Valentine creation: Love lives here

Here's what I've been working on all week. (It's 99% done, anyway.) I woke up on February 1 with a lot of craft energy (sometimes I have it and sometimes I don't) after having seen this adorable Valentine's advent/count-down calendar on Leslie's blog. The idea is you write a little love note to each member of the family and put it in their pocket for that day--one for each day in February leading up to Valentine's Day. We've been reading the notes written the previous day during breakfast each morning. By the time Valentine's Day hits, each person will have 50+ notes of love in their pockets.


Nate and Lucy are loving this. On Tuesday night at MOPS, we moms did a love language evaluation for our children (to determine what we thought our kids' love languages are), and it confirmed what I already knew about Nate: he is a words-of-affirmation lover. So this love note thing is right up his alley. (Plus, he's all about routine, calendars, and schedule, so seeing the 14 days and 5 people organized visually appeals to him.)


I was able to make this whole thing with materials I had on hand (except for the fabric for the binding, which I bought on sale). It is basically a quilt (two layers of white fabric with batting in between), with the pockets sewn straight onto it, embroidered numbers (which, yes, are unfinished--I wanted to take pictures in daylight so only made it up to 4 this morning), and "Love lives here" letters made using fabric and Heat n Bond (which lets you turn fabric into iron-ons).


I'm excited to do this every year, save the notes, and document how our family is growing--in age and also in love toward one another.