paper stars

My room has been looking very boring to me lately. After several long bouts of scrolling through pinterest (something I would not recommend to anyone), I've been thinking about adding some dimension to my room by means of ceiling decorations. While I'm still not certain what I want exactly, I've seen some cute mobiles featuring origami made out of sheet music, and I thought it'd be fun to make some stars from the pages of an old book I had.

These kinds of stars actually require a pentagon to begin with, rather than a square. This is the template I used: http://manaelf.com/projects2/pentagonset.pdf

From the template I cut one out of cardboard to do the rest with.

Here's a rough step-by-step:

For more details, here's the cute blog I found the instructions from: http://fivegoblogging.blogspot.com/2012/11/wish-upon-origami-star.html

I still need to string them and find something to hang them from, but I really liked the way they turned out. The book I used was an old copy of Silas Marner, and it was really cool to read little glimpses as I worked. I'd forgotten what an amazing story it is. If you've never read it, I would really encourage you to. If you're into that sort of thing. :) ♥

Sweet Sleet Treat

I was stomping around in the rather deep wintry mix for a while today before I bent down and tried it. I immediately thought, hey, I've got some grenadine in the fridge!

Turns out we had cherries too. Quite tasty. P:

Stay safe, and stay warm. ♥

V'day cupcakes

I'm going to an all-girl Valentine's day party tomorrow, so naturally I whipped up some red velvet cupcakes to take along. And I know that cream cheese is the expected frosting when it comes to this flavor, but I never really understood that tradition. Carrot, yes. Pumpkin, yes. Not velvet. Buttercream is far superior. ;) The decorations are courtesy of my mom - she's very festive, regardless of the holiday, and she does it so well. I love going home at the beginning of a new season.

Hope your Valentine's day is just as sweet as these little guys. ♥

Finished valentines

I had a lot of fun making these. My main concern was that the paper flowers would be too big to let them fit into the envelopes, but it turned out not to be a big problem. It just makes them a little bulgy. Can't wait to send them out. :)

Valentines

I've always liked making valentines. I loved personalizing each one and then handing them out to my friends at our homeschool group. I've been out of school for a while now, and I don't have that kind of regular interaction anymore (aside from work, and I wouldn't exactly go handing out cards covered in hearts to my coworkers). I wasn't going to make valentines this year, but then my mom invited me to go to a party that her girlfriends from work are throwing. It's like a gift exchange, except whoever's name you draw, you have to make them a valentine. And I figured, if I'm going to make one, why not make a whole bunch? So I descended upon my local Hobby Lobby with a ravenous delight I've not felt in a long time:

I'll be sending them to my family girls, and to a few of my close friends. I'll post pictures of the finished products in a day or two. I'll also be making cupcakes for the aforementioned event. I'll show you those too. :) ♥