Roses are red, tulips are pink, and today’s Valentine boxes are more complex than you think!!

The pressure is on for building valentine boxes…

Do you remember as a kid, your Valentine boxes were just decorated with pretty papers and stickers and glitter wrapped around a shoebox with the hole in the top? If your mom was really crafty she might glue on a matchbox car and draw a road and you would instantly be the coolest kid in the class for the day, but for the most part you did the work yourself and you were proud of the finished project.

They were pretty fun to make, and show off to your friends. I remember using crepe paper one year. I ransacked my mom’s closet for an empty shoebox, and found the perfect one. I carefully began wrapping it in pink crepe paper, using my jar of paste, making sure the entire surface was covered. Then I took white paper doilies and glued one to each end, and lastly placed one on top. I thought it looked perfect!! I took it to school the next day and displayed it on my desk.

Kids’ individual personalities showed in their work. One girl had a box that looked like a rabbit, with ears. A boy had decorated his in Green Bay Packer colors of green and yellow, and taped a little plastic football helmet on top. My friend colored hers in tiger stripes and taped a picture of Tony the Tiger to the top. (Do kids today know who Tony the Tiger is?)

For some grades, I recall bringing a plain undecorated shoebox to school, and being given art time to decorate with materials provided by the teacher. That was fun because you could watch other kids decorate, and get ideas for what you wanted to do with yours. And, more importantly, the playing field was pretty level, so to speak. When we were all using the same materials, the boxes pretty much looked the same.

Now Valentines boxes seem to be more of a competition. I’m not sure where the line has been drawn between a fun creative project for kids and a real-feeling competition. The level of difficulty has definitely increased.  The robots, monsters and unicorns the kids are bringing to school now are amazing, that’s for sure. I personally think parents should win an award for their creativity and the time they spend on their kids boxes.

I remember feeling the pressure every Valentine’s Day to help my daughters make awesome boxes. Occasionally their dad had to step in and help build something that would work. We made some pretty awesome boxes back in the day and I bet they would be nothing today. So why has something so innocent and simple as a box to hold Valentines become such a competitive item to create? How has a little shoebox decorated in hearts and doilies turned into a project that practically requires a degree in architecture or engineering? I’m not even sure kids today would know what a doily is.

The design, creating, and constructing of a box to hold love poems requires a lot of planning, ingenuity, and time. It could never be done the night before like we used to do. Love requires commitment, and so do love note boxes! Ha ha!

So all of you moms with little ones- start thinking NOW about how you can help them build their Valentines boxes someday. You may need all of this time to figure it out!  #valentinepressure

Tami Loves…bringing the sweet and simple back to Valentine’s Day!

Did you know there are certain months that you can buy certain things and save money? I’ve been reading up on this and it seems to be true.

Here is what I’ve found:

In the month of January of course we’re buying Super Bowl snacks like dips and frozen appetizers, pizza, chips and beer, but stocking up on holiday decorations is one of the smartest money saving things you can do. You have to start early at the first of the year but most shops and stores have all of their decor drastically reduced. It’s also a great time of year to buy your bedding and bathroom linens.

February is when you’ll buy all of the Valentine clearance items to be ready for next year. Make sure you check out perfumes and gift sets as they are always on sale during this time of year. It’s a great time to shop for winter clothes, mittens, boots, coats… All of these items will be going on sale drastically to make room for spring and summer merchandise.

Now March seems to be the best time to buy your paper products, paper towels, trash bags and all of your cleaning supplies and also check out small electronics the pricing seems to be good on these items as well.

If you’re thinking about shopping in April check out the Easter baskets after the holiday for great deals. We can find decorations discounted too. And eggs, April seems to be a great month to get a great deal on eggs. LOL They’re saying it’s a good time to buy cookware, dishes and home goods as well.

And maybe May is best of all for our spring and summer buying. May is probably the most happy shopping for us because we are finally able to break out of our winter freeze and actually get outside and feel like we want to go somewhere. hopefully by May all of the bad weather is gone and the April showers have subsided.  When we hit the stores we are welcomed with charcoal and sunscreen, bug spray and grilling utensils. The paper plates, plastic utensils, tablecloth‘s and such are everywhere. I’m sure you’ll be buying burgers and buns and chips and condiments as well. Doesn’t this just sounds wonderful!  The decor in the stores is so bright and happy. You can’t help but feel uplifted!

Now June shopping moves us directly into the summertime and with that brings Father’s Day and when Father’s Day rolls around you start seeing tool sets, greeting cards, neck ties and shirts. There’s car washing kits and gardening things, golf clubs and sports equipment too. And tools, did I mention tools, I think I did but yes there are lots and lots of tools. The stores seem to direct themselves to display fatherly gifts. June also sets up the stores for the upcoming Fourth of July. You will find lots of groceries on sale preparing for this holiday!

When July rolls around we are ready for in the heart of of it all. Clothes, patriotic decorations, burgers, chips, soda and everything that implies summer! Some stores offer Christmas in July and for some people that’s a lot of fun!

August is a great time to dress up your patios as the furniture starts getting marked down. It’s a great time to buy gardening supplies and fresh pool toys too. It seems people are packing lots of picnics and wrapping up their summer, be sure you check the racks for some new flip-flops. It’s also time to start watching for deals on lunch foods such as snack size chip bags, canned fruit and granola bars.

Once September hits it seems like life goes in high-speed. School has started and there are office supplies and school supplies everywhere. Back to school everything, clothing can be found at great prices too. With September brings Labor Day and lots of last minute Picnic‘s and cookouts to stock up for.

October is a great month for final summer clearance sales. Stores are making room for holiday. Home appliances are usually on sale this month. It’s a good month to buy your baking supplies such as flour, sugar and all of your mixes.

November brings Halloween costumes discounts and decorations are discounted too! Then there are big-time grocery sales, and turkeys everywhere!  Then prepare yourselves for the mother of all sales – Black Friday and cyber Monday. It’s the best time to buy televisions and electronics.

And last but not least the best month for shopping of all is December. You will find lots of deals on groceries early in the month. You can catch deals on Christmas cards, decorations, and wrapping paper after the holiday.  Almost every store has something on sale in December. If you’ve waited all year to find the best sales you can my guesses December and January would be your jackpot.

The thing with this cycle is it starts over again. Even though it seems monotonous and sometimes all-too-familiar the months fly by very quickly. Take the time to enjoy each and every month, each and every day, and each and every minute. And if along the way you happen to get a great deal on something, well – that’s just going to make you even happier!

Tami Loves getting great deals and sharing them with you.

(Inspired by Simply Save)

Kindness matters.

It sounds simple enough.  Our mothers reminded us when we were little, our teachers drilled it into our heads, our churches preach it, but how many of us remember to be kind?

“In a world where you can be anything, choose to be kind,” says a popular quote on social media. And yet it’s social media that seems to bring out the opposite in some people. Being able to say what you feel on social media, without face-to-face communication, sometimes brings out the nasty in people. It’s easy to hastily put someone down, or make rude remarks, when you’re doing it in cyberspace, or in a text message or email. Manners go flying out the window, with the click of a “send” button.

Do some people just continually get up on the wrong side of the bed every morning? Is it their personal mission in life to make others feel miserable? I have encountered these people from time to time, and I always treat them the same way- with kindness. Just because they’re rude, or unhappy doesn’t mean I need to reciprocate. I smile, and treat them exactly like I wish they’d treat me. Maybe the next person they encounter will benefit from my example. Ha. Ha.

It reminds me of that saying, “Jealousy is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die” -you’re only hurting yourself. Well, the same is true of being unkind. If a person is miserable with herself enough to take it out on others, she’s really only making herself more miserable. When you’re a positive person you realize that some people are just in a funk, but it doesn’t need to affect your demeanor. You can still remain positive and kind, no matter what they throw in your direction. Think of your kind attitude as a shield that deflects negativity.

It really takes a lot less effort to be kind than to be unkind. Does it hurt anyone to smile? No, but the unkind people have to maintain a level of self-loathing that perpetuates their negative behavior. Their satisfaction at being unkind to you requires you to act hurt by their remark or deed. If you’re indifferent, or kind to them in return, they can’t help but be more frustrated! In their mind, you were supposed to react in a way that made them feel good about hurting you, and when you didn’t, they failed. How is it that some people just don’t get it? Well, there will always be those people, so be prepared.

Kindness should be become a part of our daily lives. We should practice it without even thinking about it. It should be like breathing- something we do continually without a second thought. Imagine if everyone practiced kindness. There would be no road rage, no check-out line sneering, no sighing when waiting for your coffee, no bullies, no clicks of mean girls at school, no nasty neighbors, and on a bigger scale-no racism, no war, etc.

I practice being kind every day. I’m not bragging, I’m just stating a fact. Why do I like to be kind to other people? Here’s the real reason I do it; not because I’m better than anyone else, or because I want to be recognized as a do-gooder- I do it because it makes me feel good inside. Maybe I can’t go out and buy people expensive gifts, or drop wads of money in every Salvation Army pot I pass by, but I can give everyone a smile, a kind word or deed, and help in some way, even if it’s just letting them in front of me in the checkout line. It’s effortless, and it’s free. And you never know when you’re being kind to someone, how long it’s been since someone gave them a smile, or a greeting. It makes me feel good when someone is kind to me, so the least I can do is treat everyone else the way I want to be treated.

Simple rules my friends, simple rules. Start today, and make a habit of kindness. I guarantee you won’t regret it.

Tami Loves…seeing the domino-effect kindness creates!

For some people, their passion and skills go hand in hand. They love what they do and they’re good at it. They’re happy about what they’re good at because it’s their passion as well as their occupation. For example, an architect who has a passion for painting or photography; she has to have an eye for both of those- that’s a God-given gift. When you have that kind of natural talent, and you’re skilled at drawing and designing, the two complement each other nicely. Or, perhaps they balance their skills and their passion, but the two are completely separate. Let’s say a person has a love of fishing, but they’re skilled at mechanical engineering. The passion and the skill are vastly different, but the passion is a way to release the tension from the skill. After a long week of critical thinking, crunching numbers, and testing formulas, what a welcome relief to follow your passion by escaping on a quiet weekend of fishing. Your passion is a way to overcome the pitfalls of your occupation.

Not everyone has this marvelous mesh of passion and skill. For some of us it’s a struggle when what we love to do (our passion), and what we’re good at doing (our skill), don’t mesh at all. In those instances, how do you cope? What can you do to make your life easier? You could go out and seek a new passion. That would be the easiest solution, but definitely not the most favorable. If you sincerely love your passion, and derive great pleasure from it, why would you give it up? No, the answer isn’t in giving it up and getting a new passion, although you can certainly have more than one! Life is full of challenges, and learning to balance the positive and negative components. This is just one of those things you need to balance.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. A man is a successful airline pilot. He’s worked for a commercial airline for the past fifteen years, traveling all over the world. One year, while on a two week vacation, he takes a resort pool-lesson on scuba diving. He passes the test, and goes out with his instructor to do an ocean dive. He loves it. He can’t wait to try it again! The next vacation he does it again. He joins a local dive group in his town, and becomes engrossed in underwater photography. Diving has opened up a whole new world for him, and he can’t wait until he can go again. So how does this present a problem when his diving passion is obviously not related to his skill of being a pilot? Well, this man flies all over the world, and many times has a layover in a tropical location where he could just rent gear and go diving. But there’s a little snag. A person cannot go scuba diving and then fly in an airplane in the same 24 hour period. The shock is too hard on the human body. You can get “bent” or decompression sickness from diving underwater and then flying. So although our pilot friend would love to dive every time he has a layover in the Caribbean, Hawaii, or the South Pacific, he isn’t able to enjoy his newly-found passion unless he’s actually on a vacation. Though being a pilot and a scuba-diver are not related, they collide with each other if you’re trying to perform one or the other regularly. But all is not lost. This man has adjusted his passion of scuba-diving to not merely just diving; he’s become interested in snorkeling, too. He found he can snorkel, and still photograph many beautiful things. And he has no trouble getting on his flight the next morning. He also has become more involved in his group of divers, giving talks and presentations of his photos. He has learned to enjoy his new passion in the capacity that doesn’t interfere with his job.

You might find that your passion is cooking or baking, and you love to eat what you make but your occupation is modeling, so you’ve learned to love making delicious things for others, and just having a taste for yourself. You also find that you can make just as delicious goodies from no-sugar recipes.  You have adapted your passion to fit your occupation. Similarly, let’s suppose your occupation is that of a librarian, while your passion is music. You love listening to all kinds of music, and you play the piano and cello. You aren’t able to enjoy music on the job, but you make time in the evenings and weekends. You have become accustomed to enjoying the quietness of your job, focusing more on the assistance you provide to others, than the atmosphere in which you work, and you’ve learned to appreciate your free time more because it allows you the ability to play your instruments and music as loud as you like.

Not every situation has an easy fix. I understand that. Sometimes, we just have to learn to balance our skills and passions. In my own life, I find I have a passion for creating beautiful things but my skill is more in the business-end of things. I love watching others create beautiful crafts but I question my own ability on how good my creations actually are, especially if I’m doing something from scratch! Recently, my friend, Kelly, from Girl Upcycled Studio, told me to paint something free-handed, and I cringed. “Go ahead, be creative!” she exclaimed. I immediately became flustered and said that I can stencil, or trace, but free-handed isn’t my style. I’m more of a teacher of how to BE creative when it comes to things like that. I love to paint, design, and arrange, but I doubt my ability sometimes when it comes to trying new things. I think we all do. Sometimes we have to go out of our comfort zone to show ourselves how much we can do when we put our minds to it, even when our passion collides with our skills. My skills do not include free-handed painting, but my passion to create is stronger than my doubt in myself. Believing it can work is half the battle. Believe in yourself. God gave you the ability to shine in many areas. Enjoy your passions and make them work with your skills. Find that balance to keep your life fun and fulfilling!

Tami Loves…finding the balance in everything to make life exciting!

Recently, I switched on the TV, and caught the last couple moments of Joel Osteen. He was saying that a lot of times we live in the “here” when God has already prepared the “there” for us. We make big plans for ourselves here and now, thinking “this” needs to happen or “that” needs to be complete before we can move on, when in reality God has already made plans for our next step. He is already “there” waiting for us to trust Him, and move out of the “here” that we are so preoccupied with. This got me to thinking about the changes life can bring. We set expectations and make plans but sometimes life has other plans for us. Life is all about change.

Life is a journey that we are all on, separate and together. You may have an idea of how you want your journey to go, and where you’d like it to take you along the way, but God has already determined those things. Have you ever heard the saying, “Grow where you are planted?” God will place you exactly where you need to be, at exactly the right time, for the next portion of your journey to fall into place. I firmly believe this.

Sometimes, we have a big dream. We plan, and plan, and it doesn’t go the way we want. We might see it as a failure. Others might criticize us for trying something so big, or silly. We knew in our minds that it would work, and we saw it. It just HAD to work. It HAD to be exactly the way we dreamed it to be. So why didn’t it work? What did we do wrong? We ask ourselves these questions because we imagine it must have been something in OUR control that failed. But dear friends, the fault is not ours. There is no fault. It simply wasn’t in God’s plan for us. We planned it for our “here”, but God already had something better for us “there.”

I’m not saying we don’t have free will to try and do great things in our lives. We do. I’m just pointing out that sometimes when we think we fail, or second-guess why something happens, it isn’t necessarily because it was a failure. It could have been a lesson we needed to learn, or a stepping-stone from “here” to “there.” Sometimes the greatest blessings come from the “failures” we have. The key is looking at things with a different perspective. See the trials in life as learning experiences and necessary steps to greater experiences. Accepting that some events in life are meant to teach us something vital is very important to being a positive person. Some things just aren’t meant to be anything else but a life-lesson- a failed relationship, a lost job, or a missed opportunity.

A woman I know went through a nasty divorce.  She then found herself in a toxic relationship with a man who treated her badly, even worse than she had experienced in her sour marriage. She ended this doomed relationship, and moved on to serial dating. Not one first-date ever led to a second. All the men she met, lacked something, and she was certain if she didn’t find someone, she’d end up completely alone for the rest of her life. She was stuck in her “here.” In reality, God had already moved on to her “there”, and had an ideal man waiting for her. She just had to realize she had gone through some learning experiences, accept something greater was out there, and allow God to show her. After a brief time, this woman met a gentleman quite by accident, and now, after several years, they are still happily married. God found her the man she needed; she just had to get out of her “here” and to her “there.”

Another example of this is a man who made pieces of furniture. I’ll call him Jim. He had his own style, which wasn’t too popular, but he kept trying to sell his pieces at craft shows and flea markets. Jim was convinced that he’d make it big sooner or later. He was consumed with his “here.” Ironically, when he arranged his pieces in his tent at shows, he tried to create a “homey” atmosphere so people could visualize how each piece would look in their home. He always placed pictures behind the arrangements. Some he had actually painted himself, years before, while in college. These pictures always garnered more interest than the furniture he was trying to sell. They were very unique, some much more unusual than others. Jim laughed it off to being at a crazy time in his life, and nothing more. He was not a painter. At one flea market, a man stood and looked at Jim’s tent for a long time. He took out his phone, and took a few pictures. Just as Jim was about to ask why he was taking pictures of his pieces, the man hurried away. At the end of the day, when all the vendors were packing up their wares, this mysterious man showed up at the furniture tent, and approached Jim. He explained he had noticed the unusual pictures, and was sure his friend who had an art store would find them intriguing as well. He had taken the liberty of texting him a few photos of them. Sure enough, his friend found them fascinating and wanted to see them for himself. If Jim agreed, he would like to feature them in his art store, and maybe they could make an arrangement for Jim to paint more. God had already moved to Jim’s “there” and now Jim could get “there,” too. Furniture wasn’t his future, but his paintings were.

Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. But it’s there!! Dream big, plan, use your gifts and talents! Don’t waste a moment doubting anything you set your mind to! Just don’t get so focused on your “here” that you can’t see God might have already found a “there” for you. Change is what life is all about. It’s the way we handle the change that determines how successful the transition will be. Have no fear. God always has a plan for us even when we can’t see it. When we can’t see our way beyond the situation our life is in at the moment, we need to trust that God has a “there” already in place for us, just waiting on us to realize and accept. Others may not see your gifts, and may cause you to doubt yourself. God knows your gifts and talents, and will teach you to use them when the time is right. Live each day with positivity and hope, and always be open to receive your “there.”

Tami Loves…discovering the possibility each day brings!