Holidays | Traveling with Baby

Valentine’s day is such a fun time to create adorable crafts with little ones..with punny sayings. Last year, I had a sealed pack of vintage Valentine’s cards (back from when I was in elementary school), that my son shared with his classmates.

This year, we might do something a little more personal and homemade.

I love this heart/hands craft idea that I found on krokotak.com via pinterest. The grandparents would love this one!

Check out my pinterest Valentine’s Day board for more ideas from the creative blogosphere.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for cute, personalized valentine’s that you can quickly purchase and send, check out some of these cute ideas from Treat.com

We hope by Valentine’s Day this year, we’ll have a sweet little baby girl snuggling in our arms. But, alas, we are still awaiting travel approval from China. Meanwhile, airline ticket prices overseas continue to tick up by at least $100 each day. Pretty soon, they will exceed our current allotted travel budget, and we will have to decline any group travel until February.

We’re praying for God’s timing and affordable ticket pricing.

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Meanwhile, I’d love to hear from you about your ideas for homemade Valentine’s crafts and cards with your little ones.

Do you prefer to purchase pre-made cards? Do you like to make your own? Which is more fun or easier with your kids?

We closed up the office early today in anticipation of strong gusty winds from Hurricane Sandy. As a result, we’re cozy inside from the cold rain and finally carving up one of our two pumpkins.

Here’s last year’s post on a great teaching poem to share with young children as well as a very effective and tasty recipe for cleaning and roasting pumpkin seeds.

Hope everyone is safe, dry, and not without power too long on this hurricane day.

How are you spending your day?

Decorated with a glue gun, ribbon scraps, and the assistance of a very interested and crafty four year-old…this ol’ wreath went up at the end of January. Above it, I strung a handmade “Happy Chinese New Year” sign {written in mandarin, of course} on red envelopes threaded with twine. There was a nod to the tradition of hóngbāo.

I get all happy-faced whenever I walk home and see this romantic and darling wreath.

How did you decorate for Valentine’s Day?

I heart Valentine’s Day.

Since our door wreath was more spring and summer appropriate, I retired the butterfly and moss wreath for the moment and hung up a vibrant felt one that my son and I created together.

The design concept was inspired by this super cute wreath from Urban Comfort–who also featured it on Family Circle Magazine. I used her technique for holly berries and felt dhalia centers to create the rosebuds on the heart.

Using a rotary cutter and mat to cut the felt strips, and adhering them to a foam wreath base with push pins–that process took maybe 30 minutes or so.

I cut out the heart shape onto cardboard with a freehand design. Using a glue gun, I adhered red felt to the cardboard heart. Then, I glued it onto white felt and cut around it with pinking shears.

Using pinking shears or straight-edge scissors, I cut the strips for the rosebud spirals. I wound them up, then hot glued them to the heart. Once complete, I pinned the heart to the wreath.

Truly, the heart rose buds took the longest amount of time. I almost went with the plain, flat red heart…but it was too flat. This wreath needed a little more dimension.

The final wreath is fun, and using white paper Ikea twine, I hung it up with a command strip hook in a couple of minutes.

Because he helped put it together (picking out felt strips or handing me push pins), my son loves the wreath. He calls it our “heart wreath.”

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Fun thing about the colors on this wreath is that I could easily change out the heart and add a shamrock or a cluster of shamrocks for March, and a collage of felt stars for Independence Day. There are so many possibilities.

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Starting next week, expect to see some fun gift ideas for the whole family for Valentine’s Day–great giveaways and discount codes exclusive to you amazing readers! SO excited!

YOUR TURN: What are your crafting ideas for Valentine’s Day?

Easter traditions really vary from one family to another, I’ve found – although I do think either a ham or lamb supper unites us all. This year we celebrated the resurrection of our Savior and baby’s first easter together with my family. We had an Easter egg hunt, but we always include a few numbered eggs … a dozen to be exact. Those eggs have special meaning as they’re resurrection eggs! It brings meaning to the traditional egg hunt since it tells the story of Christ dying on the cross to save us from our sins, and then rising again. The kids aren’t disappointed about not having a candy filled egg – they’re thrilled to be able to participate in the story.

Your turn: What are your Easter traditions?

Traveling with Baby

Category Archives: holidays

Valentine’s Day Ideas

Hurricane Day – Pumpkin Carving

Heart Wreath

Heart Wreath

He is Risen!