For the last couple weeks I'd planned to surprise Mr. Dishaholic (I'm sure he'll just love being called that) with a special Valentine's dinner. After all, this was our 10th Valentine's Day together (3 while dating & 7 married). I had come up with this elaborate plan to leave work early, pick up my needed supplies from the store, and go over to my parents' to prepare the meal so that he would not have any clue. My idea was to tell him that I'd made reservations for us at a restaurant and that we could just meet there after work. Only instead of me actually meeting him at the restaurant, I planned to call & tell him I was running a little late and to go ahead and go in to the restaurant and tell them we have reservations. In reality, I was going to drop off a card about 15 minutes before and have the host/hostess give him the card, which would tell him to meet me at our house in an hour. In the meantime, I would go to our house & get the table set up & finish the food prep. Woo! That makes me tired just thinking about it! Those were my plans anyway, but instead, it went something like this......
The weekend before Valentine's Day we were both visited by an unwanted guest...a stomach virus! Ugh! I was feeling somewhat better by Sunday, but not only did it put me behind on my planning & gathering supplies for the table, but it also left me feeling very tired. Knowing I was short on time and tired, Sunday evening I decided to forgo the surprise & let him know about the dinner. I gave him a card that asked him to be my valentine & join me for a special "10th Valentine's Day" celebration on Monday evening. I figured that would help reduce a little of the stress & give me more time to get things accomplished. It seemed good in theory anyway.
So Monday, I left work around lunch time & headed to pick up my supplies. What I thought was going to be a quick trip turned into a much longer trip as I ended up having to go to several stores to get everything I needed. Not to mention that when I got home I realized I had the wrong kind of flour! So back to the store I went!
To make a long story short & get on to the good stuff, let's just say that things took much longer than planned, and after much frustration, and several hours later I wasn't even close to having dinner prepared. In fact by 6 or 7pm, I only had the chocolate covered strawberries & oatmeal lace cookies finished (& that was with my poor hubby's help!). On top of all that, he was still feeling extremely sick. Oh & did I mention I was on call for work & got called out later in the evening & didn't get home 'til 4:30 am?! While memorable, it was definitely not the Valentine's night I had envisioned! So having said all that, we ended up having our Valentine's dinner tonight. I guess better late than never!
However, the one thing I did manage to complete by Valentine's evening was the tablescape.....after all, as long as there's a good tablescape, does it really matter what, or if, you eat? :)
My inspiration for this tablescape came from 2 sources. The first one was simply hearts..... I went around the house, looking through Christmas ornaments & other decorations, gathering all of the red hearts I could find (hence the name, "With All of My Heart(s)"). Of course, it was an excuse to purchase a few more, too! My second source of inspiration was the fact that this was our 10th Valentine's Day together so I wanted to make it special. Looking back through some old photos, I came across a few from our 2nd Valentine's Day, which just so happened to also be the first tablescape I ever put together! So I decided to use some of the same things for this tablescape as I did for that one!
First I started with a basic white tablecloth. On a recent trip to Target, I saw this red blanket with the hearts "punched out" on the ends & I knew it would be perfect for my table. Plus, it was only $4.99. You can't beat that!
At each place setting, I layered the heart plates on top of square red plates. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but I actually have a black dinner plate layered between the red plate & the black rhinestone charger.
I decided to use a couple of my heart ornaments as napkin rings.
Then I used the same glasses we used for our 2nd Valentine's Day! (They were painted by mother-in-law). Conveniently, they also served as our place cards since our names are on them.
For the centerpiece, I gathered some glass jars from around the house. I filled one with a bunch of red heart ornaments & topped it off with some ribbon. Another I filled with the chocolate covered strawberries, and the last one I filled with the oatmeal lace cookies. I added a couple ornaments to the tops as well.
All was going well, & then it happened! I was holding my very favorite heart ornament by the string, when the string suddenly broke & the heart fell to the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces! It broke my heart (get it? :) ). That was just one of the many mishaps on that memorable night!
I also added a few pictures of us during our dating years. Of course, it just wouldn't be complete without a picture of us sitting at the table that served as the inspiration for this one!
And you can't have a romantic dinner without candlelight! (These candles just so happen to be the very same ones we used before, too).
Our menu for the evening consisted of:
chicken tetrazzini (the same thing I cooked on our 2nd Valentine's Day)
garden salad
rolls
oatmeal lace cookies
chocolate covered strawberries
And last, but not least, sweet tea for my sweetie
After all this talk about our 2nd Valentine's Day (& my first ever tablescape), of course I had to include a picture of it. Do you see the similarities?
red/white heart plates - Kohls
red square plates - by Sonoma/Kohls (many years ago)
black plates- by Rosanna
rhinestone chargers - Michael's
silverware - Walmart (many years ago)
white napkins - Pier 1
(I can't remember where I got the red napkins from)
heart ornaments - Michael's & Hobby Lobby
glass jars - Hobby Lobby
red blanket "tablecloth" - Target
I'm joining with Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for
