2013 Valentine's Decor

Sorry I've been MIA around my little chunk of the internet here, but the illness that has been plaguing my kiddos for the past few weeks finally attacked me.

NOT COOL

I had big plans for being productive on my dissertation this weekend and shall we just say... that didn't happen. at all. even a little bit.

I hope this week is better.

On the bright side, I DID get a lot of sleep and the Mr. let me lounge around and rest on the couch this morning to recover.  He's pretty awesome.  Have I mentioned that before?!

Despite yuckies, it's been a pretty nice weekend.  Lots of family time.  Audrey's doing great in her acting class.  Have I mentioned yet that she does that?  Saturday mornings. at 9am.  Part of me wonders what the hell we were thinking choosing to sign up for something that requires us to leave the house by 8:30am on a Saturday, but the bigger part of me knows this is great for the little lady.  She is a mega drama queen, after all.  I can't wait to see their cute little performance of 'Free to Be You & Me' in April!

In other news, I've done a bit of Valentine's Day decorating (nothing crazy!) and that's what I'm going to share with you today.  The little lady and I also baked some straight from the box no work involved Valentine's sugar cookies today, along with some (slight more involved) from scratch easiest ever peanut butter heart cookies today (I'll share those in a separate post this week).  Mmmm chocolatey goodness.

But, right, back to the decorating.  I don't like to do too much for Valentine's Day, because I feel like there's such a small window where Valentine's decor is even appropriate.  Audrey is super into it though so I do try to do *something*.

Here's what I've come up with this year:

Audrey the Valentine fairy - we made this wand out of construction paper and staples. easy.

mantle display - sorry it's a bit dark!

wall display in our front entrance/main room of house - red garlan = Dollar Store! pink garland = homemade (construction paper + baker's twine)

mantle close up - conversation hearts in a wine glass with a tea light candle to boot

another mantle close up - I  keep the LOVE frame which I put together a few years ago  out all the time, it's just especially relevant now

on the porch - our Christmas evergreen became a 'heart tree' - sparkly heart sticks = Dollar Tree find

out front - heart wreath = CVS ($9.99) I know I could make one, but come on...

So, that's what we've got going on around here.  Just enough to put you in a loving mood, no?  And, easy for me to get things back to normal, which is most important. 

We're not doing anything crazy for Valentine's Day, but the Mr. and I ARE planning to have a romantic-esque dinner after the littles go to bed.  Best of all? HE is cooking, which is a rarity I treasure!

What are your Valentine's plans?  

(I know many will scream that it's a commercial holiday, blah blah blah, but I don't really need much excuse to celebrate!)

-Amber