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Happy Valentine's Day to all you fellow creativity enthusiasts. Hope you're having a fan-tastic day of love!

February Bulletin 2019

Poetry, posies, and cupids

Valentine Transferware

This fine collection of red and white Transferware includes a plate of particular interest...

Another Chatsworth House, a.k.a. Mr. Darcy's Pemberley, plate! The view is of the house in 1792. I love how this dish illustrates the house from the side, from the River Derwent, through the arches of the bridge (which pictures the statue that is no longer there), nestled in the foliage. The clouds look like pointillism. In 1792 I suppose Mr. Darcy would have been a boy playing in these grounds, or, you know...diving into the lake! (Hope that induced a Happy Valentine's swoon!)

Cardboard Hearts

Snip, snip--time to make some valentines! These cardboard templates have been a part of every crafty valentine session since I was little. With each passing year there are more scribbles around their edges from veering pens and pencils. That hand template, which is a tracing of my 7-year-old hand, attests to their longevity. I love making people's days through the papery pink and red goodness of this holiday.

February Bulletin 2018

Flirty florals, Fauvism, and a heart overflowing with creative joy

Love Laughs at Locksmiths

I bought this vintage handkerchief for $2 at a vintage clothing store for it's romantic, whimsical illustrations. It's probably from the 1950s. I did a little research about the verse and discovered that it is a proverb meaning love will find a way. It is derived from Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, "Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast/ Yet love breaks through, and picks them all at last."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Spread Love

This adorable hand-stamped knife is by Infinite Purpose Jewelry.

Honey

Here's a little valentine for the bees that help bring the flowers about for your loved ones!

Lipstick Handkerchief

I found this embroidered handkerchief, likely from the 1950s, at a garage sale. I guess it exists so as not to destroy a white handkerchief with lipstick!

Fête Galante

Pilgrimage to Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau--1718--oil on canvas 

February Bulletin 2017

Dainty details and dreams, admiration and affection

Heart-Shaped Joy

Pastry and a rose--how lovely yesterday started off right!

For You, Darling

I found this valentine in my grandmother's scrapbook from the late 1950s. It was given to her by the handsome dude who's kissing her in the post below!

Secret Snapshot

I adore this '50s photo of my grandparents young and in love, and their coy caption!

You Rock

"If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person." 

--Fred Rogers   

Happy Valentine's!