Holiday: Valentine’s Day

the art of crystallizing flowers at home by karen toocheck

  I would like to welcome my friend and talented flower artist, Karen Toocheck, to ChinDeep today for a very special Valentine’s post! She is the proprietor of a wonderful business called The Crystallized Flower Company located in Willoughby Ohio and has generously agreed to share some of the magic and wisdom that goes into…

nelson creamery

Today we took a leisurely Sunday drive over the bridge into Wisconsin. The Great River Road meanders along the Mississippi river and Lake Pepin through these sweet, quaint villages that remind me of vacations we’ve taken to Door County Wisconsin and Cape Cod Massachusetts. These are places we visit over and over again and they…

five passionate cookbooks & a romantic recipe for breakfast in bed

Valentine Treat #5… My favorite passionate cookbooks! The Passionate Palate by  Desiree Witkowski Aphrodite by Isabel Allende Intercourses by Martha Hopkins & Randall Lockridge The Erotic Baker Cookbook by Karen Dwyer & Patrika Brown Romancing the Ordinary by Sarah Ban Breathnach Stay-in-Bed Fruit and Wine Omelet recipe adapted  from the beautiful book… The Passionate Palate…

valentine traditions & time capsule

My hubby is a romantic, no doubt about it. I love this idea he came up with as part of my Valentine’s gift back in 2001. We had been married for 6 years at that point, and were spending our second Valentine’s day in our Victorian cottage here in Red Wing Minnesota. I love the…

rose ylang ylang massage oil

~ rose ylang ylang massage oil ~ “All thoughts, all passions, all delights, whatever stirs this mortal frame, are all but ministers of love, and feed his sacred flame.” ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge Did you know that I wrote a “home spa” book? Yup. I did. It’s called Chin Deep in Bubbles and on pages 35…

ghirardelli hot cocoa

~ ghirardelli hot cocoa ~ Hello my lovelies! Here’s the second surprise in this weeks line up of Valentine’s treats. Ghirardelli cocoa! There’s nothing quite like this rich, wonderful cocoa. 12 years ago Jeff and I visited San Francisco California and just had to stop in at Ghirardelli Square. We ate some lovely chocolate treats…

heart strings

~ heart strings ~ It’s that time of year again my friends! A week of Valentine treats here at ChinDeep! I’ve been feathering our nest with my favorite valentine things… Hearts, flowers, vintage linens and lace, romantic books, movies and music, vintage valentines, candles, vintage candy boxes, red…white…and, of course, pink! I’ve also been busy…

“Priceless” by Dana Stenholtz

I just love this article that Dana wrote! So sweet! Enjoy. Priceless The two loves of my life are my nieces. Elyse and Aubrey are 7 and 5, and anything Auntie Dana gives them is special. That is one of the best things about kids. They don’t know if you spent five dollars or 5,000…

Scenes From Valentine’s Day ~ A Strawberry Menu

~Valentine’s Treat 7~ A Strawberry Menu “…Sit on a cushion, and sew a fine seam, and dine upon strawberries, sugar and cream.” ~From the Mother Goose nursery rhyme “Curly-Locks” Happy Valentine’s Day! We started celebrating yesterday… We started the day with Strawberry Milk and I made a loaf of Strawberry Breakfast Bread This got rave…

my vintage valentines & “book of love” brownies

~Valentine Treat 6~ My vintage and antique valentines are featured in this weekend’s edition of The Rochester Post Bulletin! My friend, Sandy Erdman, wrote a great article! There was only enough room for two of the valentines to be pictured….soooo… I thought I’d share some of my other favorites here. and the following selections are…