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~

Created with Tagul.com

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!