When we first started dating, Andy asked me what my favorite holiday was. When I didn't even skip a beat and said, "VALENTINE'S DAY!" I'm pretty sure he was looking for the exit sign.

Unlike most people, I actually have a LOVE-LOVE relationship with Valentine's Day. I have always loved the sentiment and sweetness behind the sappiest day of the year. always. When I was in college and mostly broke and single, I still put on a pink sweater and made handmade valentines for all of my friends and wore a stupid smile on my face all day. Even when I was getting divorced I felt the love of all my friends and family, and dreamed of future Valentine's Days that would be much sweeter.

I don't like Valentine's Day because of all the commercial over-the-topness, or the flowers, or even the chocolates (jk, I love the chocolate). But really, Valentine's for me is the perfect time to spend a little extra effort showing all of your favorite people a little love, and nothing says that like handmade gifts and thoughtful words.

I made this pillow as a perfect combination of the two! The pillowcase is super easy to make as long as you know how to turn on and thread a sewing machine. I used a pillow form I had on hand, but you could easily stuff this with polyfill or similar materials. Here are the instructions:

1. Cut a heart out of a material that will look good with raw edges - I used flannel, but felt would work equally well.

2. Follow the instructions for a basic envelope pillow case, but sew the heart to the front pieces first (leaving it open at the top to form the pocket).

3. I hand-stitched individual pom-poms to the edge of the pillowcase, but if you found pom-pom trim, you could use that as well. For the individual pom-poms, just put your needle and long piece of thread through the middle of the pom-pom, and do a few traveling stitches until it's time for another pom-pom.

For Valentine's Day it is so sweet to use this pillow to leave love notes to your special someone, but I also love the idea of doing a smaller version of this pillow with a tooth on the front do be a child's special "tooth fairy" pillow, or a Christmas version for small advent goodies.

Oh, and special credit goes to Louie the stuffed dog for helping me leave a note to Andy. :)

Don't worry all you other Valentine's Day lovers - there are plenty more heart day posts coming your way!