a valentine's project

Several weeks ago I saw these candlestick mailboxes on another blog. I thought I knew which one - and I have spent most of the night trying to find the post. I fully intended to link back to the original post, but I. Just. Can't. Find. It. (If it was your blog, or you know the blog please let me know so that I can give credit where credit is due.) But these are just too cute to not share.

Last year we made these great table runners. We bought red Christmas lights on clearance, picked up a variety of ribbon, and some Valentiney fabrics. We cut the ribbons and fabrics into strips. stretched the lights along a table top, and tied the ribbon/fabric strips around the string of lights. This was a great project for the youth kids to do. There is no right or wrong with the strips - no pattern at all. Then we just stretched them along the tables, running extension cords under the tables to plug them in.

The table along the right side and the back tables on the left have the lights plugged in.

I love the table runners. I borrowed them last weekend for our Valentine's dance at school. And when I saw the candlestick mailboxes, I knew they would look great with these table runners. So I went to the Goodwill store and bought 10 brass candlesticks in varying sizes and shapes. I got them all for $8.25. Then I found the mailboxes at Michael's.

They were a little bent out of shape so I got a 10% discount on each, knocking them down to $3.49 each. I spray painted the candlesticks with some black paint left over from another project and glued a mailbox to the top of each.

They've been sitting around on my mantle and several tables for the last few weeks - I think I'm going to miss them.

Half of the mailboxes are a light purple and half are red. Some of the candlesticks are tall. Some are short. Some are skinny. Some are fat. All are cute.

It was such an easy project and a useful addition to our decorations. Our mission project for this month is collecting change for Arkansas Children's Hospital. There will be envelopes in the mailboxes for everyone at the banquet to place his/her change.