Navy Blue

So I've had these navy blue pants cut out to be sewn up for about two months now and yesterday I decided I would get them made up.  Took me about two hours and I had them done. It is a simple pajama pant pattern that I have altered to fit me perfectly and I make them out of suiting fabric.  They look just like suit pants when I'm done and they are so comfortable, I just love them.

Anyway, I had a navy blue and white blouse to wear with them but no jewelry so I decided to make some.  I found a few different blue beads at the store but I think the ones I got matched the best.

(No flash)

 See what you think?

(Flash)

I think they match pretty well myself.  Can't wait to wear them together.

Valentine's Day Tea Party

We had a lovely new (well kinda) tea room that opened up here last April.  We had a friends birthday tea party there the end of last April but this year we did a Valentine's Day Tea Party there and it was FABULOUS.  The owner had it decorated up a bit and we all brought a little valentine for each person.  It was so much fun.  I get right in to tea parties like this.

I made myself a heart necklace and earring set.

I bought a red hat at a flea market here in town to wear.  I cleaned it all up with a lint removed and a damp cloth.  It was pretty dusty.

Then I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a red feather, a sparkly butterfly, some red flowers and some other little feathers and decorated the hat to my liking.  It fit beautifully and looked amazing. Everyone just loved my new red hat!!!

I had a red dress in the closet that hadn't been worn for a long time.  It matched my hat and jewelry just perfectly!

This is Wanda.  She is the owner, along with her husband, Jim. She was also our waitress/hostess and what a lovely lady she is, so gracious and elegant. 

This picture is a bit blurry but I think you can make it out ok.  We had chicken salad croissants and cucumber/dill sandwiches.  Chocolate brownies, mini doughnuts and pink velvet cupcakes were on the second tier.  On the top tier was fruit cups and cream filled strawberries.  We also had scones, which she brought out first on a separate plate, WARM, yum! 

 

 

This is Joann.  I met her through Shirley at a Bronco party.  Her and Shirley have been friends for years.  I actually knew her son Greg when I was growing up but didn't know she was his mother until we started talking one day at one of our football parties. What a small world.

This is my friend Joyce.  I graduated from high school with her.  I met up with her again when I worked for the County.  She is a great friend and I so enjoy her company. 

This is Marva, my mother.  She looked so pretty in her red sweater.  She just turned 80 in January. Was glad she was able to attend the tea with us.

This is my friend Shirley.  I have known her for several years.  I met her when I worked at the DOT
 years and years ago.  She will turn 80 in April.  I see another tea party in the making. She bought her hat at the same flea market the same day I got mine and she got a matching purse too.

 

We all brought little valentine presents for each person, this was mine.  I filled them with Valentine's Day M&M's.  Joann made sugar cookies for everyone, YUM, Joyce brought us each a coffee mug with a little plush teddy bear inside, my mother brought a little goody bag with a heart shaped pencil sharpener (that works really well, I might add) and a heart decorated rubik's cube, so cute, and Shirley brought each of us a box of flower seeds.  Can hardly wait for spring so I can plant them!!

We had such a great time. The food was fabulous an the tea even better.  I had Bourbon Street Vanilla.  It was a decaffeinated roobis tea and it was so good.  

So Valentine's Day has come and gone again for another year but what a great time we had.  I hope you had a great one as well.

Hugs,
~Jody

Mooooore Valentine's Day 2016

Not sure why but I have been super motivated this year with some V-day projects.  Still have one I want to finish before the big day but here's a few I have been working on............ oh and I want to give Tim's tag a try too.

The first one I made, even before the little matchboxes, was a new canvas for the 'infamous' picture frame I have that hangs beside my front door.  You may remember it...............it's the one I have been making different canvases for, for each season. I think I started with a Halloween theme so still have about a half a year to go.

Anyway, here's the one I did for Valentine's Day.

Not sure if I like this one or not, it seems to be missing something.  I used just all scraps that I found in my stash of collectibles, lol.  I seem to have a fetish for charms and things that dangle. 

I found this heart in my collection so I added a few more beads and such and then used one of Tim's pins to hold it on there.  I had to actually pierce it thru the chipboard though as the bottom heart, the big one, is encased in silver or some type of heavy metal and it is heavy.  I had originally attached it with some glue dots and it kept falling off............so, I got tired of that and had to man handle it to get it pinned through the chipboard but I was successful.

The word valentines was cut from my Cricut years ago out of shrink film.  Don't remember the actual project  I made it for but after I shrunk it, it was too small.  Therefore, it was deposited in little file drawer that holds all the other rejects, or save for another day trinkets.   Anyway, today it was salvaged and put to good use, and it was the perfect size.

The brown speckles in the middle of the canvas were done with some embossing paste that I colored vintage photo with a drop of reinker and the new stencil I received as part of the gift I won from the 12 tags of 2015-Christmas.  I wanted to match the browns in the ribbon and the '14' wooden letterpress numbers.  I think I should have added a bit more or maybe not quite so much right in the middle as it kinda looked like dog shit when I got done.  TOO late now, lol.  I just tried to find some other things to cover some of it up with, lol.  And the 'love' metal piece I added some red tulle to each side.

I added an eye screw to the bottom of the 4 and hung the word 'heart' and put a little bling on it.  I think it still needs something though.  I think I may add a spot of red paint to the top of the 14, it may add something.

My embossing techniques still need a little work but I won't give up. On to bigger and better things.

Another project I have been working on is a banner to display in my living room.  A few years ago I came across a sheet of cardstock that had these little Valentine flags on it.

They were perforated around all edges and I just really liked them.  Have not any idea what the brand name was because I punched them all out and threw away the negative side and then never did anything with them. I decided I wanted to make this banner and when I went searching for some ideas, I found them in my stash.

There were only five designs and the word 'valentines' has 10 digits so I needed two of each design.  I scanned them in to my computer and printed out another sheet of them on white cardstock.  The colors are not spot on but once they were incorporated in to my design, no one would be able to tell.

I started with a black background which I cut around each with a decorative pair of scissors-pinking, it was called.  Then I went for pink.  On this layer I used a Martha Stewart heart punch across the bottom and I inked all the edges with festive berry distress ink.  I then inked all the edges of the flags with black soot and added those as my next layer.

Then I went to my Cricut cartridges to try and find a font I liked.  Found one so then it was on to the correct size.  Started with 4" and that was way too big..................ended up with 2 1/2".  Inked those with festive berry distress ink.  Now, how to hang it???

Went to Pinterest to look at some different ideas on how to hang a banner and found a cute idea where it looked like they added a couple of strips of ribbon to each side on the top and then strung another one through the loops.  I liked it so I tried the same thing................and it worked.  Love the results.

I also found some adhesive backed felt hearts in my stash, 10 of them exactly, so I added one to each flag.

I cut each ribbon loop to approx. 1 3/4" and folded them in half.  I slipped them over the edge of the black and under the pink layer just enough to attach them with the tiny'tacher stapler.  Worked perfectly!!

Just love how it turned out.  This will be one decor item that will be brought out each year for years to come.

Have one more little project that I wanted to share but this post is pretty long already so I will save it for another day.

Hope you have a great day,
Hugs,
~Jody