Be My Valentine

I got out my digital cutter today and attempted some valentines. This was my attempt at a 

Valentine Garland:

After cutting out several sizes, embellishments were added, cut up kids valentine necklace from Joann's, and plastic rhinestones in various sizes and shapes plus ribbon. (Colors are much more vibrant, however photos were taken in the evening, giving it this yellowish appearance) All strung together with red and white bakers twine.

I made a valentine Garland for a good friend of mine to use at her salon.

I think I will experiment some more with various papers folded in a fan and 

different kinds of glitter.

It's all strung together with red and white bakers twine. Smaller hearts are folded in half and 4 of the halfs all glued together to form a 3-D heart. Other hearts have just two heats glued together with twin in between.

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 The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read:

For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing loveletters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice. Perhaps the earliest to be found is in the 34th and 35th Ballades of the bilingual poet,John Gower, written in French; but Lydgate and Clauvowe supply other examples. Those who chose each other under these circumstances seem to have been called by each other their Valentines. In the Paston Letters, Dame ElizabethBrews writes thus about a match she hopes to make for her daughter (we modernize the spelling), addressing the favoured suitor:

And, cousin mine, upon Monday is Saint Valentine's Day and every bird chooses himself a mate, and if it like you to come on Thursday night, and make provision that you may abide till then, I trust to God that ye shall speak to my husband and I shall pray that we may bring the matter to a conclusion.

Shortly after the young lady herself wrote a letter to the same man addressing it "Unto my rightwell beloved Valentine,John Paston Esquire". The custom of choosing and sending valentines has of late years fallen into comparative desuetude.

(There were at least 3 Staint Valentines throughout history.)

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