V-Alien-Tine
I just spent several hours working on valentines for Gabriel’s classmates. Why did I do this?
I am getting the magazine Family Fun Magazine monthly in my home. Since Hannah was born, I gave up on most of the parenting magazines out there. They just couldn’t address the whole disciplining a child who can damage herself when left alone by pulling out her tracheostomy tube or her stomach tube. I also found the milestone stuff unhelpful. So I didn’t renew.
My brother in law, who is a stay at home Dad, introduced me to Family Fun Magazine with a couple of its ideas. It didn’t contain pages and pages of parenting advice; instead it contains ideas for having fun together as a family with different ages involved. This I could look through.
So the February issue has a whole section on homemade valentine cards. These are really clever. The valentine idea that caught my eye was submitted by a Meghan Cassell of Missouri. She designed a valentine that looks like an alien, and when it opens, it becomes a heart. I thought this would be perfect for Gabriel to give out. Not that he would help me do it, I figure it’s good to use my fine art degree now and then. (www.bachpro.com)I liked that the alien wasn’t smarmy and I changed the words inside to: "Have an out of this world day!" When I was a kid, I always found the messages on store-bought cards a little too amorous for my tastes.
Robert and I don’t do Valentines Day ourselves. We don’t feel the corporate world needs to tell us when we should do romantic gestures. So I didn’t even put the word Valentine in the words in card. Hopefully, the valentine readers will get the gist.
Of course, half way through the twenty-five I was making I realized I could of just bought two boxes for two dollars each, but what would the challenge in that be. I used up all the green construction paper in the house so I had to do a few in another color: blue. I found where I hid the pipe cleaners, and then I went to the computer and uploaded an alien city doodle from my sketchbook for the interior.
My boss, Gabriel, loved it. He took off with the demo piece to have practice conversations and bring it to life. At least he likes them. I do realize that their recipients will look at them once for about two seconds then toss them.
Hmmm what should I do for Hannah’s class?
--Mom
