Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Crafty Scrappy Happy me thursday {A Link party!!!}

I'm so SO so SO so SO excited to be co-hosting Crafty Scrappy Happy's link party with Jaime today. We are doubling the pleasure and the fun for you with a double linky party (you can link up here or there and it will show up on both blogs!) Join us won't you!!!

And now a note from our host :)...

Hello Love Sweet Love fans and Friends!!!


I am SO lucky to have such a great co-host this week----simply said, Angela is the best.


And I am SO thrilled to have you guys partying with my blog Crafty Scrappy Happy!!!


This is a double link party so anything you link up here will also so up over at my blog----


And I just can't wait to see what kind of crafts and fun stuff you are up to!!!





The only rules and requests for this party:


Have fun linking up anything Crafty Scrappy & Happy--no etsy shops or giveaways please!


Be a follower of Crafty Scrappy Happy and Love Sweet Love if you would!!!


&


Grab a party button!







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and p.s. I love making new blog friends---stop by and say hi if you have a chance!!!





~Jaime from Crafty Scrappy Happy

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Guest Posting over at Crafty Scrappy Happy!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

There's music on the radio, snow on the ground, the Christmas tree is up and decorated, the stockings are hung and my house smells of cinnamon and spice and everything nice! :)

The Christmas crafts are in full swing as well and they continue on Love Sweet Love, as today I'm over at Crafty Scrappy Happy sharing an idea for a Christmas Card Holder!


If you don't already know Jaime from CSH, you HAVE to come meet her and see her gorgeous projects!! Come on over and say hi to us, I promise you will LLLLove her!!!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Guest Posting over at Midwestern Sewing Girl!!!

Is everyone recovering from their turkey comas?!?! Did you survive black Friday?!?! Are you enjoying sitting at home in your comfy pj's while shopping online for cyber Monday?!?! Well, just in case you need a break in-between all that shopping, hop on over to Midwestern Sewing Girl where I'm sharing some advent love and 24 Christmas activities today!



I met Maggie during the American Crafter competition and fell absolutely in love with everything about her! Her blog is stylish, SO well organized, and inviting. Come on over and say hi!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

20 Thanksgiving Leftover Ideas

Simply stated...the BEST thing about Thanksgiving is the leftovers! For days after, our bodies are on a strict diet of turkey, potatoes, stuffing (and PIE!!!) as we stretch every last bite of our feast to get the most out of our WEEKS worth of preparation-and not to mention-pocketbook!

I mentioned before that you would {probably} never see another recipe on my blog again, but that {probably} is takin' a hike for today as I share TWENTY (2.0.) of the most interesting, and mouthwatering, Thanksgiving Leftover dishes I could find. Thanksgiving leftover are delicious, but even straight up turkey gets old after a few days so here are some fantastic ways to re-invent your feast and get the MOST outta whatchya got!

**clicking on the title above the photo will take you to the website with the recipe. All photos below are directly from the food websites.**

Enjoy!

Turkey pot pie

Recipe courtesy Paula Dean via Food Network

Grilled Turkey, Brie, and Apple Butter Sandwich with Arugula

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence via Food Network

Potato Croquettes

Recipe courtesy Paula Dean via Food Network

Fried Stuffing Bites with Cranberry Sauce

Recipe courtesy Sunny Anderson via Food Network

Open Faced Hot Turkey Sammys

Recipe Courtesy Rachel Ray via Food Network

30 Minute Turkey Chili

Recipe via Food Network kitchen

Pocket Pies

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Turkey Cobb Sandwich

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Cranberry Pancakes

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Turkey Stock

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Turkey, cheddar and green apple sandwich

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Chef Salad

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Cranberry Tartlets

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Turkey Soup

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Turkey and Sweet Potato Hash

Recipe via Martha Stewart

Turkey and Corn Enchiladas

Recipe courtesy Kate Merker via Real Simple

Turkey Samosas

Recipe courtesy Kate Merker via Real Simple

Turkey and Poblano Chili

Recipe courtesy Kate Merker via Real Simple

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili

Recipe courtesy Laura from Real Mom Kitchen

Turkey, Cheddar and Apple Hand Pies

Recipe courtesy Kimberley Hasselbrink from The Etsy Blog

Turkey Waldorf Salad

Recipe courtesy Wes Martin via Food Network

Thank you so much for stopping in today, I hope you have a WONDERFUL, family/friend filled Thanksgiving! I'm off now to take care of my sick husband-which is the equivalent of 3 sick children (I swear he takes the moaning up a notch as soon as I walk in the room) AND my 2 sick kiddos (whom I actually DO feel bad for) so I can get all five three of my whiners better before tomorrow!!! Happy Eating (and eating and eating and eating) :)

Monday, November 21, 2011

A {Thank you} Shout-out!

Hey girlies!! Gooood Monday morning! And if you hate Monday's the good news is, it's a holiday week so you only have to get through the next 2 or 3 days and then you get a break! Yay! Aaaaand, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I just wanted to stop in for a moment today and THANK a few websites/blogs for featuring Love Sweet Love.

It was SO fun to see my Gratitude Pumpkins featured on Make and Takes on their spotlight page.
Featured at Make and Takes

They have EVERYTHING: kids crafts, home projects, recipes and more! One of my favorite bloggers, Jamielyn, from I heart Naptime is a contributor and shares some great project ideas! Check out my feature, along with some other AWESOME festive project ideas from bloggers here!

It was a happy morning for me when I woke up to an email from an editor of Pocketchange asking if they could feature Love Sweet Love on their Best of the Web series. (um Yeeeeees! but I was all...oh sure whatever. that's cool.) The series is a compiled list of bloggers that blog in a wide range of different genres-art, cooking, crafts, electronics, traveling, inspirational,etc.


They have an AMAZING tip center with 25 different categories ranging from baking to parties to home organization to pets to Vacuums and everything in between!! Be sure to check it out before all the holiday craziness begins for some great ideas!

And OF COURSE a Humungo-jungo shout-out and Thank you to the many, many bloggers who have taken the time to hold linky parties, go through the hundreds of links they receive and feature Love Sweet Love on their sites. I know it takes A LOT of work to host a party (well I guess I don't know exactly how much work...but I know it's a lot of work just to run a blog withOUT a linky party!) and I appreciate the increase in friends and followers I am honored to have due to their features!

I would still create, craft, and write Love Sweet Love even if the only follower was my mom because I do it for me (sorry it's true) but I sure do appreciate you being here because it amps up the fun of it by about 100000000 percent. :)

Which leads me to saying THANK YOU to YOU! I love reading your comments, getting to know you, and making bloggy friends! I hope you have a Sweetly Lovely Monday! I'll be posting Thanksgiving leftover ideas later this week, so be sure to check back! See you soon!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Fall Felt Wreath...and I need YOU!!!

Guess what?!?! I need you. Yep, it's true. I've fought it off, tried to make it on my own, but I just can't do it and now...I need you. You, your crafty brain, your Christmas spirit, and your talented hands to make a Christmas related project and share it here at Love Sweet Love. Yep, I'm looking for guest posters!!!

For the week of Dec. 4th-10th I will be co-hosting Creating Christmas with The Girl Creative.
 Creating Christmas at The Girl Creative

Each day of that week a new Christmas project will be posted here on my blog-as well as all the other bloggers that are co-hosting this event-and at the end of the week there will be a HUGE linky party for you to link up all the Christmas projects you've been working on!

Now, I coooould do this all by-myself and post all 7 days, but I LOVE guest posting on other blogs and getting a chance to meet new friends, so I thought I would take this opportunity and open up MY blog for YOU to guest post on! Due to the traffic this event will bring, it would be a great opportunity for you to guest post during that week to shine a little light on your blog! (and I would REALLY appreciate the help!!!!)

The idea behind this event is to get out there and CREATE something. Don't just pin it, create it! Get OFF the computer and INTO the craft room (or closet as is my case :) )
 Creating Christmas at The Girl Creative

If you're interested in helping me out and being part of The Girl Creative's Christmas week, shoot me an email at loveseweetlove@gmail.com and I'll get you more info!

Speaking of guest posting :), it was so fun to be over at Designer Garden and share my fall felt wreath tutorial, but before fall is OVER I thought I'd better share the tute here for all my Love Sweet Love friends! You know, just in case you get the case of the crazies and want to whip one up before all your guest arrive on Thursday. Buuuuut even if you don't have time to make a fall one, you can use this tute to make one for Christmas...wouldn't a red and white version be so FESTIVE!!!

As for me, I can promise you this....I am NOT making a Christmas one. After my Halloween one and this one back to back my little fingers need a scissors break. :) But I can also promise you there WILL be a wreath (or 2 :) ) making it's way onto my blog sometime during December so be ready for some wreath-luvin fun!

Fall Felt Wreath


When Sommer asked if I would share a tutorial on how to make this felt wreath, I had actually already finished making this one so I apologize that a few of these 'how-to' pictures are actually from my Halloween one because I didn't take very many step-by-step pictures of this fall one. BUTTT don't worry, the only thing that's different between the two are the colors of felt!

Ready to make your own?!?!

You'll need:
-Styrofoam wreath (mine was 15")
-approx. 3/4 yard of felt
-straight pins
-scissors

I first started by cutting out a 3" circle onto cardstock to use as a pattern to cut out all my felt circles.
***TIP: double, or even triple, up your felt when cutting to save time!***


You will cut A. LOT. of circles. Half way through you will want to give up, your finger will be slightly bruised from the scissors pressing on it over and over, and you will swear you will never use felt for anything ever again. BUT you'll keep going because you know how fabulous it will turn out (this is my 3rd one!!), because you'll stick in a chick flick to keep your mind off it and because you're slightly crazy and think it's cool to make something ALL on your own for cheap! Just a heads up. You're welcome. :)

Once you've cut your circles out, slapped on a band-aid, and eaten a gallon a bowl of ice-cream, now it's time to make your wreath!

1. Fold your circle in half
2. Fold it in half again (it should now be in the shape of a triangle)
3. Place a straight pin through the tip of the triangle
4. Fluff it up so you get maximum usage out of your circle and therefore can use less :)
Then insert pin into the styrofoam. No right or wrong way to do this, just repeat all the steps until your wreath is FUUUULLL of little, felt, flowery looking circles!

Awww, so pretty right?! Worth the time to cut out all those circles, fold, and pin them on? I think so ;)


And it really wasn't thaaat bad. I cut all the circles in one night (watching a few episodes of Biggest Loser-SOOO motivating; yet I find I usually watch it while a)eating ice-cream b)sitting on my booty crafting or c)talking on the phone) and then I pinned them all on the next night. That's do-able right?! Totally.


I'm very traditional when it comes to holidays and seasons, so I kept the colors for this wreath nice and warm and fallish :). Brown, red and gold. The one picture I found of the kind of felt flowers I wanted to use for this wreath led to an etsy shop so I had to figure out a way to make something similar...


This is how I made mine...

1. Cut out petal shapes from felt
2.Hot glue the bottom ends together to create the petal form
3. Snip off any excess felt so that all the petals fit *snuggly* together in the center of the flower
4.I cut out a circle of felt and glued each petal around the circle to create the flower
5. Make sure that all the petals match up together in the center and add a couple extra dabs of hot glue in the middle to secure
6.Repeat the step for a top layer of the flower (cutting smaller petal shapes) and add an embellishment to the center if you want-which you probably will because it will hide the hot mess of your glue.

Make as many as you want, and then I just used a little bit of hot glue to attach them to the wreath.


I really LOVE texture and dimension and height when creating projects so I love that the flowers give the wreath something just a little bit extra :).


ALSO...when your pinning your felt circles all around the styrofoam form, you'll want to make sure you fill up the inside, outside, underneath and top of the wreath with felt so that no matter what angle you're looking at it from you see felt! (the only place you don't have to worry about is the back)


It added just the touch I was looking for to complete my fall mantel! What do you think?!?! I hope you like it!! (and if it looks like my topiary is falling over it's because it totally is :). I think I made it a little top heavy...oops. )


Whew!!! That was a LOT of information! Thanks for stopping in today and checking things out! Talk to ya soon my lovelies!!!

Linking up to these great parties as well as:
The DIY Show Off

Thursday, November 17, 2011

DIY $6 Tablerunner

Ok so I have the easiest thing In. The. World. for you today. And since all fall decor is on SUPER clearance right now (hobby lobby just knocked theirs down to 80% off yesterday!!!) now would be the perfect time to pick up some fallish place mats and make...
a Tablerunner!!!


I actually picked these 4 place mats up last year after Thanksgiving for $1.50 each with the idea of turning them into pillows this year. (sewing the sides of two place mats together and stuffing in batting or a pillow form)


BUT when I was pulling out all my fall stuff and arranging and re-arranging things around my living room and kitchen these were tossed onto the kitchen table, and as I was about to stuff them back into the box to await time for me to turn them into pillows I thought...hey these would make a PERFECT, simple tablerunner!

I overlapped each place mat by about 1" and sewed a straight seam down, placing the 2 red mats in the middle and the 2 gold ones on the outer ends. That's it. One step. Done!


I'm not sure in measurements how long it ended up being with all 4 place mats sewn together- and I'm not even a little bit embarrassed to admit I am too lazy/comfy/selfish to get up right now, clear everything off the table, and lay it out flat to measure it-so it ended up this long (minus what's tucked into the door frame to keep it from falling as I snapped a pic):


Long. But that's ok. I'm making it with my future dream dining room table in mind. :) Or for a front entry way table, or coffee table,etc. But since right now we have a cozy, little hand-me down table that we are currently making our memories with, it goes right here and I love it!


Since I stuffed every leftover Fall decoration onto my table, it was already busy with decor so I needed the runner to be something simple, yet substantial. Ya know...hold its own but not take over. Something that could say, "Hi, I'm here backin' up the main event." Not, "WOWZA check ME out!"


I think...not too bad for 6 bucks! Whaddya think? Does this work?! (you can find a tutorial for the give {thanks} charger here)


Thanks for popping in today! I hope all your Thanksgiving plans are coming together nicely, just ONE more week! Anyone elses belly's starting to grumble for stuffing and sweet potatoes and TURKEY and pie?!?! Or do you do more non-traditional things for Thanksgiving dinner? See you tomorrow my lovelies!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Fall Scrap Tutu & Turkey Shirt

Howdy Ho my friends! How is your week going?!?! Can I just tell you...I wish you were just sitting right here in my living room with me, next to my {electric :) } fireplace, sipping hot apple cider, helping me plan my Thanksgiving menu! (I'm actually not really at this moment doing any of those things...I'm really bundled up in sweats and slippers, eating a mint oreo cookie shake that my husband just made for me, sitting at the cluttered computer desk in my bedroom, wishing I was snuggled in bed watching Once Upon A Time on hulu...but if YOU were here we'd be in the living room because my bedrooms a mess and hot cider is debatedly better than ice cream.)

I wish we could all just craft together and chat and laugh and be friends in *real* life! I love creating projects and writing up tutorials and blogging, but I wish I was talking TO YOU rather than to the computer. You know what I mean right?! Oh my dear sweet bloggy friends (AND those of you who know me in *real* life!) I love that-even though I can't see your faces and know you for realz too-we're friends and I appreciate your comments and support!

Anywho...just know I really do care about YOU (even though I'm not exactly sure who YOU might be-but I see you come and visit through my Feedjit reader and it makes me happy :) ) and am so happy you stop by to see what's going on here! Thank you!

So....did you guess yesterday that all those scraps of fabric might be for a skirt?!


After all the crazy projects I've been doing with fabric over the last couple months I have quite the little stash built up sooooo I decided to throw all the leftover scraps (well the ones that had any remote relation to the fall color family) together and make a scrap tutu for my little one. (gosh she's almost THREE can I still call her my little one?!)

I made one for her for Halloween as well, but didn't have time to post it during October. I made it the same way, but added some purple, green, orange and black tulle to this one to make it a little more spunky for Halloween.


You see the tulle tutu's ALL over, but the fabric ones are a little more rare so I like that! This was a great way to use up some of that fabric leftover from my pumpkins and crates so nothing goes wasted!! When I bought the elastic for the Halloween skirt there was enough in the package (1 1/4 yard for about $1.50) for me to make 2 skirts so I was pretty excited to do this fall one! :) If you want to make one too, here's how I did it...!

1. Take 1" thick elastic and measure around your child's waist. Cut and then use a safety pin to connect the two ends to create a band.
2. Cut lots, and lots, and lots of fabric into strips. Mine are about 1.5"x18-20'. (I cut them all different lengths).


3. Fold the fabric strip in half so the two ends touch. Pull the folded end under your elastic band.


4. Pull up the two ends together and tuck them into the loop and pull up.


5. Then pull the strip downward to tighten and make sure it touches right against the last strip of fabric you tied on so there are no gaps of white elastic showing.


**TIP**:It's much easier to make a nice FULL skirt when you place the elastic band around your thigh while tying on the strips b/c this stretches the elastic giving you more room to add more fabric!


When it's done it'll be nice and tight and full of color! This is what the inside of your band should look like. If you see any gaps or white peeking out at you just tie on another strip, the more the merrier!


Yum!


I had wanted to make some sort of shirt for her to wear with the skirt, but I didn't want to spend any money so I was DELIGHTED when I came across Jennifer's blog, Delightfully Noted, and she had a cute little FREE turkey printable iron on available. I printed it right off and ironed it onto a plain white shirt the little miss had in her closet. (you could use it to iron on to cloth napkins, an apron, a shirt, a towel, etc!)


And to make it just a wee bit more girly (and b/c I can't help but bling up anything I get my hands on) I added a few colored rhinestones I had by simply sticking a glue dot to the rhinestone and pressing it onto the shirt. I haven't tried washing it yet...do you think they will stay on in the wash?


The little miss loves it and it was free free free so I love it too! :)


Oh Thanksgiving...won't you come soon?! I'm waiting for you...


Thanks for reading! I'll be back tomorrow with quite possibly the simplest thing I've ever made using...place-mats. See ya then! :)

Linking up to these great parties as well as:
The DIY Show Off