Valentine's Gifties

I was super pleased with the gift I pulled together for Aaron this Valentine's Day. It has a theme! I love themes! It's a Survivalist Valentine's Day Pack!

I filled a miliary A.L.I.C.E. backpack with everything needed to survive a zombie apocolypse - a handbook, fire starter kit and a pocket knife. So romantic.

Aaron's gifties weren't too shabby either. Wyatt is practically drooling over the balloons.

He got me a new turntable and two Lana Del Ray records! So cute!

Plus there were flowers.

And chocolates.

And another total surprise... a Gemma Correll doodle book and scented pencils! It was one of those gifts that I opened and thought "How do I not have this already?!"

Valentine's recap

It's no secret we go all out for Valentine's Day. I just love an excuse to celebrate! The day kicked off with a breakfast featuring homemade heart shaped buckwheat pancakes.

And it ended with dinner at Wegman's Amore restaurant.

Actually it really ended with a late showing of Deadpool. The last movie you would think of for Valentine's Day but they marketed it as that so why not?

Happy Valentine's Day!

These guys are shooting hearts from their eyes!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Starbucks Date

Starbucks totally sucks me in with their marketing campaigns? Tell me there is an exclusive drink available for a limited time only and I cannot get there fast enough. The new Molten Chocolate Latte, Molten Chocolate Frappuccino, and Molten Hot Chocolate are only being served the week before Valentine's Day.

When we went to try them out (I wasn't kidding) I found a box with big coffee props that we could pose with and take pictures using the hashtag #starbucksdate

The entire campaign was around going to Starbucks for a #starbucksdate. How cute is that?

Oh and the new drinks? Delicious!

Check out the heart reusable cups they had! Oh and the Starbucks Valentine's Spotify list!

Pink and Red and Hearts and Love

Valentine's Day is in my top five holidays to decorate for. The bright pinks and reds with hearts are just what you need in the middle of a long cold winter.

I was particularly pleased with my kitchen display.

These glittery signs came from the Dollar Tree! They make me smile every time I come home and am standing there fumbling with my keys.

Valentine's Day Mantelscape & Milk Glass

A few years ago, I used my milk glass collection for my Christmas mantelscape. I like it so much I decided to use it for this year's Valentine's Day mantelscape. As you can see the collection has grown a bit since then.

I added red hearts on wire and red candles to make it look Valentiney. That chicken was all set to go.

It's such a nice way to get the colletion out to enjoy once in awhile.

I also added this cool King and Queen of Hearts playing card photo garland that I made for work. It's cute and easy to make with just some photos, a deck of cards and some ribbon.

Sweet Valentine's nails

Of course I had to do something fun with my nails for Valentine's Day. I got a manicure with Tina and had the manicurist leave my ring fingers blank so I could add a super cute Jamberry design. I love typing and looking down at the little heart candies on my nails.

Valentine's goodies: Purple Mason Jars

Valentine's Day brought a giant heart balloon, flowers, chocolate and a pug card.

But here is how I know Aaron really knows me. For Valentine's Day he got me the new purple Limited Edition Ball Heritage Collection Jars. Pint and quart!

They say purple is the last in the series. I'm kinda bummed about that. In the past Mason jars have been made in the colors Aqua, Amber, Dark Amber, Emerald, Milk Glass, Cobalt, and Black. Purple jars are actually the result of clear jars with manganese in the glass that have been exposed to sunlight, or sometimes artificially turned purple through irradiation. I think they could still do "throwback" jars in amber and cobalt. Milk glass and black would be very cool also!

Valentine's food: mom's cooking

We didn't go out for a big Valentine's dinner this year. Even better we were home for the weekend and were spoiled rotten with my mom's cooking. She made us her homemade egg rolls for Valentine's Day.

And then we had bulgogi too! Lucky us!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Pug Bears

The pug bears would like to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day. There are polar bears, panda bears, grizzly bears and koala bears. These are pug bears.

Eat your heart out, Sugar.

Soak it in, Sweetie.

The temperature was dropping even in more in Rochester so I decided to make the pugs neck warmers. I used roving instead of yarn and crocheted a simple tube to slide over their noggins. Because it's funny to put ears on something that already has ears I watched this YouTube video on how to crochet bear ears and added those too. These were quick and easy to make.

I think it's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Ridiculous.

Valentine's leather cable holders

My Christmas crafting has me on a bit of a leatherworking kick. For Valentine's Day I decided to make my peeps leather cable holders. They are perfect for wrangling iPhone power cords and earbuds. I don't know about you but I throw all my cables into my bag and they become a tangled mess. These tidy them up and are cute to boot.

I used some upcycled leather my mom thrifted for me to make the cable holders. Besides that, all I needed were snaps and the rivet setter tools. I cut each piece of leather to 2 inches by 4 and a quarter inches. I used a paper slicer for nice straight edges. The corners are rounded with a pair of scissors. Then I added the snaps with the rivet tool. To add personalization and the little heart for Valentine's Day, I branded the leather with my wood burning tool. One of my easiest gift projects and I think everyone like them. Cute AND useful!

Valentine's Mantelscape

It's well into February, but I wasn't ready to take down the candlesticks from the mantel. So I just added a couple hearts and called it a Valentine's Day mantelscape.

Alex and Ani & Other Valentine's Gifts

Aaron surprised me with not one but three Alex and Ani bracelets for Valentine's Day. I have been following them on Instagram for awhile. I like how each bracelet has a charm that has meaning. And I like that they are made in the USA.

I was so excited to give Aaron this handcrafted six pack beer carrier. I had it customized with his name and then picked out bottles for in it that I thought had cute names or labels like "Smitten" and "Night Owl".

I also couldn't resist getting him these Boba Fett cutfflinks.

Manicure Jars

I wanted to make something special for my peeps for Valentine's Day. First I glass etched everyone's intitials onto glass jars. Then I filled each one with nail pollish and other manicure items. Manicure jars! Cute and handy!

Valentine's Cupcakes

I made cupcakes to take to the office for Valentine's Day. I saw the little candy arrow topper idea on Pinterest.

I even broke out the special paper cupcake liners!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines's Day!

Hope you have sweet treats today.

Oscar and Hugo love Valentine's Day.

Scratch that. Hugo hates Valentine's Day.

Stewie loves Valentine's Day.

Actually he is a little suspicious of it.

Valentine's Nails

Valentine's nails!