Our Favorite Valentine's Day Books

For Valentine's each year, I try to add new books to our bookshelf.  These are our current favorites, but I'm still on the lookout for some new ones this year.

Kisses, by Barney Saltzberg

Love Splat, by Rob Scotton

Love and Kisses, by Sarah Wilson

These last two are actually "Valentine's Day" related books, but they are so sweet and all about love so I threw them in the mix!!

Kiss Kiss, by Margaret Wild and Bridget Strevens-Marzo

Someday, by Alison McGhee

(Just try to read this one without crying...I dare ya!)

What about you???  What are your favorite Valentine's Day books??



Valentine's Day Crafts



Bring on the pink and red!!  Valentine's Day is just around the corner!  Can you believe it??  I have lots of fun crafts and activities planned for us this year, but here are some of our favorites from last year.

Valentine's playdough cupcakes

Supplies needed: "chocolate" and "vanilla" playdough, cupcake wrappers, heart cookie cutter and glitter (or sprinkles)

Heart suncatcher

Supplies needed: red, pink, white tissue paper, contact paper and a piece of cardstock to cut your heart shape out of

Marshmallow heart

Supplies needed: mini marshmallows (enough for the heart and for snacking!!), glue and construction paper

Heart sponge painting

Supplies needed: red and pink paint, heart shape cut from sponges (I use the dollar store sponges because they come three to a pack!)

Heart thumbprint magnets

Supplies needed: salt dough, red and pink paint and some cute little thumbs

Weekend in Pictures

This little guy....

Melts my heart in so many ways.

 

He...

loves to cuddle

fits so nicely on my shoulder

is so laid back and easy going

has the funniest little laugh where he scrunches up his nose

He completed our family.

Daily December - Days 16-25

As I was sadly packing away my December Daily album I realized I forgot to share my remaining pages.  I just loved this project.  Every.Single.Minute.  I actually went through a little camera and Photoshop withdrawal on December 26th.  Luckily, I had my good ole Project Life album waiting for me.

Here are my days 16-25.

I love looking through this album.  It already brings back so many fun memories.  Documenting everyday life is such a wonderful thing. 

A great big thanks to Ali Edwards for all her inspiration and dedication to this project.  Don't tell my husband, but I am secretly counting down the days until December 1, 2012.

Read with Me: Corduroy

We all read lots of books at our house.  I love when I find Sweet Girl all curled up surrounded by books.  Last week we read Goodnight Moon and did some activities focused on the book and letter M.  Sweet Girl really loved doing all the fun things and asked to play with all things we made several times throughout the week.  So...I ran with that and am trying to incorporate more of these reading activities into our daily routine.

This week has been all about Corduroy.  This is such a cute, sweet story and I really love reading to her.

To go along with the book we did several of the activities found at Homeschool Creations.

I also brought out our buttons and Sweet Girl worked on some shadow matching, matching, color sorting and counting.

We finished off our day with a little "bear game".  These little guys are definitely a favorite in our house...especially the purple ones.

(click here to be taken to this printable)



My life in six words...

I'm embarking on Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class this year.  It's 52 weeks of encouragement, motivation and inspiration revolving around photography and Photoshop.  It's been a great learning experience so far and I'm excited to get my creativity flowing over the next year.

For this week we were to think about and write a six word memoir.  The inspiration for this is from Smith Magazine which supports a huge movement of these six word memoirs.

So here is my life right now, in six words...

my cup is full of love

I took the photo above on Sunday after my husband made me the sweetest cup of coffee.

DIY Thank You Cards

I searched and searched for photo thank you cards to send out after Little Man's birthday and Christmas but I just couldn't find any that I felt like were worth what they would cost.  I mean, it's just a card with a picture...  So I decided to make some instead.  Now they aren't as fancy as the ones found at online photo stores, but they are homemade and I love that. 

Not to mention that they were super simple to make and basically free (minus the postage, obviously).

I created a 3.5x5 file in Photoshop, layered our pictures on top of the file and printed.  Then I just rounded the corners and stamped "A note of thanks" using a stamp from my collection.  (I just love rounded corners....sigh)

Super simple, super cheap and super homemade.

Easy peasy!



Weekend in Pictures

One Little Word

I'm participating in Ali Edward's One Little Word class this year and I am so looking forward to growing with my word.

This year, I've chosen the word balance to carry me throughout 2012.

I was in full baby-mode in 2011 and I'm looking forward to adding a little more "balance" to my life.  My goals for this year were set with my word in mind.  I also have some other personal goals that revolve around my word. 

I've decided to document my word with a simple 6x6 mini book using supplies I already have.  Below are a few images from our January prompt.

Painted canvas cover

(The label is just laying on the cover for now.  I can't decide if I like it enough to keep it...)

Title page

Self portrait on left and a transparency on the right

Tag stamped with "balance"

My journaling

For these pages, I included my take on "balance" and a picture of my running shoes.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this word takes me this year!