My Colourful Valentine

I must admit, I was pretty spoiled yesterday for Valentine's Day! First, Beth took me out to dinner with our little tater tot Valentine. He is just too precious. Three weeks shy of his second birthday, he is one smart cookie. As we sat waiting for our food, he points to a decoration of Cupid holding a heart. "What's that?" he asks. "That's a Valentine" we reply. Well that was his new word for the rest of the day. For such a little man, I was blown away at him saying such a big word! He continued to entertain us singing his ABC's, his 'Elmo and Ernie song' and "C is for Cookie". What a little gem he is!

We return to the homestead with just enough time to make a spot of tea and heat up the cave the little. Last night, for the first time ever I had a very special guest alongside me in the Spidey Cave. She also happened to be the BEST Valentine's date ever!! This young, talented and incredibly sweet artist spent a few hours in the cave with me, exploring the world of acrylics. I had so much fun!! First we explored the tonal scale, and then applied it to a painting of a ball to show shadows and highlights. Then we created our very own colour wheel by mixing our primary colours (that's red, yellow and blue), to create secondary and tertiary colours!  With our new colour wheel handy we explored the idea of complimentary colours and referenced Andy Warhol's famous pop art as examples. For the first time ever, this young artist experienced the wonderful feeling of painting on canvas. She created her very own pop art painting, and the itch to keep going only grew stronger. The old saying is true, 'Time flies by when you're having fun'. Before we knew it it, it was way past her bedtime, and it was a school night! How lucky were we to stay up late on a school night to make art?! Another date has been set, we both are looking forward to it! 

Here's a couple of pictures from last night:

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! 

Thoughtful Tuesdays : Not By Bread Alone

Happy Valentine's Day!! Once again, I am amused at the timing of  'Thoughtful Tuesdays' and where I am in my life journey. Today is a holiday, where like many others, the materialistic and commercialized pressures can take away from the purity and sincerity of the actual day. It can be challenging to step away from social pressures and place your wallet in safe keeping, but it sure does feel good! I kept my debit card hidden for this 'Hallmark' occasion and busted out some construction paper, glue sticks, and creativity instead. It doesn't matter if you are in a relationship or single, love makes the worlds go around.  As a very dear friend  of mine posted on her Facebook today, "Hippie Valentine's Day. Be kind to one another!"


The following is an exact excerpt from the book Listening To Your Inner Voice by Douglas Bloch. I in no way possess any ownership of the following. I am simply sharing the thoughts, expressions and words of an author who has inspired me.

Not By Bread Alone

The other day I was feeling off center, and so I took a walk around the block to lift my spirits. As I passed one of my neighbor's homes, I spotted a luxury car and began to imagine my pleasure at owning and driving such a vehicle. Suddenly, a still small voice whispered from within, "You can't fill a spiritual void with a physical object. Because you are a spiritual being living in a material world, your deeper needs for love and connectedness can never be satisfied in purely material terms."

And yet we climb the ladder of material success only to discover that it is leaning against the wrong wall. It is clear that human beings need a certain amount of food, clothing, shelter, and comfort to meet their physical needs. But anything beyond that is not truly essential for inner contentment. As the philosopher Marcus Aurelius said, "Very little is needed to make a happy life."

In Scripture we read "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of  the mouth of God." Ask yourself, "What are my spiritual and emotional needs, and what steps am I taking to address them?" As you begin to feed and nourish yourself with spiritual food, your soul's hunger will be filled. There is no deeper satisfaction than this.  

Affirmations

1. I nourish my soul with what it needs.

2. I know what is truly important in my life. 

          3. The love of my friends and family defines my true richness.


          4. My physical needs are more than met, and I give thanks for this. 

          5. I am peaceful and content at the deep level of my being. 


          6. Your Own ________________________.

And I'll send all my lovin' to YOU!

 

    

Love is in the Air

14 days until Valentine's folks! Now I could very easily get on a rant about how Valentine's Day is a highly commercialized holiday with extreme pressure and marketing aimed at spending money to prove our love, and how the socioeconomic status of a couple tends to be compromised for the sake of unnecessary materialistic purchases. I could also rant about the importance of self love and independence and how this holiday that displays unrealistic standards for expressing love for others and the need to be paired up is ridiculous.

But I won't.

Instead, I'm going to embrace this holiday filled with love. I am going to love and be loved. I am also going to share some pretty awesome Valentine themed DIY projects with you to help spread the love this February 14th. For those of you playing the solo role, no worries, I have some ideas for you too!

Start your Valentine's with a 'heart-y' breakfast. hehe. Learn how to make heart shaped hard boiled eggs over on annathered. It looks super easy to do, and very thrifty. You could even make heart shaped toast with strawberry jam, or heart shaped pancakes!

Love is in the air with these colourful decorative hearts. Kids can help out to, as long as they have adult supervision with the iron, or have a grown up do the ironing for them, depending on their age. Over at skiptomylou  you can find out how to make these crayon shaving hearts. 

Ok so this is where you can make sure a certain card company or two won't pocket your money this Valentine's Day. Learn how to make your own pop up card at RobertSabuda , just scroll down towards the bottom for this pattern.

How precious is this Valentine's Day tree? You could create hearts out of construction paper, or any paper around the house really, with little love notes on the back. Take a stroll through the park to find a tree branch, you could paint it, or just leave it natural. I really love this idea from skiptomylou .

Get ready to set the atmosphere at the dinner table tonight. This pretty and easy to make. Find some scrap lace (check out local thrift stores) or paper doilies and using a mixture of 1/3 water 2/3 white school glue, 'paint' the lace/doily onto the glass votive. Allow enough time for this to dry and set (perhaps you could do this the night before).

When the moon hits your eye like a heart shaped pizza pie...that's amore! Personally when it comes to cooking, I don't think there is any other meal more fun to make than a pizza! And one 'decorated' with hearts is even better. If you are a vegetarian, or you are like me and just don't like meat on your pizza, you could make heart shaped tomatoes to replace the pepperoni. (Of course you can use your imagination and turn any topping into a heart, or form heart shapes with peppers, mushrooms etc)

Who doesn't love ice cream sandwiches? These heart shaped, chocolate and strawberry treats are too tempting to resist! Mint Design Blog  has the 'scoop' on how to make this cute love dessert (A heart shaped pizza followed by this love filled dessert? Sounds like a great feast for Valentine's Day!)

Create your own love fortunes by making homemade fortune cookies! Alphamom has a recipe if you want to use your baking skills! All of the ingredients may be in your cupboards already which is very wallet friendly. If you don't have access to a printer, cut up some paper and write your own fortunes!

Not so keen on baking? Why not get crafty and make a toy fortune cookie?

Martha Stewart has a step by step tutorial on how to create felt fortune cookies. I like how she fills them with chocolate kisses so you can still indulge your sweet tooth!

I'm a HUGE fan of making tents so when I saw this, I knew I had to make it. Even when Valentine's is long gone, I may have to keep this little nest idea for rainy days and a good book. I found this love tent over at Design Sponge.

Head on down to the beach and find some small, flat rocks. (If you don't live near a beach, just try to find some small rocks, or pebbles). You only need a handful. Then pop over to Craftbits and learn how to make wish stones. You could bring these into your love tent and make wishes with your significant other. Or you could make a love nest for yourself and make some wishes just for you!


Ok, so you don't have kids, or a significant other to share this with.  Maybe you're pretty upset because of this and now you don't even want to do these things for you. Well..fret not my loved ones! Tomorrow, I'll be posting a Valentine's Survival Guide, and trust me, it's going to be fun!