Valentine banner DIY

Usually, I hate Valentine's Day. Making people feel guilty if they don't have a significant other, or worse yet, that they don't buy you some silly heart necklace that represents eternal love.

BLEH! Baloney I say!

But, I DO love the hearts and the colors and the sentimentality of it all. Vintage French love poems? Yes please. Calligraphy love notes? Uh-huh. Candy hearts with sweet sayings on them? mmmm.

And I LOVE making valentines. There's something so innocent and beautiful about a handmade note. Doilies and lace and pink construction paper make me happy.

So I decided to send a valentine to my wonderful reps over at Daniel Richards.

Here's what you'll need:

• spray adhesive
• red poster paper
• a love book suitable for tearing out pages
• jute string
• regular scissors
• scalloped scissors
• a saying printed on any type of paper, each letter cut into squares

Here's what you do:

1. Glue one of your letters onto your poster board and cut with the scalloped scissors tightly around the letter.

2. Continue with every letter.

3. Lay out your letters with about 1.5 inches in between them. Cut your string, allowing for 6 - 7 inches on either side.

4. Tear out your book pages.

5. Glue your scalloped letter onto the lower part of your page. Fold the page where you'd like the string to go.

6. Cut the page around the letter with regular scissors while it's folded to allow about 1/2 in. around the edges.

7. Turn over the page and apply the spray glue.

8. But the string where the fold is and close the flap. (Folding the flap over around the string)

9. Repeat this for every letter. 

The Wonderful World of Hermes

When in need of inspiration, I travel through designers websites, sometimes ending up at Barneys New York and sometimes ending up at a french website for paper dolls. Today, I ended up at Hermes.

I've always loved that signature orange, and those classic stitches. But their website is actually FUN, and incredibly interesting. If you go to hermes.com , click on United States and go to the "travel the world of Hermes" button, you are off on an adventurous maze. There's games, do-it-yourselfs and intimate stories from customers who have an emotional attachment to their heirloom Hermes items.

Here is a fabulous do-it-yourself bracelet (there are 6 styles and you download the pdf pattern to cut and paste together):

This particular puzzle challenges you to create different shapes and designs:

And there are also touching, beautiful stories from customers:

Here are a few of the random illustrations that really inspired me:

And then, of course, there are the scarves. Here are a few of my favorites, but honestly, it's like trying to pick your favorite pair of diamond earrings from Tiffanys.