Shoo-shoo-shoo Sugar Town*

Was your Valentine's Day sweet? Mine was. Grandson Colton was here. We played trains. We played in the play house. We napped in my bed which truthfully meant I balanced myself on the edge of our queen sized mattress and wondered how one little person can take up so much room and throw off so much heat.

 

Everyone bought candy for everyone else. Hershey's, Mars, Whitman's and Russell Stover all made money last week. Pepperidge Farm did too, as Goldfish are one of Colton's favorite snacks. I had a strip of blue cardstock that was the same width as the small Goldfish carton, so I wrapped it around the carton, creasing the edges and taped the top shut. The fish were stamped on solid green and on green plaid papers and given air bubbles of green glitter glue.

 

Another thing my grandson loves are the characters from Disney's Cars. I found this idea on a Disney site. The bodies and tires are two layers of cardstock. The tires are glued at the top only and sandwiched between layers of the body. With the bottom open, they are somewhat splayed so they will stand up. The eyes and mouths were printable downloads along with the body and tire patterns. I colored the eyes with Copics. This quick project was a big hit.

 

Lightning McQueen read (on the back) that Colton "auto" be my Valentine. 'Mater's said that he "wheelie" loved Colton.

It is never to early to teach a love of puns, is it?

Colton's mommy got Cherry M&Ms in a tube with a card that had an opening for the tube, and baggies with the remaining M&Ms and rapsberry Kisses. She got them for being berry sweet and always cherry....er, cheery.

My boys are "da bomb" so they each got 3 Rolos wrapped in red with a gold pipe cleaner fuse.

Hubby's card used a stamp that featured the character Tina, made by AI (Art Impressions). The inside stamped greeting read "Of course I love you...who else would put up with me?"

 

Now it is time to concentrate on birthdays again. Hubby catches up to me today (for 5 months I hear about being so much older than he is), followed soon by Colton's and his daddy's birthdays. Throw in a few cousins and a sister-in-law and we'll be eating cake until summer arrives!

 

* (from the post title) Anyone have Nancy Sinatra (or Zooey Deschanel) humming in their head now, singing Sugar Town?

 

Is it true love?

Remember being a very young girl and thinking you would know true love immediately? You probably had an experience that followed when your world crashed down around you when you found out your one true love didn't love you back any longer. Did you ask your mama if you would ever find true love? Or maybe you were young enough to think your mama didn't know anything, or you didn't think you could ask her such a question. I could talk to mine, but I didn't really believe her. She loved me. She was my mom. Of course she would say that I would find someone wonderful.

Next month will be the 37th anniversary of the night I met Bill. Did good friends introduce us? No. Was it a romantic setting? Hardly. It was the parking lot of a bowling alley and bar! Did I know right away? No, but after talking to him for an hour or two and not remembering what any of his friends or mine had been talking about, I knew something special was happening.

We've been married since 1975 and I've never doubted or regretted anything about our relationship and marriage. Thank you, Mom, for telling me the truth. Thank you too, to all the dates and boyfriends who came before Bill. They weren't mistakes, they were learning experiences. Thank you Dad, for having the patience to wait for me to discover their flaws instead of strangling a few of them as I am sure you wished to do. In my youth, I didn't realize what a good example my parents were setting. They were just my parents, people I took for granted.

After all these years of marriage, Bill and I sometimes discuss the difference between being comfortable and sure of each other versus taking each other for granted. Am I comfortable and sure that he loves me? Yes. Do I take that for granted? I suppose I do sometimes. Why this post on this day in my blog? Because I had a miserable cold and my dear husband who hates to go to the store and who fiercely avoids taking medication went to the drug store Saturday (Valentine's Day), asked the pharmacist what I should take that wouldn't interfere with my prescriptions and would make me feel better. I have one dose left in the box so I will be going out for more this afternoon, but I am saving the cover of the box that he bought me along with the Valentine card he gave me. The showier displays are wonderful, but the little day to day things are truly much bigger.

Is this true love? You betcha!

Love on Wednesdays, week 2 for me

This poor sign hangs near my front door. It has been repaired and repainted more times than I can count, and is in need of both again. The hearts were originally just glued together. Now they are glued and tacked, but when the wind blows out of the north, the sign bangs against the porch rail behind it. I am ready to do something different with it anyway, so I will work on it before I pack it away for 2010.

I wanted to take a photo of this heart at night when it is truly dark outside, but my camera leaves a lot to be desired in that effort. The room is often unlit this time of year, so the heart really glows to passersby.

In Michigan, storms and screens are pretty much a necessity. Screens prevent the Frankenstein sized mosquitoes from entering the house when all you really want is a little fresh air, and storms to stop some of the cold from leaking in around the entry door. This wreath of roses is flat enough to between the inner door and the storm door without becoming smooshed.

There are some stuffed animals scattered throughout the house with Valentine themes. Press behind the heart on this little devil and you'll hear a wolf whistle.

This bear in ladybug's clothing is sitting on top of the curio cabinet, keeping tabs on all of Cupid's happy victims.

Oops! I forgot to put the snowman pillow away. Maybe the snowman is the one who kissed the heck out of that Beanie baby!

This one is so admittedly corny, I should be embarrassed. But I'm not. Squeeze his paw and he sings "Wild Thing, You make my heart sing, You make everything....grooooooovy. Wild thing, I think I looooove you"

For more Love on Wednesday posts, please visit Coloradolady by clicking on her cute photo.

May you all know love today, every Wednesday, and every other day of your lives. It makes the world go round, you know.

Love on Wednesdays

I've joined Coloradolady's Love on Wednesdays photo meme. For more information, click on the cute picture of her furbabies' toy.

If it were daylight, I could take a photo of the the hearts that greet you at my front door. Since it is after 10 at night, those photos will have to be taken tomorrow for another Wednesday. I'll bypass the entrance for now and show you the hearts that are on the wall opposite my front door. Is three just a nice number in decorating, or do the three hearts represent the men in my life? I'll let you decide.

These two figures are small. Sometimes they are tucked into spots while larger objects steal their thunder. This year I've tried a minimalist approach (which is a real stretch for someone like me!) on top of the entertainment center. These figures sit with an assortment of candles. They watch us watching TV.

May we all have Love in our lives on Wednesdays, and every other day of the week!

Happy Chinese Valentine's Day!

No, I didn't make up a new holiday, but combining Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day doesn't sound unreasonable to a craft addict. I should be doing many other things today, but I am SO TIRED of it being SO COLD here in Michigan that I am rebelling. No sense being practical and productive when you feel like this, right?

Yesterday I made two fabric fortune cookies. The inspiration is here at the Brassy Apple, but I didn't follow Megan's directions exactly. I didn't have iron on interfacing, so I sewed the fortune cookie on the left the traditional way (two fabrics, right sides together, thin quilt batting on top, sewn almost completely around with an opening left for turning). The one on the right is simply layered and stitched around the raw edges. It would probably look better if done on a serger, or done with matching thread, but these are my prototypes.

I think they are cute and plan to try it them using wool felt next. The mug in this photo was a $2 find at Home Goods. It was supposed to make me feel cheery despite the cold weather. It isn't working. I should have sprung for the $3 mug....maybe that one would have been more powerful!


This morning I thought I would try paper fortune cookies, based on directions given here, at For the Love of Paper. I have paper that has a coordinating print on the other side that would be cute for this project. If you look closely, you may notice that the paper cookie is about to spring open.

A second swipe of adhesive solved that problem. Here are my fat free fortune cookies on a heart plate with today's coffee mug.

Even though I drink decaf, I really NEED coffee to start my day, even when the weather is warm.
* sigh *
Remember warm weather?

I think I am done playing around with blogger templates for awhile. Maybe. I can't rearrange furniture the way I used to, so playing with the blog appearance has been a handy substitute. I do have a photo I'd like to use in the header, but that is on the sick computer.

* another sigh *

Oh, and silly me...those ants that I thought may have moved on? They are doing the macarena in my bathroom as I type. Couldn't I at least have ants that are up to date with the latest dances?