Cute Pairs | our lovely photo theme for February

In February, the month of Valentine’s where we can find pink hearts everywhere, I thought that pair would be a fun theme to explore. Anything can come in a pair, right? People, cutlery, flowers in nature or any two items paired together. Double trouble perhaps – or simply double the fun.

Don’t despair, find a pair!

I didn’t have a tag for finding photos with this word, so I’ve randomly been searching through photos on Flickr, on my phone and in my computer folders (and tagged a few with the word “pair” for reference later), and selected the once that spoke to me at this moment in time. Most of them are linked to older blog posts about crafts, so they’re a colorful bunch with loads of cuteness I think. I hope you’ll like them.

February photographic theme: really cute pairs

How about softies that come in pairs… I made all of them of course. First a cat shaped softie that I made a pattern for and then could not stop sewing copies of. I made loads of these little cat cuties that I sent to friends and family, as well as stocked up in the shop:

I used to make so many soft toys back when the blog was new (which was about 20 years ago). Most of them I just made up patterns for. I experimented with forms and styles but I also tried to follow other’s patterns a few times. The tiny bunnies I made together with my mom, and we were following a pattern she’d found. We made them their little outfits and drew the face on with a permanent pen. Here they are hanging out in my bookshelf, having tea and talking about the upcoming Easter shenanigans:

I made a pair of bunnies, a family, and mom made her own pair, but often when we craft together we end up with a cute pair of something that I try to photography before we part. For example when we sewed bowling bags in my favorite color:

definition of pair: two identical, similar, or corresponding things that are matched for use together: a pair of gloves; a pair of earrings. A couple is a pair or a twosome. As a verb, couple means “to pair or match.” Some synonyms: brace, couple, couplet, distich, duad, duet, duo, dyad, span, twain, twosome.

Let’s continue with cute and cuddly. For a winning hand today, pair in cuteness:

Pair of paws (everyone say awww):

So cute. I love that I got to photograph this beautiful dog on my colorful ripple afghan when I had a puppy visit once (click on over to see the pair of us together on the bed, one of few times that I’ve shared actual kissing on the blog – but it’s still quite PG-13, I promise).

Let’s end the dog parade with a classical dog pairing:

Another kind of pair:

Finding fun, uplifting quotes with the word “pair” was hard. Most of the quotes I found were about the need for a pair of shoes, or a pair of pants, and not very interesting. But maybe this one is timely at least:

Fear and monarchy pair nicely. But democracy means you have to work with people you may not like but you must still believe are your equals. And fearful people never trust the other side.

Martha Nussbaum

But if we must talk about shoes, I think this quote is both true and funny:

Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.

Iris Murdoch

(As an aside, English is crazy: if you hold a pair of shears remember that it’s just one item not two, for example).

Selfies looking down: Pair of feet

But just as we saw with shadow selfies I also found that I have snapped quite a few feet selfies over the years. I like documenting when I am out and about, wearing a pair of shoes…

Time for romantic Great Pairs

Ending with a few photos that I haven’t used on the blog (or at least I don’t think so):

I’m sure I could find a lot more pairs if I kept on digging, but I run out of time and even missed my own deadline of sharing my Spotted Photo Theme somewhere in the middle of the month, but never mind that. Today was a good day to write this up, don’t you agree?

Then again, I also missed the opportunity to share loads of hearts that I made. I had planned to blog about them pre-Valentine’s day. Not that it’s too late now, or when-ever, but I feel disappointed in myself for not making it happen “in time”, i. e. when I myself had planned to. I guess time slipped away from me as usual (or I’mjust my own unplanned self), but at least I have been making square collages (that will appear on the blog soon) trying to catch up with my 365 project, so not all is lost. And since it’s still February I am right on time for this blog post. You can join in with your own pairs too, all month and later on as well. But before you get going looking for pairs within your own collection of photos, leave me a comment below. Which one of these photos did you like best and why? I’d appreciate knowing your visited today.

Have you taken a shoe selfie? What pair at your house inspires you?

Thanks for following along.

By the way, I think you could also have fun with pair of photos, pairing two similar photos together to create diptychs (which I love, and have a Photo Book about).

For me, I did not share my favorite photos of pairs this time, because all of those are of a more private nature. Mom and dad together (so many of my favorites are of them), me and someone else, photos from weddings (back when I did a few gigs as a wedding photographer) and so on. All of them sweet, but not for me to share publicly. I hope you have many, many of those kind of photos as well.

If you share your themed photos of “pairs”, please alert me with a bluesky tweet, an email or a comment below with your link included. I want to see what kind of pairs you have documented recently and in the past. xoxo

This is iHanna’s Spotted Photo Theme Blog challenge. 2025 themes are, January: shadow (selfies | bonus) | February: pair | March: round | April: Yellow | May: Repeating (pattern) | June: Treassures | July: Toys | August: Vintage | Sept – Dec: to be announced, suggestions welcome.

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Photography in found themes 2025