Pin Some Loving Hearts

Do you like Valentine's Day?

I realized last year whilst doing a bit of blog reading that some people really dislike Valentine's Day.  Not me.  It also happens to be my anniversary (#26 in 2015 to be exact).  And on the year I got married Valentines was a Tuesday to boot!  Yes, I got married on a Tuesday night.  I do not like to do what everyone else does and I don't not like my holidays and celebrations defined by what the rest of the world thinks is the right way to go about it.  But I do, bottom line, like Valentine's Day.

So for me - I love to make Crochet Hearts!  And I happen to have a pretty nice collection of heart patterns for crocheters on one of my pinterest boards - aptly named, Crochet Hearts.

Above in the photo you will find just a snippet of those crochet heart patterns, but you can go to the REAL board and save all your faves on your own pinterest board.  If you make any of them, please share them with me - I'd LOVE to see your LOVELY creations that are all about the day of LOVE.  Simply click the picture of the board above in this post and it should whip you right over onto my Crochet Hearts Pinterest board.

Enjoy - and happy hooking.  Sher

PS - while you are over there, take a look at my other crochet boards.  They are decently well organized and give me loads of pleasure to scroll through them and pick and choose which ones will be next on my DOING list!

Hearts aBrewin' amidst the Snows

 Woke up Sunday to find this little curled up fur ball in my bed - she snuck in when no one was looking and was very still and quiet.

Ran some errands Sunday afternoon just as the first few snowflakes began to fall.  We were expecting an inch or less.  The sidewalks and streets coated up pretty fast with the cold temperatures (it's been well over a week since we've seen temperatures over the FREEZING mark aka 32F).

Headed out in slippered feet to check the progress - yep, just a coating.  Off to bed.

6am - awoke to find more than a coating had fallen over night.  Instead it was 3-4 inches.  Fortunately no school delay or cancellation.  I didn't even bother to get out of my pjs, just started a pot of coffee, made a school lunch, popped a pair of boots on my rainbow sleep socks and headed out at 6:40am to shovel.

I was not alone, a few other neighbors were out, clearing away - again.

By 7:20am hubby and son had headed off to work/school and I was clearing the snow from the final car, preparing for my own departure for BE Fit exercise class.  I hadn't been to class in over a week so after an hour of shoveling my own property and the neighbor and the driveways, sidewalks and cars, I wondered how my muscles would cooperate for the class!

Climbing out of the car after exercise class I gazed up at the brilliant blue sky and dark green pines and delighted in the cotton balls that hung from every branch.  This had been a light and fluffy snow, just enough to cover the grey ice with white fluff and make it look all pretty again.  The sun was out and I was warm from the class (a great class which I did manage to get through quite well).  Added some color to my cheeks...

Treated myself to some citrus water.  I love my new (scavenged and free!) citrus juicer.  I've been doing lemon, lime and clementine and adding the mixture to my ice water - very refreshing after a workout and it feels so summery!

Tho still below freezing, the sun was really doing its work on the sidewalks and the streets were almost back to black!

The tulips and daffodils on the mantel were blooming with flourish - enjoying the warmth of the house and the sun.

And OH MY LUNCH.  YUM. YUM. YUM.  toasted taco shells with refried beans, sharp cheddar from the farmer's market, shredded spinach and cabbage (way easier to keep fresh and crisp than lettuce), topped with some homemade guacamole - delish.  YES!  I ate it ALL and wanted more.

This morning (Tuesday) I headed off to running group.  It had been two weeks since I'd run - for a variety of reasons and only one of those reasons being the weather.  I wasn't sure how I'd do.  I was slow, there were hills, it was cold but I did it.  Three miles, slow - mighty slow.  But hey, I was out there.  When I returned home I saw two things... clear streets and more sunshine!!!  

Checked my weather app after the run and saw it was 20F degrees!  That's 12 degrees below freezing on the Fahrenheit scale.  It was a cold run but by the time it was over I was well thawed out and sweaty even!  Hmmmm what's that little red exclamation point, I think I'll click on it and see.  Yesterday, the weather report said we had 2 inches of snow coming Wednesday night.  OH MY!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  6 to 10 MORE inches, with a layer of sleet in the middle, heavy, icy, branch breaking, power killing ice between the bouts of snow.  OH MY.  Coming tomorrow night and sticking around all day and night on Thursday.  UGH.

Well today I will just enjoy the sunshine filtering thru the windows and the flowers popping open with power!

OH... and a bit of something red pink and heart-ish happening on the hook.  I have a plan, for Valentine's Day - which is not only Valentine's Day but my 25th ANNIVERSARY!!!!  I hope the roads are clear and the power is on and the public transportation is running on Friday cuz Hubby and I have some plans.

Oh yeah, one more little thing happened last night - I went to my last ever swim meet.  Child #4 of 4 competed in his last diving meet - and the whole dive team even did a swim relay just for fun - they didn't do half bad.  It was a fun meet and certainly an end of an era for the Jenkins clan.

senior posters

son Sawyer w/ girlfriend and her sister

senior Sawyer send off with parents

the seniors and their coaches.

TATA - stay warm.  Sher

Valentine Trimmings

Above the fireplace, I decorated the mantel to be more in line with Valentine's Day.  Hubby hates it when the Christmas decorations leave the house looking bare and longs for some festive décor.  For me, it makes a fabulous excuse for filling the house with crochet and flowers~

Makes me want to run upstairs and crochet more stuff with hearts!

Paper Heart Valentine Critters

I have another blog.  It's mostly about Digital Scrapbooking, Traditional Scrapbooking, Personal Photo Organizing and Memory Preservation.

Today I posted a bunch of Paper Heart Valentine Critters.  Maybe you'd like to play with paper and hearts too.  If you'd like to see all 6 of the photo tutorials for the cute little Valentine Critters, CLICK HERE.

Chocolate Heart House Bunting

Did you see my Happy Heart House Bunting?  Well, here's another take on that.  It was inspired by Valentine's Day chocolate.

and also inspired by a little Gingerbread crochet house that I found when I was looking for a way to add snow to the roof of my happy heart house bunting.  In the gingerbread inspiration house, Ursula makes an ornament.  It's single thickness and doesn't have the final edging of single crochets around the outside that mine does.  She also uses a different pattern to make the little red heart on the front of hers.  But, nonetheless great minds think alike, right? I've made my chocolate bunting the same size as hers as we both came up with basically the same house pattern and I liked the size of her gingerbread version.

I'm calling mine:  Chocolate Heart House Bunting and it's a baby version of the "Happy" one.  I've made a photo tutorial and also have typed up the pattern so you can follow it exactly as I made mine if you so choose.  Here goes:

This pattern uses American Crochet Terms
Yarn used: Knit Picks Dishie 100% cotton yarn (light worsted/~dk); size G/6 - 4.25mm hook
also white carpet warp and a size C crochet hook

Row 1: To begin, make a slip knot and chain 9, turn.

Row 2: sc in each stitch (8 stitches), ch 1, turn.

Row 3 - 8; Repeat Row 2.

Row 9: sc2tog, 4sc, sc2tog, ch1, turn.

Row 10: sc2tog, 2sc, sc2tog, ch1, turn.

Row 11: sc2tog twice, ch 1, turn.

The basic house is now constructed.  Next, single crochet around the outside edge.

Starting at the top of the roof and continuing down the left slope of the roof, make 1 sc in each stitch.  Make 2sc into the same stitch at the place where the roof meets the house and 3sc into the same stitch at each bottom corner of the house.

Make 2sc into the roof tip and finish off at the top of the house.

GREAT!  Now make a second house the same way.  Each bunting house requires two of these.

My bunting has 5 houses, so 10 house sides are needed.

Now, onto the heart.  I made all of my hearts in light pink.  I used this pattern here:

For my bunting I needed 5 hearts.  Stitch the heart to the right side of 5 house parts.  The back doesn't need to look neat because it won't show.

Once the houses and hearts are complete and the hearts are sewn on, it's time to join the two house parts.  Put two house parts wrong sides together and tuck in any yarn tails.  They fit nicely right inside, no need to even clip them.

Single crochet the two house sides together.  Again, put 2sc into the stitch where the roof meets the house, 3sc into the stitch at the bottom corners of the house and make a (sc, ch3, sc) into the very tip of the house so that there is a bit of a loop at the top of the house - the loop is what you will use when you connect the houses to form a bunting.

Let's add the snow (tho. today, where I live, this would definitely be a layer of ICE on the roof - oh my the weather we are having here!  take a look at THIS POST to see photos).

To add the "ice" to the roof, I switched to a C sized hook and a very thin white cotton.  Poke the hook into the stitch just below the final edging and pull a loop of white thread thru.  Yarn over and pull through to attach the white.  Now, single crochet, ch 1, single crochet up one side of the roof top and down the other.  It did the stitching by starting on the right side of the roof just below where it meets the house, the right side is facing me.

When you get the to top of the house, stitch the white ice in front of the loop as you see in the photo below.

Next, weave in any remaining tails and get ready to join the houses.

I used the same pink yarn as the hearts to connect the bunting.

Make a slip knot and chain 15.  Slip stitch into the first chain to form a hanging loop.  Chain another 15, put the hook through the top loop of the first house.  Make 3sc into the roof top loop.  Chain 15 between each house and the next house.  Make 3sc into the top loop of each house.  After all the houses are attached, chain 30 and then slip stitch into the 15th chain from the hook to form the final hanging loop.  Weave in the ends of the bunting connector and TA DAH - find a lovely place to hang it up and enjoy it for Valentine's Day.

Remember, this is way more low calorie than the actual chocolate candy!

Paper Rose Frames, Snow Soup & Lilyhammer

Crafty Update:

I'm not the only one in the family who makes stuff!  For Christmas, my daughter made three frames for me. Her card said, "Crafty Frames for you Crafty Room."  I knew right away I wanted photos of all four of my kids in these frames.  So a few days ago, I designed some 5X7 photos using my Panstoria Artisan software.

I uploaded the photos to Walmart (because I wanted them fast!!!) and an hour later, picked them up.  Interestingly, I ordered 5X7 flat full photo cards because they cost 68cents each and included an envelope whereas a 5X7 photo (same paper, same finish) cost $1.49 each minus the envelopes.

Here are the 3 photos I designed for the frames:

Here are the frames my daughter made by rolling and twisting fabric (the green roses) and newspaper into paper roses (maybe a pinterest find)?

AND... my son gets into the design action too.  He works for a company that designs and sells apparel and other items using the Maryland state flag.  He designed these earrings.  I got the prototype as a gift from him.  Aren't they cute?

I figure heart earrings and rose flowers are both great craft projects for February aka LOVE MONTH!

And by the way - "It's Always sunny SNOWY in Philadelphia!"  Here's what we got yesterday to the tune of another 6+ inches of very heavy snow and another day of NO SCHOOL for the kiddos!  Fun.  Hubby worked from home and I of course spent time shoveling.

The snow was so heavy that the bushes started leaning towards the sidewalk!

When I came inside from all the snow clearing work, I had a bowl of this MOST delicious soup I made: potato, cannelloni beans and kale.  Super yum.  If you want to know how I made it just ask.  I never use recipes but I think I can remember how!

And - if you are snowed in where you live, or even just looking for something to watch on the tele while you crochet... check out THIS series.  I found it on my netflix instant streaming account.  I've watched the whole first season and I'm on to the second.  Pretty funny.  I was feeling right at home watching the Norway snow.

 ta ta for today - Sher