Valentine's Day Decorations in Our House

I love Valentine's Day - maybe because my favorite color is pink and I think adding hearts and happy colors benefits any home decor?  Even if it's sickly sweet your kids are sure to love it!

a little Mommy & Daughter crafting! (see below for the finished project!)

our Valentine's mantle

I was able to do some 'on the cheap' decorating this year - I raided our local Dollar Tree, found fabulous inspiration on Pinterest and rustled up some of the decor I already had from years past.  

I'm really happy with how things turned out and I even ended up with a fun keepsake that my daughter and I crafted together.  

(this art was inspired by this idea: Crazy Wonderful Subway Art)

The love garland was made using three pink placemats that I found at Dollar Tree.
I just threaded them onto red ruffled ribbon

love this heart garland - here's a link to my what inspired me to make it: Scrapper Girl Photo Strip Heart Garland

I kept the white finial (was up with my Christmas decor) as well as the bird and birdcage but added these AWESOME candy jars!  My inspiration:

Source:  eighteen25 Pickle Jar Project

My version!  I love that they're white - can be used for any/all the holidays!
Just change out the candy and/or the ribbon!

My favorite piece this year - a little birdhouse that my daughter painted  :)

love this little area in our dining area... unfortunately I took an awful picture of it.  More heart garland that I pinned to the wall, a vintage table cloth on top of a console table, a piece of canvas board painted with chalkboard paint and adorned with a heart and some mercury glass jars with candy!

a great printable that I found on eighteen25
(can you tell I LOVE their blog yet?), a fun candy dish, votives in mason jars with pretty ribbon & ric rack, vintage doily and tin - this vignette sits on my credenza in my front entry....

and what's a holiday with kids if you don't have vinyl clings for your windows & mirrors?  my 2 year old put these up.... not that it's not obvious or anything.  ;)

I will be linking this to:

No Blog For A Month? Craziness! (Or Laziness?)

Fans:  (i.e.  some family & a few friends),
I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I last made a post!  I'm a bit embarassed but at the same time - our lives the last month have been crazy and hectic and so beyond my comprehension of 'normal' that blogging here was the last item on my to do list.  That of course meant it just kept moving down further on the list as new things popped up.  ;)
My husband had to leave us for the WHOLE month of December... now a month for many of my military wife friends really isn't much, but December?  When we are thousands of miles from our family AND it was over the holidays... it was rough.  We sure were glad when my husband got home!

Since then, madness has reigned supreme.  My baby, who was a seemingly perfect sleeper suddenly became the worst, so I was up constantly throughout the night.  Nap time in our house quickly became nap time for EVERYONE.  (Even our dog seemed to know and he was usually in on his bed before the rest of us!)  And nap time is usually when I sewed/blogged/crafted....  Then the flu hit.  My 2 year old got it first and then a day or so later, my husband and I got it within an hour of each other.  It's comical now to think about how we were basically taking turns throughout the night springing up from our bed and running to the bathroom.  At the time though, nothing about it was funny.  Then we went to Disneyworld.  (We are certifiably crazy, huh?)  Well, where we live now it's a 3 hour drive to 'the happiest place on earth' and it seemed like such a fun thing to do once my husband had returned from deployment so we went.... not sure if going the same week after we'd all had the flu was the best idea but at least our 2 year old had a blast!  (the rest of us were sleep deprived from the 'perfect sleeper who was no more' being awake all night.)

Have I been sewing?  Not really.  I completed a special project for my cousin before Christmas - he and his fiance wanted me to sew stockings for them.  They did turn out wonderful, especially since it was my first attempt making stockings:

I also am half-finished with another custom order for a good friend in Washington.  She wanted some decor for her youngest son's room so I started making a personalized banner and a window valance.  Then they found out about a (very long time coming) promotion for her husband which means they were going to be moving ASAP!  So.... the valance still needs to be made but first they need to find a house, move and then get settled and she'll send me some window measurements.  Obviously I'm not going to rush her!

Otherwise, I've been a very lazy sewer.  I think I overdid myself prior to Christmas and can anyone else attest that Pinterest - although wonderful at providing new and exciting ideas, it can be a bit overwhelming!  There are some fantasticly awesome ideas that I've 'pinned' that I would love to just go crazy making but who has all that time (or money)?  A lot of the crafts I've seen are do-able and getting out my trusty glue gun is easier than loading up the sewing machine with thread and a bobbin so I've focused on some small projects instead.  Here are a few of them:

a little artwork and color for the 'toilet room' in our master bath!  
subway art quotes and fabric stretched on embroidery hoops!

the cutest little jars!  saw this idea on pinterest - $1.00 glass candlesticks from the dollar store, jars of pickles & mandarin oranges (also from the dollar store) - spray paint candlesticks and lids then glue jars to candlesticks!  Voila!  So cute and because they're white.... I can re-use for ALL the holidays!  

heart garland made out of scrapbook paper and yarn

subway art using a pre-stretched canvas

Our Holiday Mantle

My mantle this year has a little bit of everything.  Of course I used Pinterest as inspiration (I think EVERYTHING I do lately is Pinterest inspired!) to create some new decor but I also used a lot of items that I already had in my Christmas decor 'stash'.

I incorporated some aqua into the traditional mix of red, white and green...  mainly because I use it in my existing decor and because it's part of the curtains I use to hide the bottom cubbies in my mantle surround.  It tied in really nicely and I like that it gives the decor a bit of warmth.

 The focal point of our mantle is the JOY that I created using a pinterest tutorial I had found.  You can read a little more about it in my last blog post.  The stocking holders are Target specials and the stockings were on clearance a couple years ago from Pottery Barn.  (I thought ahead and bought four even though we only had one kid at the time... smart, huh?  ;)  I still need to get the fourth embroidered with baby #2's name though - will someone remind me to do that after Christmas please?

The vase is a craft fail that I keep using... so I guess it wasn't as much of a fail as I thought?!  The 'berry sprigs' were bought on Black Friday at JoAnne's.

I also crafted this cute pom pom garland using more of the yarn in my craft closet!  It's playful and fits in with the rest of the decor well.

 To one side of the mantle is a few different crafts and finds.  The scrapbook loop trees are a great craft I made last year (you can read about how I created them in this post here).  The papers I was able to find have some of the aqua in them so again - it all works out!  The white architectural element I found a few years ago at Tuesday Morning.  The white bird house is normally in baby #2's room with headbands draped on it's spires.  :)  The green tree is metal and is one of two I found on Black Friday at TJMaxx!  They are so cute and add the height I need in those cubbies.

 On the right side of the mantle is two more of the scrapbook loop trees, in addition to some white spray painted pinecones and a birdhouse I normally keep in my bathroom for decor.  When I took this picture I had just put some white twinkle lights inside (another Pinterest idea) but unfortunately there's no electrical outlet nearby and it would've looked ridunculous to have an extension cord draped up there to give it power!  I actually ended up swapping out the lights for a garden sculpture of a bird that I spray painted white - it looks MUCH better!

And of course there's Bobby, our Elf on the Shelf.  He was keeping an eye on my girls perched on the pinecones here when I took the picture.  :)

Thanks for stopping by to see how I decorated my mantle for the holidays!  I am going to be linking up to the Mantle Party on Home Stories of A to Z!

Go check out some of the other awesome mantles that are featured there!  So many great ideas!  I need to start 'pinning' away for ideas for next year.  ;)

It's never too early to start planning, right?

Pinterest Love & Holiday Decorating at the Pursewna Home

Have you checked out Pinterest yet?  If you haven't - you need to.  Or maybe I should warn you that you shouldn't.  It's addicting.  I seriously do not have enough time or money to do all the things I'd like to do that I've found on Pinterest.  From recipes to toddler activities to crafts and DIY projects - so much fantastic inspiration!!!!!
Here are some great ideas/things that I've pinned recently:

The craft room I would give my right arm to have -

Source: via Pinterest

A great idea for our 'naughty chair' -

Source: angiepollsplace blog via Pinterest

An awesome Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake -

Source: Tasty Kitchen Blog via Pinterest

Painting words on wood - 

Source: thatsmyletter blog via Pinterest

If you'd like to follow me - click here:  FIND ME ON PINTEREST!

Pinterest led me to create some pretty fantastic holiday decor this year - I found quite a few neat/inexpensive crafting ideas to do to add to our 'holiday magic' around the house.  Here are a few of those projects:

#1:  Yarn wrapped letters - I purchased the letters J, O and Y at JoAnne's and used leftover yarn from one of my yarn wreaths (see my Etsy shop: Pursewna for examples).
The Pinterest inspiration:

Source: www.sarahortega.com via Pinterest

The results of my 'crafting':

Ack!  That "Y" is looking pretty sloppy!  I did it first... by the time "J" rolled around I was doing pretty good.  The trick?  Cutting a bunch of 3-4 inch strips and laying them down next to each other to do the ends of each letter.  Then snip the excess and wrap around the letter over that.  (That probably doesn't make ANY sense - if you're interested in a tutorial, let me know!)

#2:  Burlap Ruffle Wreath - I purchased an 18 inch wreath at the dollar store, added quilting batting that I already had to make it a uniform shape, lots of hot glue as well as fabric and buttons already in my stash.  

The Pinterest inspiration:

Source: jonesdesigncompany blog via Pinterest

The results of my 'craft-a-palooza':

This was LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!  Although burlap is some nasty stuff - I have no idea how people can stand having pillows made of the stuff.  Bleh.

#3.  Felt Garland for the Tree - using red and white felt and sewing it onto ribbon.

The Pinterest inspiration:

Source: The Contemporary Home website via Pinterest

The results of my 'crafting':

Another success story!  I just cut small 'penant' shapes with my pinking shears out of red & white felt, then sewed a straight stitch onto CHEAP ribbon that was 4 for a dollar at Michael's.  EASY PEASY!

#4.  Rolled Paper Christmas Artwork - I bought a few extra sheets of scrapbook paper on Black Friday to add to the couple of holiday-ish papers already in my stash.  Also found some $1 'star' stickers in the impulse lane - perfect for my tree topper!

The Pinterst inspiration:

Source: via Pinterest

The results of my 'crafting':

This might seem silly but originally I had this sitting on our kitchen island and when I was washing dishes (which is a lot with two children under three in the house) I could just see the standard 'backing' of the canvas board I purchased.  SO - I used the leftover scrapbook paper and modge podged it to the back in a random fashion.  Of course now this piece is in the playroom and the back is against the wall - at least I know it's pretty on the backside!  ;)

#5.  Book Trees - I bought two books at the dollar store, cut off some branches from a bush in our backyard and added felt stars using my felt stash.

The 'sort-of' Pinterest inspiration:

Source: craftberrybush blog via Pinterest

The results of my craftiness:

This wasn't a direct link but I figured, the pumpkins I did in the Fall turned out so great - any shape should work!  I just used a 'tree' template and cut out the pages using an exacto knife.  Glued on a branch to the spine and then glued a couple of felt stars at the top.

#6.  Yarn Pom Pom Garland - just using leftover yarn from yarn wreaths!

Indirectly, the Pinterest inspiration:

Source: sweetpaulmag website via Pinterest

The results of my craftology:

I made a couple different lengths of garland using an assortment of pom pom's that I made.  This worked out GREAT!  I was able to use up some of the yarn that was quickly taking over my craft closet and it turned out SO cute!  I will definitely be doing this again - so easy!