Five-A-Month: January's Review, February's Goals

This year, in an effort to stay motivated and forward-moving, I decided to try to set monthly goals, and I'm inviting you to join with me. Many of you did. So let's do our January month-in-review (just cut and paste your goals w/ comments & updates about them), and then at the bottom, list your February Five-a-Month goals.

For January 2011, here were my Five-a-Month goals:

1. I will read or listen to Scripture every day. I missed about 5 days throughout the month. But I did get through most of Romans, and listened to Hebrews.
2. I will visit two neighbors and get back in the groove of speaking Turkish more frequently. I visited at length with one neighbor (3+ hours), and spent time looking for apartments (remember the mold problem I mentioned?), so I probably spent an additional 10 hours last week speaking Turkish.
3. I will read one book about pattern making/clothing design (something I've been wanting to learn about, but haven't made time to read the books yet...). I'm nearly finished. Haven't had time to put what I read to use, though.
4. I will continue faithfully doing the "No S Diet". I have been doing this, faithfully. Last time I checked, I was down 4 pounds, and Doug says the results are visible to him. He's the expert on my body, so I'll trust his opinion. :)
5. I will take the kids to at least one cultural/arts activity (I'm currently trying to decide between an art exhibit and a classical music concert...) during this month. We went to an exhibit of works by Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera, and also saw Turkish ceramics, Russian impressionist paintings, and a collection of ancient weights & measures. It was a great experience, and we had a good time introducing the kids to various themes & ideas in art history.

For February 2011, here are my Five-a-Month goals:

1. I will read or listen to Scripture every day.
2. I will read out loud to my kids every day.
3. I will keep doing the No S Diet faithfully.
4. I will sort through all of our books in anticipation of our need to pack up our apartment, and decide what books we'll take back to storage in the US, which books we'll keep out, and which books need to be sold/given away.
5. I will pull out and sort through all of my clothes... all seasons, all sizes, pregnant/normal, etc., and pitch/give away what I need to, and pare down what I have, in anticipation of going back to the US. I will encourage Doug to do the same with his clothes.

What goals are you setting for this month? Please join us. It's nice to have accountability and it's nice to have a sense of togetherness. Big or small, set 5 specific & measurable goals and let them motivate you throughout the month of February!

Be Mine Bonanza: Day 2-Painted Muslin Hearts

Hey! I'm Gwen from Gwenny Penny, and I'm so excited to be here today to share my tutorial as part of Kindra's Be Mine Bonanza. I love to sew, so today I'm going to show you how to make painted muslin hearts.

They have many decorative uses and are really easy to make. Let's get started!

Materials and supplies needed:

muslin

batting

thread

red acrylic craft paint

foam paintbrush

optional embellishments: buttons, twine, rubber stamps, permanent fabric marker, glue

Instructions:

Create a heart template. I drew mine in Word and printed it on a piece of freezer paper, but you can also draw a heart by hand on a piece of paper or cardboard and cut it out. My template was 6" tall and 5" wide.

Using your template, cut out two hearts from muslin and one from batting.

Pin your three layers together in this order... batting, muslin, muslin. I used a water soluble fabric pen to draw an outline around my outer piece of muslin about 1/4" from the edge. It's not necessary, but it makes it easier to sew evenly around both curves of the heart.

Sew around your layered heart about 1/4" from the outside edge. Leave a 2-3" gap along one straight edge for turning. Clip the point and curves of the heart, and turn it right side out.

Press the heart, making sure to press in the raw edges of the opening.

Topstitch around your heart about 1/8" from the outside edge.

Now it's time to paint! I used plain old acrylic craft paint that I had in my stash.

Use a foam brush to paint one side and the edges of your heart. Make sure you get everything covered with the first coat. Maybe it was just my paint, but any areas that got paint on them after the first coat dried looked uneven. Once the first side and edges dry, turn it over and paint the other side of your heart.

Now it's time to embellish. I decided to add a message to my heart. I took a scrap of muslin and sewed a rectangle on it. Then I trimmed the edges of the fabric to about 1/8" from the outside edges of my stitches, and I frayed the edges of the fabric.

Next I got out my rubber stamps. I bought a set of letter stamps for $1 at Michael's a while back, and I've gotten a lot of use out of it. When I stamp on fabric, I use a permanent, waterproof pen to coat each letter stamp. I feel like I have better control over the ink on the stamp when I use this method.

To finish off my heart, I glued my "love" tag onto the front and then glued a small button on top of that.

I made another patch for a second heart using my letter stamps and a little matryoshka doll stamp.

Now you've got this cute little heart that you can use in several different ways. You can glue a loop of twine on the back and hang it on a door or on the wall.

You can add it to a wreath.

Or you can make a couple of hearts and use them as bowl fillers, which is how I plan to use mine.

These hearts are so versatile, and I'd love to see all the creative ways that people embellish them and use them to decorate their homes. If you liked this tutorial, I hope you'll stop by Gwenny Penny and check out some of my other projects. Have a Happy Valentine's Day, and thanks for having me Kindra!

I can picture these hearts used as ornaments on a mini tree or even attach one to a Valentine gift. So cute!!  I was so priviledged to be a part of Gwen's Haul Out the Holly event this past Christmas. It inspired me to create the Be Mine Bonanza event! And I know you will feel inspired after seeing Gwen's projects! Also, go check out her new sewing closet! Wow! It makes me want to tackle my work space and make it pretty again! Thank you so much, Gwen, for sharing your Painted Muslin Hearts with us today!

The Sartorialist's Barber

You must watch the first 2 minutes of this documentary on The Sartorialist (just the most well known street fashion photographer and blogger) for the shots of his barber and barbershop. It's straight out of Victorian New York.



Some digging reveals that the barber shop is FSC Barber in New York. There are some more images at both the New York Times and New York Magazine.