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:

_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

I know I said I'd be blogging about the Antique Shop in Cambridge we
visited over the Christmas Season...however, I'm so excited about
my experiment today that I must share...
(and we have had company drop in today....so...need to be quickish)

A couple months ago, after starting to follow Rosemary at Villabarnes, I ordered
a splendid blender pen from an online website because....you can't get them at
Michael`s in Canada.....and...it finally came right before Christmas!

I stashed it away to play with when I had a single, solitary moment to myself and today,
remembered and tried it out!  I`M IN LOVE WITH IT!
We are going to the States on the weekend and I`m going to buy more!
It was so much faster than Citrasolve and now I can't wait until all our
company (family and guests) LEAVE!  But, shhh.....they're still here....hahaha!
Just kidding!  I love them being here!

Here's what I experimented with today....a wee little bathbag with a graphic from
The Graphics Fairy.

SUWWWWWEEEEET!
Thanks Rosemary!
xo

The inspiration for my craft I'm showing today came from
Unrefined by Lindsay (Etsy)
who was featured by My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia last week.

Lindsay makes these beautiful photo blocks for sale....

...with a choice of your photo on the front and a pretty pattern on the back.

So, inspired, I had wanted to make something out of a gorgeous photo
my friend Lynne's daughter had posted on facebook of her children (Lynne's grandchildren) and remembered seeing Lindsay's photoblock. 
Our theme for gift giving with myself and my three other childhood friends,
for our quarterly appetizer & wine gathering, was something small that you could
pull out every year to remind you of each other at Christmas.

And here's what I did.....

Side I of Lynne's

Side II of Lynne's

Side I of Karen's

Side II of Karen's

Side I of Melanie's

Side II of Melanie's

Notice my pictures DO NOT fit the blocks!
I said, "Hey, Dan.....could you do me a favour?" (very sweetly of course!)
"Could you cut me some 6" lengths out of a 2x4 if you have one hanging around?"
"Of course Darlin'!" was his answer....or something like that....hahahaha!
Little did I know that when you print off a 4x6 photo....it's not really a 4x6 photo.
Nuh-uh.  It's more like 4-1/2 x 6!
So, I just downsized them and of course, they no longer fit in length....but
that was okay...I had a plan.

I liked that there were cracks in the 2x4 chunks...alot. Because I wanted to make the background/base like Elmo's stool (Le Chien Etape here) with the
Benjamin Moore Atmospheric (blue/grey) base and antique white homemade
chalkpaint (see Maureen's directions at It's All Connected) on top.
Then distress the white back to the blue and the wood.
That all worked out lovely.
Like this....

But then....it came time to decoupage my photos (Picnik enhanced to be Sepia)
on one side and my vintage
Christmas Cards from The Graphics Fairy on the other.
Glitch.
While trying to rub out the bubbles on one of the photos, I rubbed the photo
out in one wee part and thought....hmmmm...do I rip this off and start over?
Nooooo!
I decided to incorporate the cracks from the wood base right into the photos
and I love how they turned out.
It took a bit of fussing with an exacto knife and some brown craft paint,
then the blue paint, then a titch of the white chalkpaint, but it all turned out in the end!

I call them Sofa Table Block Art because of the fact they are two-sided!
You can put them on your table behind your couch or on your floating counter
and they look pretty, no matter which side you are standing on!  Better yet, in front of a mirror would be pretty  as well so you could see both sides at once!
Best of all, I'm giving my friends a precious memory of cherished ones
to have for always!
Hope you enjoyed this...I loved, loved, loved making them!
I didn't get the opportunity to give these to my friends as 2 out of the 4 of us were sick yesterday, so if they see it here first...Merry Christmas guys!  But, I'm going to try to
deliver them today!

xo

Thanks so much Brooke for featuring me
at Get Outta My Head Please!

And Thanks to Christina from
I Gotta Create

Also featured by:

Funky Junk Theme Party - Picture Frames

One of the very first items I pinned to my Pinterest page was this....

It was posted originally by So And Sew Productions blog and it came from
either The Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware.  But the idea
inspired me to try this at home!

So, for the last month...everywhere we go out in the vehicle or on foot, I've been
searching for the perfect branch.  It's actually quite funny, because I've even got Maureen involved in finding the perfect branches. A couple days ago, she hauled over a fairly large branch from her backyard she found for me!  I wonder what people were thinking watching her walk down the street with a giant branch!?
But...it wasn't the one I wanted....I know...I felt bad!

Dan & I went for a walk up the sideroad with the dogs yesterday morning and after
much chaos with the dogs getting tangled in the brush with their leashes wrapped around small trees and weeds, muck on our boots, and juggling...we managed to get these.

Whatever branch you pick, it has to suit your tastes...of course, but it also
must have branches wide enough to hold the candle holders.

Which leads me to what I used for candle holders.

These are called "Nail-On Glides" and come in a box of four.  They're used
for the bottom of chairs to help them glide across the floor, but I spent a long time
checking out the hardware aisle for something that would work to
hold my candles on....and this was it!
The beauty of having nails is your candle slides right down and if, by chance
(something I'd never do....hahaha....did it), your candle nail is on crooked, you
can actually adjust the candle by sticking it into it on a wee bit of an angle.

After trimming up my branches to how I wanted it to look and twisting the branch
upside down to see which way it sat flat best, but still looked interesting,
I hot-gluegunned the Nail-On Gliders in spots here and there, trying to keep
them level and spaced out sufficiently.
I actually enjoyed trimming it up....felt like a crazy artist sculpting something!

This is the Gold branch before.

And....this is my Silver branch before.

Having affixed the candle holders, I spray-painted two coats, top and bottom,
including the candle holders and here's some photos of
the finished product!

This Silver one was actually a secondary thought for me, because as you
can see from the photos, silver in my house...not so good!
But, I quite like it  and feel in the right environment, it could look
completely excellent!

In this close up you can see how lovely the silver metallic paint is
and how the real look of the wood shines through.

I can't decide which one I like best, but I obviously can see the gold branch
looks preferable here over the silver.

Dan & I both liked that there was moss and knarlyness (is that a word?) to
this particular branch and it's definitely a unique piece because
it's been given such texture as a result...shiny in two tones.

You could add some Christmas Bling to it as well. 
I kinda wanted to keep it simple looking, but will definitely play with it some
more and add perhaps some boughs from the tree or some holly berries?

I realize it looks monstrous in some of the shots here, but in reality, there
is plenty of room to share a meal around it at my table.
I quite like the meshing of nature and metallic.
Which one do you like best?
And, do you think you'll try this at home?
I'd love to hear back about this....
xo

Sharing with....

Good Morning!

Today, I'm going to show you our Personalized Christmas Card
we're sending out this year!

One year, we sent out a photo of Dan & myself on a magnet for the fridge
to our special friends (that'd be the ones who actually wanted a photo of us on their fridge looking at them everyday!)

This year, I decided not to make "us" such a permanent fixture in other
people's homes.  Wasn't that nice of me?  hahahaha!

So, here it is......

The idea came to me because....I have a picture frame right at my front door that holds a 4x6 photo and I change it up with the seasons/occasions by putting
either a photo or a particularly funny card in it.
This year, I was playing with Picnik and did this to one of our photos for the frame...
so it's a photo as well as being particularly funny!
Then, I thought....hey, what a fun way to personalize a card for others?!

I don't think I have to give you a tutorial on this because it's glaringly obvious
how I did it.  But, I'll tell you the supplies I used.

Folded Cards and Envelopes
A photo (duh!)
Decorative Photo Corners
Ribbon
Gem

In the inside I used some Black Card Stock paper I had and a Silver Glitter Gel pen.
(I know...it's hard to tell in the photo that it's glittering...but it is!)

Dan even signed his own name....Imagine?!  hahaha!
I'd love to see your homemade cards too!
Merry Christmas!
xo

ps...we're only sending these to family members, so please don't be offended if you
don't get this card in your

Wow!
Welcoming Christmas has never been so fun and creative for me in the past!
If my kids read this, they'll be in shock cuz I'm more of a
throw up a wreath and some garland with lights kind of a girl.
Blogging has inspired me!
It all started with my milkcan a couple weeks ago and just flourished from there.

When Dan looked at it last night with all the candles lit, he just said "That's so
beautiful Wendy!" and I'm like "Are you sure?  Do you think it's too much?
Do you think I should change something?  Is it too gaudy?" 
Hahaha!
So, this is going to be a long posting....full of photos!
(I'd like to thank you in advance for your patience because this has been a
culmination of several weeks worth of crafting)

Welcome to My Front Porch

(yup...that's me again...just like Halloween...in the window of the door!)
The themes in my porch are Burlap & Bling, Gold & Antique White.
Following are some of the elements for this shot.....

I made a sort-of valance out of burlap & ribbon, and hung some swaggy bling
down the sides of the door frame.

If you click on any of the previous images it will take you to the
"tutorials" for them....except the Letter Holder...that's pretty obvious!

Now for some more PORCH!  Woohoo!
I'll try to do Day/Night, so you get the idea of both looks k?

I absolutely love the feeling I get looking at this shot!
It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

I DID NOT paint my potting table for Christmas!
It was already this colour!
How great is that?!

(You'll have to excuse my amateur camera work, but you get the idea right?)

This is looking in the other direction now...

Can you see the sweet lit up Terrarium Glass in the corner?
I'll get to that preciousness soon!

_This highlights my Faux Christmas Mantel and Birdy Arrangement.

Here's the View from the front of the long section of the porch...
through the Potting Bench from the other side!

Cozy...and I hope Inviting....

As for that Terrarium in the Corner.....

I've had this little lovely kicking around the house for years.
It actually had plexiglass in it that had yellowed and my sweet husband
changed the windows in it for me, but I left the rust intact and I like it that way!

In this Daytime View you can see it's perched atop a very old birdbath!
So old, in fact, we didn't bother painting it, because it's falling apart...all chipping off around the rim of it!
I just added a twig wreath, some of the same bling around the door, and
topped it with a pearly garland of battery operated lights.
The wee sparkly tree inside was a great find and it's sitting on top of one of Dan's
terrycloth shop cloths (the snow...you know?!)

Following is the RED Potting Table...I like it that colour all year.
It makes me happy!

The only item in the above that has a tutorial is the Vintage Boot

A couple of other little touches.....

Two Final Joyous Shots!

And.....THAT'S A CHRISTMAS "WRAP"!
(I crack myself up....)
xo

_I was also featured at
Front Porch Ideas and More
(a blog specializing completely about front porches)
Thankyou everyone!

I'll be sharing this with....

At The Picket Fence....today.