Deconstructed Valentines

I was reading the other day on one of the European blogs I follow that deconstructed furniture is the latest decorating fad.  Again, it apparently started in the flea markets or brocantes of France where vintage furniture has been stripped of its upholstery either because it was stopped in the process of being recovered or intentionally to prove the age of the piece.  So now, rather than get this furniture reupholstered, people are just using it as is.  I'm thinking this may be the answer to a hide-a-bed my sister brought out to the cabin that is upholstered in a cheery floral with a white background that looks as if it belongs in a seaside cottage.  I'll just start ripping and tearing one of these days and voila, deconstructed furniture.

At any rate, the deconstructed furniture gave me the idea for today's blog on deconstructed valentines.  I had the basis for what I thought would be a really clever valentine, a bit of graffiti some wit in love lettered last year on a caution sign coming up the canyon from Boulder.  Coming back from one of the last "road trips" Lola and I took to Boulder I finally stopped, turned around, parked and took a photo.

I had been thinking all these months about how to turn a yellow and black sign into a valentine.  I thought I finally had it, using another crazy decorating craze--chalkboard paint, which is being slapped on everything from doors to decanters.  So, I printed out a heart template and cut out some hearts from card stock, and using a brush, painted them with some chalkboard paint from a small bottle of craft paint I had.  I didn't like the look and decided I needed spray chalkboard paint so that held up the process for a few weeks.  The idea was to print the above photo on the front of a cream-colored card and then, when the recipient opened the card, inside would be the verse, "To the lover in all of us" and on the opposite side would be this chalkboard painted heart, along with a piece of chalk, with which the recipient could write, on the heart, his or her initials and that of his or her lover.

Well, the whole time these ideas were whirling around in my mind, all I could think of, because of the color scheme, was yellow-bellied, lily-livered and black-hearted.  I felt as if I were swearing in Old Time Western Movie and none of these phrases seemed to lend themselves to a holiday commemorating love.

So, here are the bits and pieces.  My deconstructed Valentine's Day cards.   

In a more romantic mood, if you have not checked it out, I was reading this morning in an AP wire service on-line article about the digitization of all of the correspondence between Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning in a collaboration between Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, and Baylor University, Waco, TX.  (Now there's a match).  If I really understood how to create links, I'd do so, but it should be easy enough to find through a search for Browning letters.  Check it out  Teddee