Coming Back.

When Christmas is over, for a while you're so excited to clear out your house of all the extra decor.  But after a while, I started to miss the festivity of the holiday decorations.  Valentine's is certainly a second tier holiday, but still sufficient to craft a heart garland, and hang it up early in January in anticipation of the day of love!  I know Liz feels the same way.  Heart garland is so simple.  You just cut out a million felt heart, and chain stitch them all together.  It is one of the most satisfying ways to spend an hour.  Trust me!

Perhaps you noticed on our "Things I Want To Make" list, that I had recently added "love note" to the list.  I was really smitten with the cute one I saw over at Flamingo Toes.  Somehow I feel like mine turned out a bit more dorky, and I'm on the fence whether I like it, or I'm embarrassed about it.  But I spent the entire week last week substituting in 1st grade, which left NO TIME for sewing even two stitches last week.  I was eager to get back out to the sewing garage, and you have to start a come-back somewhere.  

To redeem myself after my somewhat dissatisfied experience with the "love note", I decided to make myself a little gift for having survived a really busy week!  I've been admiring Liz's recent entry into the world of clutches.  She's really been doing some cute projects in that realms.  Now that I no longer have the need to tote around extra stuff for kids, I've been dreaming of a hands free way of carrying only the essentials as I breeze through the grocery store, etc.  I knew I could figure out how to attach a handle to any of the clutch tutorials out there, but long ago I found this pattern, and I couldn't get it out of my mind that I wanted it.

The pattern is lovely.  The first time you make something is always the hardest.  I look forward to making this pattern over and over again.  It comes with six different bag style/sizes, and about six different handle ideas.  It's great.

Of course, the fabric steals the show in my humble opinion.  New from the Anna Maria Innocent Crush line, it is my favorite one!

So far I am not scheduled to substitue at all this week.  Here's to hoping that I get to spend a lot more time creating!