Hi Everyone,

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Happy Valentine’s Day! …. I am so sorry this posting is a day late but for the life of me, I could not get my pics to post yesterday. I don’t know what happened to my computer but I was completely frustrated all day. But things happen and you have to go with the flow as they say and make the best of a bad situation.

I was considering deleting the post since it was late and then I decided to share the post anyway with everyone because I wanted to wish you not only on Valentine’s Day but every day, a day of love, happiness, peace, and joy and you can still take away a few ideas for any celebration that you have coming up.

So here is Valentine’s Day 2022……

I chose the colors red, pink, and white for the tablescape and found a great new tablecloth that is stain-resistant on Amazon. This tablescape was quick to put together and I used standard red placemats to start.

I still can’t find a well-made heart-shaped placemat and if anyone has a source please let me know.

The dishes are a great set that I have had for years and unfortunately, I don’t usually use them because I have been favoring the pink heart-shaped dishes over and over. This set is pearl white and includes a dinner plate, salad plate, soup/pasta bowl, and a mug.

In between the dinner and salad plate, I used a paper plate by Papyrus that was a brilliant red with gold trim to bring a little bit of color to the all-white set.

I used everyday casual red enamel flatware.

Add a pink cotton napkin with a red metal napkin ring with the word “Love” in script with some filigree around the word. Plain, pretty, and simple.

Here is the place setting with a pink heart paper doilie for a little more color and another heart added to the table…….

Table accents were just some mini crystal hearts in rose and red and they added a nice little sparkle to the table especially when the sunbeams caught them from the window and I added a few paper red rose petals.

The second little table accent I used was a heart-shaped measuring spoon set in baby pink to remind us all to “measure our blessings”. I saw this in Macy’s and just thought it was too cute to pass up.

And the last table accent was a Willow Tree statue that my son sent me for Valentine’s Day that reads “Everyday Blessings” and I thought that was a good message for the table. I placed it on a “Love” trivet I had and placed the trivet in a pink heart dish surrounded by Valentine’s Day candy.

My centerpiece was also simple as well and I chose Valentine’s Day spray from Party City and 3 heart-shaped balloons in red and pink.

I added another bowl to the table that matches the trivet and used it to hold assorted candy.

We had a late lunch early dinner combination because the food was so rich and we knew we had a lot of dessert coming up.

I made our first course, heart-shaped cheese ravioli with a Vodka cream sauce. Always a crowd-pleaser. I purchased the ravioli at an Italian grocery store that we have locally (Uncle Giuseppe’s). I would have made them myself but I felt like relaxing this year.

Our second course was heart-shaped shrimp stuffed with crabmeat stuffing and instead of the traditional way to stuff the tails and have them sit upright in the dish, I wanted to make the shrimp heart-shaped. So I skewered the tops of two jumbo shrimps (shells removed except for the tip of the tail) and stuffed the crabmeat stuffing inside and baked. I think they looked cute and went with the Valentine’s Day theme.

I served this alongside a simple salad with oil and lemon dressing and added heart-cut-out shaped mozzarella bites and beets.

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Now on to the best part of any meal- Dessert…

I started out just making heart-shaped brownies. Just a simple dessert for the two of us.

Later in the day Bob and I were discussing how we should have purchased a few chocolate-covered strawberries and Bob said he would go out and see if the bakery had any left.

Well, Bob came home with a lot more than chocolate-covered strawberries and said that he couldn’t decide what to get because they had so many of our favorites so he bought a sample of “Everything”.

We now have dessert for a month and we cut little pieces to sample and made a small dessert plate for each of us and all the leftovers are now in the freezer. It was a great variety. Let me share…..

Cannoli

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Heart-shaped Linzer tarts and sugar cookies and chocolate lace cookies…

Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake

Bite-size Heart-shaped Rainbow Cookies

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It was a wonderful celebration!

And lastly, two wonderful gifts from my honey, who never forgets any occasion no matter how many years that pass. You think he would run out of ideas since 1986.

This Valentine’s Day is our 36th Valentine’s Day together- It is truly a blessing and our time together each year gets better and better.

Two everyday eternal wedding bands full of hearts (one in pink and one in red) to remind me that I carry Bob’s love everywhere I go and a lovely ring tray.

And a new bag (he knows all my weaknesses) to match the rings along with a Valentine’s Day card that plays music, flashes lights and I can’t get this song out of my head now.

Have you ever had that happen where you hear a song and it stays with you for days? I am a current victim. The song on the card is Happy by Pharrell Williams- take it from there, the song is addicting.

But the way I see it, it’s much better to be “HAPPY” and sing rather than be sad.

That was our day. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our Valentine’s Day tablescape this year and maybe picked up a few ideas for a special occasion in your home or a birthday or even a regular weekday that you want to celebrate with your love.

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Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

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