Love!

Valentine's Day has always been difficult for us to celebrate because it usually falls in the middle of the week instead of on the convenient weekend.  This year was no exception, so we celebrated Valentine's Day the Saturday before by going to see The King's Speech (which is absolutely fantastic if you haven't seen it yet) and going to have a nice romantic dinner at a local restaurant. We also exchanged gifts:

Colin got me this beautiful ruby bracelet to match the ruby necklace he got me our first Valentine's Day that we spent together as a married couple and some ruby stud earrings he got me last Christmas (he fondly calls it the "Ruby Collection").

Ruby bracelet from Colin

I opted for a more traditional love letter for Colin.  Any of you who know me know that my handwriting is atrocious and akin to that of a small child's, and I really wanted Colin to have something heartfelt and special as well as beautiful, so I enlisted the help of my friend Anna who has her own calligraphy business at http://calligraphybyanna.com/.  I sent her what I wanted the text of the letter to be, and she wrote it out on heavyweight paper and mailed it to Colin in time for Valentine's Day.  I know that this is a shameless plug for my friend's business, but she makes beautiful handcrafted paper gifts and calligraphy and I just love her work!  You can check out her website or also check out her Etsy store.  Doesn't her Shakespeare font just say "LOVE" to you??

Love letter

Colin has since traveled to Atlanta where he is spending the whole weekend clinicing Harrison High School's band as they prepare for the Georgia music festival.  He is very excited to be asked to clinic this group as it is the school at which he student taught and has great respect for their band program.  My loving husband, knowing that I am very sad when he leaves, surprised me a super cute flower arrangement delivered to the house today!  He is so thoughtful and I will be happy to have him home again on Sunday!

Flowers from Colin!