A little bit of spring

Last week I saw this on Pinterest. 

Pretty cool.

When I went to locate the website an Asian site came up.  I did some hunting and found the original site. Click here  if you want to have a look.

  Tulips are being sold at my local grocery store.  Since they were on sale I bought two bundles of 20.  Here is my spur of the moment version of this arrangement.  

Of course, I didn't take the time to go back and look at it when  I decided to do it.  

I just started right in.

I would like you to think I actually thought this through and used scotch tape on purpose, since my bowl is clear.  But really, I couldn't find masking tape and this was the first roll of tape I found.  Turns out, it wasn't such a bad thing.

So here we go.  You start out making a grid on the top of your bowl with the tape.  Don't place your rows to close together or your flower stems won't fit.  

You would think 40 tulips would have filled up a bowl...but they didn't.  If you look closely you can see some empty spots.  AND since I didn't go back and look at the directions and tried to do it from memory, I didn't trim my tulips short enough.

However, I still like it.  It makes our kitchen table cheery.  Especially since the outside is still covered in snow.

Here's to hoping for an early and warm Spring!

Late Valentines Day Project

I made one more decoration for Valentines day.  Last year I made a paper chain of hearts.  This year I saw something on pinterest that was very similar, but made out of felt.  So here's my version.

 You will need a couple of large pieces of felt.  I chose red, a traditional Valentines day color, and blue for the boys in my little family.

Next, cut two strips of each color, 2.5 inches wide.

Take the two pieces you just cut, lay one on top of the other and sew a seam down one side, sewing them together.

Take the felt and open it and fold it back down to form your heart.

(sorry for the color change, I forgot to take pictures with the red and had to continue on with the blue felt)

Sew the edges together to form your heart tube.

Cut 1 inch strips to form individual hearts.

Don't worry if they look flat. Bend and form them to make a pretty heart.

How you do this next part is up to you.  But I wanted mine on a long string.  So I used some red thread and strung them together, alternating heart colors.  

Ta Da!

You could use different colors and use them for any special occasion, not just Valentines day.  I think they could be cool for birthday parties, baby showers, or just because.

Happy heart making.

Valentine Fail

I had a great plan to make chocolate covered strawberries for Valentines day.  I bought some on Monday and got them out yesterday afternoon ready to create.  This is what I found...

MOLD!  

It doesn't look so bad in this picture.  But believe me - mold was growing on every single one.  

There wasn't one salvageable piece of fruit.

Needless to say, I didn't make chocolate covered strawberries.  

I guess that's what I get for buying fruit out of season. 

Valentines Week

Valentines day isn't all that big here.  On one side I'm kind of glad.  On the other side I'm a little sad.  I want my boys to know some traditions that I grew up with.  They won't get to go to the grocery store to pick out valentines for their classroom friends.  They most likely won't make a special bag or mail box to receive all of the others valentine cards.  I'm a little disappointed about that.  So I decided to try and decorate a little and talk about it with the boys.  It's not much, but it makes me happy.

The boys think they are fun.  But they quickly lost interest and went back to playing boy stuff.  I'm alright with that.  Adrian told me they looked nice and Ryan said, "Cool mom!"  I figured it was worth it just for those two comments.  

Happy Valentines day planning!

Cookie Monster

I've recently discovered a new chocolate chip cookie 

lover in our home. 

I made some over the Christmas holidays and I'm pretty sure he ate most of them.  

Here's to my very own cookie monster.

A Wedding Order

Shortly after I opened my Etsy shop I received an order for 8 of a particular bag I had for sale.  I didn't have the fabric on hand.  I figured that wasn't going to be a problem.  I'd just order more from the place I'd ordered from before.  What do you know?  It was back-ordered.  AND it was back-ordered EVERYWHERE!!!  What it in the world?  I started doing some more research and realized I had ordered some popular brand name fabric without realizing.  Huh! Who knew?  Not me, that's for sure.  After some initial time of panic and sweating, I finally found it and ordered way too much.  It seemed like it took forever to arrive at my doorstep (where I had to pay another fee in border tax...geesh).  I got all of the other supplies I needed and went to work.

Here they are all ready to go.  

The order is for a wedding.  They'll be gifts for all the bridesmaids.  What a cute idea!  So I wrapped them all up, stuck in a few of my new business cards and mailed them off.  

I also put in a little bonus gift for the bride.  A matching clutch for the special day.  

I'm pretty excited to hear the reaction from the bride.  I hope she's happy.  I am.

Christmas Week

We've had a nice Christmas vacation.  I've really enjoyed spending time here at the house and being together.  Poor Adrian has spent the majority of the vacation sick.  That hasn't been so nice and I had a cold.  However, we made the best of it.

Here are a couple of pictures from earlier in December.  Adrian started asking in October when we were going to put up the Christmas tree.  

 Christmas Morning.  

It was pretty quiet.

 Adrian was still sick with a fever.  But he perked up when I said it was time to open the gifts.

 Thanks to everyone who gave them such great things.  They enjoyed each and everyone of them and David and I were very blessed just to watch them have a great Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!