she's not talkin' valentines already, is she?!

a quick little conversation on facebook yesterday inspired this blog.

i'm sure i have already posted about this, 

but i'm thinking this is definitely a yearly must for me.

it's about valentine's day!

valentine's day?? you ask.

already?!

well, you see, since i ship my valentines to shops to sell for that day,

i've got to be earlier than most when it comes to thinking about the holiday.

i try to create new valentines each year, so between creating them, 

getting them printed, 

then shipping them,

i'm a valentine early bird.

which can be fun as it gets me in the mood.

as i was packing valentines up for a shop the other day, i smiled and thought

of the fun i want to have spreading some love around.

and for me, THAT is what valentine's day is about.

it's about spreading love to those special people in my life.

and i gotta tell ya,

the year i figured this out, the holiday changed for me forever.

i used to hate it like so many other people.

oh gosh, i remember the teen years hoping so-and-so would give me a valentine,

and of course, he didn't. and then all the variations of that very icky feeling

of hoping someone would love me the way i wanted to be loved....

no expectations there, huh?

valentine's day was pretty much yuck.

and then! i started doing things -

like running around my neighborhood the years i lived in a town house

and taping hearts all over my different neighbor's doors. i did it secretly

so they never knew til they walked outside! and what fun it was

to try to do that secretly in a town home community! or  of making home made

 'love jars' for friends filling them with notes of things i loved about them,

or of shoveling snow for my neighbors in my neighborhood who were having 

back troubles or were single women on their own, or of slipping baked goods 

on porches with notes that said 'you matter.'

in short?

i learned valentine's day wasn't about me getting love.

it was about me GIVING love.

and that's when the holiday changed forever.

if you look at my valentines that i offer,

you'll see they cover everything from self love, to love of friends,

to love of partners of any kind, to love of people who have passed,

to love of living fully.

they celebrate love. they celebrate the joy of living.

because for me, that's what the holiday is about.

and so i wanted to post that because i can feel the 'getting carried away' feeling

bubbling up in me. i want to share the valentines, i want to get all revved up,

i want to dig out my heart lights and think about decorating.....and i figure maybe

this will keep people from pummeling me. 

want to see some of the valentines?

come check 'em out!~