Sealed With A Kiss!

I don't know about you, but in my family, we tend to get dry lips during the winter.

And my children are prone to losing their chapsticks. In fact, this year one of the chapsticks took a disaterous spin through the laundry room, melting in the dryer and staining a whole load of children's clothing. I needed a solution, and thought that a chapstick cozy might do the trick.

I had seen sewn cozies, but I was looking for something different. Like crochet. I looked online for cozy patterns and learned that the crochet cozy was not as original an idea as I had thought! There are lots of free patterns for cozies, but I did not find one that was just right, so I started crocheting the picture I had in my mind.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. They are great. They use up small bits of yarn, they don't take too long to make, and best of all, they keep my washer and dryer from getting 'moisturized'. The only bad thing is that I am using up all my cutest buttons.

I just completed a really neat swap. Each person had three partners and sent two homemade Valentine items to each partner. I decided to send each person one personalized gift and one crocheted chapstick holder. I made box-envelopes out of cardstock and sealed them shut, then wrote "Pucker Up, Valentine!" My oldest was a little dismayed that her mom was telling some other ladies to pucker up, but I told her I was pretty sure no one would get the wrong idea.