Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! This is the day set aside by the Roman Catholics to honor martyred priests named Valentine. Which somehow became this over-commercialized flower and chocolate and diamond whore-fest we know and love today! Aw, doesn't that give you warm tinglies?

We don't take V-Day too seriously around our house. Like I've mentioned in previous posts, if I get chocolate, I'm a happy bunny, and yesterday my sweet baboo did just that. AND flowers! Tulips and peanut butter cups. Aw! The kiddo made us a treasure hunt for her Valentine's gift for us. Follow the clue type stuff. The clues were very cute: "Go to the place you spend most of your time weekday mornings after you're awake". The bathroom! "Go to the place you spend most of your time weekday evenings" the couch! I'm so predictible. And I'm okay with that. But the tranquility of today is the exact opposite of what happened 3 nights ago, when my daughter (past bed-time, and past the closing time of any stores here) announced "oh, I forgot - we have a Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow and I need 33 valentines for class-mates". Argh! So, I began kamikaze craft #1 of the new year. 33 hand-made valentines. Yay. I often love being "forced" to craft, because lately it hasn't been happening organically, but after a very long day, and on my favorite TV night, with my back screaming at me, I wasn't really too excited. A hasty survey of my craft area revealed a few exciting things: 40 already cut and scored black sheets of card stock - perfect size for cards, 20 already stamped and already cut out cute kid themed pictures. From there, I vowed to make quick-and-easy personalized valentines for the whole class. Here we go.

I took the black card stock, and stamped a cute heart background stamp in white. Very school-chalk board sort of thing. Do they still use chalk boards in schools?
Then I took the class list and typed the entire thing out in a word processor, cut out each name and attached the name to the card with a heart shaped brad. While I was doing this, Kathleen was finishing the other 15 stamped images, and cutting them out. Some for boys, some for girls. I glued these to the outside of the valentine, and my daughter began signing 33 gold stickers. I knew we wouldn't be finished before she dropped from exhaustion, so I figured if she signed stickers, I could finish each invitation as she slept, but all would be personally signed by her. Having each invitation personalized meant no envelopes for time savings! The final step was to use the signature stickers to hold candy in place on the inside of the valentine. Ta dah! 33 personalized, candy holding valentines in under 2 hours! I documented as much of the process as I could, but then got tired and totally forgot, so no finished pictures of the cards. Oops. But they were gorgeous, and very appreciated by the kids. I think it was the candy.

So today, we are all spending the day exactly how we would want: Hubby is on the couch with chips and dip watching Daytona, kiddo is going to her gramma's house, and I am getting together with a couple of friends for some much needed personal time. Yay for Valentine's day! So you all enjoy your happy heart and love day, and know that I love you all!
alana