Merry Valentine’s Day

I don’t believe I’ve talked about it much here, but for the first time in our lives, my babies’ daddy is looking for a job. I mean REALLY looking for a job. The other jobs he’s had in his life have been put in his lap – people have said, “I want you to work for me” and that was that – no scanning the want-ads or sweating through interviews. He just accepted the position and we lived happily ever after. Until now…Or, just before Christmas when things started to unfold.

So we’re struggling, but we’re not worried. We have a very strong Faith and have no doubts about Who clothes the lilies of the field and we know that He cares for us more.

As much as I’d like to go in and spend all my “extra” money, I’m staying out of Home Goods at this time in my life. (Home Goods is my Achilles heel when it comes to home decorating or table scape shopping…)

As a result of the whole “we don’t have any money” thing,  Valentine’s Day at our house this year is beginning to look a lot like Christmas…only without the presents.

The pitcher and creamer collection in my kitchen got dressed up with bows. I just  grabbed snippets of scrapbooking ribbon and bits left after Christmas.  (I keep the ribbon inside the rest of the year).

 

This little creamer in the front came from my Gramma’s this past summer.The white Fiesta pitcher was a Canton find last spring.

The mantle is dressed with battery operated candles (on sale at Costco this last Christmas  season – they have a “timer” setting and come on at the same time for 5 hours every day all by themselves! Love it…) and leftover Christmas ribbon (also from Costco – I buy rolls of 50 yards for less than $7 every year). The berry vine was an inexpensive Canton purchase a couple of years ago. And if you look close…

You can see a "velvet flocked” Christmas ornament nestled in there. I tied another scrap of ribbon on top to hide the hangar a little bit – at least keep it from shinning. The black pastry stands were also a Canton find last spring. They came with glass domes – you know, so you can put pretty cupcakes in them? Super cute and easy. But then I found they were “not intended for food”. Really? Don’t call something a “pastry stand” if it’s not intended for food…

The “old” vase is just filled with the puffy glass heart ornaments from my Christmas tree. The “Jesus” (John 3:16) ornament was an after Christmas, 75% off find at the Christian bookstore. The fun part will be packing these away with the Christmas stuff next week. But I thought ahead and left “that tote” on the top of the pile in the shed.

There are more Christmas ornaments here… This time the little empty ones you find in the diy bin at a big box craft store. Each is filled with some small bit of something I had in my ever-growing stash, like pearls, heart confetti, paper roses, tinsel and a scrap of ribbon. I used more leftover Christmas ribbon to hang them over the dinning room table. (It pays to save those ribbon scraps…)

I keep these big 3-wick candles handy (I have 2). I picked them up at Home Goods a couple of years ago for a fall wedding I was doing on the cheap. Tie a bow around it, scatter some puffy glittered hearts around the bottom (we’re talking dollar spot prices here) and it’s good to go.

This zinc piece is one of my all time favorite Canton finds. I just really love it and it wasn’t expensive at all. I can change out what sits in the middle to fit the season. Right now it’s holding a mercury glass bird that I got at Target a couple of years ago. It was supposed to be a Christmas decoration but I punted. Scattered in the moss (a Pottery Barn find) are more Christmas ornaments. The color on these was faded and just a little too “orangey” to go on my tree, so I never used them. When I was packing up Christmas I found them in the bottom of the tote and now they’ll be moving to the V-day tote instead.

I hope you have a very Merry Valentine’s Day – Thanks for visiting our home and browsing my re-run decor. Next time, stay awhile and sip some of my (cheap homemade) cocoa by the fire.