Post-Valentine's Day party suits love of creativity Dawn Altergott, 4, carefully cuts out patterned decorations she will use to create a Victorian-style valentine (photo by Tina Gohr). Hazelwood House organizes Valentine-making party By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle Party-goers at the Hazelwood Historic House Museum celebrated the day after Valentine's Day in true Victorian style with holiday cards, stories and old-fashioned games. Pieces of paper lace, wall paper and red and silver ribbons covered a table in the basement of the Hazelwood Historic House Museum, offering Valentine-crafters a selection of colors and patterns to choose from. Wallpaper scraps with teapot patterns and pieces of Victorian calendar pages with cupids and sea shells were overlapped one atop the other in the construction of the love-bearing tokens. It was the first year staff and volunteers at the museum planned a Victorian-style Valentine's Day party in the Victorian-era residence built in 1837. Some young visitors were involving themselves in scrap art, while adults toured the house. Twila Meo said she and her husband came because they always had wanted to see the museum and knew their children would enjoy the storytelling, readings and especially making Valentines. "They're fun to make and they are cool," said Savanna Meo, 6. At first, Megan Sarkela, 10, said she was not excited about coming. "I just thought that it'd be kind of boring," she said, but added it wasn't. "Making stuff is fun - and designing the Valentine and making sayings," she said. The busyness of the patterns was typical of Victorian decoration, said Sally Enloe, curator of interpretation at the museum run by the Brown County Historical Society. "It was way more than your eye would want to see today," she said. Party-goers also had the opportunity to make "Tussi Mussi's," little bouquets of dried flowers that people in the Victorian era used to carry with them to smell good, Enloe said. "They didn't shower like we do today," she said. According to Jeanne Jauquet, volunteer at the museum, the games she planned for the event were played in Victorian times. She named musical chairs and the Valentine Heart Dance where each participant is given a colored paper heart. One person calls out instructions to participants holding a particular color heart, like skipping or jumping. There is no winner, its just for fun, she said.