Decoration Renovation

 My mother gave me a Valentine's decoration not that long ago, saying that she didn't intend to use it - and that maybe I could remake it into something I would like.

The more I stared at this, the more convinced I was that I wouldn't be able to use it, because I'm pretty sure I saw this for sale in a Current catalog... in 1984. The flashbacks were enough to give me nightmares of big hair & tiered miniskirts, so I set it aside for a few months.

With February arriving I pulled this out again, and decided I would either find a way to use it or donate it by the end of the week. Then it hit me... those are REALLY nice solid wood hearts - and while I don't like pastels, I DO like solid wood! So I decided to "tear them apart" and see what I could make.

The first step was to get rid of the gingham bow, and the raffia. After that, I thought I would sand them down. My daughter suggested sanding & then staining them, for a pretty rustic heart display. While this worked great for two of the hearts, after 45 minutes of intense sanding with the power-sander when there was STILL purple paint in the graining of the bottom heart I realized that just wasn't going to happen.

So I checked my paint drawer, and found a leftover can from a few years ago and sprayed them a bright glossy red.

Next, with my daughter's help, we added some antique white to the centers & around the edges, just to add a little visual interest.

Then it was time to decorate them, and after going through my entire sticker drawer I headed to Michaels where I found a sweet set of Valentine's Day stickers on sale for $3.

I very rarely use pink in my February decorations. I tell my preschoolers I'm afraid of pink, and that's not far from the truth. Growing up in a house full of girls - and now having a VERY girly teen of my own I think I've been overloaded. But I fell in love with the sweet critters on these stickers and decided to make an exception to the no-pink rule... AFTER I got my husband's approval, since I didn't want him cringing every time he saw these! 

After that, it was just a matter of finding a way of hanging them. I tried several options before I settled on making a short crocheted chain for them to hang from.

I really like how this turned out! It fills the inner space of my giant grapevine wreath, and is a definite improvement over the candy hearts! Even my son likes the cute critter stickers, so this is definitely going to be a favorite decoration for this year.

Besides, if I ever get bored with how it looks, I can always change it again!