Welcome, friends, to our home! I have been transitioning our home for winter while also bringing in some Valentine’s decor. Today’s post is a bit long, so please grab a nice cup of your favorite hot beverage while we take a tour…
I brought out the Waverly pillowcases I made back while we were living in our Heartland RV to mix and match with the soft French toile and bold red plaid layered in this room. These pillowcases, and the new sweetheart vines I found this winter at Hobby Lobby, were my inspiration for this year’s Valentine’s decor.
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Our Valentine’s wreath revamp
When I pulled out our old Valentine wreath, I realized it needed a refresh. Not much, but some of the ruby-coated plastic had peeled off some of the little red baubles. I wanted to try and minimize that issue. I gave this wreath a quick rinse to remove dust and let it dry beforehand. 🙂
So, off to Hobby Lobby I went… 😉
In the seasonal section, I looked for whatever jumped out as a good fit for adding to this wreath. That is where I found these little wrapped vines. Just by affixing one length of sweetheart vine to our tired Valentine’s wreath, made this wreath just a touch prettier!
I love this season! I think this heart wreath turned out well.
I also pulled out a second Valentine’s grapevine wreath from my stash which I created and decorated a number of years back. I was inspired to decorate our hallway with it and I felt it would look nice hanging over this antique French mirror.
Which leads us to…
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The Hallway of Love
In every house we have owned, I like sharing family photographs in our hallways for us to enjoy each day. I thought I’d share some of our family photos with you! They are a lovely reminder that family is everything!
Here are my father’s adoptive parents, Luis & Maria Rosina. They did anglicize their names to Louis & Rosa after emigrating from Italy in the early 1900’s.
Here are my parents, Gene & Ginny, on the left, and my inlaws, Pete & Gini. Pete passed in 2020 during the height of the COVID epidemic; however, he actually passed from kidney and heart issues and not from COVID. Gramma Gini is still happily enjoying being back in California after those quick three years here in Texas. 🙂
I hope to share some incredible photos with you soon of an IOOF event she is attending soon. It’s a black-tie and formals affair and the place is stunning inside! Can’t wait to share and Gini gets all the credit! <3
My youngest brother and his bride, Tom & Kim, on their special day. I loved Kim’s wedding dress and she looks so pretty here!
My middle brother Gene & his bride Linnea. They married three months after we did in a New Year’s wedding, which was a lovely ceremony, btw. Winter weddings are really special!
Love all of these family photos!!!!!
Our wedding portrait ~ My mother really wanted this particular photograph taken. She had the idea to create a wall in her and Daddy’s bedroom where four matching framed portraits would go. She loved seeing us all on our wedding days so happy!
My deaf brother Frank and his wife separated about a year after they were married, and I don’t have a photograph of them together, but Mom did! 😉
When she passed, this photograph came home with me.
One of the school psychologists (and a good friend!), who worked at one of the schools I working at here in North Texas had a basket of sweet sayings she gave her visitors. I chose this for one for myself, as well as a bunch of other cute sayings which were given away to students over time.
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Decorating our Living Room
Moving on to our new library shelves… From my Valentine’s box, I pulled out everything we had that was “heart” related… 😉 I also brought in these sweetheart vines found at Hobby Lobby recently.
Then it was time to play!
The little heart with cut-out writing on it ended up with “The Girls” over on my writing desk.
I haven’t shown our living room in a while so it’s nice to share it while it is clean. 😉 On the two-seater settee, I plopped down a favorite needlepoint pillow stitched with wool threads. I like to use it here on this settee in the wintertime as it creates a cozy reading spot. A tartan plaid throw adds a large dose of color and is also handy for sleepy nap-times… zzzzzzzz. 😉
I think a lot us felt the same way this winter in that we didn’t necessarily want to put away our Christmas trees yet. I’ve seen several other bloggers keeping theirs out to share for Valentine’s Day. I redecorated this right away after New Year’s Day, but I just haven’t shared it with y’all yet.
Here’s a sneak peek while we tour the living room. 😉
Here is the living room as a whole. I swapped out the Christmas Santa and angel pillows for more French Country ones.
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Saving the Best for Last ~ Our Living Room Shelves
I began with the higher shelves first. Not much done to the top shelf, and this is the second shelf down. I wanted just a wintery scene and all these snowmen, including the one made by one of our kids long ago, brings in that vibe.
Here is how the very top shelf looks now. I moved the soup tureen up to this shelf from it’s placement in the fall shelf post.
I’m sure I’ll bring it down to reuse this spring, but for now the hydrangeas need to go up out of line-of-sight. Too summery for this time of year.
This is how I think when decorating. Do you do this?? 😉
But something was missing from that wintertime shelf… To me, there was too much “white space” in the background, oddly enough. 😉
I walked into the kitchen and saw the fluffy Poly-Fil which was used around the Christmas scene on the kitchen counter, so I grabbed that. On that day, I was in the middle of decorating these shelves while simultaneously putting away Christmas decor.
I love how the “snow” placed behind in the back of this mini vignette really pulls this shelf’s wintertime vignette together! This is exactly what this scene needed.
Kinda goes with our mini-Snowmageddon going on outside this weekend (January 24th, as I write this).
The next two shelves’ decor really emphasizes Valentine’s Day with pink rose-strewn teacups and chocolate pot, French decor and hearts of all sorts…
I figured out how to use the “Gallery” tool on WP recently and I am enjoying creating these little groupings of photographs for you!
Our final shelf is a bit of a mish-mash; however, somehow it works! A juxtaposition of lights-vs-darks, tall-vs-short, dried roses and punched paper doilies with 1990’s cupids stamped on them and tea things conversationally cry out “Valentine’s!”
One final look at our completed living room hutch’s shelves. I am really loving how they turned out!
Let me know what you think about this Valentine post, what was your favorite thing about it?, and if you have kept your tree out as a bit of honoring Christmas while now celebrating Valentine’s Day of Love…
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Warm Valentine hugs,
