When we were kids my mom always made Valentine's Day special for us. I remember one year one of my siblings (think it was Jo) got socks that had peppers and said "Hot Stuff". When I got in college then I was excited for the approach of Valentine's day because usually it meant some awesome addition to my closet.
I have tried to continue the tradition of making Valentine's day special for my kiddos, last year I blew up around 35 balloons and put them in Ryders room (which is 8' by 10') so that when he woke up from his nap he would be surrounded by balloons. I think we will be doing something similar to this again this year.
I wanted to be able to do something special for Boston but with her only being a month old besides the cuddling, changing diapers and feeding her there isn't a lot special I can do, so I decided to make it special for her I would whip up a dress for her perfect for the holiday of love. That project then turned into 3 projects. With the left over material from Boston's dress I made a three tiered skirt for her cousin and appliqued a faux tie onto a tee shirt for her brother. Here is the result:
Guess what? The Valentine's Dress-up clothes only cost......drum roll.......
$5 dollars. $3 dollars for the shirt that the applique was applied to and $2 dollars for the satin used for the dress and skirt. The Bright pink ribbon used on top of the skirt and used on the tie was material I just had on hand. And the cream on the skirt is scraps from Boston's blessing dress. The Tulle on Boston's dress was some that I had on hand from making her crib skirt.

This little girl loves her baby girl cousin.

What's harder than getting a picture of one kid in their outfit? Answer: Trying to get a picture of 3.

I decided to do a little photo shoot with the toddlers so that we could send some personalized Valentines to the Grandparents some personalized Valentines. I guess we could call these pictures "Valentine's Day Date"

What to do if you have a handsome Valentine's Day Date?

Go for a walk with him.

Give him your best smile.

If that doesn't work give him a goofy grin.

Now in a last ditch effort to save your date, just try to grab his hand.

After that if he runs away don't be afraid to chase him.

After all this work I am ready to go to bed. But I hope you all have a very Happy Valentine's Day.

We are participating in:

Minky (Minkee) is usually out of price range ($20/yrd-$25/yrd) for our little family, since my husband is the only provider and he goes to school full time and works part time. Even though it is out of our price range that never kept me from wishing that we could afford it, especially since lately Rhett has been going through a stage where he loves soft things.
One day a few months ago I got an e-mail from our neighborhood craft store saying that they would run a 5 hour sale of $10/yrd. I decided at this point, that one of the presents that would be under our tree would be a travel minky travel quilt for each one of the kids. This was my first experience sewing on Minky and I would be lying if I said sewing on Minky was super easy.

After seam ripping several times I figured out what works best (at least for me):
1st: Double check to make sure your two fabrics are exactly the same size (because it is hard to cut Minky sometimes the people cutting the fabric haven't cut it exactly straight or even with each other).
2nd: Line up the right sides of your fabrics together and stretch out each one of the corners so that the fabric is as tight as possible.
3rd: Pin the sides opposite to the salvage edge together with a 1" inch inseam (because these should be exactly the same width. You will want to put a pin every 1/8-1/4" so that your fabric doesn't slip. It may seem like a little much but it is easier to over pin than seam rip.
4th: Once your sides opposite of the salvage edge are put together then you will pin together the salvage edge sides, leaving a 1 1/2 inch hole in the middle of one of the edges for you to flip your blanket right side out.
5th: Sew the salvage edges together making sure to leave the 1 1/2 inch hole for you to pull your fabric through.
6th: Clip your corners on your blanket and then turn the fabric right side out.
7th:  Pin your hole on your blanket shut and then sew around the outside of the blanket using a 1/2" seam.
8th: Enjoy a nice comfortable blanket. Slim Jim took advantage of the fact that I had this blanket out for picture taking one night. The next morning he said something like this, "Man that Minky blanket is pretty nice for watching TV with. It is really comfortable." I guess he didn't mind the girly colors too much, it has had me thinking about making one for a throw for the couch.....maybe next Minky sale.
Total cost of this project: $25 + tax
Retail cost for a Minky blanket: $125 + $17.95 (Shipping & Handling)

Even though this project cost a lot more than most of my projects usually do it is nice to save over a $100 dollars! Very budget friendly project.

I am so pleased with how this blanket turned out. The best part of this quilt it was made with scrap material from her blessing/christening gown and cut fabric that I found in the remnant fabric bin at JoAnne's. The story behind this quilt is that I had gone into JoAnne's to grab some printed canvas/outdoor upholstery fabric to make a diaper bag out of (that project will be posted soon). I walked by the remnant bin and found 1 1/3 yards (just short of 48 by 60, standard crib quilt is 45 by 60) of The Cuddle Soft in Remnant bin. At 50% of the current price I couldn't pass it up.
I did not take pictures as I went since I was making it up as I went, but encase you would like to make a similar one I have written down the process in the greatest detail as I can think but if you have any questions just leave a comment on this post and I will try to answer it. 
When I unwrapped it I was so pleased to find that it was nice and soft on both sides, so instead of applying a back to it I decided to put my ruffling foot to use and ruffle up some satin. I cut my satin in 3 inch strips and then sew the strips together (I think I did 8, because I knew I would loose length in the ruffling process and wasn't sure how much I would end up needing). I then ruffled my strips so that there would be a pleat every 6 stitches with a depth of 4.
I then folded the Cuddle Soft fabric horizontally and vertically so all of the outside corners would be lined up. I then pinned them so they would stay in place while I cut. I then I place a large plate over the top of the corners and traced the rounded shape. I then removed the plate and cut all of the layers at one time (this gave me a nice rounded edge to work with.
After that I then lined up and pinned the raw edge my ruffled satin  to the raw edge of my cuddle soft, with the satin laying on top of the right side of the Cuddle soft. I then stitched the satin on with a 1/2 inch stitch. When that was all attached I wanted to be able to cover my raw edges on the backside. So I cut (6) 1 1/2 inch strips of satin and sewed them all together. I then pinned and sewed the raw edge of the satin strips to the raw edge of the ruffles and the cuddle soft, with a 1/2 inch inseam. I then ironed the satin down and folded the satin edge around the ruffle/cuddle soft inseam (at this point you should have no raw edges showing). I pinned it so that it would stay down and in place. Then I lined the satin edge with the left side of my presser foot (most pressure feet have a right and left line that you can follow, it is half way between where the needle comes down and the edge of the presser foot) and had my thread come down in the middle. I then kept my hand tightly stretched across the fabric so I wouldn't have any puckers. DONE!
The Cuddle Soft Blanket will be so nice and comfortable to wrap our sweet baby girl in and the fluffiness of the cuddle soft fabric and the smooth silkiness of the satin ruffles make a complementary contrast. The white ruffles also help anchor the bright colors of the bright hearts. One of my favorite parts is that it is totally budget friendly.
Fabric Regular price: $17.32
My Cost for Cuddle Soft Fabric: $5.13 (50% of the current price, which the fabric was on sale for $7.79/yrd instead of the $13/yrd)
My Cost for Satin Ruffles:  Less than $1 because I made my own binding and the fabric I used I got for a $1/yrd.
Total Cost of Blanket: $6

The matching floral fabric for the Coming Home set was some that I purchased at Walmart before we found out we would be having a little girl. I had gone to the fabric section to purchase another print and when I saw it I knew I couldn't be without it, though I didn't know what I would use it for.
When we found out that we would be having a little girl joining our family, I immediately turned my eyes toward a ruffling foot for my sewing machine. My mom was so sweet and decided that she would get it for me for an early Christmas present. The dress is the first project that I used on it.

For the dress I used the Sweet Little Dress (3M-5T) from leila & ben. I am not being paid for endorsement of this pattern so know that this is my true opinion. I think that this pattern was the best 10 dollars I could have spent on a pattern. The instructions were really easy to follow and you can easily have a finished dress in an hour or two (the second and third time went much faster). I also love that you can choose to use a contrasting fabric on the sleeves for a completely different look. I also love that they send the pattern as a pdf file so that you can just print it off and cut it down to the size that you are making.

The dress top

Love the petite little ruffles.

I wasn't sure if the 3-6 Month pattern would be true to size or a small enough to make for a newborn, so I experimented. The 3-6 Month pattern was a true to 3-6 Month size. To make it new born I took 1/2 of an inch off of each of the sides and from the bottom and made the neck elastic 2 inches smaller (the pattern called for 15 inches of elastic so I did 13 inches). I followed the pattern's instructions for assembly with my adjusted pattern.
The ruffles are not part of the orginal pattern but I was playing with my ruffling foot and thought that ruffles would add a sweet touch to it. To make the ruffle, I used my ruffling foot and set the foot to do a mid-deep pleat (4 out of a 1 to 8 range) every 12 stitches. I did a small rolled hem on the bottom of the ruffle and then sewed right sides together on the ruffle and the dress bottom making for a nice finish. Then I pressed the seam flat and top stitched on the skirt so that the ruffle would stay down.

Cost of the Dress: $3 for fabric, $10 for the pattern but I plan and have used this pattern more than this one time. 


With my left over ruffles from the bottom, I made a casing by folding it 2/3 of the way over and ran 13 inches of elastic through it.
For the roses I cut strips of felt and rolled them and tacked them with thread. Then I laid the three roses out and decided which order they would go best in. Then I tacked them onto the headband with thread.
Cost of the Headband: $0, Everything I used from this project was leftovers from another project.
Blanket: 
With my son I always loved the extra long receiving blankets my mom made for him. They were the perfect swaddling blankets, worked great for draping over the carseat when he was sleeping and large enough that I could modestly nurse about anywhere. I think the double layer flannel receiving blankets are great for the cold days, but sometimes you need a lighter blanket than that.
The blanket is made by sewing two 45" by 45" pieces together, it has flannel on one side and the same material on the front side. To make this blanket I sewed my right sides together with a 5/8 inch seam (leaving a 1 1/2 inch hole on one of the sides so that I could turn it right side out). I then clipped my edges (here is a great tutorial on clipping your edges) so that I could get really pretty corners. Then I pressed my blanket so that each one of the seams would be nice and flat then I sewed around the outside of the blanket with a straight stitch at 1/2" and 1/4".
Cost of the blanket: Between $6-$7. I bought my flannel when Walmart was running a $2/yard sale.

Extra Long Receiving Blanket: This blanket is double layer flannel (perfect for cold winters in Eastern Idaho). The extra length on this blanket makes it ideal for swaddling a taller baby.

Coming Home Set: A matching set Extra Long Receiving Blanket, Dress with Ruffles & Headband

Cuddle Soft Blanket with Satin Ruffles: Super soft fleece found in the remnant section and finished with scrap satin to make a cuddly crib sized blanket.

Girl's Spotted Minky (Minkee) Travel Quilt: This soft quilt is perfect for traveling and the Minkee fabric makes it perfect for every season.

Owl Minky Travel Quilt with Satin Quilt Binding: Fabric selected by Ryder (2 years old) and the soft textures of this quilt will make it perfect for long trips in the car. The bright colors are sure to mask any spills.