Did I just suggest that doing a silly little craft will save your Valentine’s Day this year? Well, no, not exactly. But it sure can help!
Here’s the thing: We’re not so good with Valentine’s Day around here. Same with anniversaries and things like that. Going out for some lame dinner with just Chris and I always seems kind of underwhelming. It just does. We both love creating holiday traditions for our whole family though. It’s something that we’re really good at, makes us feel like awesome fancy people, and it’s something that’s always come really easily to us. There’s nothing like creating a warm family memory to bring two people together as a couple, really. That’s just my two cents from our last 10 years of awkward Valentine’s days.
So this year, I’m kind of a mess when it comes to being organized. I didn’t even come across this idea on purpose. With a new baby in the house, my brain isn’t working so well, I’m always trying to do things one-handed while holding baby Jack, and although I’m not actually blindfolded, I do feel like I can hardly see straight most of the time. But in a good way. 🙂
I really just wanted to come up with something simple for Valentine’s Day that was grey and white, mostly because I just find those colors really calming right now and I need that. Then I thought that if it turns out really cute, it would be fun to write something like this on the back, just for blogging purposes so that it would look like a real “project” that I could post about.
My messy writing says “I love Jack because…” and I made a few like this for each family member.
Of course Kennedy got curious though so I explained it to her and she got to work right away thinking of what she was going to write on the tags for each family member.
And I realized that I’d just stumbled on a pretty great new family tradition for Valentine’s Day, one that I’m pretty sure I want to repeat every year. What better way to give us all warm, fuzzy feelings during this chilly time of year? It’s totally simple, but way more effective than a disappointing dinner out in my opinion. And it took me 5 minutes to throw together.
So during the first 2 weeks of February, we’re going to fill in these little tags for each other and maybe it will start to feel like this time of year is about a little more than just ugly red flowers and boxes of chocolates. I’m all for that!
Here’s how you can make a family Valentine’s tree of your own!
Supplies:
-A container of some sort that you think is pretty. (Mine is a thrift store urn that I painted black)
-A wad of burlap to fill the container
-Some twigs or branches from the yard or a park
-Some ivory paper tags from the craft store
-1 sheet of grey and white polka dot scrapbooking paper
-1 roll of thin white ribbon
-A glue stick
Cut out one heart from the scrapbooking paper for each paper tag. Glue a heart on each tag using a glue stick. Tie a little bit of ribbon through each tag in a loop. Wad your burlap into the container. Stick the twigs into the container, using the burlap to hold them in place. Hang the tags on the tree and have your family fill them out during the month of February. You’re done! Warm fuzzy family memories accomplished!
So what do you do with your family for Valentine’s Day? Do you include the kids in the celebration too? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.