"Strings on her fingers"...

The following is a result of having to make Valentine Day Cards,

not only for my wonderful Farmer and children,

but also because I have always made them for my sister's little boys.

But as the boys grew,

and the number of them did also,

coming up with creative Valentines for 8 boys

often put me on the verge of insanity.

So,

please don't think that I normally sit around and do this sort of thing

all of my own enjoyment.

I have reused the bits I used for their cards

to join in Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday:

the letter M.

And with that explanation,
here goes:

(I feel slightly better now.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

My Muse

 Valentine's Day has now passed.

It was a day to show love to

those we love.

The Maiden of the Manor

needed a mite of mushiness.

After all,

she spends many moments loving her miniature mob...

often with measly mention for her mushy motions.

 Moms often spend their days

monitoring mouthy, meddlesome

miniatures.

 Managing those same miniatures' mouths,

making muffins of morsels to mash into them,

maintaining the medicating of them,

 and the managing the mandibles

still making their mandatory movements in them.

Mom also has to monitor Dad's majestic mannerisms...

 by methodically managing

her man's masculinity

with a kiss by her mushed up mouth.

 After all,

Mom has spent a whole year

majoring in manual machine-like maintenance

of such a motley crew

 as well as momentary members who 

meander through.

Certainly,

men and  miniatures measure up to some extra

muddling of most meaningful mentions on 

the day of big hearts and chocolate as well.

 After all,

who would we manage,

or mother,

 or mind,

or make well
or mushy up on
if the
main man

or the manually meager members
didn't need us to?

And who else would do these monstrous things with their fingers

 when there is mountains of other major things to be done?

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day
and got some extra mushiness.

Linking up to:

JennyMatlock.blogspot.com: Aalphabe-Thursday-letter-M
Funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com 
Wearethatfamily.com

We are that Family: Works for Me Wednesday

Little Daisy May: What I'm Loving Wednesday

  Savvy Southern Style 
*Blue Cricket Design
*Be Inspired - Room to Inspire

*Power of Paint Party - Domestically Speaking

 *Tea Rose Home
*Someday Crafts
Restore Interiors 

Sew Much Ado

Primitive & Proper

My Backyard Eden

A Beach Cottage

Raising Homemakers: Homemaking-link-up

Tied Up Hearts.

(I randomly picked a name from the people who commented that they would like 

 the paper hearts decorations that I created for my Mantel

and the winner was #2: Rachel.

Please email me with your address at Pumpkinpiepainter1(at)gmail(dot)com)

 Pinterest.com: from Whatilivefor.net

 I saw these fun earrings on Pinterest and thought I'd make them for a friend

for her birthday.

 I didn't have paperclips

(my kids are thieves)

so I used some heavier wire I had.

 I found this trick helped save time:

After forming the heart shape using the wire,

 open the wire back up again,

tie the string on (dabbing the knot with some glue),

and wrap the string tight and close together.

 Once the string has been wrapped well,

 close the heart back up

and wrap where the heart meets.

(Adding glue along the way as needed is a helpful tip).

After completing the wrapping,

the string gets tied, glued, and cut off..

I used silver findings for the earring hook, beads, and eye pin.

 

Have a happy day!

 (To read the story of who these were made for

click >HERE<)

Linking up to:

Funkyjunkinteriors: Sat-nite-special
Chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot
Frenchcountrycottage.blogspot 
Whipperberry.com
Wearethatfamily.com
Kammyskorner.blogspot: Trash-2-treasure-Tuesday 
Womenlivingwell.org
504main.com

A Bit of Love

As mentioned in my last post,
here is the instructions of how I made my Valentine's Day banner for my mantel.

If you don't want to know,
but would like a chance to win a banner,
skim down to the bottom of this post.

If you don't care, I will cry profusely for two days.

No, I'm just kidding.



I found this great idea at The Graphics Fairy:

graphicsfairy.blogspot.com

I purchased some old music books at a yard sale this past summer,
so I tore out some pages that were in pretty bad shape anyway,
and glued them to some cardstock to be used for my background triangle flag pieces.



 I got on Pinterest and looked for a "Love"
that I liked
and found this one:

 Pinterest:
from the great website that sells these and other embroidered pieces by Jan Constantine.
(Thanks to a reader for letting me know where this pillow was from!)
.


I printed it four times,
thinking I might only be able to salvage one letter from each printing,

 but I was able to actually save 2 letters from each printing,
so that is how I ended up with two banners.


After I cut the letters out,
I cut a heart shape out,



It was much bigger than I needed,

so I just kept trimming until I got the right size.

I traced the heart pattern onto white cardstock,
one for each letter,
and then glued the letters on.

They all fit nicely,
 except for the "L",
which was acting like my two-year-old Lillie:
not wanting to easily comply according to the rules.
 

I fixed it by cutting out a portion of the bottom line
where the size seemed most consistent
and then glueing it on the heart with that part over lapping
so it looked smaller.

At this point, I applied matte Mod Podge carefully to the hearts with letters.
I have found this seals printed images.
I have had one too many printed things get wet
and the whole project get ruined by smeared printed ink.
The trick is to modge podge with one swipe across the image.
Too many swipes, and the colors on the image will bleed.
 While these were drying, I set them aside.


I laid the heart pattern onto a scrap of paper

and used a ruler to etch a slightly larger banner size I wanted behind each letter.
I folded my rough flag in half lengthwise and trimmed it,
making it exact on both sides.


This pattern was traced onto the music covered cardstock,
making a flag piece for each heart.

I Mod Podged these music-covered flags because the music paper was very fragile
(one had the date 1918 on it).
 
After the hearts with letters were dry,
 I then applied German glass glitter to the edges of the hearts
using a paint brush and Elmers glue,
and sprinkled on the glitter into a plastic container to catch the stray glitter.

 These hearts were then adhered to the music paper flags
using glue.


When everything was dry,
I found some ribbon I liked,
 
 and sewed the flags to it across their tops.
(I had to touch up a few spots where the glitter was too close and got crunched off
but otherwise, they survived the antiquated sewing machine.)


 I have always wanted to try making these banners;
it was a fun project.
My husband wasn't too sure about the whole idea of the paper banner,
but my daughter had such an enthusiastic response,
she made me feel like it was worth it.

Maybe it's just a girl thing.





This banner looked like a fun idea as well,
but I liked the hearts to stand alone.
 
Pinterest: Cottonandcurls.blogspot.com: Heart-garland


I found some background paper that I liked

graphicsfairy: Wallpaper

and, cutting some scrap-booking paper down to 8 1/2" so it would fit through my printer,

I printed the Graphics Fairy background paper on the back side.


I flipped it, shrunk the print image size
and printed it in the other direction as well,
to better fill the paper up
and for my two sizes of hearts that I wanted to make.

I then painted Mod Podge on the printed background paper.


I also ripped out a few more pagers of the old sheet music
and glued that to the back of another piece of the same red scrap-booking paper.

I cut hearts from all of the two-sided paper,
and then lined them up in groups of three,
some facing all the same direction,
others so that like sides were facing each other.


After painfully trying to find the eye of the needle
(my eyes are not cooperating lately)

I sewed through the middle of the hearts.

I'm a mender of hearts.


The back of the heart looked like this.

Edges were trimmed so they all lined up better.


Separating the heart layers was the last step.

These can be set around just as they are.

 I made this extra grouping below:

they're easy enough to slip into the mail.

If you leave a comment letting me know you would like them,
I will enter your name into a drawing.
I'll pick a name on Wednesday.

This is just a simple giveaway,
so I'm not going to leave it open long.

I'm hoping somebody will prove my husband wrong
and want them in their home.

But he'll say I cheated by saying that.

Now I think I doubled the cheat by adding that part.

I'm going to get myself confused if I keep this up.
I hope these directions weren't as confusing.
You can always ask if you have any questions.

Have a great Monday!

Linking up to:

Graphicsfairy.blogspot.com: Brag-monday
Wearethatfamily: works-for-me Wednesday
Savvysouthernstyle: Wow-us-Wednesdays
Time-warp-wife
Abowlfulloflemons
Aboverubies.net: Domestically-divine-tuesday
Notjustahousewife: Show-me-what-ya-got
Homestoriesatoz.com: Tutorials-tips-link-partyBetweennapsontheporch: Met Monday
House in Roses
Homemaker on a Dime.com
Craftskeepmesane
Bystephanielynn Under the Table and Dreaming: Sunday-showcase-party
Craftskeepmesane: Motivate-me-Monday

Hearts on My Mantel

Decorating for Valentine's Day isn't something I do a lot of.

I have a few little things,

but usually Christmas has me plumb worn out with the

change-out-the-whole-house-decor,-buy,-shop,-wrap,-

then-get-it-all-changed-back

scenario.

I thought I'd just make a couple little things for my mantel,

so here it is:

 

My husband gave me this glass bird plaque for Christmas:

isn't it so vibrant and pretty?

He has such good taste.

These are my love-ly creations...

which I will explain tomorrow.
(I made this extra grouping to giveaway,
so come back tomorrow if you are interested).

I also have a fantastic giveaway coming up in the beginning of February.
Stacy, a fabulous creator of jewelry,
made my new wedding ring
and is my first advertiser.

You'll want to be here for her great giveaway!!!

I'm sorry I haven't been much of a writer this week.
It's been a week or two of feeling like I have a lot stewing up there in the brain,
but it's not coming out.

I've been working on house projects while it's winter,
so maybe the paint fumes have gone to my head.

That or I'm drinking too much hot chocolate.

Is that possible?


I hope you have a restful Sunday!

"I will praise thee, O Lord,

among the people:

I will sing unto thee among the nations.

For thy mercy is great unto the heavens,

and thy truth unto the clouds."

Psalm 56:9-10


Linking up to:
Homestories A to Z.com: Valentines-mantel-link-party
Abowlfulloflemons
Aboverubies.net: Domestically-divine-tuesday
A Stroll Thru Life: Table-top-Tuesday
Betweennapsontheporch: Met Monday
Funky junk interiors.blogspot: SNS
House in Roses
Homemaker on a Dime.com
Craftskeepmesane
Bystephanielynn Under the Table and Dreaming: Sunday-showcase-party
Craftskeepmesane: Motivate-me-Monday

(Thanks for your help in letting me know you could see the advertisement.
I was having a hard time getting it up, but I think it's fixed now.)

Screamin'.

I'm working on painting my living room today.

The color is LOUD.

I look at it and instantly think,

"Screamin' Green."

 I even added some white to it to paint the walls

because it was blinding me untamed.

Maybe it's the weather:

65 degrees on January 7th.

The kids are outside running around

with no jackets on.

 

The sunshine is screamin'.

It must be affecting my mood.

I had to wear the ring my daughter got me for Christmas

to finish out my look today.

 Tell me that beauty isn't screamin'.

Looks like somebody wants to come in and get some attention.

 Yikes.

That window is screamin,' 

"WASH ME!!!"

Don't look at it anymore, 

please.

I'll wash it right away.

Yikes it's bad.

I have to stop looking at it.

 Is it too early for Valentine's Day decorations?

(Okay, I need to admit that

I'm in love with the chicken my husband got me for Christmas.)

I got these bulbs on sale after Christmas.

I thought they didn't look like Christmas.

They're screamin' "Valentine's Day!!!"

It's really quiet in the house when the kids are outside.