Humor in Our Front Yard!

Can there really be more snow???

History of the American Valentine

"On this day...

 ...in 1849, the first American-made valentines were sold in Worcester. They were designed and made by Esther Howland, the daughter of a local stationer. After graduating from Mt. Holyoke College, she returned to Worcester and began making valentines modeled on a fancy one she had received from an English friend. Her brother took the samples on a sales trip and came home with an astonishing $5,000 worth of orders. Howland began by hiring her friends to assemble the valentines; within a few years, she built her business into a $100,000 a year enterprise, a notable success for any entrepreneur but a truly remarkable accomplishment for a nineteenth-century woman."

This the intro of the very fascinating tidbit of Massachusetts history from massmoments.org!  Click here to read the entire interesting story about Esther Howland- "the mother of the American Valentine" & the New England Valentine Company ! 

Enjoy the read!

~Valentine's Day Desserts~

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The day when we enjoy showing the special people in our lives that we appreciate & love them is rapidly approaching!  Valentine's Day!!!  A day filled with shades of reds and pinks!  It can also be a day for special desserts.  Now, these delicious special desserts can also be easy to prepare!

My heart word cloud below contains family favorite desserts that we enjoy- a lot! Place your cursor over a dessert name & it becomes larger.  Click on the bolded large name & like magic the post on my blog appears.  For me the choice is not easy for Valentine's Day!  What would you choose???

Enjoy!
Yummy!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! 

~A Sunny Day~

It's great to see the sun shining today!  It feels so good to sit & enjoy the view from our front window.  Looking upward there is some dripping action going on.  Another scene from our snowy frigid winter!

Could this be a view from your home, too?

 

   

Love Those Hearts

Just love those guest towels! It's February & the heart guest towel makes its appearance here.  Just like clockwork! Best part about this guest towel is that it's totally FuN to make, if you have a sewing machine & enjoy sewing, like I do!  It's usually paired with my "Starry Night" guest towel (which reminds me of van Gogh).  I'm building up a collection.  And yes, definitely they are used!

They're easy to make!  To start, purchase good quality hand towels.  Then, either go to your stash pile or visit your fabric store & purchase some whimsical seasonal fabric.  Both items are purchased either on sale or using a coupon (of course)!

My heart towel was created using the decorative stitches on my Janome sewing machine.  I was learning how to use that feature.  To learn, one needs a project!  These decorative stitches are another option rather than use a piece of whimsical fabric!

***When & if using the decorative stitch design, use a much larger piece of fabric than needed.  After the design is stitched, then cut out the carefully measured strip to sew onto the hand towel.  A little more planning is needed here, but it's a great result! 

Follow my easy directions (click here) & before you know it your decorative hand towels will be ready!  It's a FuN project!

***I always wash & dry any fabric before sewing.  There is a shrinkage issue that does not occur when I take the extra time to wash/dry the fabric.  Yes, this does include the new hand towels.

Enjoy!
Happy Sewing!

Super Bowl Food

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Super Bowl Sunday is 2 days away! The Patriots are in it, yes! I'm looking forward to a great game & great commercials! This is a Sunday afternoon/ evening when a yummy easy to make dinner works well.  Yes, there's the option of ordering "take- out", but that is not really necessary.

Take a look at my snowflake "Word Cloud"!  You know those interesting designs that are filled with words.  You see them in magazines & advertising.  I filled my Word Cloud with easy to make recipes.  If you move your cursor over the name of any recipe,  it gets larger.  Click on the recipe & you'll see my blog post containing the recipe. There are many choices of very tasty dinners! Some are for Slow Cookers/ Crock Pots!  Choose your fave to make on Sunday.  Put the ingredients on your grocery list!  Cooking with no fuss before the Super Bowl!  What will you be cooking???

Enjoy!
Yummy!

Go Patriots!!!

Winter in New England

Walking past any window in our home brings a beautiful view today!  We were very lucky that we did not get the total snowfall that was predicted nor the snowfall that central & eastern MA got.  There will be snow flurries adding to the 6.5" that was measured in our driveway from this storm. 

The welcoming sound of snow blowers can be heard.  My DH & our neighbors are all outside working.  Driveways, sidewalks & paths to our storage sheds will be cleared & we will be ready for the next snowfall.  

In a few months our outdoor grill will be used, again.  It's covered & hidden in the above photo!  It is winter in New England!