Valentine's Day Salad

We'll be staying in for Valentine's Day- no fancy dinners out for us this year.  So I'll try to make something special at home.  This heart salad is on the menu.

 To make an ordinary salad for Valentine's I added heart shaped Parmesan crisps and croutons.  They are both really easy and quick.   Here's how I made the cheese crisps:

I like a recipe with one ingredient.  Grate about 3/4 of a cup of Parmesan cheese...

 Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.  Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make little mounds of grated cheese...

It should look like this going into the oven.  Bake at 400 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes...

 And they look like this coming out of the oven...

 Let cool and carefully remove with a spatula...

 

 Add them to your salad (or soups, to top a roast, etc.)  They are crispy and delicious!  I saw the heart shaped croutons years and years ago in a Martha Stewart magazine.  This link shows you how to make them, although I ended up making mine slightly different.  Instead of baking them I toasted the croutons in a skillet with olive oil and Mrs. Dash garlic pepper.  Either way, they are pretty easy.

 A special salad for your someone special.  I hope my valentines love it!

Felt Mushroom Tutorial

Here's a little tutorial for the felt mushrooms I made-

 

Supplies needed:

-large circle of red felt

-half of a Styrofoam ball

-cardboard circle, cut same diameter as Styrofoam ball

(I used a floral foam ball because that's what I had on hand- a regular Styrofoam ball is the way to go for this project, though, I think)

-circle of brown felt, slightly smaller than cardboard circle

-long rectangle of cream felt

-small circle of cream felt

-handful of small cream felt circles in various sizes

-fiberfill

-glass stones, beans, lentils, or something heavy

-tacky glue

-embroidery floss

-needle

 

To start, stitch a running stitch halfway around the red felt circle.  I used very small stitches- larger stitches make the felt lumpy after you gather the felt around the Styrofoam. 

 Once you have stitched about halfway, place the Styrofoam ball and cardboard circle in the middle of the red felt.  Start to cinch the felt around the ball by pulling on the thread.

 

 Once you have stitched all the way around the red felt circle pull the thread very tight and tie off.  You might need to adjust the felt a bit to get it to lie as flat as possible.

 

 It should look like this when you are done.

 

To make the base: sew the short ends of the cream felt rectangle together forming a tube.  Sew the small cream circle onto one end of the tube forming a cylinder.  I used my machine for this part, but you could stitch it by hand if you wanted to.

 

 Turn the base out so the seems are facing inside.  Fill with fiberfill and something heavy.  Beans or lentils would work well for this- I used glass stones because I had them on hand.

 Attach the cream base to the center of the brown felt circle.  I used embroidery floss and a blanket stitch to do it by hand, gathering the cream felt slightly.

 

From the top it will look like this.

 

And when finished it will look like this.

 

 Now attach the base to the rounded red top at the edge of the brown felt circle.  Again I used a blanket stitch with fairly small stitches.

 

 After you are done attaching the base it should look like this.

 Now glue the small cream circles onto the top of the mushroom.  You could sew these onto, too, if you wanted them to be really stable, before you start gathering the red circle.

 

 When the glue is dry your little mushroom done!

 

These little mushrooms live under our woodland theme Jesse Trees this Christmas.  Where are your mushrooms growing?

Valentine Garlands

I'm taking a tiny break from cleaning up to make some seasonal decorations... Valentine's Day heart garlands! Actually this first one is probably not technically a garland, but I don't know what to call it- a hanging? I got the idea from a Paper-Source catalogue.Here's how I did it:

1. Pick out paper. I painted a piece of sketch paper with water colors when my kids had their paints out. A medium weight paper works well.2. Cut into strips about one inch wide.3. Fold in half.4. Using a pen (or dowel, knitting needle, etc.) roll the paper tightly up to the center fold.5. Take the pen out- it should look like this.6. Repeat with the other side. The paper will form a heart that looks like this.7. Cut a length of thread twice as long as you want your hanging to hang. I strung a small glass bead onto the end to give the whole thing weight. Then thread a sewing needle onto the the thread. Using the needle, pull the thread up through the bottom of the paper heart. 8. Using a small piece of double sided tape or a photo mounting square, stick the top of the heart together, making sure to catch the thread in the tape.It should look like this when you are done.9. Follow this the remaining paper hearts, stacking them on top of each other. The finished project- stacked paper heart "garland."

And this is the simple felt heart garland I made. I cut out all these hearts to make embroidered felt conversation hearts, but it was going to take way too long. I just ran them through my machine and made the garland instead.

Pacifier Clip Tutorial

These are so easy, you could whip up a bunch really quick.

1. You need one suspender clip, a bit of Velcro, and a length of ribbon. I got this grosgrain ribbon at Hobby Lobby- brown with green dots on one side, plain green on the other. I cut my ribbon to 12 1/2 inches...2. Tucking in the raw edge, I sewed one end to the suspender clip using a straight stitch. you could use a sewing machine, but I think hand sewing is just as fast if not faster...3. I finished off the other end the same way- folding twice to cover up the raw edge...4. Sew bits of Velcro onto the ribbon using a straight stitch...5. And that's it! No more picking up pacifiers off the floor every two seconds. Hooray!

Old T-Shirt into Bib Tutorial

I have a big stack of old clothes that are waiting to be turned into something fun. First project- drool bibs for M.

1. I started with this T-shirt......and some old pj pants of my son's.2. Using a bib I already own, I traced a bib outline onto the T-shirt in disappearing ink. I made it a bit longer to use more of the T-shirt design...3. Cut out bib...4. I cut out the neck and arm holes to use as edging...5. Using a large basting stitch, I sewed the edging onto the right side of the bib with the finished edge facing in...6. I placed bib right side down onto backing fabric, pinned and cut out backing...7. Next I sewed the front to the backing leaving a small opening to turn bib right side out.

8. After turning out, I sewed the opening close with a slip stitch.

9. I sewed small metal snaps on the ends. You could use Velcro dots too...10. And here's the finished bib! Front... ...and back.M is on the verge of cutting teeth, so there's lots of drooling to come...