Valentine's Day is the king of our punning holidays. It's like one big celebration of humor's most maligned form. Another reason that I am so darn fond of it. (There is another yarn pun in that last sentence. I am a punning ninja!)

These are the lacing card valentines that Willa and I made for her classmates. I can still make valentines with her. Lowell has no patience for it. He never really did, to be honest. Not his cup of tea. For instance, not in a million years when he was four would he have ever sat and done this:

Never. Not ever. He gave out Highlights hidden picture valentines and then convinced Willa to make a homemade one for his teacher. He is becoming very adept at Tom Sawyer-ing her. My inner older sibling is so proud. 

Hope your Valentine's Day is lovely. You know I choo-choo choose you!

The other day I was playing around with some paper tubes and had a "Eureka!" moment. As much as one can have a "Eureka!" moment playing with toilet paper leftovers. 

Making toy binoculars out of two toilet paper tubes is a classic preschool craft, but I thought, wouldn't it be cute to make heart-shaped ones for Valentine's Day?

Uh, that'd be an affirmative. So I made one for Lowell, too. With pirate-itude.

Arrgh! I be scoping you out! The best part though, is the view through the scopes (even the binoculars thanks to the magic of stereoscopic vision).

Be still my heart.

P.S. I've posted a tutorial over at Roses Are Blue for anyone interested in making these.

The other day I was catching up on some of my favorite blogs and saw this cake by Alicia Paulson (who, by the way, rules) and thought, "Yes, I'm going to make myself a cake like this for my birthday." And, lo, I actually did it. 

It's not quite as pretty, but it was delicious. Chocolate cake with my favorite strawberry buttercream frosting. (When you bake your own cake you get exactly what you want!) As for the birthday banner, I have seen lots of awesome ones like this on Pinterest with very elaborate paper cut-outs. I cheated and used some gold letter stickers I had on hand from the dollar bin at Target. Took me all of 10 minutes to make. Excellent short-cut.

My birthday weekend was lovely. Excellent gifts, 2 breakfasts, dinner out, loads of birthday wishes (Facebook, in this regard, is awesome) and then, as a big cherry on top, the Giants won the Super Bowl on (almost) my birthday. Again. Not bad for turning 21 a second time. 

 

Hello, internet. I'm back. I didn't mean to take a hiatus but I did. A big one. I have no idea what's going to happen with this blog, but for now I am just going to keep on typing. It's been 7 years this December so the sunk-cost mentality is kicking in. That, and nobody else out there is going to tell my story so I might as well keep doing it. If you are reading this, know that I love you and appreciate you still visiting my blog when clearly I don't deserve it. 

While I was out, I took some pictures. Below are some of the highlights from the last 9 months in reverse chronological order. The last one is of me, at Jazz Fest in New Orleans in the spring when I found a new use for my cleavage. (That sentence is a carrot for you to get all the way to the end.) Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm in the middle of making my first dress (more about that later) and really needed a better pincushion for removing all those pins while sewing. I made this ring one and love the way it turned out. It's made with the inside pull-ring of a milk carton- a cool up-cycling idea that came from this post on CRAFT:blog. I felted the pincushion instead of using stuffed fabric because I like the way the felted wool holds pins. It's stiffer stuff and helps cut down on the accidental pricking. And of course a tomato was the obvious choice. It works like a dream - couldn't be more pleased. And I kind of want to wear it all the time because it's so damn cute.

I'll be posting more pics on Roses Are Blue today if you're interested in how it was made.

Update: Tutorial posted.