Valentine's Day Lunch on the Hilltop

 I was very excited to be able to put on a Valentine's lunch this year.  I love Valentine's Day.  

There were nine of us ladies in all, plus four precious little girls (two of them were my grand-daughters).   It seemed like just the perfect number.  

I was wanting to get away from the traditional red and I have some turquoise dishes I've been so anxious to use.  So the idea of pink and turquoise sounded like fun to me!

I used the hobnail glasses from Anthropologie that are so gorgeous.  

I think the turquoise dishes were so beautiful with the pink. 

I love the burlap silverware holder idea that my friend Ann from On Sutton Place designed.  (It is a no sew project; however, I did sew mine.  You can link over to that here.)

I didn't have enough of the turquoise plates so I interspersed them with these cream ones that belong to my daughter.  I also made the napkins from gorgeous Valentine quilting fabric.   I made them reversible and folded over the top so that I could show both fabrics!

Pink roses in my enamelware pitcher from Ikea just looked so beautiful.  I also set my candlesticks on the turquoise saucers - it was a good way to use a little more turquoise!

I made two pendant banners to hang.    (The instructions for these can also be found here on my friend Ann's blog. )  They were super easy to make and I made the little turquoise pom poms to help tie in the color with the pink!  

I like the little banners so much I'm leaving them up for awhile!

For my table runner I used pink burlap that I cut and frayed the edges and with my left over fabric from the napkins I quickly sewed up a simple piece to set on top of the burlap.  Very simple, but perfect.

Then I set a complete separate table for the four little girls in our group.  I used some of my eighties pink Fiestaware plates, milk glass goblets, home made napkins and a burlap table runner.  

The fun thing though were the Valentine mailboxes I made for each girl and hung on the back of their chairs.  I was kind of winging it the whole time on those... just adding and taking away as I liked!  All the ladies were asked to bring a Valentine for each of the girls.  

Which they did.... and then some!!!  It was like Birthday, Christmas, and Valentine's all wrapped up in one!!!  The girls didn't know what to do!

Aren't they darling? 

The icing on the cake of the day was that all four girls got to spend the night with me!  (My husband was gone so I was super happy to have some girl time!)  

We made home made pizza for supper with each girl making their own half of the pizza with the toppings of their choice.  (And once again I was so happy for that cabinet I designed shorter than the others... perfect height for little kids cooking in the kitchen!)

Then it was bath time, jammies and creating at the craft table!  (And enjoying some Valentine suckers from the party!)

It was the best Valentine's Day I've had in a very long time!  I'm so very thankful for the friends I've met since moving to Tennessee and for the family that they have become to me.  (And of course so very thankful for my daughter and her little family down the road!)

And somehow I didn't take any pictures of my lunch but it was delicious.  I grilled steak and cut it up thin which I served with a huge salad and home made french bread.  For dessert we had Red Velvet Cake and Pink Punch (a special request from Jillian, my 5 year old grand-daughter!)

I hope your Valentine's Day was perfect too!

P.S.  Someday I'll tell the story of my turquoise dishes.  Do any of you have any of these you'd like to part with?