug-of-war.

While we're looking at stripes, guess what else is new?

My Favourite Girl is learning how to knit!  There are some amazing lunch clubs at her school, and one of them is the Wooly Wednesday Knitting Club. This is her second piece, which is apparently destined to become a rug in the doll house.  The other finish has become a cape for a stuffed animal.  I keep dropping hints that if she keeps going and makes them larger she will have made a dishcloth for a gift.  She's got big plans for future makes, so I hope she keeps with it.

Thanks for visiting: soon there will be some changes to my blog so stay tuned!

Jenn

January Molasses

I used to have a piano teacher that liked to use the expression: "slow like molasses in January".  Sitting here at the end of January, I am thinking that that is how I felt all month: slow like molasses.  I don't feel like I have done anything but go where I needed to or just ooze around the house on the days I didn't need to be anywhere.  Times like this I'm so glad I take pictures of all the mundane things: cookbooks I have tried recipes from; the fabric I have been playing around with; snowflakes outside. These pictures are proof to me that I did complete some things and I wasn't so slow in January.  I did, after all, finish that blanket.
I also introduced the kids to late night garbage retrieval when I had them help me bring home this chair:

I am hoping to play around with it this summer and give it a makeover.  If it doesn't work out it can go out the curb (again) for the next person to find.

I bought these cute (giant) ceramic buttons on sale at the fabric store and plan on tweaking their looks as well:

They will look nice on the wall of my sewing space.

I made a project from a kit I bought for my birthday last year:

I stitched a snowman:

I finished the one on the left last year as a stitch-a-long with another blogger.  Next year I am hoping to stitch the last snowman in the series.  Then I'll decide if I am going to frame them or finish them another way.

I have obviously had hearts on my mind because I have been hooking and stitching up lots of things with hearts on them.  This doesn't even include the two cross stitch projects I am now working on.

I finished this today.  I wanted something very Valentine-ish: to me that means pinks, flowers and hearts.  I crocheted the flowers and hearts and had tons of fun picking the buttons and beads to finish it off.

I crocheted lots of petite pink hearts for my 'tree'.

These are the same branches I spray painted last spring and have since hung Easter decorations and glittery snowflakes.

I attempted some free motion sewing machine stitching on this Valentine pot holder.  I learned that free motion quilting does not work on my machine very well!

I found a cute little crochet pattern that I just had to make, and make it right now darn it!  An evening flurry of crochet and I had this:

No, it's not a wash cloth; it's a soap cozy!

Mr Crafty World is very excited because he likes scrubbie things to use in the shower.  Now that I have taken pictures he can have it .  I discovered while making it that the yarn is scented.  Kind of neat, but kind of weird too.  How do they get the scent into it?  How much of it does my skin absorb while working with it?  How many washes 'till the scent is gone?

I have also had two job interviews; seen both my babies perform in public and had a retro baking day that made everyone happy.

Now I see for sure that January wasn't slow at all.  It was another month of me doing all the things I love to do.  (Well, with the exception of the job interview part!) It felt slow, but after the rush of December I see that it was a nice break.  Oh my how I love the way the universe works: always with my best interests at the heart of it.

Here's hoping for a 'slow' February :)

Valentine Stuff

I stitched some cross stitch hearts a few weeks ago and took ages deciding how to finish it.  I had thought of some kind of wall hanging, but the inspiration never really came to me.  Since any type of finish is better than a stitched piece lounging away in a drawer, I decided to make it into a pillow.

The cross stitched hearts were a free design from I got off the internet.  Unfortunately I don't have the designer's name or link to give credit to.

I also decoupaged these votive cups bought at the thrift store a few weeks ago:

I have lots of cancelled world stamps and thought an all-red collage might look OK.  I'm happy with them- even happier at the price: less than a dollar for both!

I tried this recipe for Nigella's chocolate orange loaf, and it turned out really well.  Chocolate and orange is probably my favorite combination.   I think the recipe is in her Christmas book, though the recipe I have was reprinted in a magazine.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenn

First Finish

I thought it would take me a bit longer to get back to creative pursuits after the holidays, but I was really missing my cross stitching.  I took advantage of the lazy post-Christmas days and started stitching a design while we watched the last season of 'Lost'.

I have always wanted to try a biscournou - which is what these eight sided pillows are called - and this turned out to be an easy first attempt.  I think it's something I would try again.

This design was a freebie from Miss T's blog: the actual chart is on this page where you will have to scroll down to the bottom.  She has tons of stuff on there and I plan on going back when I have more time to see all her charts.

Working with the pink fibres and heart motif got my creative juices running for February, so I stitched another heart themed project, but I'll wait until I have it completely finished before posting it.  I'm also working on a few other things: pink ones of course!

As always thanks for visiting!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope this day finds you relaxing and surrounded by lovely things, as mine is so far !  Another special occassion done and almost dusted as they say.  This year was good;  I was able to make a few more decorations for our Valentine Vignette.  Not as much as what I had hoped, but that's usually the case all the time anyway!  I had talked about making the heart bunting I saw on Sew Mama Sew; and I did that, but I changed it to two vertical hanging decorations instead.  We must have symmetry don't you know!

I also made some felt treat bags for the kids; something to hold a few candies and these cute little dogs I found at the dollar store.  I have had the pattern for weeks and weeks, and last night at 9:30 decided it was a good time to start!  The patterns are from Betz White's Etsy shop.  Next year I hope to make her cute little mice and hedgehogs.

I know that no matter how much I decorate and sew for each special occassion, it's stuff like this:

...that my kids will remember.  Long after the treats and toys the kids will remember the pink heart shaped pancakes!  Really I could save myself so much work if I just stuck to the pancakes.

The kids weren't the only lucky ones around here.  I got this beautiful bouquet of gerberas:

(Thank-you!!!!!)

... and a lovely necklace made by My Favorite Girl.  I have tried all morning to take a picture of it but it just isn't turning out.  Anyway, it's made up of red seed beads and a pink rose quartz heart bead.  She worked very hard on it and I am honored to call it mine.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love Birds

I have been waiting patiently for Checkout Girl's Valentine tutorial to come out on Sew Mama Sew.  On Saturday I got a chance to sit down and cut out all the pieces, and made two versions of it.  I made one like the original, and another with more muted colors. 

I didn't think I would like the original version so much - too many bright colors - but in the end I think it's the one I prefer.  I lightly stuffed the hearts with a little polyfill, and I like how it makes the wing stick out a bit. I didn't have any of the stiff craft felt, so I used iron on interfacing to stiffen up the back piece.  My hole punch went through it all right, so I know I can use that trick again in the future.

My Favorite Girl loved the design as well, and made her own version out of paper.  I just love how she loves to craft!

A Valentine Flock of Lovebirds:

I see there is a cute heart bunting on Sew Mama Sew as well: I think that will be in my future!  Hopefully on Wednesday I can get to it.  Tomorrow is a no-crafting day:  I will be spending 5-8 hours standing in line.  The first five hours will be spent waiting outside, and it's supposed to be really cold tomorrow!  I bought some long-johns, hand and foot warmers and two packages of tissue.  What am I standing in line for?  Concert tickets?  No.  Zhu Zhu Hamsters?  No.  It's to get My Favorite Boy into the same school as his sister next year.  Wish me luck!

Valentine's Day

I was a bit late in the game this year planning for Valentine's Day. I did manage to get some cross stitching done, and have so far made one of them up into a little pillow. No photo of that yet though. I was feeling in the mood to make something really retro and kitchen-y. Given those two words, how do you not come up with chicken scratch potholder?! I tried a heart on red and white gingham. I had every intention of stitching it up into a heart shaped pot holder, but as you can see I didn't get that far... It will join the other WIP's I have until next year.

Still feeling like making something retro I couldn't resist this recipe for Cherry Sponge I found from an old Jell-o leaflet. It doesn't get anymore artificial than this: flavored gelatine and marshmallows!

The pink foam was so pretty: it reminded me of a pink dotted swiss dress I had as a little girl.

The color beneath was gorgeous. This picture does not do it justice.

I poured most of it into my steamed pudding mold, and the rest into some vintage heart shaped molds.

We ate the hearts for dessert, and it was like eating strawberry air.

I still have to unmold the pudding mold. We couldn't eat it on Saturday because there was still cake...

and chocolate dipped strawberries.

Handmade cards

and flowers

completed the day.

What isn't seen is the tasty pasta dinner Mr. Crafty World made and the STELLAR bottle of wine we had. It was a 2001 Margaux; Chateau Haut Breton Larigaudiere if you're interested. Well worth the price for a special occasion. We also had pink sparkling wine and the kids had non-alcolholic pink sparkling wine mixed with grenadine syrup and a sparkly sugar cube. We called it a "Cupid's Kiss". They liked it; unfortunately our sparkling wine was a huge miss. It did redeem itself the next day as a mimosa type drink however!