Love Is In The Air

A week ago last Tuesday, I felt a creative surge wash over me. It was mostly 'blog induced' delirium; brought on by the beautiful Valentine's mantles that I was seeing around the blog-o-sphere. I gave in, made a stop at Home Goods for a few accessories and spent an hour and a half that evening playing around with my finds!

Here is my fireplace mantle.

It still needs something, but I can't quite figure out what. (I did add twinkle lights to the red vase on the left and that brought some zip to the collection.)

Don't you just love that picture of my sweethearts? That was from last Valentine's Day. I may have to invite their mothers to lunch again to get another group picture. But this time we will NOT be going to Chuck E. Cheese afterwards!

I tried putting the heart wreath where the 8 point mount sits...but Jim would have none of that! Old 8 just seems to belong in that spot!

And this was the little display I set up at the back door entry.

That cute red/pink/gold Pier 1 plate was my "Dirty Santa" steal from Christmas Eve! And I thought I was going to have to wait until next Christmas to use it!

And the 'reading table' in the sitting room.

This is the room with the fireplace and I love, love, LOVE to sit in there in my big arm chairs, curled up with my devotional and journal each morning!

And though I did add some hearts to this display over my refrigerator, my real delight comes from that plate rack.

I have had my eye on this thing at Home Goods for months...but at $60, I just couldn't bring myself to put it in the cart. Well, last week's visit found it on the clearance aisle for less than $30! SCORE!!! I almost bought two so that I could put them over my 'wall of kitchen cabinets'. I am so glad I didn't because they wouldn't fit.

I love that I can display my Grandmother's china and it is no longer hidden away in a cabinet. Since there aren't enough pieces to fill up the whole shelf, I interspersed her china with some thrift store china that Kelli picked up for me back when we thought that my china had been unintentionally donated to the Purple Heart when we moved from Alief.

And finally, on the small antique table between the dining room and the living room, I put out the beautiful bucket of flowers that I picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby several years ago. They still look nice!

Do you decorate for Valentine's? This is my first time (other than putting out some fresh roses or something the week of).

Any ideas on what my mantle is lacking?