Valentines....

Do you or don't you send valentines? I do....but it has to be Homemade. ......except for last year. Having just been commissioned for the Homemade book, I was tempted on Etsy.com to buy this delicious Rob Ryan print for my sweetheart of 25 years, an investment me thinks. Over the years I have received many beautiful Valentines from my true love. Strawberry jam toast lovingly cut to spell I love you; Poems hand written and painted onto old postcards but my all time favourite has to be the one that Elspeth wrote about in her Wonderful Weekend book. A polaroid photograph of a heart, with his shoes on one side and mine on the other. So romantic, expressing more than any words, walking the same road, each a half of the whole. Simple ideas are the best. I love this heart shape that I found fossilized onto a rock while walking in Dorset. Buttons or shells threaded onto fuse wire then shaped to form a heart. Or this wooden heart with a crackle paint effect. Paper cutouts, not quite Rob Ryan but still beautiful when lovingly crafted. I have knitted and sewn and I have baked heart shaped cakes, all for my valentine. My latest labour of love is adapted from The Homemade book. A take on the traditional victorian sand cushion. The making ethic has now naturally passed to my teen treasure, albeit in the manner of creating a photograph. . Already a bit of an old hand and teaching her Mother new tricks, this was last year's model, I love the "my funny Valentine" music on the piano. I wonder what she will produce this year.