About a week ago, a friend came over to spend the afternoon with me. Upon walking into my apartment, he exclaimed that I really needed to clean up and put all of my Valentine's Day decorations away... being that it was now late March. Actually, he said that before even coming in, because I still had my Valentine's Day wreath on the front of my door (I say "had" as if it has since been removed... it hasn't... it will likely hang there proudly until either the 4th of July or Halloween). But looking around, I realized that yes, my apartment looked ridiculous.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Valentine's day decorations (hot pink and hearts are my jam), so some of them won't come down until I decorate for my birthday in August (let's be honest, I'll probably keep some up for that, too). But even I'm not so tacky to leave up all of my decorations all year (mostly because I don't have that kind of wall space). It's just that I've been super busy the last few months (hence the lack of posts), and have had no motivation to put what little time and energy I had into making my apartment blander (although I had no problem finding motivation to decorate in the first place, obviously).
Before I start to take them down, though, I thought I'd take this opportunity to show off some of the decorations I was able to manage for Valentine's day this year! I'd show off the Christmas ones, too, but I packed them up in late January... so that will have to wait until next year.
Light-up heart wreath
This is one of the tackiest things I've ever seen, so obviously I had to buy it (on clearance sale after Valentine's day last year), and hang it up in my apartment. I don't know what it is, but something about this makes me so happy. In person, it looks a lot redder and slightly less weird.
Paper heart chain
I saw this one on Pinterest sometime last year, and it's really easy to make.
1) Cut thin strips of paper.
2) Fold each strip in the middle.
3) Curl the two ends inward to make a heart shape.
4) Before stapling the ends in place, insert the folded edge of the next paper in the chain.
See? Easy!
Paper heart garland
This one was pretty time consuming, but turned out to be the perfect craft for when I was home sick for two days last month. Whenever I wasn't sleeping on the couch (and I slept on the couch a lot those couple days), I was lounging on the couch mindlessly making this garland while watching Star Trek (the original series - I'm pretty cool).
1) Cut out a bunch of heart shapes (and I do mean a bunch). I used a cookie cutter as a stencil.
2) Glue two heart shapes together with a bit of string or yarn running in between them.
3) Marvel at how awesome it is.
Balloons
Obviously, I didn't make these. But, I did pick them up from Party City on February 16th (I had a Valentine's Day party that night). They had probably been blown up on Valentine's day. These pictures were taken today. It's been about a month and a half and these balloons are still going strong. Granted, they are starting to wither, but barely... and only very recently.
That's amazing.
Oh, also, I found out how to deflate them so that I can reuse them next year! (Use a straw.)
Heart tree
I actually made this last year for Valentine's day. I love it so much that it has a somewhat permanent residence on my bedroom wall, but I moved it to the living room for the holiday.
1) Use a heart shaped hole puncher to cut out a lot of tiny hearts.
2) Paint a tree trunk on a canvas.
3) Mix Elmer's glue and water to make a thinner glue (or not, whatever).
4) Glue each heart to the canvas. I used a paint brush.
5) Optional: Maybe use some sprayable fixative or gloss coat to the finished product. I didn't, but I always wonder what it would be like if I had.
6) Also option, cut a fake frame out of cardstock (or just heavier paper). I had to do that, because the canvas looked really small and awkward without it.
Robo-Valentine
The robot was actually a Christmas gift from a friend. I decided to add the hearts to the eyes and tape a flower to his hand to make him more festive. I think I'll keep him like this all year round.
Tablecloth
I got this during the post-Valentine's day sales at Target last year. Unfortunately, last year, I had a giant rectangular table, and this year I have a small circular one, so I had to cut it up to fit a bit. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't show off a tablecloth, because that's kind of boring, but I just wanted everyone to take a look at my table. It looks like the table of a 4 year old girl. I didn't realize how silly that looked until I was putting away The Very Hungry Caterpillar game the other night after playing it with my friend, Mark. That's when I realized that there wasn't a single thing on my dining room table except for children-themed or heart-covered items. I have no children and live alone. This is insane. The bath-time bubble machine in the back is what really clenches it.
Pin the heart of the giraffe poster
Because my party was after Valentine's day, I found a couple super-discounted classroom games that I made my friends play. We played this and Valentine's bingo. I had prizes for them and everything. It was awesome.
I had a few other decorations up at the time, such as a vase full of conversation hearts (which were surprisingly hard to find at the stores), and a six pack of clear bottles that I had transformed into a cute, ribbony M&M holder, but those were either eaten or thrown away shortly after the party. I mean, I'm not so lazy that I leave food out for months... sometimes.
I'll probably take these down this weekend... although now that I think about it, I probably won't with it being Easter and all. Oh well, I'll take them down eventually. Then, maybe, I'll show off some of the other improvements I'm trying to make to the place!
