Valentines, Cupcakes, and Boy Jammies!

When I was little, Valentine's Day was my second-favourite day of the year, after Christmas Eve. My mom had a little valentine tree (a three-foot Christmas tree she decorated with sparkly hearts and little Cupids), and we'd cut hearts out of red and pink construction paper and paper doilies and tape them in the windows. The valentines we gave out at school didn't come from a box, like kids' valentines do now, but from a big punch-out book (anyone else remember that? What ever happened to those?) Punching them out was part of the fun... first you had to be careful not to rip them, and then you had to be strategic about which ones you were giving to whom, lest you give a boy you didn't really like (but you were giving a valentine to, to be nice... and because your mom made you) the wrong idea about what you were trying to say. We'd eat cinnamon hearts until our tongues burned and we'd try to get those Hot Lips candy to stick to our mouths and pretend they were our real lips.

This year, Mom told my sister Erin and me (we always trade little valentine's gifts) not to give her anything unless we either A- made it, or B- found it second-hand (Mom likes thrift shops like we do, mainly for dishes- she's incredible at finding dishes and trinkets that she pays a couple dollars for, then goes home and checks on eBay and finds they're worth far more). Last week, my sister told me she had found mom a gravy boat at one of the second-hand stores, to add to her collection of interesting/beautiful pieces of china. A few days later, I was at a different second-hand store and found a set of four cups and saucers and a little plate, white with a gold pattern, that I thought Mom would like, so I bought it. When I gave them to her yesterday, she opened the tissue paper and said, "Oh! Erin gave me the gravy boat like this!" Erin and I had bought, without knowing it and at different stores, pieces of the same china! Crazy.

For Baby's M.'s first Valentine's Day, I made him a t-shirt, using cotton applique and embroidery...

I made the same shirt for two of his cousins (Little E. and his brother, who's just six weeks younger than Baby M.).

I made this one for his cousin Kylie, as well as his "girlfriend" (Ally's daughter), Sarah:

I made a valentine for Ian, too, using this pattern from the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog, although my envelope didn't come together nearly as nice as hers (and I apologize in advance for the crappiness of the photos).

I used denim for the outside of the envelope and plain broadcloth for the rest...I think next time, I'll use a thinner fabric for the outside. I also zig-zagged around the edge of the note instead of topstitching, like the tutorial says. Ian thought it was cute, although he wasn't sure what it was when I gave him the envelope at first: "You're giving me a purse?" LOL. If I had more time, I think I might have embroidered a stamp and a postmark on the front of the envelope.

*****

The Get Baked! show went off brilliantly, and we raised more than $1,100 for Marguerite's Place... yippee! The cupcake buffet was *incredible* (I have no words to describe this, honestly), and there were tons of amazing pieces of art. Alicia E. did a great job of putting the show together, bless her. I'll write more and post some pics in the coming days (the artworks that weren't sold are still available to be bought, and there's going to be a Facebook group set up for this, I think). For now, though, here's Giveaway #2 for Celebrate the Boy Month!

I have enough of this blue and white, dinosaur-printed cozy flannel to make a pair of pajamas (similar to the girl version Olivia is wearing a few posts ago) in any size you like, from 3 months up to 4T. Leave me a comment under this post, telling me a cute or funny story about your favourite boy (again, it could be your own or a nephew/friend/cousin, etc.), and I'll use the random number generator again on Thursday at 5pm (3:30pm ET) to pick a winner. Feel free to enter again, if you already commented under the Munkeh post! :)

On the weekend, there'll be a tutorial from a guest blogger for Boy Month. It's a good one!

My cute story is about my second-favourite boy in the world, 2-year-old Little E. He's taken to calling Erin (his mom), "Darling." She tucks him in bed at night and he says, "Goodnight, Darling" as he gives her a kiss. Adorable!