Valentine Love

Happy Valentine's day you all of you! What a lovely weekend I had! My hubby surprised me with a wonderful date Saturday. I was served breakfast in bed and then taken to one of our new favorite wineries to picnic and delight in the sunshine! It was absolutely perfect! Of course, today marks the end of several weeks of warm temps we've had here in Cali, so we had to soak it up!

Sunday evening we had some friends over for dinner and I'm excited to share with you my little Valentine themed tablescape! I love a pretty table and I love free, so this was a beautiful combination of the two as all the elements were pulled from what I already had (my favorite thing to do!) with the exception of the flowers in the center. {Love!}

I first grabbed a long piece of burlap (leftover from Christmas) and used it as a runner for my table, thanks to this inspiration.

Then I trimmed these lilies from last week and split them between two square vases from Pottery Barn. Then using this hurricane from Ikea as the centerpiece, I added more color by filling it with a bunch of carnations (not generally my fave, but they give you a good bang for your buck, especially on Valentine's weekend!).

Using some twine, I tied each place setting together and added a stamped "love" note on each setting.

To finish it off I added a few small bowls and tealight holders for that extra pop of color along with some candle light (neccessary I think!).

And finally, I found those heart shaped mints in my pantry, which pulled together the whole love theme!
And there you have it, my $12 Valentine tablescape! I hope you had a delightful weekend and an even more marvelous Valentine's day!

{Sweets and Surprises}

I realize that Valentine's day isn't until Monday, but because the hubs and I both work, we are celebrating this weekend (I'm sure we are not alone!). And I'm getting really excited because Chris has totally left me in the dark about what we're doing/where we are going! All I've been told is not to make any plans Saturday. Done! :) I'm loving the whole surprise factor!

{hint, hint: please let Lindt Dark Chocolate Truffles be involved!}

Any fun plans or lovely surprises you're looking forward to this weekend? Whatever you've got planned, I hope you're with ones you love!

Have an extra sweet weekend, lovelies!

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Road Trippin' It!

Just wanted to share a little with you as details of our Seattle trip unfold...

Last weekend, while looking at plane tickets to Seattle and kind of toggling back and forth about how ridiculously overpriced they are, we revisited the possiblity of making a road trip out of it. Being as I have never been to Portland, we thought it might be cool to make the drive to Seattle and stop in Portland on the way. When it was originally discussed, we didn't have a reliable car so that idea was quickly tossed aside. But now that we have the much more road trip friendly Jetta, our vaca has officially become a road trip!! We are so excited!

So now, not only do I get to plan a trip to Seattle, but also a day in Portland! I'm looking for some advice from those of you who have spent some time there. Where should we eat? Play? What do we have to see and do??

I'm sure I can find a million and one tips online, but it means so much more coming from people I trust! I would be absolutely delighted with anything you have to share!

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Just Because

Just a pretty for your Wednesday. And imagine, this is only three blooms-just wait until the other eight bloom! I'm thinking I could be perfectly content coming home to lovely flowers like these every single day! Have a good one!

It's Not Said Enough...

{Roasted baby carrots}

I love my family and I love a good, home cooked meal! And the two are only enhanced when combined. I sometimes think I take for granted how lucky Chris and I are to have our parents so close. Because not only are they close in distance, but they are friends, making get-togethers with both sets of parents frequent and wonderful!

Last night was not out of the ordinary by any means, but I was reminded of what an incredible blessing we have in our family.

The five of us {my dad is currently out of town} enjoyed grilled steaks, accompanied by our favorite, roasted baby carrots. And for dessert, fresh pineapple and strawberries. Simple yet amazing. Afterwards we all migrated to my living room where we ended up playing each other at Words with Friends on our various iphones...

Which brings me to my favorite thing about my family-we can enjoy each others company in the simplest of ways and you can bet we are always laughing!

So thank you, family, for being so stinkin' wonderful! I love you to pieces!

Running Away With My Heart

With all the leftover burlap I have from my Christmas wrapping this year, I'm thinking a similar version of this little runner will be added to my craft to-do list {which just seems to be getting bigger and not smaller!}.

I spotted this table runner here. Isn't she just darling?!

Wishing you a very Merry Monday!

PS-I have so many fun things to share but have been a little busy lately with sewing cozies, home projects, early spring cleaning, work and such! Be back with regular postings soon:)

Feeling The Love

Confession: I love Valentine's day! So much in fact, this year I went circa second grade and sent out valentine's to our nearest and dearest!

I simply could not help myself when I received an offer last week for more free cards from Shutterfly. I was just so pleased with the quality of our Christmas cards, I decided to take them up on their offer and even purchase a few more to cover the bases of our immediate family and friends.

Second confession: I think I like these even more than the Christmas card! So thank you, Shutterfly, for meeting {and certainly exceeding} all of my holiday card needs:)

Sincerely,

One very satisfied customer