Happy new year

January is always such an interesting month. It seems to be for me a time for reviewing the past year and looking forward. 2012 was a good year for me. I am finding with each new year I am becoming more and more content with myself and what I am doing I life. I have set a couple of goals and am working towards accomplishing them already. One is to write more frequently on this blog. I have not even looked at it for weeks. I did not post the pictures I took at the Sacramento River City Quilters Guild show or anything I have been working on.

I have not really worked on anything specific with quilting. I made a couple of
Christmas wreaths that I really liked. Today I started some red pillow cases for my bed for February. I love Pinterest and spend way too much time there. I have a ton of ideas that I want to make now.

Last week I made two Valentine mailboxes. I already gave one to Elisa for her library at the school she works at. The other one is for my youngest granddaughter. It will be shipped to her in February.

This is my own idea. I really like how it turned out.

This is so easy to make. I went to Beverly's and purchased the press board mail box for $4.99. I comes with the button closure you see in the picture. I then purchased some scrapbooking paper with a Valentine theme and some embellishments. The embellishments were some sticky crystals, shicker borders and the cute three dimensional hearts you can see. Total cost was about $15 for each one.

I had glue and double stick tape and went to work. I cut the paper to fit where I wanted it to be starting with the inside first. I then moved to the ends, as they were the hardest to fit correctly. For the one that has the button, I measured where the button would be and then cut a button hole in the paper. I put double stick tape around the outside of each paper - right on the edge. Then I put glue everywhere else and stuck it on the mailbox. I did the rounded side after that and finished with the bottom. When I had all the paper where I wanted it, I put stickers on and then the embellishments. Each one looked different, which I like. I hate to make things exactly the same.

I love them both. Each one had their own niceties and their own problems. The embellishments were great because I was able to hide anything that was not perfect.

I do love doing craft projects like this. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. Best of all it is something I can do while I watch a movie or Law and Order. And I can do it in my living room by my fire place. I know many of you live in zero degree weather, but I still get very cold when it is in the 30s. So I spend a lot of time with a fire, a quilt and often a book during the winter.

I would love to hear of projects you are working on this winter.

Keep on Quilting