Valentine's Crafts

If you asked me about five years ago how I felt about Valentine's Day I'd let you know I wasn't impressed. Not that I didn't celebrate it, but I never felt like going all out. Well now, as the baby bug has hit me and I look at my husband with adoring eyes I feel the need not only to celebrate, but to decorate. So for today I'm highlighting some of my favorite v-day crafts.

image taken from : http://www.magueyweaves.com/

Papel Picado is one of my favorite forms of decoration. Maybe it's growing up in the southwest, but I find it absolutely beautiful. It's also not all that difficult to make. If you're me, you fold it up and make a haphazard design with scissors, but if you're a little more talented, then I suggest printing out your favorite design and placing it over the tissue paper. Then with an exacto knife you can "easily" (I say that with a chuckle), carve out your design. If you keep a small strip on the top intact you can glue string to your piece and hang it up.

image definitely property of: www.marthastewart.com

This is one for the kiddies. It's fairly simple and rather cute. A great little valentine for kids to make and take to school for their friends, or consume completely on their own. You can find the instructions here, because let's be honest, nobody does it better than Martha.

Just a quick note

As I descend into the world of babies and toddlers I've found myself recently infatuated with a kid's magazine that I cannot have. Honestly I haven't even held the magazine to see all the magical contents, yet I am smitten. If I were a 10yr old again, I'd be in heaven.

So without further ado: Anorak Magazine: The Happy Mag for Kids!

Here's the best inside peak I've been able to get: Book By Its Cover

This fabulous little magazine is out of the UK and available on amazon, for 53 bucks! Yikes. I'm sure I'll stumble upon it in some Bay Area bookstore eventually....

Poster Image: Anorak Magazine 2009

Til then I'll contemplate the meaning of the Wisdom Clouds.

I'll eventually catch up with it all

First off Happy New Year to the two people who read this, myself excluded. Thus far my new year has been a whirlwind of getting life straightened out so that I can A. finish my Montessori teacher training by this summer B. have a baby in August and C. nap between eating double what I normally eat.

Here is our little cashew/peanut/squish at 7 weeks
looking like a baby chick.

But I find I'm spending most of my time mentally preparing a nursery, mainly focusing on the decor of course and wondering how on earth we're going to arrange our tiny two bedroom apt. (of which one room is the office/music room) into an actual two BEDROOM apt. How do you tell your child, "I love you, but I'm not giving up the bass"? Will they even notice that half of their room is filled with Dad's music equipment? Can we easily hide that bass amp under the crib? Yes, these are my problems. It doesn't help that I received my new Real Simple in the mail yesterday and it has a section on these hyper organized moms. I hate them. I also would like to fly them out so that they can categorize all of Joe's cables and miscellaneous music instruments, with labels and proper space.

Oh, but I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about art right? At least I think that was the initial intention of this blog. Well for now here are the ideas and sites I've been looking at for baby nursery decor:

• My brother made my husband this painting for his birthday and at present I think it will fit nicely in the baby's room, despite being a little dark. There is something comforting about it, like a grisly old grandpa watching over our wee one.
  

• I kinda love birds, despite hating real life birds. So when I saw this painting that can be customized with your child's first initial I got all gooey inside just thinking about the name debate that will soon ensue.
  

• This Etsy shop has too many wonderful pieces to choose from, so I'll just post a link to their homepage. I love the colors she uses! Are they a throw back to the 70s? Possibly, but then how else would we match that hideous Ethan Allen dresser my husband has had since birth and insists on keeping?
  

• As far as bedding goes, I'm kinda hooked on orange. I saw this crib sheet while perusing the web the other day and I'm stuck on it, the only problem is, does it have to be 60 bucks? I mean my own bedsheets aren't $60! Plus imagine the copious amounts of drool and other bodily secretions we'll have to clean off these fancy things? Oh well, they're organic and it's all for the baby right?