Heloooo there!
I am in the middle of spring magazine deadlines and packaging parcels.
(A proper blog post will follow)
In case everyone was wondering if I had drowned in bubble wrap?
(almost)
Or maybe, did she accidentally mummy tape herself, and no one has tried looking for her?
Yes yes, I survived all that 😉
At 1 a.m. I realized, there would be another year that we have not sent out holiday cards.
Are you as bad as me?
Do the holidays get away from you before you can even send a greeting card?
Ugh, I am the worst at that.
Soo, I got one of those second wind things you can get at those crazy after midnight hours…
And, I whipped up some silly Christmas doodle cards to send out.
My little familia!
I know, one of my legs looks wonky, haha!
Have you ever wondered why himself and I call each other Lovee and Dovee?
It's funny, ever since I started using the term lovee, so many of my friends use it too.
I think it's addicting 😉
L o v e e.
Here's the thing…
There is a silly story as to how the pet names began, and it isn't because we are so disgustingly romantic.
That would be ridiculous, I know.
If you know ML, he has a crazy sense of humor and whips out the sailor speak all the time.
Do sailors really say lots of bad words?
(me thinks probably not)
Anyhow, there was this business man who helped me in the office when I went into real estate at 25, named John. Teaching me the ropes, etc.
He would always call me Lovee.
At that time I had also just met ML in the same office, and we were having a magical getting to know each other time.
I thought it was sooo hilarious and silly to be called lovee, that I started calling ML, Loveeeeee, to be funny.
(he knew John too, so it was an inside joke)
I would say it in a proper British accent, Oh Lovee, where art thou?
And eventually, he would respond in an accent also, calling me Dovee.
Over time I just became Dove.
Now, 13 years later, I am always Dove this and Dove that.
He became Mister Lovee because that is all I have ever called him from almost the moment I met him – plus I have a hard time calling certain people by their real names.
I have no clue why.
Lovee is who he is to me, and nothing else.
I could never ever call him by his name to his face.
It's too foreign to me.
In fact, it would be beyond weird for him to call me Vanessa to my face.
When I hear him refer to me to others as Vanessa, I cringe.
It's too weird.
Eventually, a few other people would call us Lovee and Dovee too.
It just stuck without intention all those years ago.
And that is how that came to be.
Anywhooooo.
I thought, there is no way I can get a Christmas card to all of you, some of my dearest pals.
So, I decided to share it here with you.
I know this is borderline rude…
I should get a bunch of stamps and addresses.
But it's a printable size, if you'd like to print your Christmas card from us 4.
(click on it, let the screen open, and when it gets smaller on the next screen click it again to make it bigger and printable)
I know, totally improper, but it's a way for me to share it easier.
It's still heartfelt.
I promise.
Imagine if everyone started sending you a printable holiday card in email??
Here's a card, print it if you want?
Pinnacle of technology madness, it would be 🙂
Do you have pet names with loved ones?
What are they?
How did it happen?
Looooove, V
ps: Although Miles is always love love love for anyone, while he is off sleeping somewhere on his back by 10 p.m., little Matty is still following me around. When I stay up really late he cuddles in no matter where I am. Here he is with me packaging at 2 a.m.
If he can't find me he freaks out.
He won't move without his mama.
This poor furry kid, only trusts and loves me.
My little foxling.
Curious boy.
If you give Miles a treat he hogs it down no matter what it is.
If you give Matty a treat he takes it and spits it out to inspect it first.
Untrusting little nature 🙂
What a LOVELY holiday card, Vanessa! I love it – it so perfectly embodies your beautiful family!!!! I simply adore the photo of Matty curled up like a fox. What an adorable boy he is. Me and my love have various little pet names for each other…two that stuck are actually taken from the TV show Seinfield…Boonkie and Schmoopie. Just because we’re silly like that. 🙂 xoxo
What a perfect holiday greeting! Thank you. My loved one is Mr Christopher Carrot . He is named because our two fur kids which are horses see him as a giant carrot. Happy holidays to you and Mr. Lovee and the fur kids.
Oh, I lovee your story. In the days when my husband and I met, he would call me his little “chickadee” and I would call him “chickee.”…teehee…and sometimes he
would go on and on and call me ” my little chickadee, my little kumquat, my little bird of paradise.” Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m telling you this ! In a moment of dear sweetness those names still make an appearance. Hahaha.
Cute card !
I have nicknames for all my close friends….just something I do and thankfully, they understand.
Thank you for the holiday greeting. such an adorable card.
Merry Christmas to you and your family
Vanessa, I LOVE your Christmas card. I’m so glad you gave us a printable one because I was going to ask you if you could send one to me. Now, I can just print my own. Thank you very much!
Miss Theresa, I hate to admit this, but you know I am barely watching Seinfeld reruns? I never was into it when it came out because I was too busy being an obnoxious party brat or something of that sort in college. I remember they showed the finale at a bar I was at and everyone was crying. And now, I am finally seeing it for myself 🙂 Sorta late to the party eh? The pet names are adorable though, love em!! xoxo
Fur kids horses???? Be still my whole entire heart. Mister Carrot! Too sweet!
Awwwwe!!! I love those romantic secrets!! My Mister is a bit okder than me, so he used to call me his sweet young thing early on, I know… eeeeewe 😉 A little creepy hahahha! I love bird of paradise and kumquat too! Chickadee is beyond sweet!
Thank you Linda, Merry Christmas to you and yours as well! I love nicknames. The silly thing is that if someone has a nickname based on their own name, I can’t help but call them their full name. Why do I have to be difficult like that? haha!
Oh yay! That makes me happy because I was feeling obnoxious and rude for sharing a printable card 🙂
Oh Dearest Dear Vanessa,
I too have gotten overwhelmed with the holiday stuff! I made cards to send out (two designs, one for the rather serious people in our world, like Mr. V’s family – how such serious people created such a silly one as him, I will never know – and a silly one for the people who can take a joke!). I have also been busy making holiday treats for friends and that turned into a big project! I make a treat that I call Chinese Spider Cookies from Mars, which is made of melted chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter and chow mein noodles, made into into little brown spiky drops and chilled! Yummy! Then, I got all crazy and decided to give these treats in containers that looked like space ships (Boy, am I glad Mr. V and our friends put up with all of my crazy ideas). This had taken me a few days to create and there are bits of tin foil everywhere now! Mr. V has done a beautiful job putting up lights to decorate the house. But the last thing we have done is the tree! Can you imagine?! I haven’t made time for the tree yet!!!!!
Anyway, I do love your card! It’s very fun and it’s very sweet to see your little family pictured on the card!!!! Very nice! I don’t think it’s rude at all! In fact, a few of my friends who do digital collages like I do have exchanged digital greetings with each other many times!
I love hearing the story of how you and Mr. Lovee came to have the nicknames you have for each other. I am so relieved to know that you don’t use your real names for each other much either! When I have to get Mr. V’s attention some place and I use his name, it’s so weird!!! We have about a million pet names for each other, new ones every day it seems, but we both seem to call each other “Sweet Potato” a lot!!!!! We like to call each other things that are so disgustingly sweet that we gross ourselves out!! We sometimes laugh hysterically for hours over things like this!!
We hope you have a lovely Christmas, Miss Vanessa!!!
Sending lots of hugs,
Betty
That is the funnest loveliest holiday card ever! And Mr. Matty looks so sweet and snuggly all curled up like that, who’d ever know what a tough fella he can be 😛 Softie at heart! Love your story about your nicknames, I think they are sweet. My own ‘lovee’ and I have oodles of nicknames but none that we really stick to, about a million years ago in our first few months of dating he’d call me smelly HAHA! I promise, I’m not actually smelly 😛 He just doesn’t have a way with words.
I have been very bad about sending all kinds of cards this year…birthday cards, get well cards, thinking of you cards, and holiday cards. It’s not as though it slips my mind, as I really, really think of everybody…it just kind of ‘happened’ that way…not intentional at all. Maybe online cards like adorable YOURS, could begin to be the ‘norm’. This card you have given to everyone here is so personally YOURS, your man, and your furry boys. And I think the furry boys look so adorable in their fashion-statement clothing.
My great-grandmother’s name (on my mother’s side, and on my mother’s daddy’s side) was Kate Dove…can you imagine a more Western movie-sounding name than that? (Dove was actually her married name, as she married a man named Mr. Dove). Very classy. So I adore your Lovee/Dovee names for each other!
Thank you again for the printable card!
hugs,
Miss Teresa
When DH and I first met,(many years ago)he always called me ‘turtle dove’. Over time that has been shortened to ‘Turt’, which is not quite so romantic, but I get to call him Grumpybum, so I really can’t complain. Although my name is Lesley, my father always called me lyd or lydia dustbin. I never did find out why! PS. Loved your card, and no, I still haven’t sent mine out yet.I seem to get worse every year! luv and Blessings
One of my close friends just posted her Christmas card on Facebook for us all to share…..this might just be the way it’s done in the future.
Your card is adorable.
That is so cute Miss V! (both the nickname story and the card). Mister B and I have all sorts of nicknames that we call each other sort of interchangeably. Many of them seem a little rude, but we mean them lovingly. Like Pug Mug, or just Mug. Also Bug. Apparently a lot of our nicknames rhyme. We also call each other dummy and stupid face and things like that. I don’t know why all of our terms of endearment are so mean. I think maybe it is because I don’t like really sappy things, and that takes the edge off, but we still know that they mean we love each other. I hate terms like baby and sugar and stuff like that.
I have been meaning to ask about how Matty is doing? I know his scare was quite a while ago now. Has he fully recovered or is he still have to take his medicine? He looks so sweet in that photo. Really similar to Mal actually, all curled up like that, except Mal has a stumpy tail!
hahahaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 12/17/2013 10:42:45 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim,
Cute card Vanessa..Have a Merry Christmas..
Love the card Vanessa! Nice to put a face to Loveee, tee heeeeee 😉 😉 Your boys are so cuddly and sweet, I can imagine!! Merry Christmas to you too…I can’t believe it’s almost here!!
Hugs my dear friend,
Jamie 🙂
Darling Christmas card. Thank you very much. Merry Christmas to you, Mr. Lovee, Miles and Matty. From Diane, my hubby, and my dog, Rascal.
Awwwww….love the card and the drawings of your Lovee with his beautiful curly hair, and the fur kids, Matty & Miles. The fact that they are in clothing (*PJ’s perhaps?) – that’s even funnier. <3
Tomorrow night I have to wrap all of *Little Man's* Xmas presents and then get out the hot glue gun to make myself an UGLY sweater for a company fun-day. I'll have to take pics and share them afterward on my LJ/blog. I'm not very crafty and actually am quite accident prone with the glue gun, so I can guarantee that it'll be one hideous sweater design. LOL
Met hubby while we were both in the military and i started calling him Sarge…. called him that for years even after i was no longer in the military. Somewhere along the way i stopped and i call him by his name and now it sounds weird to call him ‘Sarge’. But i do remember those days fondly. Infact i still sneak it in now and then , just doesn’t feel the same rolling off my tongue though…. Merry Christmas to you Vanessa ooops i mean Doooovveeeyy!! 🙂
This post is too funny, and so sweet. Funny because my husband never calls me by my name and hates it- hates it- when I use his name when speaking to him (about him to others is fine). So I call him Honey- nothing too imaginative- and he calls me Banana, because his first language is Spanish and I didn’t know Chiquita- as in Chiquita Banana- actually meant anything until he told me in Spanish it’s the feminine form of little. I loved it- Chiquita Banana. So why doesn’t he call me Chiquita? I don’t know. We’ve been married 10 years and I’m still programmed in his phone under Banana.
Hahahahaaa!!
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 12/18/2013 10:55:01 P.M. US Mountain Standard Tim,
I try to do holiday cards, but I usually end up not doing them. I think I did them last year, but didn’t even try this year. Heck, I didn’t even decorate! 🙂
I love your card. So cute! The Lovee Dovee story is cute too. Every time I read about Lovee for some reason I always think of the Howells on Gilligan’s Island! 🙂
sweet Matty has to look out for mamma!
love & blessings
~*~
ps…hugs & kisses to Matty and Miles! 🙂
The lovee dovey story is so sweet! I know what you mean about using proper names for those closest to me…it just feels strange! When my husband was alive, he called me “Guido” because he thought I had a long Italian nose! Even tho I am not Italian, it just stuck. It always seemed strange when he would introduce me to others with my real name.
But imagine if he had said, hey meet my wife Guido?? hee hee!!
I think that is my fave one so far, love it!!
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 12/19/2013 1:45:57 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
lovely post, as always…
but what I usually think is : I am so glad Matty found his way to you.
So many people would not find it within themselves to love and care for him as you do.
I hope you have a wonderful soltice and Christmas.
My husband has always called me Fruitloop. Partly because I am loopy 😉 and partly because he thought I was crazy for falling for him, which of course, I disagree with entirely.
I haven’t sent any cards out either, it’s true the time just disappears and before you know it you’ve missed the posting deadlines and Christmas is upon you.
Rachel, yes!! Like today :)))
Blog: http://www.aFancifulTwist.com
Website: http://www.VanessaValencia.com
In a message dated 12/23/2013 3:43:11 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,