I ♥ Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day! As a kid, Valentine's morning we would wake up to treats, gifts and a card sitting on the kitchen table waiting for us. As an adult, I still get little care packages of treats from my mom. Plus, it is a great reason to remind your loved ones that they are just that, loved ones.

Here is the abridged version of my Valentine's Day:

• Finished gift for husband: Bacon Ice Cream
• Made husband Valentine's Day Card & assembled presents
• Exchanged gifts
• Played games
• Showered
• Got Manicure/Pedicure with Krystle
• Enjoyed delicious treat, made by Krystle
• Glammed up for the evening
• Went to Crave at the Galleria for dinner
• Returned home - hung out with husband and dog

And the extended version:
I will talk more about the Bacon Ice Cream in a later post... but know this: it's good.

This year, I was drawn to a card at Target and decided to create my own rendition. So, I went home and warned Rich he would receive a homemade card for Valentine's. I bought a sheet of paper from Michael's (red on one side, white w/ little red hearts on the other) and formulated my plan.

First, I burned the bottom of the card.

Then made a book of matches. The book is made of extra paper from the card, and the hearts were crafted using extra paper I had around the house. The black strip is from junk mail and then I used a regular staple for effect.

I wrote on the card and voila -- it was done!!

I set out the gifts I had for Rich, told him coffee was ready and placed his cup next to his presents. Then Rich surprised me! He had me come downstairs and there, waiting, were a dozen red roses and a card. Here's a photo of our goods.

Shortly after our gift exchange, and bacon ice cream tasting, we started playing with the set of books I gave Rich. Before we knew it we were 50 questions in, having a great time and eager for more! I was about to suggest we finish the book when I got a text from Krystle. She was on her way and I still needed to shower. So we saved the rest of the book for later.

Thankfully, I was able to get ready before Krystle arrived and we were off to get our nails and toes done. I was really looking forward to a manicure/pedicure. And while no one sees my feet during the winter, I was still super excited *and* willing to spend the $$. Here we are in the massage chairs getting our pedicures.

And here is the finished product (Krystle's hand and feet are on the left, mine are on the right).

When we got back to the house, Krystle gifted us with some delicious Valentine treats she made earlier that morning. How cute are these? Not only were they incredibly tasty, but the frosting was killer-good.

Thanks Krystle!!
(Rich wanted me to pass along how much he loved them, too!!)

Rich and I changed and got all glammed up for our dinner plans; Rich had made reservations for us at Crave. They serve sushi, among other things, but we only had sushi. It was so tasty!!! And they had really yummy drinks! We ordered Pear/Rosemary and Pineapple/Basil martinis while we made our food selections. Once we told the waitress we were only ordering sushi, she recommended a sake for our dinner. I don't remember the brand or style, but it was the sake-version of champagne, pink and wonderful.

I had planned on taking photos of our food, but only managed to take one of the drinks. So you'll have to trust me without visuals; the food was awesome. They had some pretty creative rolls. The Mexican (fish, jalapeno, cilantro - served w/ two lime wedges) and Minnesota (smoked walleye, celery, green onion) were my favorites!

After stuffing ourselves to the gills, we briefly shopped around the Galleria and headed home. We picked up the books again and finished answering the rest of the questions before I fell asleep for the night.

It really was a wonderful day!