HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY & SOME MORE DECORATING NEWS

Happy Valentine's Day!  You have to love a day that celebrates love!  I am a total romantic, so it's one of my favorite days.  And for once you don't have to buy your own flowers and chocolates!  So,  since you deserve the same, I have taken some pretty pictures of flowers and what were to be chocolate covered strawberries until I found I forgot to buy chocolate.  Well, these are sweet and healthier.

Are you celebrating with the love(s) of your life today?  Like most of you, I don't want to have dinner in a restaurant so I'm making The Husband a nice dinner, Tuscan Porchetta.  It's basically a pork loin cooked with fennel and wine.  And what's nice is we can share the rest of the bottle of wine with dinner.  I think I will make a pretty table, too, and  I'll share pictures.

In my last post I showed you some fabric samples for the two living room chairs that are going to be reupholstered.  Thanks so much for your input on the two fabrics I had narrowed it down to, the majority ruled in favor of the thin ticking stripe, me, too.  And then...boom!  I woke up yesterday morning and said to myself, "I don't like where this is going."  Seriously.  I envisioned the entire room with the floral sofa and blue and white striped chairs, froze it in my mind and shuddered.  Then I envisioned an entirely empty room and thought about what I would put in it.  And it was nothing like I had planned before.  My problem was that I was trying to match/coordinate the chairs with the sofa and not taking into consideration how I really wanted the room to look.  Right now I do not like how overly feminine and frilly it is.  So, why keep playing into that when I have the opportunity to change some major pieces?  Long story short, I'm going back to the furniture store tomorrow and I am going to look at more fabric.  And with the cost of fabric and having it done professionally, I'm also going to look into getting new chairs in the same price range.  I hope I haven't confused you.  We all get frustrated looking at paint colors and fabric and I suppose we ask ourselves a lot of questions.  I think I just neglected to ask myself what I wanted to do and instead thought about what I should do.  Enough said!

I made these cookies yesterday, Red Velvet Butter Cookies.  I am so, so sorry that I didn't keep the blogger's name that posted it.  Please tell me if it was you and I will give you proper credit in my next post.  The recipe is simple and the cookies are just out of this world.  Very soft and cake-like with little bits of white chocolate chips for crunch.  They are totally gone now!  If you'd like the recipe, let me know and I will email it to you.

Now, I'm off to join a few new to me parties.  I'm joining Debra at Common Ground for Be Inspired Friday...and Rooted in Thyme for Simple and Sweet Friday.  Please visit these blogs and all the party goers!  And a BIG Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!