My Pinterest Inspired Jar of Conversation Hearts

I wanted to make each member of our family their own "Jar of Hearts", but put my own spin on it, and make them something that we would continue to use...

You see, I have teenage girls. Two of them. One is fairly good at communication, but the other, not so much. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to find out the details of a day with the younger one.  Some of you know how that is, right? Me: "How was your day?"  Teenager: "Mmm, fine." Me: "Anything interesting happen today?" Teenager: "No." Me: *Sigh*. That's about how it goes. Most days.

The older is a bit better, usually she freely spills the drama, the details of the day. *Unless. The drama involved her. Then she is sad and withdrawn, and will want to talk, just not in front of any other family members.*

So while spending an inordinate amount of time on my favorite site ever, Pinterest, I came across a jar of hearts idea. Basically it was a Mason jar filled with simple little puffy hearts, that you could place anywhere to let the person know you were thinking of them. Lunches, instrument cases, etc... What a neato project! Easy and quick. But I wanted to make these little hearts a bit more, well, conversational. So I made a list of words for each family member. Some words crossed over to all three kiddos, especially the words of encouragement, like awesome, proud, dream. Some words were very specific to that child, their nicknames, favorite book, etc... (By the way, my hubby has a whole different set of hearts, with inside jokes, nicknames and others) Each set of hearts is in their favorite color. Their main heart is embroidered with "Love", in their color, on a red background. Each child also has a heart that says "sad". This is an important one, it means that they can leave their heart in place where I will find it. I will know who's it is because of the color, and I will know that one of my children is sad, they need me to know, and they can come to me when they're ready. My oldest struggles to maintain her composure when she's sad, and this lets her off the hook from trying to talk before she's ready. (Poor kid is so much like me that way.) They can leave me their "love" heart to let me know they love me, and I can do the same. I can leave the "awesome" heart on their pillow with a piece of candy for a job well done. I will leave the "love", and their nickname hearts together to let them know that no one will ever love them more. No one will ever share that name with them. Our little secret. Each jar has a postcard with each word and what it means so they'll never forget.

The hearts were so easy, just cut out with pinking shears, layered wrong sides together, and sewn around the whole heart with a little fluff of stuffing in the middle. By the way, I just used a Sharpie for the writing. I don't plan on washing these, and I did the writing before they were sewn.

These were the Hubby's hearts. He loved them. :0)

That's all for today, Happy Valentine's Day! It's another doomy gloomy day today, lots of laundry and housecleaning to catch up on. I did however, have a wonderful brunch out with Mr. Perfect. I'm enjoying my day, go out and enjoy yours!