Valentine's Day Craftiness

So I got all sorts of crafty this weekend for Valentine's Day. It's not like I'm not a huge Valentine's Day person or anything (although I did have fun making heart-shaped meatballs with Nicole last V-Day). It's more that an excuse to deck out the apartment in hearts and bake til my own heart is content is reason enough to celebrate in my book. (Also, I was feeling a little bummed out the week before and making pretty and sugary things seemed the perfect way to pull myself out of that funk. While blasting cheerfully ridiculous music, which I usually don't do--I'm more of a TV-in-the-background-person--but which did wonders for bringing up my spirits. Who knew.)

I started with cupcakes. I haven't made cupcakes in I-don't-know-how-long (I may have mentioned that I'm more of a cookie girl, right?), but I felt like they'd be perfectly festive and cheesy (which is what V-Day is, really, all about). Also I became completely smitten with this Lemon, Peach & Blueberry recipe from Patisserie Natalie (not only because her name is awesome) and just had to make it.

And then top them off with candy hearts because, come on, how could I not. (My favorite is the one that says "Tweet Me." You know, for the real romantic.)

I also, obviously, wanted to deck out the apartment in hearts, so, taking a cue from this tutorial, made my own little paint chip heart garlands. (If I had had a heart-shaped hole punch, this would have been much easier. But I'm not fancy like that. Yet.) Here's my pretty self-explanatory how-to in pictures. I reused the awesome glitter string and clothespins from Nicole's advent calendar because it's just too pretty (and sparkly) not to keep up, then drew my hearts, cut them out, and pinned away.

 
And what's V-Day without candy, stuffed creatures, a fabulous card (but of course), and goofy gifts? I'm a big fan of sprucing up wrapping paper or making it personal in some way, so for these I took the leftover stuffing paper from our new coffee tables (it seems a shame to just throw that much paper out), doodled little shapes and love notes all over, and wrapped each gift individually. Then I stuffed them all into a box, doodled some more hearts on that, and it was ready to go.

Happy V-Day, everyone!

All photos by Natalie