Happy Valentine's Day

http://jarosdesigns.blogspot.com/

It doesn't take long to realize that the world has become red and pink with a splash of white-lace doily.   Even the blogosphere has joined the fun; I've noticed that all my favorite blogs are Love-sick for the Love holiday.  Truth be told….me to.  The condition, it appears, has become an epidemic as bloggers are posting something, anything, to do with the only day of the year that Cupid is gainfully employed. The few bloggers who haven't posted a Valentine craft tutorial have instead posted something we associated with the lovers' favorite holiday.  Some have gone with something heart-shaped instead.  The heart-shaped items can be anything from an object that was shaped into a heart by mother nature herself or something that the blogger arranged or made into a heart shape.  The blogger at Jaros Designs is posting a heart a day on her terrific, very visual, blog and her photos are simple and gorgeous.  To date she has made a heart from a bike chain, ice, and the buttons shown here.   Other blogs have posted Valentine candy,  cookies, and cakes made either with chocolate or in a heart shape; all things pink and red; or the quintessential Valentine gift… jewelry.

After careful consideration and laying in bed for two days with a migraine, I have decided to post my own pink and red bonanza.  I have yet to post about my new studio space, that will be coming, but I have shown pictures of the newly discovered kitchen table and hutch.  After further archeological digging we found out the floor is a laminate and there is  actually a dining room table in the house.  It must date back decades at least.  We took the final set of cabinets down to my studio and I pulled out the Valentine decorations.  The table looks too nice to eat off so we still eat in the living room.  The cute letter place mats are from Pottery Barn Kids a few years ago.  The centerpiece is also Pottery Barn, from their Adult collection, filled with Gen-u-ine Conversation hearts I bought last year and keep in a bag just for decorating.  Candy looks great and is really cheap especially if you save it from year to year.  I wouldn't recommend trying to save chocolate but hard candy saves really well.

I kept the pink feather tree that I used to put up in Ryann's room decorated with princesses.  My mom has a gorgeous Martha Stewart Macy's feather tree she bought several years ago which she keeps up in her kitchen and decorates for the season whatever that ay be.  I guess because it is white and really well made so it works.  I love to see what she put up each season.  I decided that I could keep the pink tree for Valentine's day.  Keep in mind that in person this tree is no where near the horrific fuschia color it came out on camera.  It is indeed a pink not known in the natureal world but not something one-step from a seizure inducer.  I decorated it with some flocked red hearts, a box of clearance red mini-ball Christmas ornaments, and glittered pink and red ribbon.  It is a self-lit tree so I didn't have to deal with lighting this year which was great because my three strands of Valentine lights, which I loved, all bit the big one this year.  I can't believe all three…like they had a 3-way suicide pact or something.  Several years ago you could buy decorative lights for Christmas, Easter, Arbor Day, Flag Day, Aunt Susie's Birthday...but now you can't get anthing outside of December.  Unfortunately for me and my Valentine Tree, this sucker has seen better days so this might be the inauguration and swan song.

Moving on…. my mantel has always the focus point of my living room but the bookcase, which sits directly opposite the mantel, is making a case for itself as well.  I realize it is a huge faux-pois to have both dressed up in their party clothes but I can't chose.  Any designer worth their weight would pooh-pooh my competing double-focal points; thank God I don't know any designers.  Traditionally I decorate the top of the computer armoire as well.  This year it is so uninspired I decided to not show any pictures of it.  I will post the other pics below with the caveat that they look so much better in real life.  I am not sure why the pictures look so plain and flat???

Mantel, jar now has conversation hearts in it

Mantel

Blurry Mantel Photo

The bookcase

I have retyped this portion of the blog 4 times.  Seriously… this is the 4th time.  It keeps getting erased by my fingers moving faster than my brain.  So, you will probably get the abridged version but let me try A.G.A.I.N.

The adorable Valentine "Friend" at the top of the blog is just about the sweetest thing.  I wish I could tell you I made it but… that would be lying and I don't need a bigger nose.  No, instead I purchased it from an artist on Etsy- you know, my favorite store right after Scrapbooking Warehouse/land/.com/anyplace-that-sells-ink-and-paper.  The scrumptious little pink stuffed can be purchased at her Oh Ma Felt Etsy shop.  She has a cute little selection of non-holiday "Friends" as she calls them and she does terrific custom work.  I know, I bought some.  I stumbled on to her Etsy shop while looking for hand-dyed fabric and just couldn't resist adding a friend to my house.  After I received the adorable little darling, I decided to have the artist make 2 more- custom Friends- for my dear friend Jeania's girls.  We exchange Christmas gifts and I was having a very hard time finding something worthy of conveying how much that family means to me while still getting them something the teenagers would appreciate.  Obviously, I was having trouble as it was late January when I finally got the gifts sent off.  I had Oh Ma (or is it Mrs. Felt?) make the Friends non-Valentiney and in two different color schemes to keep them as individual as the girls are.  Rather than "be mine", Oh Ma embroidered their names on the front.  They turned out super cute and I hope something the girls can keep to decorate their college dorm rooms, their first homes, the nursery of their first babies…. Above all, I hope they serve to remind the girls how very much they mean to me.  It has been 11 years since they were a part of my day-to-day life; eleven years since I was Lexi's best friend; 11 years since she would ask "..can Danee come over and play today:"  The Air Force brought us together and the Air Force forced us apart.  I regret that Jeania and I keep in touch only sporadically, yet she is someone who means the world to me and always will.  


Happy Valentine's Day.


Laters...