In honor of Valentine’s Day, three things involving Steve Powers, aka ESPO, the artist behind the A Love Letter For You mural series along the Market El in West Philly. First, the above image.

Second, Powers will be signing copies of the recently released book on the project Saturday evening at Exit Skate Shop in Northern Liberties. If you have an awesome sweetheart but don’t have an awesome gift yet, this would work pretty well.

Thirdly, I am not really into Valentine’s Day and self-consciously romantic stuff at all, but this seems like it could actually be both love-themed and interesting. Although that seems like it’s going to screw up SEPTA all afternoon, so look out.

I stumbled upon these awesome custom mugs by BROOKLYNrehab and Miss Crowland and actually thought about how they would make a perfect couples Valentines Day gift. All you have to do is submit photos of you and your boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/wife/husband/lover/pet (yes, they do animals too if you want to get mugs of your furry friend)/etc. in profile and they do the rest. You’ll receive an e-mail containing digital profile portraits that you can then print, share on the Internet, etc. and  be sent a set of matching mugs, like the ones above. I really like that they are a unique gift, they can bring joy on a daily basis (because coffee always makes me smile) and even though they are custom, if it doesn’t work out with you and your significant other you can always say you found the mugs at a garage sale and have no idea who is on them. I know, I’m such a romantic sometimes.

And in entirely unrelated news, as of last night, you can now see local clothing designer Jay McCarroll work his butt off (literally) on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club 7: Boot Camp 2. I walked down the block to his place last night to join a small group of friends in enjoying some hors d’oeuvres and drinking some champagne in honor of the first episode and experienced the weird situation that is watching someone watch themselves on television. We all giggled at the camo visor he wore in the opening credits, which he defended, saying he wore it because he thought it was funny, and everyone agreed that K-Fed was the most shocking reveal when it was time for each cast member to strip down and face the scale.

Celebrity Fit Club 7: Boot Camp 2 is on Mondays at 8 p.m. on VH1 or check the listings because we all know how VH1 loves to replay episodes.

As you get older you learn to loathe the mailbox or sifting through the pile of envelopes that fall through your mail slot each day. With all the texting, e-mailing and Tweeting going on, the United Postal Service has practically turned into a bill delivery service.

This Valentine’s Day Philadelphia artist Mara Zepeda can help you change the way someone feels about visiting their mailbox. Her company, Neither Snow, specializes in creating hand-addressed envelopes, stationery, invitations and other calligraphy & paper work and for the holiday bent on romance she is creating a limited 100 calligraphed custom Valentines with a special added bit of old-time love. Each card will come with a suite of vintage stamps hand-picked and arranged by the artist.

Stamp Collections (from L to R): "The New Yorker," "Do It For The Kids," & "There Is A Word,"

The stamps are chosen based on a theme whether it’s a color theme or a narrative that is told via the images and words on the stamps in the group. Using Neither Snow’s “signature organic script” (as seen in the photo of the red envelope above) Zepeda will pen a message of up to 20 words on a 5 3/4″ x 8 3/4″  card.

So even though it might seem a little early to be considering what you want to do for Valentine’s Day this year, with only 100 orders being taken and promised shipment by Feb 8, we wanted to make sure you knew about these beautiful cards before Zepeda fills her quota!

All stamp suites can be viewed and valentines purchased via her ETSY site.

DO send valentines the lazy way by sending a sassy e-card to whomever you adore.

DON’T assume that the holiday justifies tacky heart accessories that NEVER look cool on anyone over the age of six.

DO go out with a gal pal for margaritas if a date doesn’t pan out.

DON’T go out with the “nice dude” you totally aren’t into just for the hell of it. (Unless you want non-stop rambly phone messages, whiny emo ballad mix CDs you never asked for, and that creepy kind of nervous habit characteristic of female characters in Lifetime movies who peek around door frames to assure dude isn’t lurking around the corner with a bouquet of her favorite flowers.)  The bottom line: if you try and make it into something it’s not,  you’ll have a story to contribute to this fine work of chick lit.

DO send a mass text. Apparently tomorrow will be a record breaking day for mobile messaging. SRSLY!  And by mass text, I’m assuming you already know to take your douchey ex out of the list of recipients.

DON’T sit through a date with a text-er. LAME.

Bacon Love!

Any Golden Earring fans out there? No? OK, pay no attention to the title of this post.

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and what’s that, you say? It’s a stupid holiday that cheapens and commodifies love and if you hear Jerry Robbins say “Yeah!” one more goddamn time you’re going to send first the radio and then yourself to a watery, dye-infused grave at the bottom of the LOVE Park fountain?

Well, I’m kind of with you on that one, but I have located something that might be appreciated even by a staunch anti-Valentine’s activist. It is a heart… a heart of bacon.

Mike Geno, a Philly artist who teaches at Moore (and who we’ve mentioned before), makes these gorgeous still lifes and prints of cuts of raw meat. I’ve been wanting to get three and put them in my kitchen forever (unfortunately my kitchen lacks appropriate wall space right now). This is the first time I’ve seen this particular entry in the series; the heart shape is a step away from the straightforward still life treatment applied to the lamb chops, beef cubes and ribs in his previous work.

So take it from Robbins: When the question is “Do you love bacon more than you loathe Valentine’s Day?” there’s only one answer: Buy her a diamond! I mean, no, the answer is “I love bacon more.” Love ftw!

Bacon Love is 8×10 and $20; it and other prints by Geno can be found at (off the top of my head) Art Star, Geno’s etsy store and Mew Gallery.