Valentine Vintage Place-setting Tablescape

January 30, 2024January 24, 20246 Comments

Good morning! I was able to set up my table for Valentines this weekend. After Lauren set up her Valentine table last week, I decided to put one together too. I received the pretty glass pink plates from my mom a couple of weeks ago and knew right away they would work for Valentines. The plates came from my great aunt. I always love using pieces that have been passed down from my family. The white and blue teacups and saucers were my wedding dishes. I love being able to pull them out once in awhile and use them.

One of the reasons I enjoy Valentines Day is from an experience in high school. I went to a private high school with small classes, about 75-80 kids in each grade. There are a lot of special things you can do when the school is so small. What I remember most is Heart Sisters.

Heart Sisters was a special time for just the girls and it included all the female students and teachers. Each of us would pick the name of another person and secretly give them gifts each day leading up to Valentines Day.

My freshman year is the only year that really stands out to me. I got a seniors name, which was really intimidating to a shy freshman like me. I remember my mom and I shopping for little things to give her each day.

On Valentine’s Day, we all met in the gym at lunch time. We sat in a big circle. The person you had sat on one side of you and the person who had you sat on the other.

This was the 80’s, mind you. I can still remember what I was wearing, partly because the teacher who had my name commented that the sweater I was wearing was pretty. It was royal blue with white angora clouds on it.

It was such an awkward lunch! What do you say to a senior girl and a teacher when you are only a freshman? I’m sure I didn’t say too much!

Even though it was so awkward for me, I still enjoyed the idea of giving secret gifts to someone during Valentine week. It was fun to see what you would get and all the different ways you would receive your gift.

When my girls were small, we even did it as a family. It was a little difficult with only 4 of us, but it was still fun.

For the past few years, we have even done it at the preschool where I work. We have 9 of us ‘girls’ working and it’s fun to have a little something special for us to do for each other. Some days are hectic and stressful, so it’s great to have a little something to encourage us each day.

I hope you enjoyed my Valentine table today and thanks for coming by!

Recycled Hardware Metal Heart

February 10, 2020February 8, 20202 Comments

Good morning! It’s Valentine week! Do you have your Valentine’s ready to pass out to friends? Enough candy to last a lifetime? Well, this project today won’t add calories, but it might lighten up your junk pile a bit!

I saw some other projects on Pinterest where crafters used different pieces of hardware to create signs. It reminded me of these scroll pieces I had that I never quite knew what to do with. When I pulled them out, I realized they made a heart. Perfect! I started with a board that had previously been painted grey, my two scroll pieces, a hook and chalk paint.

I added a sawtooth hanger on the back of the board before I started with everything else on the front.

I lightly painted over the board with the turquoise chalk paint. Once it was dry, I sanded the whole board again, so that some turquoise and some grey both showed.

I just glued my pieces on the board with Gorilla Glue. No tools required!

Once my pieces were glued, I let it dry overnight.

I hung it on my dining room wall and added a little pink heart to from the hook.

Such a simple little project! I’m glad I finally found a use for those pretty little scroll pieces! Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Here are some other Valentine posts you might be interested in! Just click on the picture to be taken to the post.

DIY Valentine Ombre’ Wooden Heart

January 27, 2020January 26, 20202 Comments

Good morning! It’s the last week of January already! Valentine’s Day is coming quickly. I posted a few ideas last week too. Here is the link in case you missed it. I have another simple Dollar Tree craft for you today.

This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Dollar Tree

I found this unfinished heart at my local Dollar Tree. I had the pink and white paint on hand but they do carry paints at the store too. I also picked up some valentine ribbon and a couple of plastic heart necklaces.

I started out by picking my paint. I picked white and two shades of pink. I put each color in a pan. I knew I wanted to paint the heart ombre’, so I started with white at the top of the heart.

Next, I used the lighter pink while the white was still wet. I blended the white and pink together where the colors met and then continued adding the pink down the heart.

Lastly, I added the dark pink, using the same technique as above.

Once the paint was dry, I penciled in the word love.

I went over the letters with hot glue and then laid the bead necklace on top of the glue. I did small sections at a time so the glue wouldn’t dry. I just snipped the necklace when the letter ended and then started the next one.

There had been a small piece of twine to hang the heart with, but I decided to use a piece of Valentine ribbon instead. I drilled the holes a little larger to fit the ribbon through and then just knotted it in the back.

I also bought the scarf and fortune cookies at the Dollar Tree. The cute little bird came from Target after Christmas, but the pink looks great for Valentine’s Day!

Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day? I like just adding a few little touches on my mantle. Have a great day!

Pink and Gold Valentine Tablescape to Share With Your Sweetheart

February 11, 2019February 10, 2019Leave a comment

Good morning! It’s Valentine week! I decided to set up a little table for two in front of our little faux fireplace. It’s a nice cozy place to have a special dinner.

valentine tablescape title

Since this is Valentine’s week, I thought I would share a sweet story with you.

valentine tablescape

A couple of summers ago, my daughter and I were driving home on a very hot summer day, when we spotted a dog running loose in a church yard. Well, being the dog lovers we are, we turned around to go back. There was no way we were going to leave it out there.

valentine tablescape pink, gold and shite hearts, flowers, candles

After we turned around, we saw another dog running loose in the church yard too. I called my husband, who was just getting home from work, to bring some leashes and some water for the dogs.

valentine tablescape chevron dog plate valentine tablescape dog plate

My daughter and I walked over to where we saw the dogs, and started calling for them. The road next to the church is very busy, so we wanted to be very careful and not scare the dogs into the street.

valentine tablescape pink, white and gold

One of the dogs came right up to my daughter, and when he walked up, another dog popped out of the bushes. Now there were three!

valentine tablescape candles and hearts

We were able to catch the two dogs pretty easily and placed them in the air-conditioned truck with water. The third dog was a little more difficult to catch, but she was just scared and finally decided she wanted to be with her other friends and allowed us to catch her.

valentine tablescape letters and cards

We brought them all home and found the home for one of the dogs immediately, but the other two we ended up taking to our local animal shelter. They had no micro-chips and so we left them there for the required days until we could take them to our friends’ no-kill shelter. Both dogs were really sweet and we know they would be adopted quickly.

valentine tablescape love letters

Once they were at the shelter, I was able to visit them quite often. The little girl dog went into heat and was put into the infirmary until she could be fixed.

valentine tablescape faux rose centerpiece

I would go into the infirmary when I visited, take my girl out of the kennel, and just hold her in my lap. She was so sweet! She would sit with her head on my shoulder for at least 45 minutes and not even try to get down or run around.

valentine tablescape dog plate rose napkin

Needless to say, I was falling in love.

valentine tablescape faux pink roses centerpiece

I talked it over with my husband, but he was concerned about how our older dog would react to bringing another dog home. We already had our 12 year old and two 2 year olds. Do we really want another one?

valentine tablescape heart pillow

I knew my husband was right and so whenever I went to the shelter, I tried to stay away from the little girls’ kennel. It was so hard! She would bark and whine at me every time she saw me!

valentine tablescape candles, flowers

I was trying to be so strong and tell myself she would find the perfect furever home. The first weekend in August, my daughter and I went to visit my sister for a couple of nights. On the last day, it was my anniversary.

valentine tablescape valentine mantle

Around noon, I got a text from my husband with a picture of a leash and collar at the shelter and my husband saying Happy Anniversary! I did ask, just to be clear, is there a dog attached to that? The answer, yes! My husband knew how much I loved that little girl, and had gone and adopted her for me.

valentine tablescape rose centerpiece

Here is my sweet Magnolia Grace! Her first name is the name of the street we live on and Grace is the name of the church we found her at. She is still the sweetest girl and loves to cuddle. Just look at this sweetie!

Maggie is so full of love! She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She has been the perfect addition to our home. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day Tablescape

January 25, 2019January 24, 20191 Comment

Hello! I hope you have all had a wonderful start to 2019. But as you know the year is flying by already and it’s almost Valentine’s Day! I am reposting my tablescape from last year which was an awesome post thanks to Oriental Trading Company. Now, everything is still available except for the candy jar. But there are plenty of other options of candy jars to pick from. So let your heart and dreams go wild!

*This blog post contains sponsored content from Oriental Trading Company*

So it’s becoming that time again for all of the love. You know what I’m talking about. Hearts in red and pink all over the stores shelves. And not only in the stores, but also online as well. And Oriental Trading is all about the holidays.

And after much deliberation on what to pick from their website, I finally decided on doing a tablescape. So after doing a lot of shopping around and putting things in my cart and taking them out, I finally ordered my things and started my tablescape.

And here it is! I love how it turned out and love each piece that I picked out. So lets see what I picked.

The first thing is this cute candy jar. It has a small chalkboard on the front so you can write what kind of candy is in it. Or, you can draw a heart on it like I did. But it fits quite a bit of candy in it, so go bananas!

The next thing is the heart tree, if that’s what you want to call it. It’s a tree in a small pot that you can bend and shape however you want to. It’s only about 18 inches tall, so it won’t block your view of your loved one.

There’s also the rose garland in the middle of the table. I added the pink puffball garland and the white puffball garland as well, just to add some stuff to the middle.

And these jewels? Yep, bought them from Oriental. I bought a pink, black, and clear pack so I had a variety to spread around the table. Each color came in a pack of 25 diamonds, so you get a lot of bang for your buck.

The plates were also purchased from Oriental. And the silver place mats! Okay, the place mats were from mom from the last time we worked with Oriental, but they looked great with the rest of the tablescape. I bought the small candy baking cups from the 99 Cent Store, but they looked so good with the plates.

So this is what the table looks like from above! It’s so cute!

The last thing I got from Oriental was this pretty gold LOVE sign. It sat so nicely on the cake plate in the background of the photos. And I must say that I am very excited to put this on my gallery wall in my apartment.

Side note: out cat Kiara is extremely nosy and wants to be in the middle of EVERYTHING.

And finally, we found some cute pet clothes for Valentine’s Day at the 99 Cent Store which we had to buy. Repeat HAD TO. So we had a little doggy (and kitty) photoshoot for the holiday!

Obviously, Kiara looks annoyed that I took her photo, but I love her all the better! And Ezzy is on a different couch because she is our senior citizen and I didn’t want to move her.

So that was my fun with Oriental. I love how the table turned out, but I love the animals as well. Have a good Wednesday!