Martha's Valentine's Day Workshop

Valentine's Day is less than a month away. You probably fall into one of two categories:
(A) You think Valentine's Day is a silly, commercialized holiday invented by the greeting card companies to generate extra income.
or, (B) You think it's a delightful, happy excuse to say "I love you" to all sorts of people in your life.

Both of us have feelings that resonate on both sides of the coin. Valentine's Day is a lovely idea in concept, but shouldn't we always tell the special people in our lives we love them? And can we cool it with the lame, mushy cards that are currently clogging up the card section at Target? And cupid is actually a scary concept, if you think about it...a flying baby that shoots people in the fanny, causing them to fall in love? That's so weird... Valentine's Day is one of those days on the calendar that balances vicariously between being special and lovely...and cheesy and irritating. (Now that we (Jill & Kari) are married, it's a great excuse to go to a nice dinner with the hubbies...but when we were single, it was a little, well, nauseating).

We will admit that our favorite Valentine's Day memories come from when we were kids. There was something so fun about exchanging valentines with the kids in your class and there was always some fun, pretty Valentine's Day craft that our grade school teachers would break out. And, there were the fun little Valentine's Day surprises that Mom would stick in our lunchboxes. Oh, those were (still are!) impossible to beat! And we do like Valentine's Day for the fact that it seems to somehow kick off spring here in California. We know that, very soon after February 14th, we will see the almond trees start to push their stubborn buds into blossoms. So...it's not all bad. And the reminder it gives us to tell people in our lives that they are special---that's really good stuff, right?

Martha Stewart is running a Valentine's Day Workshop, full of fun ideas for the holiday. Go to the website and sign up so that you can be included. Being signed up for the workshop will make you privy to all sorts of fun crafty things and recipes---all Valentine's Day related. Some of Martha's past Valentine's projects are shown above, in the photos. We hope you will find Valentine's Day fun this year...even if you have to work hard to get past the cheesiness like we do sometimes. :)