Valentine's Mantel and Tree

Valentine's Day always seems to come too soon, 

with it landing in the middle of the month.  

We were gone for quite a bit of January, 

celebrating my birthday, so that makes 

the celebration seem even shorter.  

this year I did something completely different.  

I left up the garland and the champagne 

trees, and added the Valentine's decor on 

top of it. 

 

The mantel transformed magically from 

Christmas to Valentine's Day! 

I love how full the garland and 

trees make the mantel look, and it was a 

great transition from Christmas to Valentine's Day  

by just removing the nutcrackers and reindeer.

I also left the pink draping ribbons on each end 

of the mantel display and added some red ones.  

Garlands of red lights and hearts went on top of 

the chain and bead garlands from the Christmas 

mantel, and fancy chocolate boxes were tucked in.  

A flip of the light switch and the mantel just sparkles.  

I decided to do the same thing with the tree.  

In the past, I have set up a smaller tree in the kitchen 

for Valentine's Day, but this year, I decided to transform 

the Christmas tree, which featured metallics and pale 

pinks, by again, just adding the Valentine's decor 

in and around the decorations, but removing the 

reindeer and anything that was more Christmas 

specific.  

A big pink fur pillow I got from Target a few years 

ago is great on the chaise lounge.  

These are a few of my favorite things - new from 

Hobby Lobby this year - 

and even a mini mailbox filled with old Valentines.

Three kinds of ribbons just drape all over the tree 

to take it from Christmas to Valentine's Day. 

See how the Valentine's decor goes so well with the 

metallics that were already on the tree?

I think my favorite part is how pleased hubby was 

with the transformation.  He hates going from fully 

decorated to plain, and it has brought a lot of 

compliments from friends and family too.  I think 

this will be our new way of decorating for 

Valentine's Day.  

We have a fun sleepover planned at a friend's cabin, 

but we have had our Young Single Adults over on 

Valentine's Day in the past - since many of them don't 

have dates, so my niece is hosting the party at our 

house this year for them.  They had a blast last year 

making pizzas and hanging out.  

The template for the invitation was from PicMonkey.  

It originally said "Stupid Cupid", but I thought 

Elusive Cupid was a little kinder!!!

Hope you have something fun planned.  

Thanks for taking time to stop by.  It is 

always fun to hear from you!!!

I will be posting this with

Metamorphosis Monday

My Valentine's Day Tree

Last year I picked up an after Christmas

pre-lit tree for only $10.  I have used it

for a Valentine's Day tree and an Easter tree.

This year's tree has a few new touches and 

sit on a pedestal table in the kitchen.

The base of the tree is filled with chocolate

Valentine's boxes that I have saved over the

years.

I added three pairs of feathered wings this year.

Since it was such an inexpensive tree, it has

a lot more hollow space and the wings really

helped to fill in the bare spots.

Pink and red are so pretty together for

Valentine's Day.  These little flower hearts

are some of my favorite decorations on

the tree.

These filled hearts are new this year,

as are these sparkling gold hearts.

This gift tag from last year is a fun

Valentine addition.

I have no memory of when I received this

satin lip shaped chocolate box, but I

love it and it nestles in the tree perfectly.

This jeweled box also holds a special spot

in my "heart".

I draped the tree with pink and red ribbons,

and white boas.  The boas mix so well with

all of my decor.

Another heart box in leather look.

Of course, my favorite look is at night

with the lights sparkling.

Pink, purple, red, and gold, hearts,

flowers, boas and lights - what could

be prettier for this fun holiday.

So glad you stopped by to see what is

happening over here for Valentine's Day.

Birthday, Birthweek, Birthmonth - Birthday Table

Now this is a table for a queen, or at least

I was treated like one!  

You may remember that over a year ago, I was invited

to join a crafting group after we did a Christmas 

Home Tour.  Since then we have also added in

celebrating everyone's birthdays, and since I always

choose to run away someplace warm for my birthday,

and the other ladies have busy, busy schedules too,

this week we finally got together to celebrate

my birthday.  I love extending it, now it has to become

my birthday, birthweek, birthmonth and BEYOND!

The birthday girl always gets this huge crown on her plate.

I am happy to accept celebrations long past the day!!

As I get older, there is so much more to celebrate and

each year is a blessing.

Since it is winter and we can't enjoy Joanne's back yard,

she and Laura put together this royal table at Laura's house

where Laura said she had to get a new dining table and

chairs.  In over 25 years, she said she never had a real

dining table.  Glad I could be her excuse!!! Haha!!

Joanne is magical at festooning everything, even the

window is draped.  

The chairs were also decked out for royalty.  

What a beautiful setting.  

They wouldn't let me go into

the dining room until it was all ready.

The table was done in golds with pink and vintage 

Valentine's accents.

This time, each plate had a crown atop it.

The stack started with Joanne's aunt's scalloped

gold rimmed plate.  They are so beautiful.  She found

the other plates in the stack at thrift shops.  They said they

were glad that I was fancy (think Fancy Nancy), so that

they could do this elegant table in gold.

I don't know why they would say that - haha!!

Each place setting had vintage Valentine's cards too.

A vintage Valentine cookie tops this clear plate, under

which was another vintage Valentine, dated from 1906.

The cookies were made by the beautiful and talented

Amy at _thebakeaholic on Instagram.

Her cookies literally melt in your mouth.

Each of us had a different one.  Some said they were 

too pretty to eat, but you know me, I didn't have any problem 

eating them!  They were fantastic.

The beautiful pink for Valentine's Day was

carried out in the glasses and the raspberry lemonade.

I loved Laura's fun gold flatware, where every

item was a different pattern.

This cherub is eyeing a delicious Shirley's roll - 

a local bakery here.

We each received a Valentine's Day bottle brush tree to

take home with us.

Laura had a virtual forest of the beautiful bottle brush trees,

on her tall buffet,

 that she had made.  Aren't the colors just beautiful?

Click here for a tutorial on how to make those.

I wouldn't have even though to make them for 

Valentine's Day and they are stunning!  

I want a forest of them too.

  

What a lucky birthday girl to be treated like royalty

with friends who all brought dishes for the dinner.

We had Brie en Croute, Pickled Asparagus wrapped

in Ham and Cream Cheese, Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad,

Herb Crusted Chicken Breast, with Broccolini, and

Gruyere Potatoes.

But the piece de resistance was this gorgeous

gold encrusted birthday cake.  Also made

by Amy Perkins.

It was a Raspberry Cheesecake Cake.  It featured

a layer of cheesecake flavored cake, a layer of crunchy

graham cracker, a layer of cheesecake filling, a layer

of raspberry frosting, repeat and repeat!! 

Wow - what a flavor explosion.  

I have never been so amazed by a cake as I

was by this.  And lucky me, I got to take

some home.

With friends like this, getting older is easy!

I will be sharing this royal table with

Tablescapes Thursday