Boho Valentines Day Decor

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I decided to go for an artsy theme for Valentine’s Day this year. Bohemian style and the arts naturally go hand-in-hand. Boho Valentines Day Decor can be easily achieved with imagination and a few trips to the thrift stores.

I began my Valentines Day decoration displays for 2021 with an Artistic Love Hurts Valentines Day Vignette on top of my curio cabinet. You’ll have to read the facsinating story behind the Modigliani print my husband bought me for Christmas. Truth really is stranger than fiction. For each season, I create fun displays on surfaces like my mantle, the piano, the coffee table, my curio cabinet, and sometimes even my coffee station. I try to weave in classic and trendy elements-depending on what I come across in the thrift stores and after holiday sales.

The girls and I created a DIY Valentine’s Day String Art Heart as a focal point for the Boho Valentines Day Decor display on the piano. You wouldn’t believe how easy and fun it is to create your own string art piece.

The furry, gray herringbone runner was 75% off at Walmart’s after Christmas sale. I bought the bookends from my favorite thrift store. The South Carolina Lowcountry has great thrift stores because of wealthy people who choose to retire on the coast. Our little cottage is situated less than an hour from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. We live just above Savannah, Georgia and below Charleston, South Carolina.

I like to use thematic books in my displays because I love to read. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is about the adultery and resulting illegitimate birth of a child to a young woman in Boston in the 1600s. The Scarlet Letter’s title refers to the huge A (for adultery) Hester Prynne had to wear on her chest. I prefer the ending in the movie starring Demi Moore and Gary Oldman. Robert Duvall is great in his role in the 1995 movie as well. H.P. Lovecraft is a writer my son told me about. I don’t remember reading any of his stories in high school or college, but I plan to read a few of his tales in the near future. What a great last name! I won Lavender Blue Murder, by Laura Childs, in a giveaway by my friend Samantha. She is the host of the Tea Cottage Mysteries blog.

I found the faux cactus plants at an after Christmas sale for $1 each. The felt heart garland was part of my Old World Platters and Plaid Valentines Day Vignette from 2020.

Owls are perfect for fall, winter, Valentine’s Day, and basically any other time of the year. This Better Homes and Garden’s owl cookie jar was a lucky find at my Goodwill. Cookie jars often have chipped lids or openings when you find them second hand. This one was perfect. The pillow was part of the Mommy and Me Mini Valentine Pillows post from 2019.

Where Do I Keep all of the Stuff I Buy?

So where do I put all of the stuff I make, buy at retail stores, and find in thrift stores? How do I justify the money I spend to create blog posts? I make money to support my blog in four different ways: eBay, Etsy, Skilpe, and ads from Google Adsense, Amazon, and Share-a-sale. I added Auction Nudge, an advertising tool for eBay sellers, to my blog. You can see the items I have for sale here, or at the bottom of the blog. If I want to sell the bookends or the owl cookie jar, I can use my blog as a vehicle to advertise the products I sell on eBay. I also have a Love My Little Cottage Etsy shop. I can market handmade items like the pillows, the string art hearts, or the Distressed Metal Heart Pail (pictured below) there. I’ve also been teaching classes on the Skilpe platform. I advertise eBay, Etsy, and my Skilpe classes with widgets on the blog. The money I make on various platforms support my blog. Likewise, my blog helps to sell my used items, handmade items, and painting skills. All of the money I make comes together to support my blogging, crafting, and decorating habits without affecting our household budget.

Keeping Track of Everything

I’ve earned money off and on here at home for years. However, except for a craft show stint in the 1990s, I never really kept track of everything I was spending to make money. I decided to get serious about earning money and recording expenses when the pandemic occurred in March of 2020. I was already selling on eBay and Etsy. Then, I started teaching art classes online (on the Skilpe platform) in September of 2020. Teaching online art classes is profitable because I am selling a service that requires little investment on my part. I’ve already “invested” the blood, sweat, and tears of selling painted items at craft shows and doing custom work in people’s homes to acquire this skill. I recorded everything in QuickBooks and made a whopping $737 in 2020, after subtracting the cost for materials and other expenses. I would have made more, but spent a lot having my new middle grade book, Bonnie’s Adventures in a Storybook World, professionally edited. Self-publishing my book and paying for a full edit was financially draining, but I can honestly say the end result is something I’m proud of. I do not regret the cost of making my book as good as possible.

Room for Improvement in 2021

Thank goodness we get a chance to do things better in 2021! This year I plan to improve my recordkeeping by taking pictures of all my receipts and adding them to QuickBooks. I’m also going to use the mileage feature provided by QuickBooks every time we make a trip to the thrift stores. My quantitative goal is to make three times as much profit as I did in 2020. If I break that number up into a monthly after-expenses profit goal, it’s around $200 per month.

I hope you enjoyed reading Boho Valentines Day Decor!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Kristie

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Read Distressed Metal Heart Pail