Countdown to Heart Day

My daughter made many of these fuse bead hearts when she was little!

I love heart day, and I'm very excited that the sun is shining today and it's only going to get warmer.

Today's stitched-with-love goodies in my Valentines countdown include a couple of Valentines ornaments and sweetheart wristlet bag for date night!

When it comes to a Valentines tree, anything with a heart goes. I make hearts, bake hearts, convert hearts, and even use the actual heart cookie cutters and heart ornaments that were meant for Christmas trees. I love it! So you can be creative with your Valentines tree. (Don't tell anyone, but I leave it up way past V-day, that's how much I love hearts.)


These pillow heart ornaments are easy to make--and you can be as creative as you want with them, just using the basic cross-stitch, DMC floss, ribbon for a hanger, fiber fill, and white aida cloth. And you don't have to go near the sewing machine.

Here is the basic heart cross-stitch pattern I use all the time. Your first stitch crosses to the right, then go back and cross to the left. Do a whole row at a time.

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Enjoy!

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Cross-stitched Heart

I can't wait for my Valentines dinner out at one of my very favorite restaurants! This is a restaurant we went to on our 20th wedding anniversary, and I remember getting an incredible appetizer that was so chef-inspired I can't remember the name of it, and the most amazing smoked salmon with grilled pears, and baby roasted Yukon gold potatoes. Yum, yum, and more yum. So I was thinking about how I need a cute, sparkling pink wristlet purse for Valentines dinner night. I started digging through my stash, and found that nice, sturdy pink denim with embroidery and sequins--perfect! I found a pink zipper, that I got at our FM Store (a dive of a fabric store--but wonderful because everything is discounted), for 25 cents. All of their zippers are 25 cents! Then, for the wrist strap, I dug through my jewelry armoire, and found a pink cord necklace I never ever wear. Excited, I whipped my sweetheart wristlet bag together in less than an hour! I can also change out the charms on the wrist strap this way, so I can certainly replace the pink crystalled dolphin with a heart charm, or any charm. So cute! Very happy with the results.

Winter is not going to be hanging around our necks much longer! I'm planting the first seeds for my kitchen garden this weekend--probably mostly tomato--and starting a new gardening blog with my sister soon. Fun! I hope you stitch and cook your heart out!