Happy Valentine's Day, No One II

Just look at all these potential valentines--wishing and hoping and thinking and praying, planning and dreaming for you to come along. 

 

I'm partial to James Spadge myself.

Book Report Inspiration: Handmade Valentines

I planned on making some anti-valentines, but after reading Valentines, Ted Kooser's lovely book of Valentine's Day poems, I decided to make some sweet valentines. Just so we're all on the same page: in 1986 Ted Kooser decided to write a poem on a postcard and mail it to some friends for Valentine's Day. It was a hit, so he made it a yearly tradition. Eventually his list of postcard poem recipients reached 2,600 people. Valentines collects these postcard poems. I know poetry can be a terrifying prospect, especially when it's concerned with L-O-V-E. But Kooser's poems are not overflowing with flowery, gushy sentiments--they're sweet, sometimes silly, and fun...

Made & Found: Valentines all the time

After putting up some Valentine's decorations I started looking around and realized that I'm kind of ready for Valentines all of the time…

Peanut & Purls and decorating for Valentine's Day!

The only part of Valentine's Day that I've ever given a crap about was in elementary school when we would get to decorate some brown paper lunch bag with constructions paper, doilies, and glitter. We would tape these pink and red glitter heart bombs to our desk with much anticipation. The next day all the kids would deliver valentines to our desks. Usually the paper bags (Valentine mailboxes...?) would tear and fall off the desk before the day was over but that was just a sign that you were gifted a lot of valentine loot! 

Handmade Home: a hearty decor

What to do when Valentine's is around the corner, and you have yet to decorate? Well, just pull out some water colors, paper, and string...

Book Report Inspiration: Finding the Right Words for Your Valentine

Finding the right words can be difficult, especially when trying to express yourself in a genuine and non-cliche way. Anyone can pick up a greeting card covered in hearts and roses, but the sweetest notes are those that are heartfelt, personal, and true. If you're having trouble coming up with the perfect words for the one you love, like, or respect, here are some tips for getting something down on paper and a few options for a backup plan.

1. Reference the good times. The inside jokes, pet names, and that totally annoying but also endearing thing your lady or gentleman does. Adding something personal to a card is an immediate and easy upgrade over just signing your name with an arrow pointing at whatever's printed inside. 

2. Look to your significant other's favorite music. Two options here. 1. Digital mixtape: songs they love, songs you think they'd love, or songs that express how you feel. 2. Song lyrics that can be incorporated into your valentine. Any of these options demonstrates that you've been paying attention and are willing to put in a little work to make something special. (Also, movies. A little Disney or Harry Potter gif collection never hurt anyone.)

3. Use quotes from novels, poetry, and correspondence. Skip Shakespeare and the Romantic poets. (Unless that's what you're into.) I love Shakespeare and the Romantics, but there's so much more--countless authors and poets who have put their love into near perfect, weep-worthy words. All you have to do is seek them out. The Poetry Foundation has a page that sorts poems by occasions, seasons, and subjects. Guess what? They have 123 poems on love. Even if you don't find anything, you'll still have read some inspiring poetry and should be primed to write your own. Done and done! For author and book quotes, try Goodreads--A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh) is a great place to start. 

4. Find inspiration in antique or vintage valentines. People used to talk real fancy and they declared their love in ornate and beautiful ways. Study those ways and then steal their technique. Last year, Design* Sponge featured a lovely collection from the New York Public Library. And don't worry if your lady or gentleman friend isn't into the intricacies of Victorian courtship, there are lots of less formal decades to choose from. Maybe your significant other or BFF has a particular love for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or She-Ra: Princess of Power. One word: ebay.

5. DIY yourself a cute punny card. If you're on Pinterest, you probably know the sort of thing I'm talking about: the card with a book of matches attached to the front where the caption reads: "We're a perfect match." Cute, right? And easy too. Real Simple put together a collection of just such handmade valentines, including the matchbook card. 

6. Let clever people do the work for you. Just print and cut, email, text, or post on Facebook. Last year, Jennifer Lewis made some amazing illustrated Wes Anderson and Arrested Development valentines for Flavorwire. Beth Evans made her own Parks and Recreation and Breaking Bad valentines. But she didn't stop there; her tumblr has pages of sweet and silly pop culture valentines. And Marisa Seguin created these cute Arrested Development valentines. For 2014, Adam Ellis of Buzzfeed has crafted some literary valentines. Any hip lady or gentleman would thrilled to receive these little gems.

Made & Found: Weirdo Valentines

Just kidding. Please don't.

I decided I was going to kiss off on the traditional cutesy valentines cards this year, so I made some weirdo black and white valentines...you know, because I'm kind of a weirdo sometimes. I selected sentiments from conversational candy hearts and applied my Addams Family filter (minus black roses and pictures of scabs) to create these creepy (but sweet?) endearments...

Handmade Home: another handmade valentine

Get ready for another handmade valentine...

Made and Found: love DIY

 date arrows by Sugar and Cloth

So, we all had our New Year, happy or otherwise, now we are mid January and it's time to switch from auld lang syne to be mine valentine. To get you in the mood here are some fun easy projects that I found for the season...

Peanut & Purls: Kitty Valentines!

Don't forget your feline friends this Valentine's Day. Peanut and Genevieve (and the rest of the cousins) will be getting their valentines, and you can make some too! Follow my lead from Thanksgiving (and check out the Thanksgiving-themed cat toys I made). Using the same simple steps, the sisters and I quickly whipped out three different sweet Valentine's. As per the usual, Peanut assisted...

Make: Valentines (OMH Roundup)

As I am sure you are fully aware new content is sometimes hard to come by. I mean as much time as I honestly spend creating the days away, during winter, it's sometimes in vain if you can't get some good ole fashioned daylight to take a pleasing picture. 

Thankfully we've been hard at work for two and a half years, and we have plenty of past projects and posts that are fun to revisit; or if you are a new follower, check out for the first time. Reuse, recycle, be green, happy Valentine's earth! 

I hope you enjoy some of these blasts from the past (valentines day projects) as much as I do...

Insta-sista

Beautiful flowers from Casa De Flores, in Encino. They were the centerpiece at a Mardi Gras event I went to on Thursday night. Also, I may have gotten a bit business drunk and found out one of my fellow attendees was friends with the art director on Murder She Wrote; so to answer your question, yes I will be following up with him to get the lamp from the set he promised me.

DIY: Happy Valentine's Day, No One!

I stumbled upon this recipe for 2 cupcakes on Pinterest a few weeks back, so I thought why not give it a go? In order to Valentine the cupcakes up a bit, I decided to make a quick and easy topper using supplies I already had...

DIY: Honeycomb hearts!

I've been at the Museum's Library & Archives looking at old Valentine's Day cards again. And I've run across several that feature honeycomb hearts, so that's what I set out to create! For something that looks fairly complex, they're actually quite simple to construct...

Make: Kittens!

Last year for Valentines Day I made little kittens for my Mom and the sisters, to stay consistent, I didn't actually deliver them until March when I went home for my birthday last year. The way I look at it, who doesn't want to get a little something for themselves on someone else's birthday? If you follow the blog you may recognize the cats as Peanut, Matilda and Beatrix (aka little baby black bear)...

DIY: Lovebird Wreath

I decided to update my front door wreath for Valentine's Day. I wanted a simple, cute little wreath. I already had a gold wreath up I made for Christmas with two turtle doves. I purchased the wreath and the doves from the Dollar Tree.

Home and Away: The Museum

This is where I work: the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture in Spokane, WA. I usually don't write too much about the Museum because I don't necessarily want the blog to end up all over our Google Alerts at work (Hello, Becky!), but I decided to talk a little about it this week. If you follow me on instagram--@christinesuzanne--the Museum is probably not new to you...

Make: Valentine's DIY Treats & Treasures

La Manufacture

So we love to come up with new fun ideas ourselves, but we also love to pin the night away and admire the talents and tastes of others. So with that being said, here are some fun ideas for Valentine's Day treats and treasures for you to try...

DIY: Confetti-filled paper hearts

It seems I'm perpetually behind on every holiday, so I decided to get a jumpstart on Valentine's Day with a simple project. This will be my year. I plan to keep telling myself that until I make it so. (Jean-Luc Picard reference!) As usual, I wandered my apartment looking for materials and inspiration, and I happened upon some thrifted confetti and thought: Hmm. This is festive, now if only I had a way to contain it... 

Home and Away: Weekending at home

It seems that I am getting busier and busier, which can be fun, but sometimes I need to stop and sit around the house on the weekend. Let me tell you, if I could, I probably would spend nearly every weekend at home. I always find so many things to do and I love being around Olive, even though she does a lot of napping. 

Last weekend I did just that, but I was pretty productive. I even took down the Christmas tree in time to put up Valentine's Day decorations (aka the heart garland Christine made for me). There's always a reason to celebrate and decorate...