Hearts, sparkles, xoxo and all that love!

Valentines Day is one week away...are you ready?? I think I have done more decorating
for it this year than I ever have. Could be because I have been stuck inside this house
with winter storm, after winter storm, after winter storm, after....you get my *drift*?

{see how I did that there...*drift*? lol We have had a LOT of them and HUGE ones}

On one of the rare days that I was able to get out of our driveway, I  went to town and purchased three
 of these paper mache heart boxes for 1.00 each at JoAnn Fabric.

{and they weren't even on sale. lol.}

Then I set about painting and embellishing them.

I also added silver glass glitter to each one to give them that added sparkle.

{source for glass glitter that I used can be found by clicking here
Nicki is out of stock right now, but will be getting more in}

I also made a glass glitter banner of x's and o's and red felt hearts.

 They sure do sparkle!

AFTER I took these photos , I decided to add red hearts on each end of the banner also. lol.

Can never have too much love hanging around...*smile*

Last week {or the week before...I lose track of time easily} I sat down and cut out
some cute little hearts from batting and felt. Then I filled them with rice for hand warmers.
Sure could have used these wayyyyy before I made them.  We have had such bitter
cold temps this year.  Brrrr!!

I blanket stitched the edge. Again, AFTER I had made several and you could see where I
stopped and started the edging by using a KNOT, I googled how to start and end a blanket
 stitch the RIGHT way. You would think that I would have done that first, but no...Sandi
 doesn't work that way. ha!

Wouldn't a few of these be adorable inside the paper mache embellished heart boxes?

I found the idea for the hand warmers on Pinterest.
You will them with rice and then nuke them in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Stick them in your pockets in the winter to help keep your hands warm. I have heard
that they keep warm from 30 minutes up to an hour, but I haven't tested that out yet.

 I did test them out just by nuking them and finding that they did get nice and warm, but
didn't test the time limit out.  I figured they are cute just to lay around even if they aren't
 used for warmers.  I want to put them to the test this weekend.

Happy week of LOVE coming up!!

PS I had totally forgotten that the initial place where I first saw hearts for hand
warmers was over at Idyllhours blog by Julie Marie. I always want to give credit
where credit is due so I sure messed up on this one. Sorry Julie Marie! ♥ 

Hearts of love

 A woman knows the face of the man she loves
 as a sailor knows the open sea.

-Honore de Balzac

I have found the one whom my soul loves. 

Song of Solomon 3: 4

That special day of love is coming and it will be here before we know it.
You know the one I am talking about.

Valentines Day

A  special day set aside to shower love on the ones that are special to us and
the ones that we are so thankful for. 

Just a few vignettes around my home today to share with you the
love that I feel in my heart.

Are you decorating for that special day yet? I have incorporated touches of
  red and white
 in my decor this year which is shocking for me, but I love it.

Trying to get out of this blah mood that old man winter just keeps stuffing
down our throat. So sick and tired of snow...I mean SICK and TIRED!
We have another storm or two headed our way this weekend and next
week...when will it ever end?? I know it will, but right now it just doesn't
 seem like it.  I did tell hubby the other day that before we know it we will
be complaining about how hot it is.

Add to that a nationwide shortage of propane and that is not fun.
Thankfully we prepaid our gas last summer for this winter at
 1.45 a gallon.
It is now over $5 a gallon at some suppliers around here. UGH!
Praying we can squeak by with our latest fill up.

What are you up to? Are you tired of winter? Are you decorating
to keep a spring in your step? See how I did that? "SPRING"...
lol. Can't wait!!

Just a little fyi: The white hearts in the photos above were GOLD Christmas
ornaments that I purchased at Walmart after Christmas at 75% off and
I gave them the white treatment. Went back to get more and they were gone,
but I do love how these turned out.

Blessings~

On a roll ~

I have been on a roll lately, churning out altered bottles left and right so today
I am taking a break. The one above is one of my favorites. I know...there is COLOR
in it and not my typical neutrals, but I still love it. 

It is embellished with genuine old lace, vintage velvet and rayon ribbon, part of an
old valentine, rhinestones and the word "friend" cut out of an old songbook. 

I adore the old velvet ribbon. This was a labor of love because I truly wanted to keep
every piece of the velvet for myself, but I decided to put one small piece on the bottle and
I think it is perfect.

I always love to embellish bottles with Paris themes and this one is no exception.

I sure hope that I get to visit this beautiful city someday. :)

With Valentines day just around the corner, I used an old valentine on this one along
with old music pages and vintage lace.

Innocence...what a beauty. I have had this bottle and the Paris one half done for literally
months and it was time to finish them. This one has part of an old ledger on it that is dated
in the 1800's. 

{All three of these bottles are already sold}

I whipped up this little love potion bottle yesterday.

I must get back to creating soon, but for now I am taking a break. How about you?
What have you created lately?  I would love to hear about it.

A winner!

Don't you just love these frenchy towels?  I picked these up at Pottery Barn on clearance
for $2.97 each. I took them off of a display to check the price and the price was right!! :)
I rarely go to Pottery Barn because there is none around here, but when I do go I love
to find a bargain.

I know it is time to put away Christmas! lol. I would say that 99% of mine is put away,
but I still have a couple small ones left including this one.

I drew a winner right away this morning for the sign above.

Congratulations to
Laurie of Heavens Walk!! 

Love of vintage maps and altered bottles ~

I started cleaning and sorting out my studio yesterday and so far I have made a big
mess in the dining room and the studio itself.  I intended to work on that again today,
but I decided that I wanted to work on altered bottles instead. They are one of my
favorite things to create and I love making each one unique.

You know where that leaves me right?? Yep, right in the middle of a big mess...
creating!

I acquired a stack of vintage maps quite some time ago and haven't done one thing
with them until now. I love the way this bottle turned out! There is pretty , sparkly,
glitter outlining the heart, but it is hard to see in this photo.

I was going to say, "I would swim an ocean for you", but I have yet to find the word
OCEAN in my zillions of papers and books. I may have to do it one letter at a time. :)

Again, in the spirit of the season here is another bottle to celebrate that day of
LOVE
that is coming up soon. I scanned an old poem that I have in my stash and printed it out.
 Someone has written the year 1911 on the back along with a sweet sentiment. Love it.

Up close and personal :)

Now , there is a story here. This bottle has been half done for months. Somehow it
just got shoved to the side { you never do that do you?? } and never finished, so
today was the day to get it finished.

I used genuine antique ledger paper {not scanned and copied} dated  1893. I don't
have much of that paper left, but I was smart enough to scan it before I used it all
 up. 

I have always loved this gorgeous lady print. I have made other bottles using this same
print. She is just too pretty!

I hope you enjoyed my bottles that I have been working on today. I am so far behind
on many things. Maybe I can actually get my mess cleaned up tomorrow, but then...
there is also the possibility that I may just get the urge to keep playing...:)

{two large bottles will sell for 21.99 each and the smaller map bottle
will sell for 15.99. If interested just shoot me an email. Thank you.}

When mistakes turn out great!

Has that ever happened to you? I have found over and over that sometimes my original ideas don't pan
out , but I rarely scrap them. I try to think what I can do to still make the item beautiful and
most times it works.

For instance, take these paper mache hearts. I had this brilliant idea to decoupage some script napkins
 onto them.  I realized not too far into the project that they should have been painted white first, but I was
 too far along.  Somewhere along the way I abandoned that idea because they just didn't look like I
wanted them to.

So I tried to think of something to cover them up with {after I painted them white right over the decoupage
flubbs}  Then it hit me...cheesecloth! It would be light and airy and just perfect. I just kinda made up the
design as I went along.  I think they turned out better than the original idea would have!

I had fun making a couple different heart designs. I had so much fun that I could have made them all day long. :)

What do you think?

I am in a hurry today because I have big plans!! Plans to visit my sister in PA very shortly and I can't wait!! {hubby will hold down the fort for a few days while I am having fun} I hope that we can make this a yearly event from now on as we have so much fun together. I know we will do some fun shopping while I am out there. Any must see places in the  Mercer , Sharon PA area?? All ideas are welcome! lol



{For some reason the ribbon looks purplish to me, but it really is a pretty gray and goes well with the graphic}



I purchased these adorable little french script *buttons* from Abby over at Abbies Paperie Garden.
Aren't they just the cutest? I love them and am enjoying using them in my artwork.

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings today. I do enjoy you gals and blogging so much.
Happy White Wednesday and be sure and visit Kathleen over at Faded Charm again this week.


If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, be sure and check my previous post and enter!! :)