Making Valentines: The finished product

The boys and I made their class Valentines this year. I think I mentioned already I got our idea from Charlene over at CrazedParent. We melted down old crayons and made heart
shaped ones.

(We used the same Michael's mold that Charlene did... well, not THE SAME one, but the same kind.)

Here is Sam putting the crayons into the mold.

The finished product!

The boys also decorated little bags to put the hearts into. We used generic, plain red and white paper treat bags.

The kids decorated them with heart doilies, heart shaped stickers and buttons, stamps and some glitter glue.

We filled them with the crayons, little pads of paper and Hershey's Kisses. Mommy helped finishe them off with tags and bows.

It was a great project for the kids. It did take us several sessions to complete, but it was lots of fun. And I think they turned out really cute! Each one was unique!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Me being crafty

I'm not the "artist" in our family. My brother and sister are both wonderful artists. They can draw, and write really well. My sister does the most beautiful pottery ever. I have no artistic talent. But that's not entirely true...


I learned to knit when I was an exchange student in Norway. Everyone there knits, at least all the women. When I was in school it was the norm for the girls to be knitting in class and taking notes at the same time.


Anyway, when I was there I learned to knit. I didn't ever really do much -- a few pairs of socks and a sweater or two -- but the sweaters were just basic and I had someone to help me.



After reading one of B's journals last year I was inspired to start it up again. Have a craft or creative outlet other than the blog for me. So, I bought a book called "One Skein Wonders" that I thought would be a good re-introduction to knitting. Small
projects that I can complete quickly.



And it is a great book! The first thing I made was a cell phone carrier that is in the book. It was easy and Josh liked it so I gave it to him. No, he does not have a cell phone!



Then I made the Lotus Purse because I liked the way it looked. Here's a picture of the finished project.


I used Paton's Chunky Shetland Tweed for it and I love the way it looks with this pattern.


And Josh liked it too. But he wanted blue and he wanted a it big enough for his Nintendo DS. And he wanted it blue. And he wanted it to be more "boy."

So, I took the cell phone carrier pattern from the book, made it bigger and used the "knit 1 slip 1" pattern from the Lotus Purse and this is what I came up with (Sam wants one now):

Then I found a Wine Gift Bag pattern on Knitty.com. How fun is that?! For this I used Paton's SWS "Natural Geranium" Wool/Soy blend yarn. I love the way this looks! I have a friend who likes to keep her red wine in the fridge. Strange, I know. I'll be giving her this "wine sweater" with a bottle of wine for her birthday. I think it's just too cute! I will definitely be doing this one again!

And, I found the most amazing yarn/knitting store right in my little town. There is so much yarn and knitting paraphernalia there it's incredible. And they give lessons. Rich wants me to knit him a sweater and I'll probably need help, so I think I'm going to sign up for lessons probably next month or in March.

So this is me being crafty!