Family, Adventures, and Gadgets Collide

Decorating for every holiday or season is beyond my domestic abilities. However, I've seen lots and lots of FaBuLoUs ideas for Valentine's decor, even a Valentine's Linky Party hosted by Craftaholics Anonymous . In fact, I've been absorbed by my computer, yet again! I can't stop lurking! There are far too many fun crafts to make for this LoVeLy holiday! So, instead of attempting to decorate my house for this holiday, I dedicated a display case at work. Can you figure out what my day job is? I'm a school librarian by day, and a blog lurker by night. I made the little heart banner with my Cricut! "Books We Love" Do you decorate for Valentine's Day?

Since we just had our final Christmas gift exchange on Sunday, I decided it's not too late to share the gifts I whipped up on a whim. I always have the hardest time trying to figure out Christmas gifts for all of my cousins' children (without breaking the bank of course!). So the last two years I decided to make them something small and pair it with a small ($10) gift card to Target. This year I made each of them a simple monogram picture frame. (Please pardon the quality of the pictures. I forgot to take them with my camera, and the lighting didn't go well with my phone.)   The two "K"s went to a set of sisters (10 and 7) and the three black and red coordinating frames went to my favorite cousin, for her kids of course. (Okay, so I intentionally used colors that I knew my cousin would like and figured that all three of her kids' frames would end up in her room anyways. Is that wrong?) ;-) I bought the frames in a set of 13 various sized frames for $...

I love this time of year: baking yummy goodies, spending time with family, listening to holiday music, giving presents, and one of my all time faves is to "pretty up" the gifts before giving them to others. You have to admit, handing out pretty packages makes the giver feel proud and the receiver feel SpEcIaL. I especially enjoyed fancying ( I know, not a real word) up the gifts this year using my Cricut! The possibilities are endless!!! Enjoy this mini-video from Animoto  that I created with the pics of my specially wrapped presents! MeRrY CHRISTmas!!!

My family celebrated Thanksgiving by watching the Dallas Cowboys pluck some Seahawk feathers! Love this tradition; we'll see if it continues once the new stadium opens. Tickets may be beyond our limits then. I guess we'll have to come up with a new tradition. :-)