My most vivid preschool memory was checking the “mailboxes” that we each constructed, on Valentine’s Day, to see who had left me a Valentine. Spoiler alert, each kid had to make one for everyone in the class, but I still remember my excitement as I pulled out each little frilly card. My love affair with this special day started then, at 4 years old. Even when I got older and learned first hand what the phrase “love hurts” meant, the hopeless romantic and eternal optimist in me always loves a day that celebrates love.

I know that holidays like Valentine’s Day are often referred to as “Hallmark Holidays,” holidays that promote consumerism and guilt people into showing how much they love someone, with money. That’s why I fell in love with Meg Taylor’s old fashioned valentine’s making party! Meg’s parties take me back to preschool when we would make Valentine’s for the one’s we love– be it a cat, our grandparents, or the boy who sits next to us in class.

I first attended Meg’s legendary Los Angeles crafting party five years ago, when I first moved to Los Angeles. I’m so hooked on her Valentine’s Day card making soirees that I even flew down to LA, from San Francisco, this year to attend. I happen to have a Valentine this year, but there were times when I had just been through a break up and still sat at her party for hours making creative cards for my parents and my friend’s kids. There is something so therapeutic about celebrating all kinds of love, even if you are feeling “romantically challenged.”

Meg is the most creative person that I know and her annual Valentine’s Day fete helps to inspire other’s creativity. All year she collects paper, cards, print-outs, stickers, beads, wallpaper, and anything else that might look good on a card and then sets it out with glue and scissors and let’s her friends go to work. People of all ages sit for hours while crafting, talking, and eating. It reminds me of art class in elementary school, in the best way possible. And from paper straws to red velvet cake, no detail is overlooked!

There is still time, before Valentine’s Day, to get inspired and make a creative valentine for someone you love! Or better yet, start your own annual Valentine’s crafting party. If you start collecting now, you’ll be ready to host next year.

{All of these gorgeous photos were taken by: Valorie Darling}

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