we've got a pinterest kind of love.

my husband laughs a little bit at how much i've... ahem... utilized the very special entity that is pinterest. while i do think it can be a bit of a trap you get stuck in, pinning idea after idea, beautiful visual inspiration ad nauseum, it can also be a great jumping off point for your own ideas. [or a great resource for something you really are at a loss at, like me & cooking!]

well. truthfully, i constantly think of him with many of the ideas i see, & when i found myself pinning about 4  or 5 little ideas for his valentine, i decided this was the year for small & homemade instead of trying to decide what was the best & most affordable gift from his amazon wish list. i think once packaged all together, they turned out sweet, thoughtful, & a little cheesy, just like a valentine should be!

first things first, i saw this card. it can be tough to find a manly valentine card & i really loved it because of the vellum envelope & simplicity. i tweaked it a little by using a kraft notecard i already had and ended up writing the little phrase since i couldn't find my tiny letter stamps at the last minute. also, we just moved so i thought it had a sweet extra meaning- we've had some really cool travels together & i would follow this man to the ends of the earth & he knows it.

original idea seen via swoon

i know the 'i dig you' shovel with candy is a little kiddo-ish, but it immediately made me think of him because it was one of the first things he said to me right before we started dating that indicated he was interested in being more than just friends. the shovel came with a little bucket from the dollar tree [yellow is his favorite color] & i made a simple little shipping tag for it.

the idea is apparently originally from tori spelling's craft blog... who knew, right?

next were some fun little valentine mad libs, idea via a blog appropriately enough called dinner & a love story. we had done some in the car recently & these ones were more like a middle-of-your-busy-life love note- pretty appropriate for us right now. i printed out 2 copies & had one ready that i had filled out & one for him to fill out about me. i packaged them in little glassine envelopes with little kraft labels to indicate who's who & we traded and read them during dinner.

there were a couple of other little things i wanted to add, like cheerwine in a glass bottle, but in the end i added some of his favorite candy & was happy with how it turned out.

 ironically enough, pinterest also played a role in the epic gift he got for me! first off- i'm a strictly target/payless/old navy kind of gal when it comes to shoes. i don't spend much, so i rarely get good quality. i'd been complaining about how i'm wearing out all of my favorite shoes & how few of them fit right now while i'm pregnant, so my sweet husband went straight to my pretty to wear board & saw these awesome yellow nine west stunners:

he even did a little sleuthing to make sure what size i'm currently wearing & look what was waiting for me right after breakfast:

real shoes. foot perfection in butter soft real leather, mustard yellow.

i do so love this guy. happy valentine's day!