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We don't do a lot for Valentine's Day. No extravagant gifts or uber expensive dinners out. I tell Dean he got off lucky because I'm so NOT high maintenance! I usually cook something special and we exchange cards. He usually gets a bottle of wine and I get flowers. Sometimes as a potted plant, other times from the florist. My only tip to extravagance is the type of flower I want....gotta be tulips! I love roses but not long stemmed....much prefer ramblers and those don't do well in arrangements.
This year, instead of paying for an arrangement, Dean went to the flower market in New Orleans and brought me these spectacular tulips. While in line, guys kept saying they wish they had thought of that. He told them not to bother, he wiped out the entire bucket!
He bought so many that we had to try several vases to find one to fit....and even that was hard!
After a couple days, they started to open...
Then a few opened all the way so you could peek inside...beautiful and perfect.
In case you don't know, tulips like it cool. So each night, I put them in the garage. In the morning, they are closed up tight like new buds....but slowly over the course of the morning, they reopen again.
This is the one gift that still gives me chills......I simply adore that he loves me enough to bring me tulips!
While everyone is celebrating Valentine's Day today, we are also celebrating Mojo's 13th birthday.
Nowadays, he has more is grey than black hairs! This old man struggles with the stairs and is half blind and pretty much deaf but his attitude is amazing and he still acts like a puppy. Okay, so he bumps into walls when chasing toys but that doesn't seem to faze him one little bit!
Happy Birthday sweet Mojo Jojo!
Another birthday was celebrated this week. There is a sweetie pie down the block that K babysits for all the time. She is the CUTEST little thing and pink is her favorite color. She loves the hand made goodies I make her so I talked with her mom and found out she needs a swimsuit cover up. I made her this cute set for her birthday.
I know it looks like a shirt but I don't have a 5 year old who can model it for me. If you have a little girl who needs one, I highly recommend this pattern. There is also a photo on the gal's website showing what it looks like here.
Gunter has been cranky. This cold weather ran the fairies off and he misses them terribly. They've been gone since the beginning of January. To make matters worse, their little house was in need of repair. I had some serious work planned this spring.
But.
But I forgot to bring their house into the garage during the ice storm. and it froze...and since it had rained, it split too....and some of the tile came off. Poor little house. It was only 4 years old. It used to be so lovely too....
So, to make Gunter happy, we have started on a NEW fairy house! I've already primed it with sealant so putting it together will be a nice break from crochet.
( In case my sister's are viewing this...yes, those are CHRISTMAS gifts on the buffet in the background. I'll get to Florida eventually!)
The front is taking shape...this time I added a blue bell that fell off Leo's collar. The front portico is from a lovely wedgewood piece that broke so I kept it. The kids say I'm a hoarder....but in reality, I'm just keeping bits of this and that in order to be prepared....
if you look closely, you can see the shell "awning" over the back window.
I can go ahead and grout sometime this week, then complete the roof. And although the cold weather is still with us, I've promised Gunter that once their house is finished, it will go outside to welcome them home.
Dean was out of town this past weekend and I planned to get my craft on. Serious, sit in front of the t. v. and craft. all. weekend.
But instead, I felt sick, like I was trying to fight something off. So in the morning I made myself a little spoonful of this:
I had read about it last year and boy does it work! A teaspoon of honey combined with a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Ok so am I the ONLY person alive who doesn't like honey? It tastes like plastic or wax to me....nasty stuff.
Anyway, since I didn't feel good enough to craft, I dusted my rooster lamp....with a paint brush. I surface dust him when cleaning, but dang, those artichokes and feathers are KILLER. My sister does all her detail dusting with a paint brush and yep, it works. Look how clean Rocky is!
Then I whipped up a batch of cinnamon/sugar pecans. My other sister made some that were amazing but couldn't remember how she did it. These turned out really good....much better than some I made at Christmas with a recipe I had found on line.
So this is what I did:
2 pounds of pecan halves
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
mix in a baggie and set aside
Melt a 1/2 stick of butter
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla
Add 2 egg whites
Stir to combine.
Then mix the pecans with the wet mixture. Make sure everything is coated. Then pour the pecans into the bag of spices and coat well.
Dump them onto a parchment lined pan IN A SINGLE LAYER and bake for an hour at 250 degrees. I stirred mine a couple times through baking.
These are awesome! Be careful though because if you don't put them in a single layer, they don't get crunchy, they stay sticky.
This weather has been CRAZY.
Lucky for me, we can start a nice fire to take the chill out on these cold, wet nights.....
Lucky for Ginger too...she always takes the warmest spot.
Or does she? Suki always fits herself into rolled up blankets, like on K's belly (K was sound asleep)
or on my bed....on a different but equally cold day!
As for me, I usually have a cup of hot cocoa nearby.......stay warm my friends.
Remember this?
Well, I liked how it turned out so well that I made one for my Valentine's garland.
Something about a small set of fairy lights just makes me happy. And look how sweet it looks on the mantle with the little swag of hearts I got last year.......
I don't decorate much for Valentine's but I did put out a few things like these crocheted hearts...
and this lovely embroidered one....
I love decorating the door for Valentine's. This year, I added the little wooden swag I had been using in the house. I always wanted to put it on the door though....and I'm glad I did.
by day.....
by night......
Spreading a little love at the door step....KK style.
I love how pretty the door looks with the fairy lights and netting. On dark, rainy days I'll turn the lights on too....just to brighten things up a bit.
We've had some seriously cold weather here lately...so I used some stash up making a few things for myself. I only busted 14 grams but it all adds up....
I wanted to make myself a pair of fingerless gloves using the same yarn to match this infinity scarf.
The yarn is Marble Chunky and is super soft and this colorway is lovely.
close ups...I used a v stitch for the gloves and then added a short thumb hole. I edged the gloves with a shell stitch.
I still had some yarn leftover so decided to make a cowl. I knew I wouldn't have enough yarn left to complete it so I dug around in my stash until I found another yarn that would work with it.
It is hard to tell from the photo but the solid brown has a shimmer like the MC and it matches really well with a color that runs through the yarn. I did the cowl in hdc and then 2 rows have a bobble in there. I edged the whole thing in picot.
I used all but 8 inches of this yarn which is pretty good considering these were unplanned projects. I love being able to create things from what I have on hand.
