Love Tree

I was born two days before Valentine's Day. My memories of this day are entwined with the taste of cinnamon hearts on a white birthday cake, my sisters waving red and pink balloons at me as I got off the school bus, and all those construction paper heart crafts we used to make at school. I also loved those little punch-out "seals" our teachers used to stick on our papers with lace and violets and hearts. And paper doilies? Love 'em.

I love Valentine's Day. It bugs me when people rant about commercialism and consumerism because in my mind, no one is forcing anyone to go out and buy a dozen roses or a box of chocolates or Hallmark cards. In my mind, there is nothing bad about a day where we focus our hearts on love. We should and do express our love every day, but in this house, we'll take any and every excuse for a party: decorations, homemade cards, love letters, and heart-shaped cupcakes with pink icing. I say YES to all of the above.

Still, I don't have time to create heart-shaped quilted pot-holders or knit a pile of heart pillows. Holiday decor in this house must be a)quick, b)simple, and c) thrifty.

I had my kids help me generate a list of people and animals we love. It went something like this: 

Me: Margot, who is someone you love?

Margot: Nanny.

Me: Violet, who do you love? 

Violet: Sarah and Jamie.

Me: Margot, who else do you love?

Margot: Nanny.

(Margot and my mom have a real thing going on...it's DEEP love).

After lots of prompting and thinking, we came up with this list:

I used my tag-punch, but you could just cut rectangles of paper. I used a silver pen to write every person/animal on our list on the tags. Then, I hole-punched them, threaded a ribbon through them, and let the girls hang them on a branch we found outside.

Voila! Simple, and thrifty, and so eloquent.

I hope your Love Tree is positively bedecked with tags bearing the names of loved ones!