I love Valentine’s Day, I always have, even when I was single. I know a lot of people moan about it (join the rest of the cliche seasonal social media moaners, it’s boring now…), but I don’t see how a day dedicated to celebrating love can be anything but nice – it doesn’t have to be for your significant other, I love my dog too! I love my family, I love my friends… it’s just a nice day. And for those that say “we celebrate our love every day, we don’t need one dedicated day” does anyone really do that… we have such busy lives nowadays, it’s easy to get distracted by the chaos that can be the daily grind sometimes, so to have a day where you just step back and celebrate love in some shape or form, well, it’s just nice.
I also find that once it gets to Valentine’s Day, that dull new years low has gone, and everything is looking a lot brighter, the potential of Spring is just around the corner, and the sun – albeit winter sun – starts making an appearance. I’m still blitzing through the wedding preparations, I think we now have everything booked in and reserved, including our wedding photographer which was the only thing we couldn’t agree on for a while. It’s a nice feeling to have everything so organised, the wedding is still a good while off, but it means I can really just relax and enjoy the run up to it next year… at least that’s what I’m hoping anyway. I also started having a look at our wedding stationery and having a play around with ideas, my favourite artist is going to be creating this for us, and although I probably won’t look to finalise any ideas on this until later on in the year, it was very exciting to sit down and really start having a good think about how I’m wanting this to look.
Earlier on in the week, I also went and met my lovely friend for breakfast at one of our favourite food places. It was great to just have a sit down and catch up over a huge plate of carbs!!! In fact, I enjoyed it that much… I’m going back again next weekend.
On Valentine’s Day itself, I started with some cake for breakfast… obvs – any seasonal celebration for me is just the best excuse to eat cake for breakfast. I encourage you to try it at least twice a year – it just makes life that bit more fun. I picked up this lovely bunch at Mama Doreens in Harrogate and writing this is making me want to go out right now and pick up some more… hmm.
In the evening we ventured off to my favourite restaurant ever, Piccolino. I’ve been going here for celebrations for years; there’s just something about the place and the surroundings that makes me feel happy, and reminds me of all the other times we’ve been there to celebrate something.
Excuse the below picture quality, it’s one I took from my Instagram stories… but we really enjoyed being out, just the two of us, and indulging in lots and lots of tasty food. I also discovered a gorgeous new dessert Affogato, which is just Amaretto, espresso coffee and vanilla ice cream.. and for something so simple, it’s bloody delicious, let me tell you – I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since! I usually go for the warm chocolate fondant, but I think I may have found a new favourite…
I hope everyone had the most gorgeous Valentine’s, whichever way you celebrated love, and whatever kind of love that may be (my dog was running away from all the kisses by 5pm!!) – and if not, I hope you make the most of all the now discounted chocolate…
