Valentine's Day Getaway!

I must admit, Todd is not the romantic type (then again, are there any guys who truly are??)... but when he wants to, he can be!  On Monday afternoon, these roses arrived at the door....

With this note....

So, yesterday we left for Santa Ynez/Santa Barbara for the night (beaches and wine country in Southern California)!  We walked around the little streets and in and out of wine tasting rooms and shops in Solvang.  It's a little danish-style town where all the wineries have tasting rooms.

Wind blown and struggling to do a self portrait -
hate it, but don't have any others unfortunately!

I have been trying to figure out what to do with the remnants of tin tile from our backsplash.  While in one of the shops, I found this....

Oh, and this amazing chandelier with shade that I am wanting to recreate in one of our upstairs rooms!

Had to take this picture discreetly! ;)

What started so fun went downhill quickly....our dinner reservations were lost, and having a huge gluten allergy made it near impossible to find a replacement so we had dinner at the bar in our hotel....romantic, right??  Todd caught three different basketball games during dinner, so I'm sure he wasn't that upset!  That is, until whatever we ate made him sick .... which was a complete role reversal!  Usually, I am the one on vacation sick because I unintentionally ate something I am allergic to!  Luckily, Todd made a full recovery by this morning!  We headed to Santa Barbara and spent the day there shopping for a watch for Todd and ate at an Italian restaurant where I had an amazing gluten free pasta for lunch!

For Valentine's Day, I thought we were doing our normal thoughtful $20 gifts (since we buy everything large ticket anyway, and that's almost too easy).  So, I designed and printed our First Dance song lyrics and decoupaged them to canvases.  Todd picked "Georgia on my Mind" as our wedding song because that is what he would text it to me while we were dating long distance.  So, while I was busy decoupaging my little heart out....

....Todd was purchasing these .75 carat princess cut diamond earrings to match my ring!

I'm starting to get the trend here.  For our anniversary, I made Todd something out of cotton as it was out second year together and that is the traditional gift.  Todd came home bearing gluten free baking classes with Jim Dodge.  For Christmas, I decided I would get him back by breaking the budget and getting him the SodaStream he had been talking about for the previous year, and you guessed it....he showed me up with a sewing machine and stocking stuffers.  So, I thought we were back to our old thoughtful gift song and dance for Valentine's Day, but apparently not!!  Unfortunately, I am not sure I can top this four prong Valentine's day anytime soon.....diamonds, dinner, roses, and a night away!  I'm feeling a little spoiled right now, and I LOVE it!!

Back at it, Baby!

After 4 months of no kitchen, concrete floors, dust, no sink, plywood countertops, and 6 weeks of living out of a wine fridge the kitchen is almost done!!  Things have been so slow, but the week of Thanksgiving, several large variables (countertops, appliances, plumbing) fell into place, and made us have a working kitchen!  We are still lacking backsplash, undercounter lighting, lightrail, and some final touches (scribe, paint, windowseat cushion, etc), but for the most part it is complete!  Simply being able to use the sink, fridge, and stove make me happy!  Now if we can just get a coat of primer on the walls, I will be elated!!!

The Bar!

Gorgeous fresh, wreath from my grandparents :)

12 foot island!  Organization heaven!

I have made several meals in the kitchen now, which has been so exciting!  It is so nice not to have  to eat out every meal!  I even went to the farmers market yesterday and stocked up on fresh fruit and veggies, eggs and honey!  We love dinner guests - come on over :)

Cooking Gluten Free!

I just had to share what I have been doing all day!  Cooking like crazy!!  I am so tired of limited gluten free options, and dinner being an ordeal some nights because of it!  Now all of this food is freezer bound and ready for an easy, re-heatable dinner in the near future!  I must also say...I love my labeler!!!