Vintage Valentine

My mother gifted me my grandmother's card album--notes she received for birthdays and her wedding.  I've been toting this dilapidated album around for quite some time and couldn't figure out what to do with it. 

This year, I decided to cut the cards into heart shapes to use as Valentine's decorations. As I was sorting through them, I felt almost like my grandmother was stopping by for a visit.

I felt that while giving these new life, she was alive again with me for a little while.  This might sound strange and definitely caught me by surprise, but I did feel something I didn't expect to feel. 

  I hung them from our chandelier, stuck some in the chandelier's basket and put them in our wired candleholders.  

I used some old envelopes I found addressed to her as well--sort of a love note, romantic Valentine theme.  And, the roses remind me of one of my favorite stories about my grandfather.  My grandmother loved roses--they were her favorite flower.  So, instead of giving her a dozen roses on Valentine's Day, my grandfather would surprise her with one rose each month so that she could enjoy roses year round.  How sweet is that?

I love resurrecting the old-fashioned names, the elegant handwriting, the sweet sentiments--I'm smitten by it all!  I stuck a few notes, such as the one below, on the mirrors around our house.  The messages on them just make me smile every time I walk by.

I just love feeling that my grandparents are still close to me and my family in some small way.  Valentine's Day seems like the perfect time to remember and feel their love they had for us and for each other.

Happy Valentine's Day!

                                                              xoxo Cricket

PS--The picture in the banner is my grandmother, Margaret.  I will have to sort thru my boxes of pictures to find a great one of the two of them.