I love heart-shaped things.
I see them everywhere, all the time, but especially at this time of year.

Just this week, I marveled at how often hearts appear in nature. From the dried pods hanging from a tree, a piece of quartz in a neighbor’s flowerbed, to the African violet leaves in my den.
Terry picked up this rock heart on a work site. Do you see it?

Hearts are everywhere.
And I love them—probably because my birthday is February 14, the day of hearts.
I’ve written before about how my mother made me heart-shaped birthday cakes. I’m going to use those same pans to bake a cake for my writing group that meets on Valentine’s Day.
Through the years, friends have given me all sorts of heart gifts.
Thanks to Grace Johnston, I have a wall of framed vintage Valentines.
Even if Valentines Day wasn’t my birthday, I would love it.
Remember making Valentine boxes for school parties? We colored away with red and pink crayons and adorned them with paper doilies and ribbons.
This week I made a Valentine box.
It started with the last shoes I bought.
Fergalicious Westin Booties.
The box top was so pretty it made me think of the boxes we used to decorate.
The next thing I knew, I was digging out craft items I picked up on clearance last year. I repurposed cupids and hearts from cupcake kits and added ribbon, gluing and taping to my heart’s content.
The curves in the crown reminded me of a flower punch I picked up for a pittance at Tuesday Morning. I dug it out and I made a bunch blossoms, stacked them together, fluffed them up and added button centers.
Here’s the final product.
Prissy.
Perhaps a bit overdone.
But I had a blast.
May I spend as much time working on the condition of my heart–especially when I find it challenging.
For the Lord sees not as man sees:
man looks on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks on the heart.”
I Samuel 16:7b