For my Boys this Valentines Day

It’s our first Valentines Day with our little guy. I’m not a lets-make-a-big-deal-on-Valentine’s-Day girl, but I do like the fun of the holiday. I’d rather have early spring tulips from the grocery store in a couple weeks than red roses now, but I’m a sucker for good chocolate. I don’t like the overcrowded restaurants with “special romantic” prix fixe menus, I’d rather order sushi in and go out on a normal weekend. I do love Valentines Day decorations though - pink is one of my favorite colors and it’s the perfect excuse to have at it.

But my favorite thing about Valentines Day? Handmade valentines. I can’t wait until Oliver is in preschool and I can finally start making some of the many amazing ideas I’ve saved from the blogosphere. A lot of my favorite things are handmade. Every year I try to make my husband a handmade Valentine in some form or another, in addition to his much more practical gift - shoes. (I’m not giving away any surprises, it’s a tradition we’ve had now for years and he likes it.)

This year I wanted to make Valentines for both of my boys, but a cute little crafty paper design makes little sense for a paper-eating monkey. It would end up as a soggy mess with me fishing more than half of it out of his mouth. But he loves playing with small felt toys, so I decided I would make him a heart felt Valentine (no pun intended).

I used white felt for the heart and gold for the O - fudging the holiday colors but I didn’t want it to be too girly. I cut out the 2 heart shapes and sewed them together (with my lack of sewing skills), turned it inside out and stuffed it. I wanted the shape to have a quirky organic feel, more of a folksy hand drawn heart than a perfect Hallmark heart. To cut out the O, I folded the piece of gold felt in half and cut a big circle, then cut out the middle. Sewing this on was trickier - I should have done it before sewing and stuffing the two heart halfs. Ooops. I made it work though and I’m glad I added it - the O works for both his initial and a hug...!