That One Day, With the Hearts

I know there are many of you out there that disdain one of the three holidays that make February bearable.

I, on the other hand, figure that if Punxsutawney Phil (and please don't ask me how to pronounce that) doesn't pull through, at least there's the promise of red shiny hearts.

This year, although my time is cramped with other trivial things (i.e., work and school), I am really feeling the need to do the whole cutesy Lover's Day thing.  (I know, some of you are gagging as I type.)

Last year, this is what Valentine's Day looked like:

That's a pink mosquito net hanging from the ceiling with pink hearts cut out of used wrapping paper that I saved from Christmas.  The table cloth is a bed sheet folded in half.  I found some sparkly red paper hearts at the grocery store (the only V-day decoration they had), and wrote sappy love notes on the back.  I also found some New Year's paper and foil masks that I thought might serve us well for a romantic masquerade meal, but I couldn't see out the eye holes and Aaron's elastic snapped.  Oh well.  Top it off with some emergency candles, a bouquet of roses from Mr. B, and an "interesting" concoction of my own design for dinner, it was certainly a V-day to remember.  (But, all was not lost, Mr. B had made reservations the Friday before for an outdoor dinner at sunset, overlooking an inlet of the Indian Ocean.  I tried to return his volley, as you see above.  I'll let you decide if it was successful or not...)

So, due to my lack of resources last year, I thought it might be good to go all out this year...ish.  There's still the whole living-like-a-grad-student thing, so I'm trying to be resourceful.  And, lucky for me, the Internet is brilliant like that. So, I've come across some sources of inspiration, that require little more than what I already have and that I can do in not an exorbitant amount of time.  I'll share just a couple with you:

Find here.

Find here.

Find here.

Find here.

Find here. 

I'll be honest, the number of cutesy DIY websites out there is a little overwhelming.  And for this I-have-to-pick-the-best-ideas-out-there chick, sometimes, lest my head explodes, I just have to shut down the computer and walk away.

(And, yes, Mr. B already upstaged me again, by planning an early celebration yesterday.  But, at least this year we won't  have to use a bed sheet or mosquito net to decorate our house.)

Happy Weekend, everyone!