Spread the LOVE

I HEART VALENTINE'S DAY!  Not the romantic expensive dinner, spend waaaaay too much money on flowers kind of Valentine's Day, but the give cute small gifts, tell people how much you LOVE them kind of Valentine's Day.

I love telling my husband how much I love and appreciate him, so when Valentine's Day approaches, I have so many ways to show him too!  I like to put little treats or notes in his work bag when he's not looking in the evening so he discovers them once he's arrived at the office the next morning.  Last week I sent him to work with some tiny heart shaped sugar cookies from Susie Cakes which recently opened near my home.  Last night I put a bag of green M&Ms that were printed with special love messages in his bag.  I attached a little note & a HOT PINK bow and here's what he probably found today when he got to his office:

I found these special love message M&Ms at a drugstore near my home so I'm sure you can find them where you live too for your Valentine.  If I find out that he has a client meeting the next day, I usually hint to him that there's something in his bag...just so he doesn't accidentally pull out one of my notes or treats in a meeting!  Can you imagine???

I LOVE giving my nephews presents all year long so Valentine's Day becomes even more fun when there are kids involved.  Yesterday I spotted 2 great Valentine's Books at our local bookstore for them.  In my opinion, a child can never have too many books!  I wrapped them up and put them in the mail today so they can enjoy them and get excited for Valentine's Day.

The first was "Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse" from the author of one of my favorite books, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".  In it Mouse makes Valentine's for all of his friends and they are each different depending on who the friend is!

The second book I got for them was "Fancy Nancy: Heart to Heart".  I know, they are boys and Fancy Nancy is very girly, but the oldest is 2 1/2 so he doesn't know that and he LOVES learning new words.  He's always telling me that he wants to dine "al fresco" which he learned from a Fancy Nancy book.  I love it!  In this book he will learn words like bouquet, gorgeous and magnifique because according to Fancy Nancy, "almost EVERYTHING about Valentine's Day is fancy!"

I even found some wrapping paper in my stash that was perfect for Valentine's Day:

I topped the package with another GREAT find: hot pink ribbon from Costco!  Check out this awesome wired ribbon I found the other day.  Each spool is 50 yards and only $6.49!

I didn't get a picture of the card, but it was from Paper Source and it was letterpress with a picture of a dinosaur that read something like "you're a dino-mite valentine".  I hope they love their present!


Are you getting excited for Valentine's Day too?  I hope you are spreading the love!!!

Today's the Last Day!

You don't want to miss out on the Aaron Brothers one cent frame sale and it ends on Sunday!  You buy one frame and get the second for A PENNY!  You can't beat that.

It's my favorite time to stock up on frames for projects like our photo wall.  This is my favorite way to display photos.  The #1 reason I like it is because it's so easy to swap out the photos over time and you can rearrange them whenever you want!  I don't like to clutter up tables around the house with displays of photos, so this is pretty much the only place you'll find photos in our house.

Here is our current photo wall in the hallway leading to the master bedroom:

I can switch out the photos or I can change the mats and put in a different size photo for a completely different look.  I purchased a very simple black frame and decided to keep all the frames the same.  That way you focus on the photos themselves and not all the different frames.

There's even a competition going on now to see who's on the wall the most!  Everyone loves to check the wall when they come over to see if there's a new photo of them!

We also had a photo wall in our San Francisco apartment where we had much higher ceilings so this is what it looked like:

For the shelves, I used the Pottery Barn Holman Ledge in black.  In the San Francisco apartment I used three 4' long shelves.  In our home in Perfect Town I used two 4' shelves and added a 2' shelf to each so they are now 6' long.  Some of my favorite photos have stayed the same (wedding favorites and the 2 of us graduating together from UC Berkeley), but some have changed over the years as we added nephews to the family and recently celebrated my brother's graduation from the fire academy!

To print the large photos, I just take the images on a flash drive to my local photo store and they enlarge them for just a few bucks.  It's so easy.

I hope this has inspired you to display photos of your family and friends in your home.  If you have a favorite way that you like to display photos, let me know!

Have You Heard???

In case you've been living under a rock or if you haven't read about my obsession, The Container Store is offering 30% off ALL Elfa and Elfa installation!

It's been going on since Christmas, so I'm not sure how much longer it will last, but it is one of their best sales EVER!

I re-did the closet in the last apartment we lived in when we were in San Francisco.  It was a small walk-in closet (nothing about apartment living in San Francisco is BIG!)  The Container Store helped me design it and they even installed it!  The whole process was so easy.  We were just renting, but the closet in our bedroom only had 1 rod running the length of it.  That was not going to work for the 2 of us so it was worth it to us to spend the money and upgrade the closet.  I don't have any before pictures, but here's what it looked like after the installation:

I looked at all my photos and counted about 82 pairs of shoes in that closet between the 2 of us!  (You can't see a lot of them in just these 2 pictures.)  Unbelievable!

Being able to more than DOUBLE our hanging space was invaluable.  Also being able to adjust the racks was huge for us since hubby's is 6'2" and his shirts and pants are long and I am 5'2" so nothing of mine is long.  In this closet I had room for everything from our hats to shoes, suits, dresses, pants, coats, etc.

My husband doesn't have a lot of free time so I had the Container Store do the installation.  The guys who came to install it were amazing.  They were so courteous and absolutely knew what they were doing.  The Container Store I shop at doesn't have their own installation team.  Instead they outsource it to independent closet installation companies.  I am not sure if all their stores are like this so yours may be different.  They removed the old closet rod and shelf, patched the walls and started installing.  Before long it was complete and the Container Store had 2 more satisfied customers!

If you are too busy to make it to the store and know exactly what you need, they offer a "Click & Pickup" service where you order everything online, choose which store you'd like to pick it up from and tell them when you'd like to pick it up.  Then when you are on your way, just give them a call and they'll bring it to the curb for you and load it in your car!  How convenient is that?  Just another reason I love the Container Store!

Oooey Gooey Goodness

Last night I made baked ziti for the first time.  All my husband and I could say was YUM YUM YUM.  He loved it SO MUCH more than lasagna.  I'd had it before at my sister's house.  Her grandmother-in-law is Italian and makes the most AMAZING food and ever since I'd tasted her baked ziti, I had been wanting to make it!

My sister's recipe calls for "sauce".  Seriously, that's what the recipe said...SAUCE.  I knew that it would be a SIN to use pasta sauce from a jar as far as she's concerned so I thought about what sauce to make.  My sister's recipe doesn't call for any meat, but I wanted to have meat in our recipe (we are DEFINITELY meat eaters in this house) so I used the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for her sauce in the Lasagna with Turkey Sausage Recipe.  I have used this sauce for both lasagna, pasta and now baked ziti and it's GREAT on everything.

Now that I knew what sauce I was going to use, here's the rest of the recipe:

1 pound ziti or rigatoni pasta
Sauce (see link to the Barefoot Contessa's recipe above or you can used store bought sauce if you'd like)
1 15 oz. container of whole milk ricotta cheese
1 8 oz. ball of mozarella cheese (can use pre-shredded kind)
2 Tbsp. Parsley (you'll need more because the sauce recipe also calls for some)
1 egg
Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 375˚.  Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling, salted water.  Mix ricotta with parsley, egg, salt and pepper.  Combine the pasta, sauce, ricotta mixture and shredded mozzarella in a large bowl.  Pour some of the sauce in the bottom of a 13x9x2 baking dish.  Spoon the pasta mixture into the dish and top it with more shredded mozzarella and some parmesan cheese.  Bake for 30-45 minutes or until sauce is bubbling and it is heated through.  This recipe can be made ahead - just bring to room temperature and bake for 45-60 minutes instead.

Oh, I forgot to mention - this recipe ISN'T LOW FAT, but it's SO good!  I served the ziti alongside a simple green salad with balsamic dressing and some warm, crusty bread.  You don't even need the bread (I didn't even touch mine, but hubby used his to scoop up all his extra sauce) because the pasta and salad are filling enough!

Since this was my first time making the recipe, I wasn't sure if I could split it or not.  Next time I make it, I'll make the entire recipe, but split it between 2 smaller baking dishes and freeze one so we have dinner for another night.  This is the type of recipe that I also like to make when I want to bring dinner to a neighbor or friend because I can make one pan for us and one for them.  I just use a disposable foil baking dish from the market and wrap theirs in with tinfoil.  Before I wrap it I write the cooking instructions on the outside so they know what to do with it.  And just in case someone has a food allergy, I usually list the ingredients so they know they'll be safe eating it.  You could also make this when you need to cook for a crowd.

This recipe makes a TON of food so guess what we're having for dinner tonight?  LEFTOVERS!  I love those nights.

Who Doesn't LOVE to Save!

In case any of you loved checking out Erin Condren's great site, she is offering 20% off on EVERYTHING Valentine's now through January 31!

She has great ideas for personalizing Valentine's Day cards whether you send them out as a family or if your little one has to make them for school.  For Valentine's Day she has special heart shaped labels like these:

How much fun would it be to bake up some heart shaped brownies or one of my favorites - those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kiss stuck in the middle - YUM!  Then place your goodies inside a cellophane bag with your heart shaped sticker on the outside - so personal and cute!  Or you could attach the sticker to a Chinese food carton and place all your yumminess inside!

Translucent Take-Out Cartons from the Container Store 

Hope this gets you excited for Valentine's Day - it's only one month away!

High/Low Dining Chair Find

New dining chairs have been on my wish list for quite some time.  The black Windsor chairs I currently have are perfectly fine and only about four years old, but I have tired of them and would like a new look.  (You can see them here in my post on entertaining.) So I don't NEED new dining chairs, but I WANT them - my husband always likes to point out the difference between WANT and NEED.  I'm still learning.

I've been checking out these Williams-Sonoma Home dining chairs for some time, but at $445 per chair, I couldn't justify buying 6 of them!  That's about $2,700.  They do look so comfy though!

Williams-Sonoma Home Farallon Chair ($445) 

I have seen similar chairs in high-end home furnishings stores, but they are in the same price range.  However, I got an email from Pottery Barn this morning that featured a new chair this season, the Wingate Rattan Dining Armchair:

Pottery Barn Wingate Rattan Dining Armchair ($299)

Still pretty expensive when you take into account that I need want 6 of them (about $1,800), but still cheaper than the Williams-Sonoma Home Farallon chair.  Usually I am not a fan of Pottery Barn because of it's generic look (I can count the number of Pottery Barn items in my ENTIRE house on one hand), but I thought these chairs were pretty cute and had some character.  The rattan would also contrast nicely with my black table.  

These chairs just look so comfy - like your dinner guests would linger, enjoy themselves and be comfortable for hours.  When it comes to dining chairs, I am a HUGE fan of each chair having arms rather than just the chairs at the head of the table.  This way all of your guests are comfortable and I think it encourages them to stay longer if they are comfy.

If you want an even better deal on a rattan dining chair, check out the Majby chair from IKEA.

Ikea Majby Chair ($79.99)

At $80 a chair I can get all six dining chairs for under $500!  What a deal!  Now the IKEA cushions don't look as thick as the other chairs, but for how inexpensive these chairs are, you could get the cushions re-stuffed or remade in a few years when they aren't as fresh looking anymore. 

You could also spice up all of these chairs with a great lumbar pillow and your guests would be even more comfy!  I found a few on etsy that are so much fun!

Imperial Trellis Lumbar Pillow from Thieverie ($81)

Zimba Lumbar Pillow from Thieverie ($75)

Maybe hubby will read this and realize that I NEED new dining chairs.  Yeah right!

A Very Thoughtful Gift

I received the cutest gift from my sister in the mail the other day.  It absolutely brightened my day!  She sent me the greatest gift labels from Erin Condren.  They are so colorful and cheery that you can't help but love them!  And they are personalized too!  I love receiving personalized gifts - it makes you feel like the person actually put time and effort into thinking of a gift you'd like.  I can hardly wait to use them.  You can use them on gifts like this:

SO cute right?  Or you can stick one on a bottle of wine as a hostess gift (you can even order waterproof labels for chilled white wine or bubbly), put one inside a book that you give to a friend or child at their birthday, attach one to the front of a gift bag, a plate of homemade cookies, party favors...the possibilities are endless!

I can't tell you how many times I have been on the way to a party or shower only to have to stop at a drug store to pick up whatever cheesy card they have available.  These gift labels will make our gifts so much more personal and fun.

Here's what our labels look like (note: the poor photo quality does not do them justice!)

You should definitely check out her site and see all of the products that she offers.  All of her stuff is so cute you will want one of everything!  The clever Super Bowl invitations make me want to host a Super Bowl party:

The life planner makes me want to become a paper calendar person and ditch the iPhone calendar:

And I thought the call me cards would be so fun for parents to use for play dates!

All of her items would also make great gifts for friends.  Wouldn't you be excited to receive a personalized notepad or gift labels?  I know I was SO excited to receive my labels.  I am always making lists so I'm about to order a set of her notepads.  How cute will my to do and grocery lists be now?  The only problem is that I can't decide which one to order!