Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Happy Valentine's Day from a Chicago Winter Wonderland.  It's been lightly snowing throughout the afternoon and early evening, so outside it's covered with the perfect light, glittering, unblemished snow.  It's snow pre-shoveling with few paw and footprints.  It's also slippery snow, so the evening walk was a careful one.

This Christmas, I received the above tribute to Lucy and Desi's love from my sister.  She's got a great eye for unusual outsider art and easily matches it with the correct home.  I wish the above photo did the piece justice.  It's difficult to see all of it's 3D, sparkly, multi-layered awesomeness.  Sequins!  Glitter!  Jewels!  Sparkles!  Silver trim!  Resin-filled painted bowl/tub!

This is the back of the piece to show more of the heft of the piece.  I think it was ambitious of the artist to include a hook for hanging one a wall -- this is a heavy, bulky item and I am not confident in my secure hanging skills.  It's titled ""Ba, Ba Loosie"and was created in 2007 by Galail Garcia (name may be misspelled because it's faintly written in cursive).  I wish I knew more about the piece and the artist.

Recently, I have been watching "I Love Lucy" reruns on late night Hallmark Channel programming.  They stand the test of time and continue to make me laugh.  I don't mind the black and white but I think it would be really interesting to be able to see what colors were used on the sets.  I imagine it was very colorful, especially in Desi's shows.

Iconic Love Stories Tea Towel is one of my favorite tea towel designs that I offer in the shop.  Although I originally created it as a Valentine's Day offering, it is a great gift for weddings and anniversaries too.  This is actually the third of these tea towels I've embroidered -- a pair of them were shipped off to a new owner earlier this year.  

It was fun figuring out which iconic couples to feature on the towel and figure out the placement.  The irregularities in spacing and lettering are intentional and highlight the fact that it's a hand-embroidered and designed tea towel -- no transfer stamping on these towels! 

I also really enjoy this String of Hearts Garland.  The little hearts are crocheted, then attached together to form a lightweight garland that can be used in any room of the house.  This garland is a part of my collection of holiday garlands in the shop.  All are knitted or crocheted using fingering weight Peruvian wool and can be easily stored in a ziplock bag.  It's fun to have these small decorations on hand to brighten up a room and change things up for each of the seasons.