Happy Valentine's Day...

Blurry photo...sorry

I want to send out some love on this Valentine's Day to all of you who visit the blog.  I love reading your comments, and count the blog friends I've come to know over the years as friends in real life too.  

I found this wreath and unpainted letters at Joann's recently.  I've been wanting to do something different with the mantel decor for awhile, so I splurged.  (Though, of course, I used coupons and made the most practical choices possible.)  I actually bought more letters than just these, and will show soon when I take down the 'love' at the end of the month.  I already had white paint to paint the letters.  

The wreath is an artificial boxwood wreath.  The white flowers on the wreath are ones I use frequently in lots of ways.  The greenery on the wreath is so dense, that I just tucked the flowers in among it and they stayed quite securely without glue or being on picks, though probably not well enough if I was hanging it outside subject to wind.  This way, though, I can quickly and harmlessly remove them later to change out decor.

The potted hydrangea was a Valentine gift to us from Kasey & Beau (along with some yummy chocolate covered strawberries...mmmmm).  The little Westie on the left end is a vintage cast iron door stop that a sweet friend gave me years ago.

Do you change household decorations seasonally?  I get bored looking at the same thing for too long, and start yearning to gather objects from around the house to create a new vignette.  I mostly stick to the mantel.  

As retirement looms in the next few years, I have been thinking about downsizing.  Looking at house plans that are smaller, but still have storage that would allow decorations to be easily accessible to the living space (among other things that are subjects for a whole other post).