"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile." Franklin P. Jones
Every year, I look forward to Valentine's Day. That seems odd to some people, in view of the fact that I’ve never been married, and haven't been in a romantic relationship for quite some time. But, Valentine’s Day isn’t just for lovers, but is also a day for Best Friends, Favorite Sisters (Hi Elaine!), Mom and Dad, sweet children, even the family pet. It's the day that we get to tell the people that we love how glad we are to have them in our lives.
Feeling the way I do about Valentine’s Day, I did my decorating quite early: December 28, to be exact. I know, I’m weird, but the space where the Christmas tree had been seemed so bare. So, I pulled out an inexpensive small white tinsel tree, grabbed some bird ornaments from my Christmas tree, added a few silk flowers and some heart ornaments I’d gotten from JoAnn’s Fabrics and Michael's, and voila! a Valentine Tree was born. The “tree skirt” is just some fabric that I wrapped around the bottom of the tree. The tree topper is another Christmas ornament.
After Valentine's Day, I'll be putting up an Easter tree, although I will not be using a tinsel Christmas tree, but some branches from the big tree in my backyard.
Along with the Valentine Tree, I have an ever growing collection of old Valentines, some of them dating to the early 20th century. Most of them, however, are from the 1950's and early 60's.
These two postcards, and the postcard at the top of the post date to 1913.
The next four are from the early 1950's.
The next two date to 1961.
I gave my parents this Valentine in the early 1970's. My mom was very sentimental and saved all the greeting cards that she received.
When I'm not displaying my Valentine collection, I keep it in this box. It's an old candy box; I covered the lid with a piece of scrapbooking paper.
A few more thoughts on love:
"It is better to have loved and lost, than not to love at all." (Tennyson)
"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves, or rather loved in spite of ourselves." (Victor Hugo)
"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." (Mother Teresa)
I love your valentine tree.And those vintage cards wow.I have some vintage valentines somewhere around here.I can't seem to find them.Mine are from the 60's.I just love those old fashioned ones.I usually put a valentine tree up too.But this year I am changing things a bit.I hope my daughter will not miss the tree.She does not like change.But wishes I would keep things the same.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Anne. The vintage cards are pretty easy to find here. I started collecting them because they're relatively inexpensive. And so cute!
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