What to Do With Old Buttons: Make Button Heart

Here  in North Carolina people panic when there is a forecast of snow.  Yesterday when it started to snow I decided just to stay inside like a native Southerner.  I made some soup and some brownies and got some extra firewood ready to “ride out the storm” and I decided to do a little project.

Valentines Day is approaching.  I don’t decorate for Valentines day, but I love hearts, so this is sort of a Valentine’s Day post.

  I have always loved the shape of a heart.  I also like buttons and always buy some if I find them at garage sales.  I have lots of button ideas on my Pinterest pages and this idea for the button heart came from there.

 I had a photo in this lovely frame.  So I removed the glass and covered the cardboard back with some  pinstripe fabric that came from an old sheet.  I just taped it on the back.  Then I lightly painted the frame with Annie Sloan pure white, leaving some of the original color to show through

 I drew the shape of a heart on a piece of white paper and then hot glued the buttons on it.  When I finished I glued the heart to the pinstripe back.  There are so many online instructions for this  that I’m not going to give you a step by step tutorial.  You can google it 

    Here is the finished button heart.  At first I was going to put it on the mantle in our living room.  It looked good there.

            But as I usually do when I have something new, I walked around the house trying it in different places.

I decided I liked it best on the desk beside my bed, next to the little cherub which was already there.  As I am writing this, I just realized that without even thinking I just made a Valentines Day vignette: hearts and cherubs!

    I am always on the lookout for heart shape stones and I put the few I have in a dish in front of the heart.

                     Here is a close up.  if you ever see a heart shaped stone and don’t want it, send it to me 

My daughter and I have done several button initials as gifts.   They are so easy once you get the hang of it and are great for personalized  baby shower gifts, or a gift for the bride.  She did for me one Christmas and I have it hanging on my gallery wall in the TV room.

 Speaking of the TV rom, do you remember the button heart garland I showed you that was on the winter mantle in our TV room?   Now  that I had my  little button heart in the bedroom, I decided to bring it in there.

 I randomly draped it over the plates on the wall. I think every room in our house has plates on the wall   Maybe it looks a little corny but I like it for now.  It adds some whimsy to the room.

Because it’s white, my button heart isn’t just for Valentines Day.  It can stay around all year.  And we all need LOVE all year long, not just at Valentines Day.

**As I have been writing this post, it has started to snow again and they say so we are in for a bad storm again.  Good thing I’ve got some bread ready to put in the oven and some homemade soup for lunch.

Rhondi xo

Joining the parties at

Anything Blue Friday

Wow Us Wednesdays,

What’s It Wednesday,

Be Inspired Wednesday,

Work It Wednesday

Show and Tell Friday

Hearts

Last year I started a tradition of making a heart for each of our children and grandchildren for Christmas to hang on the Christmas tree.  Hopefully  they'll each have at least 20 before my eyesight starts to fail!  I plan to do a different pattern each year.  Last year it was this nine patch.

This year I made the log cabin pattern.  On the back I embroider their name and the year.  A gift from my heart.

I think the hearts just get packed away with the other Christmas decorations at their homes, but I like to look at mine all year so they sit in a bowl.   I just love hearts.  I'd like to have a whole lot more!

Don't forget about my giveaway.  You have until Thursday night to enter.

Rhondi xo 

A Time For Reflection

December has been such a busy month for me and I have missed visiting with you. I am now back home after just returning from Texas where we had a wonderfully busy time with our kids and grandkids. The few Christmas decorations I put up this year are safely tucked away up in the attic and I have some time to reflect on this past year and think about some goals for 2009. Can it be 2009 already? It seems just yesterday that we were all worried about Y2K!



In my studio there is a round table where we have our breakfast each morning. It usually is pushed up against the wall next to our kitchen, but I decided to move it in front of the window to better enjoy the view of the woods. So here is where I sit right now as I write.

When I was younger I used to have too many things I hoped to accomplish in the new year. Now I am older and wiser, or maybe just have less energy! In any event my goals are much different now. Over the next few days I'll share some of them with you.



I know that one of them will be to live more with my heart and less with my head. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5

"Many people miss their whole lives you know. Listen, life isn't when you are standing on top of a mountain looking at a sunset. Life isn't waiting at the altar or the minute your child was born, or that time when you were swimming in deep water and a dolphin came up alongside you. These are fragments. Ten or twelve grains of sand spread throughout your entire existence. These are not your life. Life is brushing your teeth, or making a sandwich, or watching the news, or waiting for the bus. Every day thousands of events happen and if you're not watching, if you're not careful, if you don't capture them and make them count, you could miss it. You could miss your whole life."

I am going to pay more attention to the little things this year. I don't want to miss my whole life. Do you?

See you next year! I always loved saying that on New Year's Eve when I went to bed !

Rhondi xo

*The quote is from a book titled Addition by Toni Jordan. I haven't read it. I saw it on someone else's blog but can't remember who!