A Few Random February Thoughts on L-O-V-E

Today is the last day of Love Month...happy Leap Day to you!  I was challenged by a friend of mine to join her "Leap Day Giveaway Blog Hop", and since LOVE is one fun subject I was wanting to explore in February, I thought I should squeeze it in.  I ran out of time to plan it and polish it, so here come my thoughts on Love in random order...and at the end of this post you'll find out what I'm giving away (it's my first giveaway!  Are you excited?).

* I have a great last name.  LOVELL!  I'll never forget the day my then-boyfriend of just a few weeks (okay, well it was actually just a couple of weeks) and I called up his parents to announce that we thought it would be a good idea to go look at wedding rings together.  Since our plan at that moment was really just to go ring shopping, and not plan the rest of our lives together per se, I was a little caught off guard when his dad said to me "So you think you're ready to become a Lovell?"  Jazz and I had been dating such a short time that I hadn't even taken the time yet to imagine my future name, "Jennifer Lovell", but I couldn't believe how amazing that sounded.  Could anyone in the world be luckier than me, to be getting "Love" in her last name?  I was super excited by that thought.  I LOVE my name!

 I have often pondered how many different types of love there are, especially in my own life.  I want to list some of them here for you:

* Family love.  I was blessed to be raised by wonderful parents that loved me to the max.  I love my kids the same way. What else can I say about this?  Oh, I love my brothers and sister too, and their spouses, and my extended family too.  I'm so lucky to have a loving family tree, and I love teaching my kids how special and wonderful families can be. 

* Romantic love.  Some people have room in their hearts for a lot of this, some need only a small portion of this.  Me, I am what they call a hopeless romantic.  Sometimes I get so caught up in romantic movies that I think life would be perfect if I could live in a movie...forever.  I like drippy, sappy, creative, ooey gooey cheesey romantic gestures.  I can always use more of them in my world (hopefully Jazz is reading this, ha ha : )!). 


* Eternal companion love.  Words are hard to describe the real true love between a husband and wife.  If everything in this world was taken away from me and I could have only one thing back, I think it would be my relationship with my husband.  It is my most treasured blessing.  I love the thought of growing old with Jazz.  We've had 14 happy years together, and I can't wait to enjoy the rest of eternity with him.



*  Friendship love.  I have had some really fun friends throughout my life.  That's been one blessing of moving around the country--I have met and grown to love beautiful people that I never would have known otherwise.  Friends fill a place in my heart that no one and nothing else could ever fill the same way!  Anne of Green Gables called the most special friends "bosom friends", and I love thinking that I have had many of these very special relationships in my life.  Some of these friends are pen pals (Rima, Elizabeth, Lori), some of them have been exercise buddies (Kelly, Debbie, Shawn), some of them have been childhood or high school friends that have stayed in touch, some of them are choir friends (too many to name!), stamping friends, church friends, friends I've shared hard times with... Some of them we know for years and years, and some of them we know only for a short time before they're in our hearts permanently.  They're needed, and they're rare.  I feel so blessed to have the friends that I have.

* Things love.  There are lots of things that I love that make me happy!  I can do without most things, but I couldn't do without the HAPPINESS that things bring me.  Just a few of the things that I love that bring me this happiness are racquetball, fun TV shows and movies, beautiful things in nature (pink clouds, sunsets, flowers...), jokes, books, blogs, letters from loved-ones, journals, chocolate, whipped cream, cookies, smiley faces, babies in their cute little pajamas...I could go on for hours.  I love my happy things!


Now for my give-away... If you reply to my post and list 10 things that you love most (including people, places, and things), then you will be entered in my drawing to win 5 of my hand-made cards. According to the rules of the Blog Hop, I can collect entries until the end of Leap Day (until midnight).  If you'd like to see some of the cards I've made, visit my other blog: http://happilyeverstamping.blogspot.com/.  If you leave a comment on both of my blogs, you get two entries!

I don't know if I'm doing all of the link things right...but I recommend that the next blog you visit for another great giveaway is: Such a Sew and Sew: Leap Day Giveaway

Click here to BLOG HOP!

Beauty is More than Physical Appearance

I wanted to share this article with everyone, because it's an issue that's really meaningful for me.  It opened my eyes and really helped me feel better about my health and my self-acceptance. My favorite point was to realize that the "beauty industry" is not motivated to help us feel more beautiful because we NEED beauty help, but because they need to make money! We can't fault them for that, but we can be careful when we consider which products/services to buy into, and we can be more careful about feeling bad about our proposed "flaws"! Beauty is more than physical appearance!  I hope to help others understand this, as I'm growing to understand it myself.  It's all about spreading LOVE, including SELF-LOVE : )!


Beauty ReDefined Article


By the way, the title of the article suggests that it's all about "what men think", but it's really about more than that.   It's about helping break down erroneous notions about "not being enough" in the eyes of others, especially the media.   It's long, but if you have time, hopefully you can be uplifted by it like I was.

Our Holiday Creations

My kids and I had a really great time being crafty this holiday season.  Last year we started a new tradition when we made these snowflake ornaments.  They were meant to be gifted to their school teachers, but I fell in love with each one of them so much (and they each took so long to make) that I decided we should get to keep all of them.

These little snowflake guys, made of felt, are all fashioned after the one "Jack Frost" in the center, which I have had for about 20 years or so.  It's special to me, because my mom had taken me to a Christmas craft bazaar, and she told me that I could pick out one thing that she would buy for me.  The Jack Frost ornament is what she bought for me.  I love their little nylon faces stuffed with fluff. 

 This year (Christmas 2011, I mean), I decided we would not only have a great time making ornaments again, but that this time we'd make enough to be able to give some away.  We succeeded on both accounts, and had a wonderful time creating together.  We made clothespin ornaments this time.  Again, modeled after some special ornaments from my childhood. 

 You can see the two clown ornaments here which were our "heirlooms" to copy.  I remember painting these ornaments with my siblings and our mother when we were younger.  And I remember giving these ornaments away to the families we visited when we went Christmas caroling (a tradition I always thought I'd carry on with my own kids, but we haven't managed that one yet). 

Didi, Goldie, and I made snowmen, Santas, and soldiers.  And, Tootie made his own original designs (seen next to the clowns). 

We worked together in our basement, and tried to get most of the painting done before school, and before Tootie woke up for the day.  Because if you know Tootie at all, you know that it's best to keep him as far away from paint brushes and paint as possible. 




Tootie would have liked to help more, but it was challenging enough for me let him help at all.  (I found myself questioning often..."PAINT this year?  What was I thinking!?)  He did sneak down to our crafting station on occasion long enough to paint a few undesirable items.  Fortunately, nothing too valuable was completely covered in black paint (just a few small things that I was able to clean up with some scrubbing). 












Last but not least, I wanted to share with you the adorable "Sock Snowmen" that we made in January.  I got this idea off of a crafting blog as I was searching for ideas for my Activity Days calling in the church, where I lead 10-16 girls ages 8-11 a couple times a month in an evening activity.  We didn't make these with the girls at the church, but I thought they were just too adorable to pass up having in our home during our first big snowy Pennsylvania winter. 

They're made with rice and socks, and a few small notions, and were very fast and easy to make.  It was a blast.  As you can see, Tootie was allowed again to join the girls and me in our crafting time, and he is just as proud of his little snowman as the rest of us.  We did manage to make one to give away as well, to our favorite next-door neighbor that we love dearly. 

I wonder if we'll come up with anything to do for Valentine's Day besides the cards they'll take to school and send to our loved ones?  I'm getting an itching to be crafty again...and it's kind of exciting that I'm branching away from papercrafts just a little bit.  If you have any perfect Valentine craft ideas, send them my way!