Some Valentine's Day Vignettes

I don't normally decorate for Valentine's Day - it was never a big holiday for me (yes I'm one of those bitter people that always called it a Hallmark Holiday (said in my best snob voice) when I was young and single, and even though I am now one half of a couple, I'm still not a fan).

But I was feeling good about some headway I'm making in giving our living room a mini face-lift (more on that soon), and figured, why the heck not.  I did some hunting around the house and came up with a few red candles and votives (btw - votive pluralized isn't a word? I'm getting the red squiggly as I type this and I'm now slightly annoyed at Webster and Oxford).

Right. Red stuff.  So I grabbed a few things and moved a few things around on our little TV console that we picked up a few months ago from Ikea.  For comparison, this is what it usually looks like (lots of greens and golds)

And now this is what it looks like:

I had some grand ideas to make some quirky red heart paper glasses for my owl but it just wasn't working out. So then I just cut a few up and tossed them into this footed dessert dish that houses our old corks and some driftwood I saved from my bachelorette up at Lake George this past summer.  I sprinkled a few more in the faux dirt on of my faux moss topiary on another end table and Voila! My Valentine's Day Vignettes were complete.

I kinda dig how simple it is.

That plate was a bridal gift from my maid of honor and everything else was either gifted or thrifted. The photo is from our trip to Napa Valley in 2009 - Tom's red shirt pops with everything else on the console.

We have some other red in the room - this Brooklyn print I gave to Tom for his birthday last year, as well as the dart board that we never use anymore.

We aren't big on souvenirs, but we did find pick up a few things while in South Africa for our honeymoon.  I love our wooden giraffe and the carved ostrich egg is the coolest.   The photos of our parents' weddings were displayed at our wedding and I love having them out now.  The moss and succulent wreath was another gift from one of my bridesmaids that I'm trying really hard not to kill entirely (didn't I grow up gardening with my mom??)

Did you do any decorating for Valentine's Day?  Is it a big holiday for you or are you like me and think of it as the official kickoff to start counting down to St Patrick's Day?  (That's 31 Days folks!!)