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Sweetening Things Up

It's always a sad thing to take down the Christmas decorations for me. Though you regain some sense of order and normalcy, I do love having things look festive. So we decided to try to do at least a little decorating for each holiday beginning with Valentine's Day this year. It was so hard for me to wait for February 1st to sweeten things up around here!

Back in January (told you I was an eager beaver!), I made my first ever rag wreath after I was inspired by a Facebook friend (thanks, April!). I would much rather craft something that just go out and buy it and I think it looks really cute on our door!


Then we bought some of the little dollar clings at Walmart and the kids enjoyed decorating our balcony door and homeschool window with them.



Then we took a craft idea from this month's Family Fun magazine and made some yarn hearts. (Follow the link for directions.)




Keeleigh made some "stained-glass" hearts to hang on over our dining room table and in our school room window. They are super easy to make. You shave some old crayons--a great way to use up old broken ones!--onto some wax paper using a pencil sharpener; put another sheet of wax paper on top and iron it on low heat until the crayon melts.


Then when the wax paper cools, draw your heart (or any shape you want) design on it and cut it out.


We then punched holes in the top of the hearts and strung them on ribbon to hang.



So pretty!


Keeleigh also cut out some paper dolls which we used as a sort of garland for our Valentine's "tree."


For the tree I just stuck a couple of branches in a vase with some pink, red, and white Mardi Gras beads in it. We hung the yarn hearts on the "tree" as well and tied little left-over rags (from the wreath) onto random branches.


And see the heart garland up on the wall? My buddy Nicola and I got together and crafted that from some scrap fabric and cereal boxes!

I had wanted to buy some wooden letters and paint them but then I saw this glittery word at Big Lots for $3 and knew I couldn't beat that. I love it on my newly painted shelf.


And that's how we've sweetened things up around here! = )

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  1. JenFebruary 18, 2011 at 3:57 AM

    So are you already coming up with ideas for Presidents Day on Monday?

    ReplyDelete
  2. TraciFebruary 18, 2011 at 7:08 AM

    We are definitely gearing up for President's Day! I was just thinking how dorky it seemed earlier this week that I was actually excited over President's Day. Ha ha.

    ReplyDelete

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