Category Archives: Holidays

Romantic Valentine’s Day Mantel

One of my very favorite things about our new place is the amazing white brick fireplace and mantel. Not that I didn’t love the faux-mantel shelf in our Burbank apartment, but it is beyond thrilling for me to have a few square feet of space I can decorate and redecorate to my heart’s content!

Once we took down the Christmas decorations, I wanted to create a mantel that was of a more romantic sentiment in honor of our anniversary in January, as well as Valentine’s Day this week. For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you already got a sneak peek of the final Valentine’s mantel, but here it is in all of its lovey-dovey glory! :)

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Walker got me this amazing vintage marquee ampersand for Christmas!

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Roses from our garden and a STUNNING vase we received as a wedding gift.

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The first wedding photos we (finally!) printed!

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The You & Me banner came from our wedding decor!

For our first non-Christmas mantel in the new place, I would say it’s not too shabby! I am going to be a maniac with this thing…! :)

Valentine’s Day Recap

I  hope you all had a lovely and love-filled Valnetine’s Day yesterday! :)

After pulling an all-nighter for school, I was afraid that I would sleep through the holiday. Luckily, I did not and thank goodness because it was such a nice night.  When I got home from school, I found a ProFlowers box waiting for me on the doorstep! I opened it to find two dozen peach, orange, pink, and cream roses from my Valentine. They are so stunning! They haven’t opened up yet so I will post pictures of them in a few days once they are at their fullest. When Walker arrived home from work, we exchanged gifts (okay, that’s a lie… I gave him his gift on Wednesday after work but that would have made telling this story more difficult so let’s pretend it was last night). He got me a gorgeous satin robe and nightgown (in pink of course!). I have been wanting a new robe and to class up my PJ style for a while now so this was so perfect!SatinRobe1SatinRobe2

I have mentioned it before but Walker loves our succulents that we have in the back yard. I have sometimes heard him refer to them as his “pets” and “friends.” Maybe we need to get out more… ;)  So for his V-Day gift, I handmade a heart-shaped concrete planter (and so can you! I will do another post shortly with the information) and planted two succulents inside. In addition, I went to Ikea and bought a new shelf for all of the plants in the backyard. I know that the $7 DIY Plant Stand was a good idea at the time but a year later, it wasn’t looking so hot. Particle board furniture was not made to live outside. Shield your eyes if you don’t want to see an ugly, dilapidated DIY project before it went to its grave.OldPlantStand

I assembled the shelves, arranged all of our plants, and even added a new storage bin and lantern to spruce things up. I also plan to get him a few new pots for some of the succulents that have gotten huge but we will pick those out together later. I surprised him by having the whole thing set up and waiting for him when he got home from work!NewPlantShelf HeartPlanter1 HeartPlanter2

Our original plan for the night was to cook a meal together but we were too tired so went out to our favorite little sushi place for a delicious sushi feast! When we got home, we cracked open a bottle of wine from our favorite vineyard and relaxed. I lounged in my new satin sleepwear, feeling like a queen! It was the perfect night after a long couple of days doing school work and so nice to spend some QT with my valentines (man & dog)! :)

Wine Country Weekend Getaway

I want to start by thanking everyone who voted for Our Cozy Cubbyhole in the Apartment Therapy Homies! It really meant a lot to us and we are hoping that a few of the new readers stick around! You are the BEST! :)

I  know this post is long overdue but I don’t think it is ever too late to share pictures of GORGEOUS wine country! For our two year anniversary, Walker surprised me with a weekend getaway in wine country that was booked for my birthday weekend in January! We intended to use the trip to celebrate our anniversary, his birthday, and my birthday all in one weekend (since they are all within 10 days of each other!).

We headed out of LA as soon as we got off of work on Friday night, arriving in Solvang around 9:10. Squeaking in under their 9:15 last-seating policy (phew!), we had an amazing steak dinner at The Hitching Post that completely blew us away! I think it was honestly the best Filet Mignon I have ever had… it was melt-in-your-mouth tender. On top of that, the french fries and pinot noir were knockouts on their own! They even gave me a little birthday ice cream to finish off the meal. We walked out of there in some sort of incredible meat-haze with a bottle of wine to-go.  We checked into the hotel and spent hours talking and drinking wine in our room until the wee hours of the morning. It was literally a perfect birthday evening. :)WineCountry1 WineCountry2

On Saturday we prepared ourselves for a day of wine tasting with a delightful (-ly filling) lunch. Then we figured it was noon so we were allowed to start drinking! ;) We went to five tasting rooms in town over the next several hours, where we chatted with locals and got spoiled by all of the great pourers. After all of the tastings, we decided it was time to take the edge off of the wine buzz with some chow! Once we had some dinner in our bellies, we finished off the night back at one of the tasting rooms from earlier in the day (The Good Life) with a glass of wine and live music!

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We woke up Sunday morning and needed an amazing/giant Danish breakfast to kick any remaining effects of the day before. ;) So we stuffed our faces with aebleskivers, an omelet with Danish sausage and Havarti cheese for me, an omelet with Nordic lobster and Havarti cheese for Walker, and my signature three-beverage hangover cure (water, OJ, and coffee). We wandered around the town for a while enjoying the fresh, cool air (there was ice on all of the fountains! So rare for California!) and the peace & quiet. We headed home and arrived mid-afternoon so that we had time to unwind (i.e. watch a billion hours of The Sopranos) before getting back to the real world.

It was such an amazing weekend and such a perfect weekend getaway. We love it so much up in wine country that one of these times we may not come back! Just warning you now. ;)

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