Happy Valentine’s Day!

Some of you may already know that I lived in Seattle for most of my adult life.  I went out to the Northwest for college and then pretty much stayed another nine or so years after that.  Through the years I made great friends and some became like family.  That happens when you live 3000 miles away from everyone else.  One of my closest friends from my freshman year’s family lived nearby and I spent a lot of time with them.  They took me in as an adopted daughter and I’m really grateful for  the time I spent in their home.  In my last years in the Northwest I even rented their old house from them and it was so fun living next door.  It really felt like I had family close by even though I was far from home.

All this is to say one of my favorite memories of my time spent there was how they would decorate for Valentine’s day.  Overnight the kitchen small appliances were replaced with bright red versions.  The toaster, blender, etc.  It was such a fun way to celebrate.  It brightened up the room and though subtle, was the perfect way to make it feel like this was a special time.  I knew this was something I wanted to bring to our family.  Valentine’s day is a commercial holiday, but really if it’s all about showing those you love a little extra affection one day a year I don’t see the harm.  My husband and I don’t go overboard, but we really want to make it a special day for us all as a family.

I made Bean a removable Cushion Cover as her main Valentine’s day gift.  She LOVES to read her books so I thought it would be nice for her to have a soft place to sit on the floor instead of actually sitting on the hard wood floor, hehe.  I gave her the cushion yesterday with a Round Cushion Cover on it.  She loved it and dragged it throughout the house.  This morning I put the Heart Shaped Cushion Cover on it and left it out for her to discover.

The iPhone picture above was taken while she was pondering how the “circle” cushion turned into a “heart” cushion.  She was so curious about it and seemed to really love that it became a heart for Valentine’s day.

We also gave her three books and a set of stacking heart bowls for her pretend cooking set.  She dove right into the books as I knew she would.

A couple of days ago I decided I would make a new Table Quilt for our dining room table (which is shared with the living room area so we are at this table ALL DAY LONG) with a Valentine’s day theme.  It was way overdue to swap out the fall themed one, so I used a coupon to buy some prequilted reversible pink fabric from JoAnn Fabrics.  I followed my tutorial (which was great because I didn’t even have to calculate the measurements, hehe) using some flannel and quilting cotton for the edges.  Using the prequilted fabric is such a cheat, but perfect for a speedy holiday sew.  I simply added some premium felt for batting in the edge pieces and the whole thing was padded enough to protect the table.  Of course I didn’t start the actual assembly of the table quilt until last night, but I knew it would come together quickly.  It’s still reversible, but looks exactly the same on the other side.  As I’m sitting at the table right now I might have already dripped some coffee on one side so that’s probably a good feature, hehe.  Because the table takes up so much room, it’s the best way I can dramatically decorate our living space.  So there you have it, super simple and it was absolutely the first thing Bean noticed this morning so it was totally worth staying up late to finish it.

Tonight the three of us will go to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner.  That may sound silly, but this is an extra nice restaurant that goes all out for Valentine’s day with their decorations and it’s become tradition to make reservations their for the occasion.  Bean loves going out to eat so she’ll be extra excited when she finds out about that.  For now she’ll spend the day pretending to make delicious treats in her new heart bowls.

Of course having everything ready, I woke up early this morning and decided she had to have a new pair (or two or three or four) of underwear.  That teeny heart fabric was just made to be underwear or pajamas wasn’t it?  Hmmm… pajamas…I guess I know what I’m doing during rest time this afternoon, hehe.

What about you?  Do you do anything special to celebrate these in-between holidays?