What a nice Valentine's Day!

 

If you enjoy the tradition of Valentine's Day, I hope you are having a lovely day. It is one of my favorite traditions. While it is generally thought of as a holiday for lover's, I like to send Valentine's to lots of family and friends. I think of it as a "holiday of friendship". I always send Valentines to my kids and my mom every year.  And I also send some to quilty friends and other family members, although, I'll be honest, I don't remember to send a card every year. This year, I added something new to Valentine's Day. I proposed the idea for an "Old-Fashioned Valentine Party" at our church, St. Paul's UCC here in Henderson. I thought it would be a fun family activity and in the process, we could color some Valentines for members and friends who are in nearby nursing homes and assisted living facilities. I had these Valentines that I drew several years ago and used for after-school kid's classes. There were 24 designs all inspired by Valentines that I remember from my childhood in the 50's. And then I added stickers, glue, markers, construction paper, etc. to the mix.............

and, then, of course, there was GLITTER!! I love glitter!!!!

There were yummy treats for us to enjoy, and yes, that is a popcorn ball cake and it was delicious. Ruthann made it and I will share the recipe in a future post.

I even had a couple doorprizes for two lucky winners. I found the bears for just $1.50 each at the local thrift shop in Belle Plaine. Brought them home and gave them a trip throught the washing machine and they were good as new! (I buy lots of stuffed animals to donate and send them through the laundry. I figure you need to make sure they are clean before you send them off to a new home.)



Our date for the event was Sunday afternoon, February 3rd, the same day as the Super Bowl. I thought it was a good idea for the afternoon but it snowed and travel was yucky and folks were busy with Super Bowl parties. But...........those of us that came to the Valentine party were busy, too, and we had a lovely time. And while not many came to party, the end result was amazing. Keep reading and you'll see why.
There were just nine of us that Sunday afternoon but we enjoyed coloring and chatting and eating those goodies. Here's Timber, Pastor Brigit's young son and he is working so hard on coloring his Valentine.............

My friend, Sue, is holding Pastor Brigit's daughter, Terra. They had fun coloring and glittering together. And with just two little kids in attendance, can you guess who went home with the teddy bears? ;-)

And this is David and Maryann Tesch who colored lots and lots of Valentines!! David said he couldn't remember sending Valentines as a kid. Since David is a great one for teasing, I'm not sure I believe him.  ;-) 

Timber had Maryann read some of the Valentine messages to him and he thought they were kinda funny..........like the one that has a bee on it and says ........."Bzzz.......I really like you!"  I wondered if Timber was thinking........"why would a bee like me?" 

Hard work was put into coloring these Valentines..........that's Amanda Lamp on the left and Pastor Brigit on the right.

And that's me on the left and Carmen Wigand on the right.

By the end of the afternoon, we had colored 89 Valentines!!! That's right.........9 of us colored 89 Valentines! Now while all this coloring was going on, we were discussing the nursing homes where we might deliver these Valentines and I thought maybe we could cover everyone in our county. I had bought mini M&M packs and treats to add to each Valentine and thought maybe 100 would cover it. But then David mentioned that might not be enough, so I did some calling the day after our party and found out there was a need for about 175 Valentines. I got busy coloring more and then Ruthann and Joanne picked up some at Women's Guild meeting last Thursday and colored a couple dozen each. And I set a goal to color 50 and completed them just in time. And sooooooooo, when I put them all together, this is what 181 Valentines looked like on our dining room table...........

In this photo, notice those two brightly colored Valentines that David did........

They're awesome!!!

This close-up is of the those that I colored.

How many of you think that coloring is relaxing? I sure do. And perhaps here, I should tell the story behind the Valentines. I originally drew about six of these designs and reduced them in size to fit my 1"-1' miniature Valentine scenes. I spent many years in the Midwest Miniature Guild creating lots of miniature projects. You can see my miniature Valentine boxes in this post, just click here. You will notice tiny Valentines in the scenes. The designs were inspired from memories of Valentine Day parties when I was a kid and my kids were young. I just started drawing and the ideas/memories popped into my head. The "ice cream" design is one of my favorites and reminds me of my kids saying......."Ice Cream, You Scream, we all scream for Ice Cream!" And then there are the King and Queen Valentines. I drew the King thinking of my friend, David Griggs, who was Valentine King in 3rd grade. I thought of me for the Queen card and the memory of my mother who was upset that I voted for myself for the Valentine Queen. But I really wanted to be Queen so why not vote for me?! LOL!

Valentine memories can be very special and the thought that many residents of nursing homes probably had lots of sweet memories (well, perhaps there was a bittersweet Valentine memory, too) and would enjoy a Valentine card, led me to "cook-up" this party idea. And while only a small group colored Valentines, they were delivered to area care centers and hopefully today they made lots of folks smile!!

I sent thanks to those who colored Valentines and am already planning for next year and many more Valentines. We didn't quite cover all the residents this year but next year, we will for sure!!  The thank you notes below are made by fusing pretty Valentine prints to blank white cards, then fussy cutting sections to line the envelopes. Very simple to do!

I had such a nice day yesterday delivering those Valentines. It made me smile all day and into the night.  The Valentines and their treats were so appreciated by the staff at each care facility. And an added bonus for me was meeting many new people, in addition to visiting with friends from church. It was just a very fun way to spend my day! And while I was out delivering Valentines, my dear friend, Doris, dropped by with this little sweetie and a card as a thank you for doing this project. She's a button doll and is adorable. Her name is Maggie and she has a perfect spot in my sewing room.

While I make a big deal of Valentine's Day, my husband would probably willing tell you that he does not and some years he just plain forgets. And so it goes, but this year my Valentine gift from my husband was my new phone which I got a couple weeks ago. Plus, there are always Hershey bars. I love Hershey's kisses and Hershey Bars. His favorite treat is sugar cookies and when I saw these giant cookies at Crossroads Bakery in Gaylord, I had to get them for him!

And while I thought that nothing could top chocolate, I was wrong because my friend, Sue, brought by this friendship treat..........

and the strawberries (gluten-free) are for me and the cookie is for Steve. And let me just say that those strawberries are "to die for". No other way to describe them. I ate one right after she dropped them off this afternoon and it was all I could do to refrain from eating another one......or two right away. We are having left-overs for supper tonight but they will be topped off by these treats!

So, you can see that we have had a very good day here and I hope you are, too! Have a lovely evening friends!

Sandi