Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Centennial to Arizona!

Wishing all of you a Happy Valentine's Day!

Also wishing the State of Arizona Happy Centennial!  Arizona was admitted to the Union on this date in 1912 as the 48th State!

Did you know that our state tree is the saguaro?

 We are also The Grand Canyon State.

Nor can we forget beautiful Sedona and its amazing red rock formations!

Finally . . . .

We have the most beautiful sunsets here in Arizona!

I know I have been AWOL

But I have good reasons.  I won't go into it, but just know that I am on the mend.

In the meantime, I have started thinking about Valentine's Day already.  Actually, it's not that far off, is it??  So for just a quick post, I am sharing a few vintage Valentine images with you.

 This was an old Valentine.  I love that it says "With Love" in the center and has the cute die cut bird.  Thinking this is hand made.

 Print this one out and add your own sentiment.  I think this is lovely!

 I love violets and think that this is so pretty!  Again, print it out and add your own embellishments and sentiment.

Isn't this little girl just cute!!  I am so in the mood to create Valentine's now. 

Finally getting something done!

It's been a very busy week.  I was swamped for the first part of the week with a side business that I am going to venture into for a new bff.  Nothing more about that yet.

But yesterday and today I did get some long standing projects done.  First in the dress form reform.  I have two dress forms that I had used in my booth.  One I do use, the other was vandalized -- more about that in a minute.  Here they are, all fixed and ready for use.

The tall one on the right was all wibbley wobbley.  I had been meaning to secure the base of the form to the stand, but put it off.  So this morning I did that as well as tightening the stand to the base.  Now she stands straight and doesn't wibble wobble any more.

The short one on the left is the one that was vandalized several years ago right in my booth at Merchant Square.  I noticed one day that she was leaning, really leaning to the left. When I investigated the knob at the top, it fell right off -- it was securely in place before.  Then I discovered that someone had unscrewed a section of the inside pole that kept her upright and stable, removed it, replaced the knob back so it looked OK, and made off with the pole.  Really made me mad!  So she has sat in the garage for a couple of years until this morning.  I just pushed the center pole up to the top and screwed the knob back on.  Although she is shorter, she will make someone a great torso display piece.  She will be for sale in my booth in a day or two.

Next I went on to sew the little jumper for my granddaughter's American Girl doll.  Here it is:

All I have left to do is sew on tiny snaps and make a shirt to go under it.  Not sure it will get to her in time for Valentine's Day, but don't think she will care much, really.  I will be off to JoAnn's in a couple of hours to hunt up snaps and a bit of white knit fabric.  This was pretty simple to do.  It was a project that required me to dig back, way back, into my sewing memory to recall what to do.  But I loved doing it!

Valentine assortment

I was so inspired by the Valentine's shown in the recent issue of Somerset Life, the January/February issue. Especially the one on the cover. So I set out to create Valentine's of my own. Here are pics of the first three I have finished.

This was the first one. I decided to make it very similar to the one on the cover of Somerset Life. I sewed, by hand, the tiny pearls on the red felt heart. I love the vintage rhinestone pin that is glued to the top.This was the second Valentine.This was the last one I have done, so far. There is another one in the works today. The item in the center of the pink heart is actually an earring that I found at the flea market last weekend.

Learned something new from this experience. I wanted to use metallic thread on these Valentine's. But my past experience with metallic thread ended in a very frustrating experience. The thread tends to shred after taking a few stitches. Well, then I visited JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts and asked someone who worked there. Found out there are actually needles for the sewing machine that won't shred the thread! So I bought a packet. It worked!

Somerset Holidays and Celebrations Volume 2

The mail brought my artist's complimentary issue of Somerset Holidays and Celebrations today! I love the cover!! Purple!!Last year I submitted this puzzle book entitled "Love Notes" for publication. They accepted it but told me it would be in this issue. And here it is!! A whole page!! Page 64! WooHoo!! I had forgotten about this being published.