A Valentiine Gift for You

I'm so slow lately, I've

been meaning to copy some of my favorite Valentines to share with you. Here are a few from my collection. My personal favorite Valentines are from around the 50s and 60s. I just love the rounded faces of those. A lot of these are quite a bit older/not sure how old, but more of a Victorian era. The verses are quite poetic, kind of a culture shock compared to nowadays. Feel free to use these in your Valentine projects. I have a lot more that are mounted on cardstock that go on my old window hanging in my dining room, but I didn't get those scanned.

Valentine's Day has always been very special to me. It brings the kid out in me more than the sweetheart thing, although I do have very a "very fond affection for my dear love". I think part of it is I love the red color, the cheerfulness of a Valentine. I love the old paper doilies, too, although I'm not a real prissy Victorian type. It just brings me back to the days when I was in grade school and we traded Valentine's with our classmates. We would work really hard on huge envelopes that were attached to our desks on Valentines Day. Then, party day, we would all go around and put Valentines in each others envelopes. It would have been unheard of to miss someone, though I do admit to wearing out a few, reading them over and over, pretending that the boy really meant what he said in my Valentine. I never stopped to think that he probably gave all the girls the same Valentine! And yes, I always did save my favorite for my favorite boy. My mother was always my room mother! She and one or two other moms came and brought games and cakes and candies, and oh what fun we had. As I remember, my mom went to nearly every field trip I ever went on! I was always proud that she took the time to be our room mother. (In fact, before I was in school, there were some classes who couldn't get volunteers, and my mom was THEIR room mother!)
Do you watch "Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown"? I get kinda sick feeling when poor Charlie Brown doesn't get a Valentine. What kind of class room would have a party and let one kid get left out? It just makes me mad. But there is a lesson in it. There are people in our lives who are not the prettiest, not the smartest, not the most popular. Maybe other people think they're weird. Maybe THEY think they're weird! Everyone should have a Valentine, right?
I actually learned this lesson in second grade. There was a girl in our class who smelled. She didn't have cute clothes (I wasn't always crazy about my own home-made clothes or Tony home perm my mom put me in, either). I was never what you'd call "mean", but I was friends with some girls who were not really very nice. I learned a trick from them, and to my shame, I followed along. This girl would bring these star-shaped chocolate candies to school, and us "other" girls told her she had to give us some or we wouldn't play with her. I still feel bad for doing that. As long as I live, I will always remember having done this, and all my life I've made it a rule not to be that kind of person ever again. I had my share of being made fun of because of my last name. I remember being yelled by the kids on my schoolbus because I always forgot where I was and started singing when the motor would run (I still do that LOL) I know how it is to be teased, but I think it's more shameful to be one who would be so mean. My confession, LOL.

So, in an effort to make sure everyone gets a Valentine, here's my Valentine to YOU!!!!

Cleaning For Spring

No, not the in-home kind this time, but the outdoor kind. It's way past time to have my greenhouse cleaned out, but today Chantel and I went out and got all the pots stacked and sorted, the shelves swept, just general housecleaning, and NOW I'm anxious to get seeds in the ground. I had to go to town today, so got some heirloom tomato seeds and I already have some others to get into the dirt.
Here in Oregon, we've had the weirdest weather. A few weeks ago, we had record snows, then ice, then a quick thaw, and some people got flooded, and now we've been having beautiful sunny days! The whole family was out taking advantage of it today.
I didn't spend the ENTIRE day doing this though. I had to go to town to get some groceries, and happened to check craigslist for sales. I'm having withdrawals from garage and estate sales and today I did find one estate sale. One measly sale, but I found some cool things. I found some neat German maps, a Scrabble game that uses wooden dice, kinda neat, and a few other things. I love the poodle cards, and those high bidder cards are pretty neat, too. Plus, it was half price day, so that was a little extra fun. I can see beautiful things being made out of them all! Sorry the pictures didn't come out very good.

I've been doing my baking for the lady down at "Quincy Store" down the road, not a lot, but just enough to be fun and not a job. I like it. I'm needing very much to work on my Etsy shop and get some things listed. I started another embroidered rabbit which is a fun project, and my other two sold already. What else?? We're plugging away at school of course. Been spending some time visiting with my MIL, as she's not doing real well. I've got to get the whole tamale thing going so I can get the canning class going. Oh yeah, last week, the kids and I are Kristin went to a friends for getting together to do crafts, etc. I was so surprised at the work she put into the day she had planned. I never did get my handwork out! She had gone to a lot of work to make the day fun, she had us enter our names, etc, into her address book, she had some notecards with packets of seed inside. The seed packets had stickers on them and we put our names on them. Later, she had a drawing and gave out prizes! They are vegetarian, and had some really good veggie trays set out all pretty. She even made my kids a frog made out of a pickle!
I told her I felt mesmerized, she put so much work into all it. Do you get like that when someone does something really special? I feel kind of in a daze, just enjoying it all. Kinda like if I was having a message LOL. I know, I'm weird, but I love to appreciate things like that. We all sat around drooling over seed catalogs, too, which was a BIG push for me to get that greenhouse going. Last year, I started my tomatoes in February, and I told myself to start a month earlier this year.
I've been trying to budget, like in having FUN doing a good budjet, getting by on less, etc. I am seriously thinking of going to THIS Frugal Living class this week. I wouldn't ever get "really" serious about coupons, but saving a few dollars is nice. I'd like to hear the tips and tricks of serious budgeteers. Tis the season, right?
What else have I been up to? Well, I did reformat my old lap top for my kids, couldn't find my original operating system disk, ended up using a Millenium disk and upgrading with the XP, and basically, finally got it running, but now am missing some drivers, etc. So of course they're bugging me about that, but it sure is faster now! I just can't for some reason get adobe flash installed and some other things. Well, that's for a day when I have a clear head!
Hope everyone has had a great start for the year! I've got big plans and I'm sure you all do, too!