I happen to love Valentine's Day. Not in the the "I had better get roses and chocolates" kind of way. Not at all. I just love the love in Valentine's Day. And, of course, for me nothing is more loving than bringing in the handmade. For some reason, other seasons can stress me out and the looming deadline of a birthday, for example, can mean I end up falling short and accomplish next to nothing. But, I rise to the challenge when it comes to V-day. This year, it meant that I made some red and white placemats, handmade cards, and a paper table runner. It set it out the night before so that the boys woke up to a valentine's table. We decided to celebrate early so we could really enjoy it together.
The table runner was super simple: I cut hearts out of red paper that I had around, with no rhyme or reason. I would sit and cut as the boys played or while they worked on art projects and keep my paper and scissors handy in case I got a moment. I just cut until I ran out of paper. Then I set them next to the sewing machine and started sewing...grabbing as I went. The hearts are all different sizes and are wonky to boot...they are not an even distance from each other but somehow the more random the better with this one. 
This was the card for this year. In years past I have made dozens of cards and sent them way and yonder. This year I made just a few and none of them are actually in the mail. So, they will be late. (Of course, the ones for my boys even came early!) But, that's ok. Love isn't about *on time*. This morning, my husband and I pulled together a special breakfast including heart-shaped pancakes and smoothies. And tonight we plan on making my mom's special tomato soup. For dessert, my husband is trying his hand at homemade ice cream and I'm making a flourless chocolate cake. One of the joys of making it a handmade valentine's day is that I feel we get to retain the concept of a day set aside to embrace the love we have for each other and the love we share as a family but we junk the "love means buying something" idea.
In other news, I decided to start up a regular feature (at least I hope I can keep it going regularly) of book reports on Mondays.
Like back in the old days of middle school, notebooks and fill in the blank book reports. Except this time I'm going to review the crafting books I have as well as my favorite children's books. The idea is two-fold: to share my thoughts on various sewing/crafting books. As I tend to buy books rather than patterns and have amassed a good collection, I think it can be useful to others to get a review of these books in case you are considering them yourself. Second, I just love sharing the beauty and fun of some of our favorite children's book and hope to pass that on! I would love to have anyone join me! (This is very selfish as I would love to learn others thoughts on sewing and children's books! So, please join me!). I know it's short notice but let me know if you want to include book reports on your blog and I can include a link on Mondays back to you. Join tomorrow or after that. It doesn't matter. Then, I will get out my ruler and twin set and prepare to act like your teacher. Got it?!
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