Valentines for others, for outfits, for us

Ah, Valentines day! The day that divides opinion- just commercial, lost the original meaning, overrated, celebration of the acts of a long-ago saint or just a nice opportunity to remind someone that you love or care about them?

A couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd like to do some random acts of kindness (or just random giving stuff to people!) and thought I'd like to paint some pebbles with hearts and place around the playground for children to find and keep. BUT, with the weather being what it has been and playtime in the playground being a very unlikely event, I had to put a lid on this. However, Nora Bird talked about doing some random acts of kindness this week so I thought it would be nice to too.


Yesterday, at lunchtime, when I went to buy some snacks for the kids at school, I also took the liberty of buying 42 kitkat bars.  After I had served teas and coffees to the staff, I then sat and wrote Happy Valentines day on each of the bars and after an Art-attack style shot with them (see above), I put one in the pigeon-hole of each and every teacher and teaching assistant in the school, plus the caretakers.  This morning, someone asked me if I had put them there.  I deflected the question saying, "I found mine in there last night and ate it on the way home."  In the staffroom, I similarly avoided similar questions and had to tell one blatant lie.  They assumed at first it was the head and deputy but when I saw the deputy in the staffroom as they were speaking, I presume they found out it wasn't.  It was really nice and fun to see the confused but pleased reaction without them knowing it was me.

Also, I had punched a whole load of funky foam hearts in lines and turned these into cute, simple bookmarks with some more hanging-tag ribbons.  I laid them out on the desk by the door to the music room and when I had a class, if someone admired them, I gave them one of the bookmarks.  I did the same for a few classes and then gave the rest to my Music Makers after school. It was quite sweet. Something that took me literally about 1 minute to make each one and they really liked them.


It wouldn't be a blogging Valentine without the customary, Valentines day outfit shot.  So I wore a bright red Pop Boutique sailor dress with a Primark heart cardigan and navy flower print tights.  I wanted a pair of red heart earrings, so I simply punched two red hearts (mentioned in the bookmark thing) and stuck a tiny pair of red studs through them to attach them to my ears.

Hearts, red AND florals- Clique or what!!?!?!


And finally, CBC and I made each other cards:
His is the pink one - he changed the words of a beautiful folk song by Luciano Berio from Black to 'brown, brown, brown, is the colour of my true love's hair'.  Simple but gorgeously executed!

Mine is the black one.  I 3d-decoupaged 3 hearts, hand-cut from a music Score (the one used for all my wedding thank you cards) and added some outline stickers at the edges and a greeting.  I always like to make sure my Valentines don't conform to the standard colours!!

After school, we headed home.  CBC had been to Waitrose and bought tuna steaks, veg and a jelly (the dine in for 2 menu) with chocolates and wine (and had also bought me chocolates despite me saying no flowers or chocolates please, just a card! Nice though).  We ate dinner and CBC promptly fell asleep on the rug. Hence why I am writing. Sigh.
Happy Valentines Day people!

xxx

Linking with Claire Justine's Creative Monday