HomeStyle: Ways to Be Romantic at Home
Friday, February 11, 2011
You can think of a thousand reasons not to go out on Valentine’s Day. You are on a budget, it’s a work/school night, the restaurants will be packed... okay, you win. Staying home could be a much better idea anyway. You can do this with your family or sweetheart any ol’ time, not just for Valentine’s Day. As a matter of fact, if your Monday is looking mighty busy, why not have your big ‘celebration’ on Sunday instead? Your call.
Your ‘At Home’ Party
Set The Stage - Send out invitations. Whoever. Ask the love in your life, kids, parents or friends to come. Valentine’s Day is a day to tell all of those you love that you, well, that you love them! How? E-mail, call or cut out paper hearts. Write the time and place on them and slip them under their doors or in their mailboxes.
Set the Mood - Get that blazing fire going in the fireplace or light some pretty candles all around. Get out the munchies or hors d'oeuvres and mix your cocktails. For the adults make a batch of Martinis and the kids can have a good old Shirley Temple (2 parts Ginger Ale, 1 part orange juice, a hit of juice from the maraschino cherry jar and a few of those cherries). Put some music on and keep that television off.
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Set the Fun - This is when you give out your Valentine’s Day gifts.
- How about a book of poetry for your sweetie? Or if he/she’s not the mushy type, pick up The Little Black Book of Cocktails at Barnes & Noble and put it to good use right then. (PS - stock some of your favorite drink ingredients in the house!)
- While you are there, buy the kids Valentine’s books such as Valentine’s Day in Vicarstown - Thomas the Tank Engine, Amelia Bedelia’s First Valentine, or Valentine Princess (The Princess Diary Series by Meg Cabot). Cuddle up
- For a change of pace, run over to Pow! Science! in either Wakefield or Providence and give some games as gifts and you can play after dinner.
Set the Table - If you have a plain white table cloth use that and sprinkle red M&M candies or candy hearts on your table to make it festive. As a centerpiece, buy some flowers at your supermarket (they are great!), cut them to a height where they’ll spread out loosely in a wide mouthed vase. Add red and/or white candles (Pier One has a great selection and a few great ones on sale plus some really sweet Valentine’s decorations), plain white plates and you are done. Too easy, right?
For dinner, make your sweetheart(s) a favorite meal. That will prove to them that your love them! For dessert, you can whip this quick batch of homemade Valentine’s Day cupcakes or a cake for dessert. If you don’t have any pretty cake or mini cake pans make a run over to Williams Sonoma at Providence Place Mall and get the mini cakes pans or just use a cupcake pan with pink liners. These little cakes always pleases.
Cynthia Bogart is a Regional Editorial Editor for Better Homes & Gardens Magazines and the Editor-in-Chief of the www.TheDailyBasics.com, a website dedicated to one quick magazine like article a day on homestyle, lifestyle and youstyle. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter. Cynthia will also co-hosting a radio show, At The Table, which will be hitting the airwaves in the next few weeks.
Photo, top: Bunny Cakes.
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