Valentine's Day

We spent a lazy morning in bed. Hubby gave me my Valentine's Day gift - couples massage, manicure and pedicure gift certificate. He's been listening to me. I love it (even if he didn't like having to give a gift certificate). Made it to Freebirds for lunch (so good and so missed with us on Paleo). Then we drove to Art Barn in Joshua for my Valentine's Day gift for hubby. I had no idea how he would react to it, but I remember loving to paint pottery. Ceramics has always been a favorite media for creation for me. I had picked out a lovely heart design composed of vines, hearts, and leaves. It took us awhile and some help to figure out how to transfer it to the plate he picked out. The tracing was quite frustrating. Then we proceeded to paint three coats of red glaze onto it. We're really hoping it doesn't look like a bunch of elementary school children painted it after it is fired. But it should look good from a distance anyway, right? Then we decided to finish it off with three coats of black for the borders and base. Above is the depiction of it finished. I'll go back to get it in a week, and we will see how it looks finished. All in all, it was a good trip. We learned some things that we would do differently next time (i.e. paint the background first, then trace on and paint the design). We had fun. Husband said he would do it again.

The other highlight of the day was definitely dinner. We had an almost completely Paleo meal (except for the alcohol). Learned how to make an almost Paleo caprina with lemon soda instead of Sprite. Made dinner together. Husband made chipotle cream and cilantro pesto dipping sauces and a salad, while I constructed skewers of beef marinated in garlic, olive oil, ground chipotle pepper, salt, lemon juice, and unsweetened cocoa powder and tomatoes. It reminded me of exactly why I detest leftovers with their congealed fat. My family doesn't understand how blood and gore doesn't effect me, but the mere sight of congealed fat on leftovers is enough to make me gag. However, I managed to handle the nasty little meat chunks. I'm better for it too. I love helping him make dinner and so rarely do I have the chance to. He then grilled the kabobs. Everything tasted amazing! This is a must repeat and share recipe. I'm looking forward to these leftovers.

I took a TON of photos today. More than I normally take when in my own surroundings but not as many as would be taken on a trip. I was just in a creative, capturing mood, I guess.

Photos I took today (that I didn't post):
1) The bridge photo I've been trying to get for about a month, but haven't been able to take a good one of while driving (much easier when you are a passenger in the car)
2) Kelsey's people (inside joke)
3) The steps of the creation pictured above
4) Food preparation - skewers, dipping sauces, and salad
5) Dinner - wine, shish kabobs, salad, and dipping sauces
6) Curious Kensington checking out all the boxes in our living room