Love Hearts

Yesterday admist all my dusting, mopping, pantry tearing apart and vacuuming (with my new hoover), there was a knock on my racing green door and a Valentine's package was placed into my arms.

It was filled with all kinds of wonderful surprises and too many of them! Including the love hearts above. When one is presented with such a gorgeous Valentine's surprise, you know it is time to take a cleaning break, tear into that package and just enjoy all that delicious candy before you. A girl's gotta keep her cleaning strength up, you know!

And, most importantly as you munch away on candy while going through all your surprises, you can't forgot the "Love Heart Eating Rules", you have to read what your heart says before eating it, Mr. Michie forgot that part yesterday, but I reminded him!

Thanks Mom, Dad & Maisy, you as always, are too generous! ♥

Valentine's Sweets

MMM! Just munching away on these, while I decide what to do for dinner!

It was one of my Valentine's surprises from Mr. Michie and came from Rococo, one of my favourite chocolate stores! I'm in Heaven!

Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

(This one's for you Abe!)

\

Grow old with me, the best is yet to be.

 {Robert Browning}

Valentine's Round-Up

Valentine's Day is almost here and I have collected a few last minute ideas, recipes and sweetness from some of my favorite places to share with you. Click on the images below to be taken directly to the featured project:

Jenny B. Harris of Allsorts has done it again, with this cute Valentine's Paper Angel. A fun project for your little ones to decorate your kitchen table with:

Serena of The Farm Chicks has created adorably wrapped chocolate brownie bites. A cute idea for the little Valentine Love Bugs in your life:

Eat, Drink, Chic has the most wonderful answer to staying in for Valentine's. Amy Moss, has designed a DIY Valentine's popcorn bucket to invite your Honey Bunny to spend a night snuggled next to you on the couch. You just have to provide the popcorn and the right movie:

The lovely Bridget, of Bake @ 350 has taken "bark" to a whole new level with her Sweet Heart Conversation Candy Bark. A great idea to hand out to your neighbours or any little Valentine's fingers that might be around on the day:

The cute girls at One Charming Party have come up with simple yet effective idea. If you are stuck cooking on Valentine's night, why not bring as many hearts into the mix as you can. These home made heart shaped pepperoni pieces add a cute flair to store bought pizza for your sweetie pie:

And, just in case you forgot to get a card head on over to Eat, Drink, Chic for some DIY printable Valentine's cards and envelopes. You can never go wrong with polka dots!:

Have A Heart

I love these heart garlands that I found on "How About Orange"! They are a great way to use up fabric scraps, an easy sewing project for a beginner and a simple yet effective way to create something beautiful for your home.

A fabric stiffener is used to keep these hearts a fluttering. I looked in my local fabric store this weekend for a fabric stiffener, but they were out. I thought about trying starch but considering I live in a very damp little part of the world, I don't think that is such a good idea.

Alas, I will just have to wait till they get more in stock. In the mean time I can dream of what fabric I will use and how pretty they will look strung along the mantle or on the bannister going up the stairs, or in my cottage window...

For the How-To go here.

Sweet

Valentine's is fast approaching now. One week to go! When I decorate for  a holiday, I do it in pretty much every room in my house, just like my Mom. So, it only makes sense to me, that my computer has a touch of Valentine's as well!

I love the Gooseberry Patch wallpapers and from time to time I use them as my computer background. I loved their Valentine pancakes backdrop for this month and that is what is bringing a little pink Valentine's sweetness to my desktop, every time I turn on my computer.

We are working on Valentine's plans together. Maybe just a romantic dinner, maybe dinner and a movie, the cinema down the road is doing a one night only showing of Ghost, so that sounds like fun.

But first things first, will be Valentine's breakfast, I think Mr. Michie just might find some heart shaped pancakes waiting for him when he comes downstairs that morning like the ones pictured above, with fresh strawberries and whipped cream! I think that would start our day out perfectly!

(To get your own Valentine's backdrop go to Gooseberry Patch downloads)

Happy Valentine's Day

Last Minute Valentine's

Just case you still need to get your sweetie a Valentine or you need to make some last minute ones for friends the gorgeous A Field Journal Blog has a very sweet Valentine download.

What could be better than a homemade card? They are adorably retro with all the little hearts, very 80's. You could dress them up with a sprinkling of white, red or pink glitter.

Like me, she also remembers being little and having fond memories of school days' Valentine parties and secret message exchanges, munching away on heart shaped candies...

Click  below to go to her site and download your Valentine pack to make cards with or use to decorate a bag of sweets for your sweetie pie!

 

http://afieldjournal.blogspot.com/2010/02/grade-school-valentines.html

(All images are copyright to A Field Journal Blog)

Owl Be Yours

Just cleaning the house this morning and getting ready for the weekend. I love going into the weekend with the house fresh and ready for anything: relaxing, unexpected guests....



I am also busy wrapping up my Valentine's surprises today so I can hide them away for the Big DAY.

Cooking has also taken over my kitchen, I am making another batch of cupcakes, the house smells wonderful. The heavenly scent of chocolate is permeating every nook and cranny! Oops, I hear my buzzer time to go and pull the last batch out.....

I Wanna Hold Your Hand!

Aren't these Valentine's from Martha Stewart adorable? They made me think of being little when my art teacher would have us make all kinds of things out of our hands; turkeys for Thanksgiving and Rudolphs for Christmas.  This is a cute carry on from that. You would even make them more grown-up looking by adding on jewels for rings and bracelets if you were giving them to grown-up girlfriends.

Another sweet idea I saw were these Valentine's matchboxes on Inchmark.  They are too cute and if you combined them with the new lace paper cutters from Martha you could really dress these up, by cutting out trim in a Valentine's themed craft paper and wrapping them around your matchbox "gift" boxes.

Speaking of Valentine's gifts, one of the little projects I mentioned I was working on, I finished yesterday morning. It has taken me a bit of time to complete, I have had to steal away time when my Valentine hasn't been around. I am going to tie it to his Valentine's surprises! Shhh! Its a secret!




To make your own Valentine Hand Cards click here:

To make your own Valentine's matchboxes click here:

A Shopping Weekend

This weekend, I never stopped. I must have walked 50 miles! I went into London on Saturday to run a few errands and pick-up some items for projects I am working on at the moment, as well as some other bits & bobs and a few gifts.

It was sooo cold and I headed out early arriving before any shops had opened. So I marched to Starbucks and five minutes later armed with a hot chocolate and my Ipod filling my ears with Django Reinhardt (it is really amusing to watch the world go by, to certain tunes playing in your head as you walk along!) I headed down to one of my favorite haunts: Marylebone High Street.

Daunt Books' (always an early opener) door was cheerily propped open and I had a wander around. I love the smell of this store and their beautiful built in cases. It is such a pleasure to linger within those walls. Next, another early opener, V V Rouleaux to get some ribbon for a Valentine's gift I am working on.

After that I headed to Cath Kidston for a new ironing board cover and a Birthday gift and to Rococo's for some Valentine's Chocolates (Shhh! they are a surprise!). After that, I cut through the Cabbages & Frocks Market and headed back into town.

I met a friend for lunch and after dining, I headed into Liberty's on a haberdashery mission, alas, no luck! So, off to Anthropologie to pick up another little gift.

Next, it was off to Covent Garden to get my watch fixed, but Fossil had closed, hmmm! I was not happy! But, I went into Paperchase and got some adorable back to school surprises for someone special and a Valentine's Card for my sweetie!


So my Shopping List was almost fulfilled, I still have a few things left to get:

Cath Kidston-birthday gift and ironing board cover

Anthropologie

Air-Erasable Fabric Pen

Chocolates
New watch battery

Valentine's Card

Back to School surprise

Fabric-for new cushions

Turquoise thread

Yesterday, was spent at the NEC marching along the aisles of the Spring Fair on a buying trip. It was tiring, but a lot was accomplished! So, today I am just going to put my feet up and rest! I am pooped and you must be too after reading about my crazy adventures!

(Since I stupidly forgot to bring my lovely camera along, all images are copyright to : V V Rouleaux, Rococo Chocolates, Cath Kidston, Belle & Boo and Anthropologie)

Chocolate, Hearts & Roses

Look what fell into my hands this morning as I ran to the store to get a pint of milk... Oh happiness is! I have already had a sneak peek flip through of pages filled with pink hearts and a chocolate lover's heaven.

I am so happy today is Friday, because when I finish all my little jobs today, I am curling up on the couch with this in one hand and a good cup of hot chocolate in the other.  Until then, I am using the beautiful cover (I love the meringue hearts!) to spur me on in my projects.

I am just about finished with a small Valentine's bear order....

HeartFelt Love

I have had this project on my computer for awhile now. It is a very sweet tutorial from The Purl Bee! This is a wonderful site for all kinds of knitting/crocheting/sewing information, if you haven't discovered it yet, it is a real treasure! 

They also have a beautiful online store and sell really scrumptious fabrics, a few of which I am dying to get my hands on at the moment, but alas, I am trying to be good and have too many other projects on the go.

I am thinking of making up a few of these for friends.  Just tying them on to their Valentine's packages and not only is is something pretty and decorative, it is something to wear as well!

I am a scrap saver and I have a lot of really yummy pastel felt scraps in a big bag, so,  I am going to dig through that and make a few of these up! They would also look so pretty just in an antique glass jar or a little crystal bowl just sitting somewhere looking pretty and bringing you a little happiness!

If you want to make them too, you can find the full tutorial by clicking on the picture --->

Heart Day Countdown

There are only 13 more days to go until Valentine's! YIPPEE! I love celebrating Valentine's, especially the fun of it when you were little. We made shoebox "mailboxes" and got to decorate them in our classroom. Covering them with Valentine's colored construction paper and hearts and glitter...

My mom would take us shopping and we got to pick out what box of Valentine's we wanted to give. One year I picked a box of retro Valentine's cards to give away. The box was filled with cute cowboys, puppies, girls cooking in the kitchen. I loved the designs. Maybe that really started my love of vintage, I don't know? But, I have always collected vintage postcards and I have a nice collection of Valentine's & Christmas ones I dot around the house.

I would work hard one evening writing out my little cards for my classmates and then we had a morning where we all walked around and deposited them in the owner's mailbox.

Oh! the anticipation of pulling open the wee door to see what awaited us inside. Some people would have cards that held heart shaped lollipops and I savored it as I worked at my little desk, legs swinging underneath.  Sucking away until all the white writing came off... Or, I would be munching away on a little box of love hearts, reading the messages on top (because those are the rules) before I popped them in my mouth!

Two Crazy Crafters have been doing a really nice job of putting up all kinds of vintage Valentine's images and they have a list of projects to create with them as well. So, if you are looking for a little vintage Valentine inspiration, check them out.

1st Valentine's Candy of the Season

Last night while at the grocery store, I got my 1st bit of Valentine's candy. These little jellybeans just jumped right into my basket, they must be jumping beans, instead of jellybeans.

They tasted like the good Easter jellybeans, you know what I mean?... YUMMY!  So, last night while sitting on the couch with my sweetie and watching an episode of "Rescue Me" we munched away on Valentine's happiness! I have to go back for more, these would be adorable on top of cupcakes or pressed into a sugar cookie...the possibilities!!

P.S. speaking of hopping, those little bunnies hopped right into their box and hopefully by now are safely in the hands of the lovely Penelope.

Sugar Pie

It won't be too long before Valentine's Day arrives and I have been busy thinking about what I can make for my Sugar Pie (also the title of one of my favorite Subdudes songs)! I won't say too much because he does read this blog, but something handmade and embroidered might be coming his way...

I like to make heart shaped items for the day. Last year I kept it simple and baked heart shaped sugar cookies in a variety of sizes, and sprinkled them with pink and red sugar crystals.  They were festive and tasted delicious with a cup of hot chocolate and heart shaped marshmallows. Hmm, can you tell I like to have a theme going here?

I was looking at the gorgeous Serena's website today and saw her "Sweetie Pie" recipe.  These look too good not to try! When I am making a pie or anything else with pastry whether it be shortcrust or puff I always use my leftovers.  My Nana taught me to not be a wasteful cook!

She would roll out her left over dough into a rectangle, brush it with butter and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll them up in a log and slice, like a mini cinnamon bread pastry (great with a cup of coffee).  I do that or depending on my mood I will make small turnovers with whatever jam or jams we have going in the house at the moment.

So, this recipe has given me the idea of cutting out shapes the next time I have leftover dough to use, you just know they will taste that much sweeter because you are popping a little heart of love into your mouth!  Click on the picture below to be linked to the Farm Chicks website and this sweet recipe.

(All Images copyright The Farm Chicks, embellished by Jennifer Michie)