Happy Valentine's Day (belatedly)!

I used to not care about Valentine's Day, but then I was single.  Haha.  Not saying I go crazy about it now, but it is fun to get a little caught up in the red hearts, the roses, and the roses glow.  I started the day with a home-grown Valentine's manicure.  It turned out great, and then I put on a top coat and my cute red hearts ran...don't look closely. 

Then I was trying to figure out what valentine to make J.  Last year I made him one with candy nerds that teased him for being Nerdy, but this year he's on a health kick so I decided to do something non-candy related.  I had this foam dragon from a project with the kids I babysit, and I thought it was too cute to not incorporate.  Initially I was trying to think of a pun with the word "dragon/dragging" but there's nothing romantic with the word dragging...so I went for the slightly non-sensical message. 

J  brought me amazing roses, and a card! I was actually most impressed by the card because he doesn't believe in them.  Haha.  We've had many a discussion about how cards are important, while he contends, they're just a way to give hallmark money.  I love cards though, especially knowing how much he was going against his principals to buy the card. It's the little things.

We don't have a single vase in our house so I took the label off a nearly empty salsa jar and washed it out.  Necessity is truly the mother of invention.

I said I didn't want to do anything crazy, and J didn't think about making reservations early anyway, so on Friday afternoon he found a 5:30 reservation for a seafood restaurant.  lol.  It was fine with me, and they ended up having a special Valentine's menu, plus complimentary photo, and a rose.  We took the train and walked to the restaurant in the snow and it was quite romantic. 

 

We we got there the photographer came to the table just as we were unbundling and I joked about how I had hat head, to which she replied, "should I come back?" I laughed and told her it wasn't going to get any better and she could take the picture.  I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome though, there is only one weird hair bump on top of my head.

 

I think we were the only ones who noticed the typo in their template...this picture is now on our fridge and it makes me smile whenever I see it. 

 

Snowy New Year

Somehow it's nearing the end of February, and I feel like it was just Christmas.  In fact, as I sit here typing this, I have Elf on in the background.  J is teaching tonight (a make-up class for all of these snow days he's had this semester), and something about freezing weather just makes me want to curl up on the couch and watch a Christmas movie!

 

Also, in defense of my Friday night laziness, I slipped and fell on some ice this morning, and throughout the day I've been discovering more and more aches and pains...it started with a skinned knee and hand, and a sore wrist.  The list of aches now includes, lower back, left ankle, mid-upper back, neck, and right shoulder.  I am such an old person. It was really inevitable, we've had so much snow and ice and I hadn't fallen once. 

 

I think this white manicure might be my favorite of the year! It's so crisp, and seasonally appropriate. Looking at this makes me want to go paint my nails again. I used Essie 'Blanc' which somehow is a bright white without looking like you painted your nails with white-out. I think it's meant for French manicures, but why not go all out?

Speaking of snow & ice, here's how my New Year has been going so far... 

January 18th - Ice Storm-y anniversary, January 24th - Snow, January 26th - Blizzard, January 30th - more snow, February 1st - Seahawks loss, February 2nd - Groundhog Day snow (again), Feb 14th - Valentine's Day snow, February 17th - Snow...You get the picture.  I'm pretty sure I missed some snow days, but those were the biggies.  

I have to admit, I'm not a complete snow Grinch yet.  Last year was worse I think, it's been colder this year, but I don't have to shovel a stoop this year, I think that makes a big difference.

It hasn't all been snow.  We've had some great date nights, I'm employed (though just with my old job who decided they couldn't let me go quite yet) and still interviewing like crazy, we got a new fish, and I've been desperately dreaming about decorating our blank slate of an apartment!