Happy Valentine's Day 2018

I try to make a heart themed breakfast and lunch on this day and in years passed I have spent ages cutting out meticulous heart sandwiches or making heart shaped pancakes, however I was totally unprepared this morning and a little fatigued so I decided that I would make a candle heart on the table to make it special instead and we would just eat our yummy pancakes left from yesterday which were decidedly not heart shaped, man who am I kidding they weren’t even circular! Anyhoo the candle heart was met with gasps and excitement so the kids were happy.  Oh I had changed the window stars the night before for window hearts (see tutorial here)

After breakfast we did our chores then it was time for our school work, however on this day we decided to eschew normal work for craftsJ. We like to do plenty to valentine related crafts on the day of love, however round our house we do not do romantic celebrations very often on this day specifically. That’s not to say that my husband and I don’t tend to our marriage we do but we do not see this day as exclusively a day of romance. As a family Valentine’s Day for us is about demonstrating how much we love, value and cherish each other as a family. So we all send hearts to each other, the kids make cards for my hubby and me, I make cards for them. I like this version of Valentine’s Day better as it encourages the children to think about how much they love each other and give gifts to one another. The children also like to make little gifts for their friends to show how much they appreciate their friendship.

I try to think of different crafts and activities each year to do, so that it’s novel and engaging.  This year we decided that we would make cards for one another instead of watercolour hearts, but for our friends and each other I offered the children a choice of making either teeny heart pillows (stuffed felt hearts depends how you sell this one! My daughter was insisting that they were tiny pillows! ) or needle felted hearts.  Obviously they each chose a different option which was fine by me, that’s why I offer choices.   

To make the little heart stuffies I used a cookie cutter to draw the outline, I then pinned it so my daughter could sew both sides together without them moving. I also always mark the sewing intervals with black dots which provides a guide, this I have found it crucial to both my children completing successful sewing projects without big holes in the seams, lol. She then sewed the hearts together and stuffed them. 

Noah decided that he wanted to needle felt some hearts, he really likes needle felting, and apparently he finds it relaxing.  Again I used the cookie cutters to provide a guide for the heart shapes, he then chose which colours of wool roving he wanted to use and started jabbing away! We use both a needle felting tool with multiple needles and single needles. When your child is working on the middle of a shape with the tool it makes the felting happen quicker, however when you are working around the edges to give definition you need a single needle. Just a quick note, personally I didn’t let Noah needle felt till he was about 8. I was way too worried about the sharp needles.

We will deliver some of our gifts this afternoon and some tomorrow! I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day. xxxx