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Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts

Saturday, March 15, 2014

My Mother's Books





When my mother died we all gathered at our childhood home to clean.
We learned many things those few weeks.
We laughed.
We cried.
We moved on.

We also took home some of my mother's things.
To remember.
To stay connected.
To Love.

I took some of my mother's books.
She loved to read.
She passed on that love to read to me.

But these were not that kind of books.
They were vintage books.
These were books for decorating.

I have many different colors, blues, greens, browns, blacks and reds.
I choose a color for each of the seasons.

Books look wonderful all piled up





This was last year's mantel for Valentine's Day.


St. Patrick's Day.

Books, lovely to look at all piled up.


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Love at Arbor House Lane





Valentine's Day.




Is more than just that.
If you didn't already know or guess.
It is Mr. M. and my wedding anniversary.

15

Wow!

Still in love, yeah!

We are the couple in the corner at parties talking to each other.
Not because we didn't want to talk to anyone else.
But that we enjoy each other's company.
We work well together.

You see, it is also the anniversary of our home.
We moved in the year after we built it.

Yeah, that means the year we were planning our wedding, we were also planning our home.

We put everything into it.
Just like our marriage.
Each year we love our home even more.
We make slight improvements to make it more comfortable, more like us.

We were just in our twenties when we started this house.
We had mostly lived at home our whole lives.
What did we know about designing a house?

ZERO!


We took Arbor House Lane from this.



To this!

We did it.

LOTS OF HARD WORK!

We did most of the work ourselves.
Laid tile.
Electrical was my job.
Oh, and paint, lots and lots of painting.
We put in the tubing for the in floor heating together.
Wood floors installed in three different rooms.
All trim work, windows, doors, floor and ceiling.
Finished the basement.
New wood flooring in living room and study.

I can't just talk about our home.
We also are raising three great kids together.



We pretty much did it all.
We work well together!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MY LOVE!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Red in the House



Red pops in the house against all the white.


You can see the living room mantel in the mirror.



I rearanged the living room after the Christmas tree came down.
Now there is plenty of seating for everyone.
Oh, and I still love my wood floors.


More red in the living room.
The moose is paper mache that I covered in red rose tissue paper many years ago.


The kitchen mantel, silver and white with a little red.
The mercury hearts were actually bought during Christmas time but I knew I would use them differently.


The dinning room is all set for Valentine's Day Dinner.


Beautiful roses I bought on my lunch hour Monday.


I even snuck in some pink and green, Spring is on it's way I heard.
The snow is melting too.

Are you a RED person?



Monday, February 11, 2013

Showing Love



Valentine's Day.
It is an extra special day in our house.

I started decorating the mantels in the living room and dinning room.






I went with simple in the living room.
All of these books are some from my mother's collection I inherited. 
I have them separated by color and they come in handy.
The book on the bottom stack under the pitcher is Worlds Greatest Letters.
Some of the books have dates back to 1912.

LOVE


Simple but it makes a statement.
Aren't the letters great. 
I found them at a craft show this past fall.


Lots of hugs and kisses here.



A sampling of the treats the kids will make for their teachers this Valentine's. 

Simple, that is my word for this year.

All of the snow we received this past weekend was put to great use.
Mr. M. and I took the kids and their friends sledding.
We all had lots of fun.

I hope all my East coast blogger friends were able to find a good way to enjoy the snow. 
Even if it meant staying inside relaxing.

You will have to stop back later in the week to find out why Valentine's Day is extra special for us if you don't already know.






Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Be My Valentine



Valentine's Day
is not
just about

roses


and 

chocolates


It's about the everyday of love.


I hope my darling knows he is my everyday love.

Happy Valentine's Day 
Mr. M.



Monday, February 14, 2011

A Day of LOVE!


Happy Valentine's Day!




Today is a day of LOVE and ROMANCE!

Pink hearts
Red roses

 CHOCOLATE

As some of you already know, today is very special to me.

It is my WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

13!

Yes, Mr. M. and I were married 13 years ago today.

It was a yucky snowy day, cold and miserable.

We were happy, oh so happy, to be finally be able to be together forever!

I, honestly tried to get him to elope, but he resisted. 
 You see, at the time we were planning our wedding, we were also in the process of building our DREAM HOME.

STRESS!

Those of you who have done either or both know how much time and energy it takes, try doing both at the same time, and we both had full time, demanding jobs.

Each year we sit and reminisce about that day and all that happened in the days that lead up to THE DAY.

I will share a funny story.

First I have to tell you that I was living with my parents before I was married, on the farm.
Well, as has happened many times before, the cows got out.
Normally, my father would have been outside puttering around in one of the barns, but seeing as we were all inside preparing for the BIG DAY, the cows had wandered farther than usual.

In fact, they had crossed the road.

What did we do?  Well, of course we donned our boots and ran after them!
Remember, this is February in BUFFALO and the weather was not at its' most pleasant.
I can still remember standing in the field laughing and talking to my little sister while my father yelled at us about what we should be doing.  I remember her saying "so, did you ever think you would be chasing cows on your wedding day?"  "Nope!"
We spent a good hour herding the cows back home into the barns.

So now we will always have a funny story to tell our children when they ask about our wedding.

The ceremony was beautiful!
We will never forget
THE SHOES!

It seems that my brother-in-law got a hold of the groom's shoes and wrote
YES DEAR
on the bottom of his shoes in white paint.

We did not find out until during the ceremony and we were on our knees for prayer.

LAUGHTER
rang through the church!

I think it is a good way to start a marriage,
lots of laughter.

At our reception I will always remember how wonderful our wedding cake was.  My aunt made our cake as a wedding gift.  I had picked out the design, white roses, it was to be covered in white roses.  It was just as beautiful as I had pictured it in my mind.  I must also mention my dress, it too was beautiful, my mother made it by hand, each stitch, right up until I walked down the hallway to go down the aisle.  It was some cause of the stress I was under.  In the final moments though it was beautiful and it still hangs in my closet as a reminder of my mother.

We danced and danced most of the night.
Even more special, he sang.
My husband sang our wedding song to me while we danced.
Singing to me is something he has done since the day we met and still does.

Our children think it is funny when daddy sings and dances with mommy in the kitchen, but to us it is
ROMANCE!

You might think that being married on Valentine's Day makes our anniversary even more special.
BUT
It's not, I would rather be told and shown every day that I am loved, than to receive gifts on one day.
I told a friend that to me romance is not flowers and candy.

Romance is knowing, knowing what makes the love of your life-laugh.
It is cooking dinner when the other is late at work.
  It is letting them sleep-even if it means you sleep on the couch.
  It is being courteous, kind, loving even when you don't feel like it at the moment.
  It is making sure to give a kiss even when you are mad.
 It is the details that matter, because in the end they are what you remember.


He is my cowboy
my baseball player
my handyman
my fireman

MY EVERYTHING!


I hope you have a wonderful day too!