a little love

Each January 1 the streets are full of folks with misshapen trees tied to the roof (or bumper) of their cars - out with the old and in with the new.  For me I am hard pressed to let go of the joys of the holiday season in such a speedy and efficient way.  I cling to the magic that is a dark room with twinkling lights like Jack clings to a ride at an amusement park and am content to surroud myself in that wonder for a few weeks longer than we usually consider acceptable.

flashback holidy 2014 photo... can you blame a gal for wanting to hang onto this glitter a while longer?

Somewhere around the end of the month, as January stretches it's cold nights into February, I start to get a little antsy with the accumulated knick nacks and a rare urge to really dust things settles in.  Then we know it's time to move on.  The kids have developed a similar reticance to the abrubpt disposal of the holidy and so it is that over the years we've slowly made or purchased (thanks Target!) a few candy colored accessories to ease the pain and celebrate our favorite greeting card holiday - Valentines Day.  Plus... taking down the decorations can be a whole lot of fun!

Listen, we don't have anything close to the gorgeous holiday themed mantles that prevail on Pinterest this time of year (one day I will be one of those ladies), but we do have some kid friendly super cheery super cheap dodads that make us smile.  So as the trees, santas, and snowmen get packed away, a little love decor takes its place.

As a random aside - when our kiddos would (and still do) get scared about imaginary creatures, dancing shadows, and things that go bump in the night we always told them that no bad things could come into our house because there was too much love.  Simple really - the overflowing abundance of love left no room for anything less than heartfelt.  We would then ceremoniously travel from room to room giving hugs and blowing kisses just to seal the deal.  Now when we pull out our lovely little decorations all four monkeys chat about spreading love around the house.

I previously shared our lovely little Valentine bunting.  It's holding up great and it's still super cute!

Our kitchy yarn decor on our bookcase makes me smile each time I walk in the room (but I can totally dust around these happy little birds, unlike the glitter drenched snowmen and garland that previously occupied this space).  (The kiddos had a big hand in picking these items, can you tell?)

Felted hearts hang from the the not frequented patio door and bring some cheer to the kitchen area.

Following the holidays one of the areas that seem the most naked are the doors.  I now have a lovely collection of wreathes for each season.  I'm particularly fond of our VDay ones!  This creation was an on sale Target snag from last year.

But you can't buy them all... so I made two of these super simple heart wreaths  for under $10 with a wooden heart, a plain grapevine wreath, some seasonal ribbon and a festive amount of hotglue.  Talk about a crafting gem!

And our most budget friendly decoration?  This 5 dollar frame that gets a seasonally appropriate rotaing free printable subway art (thanks Pinterest!)  You can find this one here by the fabulous paisleypetalevents.

Within the next week we will be opening the glue bottles and candy bags to make valentines for over 100 friends at school, but for now we are enjoying the cleaner home decorations and the little love that it's spreading our way.

If you're feeling crafty already check out a few of our past valentine themed projects like the little love trees and the super cute heart penguins!  They're sure to bring a smile to your face in the cold days of winter.