For as long as I can remember, the only thing that was ever exciting to me about Valentine’s Day was the chocolate. Not much has changed, really, which is why you probably won’t see much more about the upcoming holiday here. But, I do have my two little ones now and I try not to let my biases get in the way of their fun…too much.

In the spirit of being festive, I figured we’d make some V-Day inspired decor…3-D hearts!

I’m posting a tutorial for this easy project, not to insult your intelligence, but because I like taking pictures and I know some people really prefer to look at images rather than read.

What you’ll need:

painted cardboard (the girls painted the backs of oatmeal boxes).
ribbon
stapler
hot glue gun
scissors

First cut out small, medium, and large hearts. I used the same template that I used for our heart scarf then eye-balled the other two hearts from there.

Fold the smaller two sizes in half and layer all of them on top of the big heart. Then staple right in the middle. I covered the staple with a little dab of paint. Use the hot glue gun to attach the ribbon…and you’re done. That’s it.

When I originally added the ribbon, I intended on using it to hang the hearts. But that’s silly. These will only be up for a few weeks and I’m not about to puncture my wall for some fleeting decor. So, I used wall putty to stick them to the wall. That being said, you can forgo the ribbon if you’d like, thus alleviating the need for a glue gun!

We also went to the library a few days ago and brought back some Valentine-y books.

One particularly worth mentioning is the one on the  bottom: Secret Valentine. Just a simple story about a little girl who, with her mother, decides to skip the greeting card store and make all of her own valentines.

So sweet it just warms my heart right up.

She even makes one for her kitty.

Surely there are other decent Valentine’s books out there. Any suggestions?

I originally saw these thumbprint hearts on bookmarks. Very cute. I decided they would be just perfect for Valentine’s Day cards from the girls to the Grandmas.

Annabelle chose the yellow cardstock and the pink and blue paint. Blue for her and pink for her little sister. It actually took us several attempts to get the thumbprints to look like hearts. I’m sure this would be much easier for those not working with a 1 and a 2 year old.

For our little ones, we found that it was more difficult to get it right when we had their fists closed, as seen below:

Once we opened their hands up and had their thumbs sticking out, it lengthened the amount of thumb space we had to work with and made the process much easier!

I left the front cover as is with just the hearts and let them each leave a "message" inside. I really wanted the cards to be as much of them and as little of me as possible. These could definitely be jazzed up a bit, but I think I really like the simplicity of just two tiny hearts.

Charlotte doodled on the left and, it’s hard to see, but Annabelle wrote A’s all over her side on the right. I’m so proud of her and her writing. I do believe a writing journal will be coming soon.

We’ve been working on some Valentine’s decor here and there, so, if it turns out the way I hope it does, I’ll be posting it in the next couple of days.

See you soon!

Anytime the kids are sleeping!

No explanation necessary, I’m sure.

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Here are just a few things…

I love this guy:

I love this swirly whirly cinnamon roll belly button so much that I just want to gobble it up.

And I love these little twinkletoes:

She always walks on her toes.

Check out what other people are love by clicking here!

So, I kept you all in suspense, and all it was is this simple little scarf for the girls. Got the idea from Martha, but it came as no surprise to me that the idea was originated by Betz White (whom I’ve mentioned several times before). Just to catch you up, Betz White is the queen of felted sweater crafts…and she’s a genius.

I needed to do something with my felted sweaters and I thought the girls might like wearing this for dress up (because nobody actually wears scarves in Florida). I was going to just post a few pics of the completed scarf today, but I ended up taking some pics of Charlotte with the scarf…so now this is pretty much just a post with pictures of Charlotte playing with her new scarf…which she loves.

It’s actually a very cozy scarf. Charlotte went back and forth between snuggling with it and wearing it. So, if you’re north of the Mason Dixon line, you could probably make this to keep little necks warm during these last few weeks of winter.

She also drug it around quite a bit.

And of course, the pigtails. So cute. She’s eating a pine-needle.

There you have it. My littlest girl and her brand new felted heart scarf! Thanks for looking.

P.S. Can you tell I’m still playing around with PW’s actions? I’ve been meaning to take on a new “no photo editing” policy…but these actions are just so darn addictive!

bike helmet
bib
pants on backwards

If you’re anywhere else in the country and are thinking about coming down to Florida for a break from all the biting cold, don’t come this week! We’re getting ready to get hit with some VERY cold temps…reaching down into the 30s! Cold, indeed.

Now, on to the snowflakes!

The trick to painting a white snowflake is to paint the negative space so that snowflake comes out white. Very intuitive, for sure, but I only know this because I saw it someplace else first (if this looks familiar to you please let me know so that I can properly link).

I used watercolor paper and backed a foam snowflake with poster putty so that I wouldn’t have to worry about rippage when removing said snowflake.

This was such a great art project for the kids. For one thing it tied in very well with some of the winter books we’ve been reading. In addition, it’s one of those things that’s just really hard to screw up.

Both of them went at the paper with brushes and two shades of blue watercolor paint. I had to help get in to some of the crevices, but this was otherwise painted entirely by my two toddlers. And, maybe I’m just being a proud mama, but I think it turned out pretty darn good! 

Y’ all stay warm out there, ‘kay?

El Capitan

Captain VonChocolate was the result of this:

From our trip to the zoo last weekend. She wears her chocolate well, don’t you think?

Not a whole lot going on around here, lately. I think with the flurry of the holidays over we’ve been enjoying some much needed down time.

Time to rest.

Time to play.

And time to enjoy just being together.

I’m not sure how much I’ll be around in the coming weeks. I’ve been trying to learn to knit and I think I just need to have a few days to really focus on getting some rows completed. Plus, Charlotte recently moved in to her big sister’s room…which means we get our office back…which means I get to carve out a little crafting area for myself. I’ve been using the dining room table and I cannot wait to have a dedicated space all to myself.

See, now I’m thinking about being gone for a while and I just can’t do it. I’ve got meme’s to post and blog awards to pass along. I’ll be back soon…promise!

P.S. Don’t you just love how in that last paragraph I make it seem like people will be teetering on the edge of their seats as they wait for my return? Oh, how I flatter myself.

but pickin’ oranges in Great-Grandpa’s citrus groves was a real treat!

riding in the buggy on our way to the oranges

There’s nothin’ like sun-kissed Florida oranges. 

This slippery little fella was a lucky find.  My mom reached up to pick a tangerine and there he was!

The trees were literally dripping with citrus.

"Now how do you open this thing?"

What’s the best part about eating oranges?

Spitting out the seeds! 

They were so juicy, Annabelle ended up wearing much of hers.

And of course, we were happy to stop and say hi to "Big" Grandpa. He comes across all gruff and intimidating, but he’s really just a big teddy bear.
 

I think Annabelle’s favorite part was riding Grandma’s buggy. The breaks on it are out and it has the type of jerky ride that will leave you clinging to anything you can grab a hold of. It’s purple and turquoise with a leopard print steering wheel. Nothing could be more perfectly suited for my mother.

We came home with a basket of oranges destined to become Christmas Marmalade for our closest friends and relatives. Not sure what went wrong, but it had a weird aftertaste and never quite thickened past the consistency of syrup. We deemed it un-giftable but I’m determined to have it all figured out by next year.

For now, I’m putting the oranges behind me and looking ahead to strawberry season. We got our first taste of the season’s local strawberries from the store yesterday and I’m hoping to take them to a u-pick farm in the coming weeks. Strawberry shortcake anyone?