Valentine's Day decor 2013

I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures from my Valentine decor for this year. As I've said before I love the fact that I have a white/galley style kitchen. It lends itself to decorating it in any style or color which is perfect for my love of decorating for all of the holidays. The galley style is ideal because it is completely separate from the rest of the house. I could decorate it in pink and black and it wouldn't "clash" with the rest of the decor in the house!

So in this case, the holiday decor focus is on Valentine's Day. Here is my sink with kitchen window. I love the little "alcove tile shelf" above my sink. First and foremost I love that I can open those windows on a warm day and let the cool breeze come in. Secondly I love all the natural light the windows brings in. Lastly I love that I can decorate the shelf! At Christmas I put our Christmas Village on the shelf and it was so wonderful there. For Valentine's Day I put the "BE MINE" wooden blocks that I painted and decorated with scrap book paper several years back.

I hung a vintage plate on either side of the window. Underneath one of the plates in a wooden heart hanging.

Under the other plate I hung this fun rosette hanging I made at my friend and Stampin Up! Demonstrator Krista's house last year.

 

Here are the BE MINE blocks close up.

I additionally adorned the kitchen counters with these fun decoupage heart boxes that my Mom made many years ago. They are so fun to get out every year. Every year they bring with them lots of thoughts of love as I remember my Mom who passed away five years ago. She was very artistic and loved to create all kinds of crafts. She also loved to decorate her home for the holidays. She definitely passed on those loves to me!

Here is a fun heart on a finial that I found in old town Temecula and The Farmer's Wife 3 years ago.

I put a red place mat under neath the coffee maker and another one of my Mom's decorated heart boxes out with my Stevia sweetener packets inside. I found the little vintage heart ornament at World Market this year.

Four years ago when I worked at a scrap booking store I purchased a couple of these decorated chip board heart ornaments. I came home and made more. Enough to cover this little white iron "tree". I call this the "tree of hearts".

I hung red towels on the double ovens.

When you step down into the galley kitchen there is this perfect little "nook" where I keep my iron corner shelf. Of course I loaded it up with Valentine's decor.

The top shelf has my framed "collage art" I made of paper, stamps and stickers many years back.

This Susan Branch book on LOVE was from my Mom as was another one of her hand painted heart boxes. It says "Remember Me   Love Always" I truly believe that approximately 10 years prior to my Mom's death she began to sense that she would not be with us as long as she would have wanted. Many of her gifts (including this one) reflect that.

Because I was in need of a red plate to complete this display, I dug out the "You are special today" plate along with a couple of Mary Engelbreight heart boxes. I've had the plate since 1996. Whenever one of the kids would have a good report card, Kevin would get a raise or promotion, or any of us was having a birthday etc....that person would eat on the "special today" plate. We still use the plate to this day and I plan on using it with future grandchildren too.

I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Valentine's Day Decor

Recently I moved our little oak desk back into the house after it sat in our garage since moving here. I could't find anyplace for it in the house until NOW. I hated seeing this piece sitting so lonely and collecting dust out there in the garage. It is typicaly the place where I display a lot of my holiday decor and I have missed it for that purpose too. I've decided the perfect place for it is in my office. As can be seen I wasted no time displaying my Valentine Decor on the shelves of this fabulous little antique. In fact I decided to put all of the Valentine Decor in my office this year. For my long time blog readers most of my Valentine decorations are not new to you, but I try to change it up ever year.

I made the "Be Mine" blocks a few years back.

I bought this wall hung curio cabinet several years back at Michaels. It is the perfect place to display my favorite stamps year round. I switch the stamps depending on the season. AS can be seen above, the current
theme is LOVE and HEARTS in honor of Valentine's Day.

This little book case found a new home under the window since I moved the desk into it's original spot.

Here is another hand crafter decor item I put together a couple of years ago. The heart ornaments are made of chip board covered in patterned paper and embellished with ribbon and stickers.

I'll say again how fortunate I feel to have this very own space of mine. A place to create, a place to pay bills, a place to...sleep! LOL Not kidding, often times I'll be working in there late at night and can be found asleep with my head down on my desk! I just love my office.

Stamp Club Valentine projects

As ALWAYS, I had a great time at stamp club last week. We made some darling valentine related paper goodies including a box, and a few cards. Here is what  I made:



This box is fun and EASY to make. Fellow crafters let me know
if you need the dimensions to make this fun box.



Fellow SU! stampers we made this using the new cupcake punch from the new Spring mini catalog.
So fun! Also learned this new ribbon technique.



I love this Love card! We cut out the O and replaced it with
a kiss! Too cute..

...and here is the inside of the LOVE card.




This is the card I made at home and took as a swap with the other girls. I've had this stamp set for years,  but
always find fun new ways to utilize it!

                 Here's to a fun and love-filled Valentine's Day that is less than a month away now!