I guess you could say I’m not much of an “every day’s a holiday” decorator. I love Thanksgiving and fall – it’s pretty much my decorating season of choice with pumpkins, leaves, ambers and golds and reds and just a whole season dedicated to gratitude – how is that not perfection? And who doesn’t love a little Christmas, too – although the season is a little shorter I still want to decorate with trees, garland, etc. But once January rolls around and the new year starts, I really do not need to celebrate every Hallmark holiday by changing up my decor. However… I just wanted a little sumpin’ sumpin’ for this Valentine’s Day, I guess. After all, the language of love speaks to all of us, doesn’t it? And it’s getting to be a “stay inside kind of winter” in Ohio at least. So what better way to hunker down than to have some fun with design and crafting projects. And the sentiment of Valentine’s Day is a perfect theme to get your DIY on. But I didn’t want to go all red and pink as that just doesn’t fit with my year round color scheme. So I thought I would stick to some neutrals and see what I could create.

1. Kraft paper heart garland – Hey, nobody said these had to be difficult. Seriously, folks. Just cut out some hearts from Kraft or any paper you desire, string them together, hang them up already! I liked the brown of Kraft paper and I ended up printing out my heart outlines and cutting out with scissors. I was able to get 24 out of an 8.5×11 piece of paper. I’m sure there’s a more efficient way to do it, but I found this somehow very therapeutic, ha! I punched holes in the hearts, and I had some red and white baker’s twine so I thought using that to string through them added a subtle red and white touch. I just love a sweet little garland, don’t you?

2. Cupcake liner heart wreath – I’m sure you’ve seen all the coffee filter wreaths floating around Pinterest and the interwebs. But I realized I had some of the white cupcake liners that go between the foil ones. I never know – are you supposed to use these for cupcakes? Sometimes I do, but it’s definitely harder to peel off the cupcake from these than the foil wrappers so maybe they’re just separators for the foil? At any rate, I thought they might make nice “mini-coffee filters” and I could create a mini heart-shaped wreath or something. I cut out a piece of cardboard in the shape of a heart and scrunched up about 30 white cupcake liners and hot-glued them onto the cardboard. I still have a fresh evergreen wreath on my door, which I love for its simplicity. So I just inserted this heart right in the middle and nestled it in. Et voilà – a little transition wreath from Christmas to Valentine’s. 🙂

3. X&O letters – Ok, have you noticed how almost every HGTV show uses letters as a design element? If not, then at least you know Joanna Gaines from Fixer Uppers does (love her show, btw!). So I thought a hugs and kisses (aka X&O) might be fun to get on my mantel! But not in the cardboard state of purchase from the craft store – I painted with a little bronze and black spray paint. Did I mention it’s cold in Ohio right now? I painted these in my basement on a bunch of newspaper I laid out. Honestly, I really only like to spray paint in summer but there it is – I did it in winter. And I love them! The ampersand (&) made a nice touch between them and says “Valentine’s Day” without being in your face obvious.

4. LOVE letter sculpture – Are you familiar with the LOVE art sculpture created by Robert Indiana? He also did a HOPE sculpture in Chicago, that I think is a little better, but I may be partial. 🙂 Anyways, whether you know it or not I’m guessing you’ve seen this iconic work if even on a postage stamp. I love it (wah wah) and wanted to try to recreate it myself with something I could hang in my kitchen. I do like a little turquoise, mint, or duck egg blue so I decided to paint the canvas first with Catalina Mist Krylon paint. And then I used my bronze spray paint on MDF letters this time, that I also got at the craft store. I figured I would hot glue them to the canvas and be all set. However… this is where things went horribly wrong… the letters were too heavy for the canvas. Maybe I could have used different glue, but alas, I peeled them off and decided they might work just fine on their own and I got an extra project – “LOVE letter sculpture”!

5. LOVE on canvas – So I went back to the drawing board (aka hobby store), and found some much more lightweight wood letters. I decided I wanted a little more pop than the bronze, so I spray painted the letters white. I also broke down and had to add a splash of red to my Valentine decor with a piece of red felt I cutout in the shape of some hearts. I first used E-6000 glue this time to hold the letters on – fail! So I super-glued those suckers and that seemed to stick…literally. And then I just used spray adhesive for the felt hearts. It became the perfect Valentine addition to my kitchen.

Thanks for joining me on these fun projects. I hope you are inspired to add a little Valentine decor of your own. If you do, let me know what you create!

The living room always gets the most of my focus as that and the kitchen are the places we mostly congregate at our house. But I’ve always loved the open and spacious front entry in our house and the little parlor room where we put the piano – so now it’s the music room, of course. Join me on this Christmas Eve as I enjoy the fruits of my decorating labor and settle in for Christmas with family and friends.

The bay window is the perfect place to put our big tree with all of our collected ornaments over the years. One can never have too many skate ornaments…

I love this René Magritte ornament we got in Belgium last year to hang out with Hermey from Rudolph…

But that means the cute sofa I got for the bay window has to move to the hallway for the season. But that’s okay. It’s a cushy place to take off boots or just sit and listen to music being played or sung in the music room. I love my Canadian Banff ski poster with a pair of vintage skis.

And did I mention I can’t get enough skates?! Black, white, brown – they all remind me of many winters in Canada skating in our back yard or elsewhere. Yes, I said backyard – we had a water drainage ditch running behind our house that always froze in winter. My dad would clear the ice with hot water, prop up a big industrial light, and create our very own skating rink where we would skate and skate well into the cold winter nights!

I love this old sheet music I got from a friend hung on a ladder from Rust & Found – it creates a nice border around the bay window and link to the tree.

Snowmen and Santas always seem to pop up in unusual spots and add a little whimsy to the house…

And I have a collection of felted “ornaments” to hang on every door possible!

Thanks for joining me on this tour. I hope your holidays are not too crazy and you’re getting to enjoy some silent nights and tidings of joy! Check out some other holiday decorating ideas from my Living Room or this vintage holiday bar cart!

Blessings to you and yours. 🙂

The halls are decked. The presents are still getting purchased and wrapped – shh, don’t tell! Come on in and grab a cup of cocoa and sit a spell… today we’re decorating the living room at my house with a little new and old.

Maybe you’d like to sit by the fireplace in the living room? We normally put our tree in the front window in the music room, but I couldn’t live without the sparkle in the living room so I added another tree here. Nature rules in this room with its large windows so I interspersed mercury glass ornaments with wood, burlap, and tiny grapevine wreaths.

I love to customize the fireplace decor every year and I’m still loving my old window so why not hang a wreath, put out a little woodland menagerie, bottle brush miniatures and some candlelight.

Vintage treasures include an old pair of child’s wooden skis that I love!

And this old truck can easily carry a sisal tree home, complete with shiny bulbs!

I think I’ll just sip my cocoa in here a bit before moving on to the next room. Happy Holidays!