Celebrating Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day!  It can be schmaltzy and highly overrated at times, but I ignore that it's a created, "Hallmark" holiday and embrace the opportunity to celebrate the relationships in my life.  Knowing that Matt generally hates the hype of these occasions, I try to do something low-key to remind him how happy I am we found each other and then I focus on doing little things for my friends (and family.)  Here's how I tackled spreading a little love this year:

Red Valentines (February Photo Challenge)
1-4

1-3. Co-constructed different valentines for the grandparents and sent them off (way too late!)

4. Made valentines for the nephews and sent them off (way too late!)


5. Pulled together a Cupcake Party Package (inspired by ashleyannphotography.com) for a friend and her two boys.  I had sent one of these back home at Halloween, and thought it'd be fun to try it again.

6. Printed signs that I keep seeing in the blogosphere and hung them around the house for Hubby to find.

from Eighteen25

from Simple As That

via Pinterest

7. Printed this flyer from Kind Over Matter and taped them all around the high school where I teach.

from Kind Over Matter

8. Had a Valentine's playdate.  The kids made contact paper hearts and Beansprout gave out "You're Super Cool" Valentines with sunglasses attached.

Contact Paper Heart

You`re Super Cool Valentine

9. Made Friendship Tea gifts for good friends at work.  (More on this soon!)

10. Intended to write Love Letter of Friendship for close friends,who are far away.  May still accomplish this (way too late!)

So that's my way of bringing a little happiness to February!  Sometimes my ideas are bigger than I can manage, hence sending some things way too late, but it felt good getting those xoxoxoxo decorated envelopes in the mail and it made me smile to bring a Cupcake Party to my friend!

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?  Any traditions you follow or boycott?

Pinterest-inspired Parking Garage

bhoomplay.wordpress.com

kinderpendent.blogspot.com

Beansprout loves playing with cars and cars paired with ramps?  well, that just makes his day!  I found a few ideas for garages out of cardboard and pinned them on Pinterest until I could get to making one for him.  I love them both -- the details on the one from bhoomplay's blog make me think it might last a little bit longer and who can resist the signage!?!  The many ramps of the garage from kinderpendent and the fact that this one was made with the help of the kiddos from cardboard scraps really caught my eye.

I decided to try for a combo of the two.  Hubby says I went a little overboard, but it was so fun.  Why didn't I have a child sooner - he's the perfect excuse to get out the glue gun, paints, and sticker paper!  

Park here!

Free parking!

I'm happy to say it has been a hit.  I don't know if he plays with it as much as other parking garages he's seen at friends' houses, but he has tried all sizes of cars and it has definitely been a part of the daily play circuit since I finished it.  Now Matt and I are pretty hooked on cardboard toys - we're already hoarding some cardboard in the garage, so hopefully we'll have some new projects in the works soon

Have you been doing any building?  Crafting?  Thanks for reading!