Valentine Kitchen

I'm usually not a fan of artificial flowers, but big fluffy ones do tend to turn my head.  I went with three white ones in turqouise glass vases, all from Michael's craft store, for our Valentine's kitchen table.  There aren't a lot of centerpiece options that wouldn't attract little hands (like candy) or kitty teeth (like real flowers).  Even this arrangement inspired Sophie and Michael to pull the flowers out and use them as umbrellas while waiting for dinner one night.  :-)  The napkin was a wedding shower gift that, along with its buddies, didn't get much use in our old green kitchen.  Now that our kitchen is gray with accents of blue, it's a fun addition, especially for Valentine's Day.

I couldn't resist the dual meaning of using X's and O's in the grid, suggesting a game of Tic-Tac-Toe as well as hugs and kisses.  The letters are also from Michael's with twine staple-gunned to the back.  The picture above shows how I taped the twine first to be sure the length worked with the hooks that were still up from the snowflakes.  It did take a couple of adjustments, so I'm glad I thought that one through.

Instead of going back to the mid-century album covers that I think of as the regular residents of this wall, I had the idea to get a few more albums of love songs for February. If garage sales were an option during a Michigan January, I might have upped the cheese factor, but for Ebay prices I had to resist Billy Ocean and Liberace and lean toward albums I would actually like to listen to.

On the other hand, if I was willing to increase the budget for this kind of thing and play the online auction game a little more, I might have worked even harder for Sid Vicous, Jimi Hendrix or a number of other decidedly cooler artists than Henry Mancini.  There's still admittedly a significant cheese factor with my taste accounted for, but what can I say?  Slow-dancing to Doris Day and scooting in circles around the table to Johnny Cash have become regular memory-making events around here, and it doesn't get cooler than that.

I was excited to mix the red and turquoise together for the holiday, a combination I love and even considered for the kids' room before giving in to the inevitablity of pink and baby blue elbowing their way in through blankets and toys and clothing.  I'm thinking of spreading more red around even after 2/14.  This heart is really the only detail that screams Valentine's Day.  That red napkin, at the very least, will likely stick around.