The perfect table for two THREE!

Why so smily and happy? I’ll tell you why.

Wes left for work early on Thursday morning, and I got to work with romancing up our house! By the time he would get home, it would be Marvin Gaye central in here!

So, I’m running around the house picking up, watching Adrian and crafting little Valentine’s Day themed crafts…

(Like this heart chain that I hung in the livingroom)

……..and I hear the doorbell ring.

It could either be another dang salesman or something from my Honey and I was glad that for once, it was not the salesman.  Believe it or not, yes, it was a surprise, because our Valentine’s Day celebration is this weekend in Vegas!

Oh the life of a spoiled girl

There’s something about teddy bears that never grow old 

After getting my package I was determined that my fiancée would not “Out-gift” me (like he always does). So, I got to work again with a little more pep in my step!

I created our own romantic restaurant at home!

I named it Amore Ristorante (Italian for “Love Restaurant”) because we were having very Americanized pasta. The sign also says Featuring head chef, Christine Kay, Please wait to be seated.

I taped it on the inside of my paper rose wreath, and hung it on the exterior of the door so Wes could see it before he walked in…

I printed out menus that said “Valentine’s Day Special” and made place settings like we were at a formal sit down dinner.

 A perfect table for two!

Buon Appetito!

So, I planned to feed Adrian and let him play in his room with his toys while we ate dinner. Everything was going as planned until Wes walked in the door…

Wes was totally suprised and his smile was pricesless!

However, as soon as he started talking, Adrian’s daddy radar went off and it was break down central until he picked him up. He is always so excited to see him when he gets home (a daddy’s boy).

We just had to make some small changes to our table and then it was perfect!

Now you see why I’m the happiest girl? What a wonderful night!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day like I did!

Tata,

Christine Kay

Love Quotes on Pillows #2

Happy Valentine’s Day Love Birds! 

First off I have to say to my dearest…

Everyday you look at me like you just saw a shooting star, and you’ve made me the happiest woman on earth! You are my sun and stars…moon of my life!

For Valentine’s Day I had to make my second “Love Quotes on Pillows” post! This time I glittered up a regular ol pillow case for the bedroom! If you are looking for the full tutorial on how to do this click here and it will take you there! 🙂

I followed the exact steps as I did in my tutorial and free-handed the stars and half-moon. 

 I will be making a special surprise, and preparing a romantic dinner for my fiancée and I! However, our real treat is a night in Vegas this weekend! I can hardly wait!

What is everyone up to this Valentine’s Day?

xoxo,

Christine Kay

Related articles

• Love Quotes on Pillows #1 (thislifeaftersingle.wordpress.com)

Mr. Potato Head writes a love letter.

Here’s a different and unique way to personalize some of your DIY project! Potato stamps! This is old school, I remember making potato stamps as a kid!  They are fun, easy, family friendly AND you can make any shape you want!

Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner I thought I’d go with a love theme. 🙂

I used just a plain ole Russet Potato or baking potato.

Rinse it off really good and start by cutting off the ends. I peeled some of the skin off the ends but, like to keep some of it on cause its a good gripper when you’re stamping.

After that I used a small kitchen knife to carve out my shapes.

(The entire time I kept wishing I had a pumpkin carving kit, if you have one, get it out, it would be PERFECT!)

Use caution when you are carving it out and make sure to keep it steady on a flat surface, don’t hold it in your hand if you can help it.

My first shape was an outline of a heart! Then I flipped it around to the opposite side and carved some more.

This time carving the word “Love”.

(This stamp I carved for photo purposes only! If you are carving words you need to do them in reverse, that way it will be the mirror image on your paper.)

See how the potato is still very wet and starchy? After, I carved out my design I let in soak in cold water for about an hour. That will pull most of the starch out of the potato and make your carving more solid. (Same technique as if you were making french fries!)

Then you are ready to stamp! Just dry it off really well before sticking it in the paint.

I’m gonna stick with the original Valentine’s Day colors for this project! Red, White and Black.

You can make your print light by dabbing it really good or you can make it bold like mine!

How cool is that?!?

I took it a step further and made a Valentine’s Day banner out of  left over craft paper!

There’s also, some of those beautiful paper roses I made in an earlier post!

Do you remember making these when you were younger?

Try it out! Mr. Potato Head won’t mid a bit. 🙂

xoxo,

Christine Kay

 

I’ll dream of a dream of you.

Today is the day that my family will say their goodbye’s to my Nanny and her physical self. My Nanny passed away on the 20th of December, right before Christmas. It had been many years…way too many years since I had seen her but your feelings for a person like her could never fade or change.

Not seeing her for that long and then realizing you will never see her again is a hard pill to swallow but, I chopped the pill up and I’m swallowing it piece by broken piece.

It comes with the territory thought doesn’t it?…It comes with loss. There’s always more you could have done, something you wish you would have said, more time you wish you could have had. The psychologist in me knows it’s a process.

My family is all in Georgia and I am here in California. It’s times like these that I wish I wouldn’t have gone so far away but, you have to follow your heart and take chances.  I just wish I could have been there during this time for some closure.

Would it had given me any closure?  I don’t know…. At times I don’t even think so.

I think closure comes from within.

My twin had a dream that Nanny came to her like an Angel telling her that she is ok and she loves us.

I believe it was her.

I know that she has a lot of people to see.  I just hope one day she gets to come see me.

❤ Christine Kay ❤

Suga Booga

She was a vibrant and loving woman with kind, smiling eyes. 

She gave soft smooches and her hugs were always tight.

With her  thick southern accent she loved to call the little ones “Suga Booga”

I loved when she would sing songs and tell me stories while we swung together on her front porch.

I would snuggle her feathery white hair and hold her soft hands.

Even her hands told a story, she lost the tip of her finger working in a sugar mill as a young adult. She used to wiggle it and call it her nub and I’d laugh.

She was a hard-working woman who did  everything she could for her family. The kind of woman to really look up to. 

She taught me how to show big love through small things like cooking.

I will miss seeing her in her kitchen while I sat on the chair in the corner watching her.

She was a great baker, chicken fryer and sweet tea maker.

Like any true Southern woman she had a love for gardening and she was proud of her flowers.

I will miss our strolls along the lake behind her house to the Flower Nursery, where she worked from time to time.

The kids used to run to the dock at the lake and go fishing. I don’t think anyone ever caught anything from that little pier, it was just a part of being there.

 She used to say a lot of  one-liners like “Bless your heart” and she always said she was “older than dirt”. 

She was funny. 

She used to drive like a “Bat outta hell”, drank black coffee like water and smoked unfiltered Lucky Strikes. 

She was a rebel.

She liked to watch movies and oo7 was her favorite but mostly because of Pierce Brosnan, her heart-throb. 

She raised a perfect gentleman in my father and taught him that no matter what, there is nothing more important than family. These values she taught him and he has passed to me and my sisters.

She was my Nanny and she brought so much joy into my life.

Her love was truly one of a kind.

Even though my heart is broken from losing her, I am comforted to know that she is an angel looking down on all of us from heaven.

Nanny,

 I love you to the moon and back and will miss you dearly. I will hold on tight to these favorite memories of you until I see you again in heaven.

Rest with the Angels,

Chrissy ~your little Suga Booga

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal”