Valentine's Day

Valentines day is not a very big holiday in our house, but seeing as Mitch has been gone for so long, and we haven't seen each other and wouldn't be for a while. I thought Valentine's this year was especially important for him, for us.
I really wanted to surprise him (for once!), so I kept everything on the down low. The biggie was remembering to pay for the shipping in cash, not with the card. Since he is obsessive over looking over our budget and therefore looks at our transactions all the time.
Anyway, so I asked Rina if she would want to help me decorate some sugar cookies because doing them by myself seemed too lonely. I had seen this cute idea of doing one cookie the sits on top saying "I love you like..." and the rest of the cookies list what I love him like.

 

Then to send them over, I wanted to make sure they got there in one piece. So I found some little boxes and bubble wrap from the dollar store. Which worked fabulously, I think he said only one broke?

Then inside the USPS box, I did the same thing I did with his birthday box. I found some heart wrapping paper in the seasonal dollar section at target (Whoo!), I looked in a few places for wrapping paper and couldn't find any! So I was happy that when I did, it was only a dollar :)

Also in the dollar section they had these little planter pots with soil and seeds, and it was just so perfect and cute that I had to get this.

 

(See what I did there? They're forget-me-nots! :P)

Also in the box was some Andes mints chocolates, these whack a pack self-inflating valentines balloons (They are so awesome! I was so excited, and wished they had them for Birthdays too)..

I also wanted to take a picture with the dogs with each of us holding signs that all together say, "We ♥ You!". Unfortunately, the day I decided to take the pictures, the dogs were being so bad on their leashes, wouldn't listen to me and were just being bad. On top of it all, it was super windy, my hair was flying everywhere, I didn't have a hair tie. So I just took the dogs photos individually, then decided to take my own picture at home, without the wind or the nice green background. Oh well. That's when I decided it would be a better option to do a little scrapbook-y type photo. Instead of doing individual pictures in a frame that had three small photo slots next to each other. This is what I came up with:

Anyway, I can't remember if there was anything else. It's been a while since I've thought of the package. Anyway, it was a fun box to put together, and he was definitely surprised! Makes me feel good that he can brag to the people in his office about stuff like that. 

The finishing touch; just so he would know (if the box got there just a little too early) that it was for Valentine's day.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's day and took full advantage of your sweethearts being home and able to celebrate, even if just a little bit.

Happy Valentine's Day ♥

I'm embarrassed to show you this, but it's a must

A couple weeks ago I saw a pin on Pinterest (If you haven't checked it out yet, you should! its awesome, but addicting) on a miracle carpet stain remover.

For those of you that know, our carpet has a couple of nice big stains. I had just tried to not think or notice them too much, thinking "eventually we'll get a new carpet, so I'll ignore the stains and hope no one notices them (Yeah, right!)". Anyway, so I saw this pin that was super easy, and seemed too good to be true, but I figured I would only really need to buy two things, versus about a million random ingredients to mix together for other "miracle" carpet stain removers.

Excuse the terrible photos, I haven't exactly mastered Mitch's big ol' special professional camera.
Here is the horribly embarrassing part: 

The Before

Yikes! Those were the stains that I put our coffee table over. haha.

 And..

Here is The After!  

 That's right folks, that is the exact same spot on my carpet as the first photo! Amazing, right?!

Here's what you need:

• Water
• Ammonia
• spray bottle
• towel
• a clothes iron

In the spray bottle, do a 50/50 mix of hot water (the hottest your tap will go worked fine for me), and ammonia. I found a jug of it at my local dollar store. (gotta love dollar stores!) 

After making your bottle, get your iron and towel. 

Then pick your stain and spray away. I just about soaked my stains, and then put down the towel and then ironed away right at the spot. Immediately the stains started lifting. I did go over the stains a couple of times, to make sure it was totally gone. 

Here is what my towel looked like after I was all done

 Pretty crazy right?

I thought it was pretty fun too, seeing the stains lift up so quickly and effectively. I had ALMOST wished I had more stains to take out, I loved the immediate gratification. I am so happy that I won't cringe when my coffee table is moved and we have company over, as well as hoping they don't notice the other stains in the living room.