Valentine Flowers

I don't think my husband has bought me flowers since we got married.  He does this thing from time to time when we are at the store asking if I want flowers.  One day, I called him on it, I said, of course I don't want flowers if I know they cost $20.  He said well if I don't offer when you can see the price then you'll want me to waste our money.  At least he knows me. I could also buy myself flowers, I buy myself loads of presents, but yet I don't because who wants to waste the money? Not me.  But I do like flowers, so I end up making flowers with scrap of fabric and other craft items that cost zero dollars.  On Saturday I decided I wanted some Valentine's flowers, so of course I had to make them before my baby is born.  I decided this tulle poof, Dr. Seuss trulia flowers were what I needed. 

 Then I used an old jar I had laying around for a vase. I used this tutorial.

 But my valentine flower needs did not end there.  The fabric flowers I had next to my subway art, clashed quite awfully with my wreath and valentine subway art, so I decided to make some really easy flowers with my glue gun.

Considering it has snowed all day, its nice to have all these cheery valentine's flowers around my house.

Snowman

I wanted a snowman decoration for January, for the post holiday slump. After looking at Pinterest I decided I liked the yarn and twine snowmen the best. This is what I made, turns out these babies are harder to make then they look, at least if you want your yarn balls to look half decent.

Wooden Firecrackers

On pinterest I saw craft firecrackers, and knew I wanted to make some.  This is what I came up with.

Turned out to be a great year to make wooden firecrackers since we won't be seeing any real ones lit with the forest fires the way they are, out here in the west. 
I wanted my Independence day crafts to be about the "true meaning of the holiday" that is why I wrote freedom, independence, justice and liberty on them.
Also I have no vinyl die cutter, so I free handed my letters because I'm old school like that.
I also really wanted to make this wreath, but I ran out of time. :(
I would have put it indoor.  I've realized there are indoor and outdoor wreaths.

Mailboxes

Remember these?

Yeah, I threw them away when we moved, there was no way I was moving empty kleenex boxes even if they were pretty.  I don't regret not moving them, but I wish I had them, if that makes sense?
I want to make these to replace them.

source

But I'm planning on getting a new car this year, and every dollar I don't spend on something means a dollar I don't have to pay interest on so, I got to like seriously budget, save and be frugal, and $10 on mailboxes, just is not in the budget this February. But oh how I love those mailboxes, more than like any other valentine thing on pinterest this year.
Instead I think I'll make these:

Source

But in different colors for everyone's favorite colors.  I don't feel the need to make everything red. Plus it will add some valentines flare to make kitchen which often doesn't get decorated.  I can't handle decorations and crumbs.  Ahh, it makes me want to cry thinking about it!
While we are talking about valentine's I seriously love this pillow

Source

And I really would like to make a valentine tree, its great because its free. Will someone help me find and arrange my branches?  Maybe one of my brown eyed boys will help me.

Source

But I got off topic, go stare at the mailboxes, I want to make, and pretend they are in my house.

I'm going there someday...

If you remember how in April of this year during General Conference, President Monson said,

To you parents of young children, may I share with you some sage advice from President Spencer W. Kimball. Said he: “It would be a fine thing if … parents would have in every bedroom in their house a picture of the temple so [their children] from the time [they are] infant[s] could look at the picture every day [until] it becomes a part of [their lives]. When [they reach] the age that [they need] to make [the] very important decision [concerning going to the temple], it will have already been made.” 

Well needless to say I've felt like a sinner since we moved in, because my daughter didn't have a picture of the temple in her room. My son has a picture of the Logan Temple, so I wanted my daughter to have the Salt Lake Temple.

  Lil' Luna has a great tutorial of cute temple art. I've been waiting to try it for probably a year.  I mixed it up a bit, you know I can't follow directions!  Anyway, I "save as"-ed the picture from Lil' Luna, then turned it a pink/purple-ish hue, printed for 10 cents on Winkflash, to a 5x7.  Then bought a frame at Hobby Lobby, painted it green and purple, with purple/pinkish sparkles.  I love variegated paint jobs. Then I found some ribbon in my closet that was first used on the vases from by brother's wedding lunch, right after his marriage in the Salt Lake Temple.  But the green was too green with variegated paint, so I streaked purple paint on the ribbon to match the frame.  

 I added the ribbon because I thought oh, it needs to hang on the wall, then it looked so perfect on her dresser, so thank goodness the ribbon is wired, because I love the bow.

I love it!
Lil' Luna's tutorial is so great, its everything that is wonderful about the internet.  Great free pictures of the temple. I wanted a picture of the Denver Temple so I used the antique non- word for my living room.

Cover Up

Above the door in my daughter's bedroom the paint was chipped and there was some large holes in the dry wall, so I figured it was cheaper to make a sign for above the door than repaint the whole room.  I bought a sign at Ross for $3, because that was cheaper than buying a new board at a craft store. Then sanded off the previous phrase and painted with left over latex paint from painting other rooms. I picked light green because she has quite a bit in her room, from the backing of the flower clip board, to her baby quilt, to one of the layers of tulle in her dust ruffle.  To see more pictures of her room.

 The lettering is by far perfect, because I free handed it.  Partly because this was suppose to be a low cost project, but mostly because I have no access to anyone who does vinyl lettering and partly because I wanted it to look unique. I had to hang it on wire because the previous plaque had holes for wire.

I think it turned out pretty cute.  Its sanded a bit for the shabby chic look, but the picture does not show that.  The phrase is, "Quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep."  Sure my daughter is barely a baby anymore, but I thought it was fitting, since I want her to stay two forever, and we still do quite a bit of rocking her, because she loves to be wrapped up in her blankets and held. Not to mention I still think of my 5 year old as my baby.

My Monogram Wreath

I found this tutorial, and really love the Monogram, I love all monograms. I finally got around to buying my supplies.  It was cheaper than I expected, the H was the same price as the wreath, only $3 and something. The great thing is I can change it for the seasons, by pulling off the flowers and gluing different seasonal embellishments. This might be a reoccurring post. I love the wreath.

Witchy Witch

My mom and I found these witch legs at Tuesday morning, and thought they were so dang funny, I convinced her to buy them, but then she ended up giving them to me. I don't know what you do with them, so I stuck magnetics on the back and stuck them to my metal door.

At the store, I saw a crafty sign, that was vertical and had scrappy material hanging.  I almost bought it, because I liked the material, but realized I didn't care for the wooden part of the sign.  So I came home and made a wooden witchy one. I love it! I think its so cute, I had so much fun making it, I haven't made a painted wood craft in so long.

Sewing Night

After I finished the Christmas dress, I was feeling insane from lack of sleep and made this for a little niece who was having a birthday. It turned out way better than I expected, and both my kids were pretty jealous it wasn't theirs.
When I only had 2 minutes left of sewing, I realized it was past midnight and my neighbors probably could hear my sewing machine. I'm sorry neighbors. I know what you look like, but don't know your names!
I also made a doll blanket. I have made a lot of doll blankets which I forgot to take pictures of before I wrapped, and ended all out of cute calicos, so instead I used pink plaid, with batting and ties. The other doll blankets are not so warm.

Sleeping Ballarinas

My daughter's tutu dust ruffle for her crib looks much better with the crib on the lowest setting. Now I wish I had antique dresser the same wood color, raised about a foot off the ground, so I could add a matching tutu dresser for the crib. Right now she doesn't have a dresser, her clothes are keep in a sweater organizer that hangs in the closet. Although if I had a dresser, where would we set up the play rug with the trains?

pass sis a fire

That's how my son pronounces it, spaces and all. I didn't even know he knew the word until his aunt told me he was saying it one day at her house before the babe was born. She said he didn't learn it from us, we call it a binky.
My son refused to take a pacifier. I use to force it in his mouth holding it there the entire time, when I could no longer mentally handle him wanting to nurse. Some times we just needed to go longer than 45 minutes between feedings. My daughter is totally different, she goes anywhere from 3-5-or more hours between feedings. Always has, the nurses weren't so happy in the hospital, but they got over it. She took a pacifier a few times, which made me think, she might always take it. So I gathered stuff I already had, and made her a pacifier clip. Pretty good for free. Especially better than then those Micky Mouse ones in the grocery store.

The jokes on me, she has only used the pacifier about three times since I made the clip. Whenever I try to give it to her, when she isn't hungry, she immediately loses all desire to suck. Not the intended purpose of the pacifier, but works all the same. Since she goes awhile in between feedings, I never give it to her.

I thought she was so cute with the pacifier, one day she took it for over an hour, but we were out of the house and I didn't have a camera, she hasn't really wanted it since then, so I take pictures when I can, but they aren't really as cute as I'd like. I love how big it looks on her little face.