Love Heart Shortbreads

I just made these shortbreads in the shape of love hearts, following a recipe on the Nigella Lawson webiste. It was easy enough for me, I'm not much of a cook, and my husband did help a little, too. They tasted just how I like shortbread, not too sweet, and nice and buttery. They worked out so well I felt inspired to share, my apologies for not blogging much this month. This photo was taken with my new camera, a lack of a good camera dampens the inclination to blog! Hopefully this camera works out now.

love heart shortbreads made following a Nigella Lawson recipe

Pretty Blue Hearts Handmade Card

a pretty blue heart card

Here is another pretty card my mother made. I really liked this one with its blue hearts, lace and chocolate colours. Inside was another special heart and a piece of printed paper. I'm in the process of talking my mum into having her own blog so people can look at all of her card designs. Hopefully I'll be able to link to her blog very soon!

inside a pretty heart card

Scented Bean Bags

I'd already decided to make these to use up a bunch of dried basil flowers, and cut up the squares last Thursday afternoon. This project turned out to be a way for me to practice my embroidery, and I'm pleased with how that's coming along.

Scented Bean ags numbered sides

On Friday morning I was looking through the Transformation Thursday's party link and found number beanbags at Lemon Tree Creations. I'd already planned my bags, so the ones at Lemon Tree are slightly different, but it's still good to see how they do theirs.

After I sewed the bags on my trusty Husqvarna 2000, I stuffed each one with three tablespoons of old lentils and dried basil flowers. I put 15 tablespoons of lentils and a big heap of basil flowers into a bowl, and then a spoon of lavender oil, so these bags smell lovely. A little aroma therapy there for the kiddies!

reverse sides of the scented bean bags

I planned to do my stitches in thick contrasting coloured cotton. When I went to embroider the "D" on a hanky for David, I had a vague memory of my mum teaching me a chain stitch and tried to replicate it but had a lot of trouble. So for this project I did some research and looked up images of basic embroidery stitches and found a very helpful page at Tipnut. The chain stitch in particular came back to me easily. I also found some youtube videos on how to make a lazy daisy and a french knot.

For this project I used the following embroidery stitches
running stitch
blanket stitch
cross stitch
chain stitch
lazy daisies
french knots

Every Heart stands for Love

What do you give the couple who has everything? Something sweet, simple and thoughtful, complete with your very own homemade touch - homemade is best!

I have named these homegrown second generation chilli plants "Spicy Hot Love Trees", to bring good luck and passion to a newly wed couple. I'll pick the most handsome tomorrow, but I'm thinking the one with the red fruit is a favourite to win! To bring spicy hot lovey-doveyness into the home, this chilly plant will need lots of sunshine and happiness. A good drink of water everyday is in order, but this special plant will not like to sit in water for too long,  so it's best it doesn't have a saucer and is well drained. Keep it in a pot, so that in the winter its easier to move into the sun, or to a sunny window indoors. I've written about our homegrown chilli plants in a previous post.

Fresh herbs are usually best, but these "Love Sprinkles" are a lucky love charm to add when cooking food to share. These herbs were homegrown, dried and prepared with love for good luck! Marjoram is well known as the herb of weddings, rosemary is for love, and just a few little chilli flakes are for spicy passion. These herbs would be good to add to a pasta sauce dish. I've written about drafting this idea in a previous post.

I've also made my own gift card and wrapping paper for our other gift (another simple gift for goodluck, to help with homebaking). This is a magical gift card with its matching paper. Every time a heart was handdrawn, the word 'love' was whispered for goodluck.
xoxxox

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 Eyemask

After a late night raiding, David wanted to sleep in but complained of the light waking him up. He joked he needed an eyemask like mine, although his needed something 'loveydovey' on it! 'Oh, I could do that' I said and this is what I came up with!

I decided to use some left over red cloth that is like that brushed cotton, nice and soft. I thought that would make a nice sleeping mask. I considered cutting out lovehearts and sewing them on where the eyes should be, but knew that shape is tricky to hem and not have fray. I came up with the idea of using a simple embroidery backstitch using loveheart cookie cutters as the template. But what could I use to draw the shape onto the material? Most pencils and pens would not work, and a permanent marker might show through to the other side. What I needed was some white chalk ... I used to have some stashed away, but I hadn't seen it in a while so I must have gotten rid of it. Then I remembered the set of screwup children's crayons I had in the guest room. Why would they have put white crayon in a child's colouring set, I had wondered. Well now I know. So I can use it for my sewing!! It worked perfectly.

To make this sleeping mask, I used one I already had as a template.
1. Using an eyemask as a template, cut a shape that is twice the size with the top being the fold. Leave a good inch for the seams.
2. Embroider any pattern or words you want on one side, draw any outline on the wrong side of the cloth.
3. Fold in half with the wrong side of the cloth on the outside, and machine sew down one side and along the bottom.
4. Turn in the right way and place a layer of packing sponge inside.
5. Turn the opening inside and machine sew the edge, keep going around to the other side so it looks even and neat.
6. Cut a 2 inch wide strip of matching material, fold the edges in and sew on the right side, making sure there is enough space inside the tube for a safety pin.
7. Measure the length of elastic you'll need to fit comfortably around the wearer's head, use safety pins to pin the elastic to the mask to get an accurate measurement.
8. Using a safety pin, thread the elastic through the thin tube (use a large safety pin at the other end of the elastic so you don't loose it inside).
9. Use safety pins to pin the covered elastic to the mask and recheck your measurement just to be sure.
10. Hand stitch the covered elastic to the eyemask, about halfway down each side.