Love is in the air....

Just getting a start on things around here...
I am sure there will be more to come as the day gets closer.

Here's a little tour...

I made a new wreath on Sunday morning before our guests arrived. It's with burlap garland ($5 at Michael's). I love it.

Because I still LOVE my "A" wreath - I have that hanging around.

 

Here's the front door area....

And my dad in the window.

But he's outside.

Kinda like an illusion.

Magic.

A view of the formal living room...

Another shot... regular color.

A glance at my other faux mantel.
The couch is going bye-bye. We were borrowing it from my parents, but they need it back.
So, we will need to decide what we want to do in there [finally].

That's it for now...
I lost my camera for 3 whole hours this weekend.
Not fun.
It was on my counter behind my Kitchen Aid mixer.
Silly me.

LOVE,
me.

[linking to COM and Itsy Bitsy Paper - links to the right]

L.O.V.E. and other things...

I decided to jump on the Valentine's Day bandwagon.
{as I started to write this post last night, my husband was waiting for me to join him to watch a movie. money ball. sigh.}

So far, I've only decorated our mini*mantel.

Here is a reminder of what our "mantel" looked like for Christmas...

I don't have a fireplace in the house... so I am all about fake, mini and faux. lol...
We are all still talking about mantels, right?


I cannot wait to paint this small radio cabinet white/cream/something-not-brown-ish.

For New Year's I had a picture of my grandparents in color... but I thought the colors were all wrong (for my V-Day theme) so I made a black and white copy {regular paper} and put it in a red frame I had on hand {IKEA}.

• The red stem thingies were clearance at Walgeens for a buck... they were in the Christmas aisle, but I thought that they'd go perfectly for the month of LOVE.  
• The "Love" vinyl is from Hobby Lobby, I think it was $3... and it says "Love is just a word... until someone comes along and gives it meaning."  <---- Love that!
• I found the birdies in the spring section of Hobby Lobby...30% off, both less than $2. The candle sticks were a Goodwill find $1 each. The grass plant... IKEA $3. I added the polka dot ribbon - from ribbon I had on hand.

Another IKEA frame on hand...I added two different types of ribbon and then took a foam heart I had leftover from project that didn't happen from last year.  {I'm Wild About You! No, really. I am!}

The apples are in a red, heart-shaped dish. The apples are from my fridge. The heart-shaped dish was a Goodwill find - fifty cents. :D

And finally... a simple red wreath for the front door...

I still have the bigger fake mantel to finish up... hopefully I will get that done today...
But for now, I am beginning to feel the L.O.V.E around here.

Speaking of LOVE!!! --- big shout out to my momma.
It's her BIRTHDAY today!!
Note... this picture is *not* from today... She's out celebrating and I am here blogging when I should be cleaning.

xoxo,
me

Linked to COM, Itsy Bitsy Paper, & Funky Junk (buttons on right) 
and Skip to my Lou

I'm a Freak: V-Day Already?!

I swear, I am worse than Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart.
I don't think even they have Valentine's on their mind yet (although, I did see some Spring at the Hob Lob this week!)...

I am really wanting to be super organized this coming year... so I thought while I had some down time, I would get started on Isabel's V-Day cards. Her being almost 13 and all, we had to mature her cards up a little.

Here are Isabel's cards from last year... which was our first time ever making handmade cards.

And this is what we have as our first draft for this coming V-Day:

This may not what we end up with, but it sure has our creative juices flowing. Isa mentioned that she'd like to do a little gift for her close friends at school, so I am going to have to see what else I can come up with.

Off to check out Pinterest to see if I can find some additional ideas.

Happy Valentine's Day Holidays!

Finished Product ♥

An update to my earlier post...
We got all of Isabel's V-Day cards done.
Her class is celebrating today...

Here is the finished product:

The 35 photos cost me $6 at Walgreen's.
The foam (two packages) were $2 (a dollar apiece from Dollar Tree).
The ribbons (4 packages) were $4 (a dollar a piece from Dollar Tree).
The mini-snickers were 2/$5. I only needed one bag.

I used tacky glue to adhere the picture to the foam and then the mini snickers to the photo.

I used regular staples to attach the ribbon to the foam - kind of a scrapbook look.


Total spent: $14.50. Not bad for homemade Valentine's Cards.
I wish Alex would let me make him some. Who says it's not cool for High School?!?

P.S. Alex did ask me to buy a V-Day monkey for his [girl] friend. And a card.
And so it begins.

Easy Peasy V-Day Cards

Isa needs 30 valentine's by tomorrow. Of course I knew in advance, but I sure didn't act on this knowledge. In advance.

The poor girl has been sick the last few days and hasn't even been in school.  But we are trying our hardest to get her healthy so she can join in the LOVE celebration going on at her school tomorrow.

We needed something more grown-up (uhemm) and something super, easy peasy!

The idea was to get a good picture of her - but that didn't work out since she wasn't feeling so hot. So I went through Picasa and tried to find some pictures I could use. I found a few:

We finally settled on this one:

They are at Walgreen's right now getting printed off. I already purchased the foam they will be attached to, in addition to the ribbon and the mini-snicker's bars (bites, really!).  Where outstretched arm/hand is, we will attach a mini-snickers! 

I will take a picture of the final product as soon as I get them put together this evening! We also got some treats for the class party and V-Day pencils for the entire class.

I know Valentine's Day isn't until Monday, but it sure is fun getting started early on the celebrations. You know, like forcing your #1 man to take you out for a romantic date?! He's taking me to the movies tomorrow night. Where we may or may not make-out in the dark theater.