Happy Valentine's Day

Because Valentine's Day is on a Saturday this year, we have a full day of activities planned as a family! Here are what we've done so far. We had love heart shaped French toast with strawberries for breakfast, it was yummy! Then we made love heart cards with Thomas and wrote everyone's names on them. Then Thomas had fun cutting love hearts out of watermelon with love heart cookie cutters. We'll be making some chocolate shortbread cookies soon, we also plan on having a go at making love heart shaped fruit pies for dessert tonight. Fun! I hope you are having a good Valentine's Day with your loved ones!

love heart shaped French toast with strawberries and maple syrup

simple love heart cards for the whole family

having fun cutting love hearts out of watermelon with cookie cutters

Why I Need a Pretty Purse

For years I had an alarming amount of black accessories. All my shoes were black, I still have way too many black shoes. My handbags were black, my wallets used to always be black. Whenever I needed a new wallet, I would always choose a black one. I used to be far too concerned with making my accessories 'go together'. Heaven forbid if anything should clash!

no more black wallets for me!

Then a light went off in my head about 5 years ago. Why the hell does my wallet have to match? It's always tucked away inside my handbag, it doesn't even matter what colour it is! Why be so depressingly dark unnecessarily? This occurred when I was looking at a lovely green snake print wallet, and for some reason it really caught my eye. I reassured myself it was quite alright to have a wallet that was pretty just for the sake of being pretty, so I bought it! That was the first pretty wallet I ever remember owning.

A little while ago the latch on my favourite green wallet started to give way, and it was time to get a new one. My husband asked me what I would like for Valentine's Day, and well, I did need a new wallet. So he chose this pretty pink wallet, and I love it! I think it's especially nice because he chose it for me, I only asked if it could be 'pretty and not black'. It's a bright pink, with a very pretty print.

No more black wallets for me!

Today I'm linking in with my favourite blog party Pink Saturday hosted by How Sweet the Sound. I didn't manage to follow last week as I was in Stanthorpe for an Easter holiday. Be sure to check out all the cute pink things at this blog party!

No crochet from me today, but there are some very cool African Flowers under construction at Howling at the Moon today, check it out to see them and her recently completed cushion cover made from granny squares.

Also, there's an awesome vintage Ginny doll collection at Daydream World, including a very pretty crochet doll's dress.

Pink Swimsuit for a Pink Haired Doll

pink swimsuit for a Barbie doll

One of the gifts I received for Valentine's Day was this gorgeous pink haired Fashionista doll! Summer is so hot here right now in Brisbane, I just had to add a swimsuit to her wardrobe immediately!

back of swimsuit

Using a very pretty variegated pink cotton that my mother gave me, which I recently used to make a tiny pink heart garland, and my 1.75mm hook, I had a go at my first swimsuit for a Barbie doll. It wasn't too hard, I started it while my baby was asleep on Wednesday afternoon and got it finished by dinner time. I'm thinking I might make another one for my other Fashionista doll (as she is probably very jealous right now!), so I can check the pattern. If all goes well I'll post the pattern when I blog about that. If I get a chance the second swimsuit will use a variegated orange my mum also gave me.

zombie doll head

As well as being a Fashionista doll like the first doll I bought since I started collecting a couple of years ago, this one is also a Swappin' Styles doll. This means you can change the heads around. To start, she was actually blonde, but you can remove that head and attach the pink haired one instead. I've never bought a doll like this before because the idea of having an extra head without a body seemed wrong, like having Frankenstein body parts. Now I have a Zombie Doll head, I wonder what I can do with it? Maybe I can make her into a pincushion? There is just something very wrong about having a doll head lying around!

I also just have to show you the card my husband gave me for Valentine's Day. On this day especially more than any other, we like to give each other personalised cards.

a personalised Valentine's card from moonpig

My husband got this card printed from moonpig. He said it was easy to download a photo, he chose one of the three of us at Christmas time. You design the card and choose all the words. Then they post it to you, or you can have them post it directly to the intended recipient. And the price is similar to the greeting cards you can buy from the store.

The cards my mother makes are far more beautiful, but on Valentine's Day I think its especially nice to get a card from my husband that he designed. Awwwww, that's lovey dovey!

Today I am following my favourite blog party Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound, check it out!

Fluffy-edged Love Heart Pillow

Fluffy-edged Love Heart Pillow

Here is a new Valentine's Day project, a small fluffy edged heart pillow, how sweet! You could fill it with lavender for a scented gift. For this I used my thick cotton blend and a 4mm hook. This is too hard for me to write a proper pattern, so I'll just describe what I did.

To make one heart side, I started by chaining 10, then did 10 rows of 10 sc (counting the 1st ch as a sc).  This 10 x 10 stitch square forms the bottom part of the heart. For a heart cheek, I sl st 2 along a side, and then 6 dc into the middle of the side of the square, sk 2 sl st, sl st 2 along the side until I got to the corner of the square, turn. Then 2 dc into every dc for a total of 12 stitches, sl st into the other corner of the square. I then did another cheek an the adjacent side of the square. I finished the heart in the middle of the 2 cheeks.

I then did the heart for the other side without fastening off,  I just started a square right from the middle of the 2 cheeks. When I completed the square, I joined the 2 squares along one side only with sc to get me to a side that would have a cheek. I started a cheek opposite a cheek on the first heart. When I completed a cheek, I joined 2 cheeks of 2 different hearts with sc to get to the point where I needed to put the last heart cheek. After that cheek, I joined those with sc. By that point there was just one opening left between the 2 hearts where I could put some stuffing. I used old wool that was too weak to use for anything else as the stuffing for this pillow. After I had filled the pillow, I joined the last sides of squares with sc and fastened off.

stitching 2 hearts together

For an optional embellishment, I put an edge of sc along the joins of the 2 hearts using fluffy red fun yarn. This is a sweet little pillow for Valentine's Day. I think I'll give it to my baby son as a cot toy!

My Favourite Valentine's Projects

As Valentine's Day is fast approaching, I thought I'd highlight some of my older posts for a reminder of things to make for this special occasion!

<3

<3

<3

Love Charm Pincushion
Lovey Dovey Boxer Shorts
Lovey Dovey Greeting Card
Wrapping Paper and Gift Card
Tiny Red Love Heart Garland

Red Hearts of Love

All these photos were taken last Sunday morning. When I saw them in my pictures folder together I realised they were all red so that gave me an idea for a post to join in with Ruby Tuesday hosted by Mary at Work of the Poet!

After a couple of hours of me checking the Pink Saturday blogs and he playing a computer game, we got peckish for some breakfast. We were in the mood for our favourite lovey dovey breakfast, sausages and tomato with love heart eggs and mushrooms!

On Saturday, David took me to a Salvo's store (Salvation Army charity shop). We hadn't been there before and there were lots of bargain treasures to be found, some of which I decided I coudn't bring home. One thing I did grab was this very good toy for developing fine motor and hand-eye coordination in very young children. It's pretty solid, not flimsy, so I grabbed it for $3. In the background you can see a red love-heart bag. I can't remember where I got it from but I keep some Barbie things in it, it's so cute. Also in the background you can see my tiny teddies where they live now, sitting on one of the vintage doll's chairs to keep Barbie company. The doily you can see I believe was made by my great-grandmother, which I hope to try copying one day.

Another bargain treasure we found at the Salvo's store on Saturday were this pair of lovey dovey coffee mugs. We've decided to collect coffee mugs with love hearts on them, as well as other things with love hearts because we are sooo lovey dovey! /awwww... lol! These are probably not so great because the shape means that one is smaller than the other. I don't like the idea that to be in love one person must be smaller.

Our first love heart coffee mugs we bought were these very cheap ones we saw at the supermarket a couple of years ago. We got four, one broke and has been thrown away. That's a shame, I really must remember to keep broken crockery for my mosaic projects I hope to do one day. Two of the remaining three mugs have broken handles, so one is now used as my pens holder by my pc. That's why I'm afraid to use the 3rd mug for drinking as I have a terrible vision of someone spilling hot coffee over them when the silly handle breaks! But they are just too cute to throw away, they are too lovey dovey! When a coffee handle breaks, it can still be recycled into something useful.

I also took a photo of this very cute red chocolate tin. It cost me $5 full of chocolates from Coles online last Valentine's Day. I havent' decided what it will be used for yet, but I'm sure it will turn out to be nice. It's sitting on top of the table my great-grandfather made, which I will do a post about one day.

I didn't realise how many red love hearts I have about my house!
<3 <3 <3

Be sure to check out other Ruby Reds at Ruby Tuesday!

Highlights from this week's party

• wonderful Flame Tree image and poetry at Rinkly Rhymes


• on friendships at Anne-Marie with a dash


• a beautiful close-up flower photograph at Little Bang Theory


• "I blog therefore I am" at Joysweb

Lovey Dovey Greeting Card and Envelope

I couldn't post this before yesterday, but this is the lovey dovey card I made for David, wrapped up in a custom-made pink envelope.

First, I made the snowflake from red coloured paper which I had in my stash left over from my school teaching days (I have kept soo much stuff). This measured 9cm x 9cm. I got the idea for the front of this card from the snowflake greeting card from allfreecrafts.com I carefully glued that with craft glue onto the front of a 10cm x 10cm card cut from white cardboard. I then made a paper insert with pink paper which was 9cm x 9cm. I attached it by handsewing with red embroidery thread a few stitches down the spine and ended that with a soppy bow on the inside of the card.

I finished off the greeting card with love hearts hole punched into the top right hand corner of the pink paper insert, before adding some lovey dovey words for my sweetheart! Then using some more pink paper, I folded it around the card to form an envelope, trimming it to be neat. I secured it with a small dot of glue on the inside, which I concealed on the outside with a lovey dovey sticker I bought as an impulse. Not very thrifty of me I know, but those lovey dovey stickers were very cute!

Feast for a Day - Valentine's (part two)

After much planning and a full day of preparation yesterday, this is what we actually ended up having for our special day-long celebration today for both Valentine's and Chinese New Year.

[gallery]

breakfast
Love Heart Fried Eggs with Smoked Salmon, generous dollops of hollandaise sauce and a sprinkling of fresh chives
Homemade Tomato, Capsicum, Chilli and Garlic Pull-apart Bread
Peppermint & Lemon Balm Tea with honey
Chocolate Coffee with cream & sugar

mid-morning snack
Mint & Ginger Fruit Punch
Poorman's Caviar with Corn Chips
Lemon Myrtle & Pistacio Biscotti dipped in cinnamon honey

lunch
Smoked Salmon & Carrot Sushi
more Mint & Ginger Fruit Punch

afternoon desert
Love Heart Icecream Cake with strawberries, chocolate sauce, and crumbled pink merringue

dinner
Lemon Myrtle & White Fish Cakes with Sweet Chill Sauce and Basil Fried Rice

How to make

Icecream Cake
6 scoops of strawberry shortcake icecream mixed with 6 cut up caramel chocolates, a handful of crushed cashews, 3 crumbled chocolate biscuits, press into a cling-wrap lined heart-shaped small cake tin and freeze overnight

Mint & Ginger Fruit Punch
1 can of fizzy soft drink (we used Lemon Squash), a tablespoon of fresh ginger juice (grate and mix with a little tonic water then strain), add cut up 2 nectarines, 1 orange, a handful of strawberries and love-heart shaped ice cubes, a handful of fresh mint leaves, top up with Mango Juice as required

Out with the Old

Tomorrow, being Valentine's Day, is an extra special day this year. Not only does it fall on a weekend, which only happens once or twice every 6 years or so, it also falls on the start of festivities for the Chinese New Year!

So today, in preparation for the special day tomorrow, we are baking as much as we can in advance, then we will be cleaning the house together! /awww isn't that romantic? Yes, I could have cleaned the house yesterday when David was at work, but that would not have swept away any bad luck from this year that came into our house today (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).

It's a Chinese tradition to clean the house the day before the New Year starts, to sweep away any bad luck from the previous year. This helps the new year start with a fresh clean beginning, allowing any good luck to flow into the house during the festivities. In the very least, the floors should be swept and mopped, perhaps cleaning a window and the loungeroom ceiling fan may also take my fancy. Lucky charms, like this coin I hang facing my front door, help bring happiness and wealth into the home, as do round golden coloured fruits like oranges, favoured for their resemblence to gold coins.

Tomorrow, we will be celebrating all day, with romantic themed foods, some with an Asian flavour like fried rice and fish cakes for our evening meal. Reminding ourselves of the importance of our romantic relationship is sure to attract much good luck into our home for the new year ahead!

Heart-themed Gift Paper and Card

I printed up three pieces of butchers paper yesterday to make gift paper. I'm not sure what a gift will look like when wrapped in it, but hopefully the result will be a charming rustic-earthy look! Goodness knows, all there is to wrapping paper is a simple pattern, and isn't it a nicer thought if you made it yourself?

The technique is very simple, this is something I learnt during teacher training. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter, a potato and a paring knife to cut away excess to make two stamps. I painted arcylic on with a brush, then printed that on the paper and did that with two pieces of paper. For a different print, I chose three constrasting shaped leaves from the garden, lemon myrtle, grevillea and strawberry. I painted them, and using a paper towel, pressed down on the leaf to leave a clean impression. I liked the choice of colours, if I do say so myself!

I've also been making some gift cards, which I think should be nicer than the store bought thing. I tried the kissing cards which looked like a nice idea, but it didn't work out. To make the two sides stay together I had to make a slit at each lips and push the cards in tightly, which made the rest of the faces mishapen.  Another card I tried was this cute little pop out, it's a simplified version of this pop up card video. I glued some scrap from the love-heart print left over from the boxers in the background. Cute!

Lovey Dovey Boxer Shorts

I found making this pair of boxer shorts challenging, but I carefully worked through the steps I knew I needed to pull this off. I took no shortcuts like I normally do with my sewing, so I'm proud of the results.

David likes the love heart motif, but would like to have some choice when buying clothes. Love heart options for women's clothing are abundant, but for men it's pretty much limited to g-strings with hearts on it. And that's just not our style! I saw this love heart printed material and decided to grab a metre with the thought to try and make him some boxer shorts. I would copy a comfortable pair he already has, but making pants in the past has usually resulted in failure. So before doing this, I made a couple of pairs of pants for toys, going so far as to use a paper pattern for the fashion doll pants. Big teddy needed some jeans, so I threw them together from the bottom part of already cut up jeans, to check if I understood the pant pattern shape. Teddy's pants wouldn't be complete without a big cheery red button!

Today I was ready to try and make David a new pair of boxer shorts. I started by making a paper pattern by copying David's black boxers, leaving space for seams, and cut out the shape. Pinning the material, I cut it carefully in half so I had two pieces of material. I folded a piece in half and pinned the paper pattern to the fold, then cut it out, removed it and did that to the other piece. Then I pinned the whole thing together first, before starting the sewing, something which I normally do not bother to do. First I sewed the tummy seam, then the back seam, then the crutch. The boxers looked huge! But when I checked the size by placing the black shorts on top, I saw they weren't too much larger. I made a pocket for the elastic along the waist, and threaded it through. All that was left to do was hem the bottom of the legs and wait for David to come home so I could check the elastic and sew it up.

Bouyed by my success, I decided to make the scraps into an itsy-bitsy pair of boxer shorts for me! To my surprise they actually worked and are wearable, David even says they are cute! Needless to say, I won't be modelling them and posting a foto!!

Love Heart Rag Rug

This is my first completed rag rug and it was hard work so I don't think I'll be making these very often!

love heart rag rug made by crochet strips of material

Using crochet to make a rag rug like this uses a lot of material, so I want this to be the only one that uses material that's not recycled. Really, rag rugs should be made from strips of material salvaged from discarded clothes and sheets. But I had a small collection of cotton material squares that I'd been carrying around for ages, so I decided to put it to good use. It's all the same type of matterial and I think the colours kind of go together. Luckily I have a heap of that blue otherwise this would have turned out a lot smaller.

the material was cut into thin strips with pinking shears

I needed some new mats for the kitchen and knew I could make some from strips of material. After hunting around on the net for ways to turn recycled material into rugs, I found the best one at The Sunroom. My first attempt didn't work out because the biggest hook I had was a size 6, so I went and got myself a size 10, the biggest one they had at the shops, and started again.

rag rug in progress

Using my new pinking shears, I cut strips of ribbon from the material to reduce any fraying. I cut up one square of material at a time to give my hands a break, but my wrists hurt a little from all the hard work! lol. I spent at least two whole days on this, plus several hours here and there spread out over two weeks. I think this is a great way to reuse material that can be cut into long strips, but only if you're time-rich like me. If you don't have the time, I think paying $10-20 for a small rug from the shops might be worth it! 

the love heart rag rug in its place by the back door

But this is a good way for me to make things for my home without spending any money (other than getting a new hook which I'll reuse) and using up things that I might otherwise throw away. From what I've read, this rag rug will flatten out and I can wash it in the machine. This one is about 60cm wide and it's my Valentine's gift this year for the home I share with my true love.

/awww