Valentine's beauty

I've been stalking the mailman all week (not really, but I have been looking out the window about every five minutes since Monday). You see, back at the beginning of January I committed to taking part in a Victorian Paper Heart Swap organized by the lovely Danielle Muller over at the Vintage Dragonfly. Of course, at the time I committed to this very fun creative opportunity I didn't realize that I would be having surgery a short time later! This just meant I would have to speed up my creativity a bit and move up my own personal deadline to get everything sent off to Danielle.

The dozen of us that participated were each charged with creating a large hanging heart constructed of papers and other lovely vintage-y elements. We were also to create a dozen little packets of vintage-y art supply goodness to be contained in a space about the size of a postcard. Now each artist is anxiously waiting to get our fun mail with a big heart created by another wonderful soul and twelve little packets of new artsy stuff to play with! As we speak I am looking out the window at our mailman to see if he's carrying a box for me!!!

While I'm waiting, I thought I would share a pic with you of what I created to share with the others. After a fun trip to one of our great antique stores to supplement the supplies I already had, this is what I came up with. Bits of tulle and tatting, vintage french music sheets and a cute little couple of french children along with a touch of my calligraphy. I think I was trying to put myself back in my high school french classes! I only hope they like it as much as I LOVED putting it together!

My favorite class at The Creative Connection Event

When I signed up for The Creative Connection Event months ago, it was really hard to choose my classes. It wasn't for lack of options - that's for sure. As I was perusing the list, there were all sorts of wonderful options and talented teachers to choose from. However, when I saw that Kaari Meng of French General was among the instructors, I immediately knew I had to be in one of her classes. I've admired her style and work for many years. It was hard to choose but I narrowed it down to her Petite Coeur Cushion class and impatiently waited the many months for the conference and the class to arrive as it was the one I was most looking forward to.

Finally, the conference came and so did class! It was so much fun and even better than I had hoped for! This was my favorite class of the whole event. Not only did we get to stitch up these lovely little cushions stuffed with lavender and lambs wool, we got to create necklaces and bracelets with interchangeable charms. I can't leave well enough alone so once I got back home to my craft room, I had to embellish the heart a bit with some silk ribbon and beads.

I love wearing the simply elegant jewelry and how lovely it looks decorating my bedroom wall when I'm not wearing it!