Whether it was on my old blog, E Spear Updates, or on here, I have never missed a valentines post! Valentines 2018 was one of my first ever blog posts, so I've always had a special place in my heart for the yearly valentines update! As I say every year, to me, valentines day is just another day to celebrate love. Not exclusively romantic love, but simply celebrating your loved ones, and embracing the love you have for yourself! A day to buy yourself flowers, organise a gal's picnic or just going about your ordinary day with the intent to be kind with love in mind. I'm sure it may sound BLEH to some people, but I am massively into looking for the lightness and love in life at the moment. I really need that right now, so for me, today is all about noticing the pretty flowers, being kind and gentle with myself and enjoying a meal out with my partner as an excuse to treat ourselves. It's been a crazy few months for me, especially Feb, so this post is extremely late for that reason. It is also why I didn't get up to as much as I usually do (no galentines or gifts) but I hope this post is an enjoyable read all the same! I still wanted to make sure I posted it as soon as I found the time to put it together, though, because I'd hate to miss a year! As always, this year I'll be chatting through the valentines outfits I put together (because my favourite thing is to dress for holidays and special occasions big and small!!), my makeup routine, a little haul from the day, all the happy moments and sharing pics from the most gorgeous meal setting I've ever been to!
As I mentioned earlier, Feb was an unexpectedly hectic month, so we didn't even bother with cards this year. I did however put together a little gift (one for mum and dad and one for iestyn) of crochet flowers (my passion project at the moment) in the morning!
Mum gave us a little bag of valentines sweets which was so lovely! I'm so excited that they do haribo bags of just the love hearts from starmix?!
We spent the afternoon at the garden centre. I went for a more casual, cute and pink look for the day time!
I absolutely adored spending a few hours looking around at all the pretty flowers, seasonal displays and sitting down for drinks and cakes!
look at the hearts on the cakes :')
*prepare urself for a spam of pretty flower pics*
Then we headed off (favourite drink in hand) to TKMaxx to have a look around!
I'll show you what we got in both TKMaxx and the garden centre in a moment, after I've shown you the finds that I loved but didn't get!
like this candle! It smelt incredible and the design is beautiful- bunnies!!!
And this egg, I love easter decor like this but couldn't justify the purchase as it doesn't go with the colour schemes of any of our rooms.
Now for things we
did get...
I fell in love with these rainbow and cloud towels for our bathroom!
I got treated to this pretty plate that will go so well with my others!
And then finally these two beauties! I am obsessed with how well this new Easter egg ornament goes in our front room, and our new plant! I'm feeling so incredibly lucky as mum bought this pot for me and iestyn bought us the plant! Now I'll think of happy memories made today every time I see it. Always so lovely getting a new plant, and this pot is definitely the prettiest pot I've ever seen! It's perfect.
Then I started getting ready for our evening meal! Time for a little run down of my valentines makeup because I love seeing how it changes each year in these posts.
All Rare Beauty for my face base: Always an Optimist Illuminating Primer, Liquid Touch Brightening Concealer and Liquid Touch Weightless foundation.
Applied my foundation and concealer with my faaaves, Rare Beauty's concealer and foundation brushes. Then for my blush (which I didn't get pictures of) I also used the Rare Beauty blush brush and their Soft Pinch Liquid Blush in the shade Bliss.
For my eye makeup I used the rare beauty blush on my lids to act as a shadow, put on some illamasqua gel liner and the Rare Beauty Perfect Strokes mascara. For my brows I used Rare Beauty's Brow Harmony pencil and gel.
Here are all the products I used, apart from my gloss that I didn't put on until later- think it was a Kylie Cosmetics gloss. That was my pink, rosy look done!
I decided to wear a dress that I got a few years ago, and try and style it in a new way.
Lover sky for love day!
I dressed this girly, pink and white floral dress down with black tights, an oversized black jacket (that is actually my Dads, thanks Dad!) and chunky boots! Love how it turned out, I really love this dress on its own but felt much more comfortable with it styled this way.
listened to the vday national anthem on the way down to dinner ofc.
I wasn't sure if we were going to make our dinner reservation as I wasn't feeling well, but boy am I glad we did. It was absolutely gorgeous- the food, the company, the valentines decor. I think it was one of my favourite date nights ever. Not bad for our 7th valentines! It was actually the same restaurant that Iestyn took me to for our first ever valentines which was cute.
The details! Look at the the strawberry heart in my drink! Things like this make me so happy hahaha
I was so excited to see they had my two favourite flowers on each table!
It was such a perfect night. We laughed so much and ate so much. I wasn't expecting much this year as apart from this dinner reservation that we'd made months ago, I felt so unprepared and almost not up to it. The fact it turned into one of my favourite valentines' ever has reminded me that it's okay to not be on top of everything all the time, to just let things be and fall into place themselves sometimes. Unprepared doesn't always equal disaster, and I shouldn't be so hard on myself. What a beautiful day filled with love for my loved ones, from our treat filled trip to the garden centre with mum to our fairytale-esque night out! I feel immense gratitude for days like today, days filled with love, whether it's valentines or not.
Sending lots of love your way, too!
Ellamore
xxx
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