Love~Love~Love

I try to do something crafty with my children when it comes to every holiday. For Valentine's Day we HAD to run with the heart theme... and talk about who we would send Valentines to. To Grandma's of course!

Here's what we do with potatoes when they look like this. Mommy carves shapes to make stamps out of them! This time a little heart-shaped metal cookie cutter came in handy so all I had to do was cut around the shape and remove the excess potato. Acrylic paints are great to work with because they blend well, work on different types of surfaces, and are easy to clean up. By the end of our craft session the boys are usually covered in their "body art", then it's off to take a bubble bath! (These painted hearts will later be cut up and sewn onto cardstock for our Valentines notes.)

After clean up, mommy makes lunch. What kid doesn't love a cheesy quesadilla? I enjoy the opportunity to use my big, chunky heart-shaped cutter for these (and sometimes PB&J's!) The boys think it's a real treat, and they snack on the scraps of tortilla while waiting for lunch. Served up with sliced apples and milk this makes a healthy meal for the kids. Okay... mom likes it, too!

Meet Grace

This is Grace. She is an example of custom orders I make.

The Valentine's monkey now has a friend to sit with! (She's no longer alone with the Red Heel boys...)

Overflowing with Creative Energy

If only I could have all the hours in the day I need to do all the things I need to do. (I'm sure I'm speaking for all of us here!)

On a much needed outing this this week I found some GREAT socks which became the center of my latest focus: Valentine's Sock Monkeys!

Later to be: Fourth of July Sock Monkeys and Christmas Sock Monkeys. The socks are red, but have the look of "heather" found in red heel socks. Although they don't sport the white and red heels, they are my second favorite style of socks in the Sock Drawers. So far I have ONE monkey made up. Soon, she'll have others of her kind to talk to, but for now she's stuck sitting patiently with the Red Heel boys!

Having a two and four year old in the house (boys!) means only that anything interesting laying around the house is sure to come into their posession. This does not exclude sewing supplies! Last fall I found a great tin which I now keep smaller tins of needles, buttons, thread, and scissors in. The pincushion I had was of a larger sewing box and the boys were CONSTANTLY playing with the pins and removing them and losing them in the carpet! My quick solution was to roll up a nearby piece of felt, tied with a ribbon and yarn, then dropped into the tin. It worked... mostly. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted an actual, small pincushion for my pins and needles! I have a giant crock full of fabric scraps. I consulted the pile. The courderoy (from a pair of pants I had) always speaks out to me... it's always so comforting. And there was this pink wool sweater I recovered from a thrift store... I loved the color and texture of it so much it's been used for SEVERAL projects and it paired up nicely with the brown courderoy. This with a few cute buttons was the start of my latest obsession! I had to make more!

Obviously they had to be Sock Monkey related. I now have them listed in my Etsy shop for purchase.