Our most clicked link this week was Jamie from The Creative Imperitive and her adventures in making a “Calm Jar“. LOVED this post – especially the magical unicorn vomit part. :)

Now it’s your turn!

Here are the “Rules”. ;)

1.Link up NEW tutorials, refashions, recipes, printables, DIY, etc. Basically – anything we can make!!
(No more than 4 links please!!! – I’ll delete more than that.)
Please Don’t link up giveaways, things you’re selling, or link parties!

2. Add a text link or button to your post or somewhere on your blog.
(Make sure you link up the URL to the Post – not just your blog.)

3. I’d love it if you would follow along!
You’ll want to check back and see if you’ve been featured!!

4. Visit!!! Be Inspired! Share some comment love!
Please visit at least the person linked up before you and leave them a sweet comment.

I’ll be doing Facebook and Twitter features throughout the week -
and sharing my Crushes (Features) here on Friday!

Can you believe it is already February?? It doesn’t even feel like February. We have 70 degree weather here. Not that I’m complaining or anything.

Let’s check out some fabulous features from Sunday’s party!

I am so impressed with this Union Jack Crate from Lauren at West Furniture Revival! She made it out of a pallet and a crate! She did a great job on the painting and distressing and the hardware she chose is just perfect!

I haven’t done cross stitch in – oh – forever, but I love these sweet Cross Stitch Ombre Hearts by Allison at Little Lovelies! She has a great tutorial too – if you have been wanting to try cross stitch this would be a great project!

Amy from Sweet Little Smoothie whipped up some Blackberry Filled Double Chocolate Cupcakes. Um. Wow.
These look amazing!

Serious cuteness here – check out this Argyle Hoodie from Melissa at Melly Sews! Soooo great! I think I want one in grownup size. With yellow and gray argyle. yep.

Aimee from Fancy Little Things has several handmade Valentine’s Card ideas for you!! I love the little stitched Arrow and Heart – but this Button One is my favorite. Ahem.

Here is a super cute treat from the girls over at Six Sister’s Stuff! They linked up the recipe for these Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizzas! I think they are so pretty and I would sorta feel like I was not cheating on my diet. Fruit’s good for you right?

Alison from Oopsey Daisy has a super sweet Valentine’s Printable! She has it in a bunch of colors and a really pretty chevron version – but I love the way she printed it on Kraft paper and added a little chocolate heart!

Whoa! Lots of awesome features!!
If you were featured and would like a button – they’re here! Grab one and show it off!

Now it’s time for some Highlights of the Week!

Best Day of the Week had to be Wednesday – when Apronology came out. Actually – that was probably the Best Day of the Year so far. Click here to read why. :) Thank you for all your sweet comments!!

Let’s go ahead and skip straight to the Weird Searches shall we?
•   We had someone asking the burning question, “what is a spa head band used for?”. Well. I’d say spa headbands are used for the same thing that regular headbands are used for. Except they charge a ton of money to do it and they probably smell like eucalyptus.
•   We also had someone land here with the search, “chald fabrickboar“. Um. Had to Google that one – and nothing came up. Not one thing. So I’m thinking it was possibly an alien searching for cute Anthro necklaces. Either that or someone fat-fingered their entire search. I’m going with the aliens.
•   Someone out there is looking for a “tutu for the neck“. That’s a new one to me. But since I love wearing scratchy-fluffy-elastic necklaces – I’ll jump right on a tutorial.
•   Last up we had the question, “what kind of arts and crafts can you make from pinterest“. Clearly this poor individual has never been on Pinterest or they would know you can find pretty much anything there. Let’s have a moment of silence.

. . .

Ok then! Have a fabulous weekend and don’t forget to check in for Think Pink Sundays!
Even if you don’t have anything to link up – there’s always tons of inspiration!

That’s pretty much the sound I made (in my head) when this awesomely wonderful publication showed up at my door.

Hi Beautiful Magazine!

Apronology is a semiannual magazine put out by Somerset Studio and it’s entirely dedicated to handmade aprons.
Frilly, retro, stylish, sassy - and all super cute.

Can you guess why it’s my all time favorite magazine?

I am in it!!!

(Unfortunately I am not one of those people who can be all calm and sophisticated when things like this happen.
Sorry – be prepared for gushing and excessive exclamation points!!)

Ready to see?

My pretty Fair Apron. I made this for our County Fair Apron contest 2 years ago and came up with a big fat goose egg there.
Those silly fair judges. :)

Me !!!!!!!!!

The apron is made with a little placket on the bib and an asymmetrical hem – both are edged in crochet trim that I made!

It was such a fun apron to do and I’m so excited that it made the magazine!
I posted this a while ago – click here for the tutorial.
(Please excuse the sad pictures in that tutorial. I was young and inexperienced and had no idea how to take decent blog photos. ;)

But that’s not all!!! (said in my announcer voice)
I have TWO aprons in the magazine!!

They also chose my Let’s Eat Cake apron – another of my favorites!!

Do you remember this one? Probably not – it was ages ago too!

This little half apron was designed around the sweet cake ribbon I found on vacation. I love the retro feel of the gingham along with the little embroidered pocket and the scalloped hem!

The tutorial for this apron is here.

So I am a beyond thrilled (obviously)!

The staff at Apronology was so great and I have been a fan of the magazine for a while. To actually be included in this issue is amazing to me!

Update: Some of you have asked where you can pick up a copy of Apronology – I have seen them at Joann’s and Barnes and Noble. I know some craft stores have them (though I don’t think Michael’s does).
I hope that helps! :)

I have to say thank you soooo much for all your support and encouragement!
Honestly you have made such a difference with all your sweet comments and notes –  and without you I doubt I would have ever managed to get enough courage to submit anything!

One more . . . Yayyyyyy! :)

Ok. Back to normal now. ish.

Details on Monday!

(How’s that for an incredibly short Teaser?? :)

My kitchen has been looking a little lonely now that the Christmas decorations are gone so I decided to make a fun little dish towel to brighten the room up!

Here it is!

It has some sweet ruffled circles on the bottom and shabby stitched hearts for decoration.

Cute huh? It’s pretty quick and easy too!

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

1 Dish towel (bought this one at Target)
(This towel is 16″ x 27″. If yours is a different size, you’ll need to adjust amounts and measurements)
4 different fabrics (you’ll need 10 – 3″ circles from each plus fabric for hearts)
Rick Rack (of course. Cause we don’t make dish towels around here without rick rack)
Ribbon

Start by cutting your circles for your ruffles. I used my Accuquilt – it was super fast with their Circle Die -
But you could definitely cut them by hand too. You’ll need 10 – 3″ circles of 2 of the colors, 9 – 3″ circles of the other two colors.

Decide what is going to be the first row. Fold your circles for this row into quarters. Pin ten circles evenly across the bottom of the dish towel.
This is kind of the same method the awesome Simple Simon & Co. girls use for their crazy cute Bustle Skirt.

Sew the little circles down close to the top. Since I was using white thread that blended with the towel, I sewed a straight line across the top of all the circle points, about 1/4″ below the point.

Start the next row of circles (this row will have 9), laying these between the circles below. Overlap them just a bit.

Continue layering your circles until you have four rows sewn on.

Cut a length of small rick rack approx. 20″ long.
Tie a small bow on each end, so that a small 2 1/2″ tail of rick rack is on each side. Burn the ends slightly so they won’t fray.

Center the rick rack on the dish towel, so the bows are about 9″ up from the bottom edge and 4″ in from each side. This should make a little curve in the rick rack between the bows.
Sew the rick rack onto the dish towel.

Cut out 4 hearts – 3 of one fabric and one of a contrasting fabric. Lay the hearts so the tops just overlap the rick rack curve.

Sew down the hearts – you can use a single stitch, a satin stitch – or for a sketchy-er look – sew around them three times with the stitching lines not in exactly the same place.

I used a dark gray thread so the stitching would outline the hearts a bit.

To finish off the dish towel add a row (or two) of ribbon along the top row of the ruffles. Sew down the ribbon so it overlaps the circles and covers the top row of stitching.
Burn the ends of the ribbon to prevent fraying and wrap the ribbon around the edges of the dish towel.

Add a contrasting ribbon on top for a little more color.

And that’s it!!

A fun, cute way to dress up a store-bought dish towel!

It would make a cute Teacher or Neighbor Valentine’s gift, along with some treats!

I’d love to hear what you think!

I’m linking to Sunday Scoop, Today’s Creative Blog, Met Monday, Skip to my Lou, Tutorials & Tips Tuesday, Funky Junk Interiors, Quilt Story and the other fabulous parties on the sidebar – make sure you check them out!