VINTAGE VALENTINES

I know it’s only February 9th but since I’m blogging once a week I couldn't bear missing the chance to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!  Ooooh, how I love retro Valentine’s Day cards!

My favorite vintage Valentines are the anthropomorphic ones featuring food like this little pickle cutie from the 1950's.  Card makers would take an animal or any non-human or inanimate object, add a couple of uniquely human characteristics and create these sweet valentines.  Anthropomorphic characters are found in everything from arts and literature to pop culture like the M&M candy characters, and capture our imagination, offer a twist on reality and bring a smile to my face.

These remind me of Valentine's days from my grammar school years when my father would take my sister and me to the drug store to pick out a package of valentines to share with our classmates.  I would spend hours in our bedroom selecting the perfect card for each friend, carefully signing my name and working up enough saliva to seal all the envelopes closed!  Then once the exciting day finally arrived, my teacher would give us all a shoe box and a huge pile of supplies -- scissors, glue, yarn, paper doilies, macaroni and construction paper -- to decorate our boxes so that we could store our cards in a special place.  Sure wish I still had one of those boxes full of cards, what a treasure that would be!

Recently I designed a few Valentine-themed aprons as an alternative to flowers and chocolates for your loved ones.  This one is made from beautiful cotton eyelet fabric and features an authentic, 1950's valentine hankie I sewed on as the pocket:

I made this Vanlentine's Day treat from convosational hearts fabric:

And here's a look at my 1940's style apron, again with convosational hearts fabric on a black background:

Hope everyone has a sweet Valentine's Day!  And if you haven't already, please comment on this or another of my blog entries so that you'll be entered to win the FEBRUARY RETRO REVIVAL BLOG GIVEAWAY -- the fabulous mink wrap.  Drawing for the giveaway is February 28th.