With just a few days to go I’m sure that those of you who like to celebrate the day of love and cherishing will be totally organised by now. Champagne and chocolates stashed in the fridge, red and pink cards bought, inscribed and sealed with a kiss. But if you’re more like me and too busy crocheting, knitting, and generally crafting to even know what day it is sometimes, then it may have caught you unawares! Never fear, you can always craft yourself out of such a scrape!

To prove the point I made bouquet of crocheted hearts on washi taped bamboo barbeque skewers in just a couple of hours today.What’s more romantic than that? OK, no need to give me a list, but, this makes a sweet gesture to give as a bouquet, or just as a pretty focal point for a kitchen dresser or a bedside table.

I already had a lot of hearts from previous projects – all updated this year as a result of my newly acquired washi tape habit.Taking the heart lollipops idea as a cue……I grabbed a jug from the kitchen that was just the right size……and played around with some colour combinations, ably assisted by Mojo, who takes a great interest whenever there’s anything going on that means he’s really going to get in the way. Bless!

My Furry Valentine…In the end the colour scheme was influenced solely by the jug. Keeping a simple theme of red and green met with approval from Mojo, so we were good to go.He definitely likes the red one!

A quick root through the ribbons, buttons, washi tape and yarn baskets and I managed to find a pleasing collection of crafty bits and pieces in all the right colours. You see it would have been just toooo easy to use the hearts I already had!As it is, one of these little hearts only takes around ten minutes from start to finish, so it seemed worth the extra effort to get my colours just perfect. I do love a quick make! If you do too you can download my free Hearts and Bees pattern here and have a go yourself. The bees are pretty cute too and are just as speedy to hook up.In just a smidgen over an hour and a quarter I had made as many as I could be bothered to needed.Sticking on the washi tape was such an easy way to add some colour, and a bit of pattern too. Much nicer than all the messy paint I’ve been used to using instead.Winding the tape at a very long angle makes for the most economical use of the precious washi. The finished hearts look even sweeter with the addition of a few wooden ladybirds.Then there was just enough time left to make up a matching place mat out of some leftover clarn from another project. If you’re not familiar with this fabulous upcycled cloth yarn and want to give it a try, instructions and tips on making clarn out of old sheets or other fabric scraps can be found here, along with a pattern for a circular cushion cover – just follow rounds 1-9 to make this mat instead.

To put it all together I poked some polyester toy stuffing lightly into the jug until it was about halfway full to give the stems of the hearts something to dig into and help them stay in place.Now it was just a case of arranging them neatly. The polka dot bow around the neck of the jug and a few more wooden ladybirds really pulled the look together.

Mine’s going on the dresser in the kitchen and will be accompanied by champagne and chocolates for my lovely hubby to find on Valentine’s morning (an extravagant start to the day I know, but it is a Sunday). I’m pretty confident he’d prefer to wake up and find a huge fried breakfast with all the trimmings, but where’s the romance in black puddings or baked beans?!I just hope he doesn’t read my blog in the meantime or the fact he’s not getting a gut busting greasy fry up won’t be much of a surprise!

Happy Valentine’s weekend to you all!