Down by the Bays: Lots of Love {Valentine's Day 2013}

Valentine's Day has always been near and dear to my heart.

My dad would give me a stuffed animal and small box of chocolate every year (once he sent them to Spokane), and I always loved the fluff and cheesiness of the holiday.

I celebrated with roommates.

I celebrated by myself.

I just really liked having something to look forward to during months of winter gloom.

I don't have a lot of Valentine's Day decor, but I do try to make things or put things up to decorate and make the house festive.

Banner made by Mom/Carolina Ribbons.

Paper flowers I made (so easy) and Target vase

Heart dish from Dollar Tree // some of my favorite V-day candies

Two days before Valentine's Day (Carson went out of town on the day), we celebrated.

Earrings were a Valentine's gift from Carson two years ago

Necklace from Juney Faye via Very Jane // Target clearance dress from four years ago // Lipstick Covergirl Lip Perfection in Burn (my new fav)

We had a mini photo shoot, and took a very cheesy picture - which makes it a GREAT picture.

For dinner, I had Tilapia and white cheddar mashed potatoes
Carson had Peppercorn Steak and Macaroni

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert and we will be returning. So many options. I had the strawberry cheesecake and Carson had banana cream.

Then we exchanged gifts at home in front of the fireplace

On Valentine's Day itself, we didn't do a lot. Carson finished packing for his trip, while I slept in.
He made me breakfast in bed and while he was running to the store for bacon (oops), I snuck downstairs and made this for him to take. I saw the idea here and loved it. Hope he did too!

Aaaaand these went on his trip as well. I've seen the idea around the internet and probably couldn't find the original source if I tried, but it was really easy.
We had a random unopened deck of cards that my bridesmaids gave us for our honeymoon (sorry ladies) so I opened it, wrote something different on each card, punched a hole in the corner (my hand wanted to die) and couldn't find ribbon, so I tied it together with baker's twine.

I put the sandwich, a piece of candy, and the cards in this tupperware so that they wouldn't get squished on the plane. It all went into the suitcase where he hopefully found it and loved it!

Oh, and I wore this:

pink sweater: Forever21, striped shirt: H&M, jeans: Aeropostale, locket: Target (this was one of my gifts)

And then we had to take a picture together.

After dropping Carson at the airport, I ran some errands and finished up by stopping by work. Not only did I get a tasty drink but some very kind coworkers had dropped off treats, so I snagged some too!