valentine's day approches

Love it or hate it, Valentine's Day is quickly approaching.  I've long ago accepted the fact that my Valentine's Day will never be like the iconic movie scenes.  My husband is wonderful and very thoughtful, but after eleven years of marriage and two kids priorities change.  Flowers and chocolate are fabulous, but I think I'd rather have a few hours all to myself (though I guess that's not very romantic).

I must admit that I love this holiday, it's so fun to decorate for. The reds and pinks are a nice color burst in midst of the monochromatic winter scenery.  Of all the holidays it seems like one that best lends itself to crafts.  This year I'm using a lot of red card stock, pages from an old book, and some heart punches that I had bought at Michael's last year.  Here's a few of the decorations I've been busy with...

I bought these enamel pitchers on my last trip to Ikea.  I reemployed the fake berries I had used in the Christmas greenery and put them into the largest pitcher.  Since we haven't played scrabble lately I used the letters to spell out some valentine's day related words around the house.

Some hearts before being sewn into garlands and made into flowers

The mantel- LOVE sign and heart paper garland.  I stitched the hearts together by hand.  I would have loved to have used my sewing machine but it is currently broken.  It actually didn't take too long to do by hand and was sort of therapeutical. 

I love using cookie cutters as templates when making different crafts.  This year I pressed them into service as decorations by hanging them, along with some smaller paper hearts, from the chandelier in the dining room.

I got these adorable vases and metal holder as a wedding shower favor many years ago. I used some of the extra paper hearts to create flowers to liven up our family room.  I love how they turned out.

How do you like to decorate for Valentine's Day?