Valentine's is made for crafting!

I know it's been a few days since my last post (4, to be exact), and I do have to apologize for that. We've been sick on this side of town, so the thought of doing anything has not been appealing.... just ask my dishes.

On the plus side, I do have a fun post today! The reason this post is so. much. fun. is because everything I am posting right. this. second. was made for less than $5! Now, I did manage to get some sale items, so that definitely helped the wallet, but overall I worked with inexpensive materials. Felt, to be exact. $0.20 felt, to be even more exact! Plus I was able to get some super cute Valentine's ribbon on sale for $0.99, which we all know I love me some dollar ribbon!!

This week for the sew-a-long challenge we were given a choice of making pajamas or anything Valentine's. Well, I don't know if you'll believe this, but I am in no way prepared to jump into pajama making. Add to that I don't own pajama-making fabric, and was not looking forward to buying any. So that left me with the Valentine's project. I'm sure you can tell that I'm not one for actually coming up with ideas on my own, so this proved to be a challenge in and of itself. After some uneventful Googling, the hubs and I headed to JoAnn's so I could have a look-see. I decided on the felt because it was cheap & in my head I had an idea for some hair clips. Add to that some ribbon and you've (or I've, or my cousins' daughters) got some super cute Valentine's barrettes.


 I think they're pretty darn cute. Sadly, not very much sewing actually went into these. In fact, I only actually sewed two lines. In the top & middle set, you can see the line down the middle of the hearts where I sewed to attach the hearts to one another. The rest was good ol' Tacky Glue. Heck, the bottom set doesn't have any sewing, period!

So what is a gal to do? Well, I did have to come up with something else, that's for sure! So I sat, and I thought, and I cut out hearts. I did this until I got an idea. I cut off a slice of felt, sewed on some of those hearts I had, and voila! instant bracelet.

Sadly, my "bracelet" left something to be desired. So I sat, and I thought, and I cut out some more hearts until I had an even better idea. Napkin rings! Simple, inexpensive, Valentine's... perfect!

I cut out a few more slices of felt, added some decorative stitches to the edges, and created a makeshift button hole (to keep the felt from ripping as you slide the hearts through) (also, they're makeshift because my buttonhole setting is temperamental, and while I was able to make fantastic buttonholes the other day, for some reason I was unable to get my machine to cooperate today - thus a simple box sewed 2 times over). The hearts act as buttons to keep the ring closed. I suppose I could have just sewn the circle closed, but to be honest, I didn't think of that until just now.

I don't actually own fabric napkins, so I slid some leftover felt through instead. Tada! Valentine's napkin rings!! Of course, this could easily be adapted into a cute bracelet for little wrists, so feel free to wrap a Valentine's napkin ring around whatever you deem fit!

And just to ease your frustration when you attempt this on your own (because why wouldn't you?), you'll never cut two hearts the same, ever. So just stop trying now. If you get two that are even remotely similar, thank your lucky stars and move on!

Also, I know I need to get better at taking pictures. My apologies, and I promise I'll try harder.

Booty!

I convinced the hubs to drive me to Michael's today so I could pick up some yarn. Thank goodness he did too, because he was the one that noticed the $1 ribbon bin tucked under the eave before we even walked into the store! On top of that, he plunged his arm all the way down to the bottom of said ribbon bin and got me all the good stuff! I love my husband! The top 5 rolls are definitely older, but no clue how old. They're in great shape & are very classic, which is an even bigger score for $1/roll. The bottom 3 are definitely new/trendy, but super cute.

From the top:

• Brown satin w/white boxes on the trim
• Light mint green, ribbed
• Butter yellow, ribbed (thin)
• Green gingham
• Navy satin (wide)
• Light blue w/diamond pattern, ribbed
• Black w/white fleur patterns
• Brown w/multi color polka dots, ribbed

There were a ton more, including one which said "EASTER" all the way around, and another which said "FROM THE MR. AND THE MRS." Neither were my cup of tea, but I'm sure they'll make some lucky buyer just as excited as I am for my find (or the husband's, as the case may be)

As far as yarn goes, I could have done better. I probably should have hit up JoAnn's, but if I had, I wouldn't have found all that $1 ribbon! I suppose the trade-off was a less than stellar yarn-buying trip. I ended up with just a couple rolls, only 2 of which were the exact brand of yarn my pattern called for. The other rolls are just some similar weights that some of my patterns call for.

From left:

• 2 rolls of Lion's Brand Wool-Ease, Oxford Grey (per the Boyfriend's Hat pattern)
• Sugar & Spice 100% cotton worsted weight in Lime Stripes
• Sugar & Spice 100% cotton worsted weight in Yellow
• Naturallycaron.com bamboo blend Light worsted in Green Sheen

I also bought some craft paint to cover an old & slightly hideous picture frame I own. I realize now I should have taken a picture of the "before", but alas I was too excited to start painting it. I will show you an "after" picture when I've decided I'm happy with the final result. I also picked up some much needed sawtooth picture frame hangers - which will turn my tabletop frames into wall frames (which we desperately need because we don't have a lot of tabletops!)

Now that I've got my "official" Boyfriend's Hat yarn (which my husband would like me to note is, in fact, not for a boyfriend at all, but rather him: my husband), I hope I can finish off a real one tomorrow (or later today, as it were). Wish me luck!