Valentine gift to yourself...unlock your joy

There is a great article called 10 Steps to Savoring the Good Things in Life at a web site called Greater Good, The Science of a Meaningful Life.

The points covered in the article are:

• Share your good feelings with others.
• Take a mental photograph.
• Congratulate yourself.
• Sharpen your sensory perceptions.
• Shout it from the rooftops.
• Compare the outcome to something worse.
• Get absorbed in the moment.
• Count your blessings and give thanks.
• Avoid killjoy thinking.
• Remind yourself how quickly time flies.

Give yourself the Valentine gift of enjoying life!

1963 homemade Valentine card

When I was in grade 2, I made a Valentine card for my Mom and Dad from scraps around the house. It was saved and resurfaced during the packing up of my Dad's apartment, when he died.

I vaguely remembered secretly making it when I was 7 years old so I could surprise and make them happy. I certainly didn't recall making a 3D, handmade, multimedia card in 1963.

There have been no repairs made to it and, upon careful inspection, I figure this was the method I used:

- The main heart and the 3 small hearts were cut freehand from plain, writing paper that was folded in half.

- I carefully printed my greeting, in pencil, on the each of the hearts.

- Then the small hearts were stapled on to the large heart.

- It was then stapled it to a pleated, taffeta, sewing embellishment, which most likely came from Mom's sewing basket.

- The last staple attached the whole thing in the centre to a round, paper doily.

They must have liked it because it was included with some very important family memorabilia.

A sweet interlude

Enjoy!

Valentine Sunday Stumble

A Map of Woman’s Heart: Rare Vintage Gem from the 1800s at Brain Pickings.

Valentine’s Day Mixed Media Art to make personalized art for your sweetheart at Saved By Love Creations.

DIY Valentine's Day treat container at Craft E Corner.

Leather heart coin purse at Fabric Paper Glue.

Paper heart bookmarks by Munchkins and Mayhem.

Ruffly flower pillow from Come on Ilene! A Creative Collection

Downloadable Superman valentine template and instructions from Hotcakes. If you use curved, manicure scissors, you will probably get a smoother cut.

Valentine Oreo cookie pops at Love from the Oven.

A valentine photography idea at Piccsy.

Printable Valentine lollipop holder card by Skip to My Lou. Great card to make for your kids' school mates.

Historic books of love and devotion - vintage, heart shaped books at Letterology.

Easter love

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Be nice

A Lemon Squeezy Home blog posting for February 12, 2012 features words to live by. Christie has made four, free printables of the following quote available.

Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.

― Marvin J. Ashton

Happy Heart Day

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Jack Layton's love letter to Canada

Canada is in mourning. A great Canadian died early today.

Even in the face of impending death, Jack Layton, our leader of the official opposition party in Canada's Parliament, took the time to pen a hopeful, inspiring letter to his fellow Canadians, which personified his indomitable spirit.

Here is the text of his beautiful letter.

August 20, 2011

Toronto, Ontario

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

Rest in peace, Jack. You will be remembered with kind and loving thoughts.

Happy 32nd birthday!

This free digital ecard generated with Smilebox

Today my daughter turns 32. Goodness, how time has flown.

So many lovely memories. She was such a sweet child with a myriad of nicknames like 'Bunny Girl' and 'Chickadee'. During the teen years, there was quite a saucy little break but adulthood rekindled her innate sweetness.

The pictures inside this birthday card are evocative for me.

Her favourite toy was a very tattered, well-loved, white kitty that eventually lost its tail. As often happens with favourite toys, Kitty got lost. What a panic! Fortunately, I was able to replace it after a lengthy period of scouring every local toy store. Then, fortune struck again and Kitty resurfaced. She promptly renamed both to 'Kitty with no tail' and "Kitty with a tail'.

Her second love affair revolved around her homemade Mary Maxim, bunny sweater. One day, while I was driving and glanced into the rear-view mirror, I saw her stroking the sweater and cooing, "Ooooooh...bunnies!". This spawned her nickname 'Bunny Girl'. That is one of those memory flashes that will probably endure to my grave.

Happy birthday, Elizabeth. You are the sweetest, kindest person I know.

Make your sweetie a Valentine

It's not too late to make your special love a homemade (or home printed) Valentine. Here are some ideas that might motivate your creativity.

I think this Valentine flip book is just plain brilliant.

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Cute, easy to make felt, Valentine heart ornament.

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Make a Valentine for the tekkie in your life with these free, downloadable cards.

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Free, downloadable zebra Valentine cards.

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Illustrator Lisa Rupp's free, downloadable Valentine cards.

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Decoupage some wooden Valentine badges with this tutorial.

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A tutorial for making a personalized Valentine, fabric print.

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Free, downloadable PDF for making embellished Valentine straws.

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A free, downloadable template for a vintage, Valentine card .

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A collection of Valentine, vintage postcards.

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Make some sweet, little, Valentine envelopes

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A tutorial for making simply lovely, Valentine ornaments constructed from felt & buttons.

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A tutorial and free, downloadable template for little Valentine cards that can be slipped into pretty, decorated matchboxes.

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A kids' craft tutorial for making matchbox, Valentine Babies.

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Free, downloadable, Hedgehog Love, Valentine scherenschnitte (paper cutting) template.

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Free, downloadable Valentine labels.

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Quote from Paper Crave: "...a tutorial and downloadable templates so you can make your very own skulk of valentine-y foxes. Yep, that's what a group of foxes is called, a skulk. I learn something new every day with this blog, I tell ya."

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Help the kids make some girl or boy, Valentine cootie catchers with these free, downloadable templates.

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A detailed tutorial for making lacy Valentines.

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Time to celebrate

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Forever Marked: A Dermatillomania Diary

My niece wrote this book. It's a heartbreaking 2006 diary of Angela's struggles with a disorder causing permanent mutilation.

Her purpose for sharing was to reach out to others suffering in silence because very little is known about Dermatillomania besides that it falls under the impulse control disorder umbrella. Unfortunately, those who practice this usually cannot find the proper help, if they seek it at all; their shame isolates them.

If you are interested in reading it, you can contact Angela through her book's Facebook page or email her at forever.marked@yahoo.ca

Updated: March 9, 2013
20th Annual National Conference on Hair Pulling & Skin Picking Disorders - April 19-21, 2013 | Renaissance Newark Hotel, New Jersey

November 25, 2012
Niece officially launches Dermatillomania website

Updated: February 3, 2011
Scars of Shame

20 years

This week, hubby and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. It's the second time riding the marriage roller coaster for both of us.

How did we make it this time, when other marriages fell by the wayside? Commitment, pure and simple. We are just ordinary people, living our lives 'in the moment'.

Our life together is based on a simple concept. There are 3 living entities in our home: me, him and our relationship. We are individuals who have and embrace our own diverse interests but also respect that our individuality cannot be acted out in a way that compromises our relationship.

I don't claim that we always succeed but the wins far outweigh the fails. Every day brings a new, and happier, history.

I am grateful for the gift of our relationship and our blended family.

Our life:



My blended family:

Expecting a grandbaby

Congratulations to our daughter and her husband, who are expecting their second child in March 2010. We are so excited!

OMG...Pam is 50

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What's your name?

Our beautiful grandson

Leisure connections

Making a healthy connection to leisure activities creates a sense of personal power, relaxation and balanced lifestyle.

Devoting free time attending to YOUR needs, interests and feelings injects fun, enjoyment, laughter and expanded awareness into yours and others' lives. Many times, others' needs are nurtured, to the detriment of ourselves. Everyone benefits when we take the time to self-nurture.

What is leisure?

1. It is ANY activity.
2. It creates a sense of enjoyment for YOU.
3. It is YOUR choice.
4. It is YOUR free time.

It is not necessarily the specific activity that determines if your choice is healthy or unhealthy. Rather, it is how you connect to the choice you have made. For example, I can derive a lot of pleasure in the process of creating personalized greeting cards BUT this same activity can be stressful if I do it to meet others' expectations by deciding to churn out 200 of them as holiday cards for all my work and personal contacts.

Healthy leisure promotes:

1. personal growth
2. connections to feelings
3. connection to other people
4. positive feelings about yourself
5. time to nurture yourself
6. living in the moment

Unhealthy leisure produces:

1. apathy
2. boredom
3. anxiety
4. possible destructive behaviour such as substance abuse

Creating a history of healthy leisure connections has a cumulative affect that eventually replaces old, unhealthy patterns. The benefits are endless.

Have some fun with it!

Happy 32nd anniversary, Pam & Wayne

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Happy belated birthday, Angie

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Happy Birthday, Lauren!

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