Happy Valentine’s Day

I’ve never been a big fan of this particular holiday. Perhaps it’s because I never had a Valentine or a secret admirer when it would have really mattered to me. When I did get together with the love of my life, I had enough romance for a year of Valentines, so fear not, I love with my whole heart my man, and these 2 smaller men we’ve produced together:

Here’s hoping I’m instilling in my boys the values that I hold dear. Whilst other folks in the blog-o-sphere posted lovely little Valentine creations made by themselves, I put my head down and focused on other things that need to be done. Instead of 1) buying those boxes of Valentine’s in the grocery store or 2) sitting down and helping my smaller boy make wonderfully crafty cards for his classmates – I got him some paper (pink, at his request) and told him he was responsible for classmate cards. And this is what he did:

Yup. 22 of them. All by his 3rd grade self. Looking in his backpack when he came home from school, there was but one other homemade card in the mix.

What am I babbling about? Why am I even posting? Well, Kelly Diels brainstormed up a cool sounding project called “Operation Secret Valentine” and I came across one or two in the blog-o-sphere in the past week. What she did with these valentines, however is great! She put them all in a free e-book and published it today.

What a fabulous piece this e-book is. Although the Valentine’s themselves are powerful enough, each in their own way, she then created wee works of art for each one to be set it. Ever the sucker for layout, each page was a visual gem for me. Beautiful!

Go take a look at it, it rocks!

It inspired me to post a bit about my ambivalence towards this day, yet acknowledge my love and pride of the men  in my life as well. Thanks Kelly!