Valentine's day is nearly here.  I always liked Valentine's day as a kid.  We always bought the little pre-made cardboard cards from the pharmacy.  The kind with the perforated edges that you have to tear apart.  I remember sitting there at the kitchen table scrawling the names of each of my classmates onto the little cards; a blanket statement of love for all of the humanity in my known universe.  It was so exciting to go to school on Valentine's day and drop the cards into the little bags on the desks of their designated recipients.  It was even more exciting to dump my bag out when I got home and see the assorted faces of Saturday morning cartoons on the weird little cards that you opened to find a slightly incongruous message from Spider Man "Just Hanging Around to Say Happy Valentine's Day".  Why was this holiday so exciting?  It's not like you got candy or anything.  Just a lot of good feeling I guess.  

These days, as a jewelry maker I'm mostly aware of Valentine's day because of the pleasant bump in sales we get as people are buying gifts for that special someone in a specific (non-universal) gesture of love.  This gesture of love for your "One True Valentine" is still very nice, but given the gravity that some people put on trying to impress the target of cupids arrow, Valentine's day for adults can become an expensive and burdensome ritual of commerce.  Perhaps against my own commercial interest, I would like to propose that when purchasing a gift for your Valentine you should keep it light and fun.  Like the little cardboard Spider Man, your Valentine gift should be a cute reminder that you're hanging around with them and that you have strange super powers.  No not that last part... how about, that you're cute and fun.  Anyway, I think a nice Valentines gift from Julie Nolan Jewelry might be a pair of earrings from our forged classics collection.  I'm partial to the Gala earrings as their named for my sweet little Valentine baby Gala My.  They're interesting to look at, subtle, great everyday, dress down/dress up earrings.  I think they'd make a nice little token of affection for that special one in your life and are exciting and fun enough to put a smile on their face.  Happy Valentine's Day!