Fourteen Days of Valentines Day Seven.

What are the things called that you put on your to-go cups of coffee to keep your hands from burning? Are they called coffee cozies or coffee cup sleeves? Well whatever they're called I decided to go ahead and make and environmentally-friendly-pink-with-hearts one for the coffee club girls. I'm sure I must have blogged about this group of high school girls before and how much I love hosting this little get-together every week. What better way to tell them I love them then with coffee paraphernalia? 

I sort of winged it (using a template I found on-line somewhere but forgot to document). I cut out the shape (sort of a crescent) with my pinking sheers out of pink felt. Then I got out my trusty hot glue gun and had some fun. I could have used the sewing machine but honestly sometimes I just like dealing with super hot, fast flue. I glued snaps on (though I think the sleeve will slide on and off with out having to use it) and then decorated them with these sparkly hearts.

I like the way they turned out. Personally I think it's just as cute as the fancy $10 ones you can buy at the coffee shops. And better yet I slipped a Starbucks gift card into each sleeve. If you can't win them over with your witty personality win them over with caffeine and treats I always say.

Fourteen Days of Valentines. Day One.

Any one know anything about St. Valentine? I did a bit of research and turns out he was martyred (I think) for marrying Christians during one of the great Roman persecutions. That's pretty cool if you ask me (not that he was martyred but that he would sacrifice himself for love). You know what else I think is cool? Red and pink together, tiny hearts, boxes of chocolates, pretty silk underpinnings, victorian cards, and love. It may be cheesy and girly but I don't care. I don't think those things are as wonderful as self sacrifice of course. The reason I told you the thing about St. Valentine's is so that you can combat the evil guy philosophy of "it's just a hallmark holiday invented to sell cards." (insert deep annoying guy voice) And so what if they've commercialized it I don't have to buy into all that and frankly I think love is something great that we should celebrate. If it weren't for valentines day we'd have nothing to in February.

In the past I've done a thing called "Fourteen Days of Valentines" for Brian. It's my take on the twelve days of Christmas. I'm doing it again this year but I'm changing it up a bit. I will show you my valentines advent string in a minute and most of the other gifts will be for Brian (he is my greatest love after all) but I also wanted to spread the love out to those around me. So every day from here until the 14th (give or take a weekend where I'm too busy) I'm going to post about a little gift or project I've done to show someone that I care. Culminating with a gift to be given away to one of you my sweet readers (so stay tuned for that next week or so).

The first project I did was my Valentines "advent calendar" for Brian.

First I took some red construction paper and cut out 14 hearts of varying sizes (sorry about the photos the lighting wasn't very good today. Very grey outside.)

Then using a permanent or other easy-to-see-pen number the hearts one through fourteen on one side. On the other write something that you appreciate/love about the person. I used a variety of physical, spiritual, and work/respect things about Brian (I read somewhere that "respect is to a man what romance is to a woman" and I've tried to be mindful of that when I do things like this for Brian.)

Then take a long wide ribbon (I used this red stripy one left over from christmas) and starting with 14 tape the hearts on going down the line to one. The idea is that starting at the bottom of the ribbon each day he will take off one of the hearts to read what I love about him. I also alternated adding candy for him. I didn't add enough for every day because it would have made the ribbon really heavy and I have other presents for him throughout this season. (I hated using candy bars but I made sure none of them were hershey's brand-the most evil of all chocolate companies).

To attach something like a candy bar, cut to parallel slits in the ribbon and slip the bar through as shown in the above pic. I also put a piece of tape across the back to hold it in place. If you were attaching something like a bag of skittles you could just staple it right to the ribbon.

Then I nailed it to the wall (I know I shouldn't have used nails but it was heavy!! Maybe a better way would be to leave extra ribbon at the top and tie it to something tall). I nailed it at the top and around day 7 to help distribute the weight. I had a heck of a time finding a place that was out of the way of the kids (I didn't want to torture them or me with whining for dad's candy every moment of the day). So it ended up in our bedroom but that seems okay to me; wink wink.

I hope your dreaming up some fun loving things for this month. I'll see you tomorrow when I attempt a Martha Stewart recipe for the church staff.