On We Go!

 Yesterday's storms have passed and, thankfully, they weren't quite as bad for us as originally predicted...no tornadoes in our area although, the prediction was scary enough that my son-in-law came and picked me up and took me back to their house to ride it out. Although the HUGE oak trees umbrella-ing my house are beautiful, they are a cause of concern when winds up to 70 miles an hour were the prediction. And, my entire neighborhood is full of the same sized trees so even just falling limbs often wipe out our power. Thankfully, none of that even happened (except for a lot of smaller downed limbs to pick up) so it is back to life as usual...which today meant taking pictures and starting our Valentine tour. Once again, I will apologize for the photos. My "much more camera savvy" sister-in-law is coming on Friday and I am going to see if she can tell me what I might have done to a setting on my camera to produce the effect I seem to be getting. Hopefully the next post will be clear as a bell. Lol

The porch still has the poinsettias...they're red so I am sort of OK with them but as soon as I get a chance to get to the nursery, they will be changing as they just shout "Christmas" to me.

I love this image that I downloaded, printed and framed...I use it every year and I think I've told you that I use it because it reminds me of myself and my cousins when we were so much younger. The little girl second from the left looks just like me...I had that haircut at one point and I'm pretty sure I had that coat and those shoes as well. It just speaks to me and makes me happy.

This sequined heart is one of my favorite crafts that I ever did with my grand children. It really is so simple and can't be done wrong but I think it makes the perfect "statement" for the holiday.

And I still love my vintage Valentine wreath that I made.

I don't know if I've ever posted a picture of the doors closed...I had them like this when the dogs were here so they wouldn't race to the front windows every time they heard a sound and I had forgotten how much I actually like them. Of course, I go back and forth between the rooms and the other end of the house so often that it doesn't make sense to keep opening and closing them but when they're needed, I think they're pretty. There wasn't any barrier here when we bought the house and we wanted something we could close off so I went in search of French doors. Of course, the opening isn't the standard size for French doors so even back then, a custom door would have cost a fortune. I remember how happy I was when I found these doors unfinished at the Home Depot. I'm not a bi-fold door fan but with the glass that these doors have, I could kind of be tricked into them being French. I was also into finishing all sorts of unfinished furniture back then so a coat of stain and some finishing wax and we were good to go! I actually came very close to painting them black a year or so ago after falling in love with a room done by Nate Berkus and featuring black windows and doors but I think I'm glad I stopped myself in time. Lol

 So that is the living room and porch for this year. I did change a few things up and I'm hoping that I will come across some new Valentine iseas soon so I can do even more changing.

The rest of my week is pretty much spoken for so I probably won't be back for a few days. Until I see you again, stay safe and stay tuned.