My Third Favorite Holiday

Or maybe my fourth. It's kind of a toss up because Easter is awfully good too. What am I talking about? Valentine's Day!

It's really not that I'm a romance nut and can't wait to bust out the chocolate hearts and flowers. Nope! It's just that Valentine's Day is such a happy holiday with colors, images, and fabrics that make for really excellent decorating. And it doesn't hurt that our weather is gloomy as can be leading up to it--I'm always more than ready for some bubbly happiness by the time mid-February rolls around.

If you've been reading my blog for a couple years, you probably already know--and maybe even remember--that I always have a Valentine's Day tree, but I usually don't remember to mention it until sometime in January when all of you have put away your Christmas stuff, so this year I thought I'd talk about it early--just in case you'd like to have a Valentine's Day tree too.

When I get around to taking down the Christmas decorations each year, I never want to take all of it down--those twinkling white lights are just too pretty to box up so soon, especially when it's gray and rainy out. So I re-decorate my kitchen tree for Valentine's Day. Here's a photo of the tree from 2008:

The same year, I decorated a second Valentine's Day tree for a quilt class I taught--the class project was a heart quilt, so I made a bunch of Monica Happy Zombie's Pennie Pockets that I filled with goodies and hung on the branches of the tree. (You can click on the "Monica" link to find directions to make these.)

Between my Valentine's Day decorating and the upcoming Be Mine Blog Tour, I'm going to try to remember to share with you a little more of my Valentine's Day ideas and patterns this year. Besides my project for the "tour"--which is yet to be revealed--I'm planning to make a few decorations for this year's Valentine tree. I'd also really, REALLY like to make a Valentine tree skirt, and I have a few other decorating ideas in mind.

If you'd like to play along this year, when you pack away your Christmas things, set aside a small artificial tree, a string or two of white lights, and whatever red, white, and pink decorations you may already have that might pass for Valentine's decorations and let's see if we can have a little fun, okay?