Snowy Morning

Yesterday morning, we woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground. As you do in the Pacific Northwest, we dashed outside as soon as possible to get in a little play time before rain moved in to melt it away.

Madeleine, once again, showed her love for sledding and lasted about an hour. We were lucky to be joined by the girls next door, who did a great job helping me build a snowman and sledding with Miss M. It was a really fun morning, and we're happy to have temperatures back in the 40s today!

Valentine's Day: DIY Love Bunting

If you're like me, you want to spread a lil' Valentine love around the house without spending much time or money. Well, here is the project for you.



This is a simple paper bunting made with the following supplies:

         An old book (or at least a few pages from an old book)
         A page or two of bright cardstock
         Scissors
         Mounting squares (tape will probably work, too)
         String or yarn or twine or ribbon
         Paper cutter or ruler

1. From the book, gently pull out the same number of pages as letters in your bunting. Cut those pages to a uniform size (3.75" x 5" for mine). Then, fold a small part (maybe .75 to 1 inch) of one short side of the rectangle over (this is the part that will wrap around the string/yarn/twine/ribbon).

2. Cut out letters from your cardstock. Tip: Cut a strip across the page and use that height for all of the letters to get uniform height.

3. Attach the letters to the book pages with the mounting squares. The fold should be at the top.

4. Cut your string/yarn/twine/ribbon to the desired length. Fold the string in half and attach your middle two letters on either side of the fold, leaving your desired amount of space between letters. To attach, hook the fold of the paper over the string and use mounting squares or tape to secure the paper to itself.

5. Hang your bunting and enjoy!

I thought it was appropriate to hang mine over our wedding photo (taken by Evantide Photography, of course).

If you're a Young House Love reader and feel like you've seen this before, you have! When John and Sherry announced their project at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU and called for readers to send love to the kids and families who would be in the room over the holidays, I whipped up one of these and put it in the mail with love from W-ville, WA. I got quite a kick out of seeing it displayed when they did their reveal of the space. Yep, that was my 15 seconds of (nameless) fame.

I hope you're able to find a few minutes to add some Valentine's Day love to your home. If you make one of these buntings, leave a note in the comments so that I can take a look!

Weekend in Photos...and a Video

I'll start by showing you a video from Friday in which Madeleine is practicing her jumping (and twirling) skills.

Our true weekend consisted of two sunny days, so we took advantage of them as best we could, knowing that temps are supposed to drop dramatically this week and give us a burst of real winter.

Post nap reading of "Go! Go! Go!" with Daddy and Monkey:

Running along the nearby trail: 

Post-brunch swinging at the park:

Holding onto the world's best handlebars:

Signing for "more" during the halftime show of the Puppy Bowl while we waited for the big game:

Of course, we watched the Super Bowl with amazement as our Seahawks stole the show. I must admit that I was hoping for a little closer game. Oh, well. Madeleine mastered "touchdown," and we got to enjoy hearing fireworks throughout our neighborhood. It's going to be an exciting week in the Emerald City!

I hope that you have a great week here or wherever you call home.