On My Radar: Valentine's Day Prep

Are you one to celebrate Valentine's day? I have to admit I'm a believer. I don't know if it was the thrill of the possibility of a secret admirer that little Valentine box held in elementary school and it has held all these years. Maybe it's because once I actually did receive a Valentine from a secret admirer...from then on I was hooked. On the romance, the possibility, the fun of it all! 

Valentine's waiting to go out 

These days my Valentine dreams center around our girls, my husband and my friends. Letting them know how much I love and value them. Surprising them with a card, a treat, or a note telling them how much they mean to me. Sometimes we need a prompt to remember to let people know how much they mean to us. This one is mine! 

My Valentine 

And any celebration is either treats and fun at breakfast or a dinner with a special dessert. We love spending the time with the girls, talking about their perceptions of romance, and our changing ideas around it. We are pretty low key these days, though we have a get away later this month that I'm pretty excited about (I'll share about it here, I promise!) 

Vintage Valentines

Every Valentine's Day calls for some kind of special treat. This year I am especially excited about it! We have ordered a cake from my friend Nancy of Saltadena. And if you are in the Bellingham area you can get your hands on one of these beauties too! 

They are 3", three-layer mini cakes for two with the cutest theme..."We Go Together Like..."

Saltadena's Valentine Cakes 

The flavors are (left to right) Salt & Pepper, PB & J, and Chocolate & Hazelnut. (we picked out Salt & Pepper if you are curious!) They are $15 each, come boxed with a cute ribbon and customizable tag and pre-orders can be picked up at Spruce between 4-7 on Valentine's Day. Just e-mail Nancy at the address found here before February 10th! And maybe I'll run into you at Spruce picking up our cakes! 

Valentine to a friend...

Recently we had the chance to have a friend and her family over for dinner. It was nothing unusual really…just a buffet style make your own deconstructed burrito bowl. Proceeded by a crazy amount of bean dip (it was Super Bowl weekend after all!).

What made it special in hind sight was the relationship. I met Sue my first year at Western Washington University in what is now my hometown. She was one of a group of girls that had been in the dorm  the year before…the year that I had taken off after graduating High School and worked at McDonalds full time for a long, grueling year of "figuring things out."

Those girls welcomed me in like I was the missing part of the group. They were ready to play, study and cause trouble and I was a part of it instantly. To be taken in like that eased the transition to college living like nothing else could. And what about a friend that is instantly a friend. That's Sue for me.

And what made this dinner special and crazy, and weird is that my now 18 year old daughter was sitting at the table being coached by that same friend that I had danced with, laughed with, drank with, cried with, grown with and learned life with. She was coaching our baby how to answer the question we all get to answer when we graduate from High School….what are you going to do now?

She doesn't know that answer yet.  We don't expect her to know that answer yet. I only feel grateful to be able to coach her with that friend by my side. As we both figure out this part of our lives together. Which will hopefully continue to have dancing, laughing, drinking, crying and growing.

And I can only hope there is a friend like Sue waiting for Kate when she heads down her path.

Field Trip: Q-Laundry

So I have found you a place for a Valentine's date if you need one. It's a laundromat. Yes, I know but bear with me. I mean first of all look at that seating area. It's warm, rugged, and so Northwest. And second of all, it's romantic on so many levels. Let me explain.

Maybe I should set the scene as to how a person with a lovely cherry red front loader washer & dryer ended up there. Our washer had been acting up for a while, then finally gave up the ghost. While the husband worked on it I decided to take all our laundry to this shiny new laundromat in town. Maybe the next photo explains a few things. 

Gross, right. But did you see the upper text? Oh, that was just a text from the washing machine at the laundromat! Yes, the washing machine! So amazing. The tagline for Q Landry, is "The Laundromat for Busy People." So you get a text when your wash is about to finish, and then again when it does. There is even a bank of machines that go from wash to dry. And don't even get me started on the t-shirt folders they have available. Let's just say our youngest daughter may have a job waiting for her at the Gap. 

Oh yes. Then there is the detergent bar, full of range of lovely detergents such as Calendrea and even their own blends. You can buy a card so that you don't have to worry about coins. And there is even free wi-fi. Two thumbs up from all of us. 

All this doesn't answer why this would be a great place for a Valentine's date. Think of it. Grab a couple mochas, a sleeping bag or some large comforter that could use a wash and head back in time to the days when you lived in an apartment. When you were maybe scraping by, maybe eating ramen or mac & cheese more often than you would like to admit. And remind yourselves just how far you have come, how many storms you have weathered. I love flowers and chocolates just like any other girl. But I really like a good love story. And ours could use a re-telling. And I know a place…

You can find all the details here. Q Laundry (p.s. This wasn't a sponsored post. I just really like this place. Like a lot. )

Set the Scene: Balls of Inspiration

I love Valentines Day. There, I've said it. I don't know why it's a favorite. Maybe because it's based around telling people you love them, and there is paper and crafting involved. And of course candy and chocolate. What's not to love? 

I've heard the arguments against it.  It's commercial, we should tell one another we love them all the time, it was created by corporations, etc. All right, sure. But do we tell one another how much we care all the time? Does it hurt us to take a moment to tell our friends, our parents, our kids, our husbands & wives just how much they mean to us? 

In the spirit of embracing the holiday completely I thew these little decorations together. Can I just say that these glass balls have been so handy? They are so fun to fill with glitter, candy, whatever you can come up with really. I did have to be careful about just how much candy to fill them with as they became so heavy they pulled on the caps. I added some neon twine, a little message, and voila. A little Valentine love. 

Where do you fall on the Valentine argument? Do you celebrate?