I know, I know....took me awhile!
You have my "Heartfelt" apology!
What can I say?
Life gets in the way....

Okay....Felt Hearts!
You saw the finished project on Monday...

And, how it attached to the pillow itself.
Plus...in the following photo, make note of the back of the heart for tutorial purposes!

To make a perfect heart shape out of felt, you'll need...
a can of soup
(I actually used Sweetened Condensed Milk...little bigger)
a ruler
a pen
red felt

Fold your felt piece in half and with most of the circular bottom of the soupcan,
draw around it partially.....like so
(we all learned this in elementary school...it's just nice to have a gentle reminder right?)

Draw a straight line angling down to the fold from the partial circle
and cut your heart out.  You may need to cut in the center between the circles a bit more.

Here's the fun part!
NOT!
Cut out 2 million circles....okay, only 1 million....!
Kidding, it just feels that way....probably about 50-60 depending on how big you made your heart...mine is 6" at the widest point and 5" from the bottom tip to the top middle.
My circles were cut freehand, but I'd say they were about 2" across.
I didn't want to trace them because the pen lines would show up on the good side or bad.

Here's where you heat up your glue gun and put out a sheet of waxed paper to work on.
Don't use newspaper or you'll be peeling it off the bottom of your project.
Learn from me AGAIN people!
Fold your wee circle in half and then in half again, then cut the bottom point off, while still holding it in your hand.

Apply glue liberally to the cut section of your circle ...still holding it together...
then place on your heart wherever you want to start.

_Until you get this......

As you can see from my heart that's finished, I started on the outside edge and I'm not sure if that's better or not...maybe better uniformity to the edges if you start on the outside, but perhaps the pattern would be nicer if you started in the middle.
Regardless, keep cutting circles and gluing until you are tired of it...or when it's done.
Throw a piece of iron-on velcro (which I glue-gunned) onto the back and you are
finished!
See how easy that was?
You could do this on a 4-leaf clover for St.Paddy's Day!
....or I could.
Happy Cutting Circles!
xo

Sharing with:
Savvy Homemade Monday - Home Savvy A to Z
Sunday's Best - My 1929 Charmer
Turning the Daunting into the Doable - The Project Queen

A few weeks before Christmas,
an idea was hatching in my pea brain.
I was seeing all these beautiful pillows on blogs and I kept thinking...
where, oh where, will I have room to store all these seasonal or festive pillows?

And, then the epiphany!
Girl!  Use your brain!
What if I used one neutral coloured pillow and changed up the look of it
whenever I felt like it?!

Using......Ta-dum.....VELCRO!
Yah Baby!!
And it worked!

Valentine's Cherub
Thankyou to Graphics Fairy for this image!

Valentine Heart!

Romantic Fabric Flower!

Baby or Child's Room?
Thanks again Graphics Fairy!

And definitely, let's not forget Christmas!

This was a fun, creative project to do and the great thing is....
I finally got my sewing machine out and dusted it off, but, if you don't sew,
all you need do is go shopping for a neutral pillow and let your creativity guide
you with your glue gun.

Here's the shot of the Velcro attachment...

See how easy this is?
I KNOW!!
Space-Saving too!
Imagine only needing a wee drawer to hold your seasonal bling for pillows!

The possibilities are truly endless don't you think?
I bet you're thinking in your minds right now....hmmm...I've got an idea
for a pillow embellishment!
Do it!
I'll do a couple wee tutorials in the coming week of the how-to's on the
accessories I made here, but I'm sure you will all do just fine!
I've got to get working on more!
xo

Sharing with:

For some time now I've been looking for two
identical vintage corbels.
They've been either too expensive in antique shops or too large or too rotted.
Recently, when we were in Pennsylvania, we found two...identical....
vintage....for 24.99 total.
AWESOME!

And so it continues.....
part of our bedroom redecorating process.
We have a long hallway, where our closets are, leading to the main bedroom.
The doorway is quite wide as it isn't a door-framed doorway, just a doorway,
and I wanted to add some vintage spice to the entry into the bedroom.
These fit the bill perfectly.
I don't even have to paint them because I love how chippy they already look.

Here's the view from our bedroom looking down the hallway with the corbels.
Blank slate with just a touch of vintage now.

Disclaimer....please disregard any things you may see in the photo like
teeny baseboard, unfinished wall switches, lack of window dressing, etc...Hahahaha!
After all the master bedroom is my project to finish in 2012!

It's funny how such a small touch, like adding these corbels, has
sprung me into action on our bedroom again!
Definitely have to change those flying saucer light fixtures!
The following photo is the view coming down the hallway into the bedroom.
I'll be giving BEFORE photos soon of the whole bedroom!

How do you feel about my corbels find?
Does it inspire you to find such an item for a space in your home?
I feel like it's the beginning of loving my space!
Have a lovely Sunday!
xo

My day started out badly....up at 2am, reading that darned book
I'm so engrossed in...."A Game of Thrones" (I'm on book 4...yay!),
and sleeping intermittently on the couch.
I was pretty tired.
Then off to take my mom on a few errands and hurry back to go to the Vets
with all three dogs for shots!  Fun!
It was a daytrip and a half!
I thought I'd share a couple photos of Blarney & Dan...so cute!
Hey, if the Pioneer Woman can do it....hahahaha!

Isn't he soooo sweet?
...the puppy I mean!
Achhhh....Dan is sweet too...you'll see why in just a few seconds!

Blarney's almost 11 weeks old now!  He's growing in leaps and bounds!

And, look at this....what a sweetie for a hubby I have!
He went out to get some groceries and came back with beautiful Spring-like flowers!
For Me!

And to top it all off....
my "Jeanne d'Arc Living" magazine arrived in the mail today.
Pages and pages of beautiful French/Nordic home ideas
with absolutely NO Advertisements!

Thanks to Laurie from Heaven's Walk for directing me to
Maynard Greenhouse which is where you too can get your copy of
this fabulous magazine...you won't regret it! 
I've gone through it twice already....wonderful!

Can any of you top this beautiful ordinary day I've had?
Okay...I don't get flowers everyday...or great magazines, but still?
xo

Ever wondered how to make the most succulent
Prime Rib Roast ever?
Well....I'm going to show you how we do it and I hope you'll try it and
please let me know how it works out for yah!

Go HERE to see the whole dinner and the reason for the special dinner!

Thank goodness for great friends to cook for!
xo

_Again...one of Alana's crazy crafts!
This photo is her when she was in San Francisco with Mark last year...just to show you how completely off the wall she is....in so many zany photos of her
it was hard to pick one!

She said a few months ago to me...."Mom, I was in my graphic arts class and our
teacher showed us this awesome medium she used to make jewellery and keychains and all kinds of wondrous stuff!  So, I bought it and brought it to you and now we can do this awesome craft together!  Yay!"
It sat in my house for awhile until we could co-ordinate our schedules
and yesterday was the day.
(Anything to get out of doing her coffee table in driftwood finish)
I thought...right on!  This sounds like soooo much fun! 
Boy....was I wrong?  Just kidding...it was 5 hours of fun, but it was a complete wash...other than the learning experience we got from it!
And the extremely hilarious bouts of laughter we caused among Dan & Mark,
Alana & myself while the "Shrinky Dinks" (which they completely were....hahaha) baked in the oven into unrecognizable blobs of art.

Here's the package...in case at the end of this you think you might want to try it!

So....how it works is you use the transparency sheets to print off a graphic
from your computer using an "inkjet" printer and following the directions given in the package.  Laser printers get too hot on transparencies to print properly.
Keep in mind that the graphic you print is going to shrink to 1/3rd of it's size.

Here's what we printed off in the hopes of making rings!

Now, after we printed this one off, we realized you have to
print it off 50% lighter, which was a whole other challenge to figure out
how to do that....but we did.

Here it is with the lighter mode in place which we found
in Microsoft Picture Manager while setting the page up.

Now, we attempted the clear transparencies....not good.

SO BAD!!!  So horrid!  See the runny lines?  Does anyone know
how to do this properly?  If so, I would really appreciate knowing how to
print onto clear transparencies without the running ink???

Onward.
We trimmed up the individual graphics, rounding the edges for wrap
around rings and placed them strategically on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

After baking for 3 minutes, and seeing them curling up and then flattening out (except for the ones that curled up together....note to self....don't place pre-baked strips so close together ever again!), we had to grab them faster than what we thought because we lost half the batch to hardening...meaning they would become fridge magnets, not rings.

See how small they shrink up to?  And, we obviously put too many of them on at once, because they cool so fast, you can only put a couple on at a time if you have any hopes of molding them into the shape you want!
If you try to mold them when they are almost cool, they break.
That's right....throw those puppies out.
We attempted to put them back in to soften them up.
Nope....bad idea.
Do you think this is where you need a teacher in the room?
I'm thinking...yah....that'd be great!

This is what we ended up with....a couple rings and lots of hard flat pieces for
possibly magnets or hair barrettes?  Too funny!  Live and learn!
But, we did get an idea of what would and wouldn't work.
That big blob up in the right corner was a very large piece...like a 6x8" page
which Mark was going to make into a keychain, but it scrunched up into itself
and stayed that way...so beware...don't make large items!
See how much you're learning?
Play along with me....la,la,la-la!
The rings are pretty hard to size and I only got one good one out of the batch.....
on my index finger!  or thumb!

Um...yah.....I did everything I possibly could to this photo in Picnik to take your
attention off my 49yr old elephant hands....guess it's time to start using handcream everyday instead of just when I think of it? 
Okay....so I'm not going to be doing hand shots on commercials....I'm okay with it.

We had a hoot attempting this craft for FIVE HOURS today.
Dan & Mark laughed and shared knowing looks with each other as Alana & I freaked over the curling transparencies, ha-ha'd over the unrecognizable blobs, and
agonized over just about every little step of this whole procedure!

I actually just had a thought!  I could make markers for my herbs and they'd
be weatherproof plastic, but permanent!  Or, tags for preserves....
oooooh....the ideas are coming fast and furious now!

Don't try this at home....or actually....do try it and tell me how you made out!
Or....pull out your sewing machine instead...like I should have done!
xo

My daughter, Alana was over last night and as usual, she introduced me
to some new Youtube Videos and some new music....she keeps me feeling younger than I am, totally, which is great because I love discovering new musicians!

This band, Walk Off The Earth, is from a city near me called Burlington, Ontario.
From what I understand, they do mostly covers, but in a unique way.
This particular cover is so well done and so quirky, I had to share it with you!

This is Walk Off The Earth performing
"Somebody That I Used To Know"

Have you ever seen five people play one guitar?!
What a unique presentation!
How cool is this and I love their folk sound that has made this song their own!

This is the original, which of course Alana played for me as well, and we both agreed, we really like the sound of the cover done by Walking Off The Earth!

What do you all think of this music?
Which do you prefer?
xo

Recently, when Dan & I were in the States,
I had the opportunity to visit the acclaimed Hobby Lobby store everyone on
these blogs of ours speaks of.
I was enchanted by this store which is like a Michaels/HomeSense
equivalent in Canada and purchased a couple items....of course....who wouldn't!!

This is just one of them
(don't forget I have to post quick before the next puppy accident!)

Isn't it so charming?
I love that it's already vintage & chippy and I don't have to do a danged thing
except put in a candle and light it!
I think it'd be a welcome addition to my vintage bedroom I'm working on as well,
but for now am admiring it in the central area of our home.
It was 30% off the regular Spring Boutique price too!
Bonus!
xo

Soooo....maybe I forgot...just a little....
how much work a new puppy is!  Oh my.....I had to have a nap today!
I was up super early wiping up mistakes on the floor, grabbing Blarney as quick as possible when he'd squat.  Acchhhh!  It's probably really good training for our new grandchild coming in February!  He's a loving, happy little puppy, but man!....busy?!....

From gnawing on the phonebook (which sits at the bottom shelf of a sewing basket in the kitchen), to the edge of the stairs, to the baseboards, to everything wrought iron that sits on the floor.  We've moved spider plants out and hibiscus up higher, taken all off the coffee table, tried "no" twenty times at least as he attempts to chew the antique fainting couch upholstery and we give him a toy instead to chew.  He's already mastered the stairs to the second floor, so now our baby gate is back out and at that access point.  Blarney's gone rollerskating on a rolling plant stand (that the hibiscus was on!), pulled every single dog toy out of the basket and strewn it across the floor, tried like a stubborn robot to steal Elmo's dinner everytime...because he wolfs his down with his little ribcage sucked right in for the whole inhalation and is done wayyyy before Elmo!  Really?  We're up to it....just remembering how crazy that time is in a puppy's life!  We started putting him in the small side of his new crate today for 20 minutes and he whined and cried in fits and starts...remember how awful it was to not run and pick up your child when they cried in their crib....how it nearly kills you to let them get the idea that they must stay in there awhile?  He's outside right now with Dan....probably digging in the garden again or gnawing on some greenery or chasing Rainy and Elmo relentlessly!  hahahaha!  God love 'im!
Here he is....and he's not standing still....go, go, go!!!