I get why this is, and have contributed my share of V-Day posts right here on Simplicity to promote sending lots of heart cards to Operation Write Home before the deadline at the end of this month.
But how very annoying Valentine's Day is in December.
And in February, for that matter.
I don't like Valentine's Day. Or, more accurately, I don't like the lavishness with which it is celebrated. It's like Halloween. Trick or Treating wasn't enough for everyone, so now we have an entire month of over-the-top spooky/zombie/spidery decorations and parties and bags of candy coming home from school to make us fat even before Thanksgiving and Christmas get a chance to carry out that traditional duty.
Valentine's Day...a day to say, "I love you"...has become something consumerist and competitive, a time for women to complain how thoughtless and unloving their husbands/boyfriends are, a time for men to feel clueless as to why they aren't getting, ahem, "love" because their wives/girlfriends are snippy.
Or am I a Valentine's Day Scrooge? I'm sorry. I love saying I love you. I don't need a special day to feel competitive about it.
But the deployed troops...they need to have LOTS of love cards to send home because how else are they going to say I love you to their loved ones...email? Bah, humbug. Nothing works so well as a card when you're stuck back-of-beyond in service to your country.
So I will be posting a few more Valentines, but just for the benefit of the troops and not as part of the crass commercialism of a pink holiday. I hope you'll understand.
Today, however, I'm taking a break from posting Valentines to bring you a retrospective of the handmade birthday and Thanksgiving cards I received from some of YOU last month. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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| A stash of goodness from Marty |
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| A gorgeous rock-n-roll Thanksgiving Crusade Card from Marty |
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| Audrie rocks the one-layer card...and sends pearls! |
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| Sue C. glitters her way to beautiful birthday wishes |
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| And there are little spots of liquid pearls on these, too! How lovely! |
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| My husband wishes me a happy birthday with bombers. Note the visual triangle. |
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| My son Nick came up with the sentiment. He's good at creating unity in a design. :) |
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| Marty spoiled me with Thanksgiving and Birthday greetings. I love, love, love her placement on this card, and the colors. And the bling. |
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| Patti rocked my happy color and butterflies and added lovely texture stamping to the mat. |
Y'all are so sweet. Just think about Patti's sentiment: Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. We stampers see beauty everywhere we look. It keeps us young and grateful for all the beauty the world offers us.
You are all beautiful to me. You share your time and talents and comments and emails with me. I love you.
See? Didn't need a Valentine to say that, now, did I?
I understand what you're saying about Valentine's Day, Susan. In our family, we say we live each other all the time :). You received some nice cards. You deserve the love :)
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the sentiment on Patti's card, any chance she would share the maker of that stamp? It isn't one I've seen before and would really like to add it to my hoarding, um collection.
ReplyDeleteLovely cards. I especially enjoyed the one with the wheat silhuoette.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with you on being fatigued by the over-the-top commercialism. Luckily Halloween isn't as big here in Canada. I have outlawed my husband buying flowers for Valentines' when they are horribly overpriced. Any other day is fine!