Make some Valentine Love Note Pockets this weekend!

I usually don't post during the weekend. But this was so incredibly sweet that I felt the need to share. Remember the Valentine Love Note Pockets I made this week? You need to make some. You NEED to!

I knew it would be a sweet way to leave notes for my kids. I figured they might put a note or two in for me. Maybe. I had no idea that they would be so in to it. I couldn't have imagined the sweet note that I found there the other night.


I don't think I have ever received a more touching Valentine.


My baby girl is the jewel.


Of course, my little man needed to make a card as soon as he heard his sister had.


He explained to me how he needed his sister to help, because he couldn't write in cursive. Apparently cursive is needed to have a fancy Valentine card.

When I went to take pictures of the card he had made, I found this one she had made for her brother.


She is right...he was a BIG baby!

I am incredibly blessed to be the mother two these two sweet, sweet children. So blessed.

So don't delay! Don't hang around looking at Pinterest this weekend thinking how crafty you could be. Get off the couch and make some Valentine Love Note Pockets. Believe me, it will be well worth the effort!

Valentine Heart Felt Garland

Remember when I bought all of these hearts on clearance at Target? I knew that I wanted to make garland from them. I have seen several people who made garland from the same hearts, but they have all been in the bright colors.

I went classic. I bought all red hearts. Something that I figured I would never lose interest in for Valentines Day. Blue and green hearts...yeah, I would donate those quickly. Red hearts...those can go the distance.

Should I really be worried about keeping these decorations long term? I did pay only 10 cents for 3 hearts. Kind of ridiculous to worry about it. In reality, the red just appealed to me more than the bright colors.

This was a really simple project. I took the hearts and cut off the gold hangers they had attached to the top. Next I took out a stash of black ribbon and tied a piece connecting two hearts. Then I moved on to the next heart and repeated the process. It would be a perfect project for the kids!

Here's how it looks hung on the fireplace:


The details are elegant, yet it is all very simple.


I made another one to hang inside my white cabinet.


If you weren't lucky enough to find these on clearance at Target, there is another option. Michaels has a similar product for sale now, but on a grand scale. They have large heart felt cut outs that are marketed as chargers to put under your plate. I saw them the other day and I think they may be a perfect match...only big. They would make a great Valentine piece! I may have to go and pick some up myself.

Go and take a look at these fabulous Valentine mantel ideas:

Little Bit of Love Sign

Do you remember this Pumpkin Patch sign I had up at Halloween? It originally started out at Home Goods, but I got it for free. It is now my new Valentine decor. Yep...I have a pumpkin patch sign up for Valentines Day.

I know, that sounds wrong. If you are thinking there is no way I have that up, then you know me well. I loved the size of the sign, and decided that I needed something just that size to go in its place. I was going to start from scratch and make something, but then I figured...why? Why not make something from this piece that I could use for a longer period of time?

So I took my sign and got ready to mix it up.


I wanted this to be a quick and easy project, so I figured black was my best bet at covering this quickly. So I gave it a quick cover with my Martha Stewart acrylic black paint.


I was going to cut out letters to spell LOVE with my Cricut machine, but when I looked at my machine, I saw this cute image instead:


I know, it kind of makes it a little bit "Valentiney" instead of just having the word Love. I am hoping that my paint choice helps keep it from looking too much like something that needs to be put away on February 15th.

I cut out the image and stuck it onto my sign. I pressed all of the edges down really well and used a fairly dry brush to apply my paint.


As you can see on the image, it did not work well. My paint had oozed quite a bit. Bummer! It was an easy fix though. I took a brush with some of the black paint and touched up the smudges. You can see the difference on the L vs. the rest of the image.

At this point, my sign just looked a little to new. It wasn't the rustic looking sign I had started with from before. So I took out my sander and roughed it up. However, that took off a bit too much paint and you could see words coming through.


I didn't want to see anything about a Pie Maker coming through on my Love sign. So I applied another layer of black to the body of the sign. It probably wasn't the best way to fix the problem, but it was quick and I wanted this project to be quick. I knew it would not be quick to sand it all down (like I should have done) and start all over. I also knew I did not want to attempt stenciling the image again. Lucky for me, my quick fix worked just fine.


Look how well it fills the blank wall space next to my "Costco Crush." I wanted the sign to be simple, but I felt like it was missing something.

I didn't want it to be busy. I wanted simple. But it needed something more. So...


I added a few red glass bottles I picked up at a Thrift Store last year and a simple Gerber Daisy in each bottle. I love it. It was just what that space needed.

I can't wait to show you the entire cabinet. It is all dressed up for Valentines Day now!

Wonderful Wednesday...Changeable Frame and Free Valentine Art

I LOOOVE free printables! Nothing is more exciting than coming across a new printable to decorate my house...for FREE! It really is one of the greatest things about creative blogs.

One of my favorite pieces I have made, is a simple frame that I use to display a different printable each holiday. It is such a useful piece! It started as an outdated frame with an old painting inside. It wasn't attractive, but it had great shape to it. So I took it apart, primed it with Rustoleum primer and then a coat of Rustoleum Dual Coverage Heritage White.

Since the inside had been a painting, I replaced it with a piece of cardboard. I took an old box and gave it a coat of spray adhesive. I placed a piece of burlap on top and smoothed it down. Next, I measured the inside opening of the frame to find the size of cardboard I needed.


I used a ruler and rotary cutter to cut out my burlap covered cardboard piece.


Next I simply ran a bead of hot glue along the inside of the frame and then pressed the cardboard into place.


I finished off the project by hot gluing a magnetic bull nose clip onto the top of my cardboard piece.


I love this piece because it is so easy to change what this frame holds. It is a great place to showcase a special paper from school or a sweet note written by my kids. You can change it every day and it requires practically no effort at all. It is fabulous!

If I did another project like this one, I would change one key component. Instead of using cardboard, I would use a piece of metal flashing. I would still cover it with burlap, but it would take away the need to glue the magnetic clip into place. This would make the project more versatile.

Just look how it looks for Valentines Day...


I LOVE it! This awesome printable was posted on Honeybear Lane by another creative Heidi. She even has it available in 4 different colors! Really? A fabulous FREE printable with 4 different colors? I must be dreaming! Head on over and check out Honeybear Lane. Thanks Heidi!

I can't wait to show you another project tomorrow. It uses the red felt hearts from my Target Christmas clearance find and adds a nice pop of color to this section of my cabinet. See you tomorrow!

Valentine Love Note Pockets

I am going to tell you a dirty little secret. I am terrible at getting done all the projects that I plan. I bought Gingerbread House kits for my kids for Christmas...we still have them. In my defense, we were all sick the week before Christmas.

Puking + Gingerbread Houses DOES NOT = a Merry Christmas.

Of course, I paid for them, so we will use them. Haven't you ever heard of a Valentine House? Me either...but we will have them this year!

This project started from another one of those projects that fell to the wayside. I bought these hearts last year for Valentines Day:


I haven't looked to see if they sell them this year, but it would be simple to make, especially if you didn't add the white ric rac. I personally wish it wasn't on there for my son's heart, but I was going to use these since I already had them.

I made a stencil with my Cricut machine.


I started stenciling with white paint, but it just wasn't right. I used an inexpensive acrylic paint, which is quite thin, and I just couldn't get good coverage. I scrapped that idea and used black acrylic paint from Martha Stewart. Her paints are so thick and cover beautifully. You pay a little more for her paint, but it works so much better...it is definitely worth the extra cost.

Once I had stenciled a letter for each of us, this is what I had:


I liked it alot, but I wanted a little more detail. I wanted a little more sparkle. So I found these:


Did you know that the back of black rhinestones are black, not silver. It makes sense, but the backs are always silver.

I wanted to put them somewhere we would see them often. Somewhere we would see when a new "Love Note" had been left inside. So I decided to hang three metal hooks on a small wall. The hooks were a great idea, and I already had them. They looked great, until I got to the third hook and was missing one of the black screws.


Yuck! Could that be any more obvious?


I took my Martha Stewart black acrylic paint back out and squirted a dab right onto my brush. I carefully dabbed it onto my super shiny screw.


Perfect! You would never know the screw wasn't from the original set.


Look how sweet these look!


And with a little "Love Note" inside...it makes you want to rush right over and check them out!


What better way to show the people in your life that you love them than with daily little "Love Notes." Valentines Day shouldn't be just about February 14th...we should be showing that love every day.

Orca Research

Last week I mentioned that my daughter had a big project she was working on for school. Her class is doing research on ocean animals. Does it make me a total nerd to say I was REALLY excited about this project? I am not a total geek who loves doing research, just one who adores ocean animals. She chose to do her research on Orcas.

So today we went to do some "hands on" research...


Ok, so maybe "hands on" is a bit of an exaggeration, but we went to have breakfast with Shamu. Oh yeah, life in Southern California is rough!


How can you mind doing homework when you get to spend your time watching these beauties up close and personal?

We got up close and personal with two Orcas today: Nakai and Kalia...they are fairly young siblings. Brother and Sister...perfect for my kids. Although we are now all about Kalia. We were told that she was easy to spot due to the three black marks on her eyespot. My daughter quickly followed that up with "She's the Orca me!" Aaah. My sweet little girl has freckles all across the bridge of her nose and scattered across her cheeks. Now she has a matching Orca buddy.


We were able to spend some time at the underwater viewing area before we left. I've heard that dolphins can recognize their trainers even in "street clothes." Orcas are a type of dolphin and they are so smart! So when Kalia swam over and watched my daughter and I up close for awhile...well, I am convinced that she remembered us from breakfast! There is nothing quite like looking directly into the eye of an Orca! It is amazing! Thanks Sea World for another FANTASTIC day.

I wanted to share with you all a really fun contest going on right now.



Simply link up your project that you have completed during January. It is that simple. Plus, you have a chance to



Go take a look. If you don't have anything to post, go and look at all the other great ideas. Good luck!