love day

honestly, i'm pretty impartial to valentine's day.  it's neither here nor there for me.  sure, who doesn't like to feel a bit loved and appreciated once in a while?  but i'd rather those feelings of appreciation fall on other days beside's one of the most commercial holidays of the year.
however, i digress, i do love everything about valentine's day in the decor.  hearts!  you gotta love them!!  they signify love and everyone has at least one person to love, right?
more and more i'm getting into heartfelt home made gifts to give to people.  most people just go out and buy the things they want nowadays... so a home made gift is a wonderful opportunity to let someone know you were thinking about them.  it was my pleasure and joy to create a couple of special home made gifts to give to two really important women in my life, my sister in law and my mother in law.  it's becoming a tradition to have a valentine's 'brunch' with these ladies (and my little girls) where we exchange a few gifts, but more importantly, enjoy some quality time together, eating delicious food!  my sister in law, being the highly creative one that she is, made her dining room into the sweetest little heart cafe ever!  here's a few pics of the adorable table:

 someone sneaking some fruit... and, incidentally, destroying the cute little raspberry heart!  ;)

 some of the yummy eats!!  blueberry scones, pb and j biscuits, fresh fruit.  mmmm!

i wasn't able to get any pictures of the ladies and their little gift from me, but i wanted to share what i ended up creating for them.  feeling inspired by meg (yes, again!!) and her crafting weekend, i decided to create a couple of tiny hoop arts!  and with it being the love holiday, they had to include hearts!

i started with 2 small embroidering hoops and some cute fabric.

 i also got a couple of different colours of embroidery thread.

 now i got to work cutting and placing the fabric where i wanted it.  first i chose the off white fabric as my base.  then i cut out some simple hearts, one large, one small for each hoop.  

 i first wanted to see how they'd look placed on the fabric, and then proceeded to tack them on with iron on stuff.  (you crafty people would know what that stuff is called, i however, do not.)

  next i took each separate piece and stretched it over the hoop and fixed it in place.  then i threaded my embroidery string and began to stitch.  for the hearts i used a simple straight stitch.  for the lettering i used a simple back stitch.  since i was so immersed in my letter embroidery, i didn't have a chance to take a picture of the process.  therefore, there are no photos of my lettering.  just a few of the hearts taking shape. (you can also see my sunlight was quickly fading and pictures in the dark are never as nice.  ;)

 after everything was stitched, i made sure the off white fabric was pulled taut and then trimmed the excess.  then i hot glued the edges to the back to clean it up a bit.

 and VOILA!

the finished product (well, 1 of 2... the other one was finished later at night and again, no pictures)

so, i have to say, this was my first experience embroidering anything and i gotta say, it was a lot of fun.  fairly simple, super cute and a great way to express my creativity.  (don't judge too harshly on my needlework.  hopefully my grandma would be proud)    ;)


hope your valentine's day was all you wanted it... or didn't want it to be!
just remember to always love the ones you're with!