Valentine's Yarn Wreath

I never used to decorate for Valentine's Day at all - but seeing all the cute projects everyone has inspired me to start. So this year I'm adding to my decor with a yarn wreath. I needed something new on the door anyway!

I started with a foam heart form that I found at the thrift, some batting and some chunky red yarn.

I cut strips of the batting and wrapped the form with it. I glued it using tacky glue, but hot glue would have worked, too. However, I now kind of wish I had either not used the batting, or not used such a chunky yarn.

And then start wrapping. And wrapping. And keep wrapping till it's all covered. As I mentioned previously, the points on this thing were a lot harder than I thought they'd be. Then again, I think that also has something to do with the combo of batting and thick yarn.

Eventually the entire form will be covered, and you will have something like this. Looks a little wonky to be, but I decided to keep going.

I gathered up some sheets of felt. I knew I wanted to include some turquoise, but that's really all I had planned at this point. It's hard for me to take pictures of making the flowers, etc, because I didn't have a specific plan. I just kind of play with it until I get something I like.

For this little bunting I used some red & white bakers twine, white felt, some very old Making Memories letters and some turquoise brads.

I thought it needed something on the side, so instead of flowers I did this little banner.

And of course, felt flowers. It was my first time making the ones with the little petals. Super fun & easy!

And here it is! This is outside so I could get the best light.

And here it is on our ugly door. It's not crooked - it's meant to hang at an angle. I really was unsure of this thing when it was just wrapped in yarn, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Maybe I'll do a St. Patty's Day one next!

Linked to: Too Cute Tuesday at Funky Polkadot Giraffe, Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife, Talent Tuesday at Vintage Wanna Bee, Home Decor & Organizing Linky Party at Organize & Decorate Everything, Show & Tell at Blue Cricket Design, Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts, What's Up Wednesday at Sew Woodsy, Look What I Made at Creations by Kara, Hookin Up with HoH at House of Hepworths, Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage, Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home, Catch-as- Catch-Can at My Repurposed Life, Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest, Delicately Constructed Friday at delicateCONSTRUCTION, Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Friday Favs at Naptime Crafters, Watcha Got Weekend at Lolly Jane Boutique, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots & Jello, Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors, Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes, Sundae Scoop at I ♥ Naptime, Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table & Dreaming, Creative Bloggers Party & Hop at Homemaker on a Dime

Clorox Green Works Review

January is always "spring cleaning" time for me. Taking the Christmas decorations down gets me in the mood to clean everything. It's always when we go through & reorganize the house and get rid of things we no longer need or want. So when I got the chance to try out some products from Clorox Green Works, the timing was perfect.

First up, the laundry detergent. We do a ton of laundry with five people in the family! The first thing I noticed was the amazing scent - nice and citrus-y. A little goes a long way, and our clothes came out fresh and clean. Very pleased! And did you know that the formula is dermatologist tested AND safe for both stand and high efficiency washers?

The bathroom cleaner worked great, too. It also smelled great and left my bathroom sparkling. It's non-toxic as well and is great on soap scum, hard water stains and more.

My favorite was probably the all-purpose cleaner. I use this type of cleaner more than anything else, and I love that it has a fresh and mild scent. Some of these types of products have such a strong chemical smell I can hardly use them. But not this. And it's safe for multiple surfaces and appliances.

Last but not least, the cleaning wipes. These are great for those nasty messes that you'd rather just clean and toss. My favorite place to use these is the bathroom around the toilet. Especially with a boy in the house, if you know what I mean! The great thing about these is that they are 100% compostable!

The next time you're at the store shopping for cleaning supplies, check out Green Works. They are high quality and environmentally friendly. If you sign up for their monthly newsletter, you receive an instant $1.00 coupon. And don't forget to like them on Facebook!

I was compensated with products to review, but thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

Football Birthday Party - Last Minute Superbowl Ideas

Are you ready for the Superbowl? I know it's tomorrow, so there isn't much time left, but I thought I'd do a quick repost of Blake's football birthday. Just incase you need some last minute, football themed ideas!

We celebrated Blake's 10th birthday on 9/25. The boys had a blast! He chose a football theme again this year, but instead of one team like last year, he wanted all teams. They do sell team specific party supplies, but that would have been way too expensive, so we chose brown & green for the colors.

Thankfully his birthday matches up with the start of football season, because we found several types of football themed food. Like these football Ritz crackers. I picked up the football plate on clearance for $.50 at Joann's awhile back.

I found these brown & white candy sticks at Party City. But we could have skipped these, none of the kids ate any.

A couple of bags of football Oreos turned in to chocolate covered football Oreos. My piping is far from perfect, but everyone loved these!

I also made little chocolate footballs. These went pretty fast too.

I found a big tub of football pretzels at Walmart.

And of course we had chips to snack on. I found these bowls at the Dollar Tree.

Mike and Blake made these goal posts on the table. They are made from PVC and Blake got to do the spray painting. Thankfully we had that bright yellow left over from Layla's birthday.

We thought about doing a football field for the cake, but in the end I decided on cupcakes instead. I figured it would be easier and a better way to get more teams represented. The images I used on the cupcake toppers came from Designer Graphics and the brown cupcake liners came from Caroline92101.

I found the fringed streamer on clearance for $.25 at Party City. This table was for the pizza when it arrived.

I found the two small footballs at the thrift store for $.25 each. I never thought I'd actually buy can koozies! The big football in the middle is a bank, I just took the end off. The green & white straws came from Big Al's Collectibles & More. I thought about paper straws, but these were way cheaper & the boys don't care anyway!

We made this chip stadium out of cardboard & aluminum foil. It was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. Yea, theirs is better, but also huge and I'm happy with ours.

This didn't get used, but I'm showing it anyway. Most of the boys play football together, so we set up what equipment we had in an obstacle course, much like they use sometimes at practice or camp. We had the cones (not shown) and a ladder...

Hurdles...

And even a tackling dummy.

But the reason those ended up not being used was Mike painted a football field! The boys were literally out there all day. We had to drag them back in for cake & presents.

But it started storming so that helped get them in! We used that time to open presents. It was quite chaotic. Thankfully the screen porch kept them out of my house.

It let up some and they were back to football.

But then we had to drag them back for cake.

While it was raining, Blakes' Playstation was brought out to help keep them busy. As you can see he could hardly take his eyes off his new Madden game. The black & white candles were leftover from his Totally Gross party, and they reminded me of the referee's shirts.

Here's a closeup of the cupcakes. I'm really happy with how they turned out, even though frosting all that grass was a pain in the hand!

And since I love brightly colored cake so much, I decided on a neat surprise inside the cupcakes. The inside of the cupcakes match the team colors on the topper! Like the Dolphins one above - it's teal & orange inside!

And this Steeler's cupcake is black & yellow.

Instead of pre-scooping the ice cream, I let it melt a little & them molded it into a football shaped silicone pan. We had chocolate & vanilla.

And we can't forget the party favors.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing football in the rain. And sliding into a giant mud puddle!

I love this group shot of the boys. It took a few tries though!

Linked to: Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors, Watcha Got Weekend at Lollyjane Boutique, Sundae Scoop at I ♥ Naptime, Think Pink Sunday at Flamingo Toes

Possible Craft Fail?

I have been wanting to make a wreath for Valentine's Day, and I had this heart form already, and the red yarn. So yesterday I got to work on it. And the yarn wrapping is done. But I'm not sure I'm in love with it. I used batting like I did on the rainbow wreath, and I'm thinking now maybe I shouldn't have. What do you think?

And I underestimated how difficult wrapping this shape would be. The bottom drives me nuts. I do plan on adding felt flowers however. That could possibly cover some of this.

And the top isn't as bad, but it doesn't dip down very much. So - be honest. How does it look? Should I rip everything off and start over? Or continue with the felt flowers?

Linked to: What's Up Wednesday at Sew Woodsy, Hookin Up With HoH at House of Hepworths, Catch-As-Catch-Can at My Repurposed Life, Project Party Weekend at Bubbly Nature Creations, Friday Favs at Naptime Crafters, Delicately Constructed Friday at delicateCONSTRUCTION, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots & Jello