Happy Valentine's Day. Love, the Slackers.

I could never be a "lifestyle" blogger.

The main reason being that style and I are not really synonymous.
But also because I am never really holiday-ready until the week, or sometimes even the day of.

Take Valentine's Day, for example. While most bloggers began crafting and planning cute pink and red outfits at 12:01 a.m. on December 26th, I find myself scurrying around at the last minute feeling like a Valentine Grinch.

Even though I love the idea of baking and making for holidays {especially ones that require so much cute...like little pink hearts}, I am often a procrastinator. And I'm not really sure why. I like to think it's because I'm busy with life. At least that was my reason last year as I was simply trying to survive as a new working mom. Or perhaps I'm just not creative. At least not as creative as my perfectionist mind needs me to be. But most of the time, I'm really just trying to enjoy the moment I'm in, not where I'm going to be months from that point.

I battle with this counterintuitive mindset because in most areas of my life, I'm a neurotic planner. But it stresses me out to think about Lyla's birthday party theme or next year's Halloween costumes when it's not even spring yet.

I want to enjoy February 14th first.

I actually read an interesting article about "Mindfulness" in Time Magazine. Long story short, it's about taking the time to fully be present in the moment you are in, rather than multitasking 20 things at a time. Which is what I, and most other Americans, do all day everyday. Mindfulness helps us to focus on one thing at a time and is practiced in things like yoga and cognitive behavioral therapy {a technique many counselors and therapists use today to help with anxiety}.

Or maybe that's just my intellectual-sounding way to really procrastinate.

Either way, this year, I really do have a good excuse. To not be on my Valentine-ready supermom A-Game. Our house was recently hit by the sinus monster-plague. We were down and out for two weeks. So all of my felt-garland crafting and homemade Valentine-making plans went by the wayside. {I sure could have used a snow day *or two* last week to make up for lost time.}

But once we all started feeling human again, I suddenly felt the pink and red spirit! Last-minute or not, I wasn't about to say bah-humbug to some memory-making with my mini Valentine.

So it may have been by-the-skin-of-our teeth, but we've already had quite the fun in preparation for Valentine's Day. And I must say, I'm a bit smitten by little cutie-pie Valentine this year.

Oh. And can we talk about the preparation involved in finding the perfect holiday bow?!?! Or, I guess in my case, finding 10 perfect bows and forgetting about them in my Etsy cart. I usually remember about my stocked cart 5 minutes after the "cut off time". So then we settle on something we already have. The travesty!

However, this year, I planned ahead. But of course just as I went to push "Submit Order", I chickened out. I've had some major *major* issues with USPS and a couple of vendors on Etsy lately. In fact, Lyla's special Christmas bows did not get to me until Christmas Eve. And I ordered them at the beginning of November.

So for Valentine's Day, I decided to take matters into my own hands. And I made a couple of bows during nap time one day. You guys. They took about 4 minutes...combined. I may be no DIY-er, but I sure can glue and cut like nobody's business. Plus I'm always trying to find ways to use some of my bajillion leftover crafty things from teaching.

I was pretty happy with the way they turned out!

This was taken about 6 seconds before Lyla ripped the bow out of her hair, and Samson used it as a chew toy. 

And then we had some "fun" with painting. I decided to use Lyla's masterpiece to make Valentines for her daycare pals. *And one extra for Daddy, of course*. 

 Yes. My 17 month old is wearing my softball team t-shirt from 4 years ago.

 Dad decided to paint their faces to try to make Lyla laugh. In case you hadn't already guessed, it didn't work. 

Needless to say, Lyla was pretty proud of her work.

Lyla and I will be enjoying music class, a sweet little Valentine's party, and a nice, long nap.  Then the evening will commence with a toddler who goes to bed at 7:00 followed by the hubs making me a classic Italian seafood dish we were first introduced to when we lived in RI. 

Now, that's amore.