His Banner Over Me is Love...!

I love Valentines Day.

A real sucker over all things heart-y.

Have enjoyed the day since my parochial days. I loved the decorated mailboxes that we made at home and brought to school days before the holiday, to contain all the handmade wishes of our fellow classmates...at least most of them anyway..I loved the anticipation of unfolding all the glittery pink and red construction paper greetings and reading the sender's name.  I loved the mystery of slipping the cards into the handmade slits in the paper covered shoe box, slyly watching to see if the recipient was watching me.

 So it certainly was not a big surprise that when the Love of My Life appeared on the scene, it would be on account of Valentine's Day.
After a two long years of tailing, stalking and hoping that he would notice me, I finally had an excuse to ask him out to my all girl's high school Valentine Dance.  My best friend, his cousin, facilitated the plan well.  And our first kiss happened the night before our first official date and after the dance, it was a sure thing that we would be together a  l-o-n-g time....

 To further reinforce the specialness of the date in our minds, Baby Girl was born fifty seven minutes before Valentine's Day many years later...

Is it any wonder why I would want to promote it so decoratively??

May your Valentine's Day be in a banner year for you!!  (:D)

40 Years Ago Tonight

Call it kismet.
Call it lucky.
Call it providential.
We call it God's Sovereign Plan...

Forty years ago tonight, after meeting briefly at a basketball game that night and talking for hours on the phone that week, my future husband and I head to my home, courtesy of his cousin, my best friend...
The blurry sensation of emotion taking over, infatuation guiding my heart is still with me today as I reflect on that pivotal night..

Hubby has always been a gentleman.
Opening doors, pulling out chairs, walking on the outside of sidewalk, small considerate things.
So it made sense for this young 17 year old that had been raised right, to walk his date for the next night's Valentine Dance, up to her door.
It was a bit snowy and slick in spots.
I reached my front door with him close behind.
I turned around, he on the top step, me on the porch. Even in height.
He tells me good night and says that he is looking forward to the dance the next night.
Have no idea which one us drew closer first. I prefer to believe that we met halfway.
The fireworks of excitement that coursed through my 16 year old, never been kissed heart made me almost swoon...
During this rather lengthy meaningful kiss, a firetruck roared down the street, sirens going, lights circling the neighborhood, mirroring my inner thoughts and feelings....
My hand on the doorknob, I wave goodbye as he and his cousin depart down the driveway.
I stumble (literally) into my living room, sitting in the nearest chair by the door. A headache had been plaguing me for most of the evening (massive excitement!) and I ask my mom for an aspirin.
That's when I realized I could not even swallow, by heart pounding and my breathing so fast paced.
After choking profusely and having to listen to my mother and sister giggle at me and my obvious love sick condition, I prepared for bed counting the minutes when I could see him again......

Ahhhhh; young love...
Now Long Term Love....
Still embracing the roots of early love; enjoying the growth that it brought...

Happy Valentine's Day, Patcho.......

The Valentine Tree

Off I go on another Crafting House Call!
This time I go to our local elementary school to help spread the cause of promoting the love on Valentine's Day!
Valentine's Day.
A favorite of mine. Had my first kiss on Valentine's Eve and first date with The Hubby at a Valentine's Day dance in high school. Baby Girl was born 57 minutes before the Big V Day.
Holds a dear spot in my heart so I promote it at every turn.
I asked Teacher Friend if I could enter her domain and present her class a Valentine Loving Tree. This one is an enlargement of one that I made for my kids decades ago. Back then, I painted the branches of a bush white, placed the embellished twigs in a small bucket of sand and had the kids make small heart valentines that would promise a gift of doing to someone in the house. Signs like: 'I will do the dishes for my sister.' 'I will not complain about schoolwork', ' I will be kind' sort of messages accumulated on the little tree.
Lovely.
So here I start on a bigger scale for four times as many children.
I raided my garden for a large pot and then sacrificed to the Valentine gods, several Rose of Sharon bushes from the sleeping garden area.
Rose of Sharon branches are pretty light colored so I could skip the painting part of the project.
Pea Gravel, (thanks to Youngest Son who carried the quite cumbersome bag from parking lot wayyyyyyyyy to Teacher Friend's room for me, a weak old lady....:D)
took the place of messier sand. Our local school is a beautiful, well kept school so I did not want to be a messy crafter.

Back in the Sewing Room, I fashioned 14 little stuffed felt hearts with a simple design and blanket stitched all around, with a piece of ribbon to hang from, for a gift for each of the children. One suggested that he could hang his on his Christmas Tree, to which I heartily agreed...

Some card stock, doilies and an abundance of shiny thingys to make their creations spec-TAC-u-lar, and off they go to create their 'gifts'..

I might like to mention that some of Pauline Hill's auction goodies got put to use again! A plethora of goo gahs in a myriad of colors for just that shiny fascinating effect that children (and many adults apparently) love so much.
Several of Pauline's goo-gahs had prices on them: 3 for .67...Maybe 1965?

Several the little girls had pink shirts on that day. I pointed out to Friend Audrey that her shirt matched her valentine!
One little boy avoided the pink paper like the plague! I reminded him that maybe the recipient of his valentine, might like pink. He stated emphatically, 'NO ONE in my family likes pink!' Got it.

I would like to point out that Hubby found the gilded gold doilies and thought that I needed them for the children. Big hit.

And here we are, be-ribboned,be-lighted, be-ginghamed, be-adorned and a big hit in Teacher Friend's classroom!!

Might we see a Lucky Shamrock Tree and a Spring Fling Tree.....
Maybe....!