Surprise!

 Surprise! I'm back. Well, truth be told, I never left. I was supposed to be in St. Pete visiting daughter #1 and going to see Steve Martin/Martin Short tomorrow night in Clearwater. My daughter called last night to tell me the performance had been cancelled due to the wild fires in California. They are hoping to reschedule so I'm keeping my fingers crossed this will still happen but it won't happen today. We thought about going ahead with the visit anyway but, since she was just here, we decided to wait and see if we get a quick reschedule date instead. Of course, since I was already looking forward to so many things, I needed a pick-me-up today-not to mention food because I had pretty much emptied the fridge.

And so I set off on some errands and just happened to happen upon some things.

I love that heart shaped mini-crock I found at the $ Spot in Target. I also grabbed that thick wood unfinished heart in the Target craft section...thinking it might be the base for a vintage Valentine. I also picked up a heart shaped dough bowl and a heart shaped cheese board-thinking I had better have some kind of a Valentine get-together this year to use my new finds. 

And the I found the "real touch" tulips. They are beautiful and I couldn't resist! I'm also thinking ahead to another faux tile heart and I picked up some packages of craft flowers. Everything I bought was on sale-a must at HL.

I again found the last vintage metal standup in $Tree. This one is Mother Goose for Easter. I'm pretty sure they must have had Peter Rabbit also so I will probably try again soon to find it. And then I found the vintage Valentine yard stakes-I'm a sucker for anything vintage.

I have absolutely no idea what I will do with them but I know I won't stick them in the ground so I set out to snap off the stake. Since these things cost $1.25 each, I figured it would be pretty easy to snap off the stake. I did the cupid first and it took all of about a minute and it was off. Of course, it was soldered on pretty tight right at the bottom so I did cause a small hole there but that is easily fixed with some spackle. And then I turned to the dog and I had to eat my words about shoddily made because that stake was meant to stay on that dog FOREVER. Of course, once I've made up my mind about something, there's no turning back so, after much muscle and maybe a few not so nice words, I managed to get that stake off as well. Of course, he has a much larger hole but again, nothing I can't jerry rig. Of course now that I have them off of their stakes, what am I going to do with them...that is the question.

Since I am not going to be out of town, I will be able to keep daughter #2's dog for them as she and her family are off for a winter vacation. She'll be here tomorrow so I am glad I bought some craft supplies and lots of food. She and I can be hunkered down and try to stay warm for the next week with the cold we're predicted to have.

Hoping that I will soon be able to get some pictures and start sharing the Valentine's tour. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.