I’ve never really been a fan of Valentine’s Day as an adult.  I’m a romantic at heart so I’d much prefer my husband to surprise me with flowers on a random Tuesday than on the one day that he’s “supposed” to do something romantic. In fact, I have told him since day one that he is not allowed to buy me flowers on Valentine’s Day for the simple ridiculous fact that a dozen roses that would normally cost $10 are suddenly being sold at 6 times the price (for $60 I would assume they would last 6 times longer but they do not!).  I’d rather he spend that same $60 buying me 6 seperate dozen roses throughout the year! Makes sense right?

But Valentine’s Day was different when I was a kid. It was more magical. A week before the big day, my teacher would bring out the red and pink construction paper, glitter and stickers and have us create out Valentine’s Day mailboxes to hang on the side of our desks.  We’d spend the entire week perfecting our mailboxes to ensure they would grab the attention and hold the 30 (hopefully) small Valentine’s Day cards from our classmates.  And every year I’d wait with anticipation to see what my boyfriend would write in his Valentine to me.  You see, I had a boyfriend named Jamie Caan from kindergarten till grade four but unfortunately it wasn’t by his choice!  I’ll explain.

I was a full blown tom boy when I was a young girl.  I played with GI Joes and Hot Wheels and only wanted to hang out with the boys!  I couldn’t really rough house or play fight with them as I was also the tiniest kid in my class (this was the case until high school!!!) plus a girl so I figured out the one thing I could taunt them with that they couldn’t do to me…kissing!  I’d chase them around the playground threatening kisses for whatever reason.  They even had an alert system for me and when they saw me coming out of the school at recess, they would chant, “Woot, Woot, Carly Alert! Carly Alert! Woot, Woot! I was obviously very scary to them with this new found kissing power.

As well, I recently found out that I would also threaten them to be my boyfriends!  I was digging through some old school papers a couple years ago and found this note that I had written when I was about six to my boyfriend Jamie Caan but had never given him.  It simply read “Jamie, be my boyfriend or I’ll beat you up, love Carly xo.”   Now that was a fair argument, right?  Simple and direct and obviously very effective because he was my boyfriend till he moved away in grade four (I’m still not sure if that was partly to do with me!) Don’t you just wish you could do this now?  I’m sure some of you secretly do!

Anyways, remembering those wonderful days of finding all those Valentine’s Day cards in my glittery homemade mailbox on Feb.14th made me think, “Why can’t we do this as adults?”  So I’m making my own homemade Valentine’s Day mailbox this year in hopes that my friends will ask me to be their Valentine this year!  I’m going to put the word out letting them all know that it will be hanging on my regular mailbox outside if anyone feels so inclined to drop by with a Valentine. As well, I’ve suggested they do the same so I can reciprocate.  And I don’t want a $5 hallmark Valentine card. Oh no!  I think it would be so much more fun to trade those cheesy small kids Valentine’s with cute sayings like these:

You can actually print off these kids Valentine cards online for free.

So here is a quick and easy tutorial to make your own Valentine mail box if you want to join in the fun.  It’s seriously so simple that even a monkey can do it and based on my current sleep deprivation brain, I’m being kind when I say I’m slightly smarter than a monkey right now!

Don’t you just love the dollar store! The monkey isn’t for the mailbox. I just thought it was cute!

Cut the construction paper to the desired size ( I made mine big…wishful thinking!)

fodl the bottom of the paper up and tape the sides together

Write your name and decorate it any way you like! Awww…so pretty!

Voila! Hang it outside on your regular mailbox and then let your friends know it’s there!

Warning!  Do not attempt to create your mailbox masterpiece while cooking. I was so enthralled with my creation, having so much fun decorating it, that I completely forgot about the grilled cheese sandwich cooking on the stovetop!

luckily only one side was burnt beyond recognition!

If you do decide to create your own Valentine’s Day mailbox this year, I’d love to see it.  Please send me a photo of it and I’ll make sure to post it on my blog for everyone to admire.  🙂

Coupon tip of the week:  Rebates are a great way to get free stuff.  Many companies offer items for free simply by buying them first,  completing a form and sending it back to them with proof of purchase.  I’ve received pasta sauce, snack products, cleaning supplies, pet supplies and even free grocery store giftcards just from completing rebates.  Pepsi/Tostitos has a great one right now where if you buy $20 of select product, you will receive $20 in FPCs back from them.  We already eat tostitos so this is a great deal.  here is the link to the rebate form:  http://www.tostitos.ca/en/images/home/PBC12001_MailInAdPad_ENG.pdf