Decorations: February Hearts

Today my clinical instructor at my pediatric rotation said that I am finding my inner kid more and more each week. Then I come home and spend time cutting hearts out of felt to make February decorations. After December's coloring pages, I think I'm on a roll for having an under age appropriate taste in room decorations.

After a little thought, I've decided that I like the decorations, and I'll consider the comment from my CI high praise.

Reading: Unwinding at the End of the Day

At the end of the day, I often read by candle light. I find that the soft light is a nice transition at the end of the day. I reminisce on times when the flame was the only source of light at night. It tends to slow my pace. Quiet my mind. Lull me to sleep.

Growing Things: Amaryllis Blossom

My roommate gave me an amaryllis for Christmas. I planted it around the first of January, and it has been growing fervently on top of my bookshelf quite unaware of the cold, snowy weather outdoors. Yesterday it sleeted, and my plant blossomed.

Holiday Wrap Up: Advent Coloring

I haven't posted in a long time, but I couldn't let the holiday season slip away without saying thank you to Elsie Marley of http://www.elsiemarley.com/. She posted a coloring page PDF for each day of advent in December. So, with my studies and preparation for my BIG graduate program comprehensive exam, I looked forward to coloring a page each day! Go here to see other pages people colored.




I think the stockings were my favorite to color.



Hopefully, you can look forward to more consistent posting in the future!

Rinsed and Ready

1/2 bushel of the most gorgeous roma tomatoes.


:-)

Bunting

Recently, I endeavored to make a string of triangle-shaped flags. Dave joked that all he could think of was a used car lot as I was describing the project, hehe. Well, I found out that these flags are often called "bunting." Henceforth, I have not been able to think about the marvelous craft without thinking of this little fellow:

(Indigo Bunting)

Materials:
Card stock + pencil for pattern
Assortment of fabrics (from your stash or cut up clothes in your Goodwill pile)
Pinking shears
Bias tape or ribbon (I used 4 spools of 1/2", 18' long ribbon)

Method:
The pattern is a no-brainer. But here are the dimensions I used: 9 1/2" x 8".


I used scrap fabric that I had in my stash in addition to cutting up some clothes that were destined for the Goodwill. The result was a wonderful variety of fabrics with lots of character. (Some triangles ended up with lace or buttons, etc). I enjoy looking at the bunting and remembering the memories I made while wearing this skirt or that shirt. Cutting them up enabled me to form even more memories with those garments. :)

Cut tons of triangles with your pinking shears. Hopefully you'll have nicer ones than those I used... They dulled before the project was finished. A new pair is definitely on my shopping list for the near future.

I used 25 triangles for each 18' ribbon. (25 x 8" = 200"; 18' = 216") The additional 16" were used for triangle spacing as well as to form a loop both ends of each strand for ease of hanging. I triple enforced this loop because I used the bunting while camping 4 days at a music festival, so I did not want wind, rain, or wandering drunks to knock it down...


Iron the ribbon such that it is folded in half. Lay out your triangles to get a random placement. Then just stack the triangles and sandwich them into the ribbon as you sew. I did not pin at all. Super, super easy & lazy.


Couple of pictures of the bunting hanging in our campsite. They really made our site easy to find among the others. And sometimes such a small thing as this can really add a lot of cheer to a space...




Cheers.

I like to buy "stuff"

My new shirt from Gap + Alpaca, Silk, Angora Yarn spun by hand in Crozet, Va in a nice little ball awaiting transformation... :-D