Clay Hearts

What I was going for and what I got were two different things! Heh, not everything can go wondrously ;-)

I used a different recipe than the normal salt dough I typically use. While I do really like it better than the salt dough, it took a little working with to get it the right consistency - which took up a lot of my time I wasn't prepared to give. Anyway, I used a recipe calling for baking soda and cornstarch rather than salt and flour. I found it at Tips From a Typical Mom blog. I decided to try this new recipe for two reasons:

1) It just looked nicer in the photos, and...
2) I'm allergic to gluten and have to wear gloves when working with salt dough

Just makes sense to use the cornstarch recipe instead.

I think I baked them a little too long, rather than allowing the final cooling stage to completely dry them out. Some warped and cracked during the final baking phase I put them through - an hour longer than called for in the recipe. Even at the end of that hour, when I flipped them over there were "not completely dried spots." I decided at that point to let them air dry. Three cracked so badly they broke right there on the pan without me ever picking them up! I was so careful when handling the rest of them!!

As it was, I had wanted to make conversation hearts out of these, but didn't realize I didn't have enough cornstarch to make multiple batches. See, you add color to the water if you want to tint the dough. Makes me glad I used red first so that I at least had pink hearts instead of all orange or green!

I have seen these adorable hanging works of art where green ornaments are hung in a manner that they fall into the shape of a Christmas tree. I love the concept - a lot! So I thought, why not hang the hearts in the shape of a heart?? Cute in idea concept, not so cute in actuality when I don't really have the proper way to hang said hearts. I had wanted them to hang from my chandelier as seen in this photo on Pinterest. The idea comes from an article on SheKnows. In the past couple of years, I had been hanging these little paper doily hearts via ornament hooks on the chandelier. It was kinda cute the first year, but not so much the second. Hence, why I wanted to find something else to do this third year. I probably should have stuck to simply hanging them instead of getting all cutesy with a 3D, floating shape!!

The center heart has an XO stamped in the center of it. I had done that when I thought I was going to be making a bunch of conversation hearts. Perhaps next year!

 

Did you notice my un-paper towels laying beside the stove?

Un-paper Towels

My family can go through a lot of paper towels! I've tried for years to cut that usage down by having hand towels on hand to use for everything ... they still use paper most of the time. Plus, we just didn't seem to have enough on hand to cover it all especially with me using them constantly. So I decided to bite the bullet and just make some. The goal is A. Whole. Slew. Of. Them. Each set is loosely based on those "choose-a-size" paper towels. Two of each set are what you'd call "regular size" while 4 of each set are what you'd call "half-size." 

The first two sets that I made I do not currently have pictures of and I sewed them quite a few months ago before my mother died in November. It was babies that got me back into sewing this month. I was missing something I needed to start sewing the baby items so I decided just to whip out some of these real quick since I could at least finish something I started!! I still have two more sets to complete - I was missing red thread for them (which I now have) so they will sit on the back burner until I have a lull in baby items.

I plan on making A LOT more for various holidays.

One of our sons is in the Air Force. These are for him.

 

My father is an Army Veteran. He served in Vietnam right after his best friend was KIA. These are for him.

 

I have a matching set to these but on a red background. These are more typically going to be used on any patriotic or special military day.

Our kitchen is mostly black with touches of red and white. We are die-hard Georgia Dawg's fans. I love gingham. Therefore I knew I had to make some when I saw the red gingham fabric!

I don't have a surger so I did the next best thing I could think of ... using one of the stitches on my sewing machine as close to the edge as I felt comfortable and letting the edges unravel as I wash them, then trimming them up.  I didn't use a ruler and mark lines to cut straight so these are very haphazardly cut and consequently sewn!!  But, for now, that's okay with me!