~Pretty Cool Love Fest Over Here!~

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Loads of love all over blog land today . . .

I hope you are feeling loved today too!

Gonna make this quick:

Our Valentine's celebration tonight=

Ice cream (mmm mud pie via Cold Stone)

Roses (dozen long stem, awww!)

Board Games

Cuddles

I loooove my man!

My love fest 2011:

~I Scrapped~

(Inspired by Made By Girl's Print here)

~I Swapped!~

My very first Blog Swap was a big success!

Stay tuned for a combined Spring swap

(co-host MJ- she's pretty awesome I must say!)

 Anywho the gifts I sent:

 The gifts I got (yayyyy! I love getting gifts in the mail hee heee)

From Bethany:

Scrapping goodies!

From Lacey

 She stitched her card, and embroidered my name on the cute make up bag! Skillz :-)

 ~My cake for the hubby~

 ~A scarf from the lovely Mary Jo from Trust Your Style~
. . . she's sooo sweet!

A super big surprise in the mail:-)

Awww I can feel the blog love!

Best wishes for your new clothing line for fashion week!!!

~Extra love for the pups~

 ~Date night out on the town~

Now off to play some board games with my hubby, celebrating our FOURTH Valentine's together . . . 3rd being married. 

So blessed.

Love ya'll!!!

Pssst now it's your turn to share your lovin' . . . what are you up to, or what surprises came your way this Valentine's?

~Tunes for your Tuesday . . . and V-day love!~

I'm sure you all are tired of hearing about Valentine's . . . so if so . . . move on to another blog!

Hee hee

Soooo I don't know about all of your hubbies/significant others and gift giving . . .

BUT mine can't keep a surprise or secret for the life of him!

He's as sweet as can be, and is an excellent gift giver . . .
but secrets are ALWAYS ruined, every time!

Some examples:

1) Our first vacation, (London Paris Rome for Valentine's Day before we even got engaged) . . . He told me about Paris and London, the 3rd destination was going to be a surprise (Rome), BUT on a phone convo he let it slip without even realizing it.

2) I got ALL of my Christmas gifts before Christmas . . . pretty much every year we've been together!

It's kinda cute b/c he's soooo excited . . . he can't wait to tell me. 
A girl loves some surprises once in a while though right?!

Lol so this Valentine's I know where our "surprise" dinner is, and part of my gift . . .

Tickets to one of our fave artists . . .

Ellie Goulding!

Soooo excited!

Speaking of Valentine's: ALSO we are doing a Secret Valentine at work . . . I came back from lunch and saw  . . .

A sweet surprise . . . yayyy me!

And I'm excited to receive my 2 Valentine's Day Swap gifts!!!

Ok enough for today . . .

Just curious, are your men good at gift giving? Can they surprise you?

Happy Tuesday loves!

~Super cute DIY Valentine's~

Yup we all know Valentine's Day is coming up fast!

So you already know I'm crazy about Valentine's . . .

~Doing a Gift Swap with 30 other bloggers~

~Secret Valentine's Gift Swap at work~

~Gifts for hubby~

~A few handmade gifts for friends~

So if you need some DIY fun ideas for your loved ones . . .

Here's a few cute ones!

1) DIY Love Fortune Cookies

from design, wash, rinse, repeat

"This fortune cookie project is just the ticket. A simple circle of patterned paper, adhesive, and a message are all that is needed to create a unique gift for your loved ones. This download includes 4 patterned circles—which conveniently co-ordinate with "Rapture", my Valentine's themed line now available on pcLayers!—and 10 quotations, but you could also easily use your own patterned paper and create your own personalized sentiments. I printed a bright red on the reverse side of the pattern for a nice surprise of color on the interior of the "cookie"."

For downlaod click here

Super cute right?!

2) Printable Valentine's Fruit Tags

From Twig and Thistle

Ummm sooo cute, simple and adorable!

"Just Download the PDF, print onto sticker paper, cut out with a 1″ craft punch, and apply to your special someone’s favorite fruit. They’re sure to smile when they see what’s snuck into their school or work bag! I made stickers for apples, pears, oranges, bananas, passion fruit, blue berries and a general one for everything else!"

Enjoy, xoxo

Sooo using this one, thanks Twigs and Thistle!

3) Free Valentine's Day Print

From Tip Junkie

"Free 8×10 Valentine’s Day subway art and Keep Calm prints!!  Use these as a gift or for your own Valentines Day home decor."

Ummm yes I will, thank you Tip Junkie!

View this Printable

And there you have it.

Happy weekend to you all!

What are your plans?

Ours:

~Remodel in-laws house~

~Friend's baby's 1 year birthday party!~

~Chillin' with the hubby~

~SUPERBOWL!~

~Mosiac Monday~ and last chance for Valentine's Day Swap!

Hellloooooo all my wonderful peeps:-)

I hope you all had a fine weekend . . . I sure did!

Date night with yucca fries and jalapeno margaritas, french night with the girls, birthday celebrations, etc. Phew!

Will have to update you all on my last 2 weekends when I can, all my photos are at home and I'm a chillin at Starbucks while my mini is getting serviced.

My Mosaic Monday:

awwww isn't it cute?! So I honestly think aside from Christmas, my favorite holiday is Valentine's Day.

I'm obsessed, and what other holiday is all lovey and pink and girly?

So although it is exactly 3 weeks away, a girl needs to prepare right?

So I've been crafting away for a "special giveaway" on another blog soon . . .

Getting items ready for the shop . . .

Planning a fun Valentine's date for the hubby . . .

and hosting my very first swap, and a Valentine's Swap woooo hooo!

So if any of you haven't signed up and are interested, details and sign up here.

Swap closes tonight! So hurr up:-)

So far I have 35 ladies, it'll be fun!

Anywho I leave you to beginning your week on a good note (I hope!)

Have a great week!!!

(from we heart it here)

Any of you already know what you're doing Valentine's Day?

~Valentine's Day Swap!~

I am soooo excited for this!

I've had many of you ladies say you are interested,

and who doesn't love a

nice sweet gift in the mail full of fun surprises?!

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The Sweets:

Put together a lovely package for your lucky girl,

make your items, mix and match or buy some fun lovies to put in your Valentine's Gift.

(Try to have it around $15-$20 ish)

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Sign up!

1) Comment with your email below if you are interested in participating in this swap! Will email you soon to get your addy, etc.

2) Answer the following:

*What's your style? Vintage, Girly or Modern, etc.

*Top 3 fave stores?

*White, Dark or Milk Chocolate?

*Fave color?

*Your blog address?

The next Monday I will send you all an email with your secret Valentine's info, and address.

Pick out fun items, wrap them up super duper cute, and make sure you mail out your package by Feb. 5th to assure it arrives just in time!

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It's like grade school all over again with Valentine's, but even better!!!!

If, like me, you want to do TWO swaps because you LOVE gifts, let me know and we'll arrange!

Soooooo excited! I love stuff like this!

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Wanna spread the Valentine's Love and post?

Post about it now, or when you have your gift ready to send take some pics and blog about it!

Let's spread the love and make this huge, yayyyy for all of my Valentine Loves!

Grab the button:

 <center><a href="http://memorybeandesigns.blogspot.com/2011/01/valentines-day-swap.html/"><img border="0" src="http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n238/tamaranicole_/Valentine-1.jpg"/></a></center>Pssst don't forget to add your email below:-)

~Valentine's Swap?!~

Hey all my blog loves!

I just wanted to share some love-inspired cuteness to get you ready for your weekend!

$17 by The Fuzzy Monkey

Promises by Ajawin $20

My Heart Belongs to You Pillow Cases $36

This ADORABLE Cowl from Megan's Menagerie $42

Print by Sparkle Power $10

Poms from Pom Love $13

I wanted to ask all of you lovely ladies . . .

I've seen so many different swaps, etc. on blogs . . .

Sooooo . . . I was thinking of organizing a

*Valentine's Day Gift OR Card Swap*

 . . . any interested?!

So either to send a gift to one person, or simply Valentine's to like maybe 5-10?

Thoughts?!

Have a fabulous weekend my dears!

We have a WINNER!!! And my weekend in review:-)

AND . . .

(drum roll . . .)

***Meg***

AND . . .

***Jennifer***

So to collect on this:

email me your addy @ memorybeandesigns@yahoo.com

CONGRATS!!!

Ok I HAD to pick 2 winners!!!

I wish I could pick all of you!!!

(I'm a major softy . . . during the Superbowl I wanted both teams to win, I don't want any losers . . . ever!)

So I randomly drew one (the old pull-a-name-out-of-a-bowl dealy).

Yeah Meg!!!

Yes they all are amazing answers and I am so happy and honored for you all to share with me your "purpose".

 I had to pick an answer that is similar to part of my purpose and passion in life:

Jennifer's comment:

 "My life purpose I believe is to spread joy and uplift people through the things that move my spirit- writing, photography and sharing the SIMPLE things to hopefully inspire others to relish in the same! If I can change the life of one person to bring happiness then thats enough!"

Love it! So both of these ladies have GREAT blogs, very cute and inspiring, chk them out!

As for the next give-away I'm going to do them once a month for now until things get going more . . .

***So stay tuned . . . coming March 1st is another fun give-away***

Ok ok so on with my busy busy weekend:

~Friday~

Delivered some Valentine's gifts to my girls:

(I made 16 of them! Here's just a few)

We celebrated Valentine's early with a "date night" to a show at the High Dive here in Fremont!!!

We had a BLAST! (and some yummy drinks)

It was soooo funny b/c in the beginning there was a TON of older people

 (no offense at all! But we were like the youngest people there for a min!)

Then we realized . . . Durrrrrrr!!! One of the opening acts was . . .

Jason Castro

. . . American Idol a few years ago!!! 

All the ladies were there to hear him sing Hallelujah. 

Funny funny.  So after he was done than all the older crowd left,

and on came one of our newly discovered faves:

Caitlin Crosby
She's super cute, and I love her voice!

(She also has this amazing website:
http://www.loveyourflawz.com/)

AND THEN comes
 Matt Hires
who my hubby and I can't stop listening to. 
He's actually super good, why are these people not big yet?! (besides Castro- he's ok)

~Saturday~
We bummed around for most of the day. 
Then we went out to this
SUPER CUTE
Italian restaurant downtown seattle
Mama Malena's
with Andy's parents, aunt and uncle.  We had a great time!  The ambiance in there was amazing, dimly lit with candles everywhere, with a piano playing in the background, lots of people and YUMMY food.

~SUNDAY~

Valentine's Day!!!

Andy bought me my favorite flowers Gerber Daisies!!!

We had a nice cozy Valentine's with a romantic picnic dinner of hor'devours, some vino and a great movie.

Awwwww! Ha ha

~MONDAY~

Whew and this brings us to today.  Sorry so long guys!!! You know me I just always have lots to say:-)

Today we also took it pretty chill, ran some errands, did some cleanign around the house.  We also decided to take the doggies on a hike to celebrate

CAPRI'S THIRD BIRTHDAY

Awww my lil Princess Westie is 3!!!

I'm thinking she gets ice cream tonight too :-)

Soooo that's our weekend, pretty chill but fun fun.

Off to watch 

*The Bachelor*

(A guilty pleasure of ours!)

Where did this past Valentine's weekend find you?!

Hope you all have a great week!!!

~Tamara Nicole~