VALENTINE'S DAY TABLESCAPE AND NO-FAIL CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES

Wasn't Christmas just yesterday?  I can't believe that tomorrow is Valentine's Day!  Even if you haven't given it much thought <raises hand>, it doesn't take long to throw together a special table to celebrate and enjoy a few treats together.   

We don't go overboard for Valentine's Day, but I do like to have a nice dinner for our family to celebrate.  Our kids will be involved at a youth event all weekend, so since they won't be around on Saturday we had our family dinner last night.  

I took some time yesterday morning to put together a cute table.  You all know I like to use what I have, so I didn't buy anything for it.  I ended up with red, white, black, and sparkle!  

The fresh flowers I had on hand didn't work with the color palette, so I skipped them all together.  This cute guy fit the bill, and brownies make a much nicer centerpiece anyway, don't you agree?  I used a few pieces of sticky-tack to secure the plate to the top of the elephant so it wouldn't get bumped off. 

I gathered up all of my silver and mercury glass votive holders, along with several milk glass pieces.  Oh, and disco balls!  Big and small, the room was sparkling as the sun went down!  There are some acrylic gems scattered around as well.

The black, white, and red table fit right in with the new spotted chandy shades.

The kids each received a small bag of a few of their favorite treats and some new pencils for school.  Mechanical pencils...they love them.  

I hope you've made Chocolate Covered Strawberries before, but if not, they are so easy you have no excuse not to!  I use the same method with the chocolate that I do when making my Chocolate Covered Coconut Bon Bons.  I love this recipe because the chocolate forms a bit of a hard shell and sticks well to the strawberry.  

All you need is a bag of chocolate chips and about 1/3-1/2 of one cake of paraffin wax.  This amount of chocolate will cover about 3 pounds of strawberries.  

First, wash the strawberries and allow them to dry thoroughly.  Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (more detailed instructions on that here), hold the strawberry by the leaves, then dip in chocolate.  Lay on a sheet of wax paper and allow chocolate to harden.  That's it!  

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, FRIENDS!  

I hope you have a special day with your favorite people!

Source List:

Plaid Table Cloth: Target, years ago

Disco balls:  Hobby Lobby (Christmas seasonal)

Milk Glass glasses, plates, and misc.: thrifted

Black and White Striped Plates:  Ikea

Red Toile Plates:  Ross, years ago

Polka Dot Saucers:  Target

Mercury Glass Votive Holders:  Marshalls (large), Dillards (small)

Elephant:  Garden Ridge

Polka Dot Candles:  Hobby Lobby