Valentine's Day might be my very favorite holiday, as it's an excuse to make toasts (whether to good or bad fortune), eat snacks, and surround oneself with crafts.
I used to surround myself with crafts a little too intensely, as you can see from these Valentines I made my freshman year of college:
I don't have time to cut out individual letters anymore, but I still make time to show my friends (28 of them this year) how much I love them with these simple materials:
* Construction paper
* Rubber cement
* Scissors
* Magazine clippings
* A white-out pen (a finer point than a white paint pen, I've found)
* My very punniest, dirtiest attitude
I go through magazines of every sort, from fashion rags to backlogs of Martha Stewart Living, and assess every photograph to see if there's a pun in there. Ads are usually the best source. Once it's time to make the valentines themselves, I follow this simple rule: the more off-color the valentine, the girlier and fluffier it must appear. Here are some examples from this year, more or less in order from most innocent to most bawdy*:
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| "I want 0 degrees of separation between us, Valentine!" |
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| Yeah, this happened. And it's for a girl. |
* The bawdiest of all has yet to be made: A picture of a chicken next to a basket of eggs (just imagine that, yes?). Also not pictured: a valentine for a poet friend that says "take your pantoums off."
It's really that easy. If you're reading this in a blind Valentine panic, just open your nearest periodical and go to town.
Tomorrow night, my boyfriend and I will hit up the Art Institute and a bar (TBD) for a festive cocktail before heading home to cook dinner ourselves. (He's in charge of the pork chops, and I'm in charge of the pear galette.) Wherever Valentine's Day leads you -- this dance party at Logan Square Auditorium, perhaps? -- I hope you find something to love about this February in Chicago.
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