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A Lovely Valentine's Day

I love celebrating all the people in my life whom I'm so thankful for and love so much.  Each year I get more and more excited about Valentine's Day because each year, J and I add a little to our traditions and I LOVE traditions!

 We've spent most Valentine's Day dinners at home with each other.  It's quiet and the relaxing feeling of skipping a crowded restaurant.  This Valentine's Day was no different, but we kicked it up a notch by making crab legs and mussels!  They were easy to cook and fun to eat, but I highly suggest against waiting until the same day to run to Whole Foods to get what you need -- MAD HOUSE, y'all.  Either way, it was delicious and a little messy and we had a good time together.  We spent the rest of the night on the couch with Frank watching movies.  Now THAT is how I like to spend time with my sweethearts.





We really don't buy each other gifts on Valentine's Day.  There are 2 reasons for this:

 1.  We're usually broke after a December and January filled with Christmas and countless birthdays
2.  The whole point of the day is to show the people you love that you love them.  Dinner together or handmade gifts are way more fun for us.

 This year I changed it up a little bit.  J and I wrote our own vows for our wedding ceremony.  We both had them written down so that we could have them as a keepsake afterward.  Well, J's made it to the house and mine were never found.  I had no idea where they were and I was crushed because I couldn't remember them.  J wasn't too thrilled about it either since they were our FOREVER vows to each other.  Oops. (who can really remember every single moment of the biggest day of their lives anyway?)

 Just a couple months into our marriage, I got the idea to give our vows in a frame to J as a gift.  It would be something for us both to enjoy and special because we'd never have to forget them.  My first task was to figure out my vows since we had no paper trail.  Thank GOD for friends with video cameras!  Our friend, John, videoed our vows during the ceremony and we had a copy, so all I had to do was listen to myself on tape a million times to get them right!  Thank you John times a million!!  PS...I HATE the sound of my voice on a recording.  I have some weird mixture of a lisp with occasional Southern flare.  Gross.

 My next task was figuring out how to give them to him.  I went through a million ideas until I stumbled upon True Cotton on Instagram.  She's a friend of a friend I went to high school with and I had started following her a few months ago.  I loved her style, so I sent her an email asking for her help with our vows.  After a couple of months of back and forth and an ice storm that delayed delivery, our vows showed up and I was thrilled!
My name looks bigger because of the angle of my camera...

She managed to get all of our vows on one piece and used our wedding colors, too.  I bought a frame at Michael's (that place has the BEST deals!) and presented it to J.  He loved it and I loved that he was happy with it.  Please check out True Cotton and all of the amazing art she creates!!  www.true-cotton.com

We spent the rest of the evening on the couch with a certain someone who had to be the center of attention, but we didn't mind!

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