This Valentine’s Day, Dan was extra creative and put a little extra work into how he presented me with some of my favorite chocolates and messages of love. ♥ I was a little perplexed when I found these balloons in Mio’s room in the evening, with an accompanying note and needle that instructed me to pop the balloons.
Popping balloons is one of those things I kind of dread doing, but it was worth it to find what was on the inside… here’s a video! (Excuse my screams.)
A little hand reaching for the candy…
Sweet messages of love from inside the balloons!
Hubby gets an A+ for creativity!
Thank you Dan for a lovely Valentine’s surprise! 😀 He also treated me to lunch and dinner this weekend, so we could satiate our cravings for Thai and Vietnamese…
Eating at Natta Thai. Unfortunately, we’d eaten all our food before I remembered to take a picture.
For Valentine’s dinner on Sunday, I made spinach artichoke ravioli and for the special occasion, I made them heart-shaped! 🙂 They were large, but turned out pretty well!
They’re actually quite easy to make. Just follow the steps below:
Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut hearts out of wonton wrappers. If you have the time and resources to make homemade pasta dough, even better!
Brush the edges of the hearts with a beaten egg, and place another heart on top.
Continue sealing the ravioli in this manner.
Ready to be boiled! Super easy and very cute.
Bring water to a boil and boil the ravioli for 4 minutes. Drain and top with marinara sauce. I made some tomato basil sauce to go with the ravioli.I made cupid's hearts from grape tomatoes as a little side dish.
Jumbo heart-shaped spinach artichoke ravioli, accompanied by tomato cupid hearts and Dan's salad. (He helped with dinner, too!)
It’s Valentine’s Day! Dan surprised me with a bouquet of tulips (he caught on recently that I actually prefer tulip bouquets to rose ones) and although the day started out overcast and dreary, it brightened up with the lovely California sunshine by noon.
We spent yesterday baking and decorating these red velvet cupcakes for a Valentines potluck dinner party with friends:
We spent Valentine’s Day low-key this year with a quiet dinner at home, and then we walked over to the movie theater in downtown Berkeley to watch the movie Valentine’s Day. With an all-star cast and connected stories (Ã la Love Actually), it was a really cute romantic comedy. (Dan enjoyed it, too!) We recommend it.
Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine’s Day with their loved ones! 😀
It’s Valentines weekend! My friend Megumi just dropped off these super adorable homemade Valentine treats! Red velvet cakesters and Valentines cookies. I already had one of each, and they are simply amazing. Thank you Megumi for the goodies! We love them. 🙂
 Valentine treats from Megumi!
Dan and I really don’t have any special plans for the weekend — we have a Valentines potluck dinner with friends tomorrow evening (which I will be making my own treats for), but nothing fancy for actual Valentine’s Day on Sunday. We tend to put more emphasis on celebrating our anniversary and each other’s birthdays, so Valentine’s often sort of falls by the wayside. We will likely have a quiet little dinner at home, since every single couple will be going out to eat. Some see the day as a stinging reminder of disappointments and betrayals of past relationships, unrequited love, or loneliness… some are sickened by the consumerism that surround the holiday. But at the core, Valentine’s Day is a time to reflect on and appreciate not only our significant others but everyone dear to us in our lives. So let us celebrate! Here’s to love and togetherness.
To celebrate, I’m going to post some things I love (in no particular order). I will update as I think or more…
cupcakes
design
cherry blossoms
my parents
sushi
chinchillas
snow
my siblings
cupcakes
staying home
crafts
reading books
musicals
friends
baby back ribs
grandparents West Side Story
blogging
sprinkled donuts
music
Japanese dramas
baking
photographs
offbeat humor
irreverent humor
dry humor
shopping
ramen
traveling
weddings
childhood memories
fonts
Christian Bale (in The Dark Knight)
Sorimachi Takashi (in Virgin Road)
John Krasinski (in The Office)
Hugh Jackman (in his non-hairy roles)
Hayami Mocomichi (in everything)
Danny Wanny (in real life)
gelato
green tea ice cream Zoolander
peonies
carnivals and festivals
yakiniku
unique proposal stories
watching figure skating
Korean BBQ
frozen yogurt with mochi pieces
turkey legs
the DMV area (DC • Maryland • Virginia)
cooking Glee
Hokie football
Shiba Inus
scarves
Japan
chocolate
Anthropologie
karaoke
the beach
peking duck
the changing of seasons
Virginia Tech Hokies
Etsy
dim sum
DIY projects
mysteries
fascinators • hair accessories
care packages
board games
knitting + crocheting
