Valentine Garland

Well, after several weeks of withdrawals, I caved to the cravings of the drug known as Pinterest and now I'm totally hooked again. Since Christmas is over, it is time to peruse Pinterest and glean ideas for the next holiday.... Valentine's Day! Since most of the winter days in Seattle are rather dreary, I like to have lights up after Christmas is over, so I hang up red and pink lights and some valentine garland, and voila! Valentine's Day decorations! I saw an idea on Pinterest for a very cute heart garland that I thought I'd try using just felt, embellishments, and thread. I had to try it.

First, cut two rectangles of felt-- I chose red for my hearts.

I cut mine with pinking shears since I think it adds a little pizazz. :) 

Then, sew the two rectangles together down one of the long sides.

That seam will be the top indentation of your heart. Fold the unsewn sides back over the seam and sew.

Can you tell that we have a chihuahua? Besides the hair on the heart, the chewed up pencil might be a clue also! ;)

Now you will have a heart tube that looks like this:

Cut your heart tube into strips. Again, I used pinking shears for the zig zag edge.

And the last step... use a needle and thread to string your hearts. Feel free to add embellishments like pom-poms and bows.

Ta-da! A heart garland to hang for Valentine's Day.

Happy New Year...Only A Few Weeks Late!

Happy 2012! No good excuses for not blogging, especially since we just had nearly a week off because of snow. Usually I would quickly become stir crazy and ready to leave the house, but this break was welcomed. It was so cozy and happy-- the kids and I snuggled and watched movies and sewed! Harper and I made pajamas for her American Girl, Rebecca-- I did it without a pattern, though-- just cut and sewed. So they are far from perfect! Harper doesn't seem to notice, though. :)

A few weeks back, I embroidered this for the girls' room...

 I love little, simple embroidery patterns that I can leave in the hoop to hang and display. This is now hanging above the light switch in their room.

I wanted to make something for Mason, too, but its hard to find patterns that aren't "girly." So I decided to stitch one of our favorite sayings for him... everytime I tell him that I love him, he says that he loves me more. Then I say that it's not possible, and he says he's the first kid ever who has loved his mom more than she loves her child. He's so sweet. When I stitched this for him, I told him that since it's forever embroidered, it's final-- I really do love him more. :) Now this will go in his room above his light switch.

A Vintage Thrify Christmas

New Christmas decorations are nice, I guess, but I much prefer old ones. Especially from the 1950's, and the 1960's too. Atomic decorations, kitchy decorations... I just love them. And so Goodwill and Value Village fueled my need to add to my decoration collection this year.  Here is a sampling of what I found:

pretty little angel ornament

homemade snowflakes

love this old santa

did your grandma have one of these?

my kids call this "creepy santa"

angel in my kitchen

pretty christmas mug...

and it has my name on it!!

my grandma had this set and used it at christmas