Our Valentines - Homemade Made It Special

Every year my husband has spent an absolute fortune on Valentines but I wanted it to be different this year. 
I told him n cards  or flowers or anything and especially no ordering take away . I wanted to show him I did not need jewellery, underwear or other lavish treats from him and hoped he would do as he was told and let me secretly spoil him for a change.
I know that Valentine is not just to be celebrated on one day of the year. We love each other every single second the day , we tell each other daily umteen times and we certainly do not need chocolates, flowers and expensive gifts to show that.
We're soul mates and my husband spends his every day trying to make sure he provides for us all and I know I don't get chance to show him that as often as I would like due to having 8 children in the home.
He's had a hard few months with giving up his business and a few insecurities that come with him feeling like he had given up when i reality he was just as amazing as the man I fell in love with originally.
Our house is always busy . we don't go out with friends and get our own space or time to share what we once had as a couple . Now we have a 1 year old in bed with us pretty much every night , we rarely get any peace or chance to snuggle and asking for an early night would be a miracle so we take advantage of any moment we can and I wanted to ensure that when my husband came in from work I could dedicate at least two or three hours just for him to be with me and we could be a couple without worrying about an unsettle child or fighting children in the next room. 

How our Day went-

Waking surprise-
The first thing that happened was I woke to my husbands alarm at the usual early call in the morning . He woke up and kissed me on the forehead as he always does, told me he loved me and whispered happy Valentines in my ear as I lay pretending to sleep .
As he walked out of the door I heard him place something on my dresser beside our bed and I peaked slightly, unable to see what it was. Waiting for the sound of the engine of his bus to start and hear him driving of , I quickly jumped up out of bed to find a card, some chocs, flowers and a huge Care bear sat staring at me . The Swine he is. I told him not to bother and knew he could not help himself but I was smiling to see that once again he had given me a beautiful start to the busy day I had organised .
I woke up the children and told them it was time to get up and get sorted. Routine in our home in a morning was a hectic one to start with never mind the Monthly shop delivery we were also expecting first thing . I had been frantically hoping for all my deliveries to arrive in time and was panicking that my Valentine surprise I had planned would be spoiled by something or other so when it arrived and everything was there , I was absolutely over excited and instantly ha to get started .

The Flower Shop was empty-
I had no way of ordering any flowers earlier than this day so I was holding on to hope that our local flower shop would be able to rustle up something or other and with having a joint account , the problem is that they get to see everything so I needed to do it secretly without him even having an incling .
It was not something I really needed but after my husband had been buying me flowers on many occasions and me never returning the favour, I really wanted to do something different especially when so many people refer to bouquets to being for the woman only.
Why cant a man be gifted such a beautiful bouquet of flowers?
Hoping to get there first thing , my day was put on hold when my dad decided last minute to drop in with my son's birthday card ready for the next day and so I was running late and unfortunately I never got to the shop until 11.30am and by that time the florist in a hurry making her Valentines bouquets was frantically telling me she had nothing at all left in store.
She had no flowers other than a few very small carnations and two roses singly wrapped , no greens shrubbery or any other flowers to which I could even attempt at making a bouquet with.I asked her if there was anything spare and she politely told me not even a small bunch.
Absolutely gutted, I asked her to rustle up a bow and some paper and a card, bought the two roses she had left, bought some heart on stick decorations and  had the children walk home picking flowers,berries and greenery from the local route.
Together we made a pretty looking bouquet and when I got home I placed in a gift bag, added some red tissue paper which I had bought previously and sat it on his bed side with a few other pieces I had bought him .
I was actually very impressed with it and thought it looked gorgeous, I thought it was even more sentimental because me and the children had made it together.
I just want to make sure your all aware that this post is not about who got what or how much anything cost, in fact it is quite the opposite . Things like the poem, bouquet and our special meal was free or homemade .

Arts and Crafts and  a Beautiful Poem-
Having children means we always get to enjoy making crafts and today was no exception. In fact the children made some lovely tissue paper like stain glass hanging hearts as well as some lovely candle holders. They also helped me by cutting tissue paper in the shape of hearts and making a door decoration .
The most loved item though was this beautiful Poem my daughter had made for her dad . Drew loves writing poems for us and leaves them around the house in little hidey places for us to find throughout her day, she is very sweet and so we went and bought a frame she had seen that she wanted for it from the local shop for her to put it in and placed it with his other surprises for when he came home. Things like this are definitely important to my husband , he has brought up my two girls since they were just babies and so I know he would surely cry with joy at what she done for him.

Candles-
I decided that I wanted to make it all very pretty and ensure the setting for the evening was just right so I also lit over 100 candles and placed them across my very large dresser to dim light the bedroom, placed a candle on each stair from my room all the way to the door for his entering and lit a few more on his bedside .
It looked very pretty but being so many to keep an eye on I only left them lit for a few minutes before abruptly blowing them out after he seen them . 

Petals and Balloons-
With a bottle of his favourite wine on ice . A very large card , chocolates, a cute little mug ,massage towel and oil ready with hundreds of petals and so many balloons thrown across the room, I placed the personalised bunting and a few teddies I had also bought him on our new Valentine bedding and retreated to make our tea. I was happy with how it looked and hoped he would appreciate how pretty it looked .

Homemade Fakeaway takeaway-
Usually , as a tradition, My husband orders us a chinese takeaway . This goes back to 10 years prior to us actually becoming a couple as we used to live together as late teens and used to order weekly takeouts and spend a night together just as good friends , eating, drinking , usually consisting of us on the roof top talking for hours in all weathers. We've always been very close and even back then we enjoyed the little things. We were best friends and still are.
This time I wanted to make something myself as we had been saving for decorating our home and an upcoming holiday, money is tight , we needed to save that few extra pounds so what better than a homemade kebab made in the slow cooker to get his tastebuds tickled?
​It was my first attempt at making my very own fakeaway and I was very impressed and so was he at how it turned out .
​If your interested in finding out the recipe and how to make this yourself then please follow this link .

We had a beautiful evening, wine , chocolates and lovely food and yes , we still ended up with our very own little cutie in our bed  but not before we got to have a well deserved hour or two on our own little home made date . 

A star names after him-
A day later my husbands extra special gift had arrived. Something I had always wanted to get him was on order but I was not sure if it would turn up on time .
Since all the years of being friends and living together just as friends, the many evenings sat on the rooftop , talking for hours on end and then later when becoming a couple and pointing to stars saying they were ours and then my husband bringing up my daughter and calling her Drew bear (my youngest daughter who made him his poem)  from day one, it only seemed fitting to give him his very own star , one that was named after him and not just any star but a star from the Ursa minor constellations (also known as little bear).
So thanks to starnameregistry.com our Valentines day was made even more special and my husband absolutely loved it, I've honestly never seen him as emotional and appreciative as he was .
Keep an eye out for my Star deed post coming up .

Not sure how I can top it of next year though lol.