Valentines Day No.3

In our house we all tend to celebrate Valentines Day, even the girls.  Any excuse for them to find their way into my craft box and use some of the special bits and pieces that they usually don't get to use!

We have never really been big on buying chocolates and flowers and all of the usual things that you would associate with Valentines day. Instead we tend to come up with original ideas for special little gifts for everyone, even Mia and Amy.   Mr P. (who is the baker in the family) might make a special cake for all of us and the girls usually draw a picture.  Once we all created a canvas stamped with our hands on it in different colours of acrylic paint.  The result was lovely.  At that time Amy was very little and her hand is tiny next to her Daddy's.  It now hangs in our hallway and we will treasure it always.

Last year we created little hearts filled with various herbs.  We drew some heart templates from paper and then cut around these from scraps of fabric. 

This is the heart that I made for Mr P.  I filled this with Cinnamon sticks and Cloves that I had crushed first.  It smells wonderfully spicy and perfect for him as it is not too flowery.  You can still smell the spices a year later!

Amy created this simple version of the heart.  She stitched the heart on the outside.  We filled the heart with a little toy stuffing and dried lavender.  The stuffing ensured that we did not loose the lavender through the edges as the stitching was a simple running stitch.

We have all kept these little hearts long after the chocolates and flowers would be gone! 

Mind you I should probably admit that Mr P.  has just bought me a new handbag for Valentines Day this year - and he doesn't even know it yet!!