Valentine's Day Follow Through!

It's been said that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." And let me tell you, I've always had great intentions for every holiday, but very rarely follow through with any of my ideas. Valentine's Day is no exception!

Scott's & my Valentine's Days are usually horrible! I don't know what it is - laziness, procrastination, not wanting to give in to the commercialization . . . Whatever the reason, we usually end up with brutally failed dinners (my first attempt at making the "perfect" dinner & dessert for our first Valentine's), lack of gifts (I like presents, so I'm all for them - although I never get around to buying one for Scott either), & a heart-shaped pizza for dinner since all the restaurants are booked/too crowded (the pizza is usually fine, but I can't stand it right now with this pregnancy, so that wasn't an option for Lover's Day 2011).

Well, this year was going to be different! I actually planned ahead - ME! I haven't done that in so long! I bought heart-shaped pancake molds on sale at Crate & Barrel, made sure I had the ingredients for Wheat Germ Pancakes (my favorite breakfast!), & bought fresh berries & whipped my own cream (from the carton, not the cow) instead of opting for the spray kind (my mom trained me better, but I'd fallen off that wagon long ago). I also went to See's to splurge on some sweets for my sweets - red foiled chocolate hearts for William & sour (& I mean sour) hearts for Scott.

I'd never used pancake molds before & was amazed at how fun & easy it was. I went out & bought 2 more, so I have them for next year.

I was also excited to pull out my Valentine's Day glasses that I bought when we were first married. I don't think we'd used them in five or so years.

I told Scott a couple days before the BIG day that I didn't want flowers from the store, but would rather have flowers to plant or flowers from an actual florist (not that store-bought flowers aren't beautiful, but the others are just exceptional). Since I didn't give him much warning with my request, I didn't expect much. Well I was shocked when he actually had a present for me, wrapped in a bag & everything! It was a beautiful silver necklace with circle pendants hanging from it (one saying "L & S" with our anniversary engraved on the back, & the other saying "W" with Will's birthday). I'd been wanting a necklace like this for years & was unsure if I still really wanted one or not, but after seeing it, I got so excited - it was even prettier than the ones I'd been looking at! He did such an awesome job & totally surprised me!

Now I'm just hoping I can keep up the follow-through for the other upcoming holidays. I was amazed at how accomplished I felt - like a real domestic wife from the 50's or something (I even wore a cute vintage-looking apron while making breakfast to add to the illusion of "domestic perfection").

This was by far the best Valentine's Day I've had!

WHEAT GERM PANCAKES

1/2 c. flour

3/4 c. wheat germ

1 T. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 T. sugar

1 c. milk

2 eggs

2 T. oil

1. Mix dry ingredients.

2. Mix liquids & add to dry mixture (don't overmix!)

3. Let sit for about a minute & add more milk if it's on the thick side.

Reorganizing

The bookshelves in our living room have bothered me since I first "organized" them. Call me weird, but I got irritated just about every time I happened to look over at them - they weren't filled up, & there were too many knick-knacks placed awkwardly inside. I'm a huge perfectionist, so I had to do something to fix the problem.
So almost two weeks ago, I got the urge to redo the bookcases. I emptied the shelves, carried a bunch of books downstairs from our study, & organized the books by genre (& size or color when necessary). I also had to keep William entertained - he doesn't like to be left alone to play for very long (which is why this project took me at least 5 hours - of course, my OCD added to the length of time as well - I'm surprised I didn't catalog everything).Before:The finished result - (still not absolutely perfect, but SO much better than before).The up-close pictures are for my own enjoyment - I'm sure everyone else could care less about this project.

My Etsy Apron

Etsy is a website where people from all over can sell their handmade items. I've heard a lot of good things about it, so I thought I'd check it out. Since one of my new year's resolutions is to make dinner more often, I decided to look for an apron that would inspire success. I found a woman who's aprons would do just that, but after debating for too long which apron I should buy, they were already sold to other customers. (By coincidence, my sister, Amy, bought me an apron from Anthropolgie for Christmas - that just finalized my decision to cook more often.)

The original 2 aprons I was choosing b/w:


Two days ago, I looked to see if the store owner added any new aprons (a girl can never have too many aprons to help her with her new year's goal). Much to my excitement, she had many new aprons - one in particular that I loved.

This one:
I started to order the item, but had to stop before paying because Will woke up & was hungry. Of course when I went back later, the apron was sold, & I was so disappointed. Last night, I checked my junk email (which I never look at anymore) & their was a congratulations for my Etsy order - it told me that my apron would be held for two more days until I made my payment. Apparently I was the customer who bought the item. I was so excited & quickly finalized the order for the item I thought someone else had purchased (I know. I'm a dork for not realizing it was me who bought the apron. What a loser to be so upset when I saw the "sold" sign, only to realize later that I was the lucky customer who bought the apron I had wanted so much.) I can't wait for my new apron to arrive!