love – Page 4 – A Smith of All Trades

Craft Projects, Holiday, Quick and Easy Crafts, Valentine's Day

10-Minute Heart Garland

January 21, 2013 Jessica Smith

Supplies:

Felt
Yarn
Scissors

Instructions:

To make your garland, first you need to measure your mantel or wherever else you’d like to hang your decoration. I used yarn for my garland, folding it in half so it was doubled up and a little bit thicker.

Cut your yarn and tie loops at each end.

Then, cut out hearts from red felt. Each heart needs two slits at the top for the yarn to pass through.

Start to weave one end of the yarn through the cutout slits of the heart until all of the hearts are threaded.

Then spread the hearts along the yarn until they will spread the width of the mantel. Then, you are done!

Hang it on the mantel some Valentine’s Day cheer made in less than 10 minutes!

Life

Happy anniversary, A Smith of All Trades

January 16, 2013January 16, 2013 Jessica Smith

Holy cow, it’s my one-year blogging anniversary!

I started on this venture a year ago today after many months of trying hard to decide on a name. My coworkers had suggestions and we even had a white board in our kitchen with a running list of ideas. When I finally came up with a name I liked (I couldn’t sleep one night and A Smith of All Trades popped into my head), I started blogging pretty much immediately and haven’t slowed down since.

In 365 days:

I’ve written 274 posts — that’s a 75 percent posting rate!!
I’ve had 142,379 views
I’ve gotten 430 comments
I have 94 followers (which is more than I thought I had) on WordPress
I have 165 “likes” on Facebook

I have had a ton of fun in my first year of blogging all thanks to you, my readers. I know a lot of my readers are friends and family. It means the world to me that you guys come to my blog to show your support and keep in touch since life is always so crazy busy. And for those of you who I don’t personally know, you guys are awesome, too. The fact that you’ve stopped by once or keep coming back for more (especially since you have no obligation!)– well, that’s the reason I love to do this. I love getting your feedback on projects and hearing what you are up to.

I am very much looking forward to my next year writing on A Smith of All Trades. I hope you’re ready to join me for another fun, project-filled year. If there is something you’d like to see from me, please let me know! As always, I love to hear from you all.

Here’s to another year!

-Jess

Craft Projects, Holiday, Valentine's Day

Love Birds

January 14, 2013January 13, 2013 Jessica Smith

I love birds and I love Valentine’s Day, so naturally I would do a bird-themed craft project for the Feb. 14 holiday. While Valentine’s Day is still a month away (a month to the day today!), I wanted to get started early on the few projects I have planned so the decorations can be out an about for a bit. I only have one Valentine’s Day decoration — a cute wreath my step mom made me — so I need just a few more things around the house.

As I sat down to watch the football game last night, I got out my sewing kit and a few pieces of felt. To start on my love birds, I cut out two pieces to make the body.

Then, I starting stitching around the outside of the body.

I doubled up the thread so it would show more on the stitching.

I kept stitching all the way around the body until there was a small slit open by the tail. I stuffed the body using some leftover batting.

Once it was all stuffed, I sewed the remainder of the body closed.

Time to add the rest of the pieces! I cut out a beak, wing and feet, and sewed each piece to the bird.

For the wing, I used a heart!!!

Lastly, I added an eye using thread.

The red bird is for my hubby. Then I made a white one for me! For the second bird, I sewed all of the extra pieces on first. … the beak, the wing, the feet and the eye. That was a lot easier.

Love birds

We have the cutest love birds. ❤

All in all, it took me less than two hours to make these two love birds. Now they are sitting on our mantel — the first of the Valentine’s decor for our house.

L.O.V.E.

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