Our Un-Valentine’s Day (and a mini garter stitch heart bunting)

For most of my adult life I’ve never thought much of Valentine’s Day. I don’t pine for a dozen red roses, Z and I don’t do romantic dinners, and both of us breeze past the displays of boxed candies at the store. Instead,February 14th marks the one day out of the year when we indulge in the greasiest and most delicious cheese steaks you can get in the Washington Metropolitan area. With our cheese steaks we take in a trashy movie or two – one year it was Beast Master and another it was Conan the Barbarian. .

We began this tradition not long after we started dating. We were both in graduate school and neither of us had the patience to brave the crowds vying for tables at the nice restaurants in town. We also didn’t have the cash to lay down for a meal that, given the volume of diners and the strain on the kitchen staff, probably wouldn’t be worth the expense.

Now that we have a toddler a romantic dinner out still sounds pretty unappealing. I speak for both Z and myself when I say that if we had a few hours to ourselves, we’d rather catch up on movies while snuggling on the couch. I know. We are no fun.

So this year, come February 14th, you will not find us seated at a secluded table and exchanging meaningful glances as we share a heart-shaped chocolate soufflé. Instead, we’ll be on the couch enjoying our cheese steaks and taking in a film classic like Shark Attack 3: Megaladon.

But hanging on the wall behind our couch will be this mini garter stitch heart bunting. With a toddler in the house, I couldn’t let Valentine’s Day come and go without at least a few little decorations. This is just my kind of Valentine’s Day project – adorable, but not especially time consuming.  Each heart knits up in about 20 minutes and assembly is a snap. I finished my bunting in less than two hours, and I’m not a fast knitter.

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