The only gold

Today's love entry in preparation for Valentine's Day is going to be FULL of good words on love (and lyrics if you're ambitious enough to look them up), because last night I made VALENTINES!

I have not managed to do this since 2001, so yes it absolutely warrants all caps.

Having succeeded at last, I've decided to share with you a one-time-only very special offer of

The This Blue Singer Valentine-Making Tutorial!

step one:  Resolve to accept cheesiness.  Love invented (the thing we now call) cheesiness.  Authenticity often feels cheesy.  Well too bad because this project is all about love and authenticity, so just relax and give yourself permission to embrace the cheese.  If you find you simply are too cool for cheesiness, you should probably abandon the project before you start and maybe spend a few hours pondering your priorities instead. 


step two:  Choose some quotes on love you can really get on board with.  Here are the ones I selected:

Looking at my life
I see that only Love
Has been my soul’s companion
From deep inside
My soul cries out:
Do not wait, surrender
For the sake of Love.
- Rumi

Speak low if you speak love.
- William Shakespeare

In love there is no because
- Anais Nin


At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

- Plato

Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet
each other.
- Rainer Maria Rilke

That our love for each other give us love for each other’s work.
That our love for each other’s work give us love for each other.
- Denise Levertov

I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with
all my heart.
- Alice Walker

We just keep on trying, again and again, no matter how ill-advised it
may be, to recreate Aristophanes' two-headed, eight-limbed figure of
seamless human union.

This is intimacy: the trading of stories in the dark.

She sewed winter coats for her children from the leftover material of
her heart's more quiet desires.
- all 3, Elizabeth Gilbert

Love in its essence is spiritual fire. 

- Emanuel Swedenborg

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only
because I love. 

- Leo Tolstoy

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. 

- Zora Neale Hurston

Love is the only gold. 

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

step three:  Choose the proper attire.

Don whatever makes you feel good and valentiney.  No one has to see you in this get-up, so really just feel free to go all out.  As my good friend David always says, "Whatever you wear, wear it!"  I decided on my romantic long black velvet dress and my Pink Diva cowboy hat.  With lots of red lipstick.

 

For obvious reasons.

step four:  Choose a beverage.  For me, any creative project requires real and actual fuel.  Art makes me thirsty, but once I'm in the moment I won't get up for anything, so I have to go in prepared.  On such a cold February night, I chose a lavender hot toddy, which was the perfect blend of extravagant and soothing.  The recipe includes hot water, culinary Provence lavender, lemon juice, honey, bourbon and cinnamon sticks.  You should let the lavender steep in the honey & water, strain out the lavender, and then add the lemon, bourbon and cinnamon.  I just kind of determined proportions by taste (and the amount of alcohol I could handle without falling asleep at my table).  I can imagine pinker and sexier drinks for valentines  - maybe a cosmo or a pomegranate margarita?  I opted for cozy.

step five:  Choose your music.  I made a playlist.  An eclectic collection of alternatingly soothing and upbeat songs about love helped me to stay focused and inspired.  I made mine over 2.5 hours long because once songs start repeating, I feel like I'm too slow.  I'm quite pleased with my mix, so I thought I'd share it with you here.  I tried to make it into an iMix to share, but it wouldn't work.  Boo.

Message of Love	Pretenders
Origin of Love	Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The Shining	Badly Drawn Boy
To Be Alone With You	Sufjan Stevens
Family Tree	TV On The Radio
Star Matter	Ani DiFranco
Breakable	Ingrid Michaelson
Such Great Heights	The Postal Service
Give a Little Love	Noah and the Whale
Islands In The Stream	Constantines & Feist
Soil, Soil	Tegan & Sara
Hawkmoon 269	U2
True Romantic	Indigo Girls
Pale Blue Eyes (Closet Mix)	The Velvet Underground
Melt Your Heart	Jenny Lewis
Hope There's Someone	Antony & The Johnsons
Gorecki	Lamb
C'est pas d'lamour	Rupa & The April Fishes
Dance Me To The End Of Love	Leonard Cohen
Julia	The Beatles
Old Love Letters	Brothers and Sisters
That Summer	This Blue Heaven
Creep	Radiohead
I Love	Athlete
A Case Of You	Joni Mitchell
I Will Follow You Into The Dark	Death Cab For Cutie
I Don't Know	Lisa Hannigan
Who Is It	Björk
Maps (Live)	Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I Need You	Brendan Kelley
True Colors	Cyndi Lauper
Cannonball	Damien Rice
Merely a Man	XTC
Starlight	Muse
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart	Wilco
Piece Of My Heart	Janis Joplin
The Plan	Low
Someday Some Morning Sometime	Billy Bragg and Wilco
Together	The Raconteurs

step six:  Choose and gather your materials.  Keep it simple.  I wanted to make around 20 valentines and I tend to get overwhelmed with too many choices, so I limited myself to:  small white notecards, two black pens, a red pen, a pink pen, a pencil, pink & red & black watercolors, a red marker and a silver marker.  Using just these materials also gave my valentines a uniform look, which isn't necessary but kinda makes it feel more like you're designing your own line.  

step seven:  Make a small number of simple rules.  I limited my choices even further by deciding that all quotes would be in black except for the word "love," which would have to always be in red.  With that in place, I got to focus mostly on shapes.  I did have to throw away a couple of cards because I forgot the red rule, but I'll use the other sides for some other project.

step eight:  Go go go!  Choose the first quote that moves you, write it down and just let yourself enter the trance of creation.  Say yes to any idea that comes to you.  The whole idea here is love!  If you start to doubt yourself, think of your love for the recipients of your valentines and think of their love for you.  Anything handmade these days is a rare treasure, not to mention MAIL (if you go that route), so whatever you create will be a sweet and outstanding moment in the day and life of your loved one.

Here's my finished product!  

step nine:  Personalize.  The backs of mine will just say To:  and Love:  - like the ones we used to pass out in elementary school.  But of course you could write any sweet nothings your heart desires.  I'm still not sure how I'll decide which quotes to give to which people, although a few have very strong connections to certain folks.  Incidentally, I love that there are so many wonderful couples in my life who I'll get to send valentines to.  It seems like a nice way to acknowledge how much I admire their sweetness.

step ten:  Send!  I recommend snail mail, heart stamps, and sealing envelopes with a kiss (see above) (also, germaphobia be damned) to maximize the full romantic impact of your love-notes.  But you could just as easily hand-deliver, ding-dong-ditch, or just send a jpg photo.  Valentines Day is Sunday, so however you do it, get 'em out in time!

(Okay, that last bit of advice was mostly meant for me.)

Happy Valentine making!