*love*ly things 2012

**note- i wrote and scheduled this post a LONG time ago...but i have to add something. thank you so much for the comments you all left on my post yesterday. i don't even know what to say. i'm astounded at the response, and very humbled. i'm trying to find a way to respond to each and every comment, but it might take me all year. :) thank you,thank you,thank you!!**

 

well hello february!

and hello to all of you! today is the start of something fun...

*love*ly things is well...just what it sounds like!

all the things i love.from craft projects, to photos, to shopping, to guest posts to some of my favorite women. oh...and fun giveaways too!

from romantic love to crafty love, photo only posts to longer posts...well there's a little bit of everything.

because,after all, this month is all about love.

i love february. i love love. and pink and red and lace and flowers and...okay.i think you get the picture. :)

i wanted to celebrate my favorite month with something special.

here's the first project i'm sharing...

love jars.

one for each of the bigs. and one day there will be one for all four girls!

here's a closeup of each jar.

miss sadie's love jar:

and miss harper's love jar:

 

inside each jar are 14 slips of paper. one for each girl to choose on every day through valentine's day.

each slip of paper has one thing i love about each girl.

"i love your big brown eyes" and "i am so proud of your kind heart" are a couple of harper's slips.

"i love your silly jokes" and "i love your snuggles" are two of sadie's slips.

simple and easy...but i can guarantee that each day these slips will bring huge grins to two pretty faces. :) sometimes the bigs have a hard time in the morning. they are tired and grumpy and i'm thinking this will bring some much needed happiness and encouragement to our morning routine.

 

supplies for each jar:

ball jar

twine

doilies

tags

chevron stamp (mine is a dollar stamp from michael's- thanks to my sweet friend jen)

colorbox orchid ink

thickers

studio calico notions (i don't believe you can buy these anymore)

pearls

glue dots

1.5"x1.5" photos of each child

other ideas for the jar: love coupons, favorite candies, special photos, tickets, jokes, etc.

so glad you stopped by today! hope you'll be back for more love. check back tomorrow for some elle's studio deliciousness. :)

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

xoxo s

Comments

[Mary Jo]

Ok - you may see me come out to post more this month because I think this is such a great idea! And I am looking forward to seeing what else you share with us :)

[Stephanie Howell]

Thank you so much Mary Jo!! Have a wonderful day !

Sent from my iPhone

[Jenny A]

This is soooooo beautiful! I love it!

[Stephanie Howell]

Thank you so much Jenny!!

Sent from my iPhone

[Jessica]

Love it! Such a good idea...I would love to do a love jar for my little guy when he is a bit older. Your jars are so cute, love the doilies and the chevron stamping!!! awesome idea. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us for the month. Yesterday's post was awesome(I commented) and later on I actually went back and read a huge chunk of everyone's comments. It was super neat to see that so many people feel the same way, very cool to think there is someone across the world in the same boat. Keep up the great work and thanks for the inspiration as always :)

[Sherry Cartwright]

Ah, the love jars are so simple, yet so LOVELY. You have inspired me to make some for my kiddos. I will jot down 14 things about each of them while sitting in the doctor's office, then will assemble at home.

Thank you for the inspiration!

[Stephanie Howell]

im glad you like it and can make one for your son...thank you so much for stopping by!

[Stephanie Howell]

yay sherry~ please share a photo if you think of it!!

[Amanda J]

I think this is such a great idea!! I know my girls would love doing this!! Off to check what supplies I have to make this work for us! Thanks for the inspiration...can't wait to see what else you have in store for us this month!

[Brenna C]

What a wonderful idea! Love it!

[Julianne]

Wonderful, simple idea. I am going to make these today...I know my girls will LOVE this!!! :)Thanks for the inspiration!!!

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you So much amanda- let me see what you make!

Sent from my iPad

[Amy Ferguson]

SO cute! i love the simple idea to share love and the jars are darling.

[Stephanie Howell]

oh i hope your girls enjoy them!!! xxo

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you amy! happy wednesday! xxo

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you brenna!

Sent from my iPad

[Debbie]

those are cute! i may have to go make for my little guy. i can see your girls making one for you someday.

[Kami Pfingsten]

Super cute idea!!! Love this!

[Stephanie Howell]

well now THAT would melt my heart! ;)

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you sweet friend!

Sent from my iPad

[Kim S.]

wow. 499 comments yesterday! you are SO loved! I knew it. Next time you are having a bad day, take a look at those :) I am making these jars for my boys. Even the teenager! Sometimes mornings are rough and this will make them smile. thanks for the great idea, Steph.

[Janna]

love the jars, such a great idea!

[Brenda]

What a great idea! Wish I had thought of it when my big boys (20 & 17) were little but am definitely going to make one for my sweet 11 year old daughter. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Mara]

So creative, lady!
Love the love jars.
Hope that S & H feel all of the love that you are sending their way.

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you my friend! PLEASE share a photo!!!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you janna!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

so glad you can use the idea brenda!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you beautiful girl!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie]

Love this idea!!! I hope I can remember to do when my son is a littler older! What a great way to do words of affirmation!

[Kimber-Leigh]

this is a fabulous idea steph! i know my three kiddos would love this...and i adore the vintage jars you used. i'm thinking we may have to scour our vintage/thrift store later this afternoon for some!

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you for stopping by today,stephanie!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

please do! and send me a photo if you end up making them!

Sent from my iPad

[kate sade]

i <3 this! i was late on getting the mailboxes @ the target $1 spot so i was trying to find another something to create for the teachers.. i'm going to hand out slips of paper to each child and write something they love about her... after all, children say the funniest things ...

[Stephanie Howell]

i LOVE this idea kate. what a great twist.

Sent from my iPad

[courtney meyer]

What a great idea! It's amazing how something so simple to us means so much to them. Beautiful!

[Stephanie Howell]

Thank you Courtney! Have a lovely day!

Sent from my iPhone

[Tara LeClaire]

What a sweet idea :) Sometimes we spend so much time telling our kids what they're doing wrong, that it's nice to switch it up and tell them what we love about them. Great inspiration, thanks S!

[Jamie Long]

I LOVE this!!! I love Valentines cause one time a year I get to drag out all my stuff lol.

[Stephanie Howell]

Thanks my doily loving twin!!

Sent from my iPhone

[Stephanie Howell]

So true Tara. Thank you for stopping by today!!

Sent from my iPhone

[Karen C.]

Adorable!

[Stephanie Howell]

Thank you Karen! Happy February!

Sent from my iPhone

[Barb Martin]

Love this idea! I think I'm going to make a family jar with a note for each day of February! You never know what day will be about you . . . type of idea :) Thanks for the inspiration. I might even have Daddy write one or two about Momma! Happy Wednesday.

[Stephanie Howell]

Ooooh fabulous twist!!

Sent from my iPhone

[laurie lariviere]

lovely!! what a cute idea, your girls have a wonderful mommy :)

[Stephanie Howell]

Wow, thank you! You are so kind to say that!!

Sent from my iPhone

[angela ezzell]

These are precious. Thanks for sharing! I think I'll do this for my husband, maybe with some "love" coupons. ; )

[Amanda S.]

This is so stinkin' CUTE! What a great way to reinforce good self esteem in your girls - I love this idea!! :)

[Stephanie Howell]

angela- please share photos if you do!!!

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you amanda! hopefully they will love it, i forgot to do it before school today. HA!

[Jenni Hufford]

what a GREAT idea... i love the idea of letting them know some of their wonderful traits and characteristics! thx for the idea!

[Elizabeth Rosemond]

Gorgeous!! I think I'll put this on my list for next year. Miss Lauryn would love to see her face on a jar :)

[Stephanie Howell]

thanks jenni- i can definitely see you doing this!

[Gayle W.]

This is so sweet. What a great thing for a mama to do. Looks like what I REALLY should have asked for was to be adopted. ;)

[Stephanie Howell]

yay!

[Stephanie Howell]

i say the more the merrier- come on over!! :)

Sent from my iPad

[Robin]

awesome idea! Maybe I'll make one with the 14 things (include a couple little sweet treats) and give it to my 6 year old on Valentine's Day instead since it's already the 1st--and let's face it--not going to happen in the next 2 hours before she gets home from school! : )

[Stephanie Howell]

yep..sorry about that. i didnt want to start before feb.1. have a great day!

[rhonda]

Love this idea! I think I am gonna make some!

[Valerie]

Love the Love Jars! When my grandbabies are a little older I am going to make them for them. I think it will be such a great way to keep in tough with my granddaughter who lives in another state so she knows I am thinking of her.

Thanks for the inspiration <3

[tara pakosta]

LOVE your jars! so pretty!~ I also LOVE your idea of posting LOVE for Feb! I gave notes to my daughter Savannah for the whole month of DEcember leading up to her birthday! never thought to do a pretty jar though! LOVE IT!
you are so creative stepH!
tara

[jennybean]

What a beautiful idea to celebrate what you love about the girls and make them feel special!

[Linda]

Beautiful idea! It has me thinking. I will put together a package to send to my college age daughter. The usual candy but will include something beautiful with 14 reasons I love her. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Robin]

I didn't mean that to sound like a criticism--I'm sorry about that! I was just trying to think of ways to use the idea since I knew I wouldn't have time this afternoon to do it the daily way. Can't wait to see what you have planned for the rest of the month!

[Stephanie Howell]

Linda- I would have loved to have gotten something like that in college!!

Sent from my iPhone

[Stephanie Howell]

Thank you so much Jenny. I hope you are having a great day!!

Sent from my iPhone

[Stephanie Howell]

Sent from my iPhone

[Stephanie Howell]

Tara- that is such a good idea-totally stealing it. :)

Sent from my iPhone

[Stephanie Howell]

I agree Valerie, that would be very special!!

Sent from my iPhone

[Stephanie Howell]

Please share if you do!!

Sent from my iPhone

[BreAnn]

I love this idea! When I saw the picture of the jars, before I read what they were for, I suppose I tried to guess. The idea popped into my head that you could use these year-round, dropping a note in someone's jar whenever you thought of something special that you loved about them, something they said that made you laugh, etc. Then, whenever that person needed a pick-me-up, they could reach in their jar and pull out a random nice thing.

I hope I explained that clearly. I'm sure it sounded much more thought-out and eloquent in my head!

[BreAnn]

Oops, just wanted to add that I'm so glad it's finally February. I've been looking forward to your Love series since you announced it!

[Sherry Cartwright]

My jars are made and posted. Thank you for the inspiration!

http://itsawondramouslife.blogspot.com/2012/02/love-jars.html

[JenRay]

These jars are beautiful, and I love the idea. (I tucked a little heart-shaped note in my daughter's lunch box for her to find at preschool snack time today - 'H' is the letter of the week.) I think I want to do something similar where I add dated slips to a jar over time. Maybe give it on an un-birthday or something. How cool to always have it to look back on! Thanks for the inspiration - I pinned it!

[Karen Malloy]

great idea. i'll bet the chickies love them!

[Stephanie Howell]

they DO! or at least they are acting like they do so they dont break my heart. HAHA!

[Stephanie Howell]

i need to get back to writing my lunchbox notes...thanks for the reminder! xoxo

[Stephanie Howell]

oh breann- i LOVE love love this idea. big time.

[Vickie Lee]

This is a FABULOUS idea. Too bad our children are all Big Adults and away from home. This will be a forever memory for your beautiful girls. So sweet.

[Stephanie Howell]

make one for your husband/SO?? or make one full of things you love about yourself? okay, maybe thats weird and conceited. haha!

[Kim Boken]

Wonderful idea and cute jars! those would make a great scrapbook page !

[Elizabeth]

I love this idea of the LOVE jars....I wonder if I could make these for my boys, both 11 and 12...are they too old for this, will they look at me weirdly??? I'm going to get this done tonight!!!! I'll be a day late! but that's ok, love this idea so much:)

[Deb]

what a fabulous idea. Thanks for sharing. I bet your girls will love them x

[dawn]

I'm so excited about this month, I know it will be fun and love from the heart. This is such a cute idea, love mason jars. We started are "LOVE HEARTS" today which is our tradition in February. I have a stack of hearts cut out and each day we write something nice about each other and what we love about them and hang them on our pantry door or leave them around the house to find. I love having this month to spread LOVE to each other. This would be cute too that way they have something each morning to read. My daughter's birthday is in a week which makes this month extra special to me.

Can't wait to see tomorrow's will be. Thanks so much for making time to do this.

HAPPY LOVE MONTH
Dawn

[Cynthia B.]

What a sweet project! I hope your girls realize how lucky they are to have a crafty mama like you. :) Thanks for sharing, Stephanie!

[Maria Stanley]

WOW - this is just the best! I can't tell you just how much i LOVE this idea and I'm totally going to steal it (if that's ok with you) for my two babies. This is the most beautiful thing I've seen for Valentines Day. So much better than chocolate (don't get me wrong - chocolate is awesome) but I always love seeing ways to tell your kids just how loved and special they are.

[Stephanie Howell]

please do steal it!!! thats why im sharing it!!!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

oh thank you, cynthia! i hope you had a wonderful day!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

that is a beautiful,wonderful idea!!!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

totally!!!!

Sent from my iPad

[Stephanie Howell]

thank you for the idea kim!

Sent from my iPad

[sherried]

Thanks for the great idea. I don't have my own kids and my niece and nephew live a long ways away. I thought I would send them a postcard/email each day.

[Stephanie Howell]

sherrie-
what a wonderful interpretation! i know they will love it. :)

Sent from my iPad

[Lefa]

These are wonderful! Going to have to give this a try for the short ones :)

[Stephanie Howell]

make sure to share with me if you do!

Sent from my iPad

[alekhasmommy]

Hey lady - I've wanted to pop in here and am glad I did - those jars are darling! I just wanted to let you know that I was thinking of you, and hope all is well with you!

[pidgen]

I just realized {after reading your "curious" post} that the reason I don't comment more on your crafty posts, is because I think "oh my, that's adorable" and then RUN OFF to try something similar! lol. I should comment before running off!! Thanks for sharing this awesome idea!!

[Jessica]

what a fun idea!...i might try this sometime for my nieces and nephew...

[Kim Strother]

Love this idea!! Excited for this month's *love*ly posts!

[Teresa Scheff]

This indeed is a *love*ly idea leading up to Heart day Steph. I happen to have a few extra blue ball jars not being occupied by scrapbook and craft stuff. I sort of have an affinity with them. It must be the aqua color. My daughter Mackenzie will be turning the tender age of 16 on the 27th and I think I will make her a "Sweet 16" jar with words of encouragement about my hopes and wishes for her. I guess I better start that on the 11th. I think it would even be fun to tie the notes to little rolls of smarties, dum dums or small candies for those that have a sweet tooth. I think I may have to do this for Mackenzie's with her favorite sweet treats for the "Sweet 16" wishes. Gosh, one could even mail one of these to gram and gramps that live far away with all the grandkids pictures on the jar and the 14 reasons they love them for V-Day. Oh, the possibilities. Thank's for the inspiration. If you haven't already seen this, Elizabeth Kartchner had a cute 14 day countdown wall idea for V-Day and it made me think of you. I think S&H would love to help make this for the little's, especially when they get a little bigger and are learning to count!
I meant to comment on your curious post as well but with two kids in basketball with games out of town in different towns on the same night it gets a little crazy. I just wanted to say your blog is usually the first one I read daily. You have a lovely family, I just want to pick up one or both of those babies right thru the screen, ya know. Mine are to old to carry! I came to your blog by way of JBS because I scrapbook, but found someone who loves what I love about my life, which is her family, telling their story thru scrapbooks, vintage finds, flea markets, milk glass, and crafting, and you just tell it like it is girl! I wouldn't change anything! Looking forward to more beautiful projects.