13 February 2014

Happy Valentine's Day: Je T'aime . . .


Um. I kind of loathe Valentine's Day. I'm not against love or anything, just against specific days that we are supposed to show said love. I mean it's kind of lame, if you want my honest opinion. I think this is actually quite hilarious because throughout my life, I've worked in industries that were completely focused on this "holiday". 

I worked as a florist for 3 years, both in Austin, TX and Medford, WI. And to this date, it still remains to be one of my most favorite jobs I've ever had. Florists are fun and odd people to be around, so I fit in perfectly. And Valentine's Day is basically a flower shop's yearly moneymaker. Hours were insane, sometimes we would work until 2 or 3 in the morning to get all of the arrangements ready for full weeks leading up to the big day. Lines were generally out the door, but people were kind during this holiday as opposed to the craziness that sometimes accompanies gift-buying during the Christmas holidays. And there was always an open bottle of champagne somewhere in the shop during the season, which I thought was great.    

I'm also an art educator. And I teach little people. Little people LOVE Valentine's Day. They draw hearts on everything throughout the year, so when a holiday comes around that actually celebrates hearts, it really works . . . You know? 

I also happen to love pink. And red. And hearts. Anyone who has ever seen my artwork or visited my house knows this. Of course, I always couple pink and red with orange which magically brightens everything. And I have a big ol' habit of signing things--yearbooks, emails, what have you's--with XOXO. (If you have ever received a Christmas card from me, it always ends with a professionally printed "XOXO, Lindsey".) This way of signing things started millions of years ago . . . 

So one would think that I would naturally be inclined to support this holiday. I guess I do, but only in the non-romantic/non-cheesy way. It's just not that big of a deal to me (although I have been known to dress up my dog for V-day). Most of the years that I have actually celebrated Valentine's Day, I spent it with my best friend Emma drinking wine and decorating crazy wooden things

Maybe I secretly LOVE Valentine's Day and I just play like I hate it, just for show??!! Perhaps.

Whatever . . . All I know is that I want to share some beautiful and hilarious things I found on Instagram to help ring in the day, and show you some of the fun activities we did with our students. So take a look below and enjoy your day of LOVE. 

I'll start with my sister. She's always really good at sending me pictures of my nephews each year in February, see below. (This year's picture hasn't arrived yet, but hopefully by tomorrow . . . )

2012

2013

And here's the two images I found on her Instagram . . . 

 


Then there are the smattering of creative people that I follow, most of whom are from Australia. I loved seeing all of the following inspiring and colorful images in my feed . . . Credit given below the images: follow them, follow them!








Regram on Folklorica . . . Love to Infinity!! 





A paper flower tutorial by Ruchi Goswami, featured on Design Sponge


At school, we were doing tile painting for the week in my classroom. So in Tanya's room, we set up 3 stations: a Valentine's making station, a watercolor station, and a playdough/Valentine-banner-making station. 

One of the KG2 students created her preliminary drawing for her tile out of a million tiny watercolored hearts . . . 



We had these really cool felt hearts in pink, red, white, and pink leopard print (see above) that we put out on the Valentine's making station. One of the girls in my class made a card for her mother that said the following . . . 



And today--for one of Tanya's short classes, she painted all of the students' feet and printed their feet with their heels together so that it made a heart. Then she had the kids decorate the outside heart shape with glitter. 


Last week, my students were finishing up their party hats and two of the girls decided to make Valentine party hats . . . 


I'll end with this list of 21 Awkward Valentine's Day Cards For Your Confusing Modern Relationship from Huffington Post, of which my favorite is: "I love you like Kanye loves Kanye." Laughing for days over these, people. Days!


XOXO! Smooch . . . Kiss the next person you see right smack dab on the word hole.

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