Happy Valentine's Day

What a romantic day today can be for so many people. Gifts are exchanged, jewelry given, candy consumed (or in the case of my Sweet and I, we had heart shaped pizza), and flowers presented. It is a great time of year to give and exchange gifts. My Etsy street team, AREtsy, did just that. Sally, over at Dogwood Lane, organized a Valentine's Day swap between AREtsy members. Something that took a few hours to make, something fun, something cute, something handmade.

I sent a bracelet and some earrings over to Denise - you can read about it at her blog. I was proud of my gifts to her and was extremely happy she was in love with them. During all of this time, I dreamed (yes, dreamed) about what I would get. We have so many talented and amazing crafters/artists among the group that any of the members would have been perfect. When I received my item in the mail, my expectations were surpassed. Rita, 0ver at Ms. Rita's Beads, had outdone herself. I received the most beautiful heart shaped, lamp work bead on an adjustable necklace. How did she know that I LOVE necklaces more than anything else? Even my Sweet was highly impressed, it's sometimes hard to do that. Go check out her shop - everything in there is lovely.

In other news, I've been given a blog award by the talented Dancing Mooney. She is a fellow blog rock star and Etsian with an adorable shop full of beautiful items. I would know, I own one. The rules of the blog award are quite simple and so I shall pass it along.
* Post the award on your own blog.(Post who gave it to you)
* Indicate its original link and link to that site.
* Give the award to 5 other blogs that you enjoy, find creative and inspire you.

I shall award these lovely blogs on this Valentine's Day

Junque Rethunque - it's a Mother/Daughter team who both share a creative vision and clever blogging skills (and they are GREAT to spend the day with, I would know, it's my mom and sister)
And Now Ladies and Gentlemen - A fellow AREtsian who does some beautiful wire wrapped items. Her tree pendants are to die for. Her blog is a perfect read any time of day.
Casserole - she does a weekly word find thingy on her blog that won't dissapoint and she has some items in her shop that I coveted, until she sent me one (see felt brooch below)
Denise Felton - another one of my favorite blogs. She's fun to read and almost always leaves me chuckling a bit.
Julie Knits - one more AREtsian to round of my list of 5 AREtsians. She knits so of course I'm partial towards, her, but she always makes the cutest button rings for a kicker of a price.