Valentine's Day is an overly commercialized holiday that most adults dread. Those of us who are single dread possibly not having a date or having to feel completely inferior watching everyone around them receive flowers and candy. Those of us who are in couples stress about gifts to give and how to be original on such a cliche occasion. Some of us even get stuck in the position of having forgotten the date and facing up to the wrath of our other halves. Gone are the days of cartoon character valentines for everyone and cupcakes and candy hearts during recess.
So what is the remedy? How do we escape the impending doom of Valentine's Day? Celebrate something else! It just so happens that I have a little dog - named Scrappy - who was born on February 14, 2004 and there is nothing better that I can think of than celebrating her birthday to distract all my friends from the Holiday That Shall Not Be Named.
We started this little tradition last year by having a few people over to the house, eating some cake and drinking "Scrappy's Brew" (bud light bottles with the label covered by a custom label that I made...any excuse for a craft!). This year the celebration quadrupled in attendance and the decorations, food and brews were way over the top! Scrappy also received a ridiculous amount of gifts, which really surprised me. She got a brand new dog bed, a new travel carrier, a matching jacket and hat, gourmet dog treats, a new leash and some toys! What a spoiled dog. Some people even brought their own dogs, which was a lot of fun... despite Scrappy's jealousy issues. The only casualty of the night was a wine glass that broke when the golden retreiver who came swiped a shelf on our bar cart clean with his tail!
Below are the invitations that I created and sent out to the girls - because really the girls were the only ones who could really appreciate them! The little dog on the front really did look just like Scrappy - underbite and all!
This is what the food/favor table looked like:
There were cookies in the shape of fire hydrants, dog bones and puppies, lots of candy hearts, baked brie, chips and spinach and artichoke dip and m&ms. The best thing was that we turned our not so classy boxed wine into part of the theme of the party and made it look like a dog house! And of course, there was cake!
The brews this year were perhaps the most labor intensive yet awesome part of the party! We made labels of two varieties. I made the one with the little drawing of Scrappy on the front and Alec (our guy friend from down the hall who was really a trooper when I recruited him to help me) drew the ones of the heart being pierced by a dog bone (instead of an arrow, you know). Then, I took it one step further by making little covers for the bottlecaps (I drew them on sticker paper and then cut them to size). So adorable! Everyone was impressed.
Below: Scrappy's Loot! Aren't those giant pink bows fabulous!?
We had a lot of flowers spread around the house, but the pink tulips were my favorite!
We managed to crowd over 20 people into our little apartment and good time was had by all! I can't wait to see what we'll come up with for Scrappy's big 5th birthday next year!
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