Valentine’s Printable + Sweater Giveaway

Today is a happy day. Let me count the ways:

1. Darcy once again rocked it last night, clocking in at 8 consecutive hours of sleep. It hasn’t happened often enough for me to feel comfortable that this might be her new normal, and I know that publicly shouting her sleep success from the internet equivalent of my rooftop means she’ll sleep approximately 4 1/2 minutes tonight, but right now I feel gooooood.

2. I started re-reading The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time since high school, and dang I forgot how powerful and amazing this book is. It is perhaps not for the faint of heart, the easily offended, or readers who really just want a fun book (it is the absolute antithesis of fun), but I am floored by it and can’t stop thinking or talking about it, so look out if I know you and see you in the next week or so, because I’ll probably talk your ear off.

3. My sister Bekah, who did a giveaway here recently to celebrate opening her etsy shop, Ritzy Reba, made a gorgeous Valentine’s Day printable for you guys to enjoy for free! She’s the very best. She printed one out for me and it is even prettier in person.

Beautiful, right? I love it. Just right click the picture above to save/download and print.

4. I crocheted an adorable sweater for Darcy. My mom sewed a sweet little skirt for her, and I wanted to make a sweater to match it. It came out SO darling. I love the wood buttons and sweet little scalloped border along the bottom edge. It’s based on THIS free pattern, and I love it.

Aaaaaaaaand it doesn’t fit Darcy. I could barely stuff her arms into the sleeves, and the buttons were straining over her chest. That’ll teach me to crochet her a sweater while she naps, and not try it on or even grab an item from her closet that does fit her to use as a guide. DANGNABBIT.

But it’s so darn sweet, and I don’t want to just hoard it and never give a sweet baby the chance to wear it, so I’m going to give it away to one of you.

Some specs on the sweater: definitely newborn size, and would probably fit up to roughly 2 months. Laid flat, the chest measures 7 1/2 inches across. I made it with acrylic yarn, and it’s super soft and cozy, and can be washed and dried by machine. If you have a newborn, will have a newborn soon, or know a newborn, I hope you win! I’m keeping this giveaway limited to just US residents . . . sorry for the inconvenience! Enter below. I’ll cross my fingers for you. Have a happy weekend, folks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Crochet Dog Stuffies for Valentine’s Day

I’m not all that into Valentine’s Day. I mean, it’s nice, and I always appreciate getting a card or candy or flowers or something, but my husband and I don’t typically make a big deal out of it. We went to Chili’s last weekend . . . that’ll probably count as our Valentine’s date. Chili’s! The ribs! The romance!

But now that we have this little boogerface stinking up our house, I kind of want to make it a fun day for him. So we’ll be spending today baking up Valentine’s goodies, and I can’t wait to give him his present tomorrow . . .

A little crochet puppy! He’s cute, huh? The sweater gets me. It gets me every time I look at him. Forrest is pretty into puppies (and kitties aka ‘titties’; yes, that’s right, titties) at the moment—his new favorite game is coming up to me while I’m on the couch, meowing or barking at me, then saying, “gent-oh? gent-oh?” (which is how we try to remind him to pet nicely, I think he thinks ‘gentle’ just means ‘pet’) and waiting to be petted or have his belly rubbed. It’s pretty sweet. I hope he likes his little puppy dog.

And I couldn’t resist showing him off to my sister ahead of time, and she liked him a lot, too, so guess what she is also getting tomorrow?

The girly version! I like this one even better than the one I made for my son. I like the colors better, and I did a better job with placing the facial features. I almost don’t want to give her away.

I used the Amigurumi Dog pattern from Lion Brand Yarn, and they were a cinch to work up. Relatively quick (although making all the separate pieces is kind of slow and tedious, I’ll admit), but overall a very simple pattern. I wasn’t crazy about the ears in the pattern, so I went for a more folded-over look instead. I like how they turned out.

A moody close-up. She’s pondering the state of the economy, or maybe thinking about something deep like . . . I don’t know . . . the poetry of . . . Ginsberg? (The only name that comes to mind . . . it’s early, I’m still waking up, cut me a break.)

I tossed up some listings in my shop for custom versions of these little puppies—you can find the boy puppy HERE and the lady puppy HERE, and message me for a discount if you plan to buy two or more! As always, feel free to play around the colors when you order . . . I’ve got a nice big yarn stash, just begging to be used in whatever creative color combos you come up with.

Did you make any Valentine’s gifts this year?

Rustic ‘Love’ Letters

That title kind of makes it sound like this post is about the sort of letters lovers send each other, doesn’t it? As for the rustic part . . . maybe they are very outdoorsy types? And the letters are composed in a cabin in the woods somewhere? I’m sorry to disappoint you, but these rustic love letters aren’t those rustic love letters. I’m talking about these ones:

I made these to go with my neutral, rustic Valentine’s display, and I really like how they came out. Although I can appreciate and enjoy Valentine’s décor that screams glittery red-and-pink greetings in your face, I wanted something a little softer for my place. This little display only cost a few dollars, it’s going to be reusable for Christmas next year by switching out a letter, and it’s not too traditionally loud for Valentine’s day, I could definitely get away with using it year-round as regular décor. Win-win-win.

To make these letters, I just picked up a few items from Hobby Lobby—a mini-twig wreath to stand in as the ‘o’ (it was $2.50 if I remember correctly), and a few paper mache letters (also $2.50 each, but wait for them to go on sale before you buy—they were 30% off when I bought them a week or two ago!). I picked up an L, V, and E, as well as an N. That way, I can scramble the letters/wreath to make ‘Noel’ to use in Christmas displays next year. Smart, eh? I have my moments.

Now, back when I was searching for a nice gray wall color for my house, I bought something like a dozen gray sample paints. So I just popped out one of those tiny sample size paints to use on my letters. It’s a very soft gray, but mostly reads as white, which is fine. Go ahead and paint your letters.

(Don’t you paint on your stovetop?)

Now, I wanted them to have a rustic ‘worn’ look. But sanding paint off a paper mache letter to get that distressed look didn’t seem brilliant to me. I don’t know, maybe it would work fine, but I wasn’t willing to try it and potentially ruin my super-expensive $2.50 – 30% off letters. So I tried a different route. I just grabbed some brown craft paint, got the teeniest tiniest bit on my brush, and ‘flicked’ it over the edges of the letters to make them look worn out and distressed.

I’m not sure how best to describe this. Just make sure there’s not much paint on your brush (I barely dipped it into the paint, then dabbed most of it off onto a piece of paper so it was just barely barely barely moist with paint), placed the brush right on the edge of the letter and ‘flicked’ it forward/upward. It’ll give it a sort of bristly, worn-off, splattery look. The important points here, I learned by sad experience, are to 1) make sure there is not much paint on your brush—too much paint and it’ll look sloppy instead of shabby chic, and 2) if you make a mistake, just forget it and keep going. You’ll do more harm by trying to rub it off and reapply than by just moving on. Really.

By focusing your faux-distress painting around the corners, it’ll look more natural, so go a little heavier around the corners and a little lighter on the other edges.

I used a tiny picture frame easel/plate stand thing to prop up the ‘O’ and just pulled the sides open a little wider so they’d essentially be hidden by the ‘O’. It worked out just fine. There you have it!

A Subtle Valentine’s Display

I have been informed by a certain spouse that it is too early for Valentine’s Day décor to be put up. But I’ve also been informed by said spouse that I shouldn’t let my son play with Barbies and walk around in my heels, and that soup doesn’t count as a meal, and that getting into a tickle fight with a toddler doesn’t count as daily exercise, and I haven’t paid any attention to those gentle heedings, so I’m not going to start now.

My little table in my entry room looked so boring after I took down my Christmas décor. I left it empty for maybe 4 days before I couldn’t take it anymore and started to put together a little Valentine’s display. I loved the sort of natural, woodsy feel of my Christmas vignette, so I used that as inspiration for a simple, subtle Valentine’s look.

This may be obvious by the direction I took for this very neutral display, but I am not insane about the traditional Valentine’s look . . . the pink and red, the glitter, the sappy hearts . . . don’t get me wrong, it’s fun and zesty, but I’m not sure it’s the sort of fun and zesty I could look at every day for a month leading up to a holiday and still be happy about living with. So I took a very understated route instead.

I left the book page garland and coffee filter wreath up from the Christmas display—I really like them over that window. They may become permanent fixtures. The little owl Scentsy warmer seems to have also become a permanent piece on this table for two reasons: so far, it has always fit into my table displays, and it is also (so far) out of the reach of little fingers.

I made the little ‘love’ letters and am rather pleased with them. But do I like the look of the wreath-y ‘o’ in ‘love’ right there next to the big ‘o’ that is the coffee filter wreath, like a stinky little copycat? No. No I do not. But does it bug me enough to go back to the store to buy another letter, get out all the paints and supplies I used to dress them up, and replace it with a painted ‘o’? No sir. Regardless, there will be a tutorial for the excruciatingly difficult job of painting and faux-distressing those letters next week. Prep yo.

I tossed in a vase full of sticks gathered from the backyard and crocheted some little heart ornaments to hang from the branches. I worried that the crocheted hearts would be cheesy, but I actually really like them. They add another touch of rustic-y homespun coziness. On Monday, I’ll have a step-by-step photo tutorial to help you make these little hearts. I think they’re so cute and fun, and they’re so quick and simple to make. So if you’re a little rusty on the ol’ crochet skills or are just starting out, it should be enough to ease you in with a speedy little Valentine’s project.

And as you may know, I have developed a weird lampshade embellishment disorder. I don’t know why I feel the need to accessorize a lampshade, which kinda, if you think about it, already is an accessory to the lamp, which is an accessory to the room, so I’m accessorizing to the third degree here. But now that I did it once, it feels too naked without something, so here we are.

One more little crochet heart to tie in with the branches on the other end of the table. I was going to use my fancypants removable lampshade accessory trick to attach it, but I popped it onto the lampshade to see if I liked it, and it stuck on its own. Very thoughtful of you, Mr. Heart. Will you be my Valentine?

So there you go. My neutral, understated, not very Valentinesy Valentine’s display. I like it, and I especially like that it’s not so bright and loud that I’ll get tired of looking at it. What can I say, I’m a boring, beige sort of person.