Crafty Valentimes

I go in spurts with my Valentine's craftiness.  Some years I've bought boxed Valentines, sometimes not.  I was pretty early this year in my planning.  Q (she's in second grade) picked these out from Pinterest:

They actually turned out pretty good!  Here are ours:

Here's what we did:  1.  Take string (I used white embroidery floss & pink/red baker's twine), cut 2 pieces into 6" length and tie in knot about 1/3 of the way down.  2.  Tape to box at longer end.  3.  Cut scrapbook paper (I used one pack of Target's Dollar Bin paper) down to box size (ours ended up being 3.5" x 8").  4.  Wrap paper around candy using tape to adhere on back.  5.  Print out labels.  6.  Cut & stick labels on front (side without tape seam).  7.  Attach Hershey kisses on to string using small heart stickers (tape would work too).  8.  On back or sides, write To and From info.

Here's another site that includes a printable and uses Reese's miniatures.  She includes a color printable which would be way easier, but I didn't want to use all that ink, and I liked the patterned paper.  I didn't want to do the Reese's because of nut allergies in my daughter's class.

Next will be V's daycare Valentines!  She wants to do heart-shaped crayons.  I've been furiously scouring the crayon bins for broken crayons to melt down, and I don't know as if I have enough.  We may have to go with Plan B.

Ready for Snowmageddon?

V has strep. I'm still in my PJs. Getting ready to be snowbound here in MI tomorrow. I have no energy. What the heck is wrong with me? Just realized I never posted a winner from the last contest. EMILY ANNE, since you were the only person in the U.S. to enter, YOU WIN! :) I don't have your email though and I can't get on your Blogger profile, so get me your mailing addy!

I have done a few tiny crafty things in the last few days. I've had these God awful looking ice cream parlor chairs for like 10 years. I covered them in this God awful looking sage toile circa 2001, and they are all dirty and faded, so I decided to recover them since I've been HGTV-obsessed lately what with getting our house ready to be put on the market and all.


Took me the longest to pry out the industrial staples I used when I recovered before. Bought some upholstery-weight crisp-looking gray and lemon modish dot at Joann's for cheap. I think I bought 2.5 yards, but I could have gotten away with 1.75 easily.


So here's what it looked like after I pulled the fabric off-- basically plywood with a foam cushion:


I placed the whole thing on the fabric and freehand cut a circle about 2" larger than the base:


Stretched and stapled as I went:



And voila! New chairs!



Probably could have used a new coat of spraypaint, but I like the distressed cream, and I don't do spraypaint in the winter.

Here's what we're doing for Valentines this year. For V who is pretty much the only girl in her daycare classroom, we're using this idea from Design Mom:



The jungle animals came from Michaels and were under $4 after my 40% off coupon (for 12). I had the cello bags, and I printed Design Mom's .pdf at 130% to have it fit the cello bags. My mother and I went back and forth with some good ones for the crocodile and camel (think 'You're a crock of sh&t Valentine!" and something about humping for the camel). Niiiiiice, right?

Here's Q's which came from Alissa of 24*7*365:


Cute, right? Beats the cruddy selection of boxed valentines anyway.

Hope you all get snowed in somewhere good as opposed to bad! xo

Hearts to You!

Hearty Paper Bag Book

So hubby gets some candy and the girls and I made him a paper bag book this morning while he was grocery shopping. The idea came from Rosy~Posy via The Crafty Crow, and I'm so excited at how it turned out!

Page 1: Cover-- used decorative tape I've had for awhile at the edges and stickers from my stationery stash


Page 2 (Viv was trying to help): V's page. Paper doilies from Target's $ Spot and decorated by V


Page 2: Q's page. Q wrote her name on the doily. The valentine scrapbook paper was also from the Target $ Spot!

Page 3: The girl's favorite page. I put red lipstick on them and had them kiss the page. Heh. Q drew the hearts on the right page.


Page 4: on the right page is Ryan's old dog, Brentwood. When asked why he was included in the valentine book, her response was, "because he's dead." (?)


At the end, little inserts with stapled-on ribbon pull tabs. Insert #1: pic w/ Q in the hospital.


Insert #2: Asked Q what she thought of her daddy when she looked at him.


Insert #3: love note from Q (she told me what she wanted to say, and I told her the letters, but I didn't have to help her write the letters at all).


Insert #4: Ryan w/ newborn V. Note the panic/terror in his eyes this time around.


Insert #5: I asked Q one reason why she loved her daddy. The note below means he makes her forts out of cushions...close enough translation.


Insert #6: the little doobies...


Before you go thinking our family is all sweet and nice, take a gander at our newest favorite pasttime...fun with fake poop! Ryan likes to make the girls put it between their legs then have it fall out like they're pinching a loaf on the floor. Good times. Sorry it's sideways...

Snowmageddon

What do you do with two sickly, snotty, coughing kids on a snow day?

• Make a Valentine's Day tambourine (from No Time for Flashcards found via The Crafty Crow, my absolute fave kid's craft site!)

• Pack up treat bags for daycare Valentine's Day party. Q picked out Tinkerbell valentines for her to give and pop-up doggie ones for Viv to give. We added Reese's PB hearts, a heart sucker ring, valentiney pencil, and fruit by the foot in a baggy which says "Whoooo loves you?" with an owl on it. Never met a pink and red owl I didn't like. So lots o' junk food, nothing crafty. I had every intention of melting down broken crayons in my silicon heart tray, but I didn't have the energy.

• Have a Pee Wee's Playhouse marathon

• Print out rainbow coloring pages. Preferably weird ones with angels in them.

• Cut bread into hearts for grilled cheese

And I'm spent! I don't know how you SAHMs do it. I guess that's this thing people call "being a mother". I am embarrassed admitting I couldn't do it full-time. Sorry this post is heavy on the Poladroid. I uninstalled it awhile back because my anti-virus software said it found some questionable file related to it, but I couldn't stay away for long. Seems ok so far...

Hope you're all having a great week! xo

Ready for V-Day?

We're getting ready! This week we will be making up little gift bags for the girl's daycare buds, but Friday, we sent out our valentines:


This weekend, we made a trip to the in-laws. I'm feeling like I don't want to compliment my mother-in-law on anything because then she gives me the thing, and I feel super horribly guilty. That being said, she gave me the most AWESOME magazine ever! It's called Ideals and it's from the 70s. This was one of my most favorite pages:


I think I like it so much because it looks like something my grandmother would have had. She was a florist, and she always had the coolest old school decorating and crafty mags. Dig the boiled icing.


Hope you are having fun watching the Super Bowl! This week, I will try to post the ad that Ryan missed out on starring in. It supposedly aired during the pregame show, but we haven't seen it yet. No joke! The gig went to one of his co-workers because he looked too young. :) xo all.

More Valentiney-ness

Valentines being sent to family members...

And little gifties for daycare buddies...

Valentines courtesy of The Black Apple...

Packaged in retro Valentine cellophane gift bags from Hobby Lobby...

Are you doing anything Valentiney today??

My Funny Valentines

That would not sit still during impromptu Valentine photo shoot...

Silhouette

I was putzing with Photoshop this morning and came up with this silhouette of Q:


Based on this pic:

My mom doesn't think it looks too much like her. Ryan thinks her hair looks mullet-esque. I need to take a look at some hand-cut versions somehow and add details. I don't know as if I like the pic either. It's a few months old. I think I may wait until V has some hair and take some new pics on a white background. I primarily used these directions and messed with it freehand.

I'm so excited-- I get a girl's night out tonight. My friend is having a wine & cheese party with no boys allowed! Whoo hoo! Of course, she'll get a personalized set of these. Ryan picked out a good Italian red we had at Thanksgiving. We had to email the info off so it could be compiled. Here's the description I found online:

"The Briccotondo is a ruby-red wine with purple highlights. The nose is packed with black fruit, especially blackberries and plums, with slight spicy overtones hinting at black pepper and cinnamon. Sweet, soft tannins come together in a closely-woven texture that merges with the fruit, while a crisp freshness provides a long, tasty finish."

Hmmm...tasted like red wine to me!

One more fun little thing on a sunny Saturday. You can generate your own saying on a candy heart! It's the Acme Heartmaker! I'd love to make some of these to include in my Etsy orders, but so far, all the sources I've found have been a wee bit cost prohibitive.

Happy weekending, all! xo

Valentine with Flare

Well, not really. I messed around with this for too long last night and finally gave up. Don't even have any energy to make a cute envelope. Eh, oh well. It's going to be sent off to Fred Flare's Snail Mail Valentines for Charity event. Yee haw.

You can see some of the other participant's valentines in their Flickr pool. And if you would like to send your own homemade valentine, see below for details!

"Happy Valentimes!"

… to quote a favorite line from 30 Rock (loves me some Rachel Dratch). Hope everyone is having a fun and happy heart day. I am a sucker for Valentine’s Day. I received some lovely roses from Ryan at work today.

I asked him the story on the color, and he said since Baby is due in May, and emerald is May’s birthstone, he wanted green roses. He called four stores looking for green roses, and the closest he could get was lime green. HA! What a character he is. Very sweet sentiment. We’re going out to dinner and a movie (No Country for Old Men finally) on Saturday night. My cousin & her hubby offered to babysit, so that was totally nice.

I think I told you before about my boss’ wife’s cookie business which is now in full swing! She has a little store downtown Lake Orion called Cookie Delites, and a website now too. Her prices are better than any I’ve found online, and her cookies are damn good. Especially this peanut butter kind she makes with a smooshed mini Snickers inside. Anyway, I had some delivered to Ryan at work. I’ve been tormenting him by implying that I may have ordered him a strip-o-gram or something. He’s been freaking out. Anyway, he liked his ½ dozen chocolate chip and ½ dozen macaroons (his fave), so I’m happy.

I also got him some blood orange tea from Adagio Teas. Amanda talked about it, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. All his family members are a bunch of tea freaks, and he’s been obsessed with blood oranges lately, so I thought it the perfect gift.

As for Q, I made up pretty unimaginative little treat bags for daycare with crayons/mini coloring book, heart tattoos, and candy. I bought the retro valentines from Fred Flare because I couldn’t bear the thought of giving her Dora or Pooh valentines, but I have been sooooo lazy that I didn’t have the gumption to make any either. I thought this one was a tad inappropriate, but I sent anyway. I would have been one short without it!


I bought her some candy with a train on the box (she loves trains), some felt play cookies w/ cookie jar, and some Fisher Price little people holding hearts and stuff.

XOXO all! Big smooches from Girl Land!!!

Pink & Frilly, Warm & Fuzzies

Check out this blankie made by my friend, Denise, made for Q! She said she started it before Q was born. Q received it in the mail yesterday, and she was so excited. It's soooooo soft and warm. We love it. So thoughtful, and she knows how I love handmade. Also in the pic is the super crafty Valentine made by Q (with lotsa help, I imagine) at daycare. Isn't it boo-tiful?????

Now something a bit disturbing-- a yo yo clown I found at that estate sale last week. I've kept him in my car because I'm not ashamed to admit he freaks the hell outta me. When I was measuring him to list on Etsy, I was uber careful with him and found myself talking nicely to him. Why did I buy him, you ask? Because he told me I'd be sorry if I didn't (plus, isn't he kinda cool??). He's now in my Etsy shop.

I'm planning a little giveaway sometime in the near future. I've already passed my 1 year blogiversary, and my 200th post is coming up. Eek.

Happy weekending all! We are going to Lansing to see the in laws tomorrow and eat at PF Chang's. Mmmmm....lettuce wraps.