Valentines 2026

At Rushmer Christmas my Birmingham niece gave me a Valentine incorporating one of the family photographs I had printed on fabric when I was making last year’s ornaments. Since several of the photos wouldn’t work for making ornaments, I gave them to her. I knew she would have a good idea about how to use them. And she did immediately getting to work on this Valentine with the picture of her great great grandmother and her father.

When I got back from Rushmer Christmas there was a box waiting for me from some Northampton friends. In addition to the snowpeople I think I wrote about previously there was a cute little mouse holding a heart.

He seemed perfect for the Valentine garland and he reminded me of a bunny holding a heart that my Northampton nephew’s family had given me for Christmas years ago and that I had been using in my Spring decorating. I realized he was far better as a Valentine’s decoration.

Brittany of The House That Lars Built hosts a Valentine exchange each year and I thought it would be fun to participate and last June I realized what I could make.

I made a larger card and several smaller cards that I thought I might put in a little art gallery. I had sent the exchange card off but hadn’t done anything with the little cards when I got a call from my sister asking me to come to Columbia because a recent doctor’s visit had determined she had tumors in her bladder and liver. So the little cards became my Valentine’s cards this year.

While I was in Columbia we went to Artlandish which had moved to a new location and increased their inventory. One of the things I bought there was this Peruvian heart.

We also went to a Valentine’s party at my Columbia niece’s and were showered with Valentines made by her twins.

I had asked my husband to be on the look out for my valentine from the exchange but before it came I got a Valentine package from my Birmingham niece that included a Useful Pot To Put Things In.

The Useful Pot is on the right in front of a card from a Northampton friend and one of the many cards from the Columbia twins. The card from the #larsvalentineexchange finally came and is on the left next to the card from my husband. I took some close ups to post on Instagram.

Participating in the exchange was fun but a bit stressful (Did the person I sent my card to get it? Will she like it? Am I going to get something? Will it be one of the extravagant ones some others posted which will make me feel like mine wasnt enough?) so I probably won’t participate again next year.