Hey girlfriend!
You might be reading this blog post and saying, “Zo what is happening here? This is quite the topic range!” and YES it is haha. I had all the plans in the content calendar to give you some amazing Valentine’s Day content and it just didn’t happen. I am trying to give myself grace with my content calendar as of late. Work has been really, really, busy and while I am so thankful for this platform, work just has to come first over the blog right now. Sooo if it doesn’t happen some weeks and a YouTube video doesn’t make it up or blog posts get missed I am just trying to remember this is my passion project that is such an incredible outlet for me and I need to just give to it what I can!
That said, sometimes I still want to give you all the ideas and fun things and you might just get them all compiled together instead of in four (or seven) different posts!
I love this holiday (because duh, pink!) and couldn’t miss out on still giving you everything fun I had planned to share. So this post is a little all over the place but bear with me! It’s good stuff and I hope it’s inspo worthy and gives you some fun ideas!
GALentine’s Day
I hope I am still sixty years old and celebrating galentine’s day. Last year, my friends and I went on this fun trip to Scottsdale (travel guide here) and the year before I wrote about our fun festivities in this post here.
This year, we decided it would be fun to switch it up and host an at home picnic! We have been using @noturaveragepicnic who creates fun picnic set ups in Dallas. We have loved using her in the past because she can really customize so many elements of the setup from pillow colors, to plate settings, etc. there are so many fun elements!
You can easily recreate your own fun picnic at home! My little sister did this with her friends this past weekend!
SWEETS & TREATS
Of course we had to have all the fun sides! We had a candy board, a cheese board and pizza from our favorite spot, iFratelli. I created the candy board and it was so easy!
I gathered candy hearts, cookies, macrons, chocolate pretzels, M&M’s, Nerd’s Rope and gummy hearts. The key when creating a board like this is to have an even balance of sweet-savory-salty. We also thought about adding some popcorn but totally spaced to pick it up at the store!
When assembling your board, you’ll want to start by creating a liner line from one corner to the other it helps if you have different types of the same thing. On this board, I used cookies and started with those sugar iced cookies and went to the opposite corner and mid way switched to the heart shaped macaroons. From there I tried to have two containers of things I could put into mini bowls to give it some height and dimension. I placed the chocolate covered pretzels and the M&M’s in these bowls! After that it really starts to come together and I filled in as necessary. Starting is the trickiest part so try to have a slight plan that can vary as you start to lay things out. A few things to consider are color and type of candy, you don’t want one side of the board to just be chocolate or just gummy so try to spread them out a bit!
Outfit Ideas
We knew for Galentine’s we wanted everyone to dress up in fun shades of pinks and reds. I could not decide on what to wear for this and I finally remembered I had a fun pink silky top! It was perfect because I also had a blazer that had a faint pink stripe in it so it matched great. I really love the blazer, jeans and silk cami look for Valentine’s day because it gives you a pop of color without being too dramatic.
I hope you can get some inspo for your Valentine’s day celebrations from my friend’s looks above! I’ve also included a few fun collages below for inspiration too. My goal with sharing inspiration photos is never to encourage you to buy this and that, you don’t need any of it! It is all just stuff but hopefully it makes you remember (like I did) that oh yeah you do have that colorful cami or those strappy sandals you forgot you had!
More outfit inspo from past years here and here.
CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO SHOP
Gifts & Things
I love fun girly gifts! Who doesn’t love getting spoiled with something small to love. While my friends and I gave each other a fun party this year, I didn’t want to leave out anyone who might still be searching! So over on Amazon I am giving you a complete Gifts for the Girls gift guide.
We can’t leave out the boys too! Shopping for boys can either be so challenging or so easy. I personally think shopping for guys is so easy but it’s just because I am always noticing things Pierce needs throughout the year so by the time a holiday/birthday comes around I have a million ideas swarming through my head.
Tip: Keep a running list of gift ideas on your phone for your significant other throughout the year so you can secretly write down things they mention!
I started keeping a list on my phone with gift ideas because I was finding Pierce passively mentioning random things he wanted like a massage membership, LuLulemon shorts, a pair of joggers he picked up but didn’t buy when shopping together. It makes it easier to keep track of things your person might need and then you aren’t scrambling to come up with something when a holiday comes around! I have a Gift Guide for the Guys over on my Amazon page too!
Pierce’s birthday is the week after Valentine’s Day (we are a month apart) and with it so close to Christmas it can be hard to find ideas of things he actually needs! I am getting him a nice gift that I have had my eye on getting him for quite some time for his birthday next week. I won’t share for the very slight possibility that Pierce is reading this (very small chance but I don’t want to ruin it). For Valentine’s day I was thinking a new pair of joggers or a new golf shirt something small but something he really truly needs. I haven’t gotten it yet but yeah… really need to get on it haha. Like I said earlier, it’s been crazy.
One of my favorite Christmas gifts from Pierce was a cooking class! It was so fun to get to spend the quality time together and do something out of the box for us. We both love to cook so we thoroughly enjoyed it and are already planning when we can get back! We attended the Cookery at the Dallas location and couldn’t have more rave reviews about it. It’s not super intermediate but also not too advanced that you couldn’t keep up if you were new. They really tailor it to a variety of levels. Check out my Reel on the experience here.
I wanted to share a fun list of gifts you can give that are experiences. They are some of my favorite types of gifts because I’m a big quality time girl! Check out the post from a few years ago here!
Date Night
If you don’t have a reservation by now, I’m sorry, the chance of you getting one is so small haha we booked ours a month ago and still aren’t completely happy with it. We have stayed in the past two years and thought it would be fun to switch it up and go out this year but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. The only reason we chose this place is because they didn’t have a set menu or table time limit.
I wrote the best blog post last year about How to Spend Valentine’s Day on a Budget
Drinks & Things
I couldn’t have a Valentine’s Day post without a fun cocktail! My bestie Cat and I from @Sippin_n_Dallas and I planned a fun Galentine’s day celebration for the two of us. She is the best at all things cocktails and I was beyond impressed with some of the ideas she came up with! When you get two girls together who love pink you are sure to get a fun drink out of it! We shared this cotton candy inspired cocktail, which we named Champagne Kisses, last week. I’m leaving the recipe here and you can check out my Reel on how we made it here.
This cotton candy cocktail is sure to be a showstopper at any GALentines Day party 💘
YOU’LL NEED
1 bottle of champagne (we used rose but regular is ok too!)
1 package of cotton candy (we found this at Target but Amazon has it as well!)
Pink sprinkles (for dusting the rim)
Champagne Flutes
Straws
DIRECTIONS
1. Gently wet rim of champagne flutes with water from a damp paper towel.
2. Pour the pink sprinkles onto a plate and turn the rim of the flute through the sprinkles.
3. Pour champagne into the glass slowly about halfway.
4. Gently place cotton candy on top of the flute.
5. Place straw in glass and pour a touch more of champagne over the cotton candy!
Be sure to tag us at @styledzebra & @sippin_n_dallas if you recreate this fun festive drink!!
Ok! Phew, I think that about covers everything Galentine’s, Valentine’s with a little bit of everything in between. I hope you loved this post and found some inspiration for however you are celebrating this Valentine’s day! p.s. xoxo has never been more fitting.
xoxo,
Zoe
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