{Happy Heart Day}

I'm not really a big Valentine's Day person. I told hubby in our first year of marriage that he didn't need to go out and spend perfectly good money on overpriced roses on Valentine's Day. For one, I can't seem to keep flowers alive for more than 2 days without killing them. And two, if he were to buy flower bunches I can't arrange them for the life of me...so, just don't bother. I'd rather just get a new pair of shoes. LOL

I've been on a crocheting rampage of late and I decided to finally make myself a cozy. 

I love it. I stitched it while I was watching the Grammy Awards last night. Jennifer Lopez looked great. How does one get that "glow"? She always looks so together.

This chick definitely wins for outrageous outfit of the night {which I'm sure it was what she was going for}

Nicki Minaj

I have to say that I never paid much attention to Arcade Fire but they had an exciting performance last night after winning Album of the Year and now I'm contemplating buying the album.

So going back to my coffee cozy I also happened to pick this up at  Michael's on Sunday:

This upcycle magazine comes from the same publisher as Somerset Studio. It's filled with tons of great upcycling ideas and it gave me loads of craft inspiration. Check it out if  you can. It even inspired me to wrap my Valentine's Day gifts with the funnies pages from my morning newspaper. 

I guess I was pretty busy on the crafting front this weekend because I also finally had a chance to download and create this calendar. 

You can buy the kit at the House of 3. I scored 30% off since I subscribe to their newsletter. If you hurry, you can still get anything in the store at 30% off by using code love30 during checkout.

What did you create for Valentine's Day?

New Love: Crocheting & Paper Meets High Fashion

Yeah, I know. Another Tuesday has come and gone without a Travel Tuesday post. 

Sorry, I've been too busy getting my crochet on. :-P

I tried to crochet my first flower at last Sunday's crop I went to but it wasn't pretty and I'm not showing you the end result. Yeah, it was that bad!

But, after switching to an easier flower pattern and 3 attempts here is my cute little creation:

Isn't it just perfect?

I've also forgotten how relaxing crocheting can be. You should give it a whirl if you haven't. The vast amounts of video tutorials on You Tube are great ways to learn the craft.

I finally finished my JBS-inspired hearts as well at last weekend's crop.

I also  happened upon a really cool exhibit going on at the Legion of Honor right now. It's called Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave. 

She was a Belgian artist but her muses were textile and costumes. Everything you see in her clothing is made of paper which she then manipulated or painted. I sort of think of this exhibit as paper crafting meets iconic fashion as her works were inspired by fashion legends such as Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. 

Some of these works have come to SF straight from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which was one of my favorite art galleries when I toured Europe. The exhibit runs through June 5th so I hope to get there before then!

I have to throw this in here:

Darren asked me to teach him how to crochet. How cute is that? I couldn't resist taking this picture of him. I taught him the basic stitch and now he is working on crocheting a key chain. A key chain for what key? Don't ask me!

No Football Here!

I know I've been a bad blogger of late. I missed my last 2 Travel Tuesdays but between work and my dear MIL who has temporarily moved in with us due to health issues I honestly haven't had time to blog or craft.

Things are gonna change tomorrow because Darren's last basketball game of the season was this morning {let's hear it for no more twice/week practices and games every weekend! ~ Although I will miss watching him play!}and I'm going to the Art Inspired Studios Superbowl Crop {I think it really should have been called the anti-Superbowl Crop}tomorrow with Ginger and Marie. I have no idea what I will work on but crops usually are social outlets for me rather than getting some serious crafting accomplished.

I really should get my December Daily done but I have been wanting to pick up crocheting again to change things up a bit. I did crochet a very basic stitch that my grandmother taught me when I was a young girl and I remember making bedspreads, area rugs and the like for my Barbies. Yeah, it's been a long time! I've seen so many cute embellishments and crafts being made these days and I saw this video on You Tube late one night this week and my goal is to try to make one {or three!}

I would also love to take Jenni Bowlin's Big Picture Class: Re-Purpose, Re-think, Re-invent that begins on March 31st and runs 6 weeks. I've never used an inspiration board but I love the idea of it. Check out Jenni's inspiration board:

If you've taken this class before, please let me know what you thought about the class. I'm sure it's going to be fabulous. Lord knows I have vintage buttons and doo-dads galore so putting them all to good use beyond a scrapbook page, mini-book or banner is something I want to work towards.

What are your plans this weekend that don't involve football? :-P