My husband decided spur of the moment last weekend that we should take a little trip for Valentine's Day this weekend. Woohoo! Sounds like fun! With impulsive, romantic getaways like this it isn't important how much it costs or how far removed. The excursion might simply be to a place you've never been before, even if only a few miles away. This might be a place of natural beauty, a lovely landscape or someplace with lots of activities and nightlife. Whatever your preference. It's *your* romantic mini vacation, so do whatever you enjoy. Don't cook (unless you really love to). Eat at restaurants with good food. Sleep in. Take nice long showers or baths (with your significant other!) Stock the mini fridge with your favorite beverages and snacks. If you can allow yourself, splurge on at least one rich, sinful dessert. (Recipe below if you're in the mood to bake together.) You might even want to watch a feel-good, romantic movie with your sweetheart.
Now, to get you in a romantic mood...
13 of my favorite Love quotes:
"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same."
"It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone... but it takes a lifetime to forget someone."
"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more." Erica Jong in How to Save Your Own Life (1977)
"Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter." T.S. Eliot
My mind has been the most discontented and restless one that ever was put into a body too small for it. I never felt my mind repose upon anything with complete and undistracted enjoyment- upon no person but you. When you are in the room my thoughts never fly out of window: you always concentrate my whole senses." John Keats (Letters to Fanny)
"There is no greater wonder than the way the face and character of a woman fit so perfectly in a man's mind, and stay there, and he could never tell you why. It just seems it was the thing he most wanted." Robert Louis Stevenson
"When we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness - and call it love - true love." Robert Fulghum
Real love stories never have endings." Richard Bach
"Love is just an abbreviation for everything we have ever wanted to say about that one person who truly means something to us, all wrapped up in a tiny four-letter box." Anonymous
"Love is much like a wild rose; beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense." Mark A. Overby
"It has been wisely said that we cannot really love anybody at whom we never laugh." Agnes Repplier
"When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life." Greg Anderson
The world moves for love; it kneels before it in awe". Edward Walker, in The Village
My favorite romantic books are too numerous to name so how about...
A list of my favorite romantic movies:
Dirty Dancing
Ever After
The Lake House
Casanova
Ghost
Sense and Sensibility
Pretty Woman
The New World
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Rob Roy
What Women Want
Now, to get you in a romantic mood...
13 of my favorite Love quotes:
"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same."
"It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone... but it takes a lifetime to forget someone."
"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more." Erica Jong in How to Save Your Own Life (1977)
"Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter." T.S. Eliot
My mind has been the most discontented and restless one that ever was put into a body too small for it. I never felt my mind repose upon anything with complete and undistracted enjoyment- upon no person but you. When you are in the room my thoughts never fly out of window: you always concentrate my whole senses." John Keats (Letters to Fanny)
"There is no greater wonder than the way the face and character of a woman fit so perfectly in a man's mind, and stay there, and he could never tell you why. It just seems it was the thing he most wanted." Robert Louis Stevenson
"When we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness - and call it love - true love." Robert Fulghum
Real love stories never have endings." Richard Bach
"Love is just an abbreviation for everything we have ever wanted to say about that one person who truly means something to us, all wrapped up in a tiny four-letter box." Anonymous
"Love is much like a wild rose; beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense." Mark A. Overby
"It has been wisely said that we cannot really love anybody at whom we never laugh." Agnes Repplier
"When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life." Greg Anderson
The world moves for love; it kneels before it in awe". Edward Walker, in The Village
My favorite romantic books are too numerous to name so how about...
A list of my favorite romantic movies:
Dirty Dancing
Ever After
The Lake House
Casanova
Ghost
Sense and Sensibility
Pretty Woman
The New World
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Rob Roy
What Women Want
Pride and Prejudice
Now for a rich Valentine's treat:
Better-Than-Sex Chocolate Cake
1 package chocolate butter cake mix
1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 eggs
3/4 cup chopped pecans
½ cup oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water
1 (4 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 8-ounce carton sour cream
Remove a spoonful of cake mix to coat chocolate chips and nuts; set aside.
Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, water, vanilla, pudding mix and sour cream.
Beat well four minutes with electric mixer. Fold in coated chips and nuts.
Pour into greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 - 55
minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. Remove from pan after completely cooled.
Frosting
1 stick margarine or butter
1/4 cup evaporated milk
2 cups 10X powdered sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
Melt margarine or butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar. Cook, stirring
constantly, until bubbly. Add the evaporated milk, stirring until smooth.
Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar, blending until of spreading
consistency. Frost cake.
I wish you and that special person a Happy Valentine's Day!
What is your favorite love quote, your favorite romantic movie, or your favorite sinful dessert recipe? Or if you prefer, tell me where you went for a romantic getaway.
Now for a rich Valentine's treat:
Better-Than-Sex Chocolate Cake
1 package chocolate butter cake mix
1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 eggs
3/4 cup chopped pecans
½ cup oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water
1 (4 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 8-ounce carton sour cream
Remove a spoonful of cake mix to coat chocolate chips and nuts; set aside.
Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, water, vanilla, pudding mix and sour cream.
Beat well four minutes with electric mixer. Fold in coated chips and nuts.
Pour into greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 - 55
minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. Remove from pan after completely cooled.
Frosting
1 stick margarine or butter
1/4 cup evaporated milk
2 cups 10X powdered sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
Melt margarine or butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar. Cook, stirring
constantly, until bubbly. Add the evaporated milk, stirring until smooth.
Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar, blending until of spreading
consistency. Frost cake.
I wish you and that special person a Happy Valentine's Day!
What is your favorite love quote, your favorite romantic movie, or your favorite sinful dessert recipe? Or if you prefer, tell me where you went for a romantic getaway.
Vonda Sinclair www.vondasinclair.com
12 comments:
Hi Vonda, You did lots of work gathering inspiring quotes for your Valentine's Day post. Thanks for sharing! My all time favorite romantic movie? Casablanca. I named my son 'Rick' because of that movie!
Best, Pat
Fab post, Vonda! I love the quotes and the recipe. I'll have to give it a try. I'm a sucker for Romantic movies. One of my favorites: Music & Lyrics.
C-
Great quotes! Thanks for sharing those. I'd have to add Somewhere in Time to your list of romantic movies. :) You remember the time-travel movie with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour? Loved that one.
Hi Vonda!
My husband and I both have always been huge fans of the movie Braveheart, and although she dies, it still is a very romantic tale. In fact, I had this quote, inscribed inside of my husband's wedding band, "I love ya, always have." It is my absolute favorite line.
I also love The Notebook, and the line in there, where he says, "it wasn't over, it's still not over," and then the famous kiss! I get goosebumps thinking about it.
Every Valentine's day I make chocolate covered strawberry's. Very simple, you just melt the chocolate with a little bit of butter and then dip the chocolate in and set it on wax paper to cool. If you want to get adventurous melt another colored chocolate, like white, and drizzle it on the cooled strawberries.
We've gone to bed and breakfasts anywhere just for a night or a weekend to get away. We've even gone to the beach, bc it isn't crowded at all at this time of year, and you can't leave the room, too cold! :)
Eliza
Hi, Vonda!
Love your Valentine's Day post :) My favorite romantic getaways are Charleston and Savannah. Something about those two cities embodies love and romance. Something wonderful to experience with each visit :)
Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!
Shawna
Lise's Favorites: Romantic book: Possession by A.S. Byatt; + zillions more; Movies: Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, The Big Easy, Pretty Woman, Baby, It's You; Visionquest; The Yellow Rolls Royce; Splendor In The Grass; Love With the Proper Stranger; The Remains of the Day; A Room With A View. Favorite romantic music: Harry Connick; Out of Africa soundtrack; Strauss Waltzes.
Favorite quote (is really song lyrics) by Cole Porter - "Every time we say goodbye, I die a little". And of course, "Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"
Great post, Vonda. Your movie list is similiar to mine. P&P is always at the top of my list, along with Notebook and Fools Rush In. Oh, and Ghost is a classic. You should watch what Dreams May Come - that is a great movie to.
So far my favorite romantic get away has been Hawaii. :-) We were married on Wiamanalo beach. We don't really go away much for V-day but my hubby did propose to me at Boldt Castle. -- Very romantic.:-)
Thanks everyone for visiting and commenting!
Pat, how very cool that you named your son after Rick! Indeed you are a romantic. I'm going to tell everyone! :-) When I open my browser, I get two new love quotes everyday. I save and collect the ones I like. I'm a quote fanatic. :-)
Corrina, I LOVED Mucis & Lyrics. So cute! I forgot about it or it would've been on my list too. One reason it's memorable for me is that the 2nd time I watched it was on the plane on the way back from Scotland. I was kinda semi conscious, but I still enjoyed the diversion.
Nita, Yes I also loved Somewhere in Time! It was so romantic and a real tear jerker! But one of my favorite movies.
Eliza, I'm a major fan of Braveheart too. Like Somewhere in Time, the two lovers are forever together in spirit at the end. The Notebook, OMG, very romantic but also broke my heart. I can never watch it again it was so painful for me. It does have a fantastic kiss doesn't it! They had an incredible love. I love chocolate covered strawberries too, but rarely have them. Must change that. :-)
Shawna, Charleston is fantastic! Another of my favorite vacation spots. I'd love to go to Savannah. Hope you get to return soon.
Lise, what a wonderful list of your favorite romantic things! I also loved Gone with the Wind (the book moreso than the movie because I read it first). The movie Big Easy, lots of yummy sexual tension in that one. I will have to put those others on my to be watched list.
Holly, yep Fools Rush In is a great one too! I love romantic comedies. I will look for What Dreams May Come. I have wanted to go to Hawaii since I was a kid and I'm determined to go someday. How romantic to be married on a Hawaiian beach! And a proposal at a castle? Sigh. Lucky girl!! :-)
Thank you for such a wonderfully romantic list. Here's my most recent favorite book:
Gianna
by Peggy Somers. She's such a romantic with some great steamy sex scenes thrown in quite beautifully.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Vonda, great post! Lucky you to go away for Valentine's Day. We haven't been away without the kids in so long. I think Braveheart is so romantic, and I absolutely love Music and Lyrics - just love the songs and everything - wish I'd written it! One of my favorite romantic books is On the Night of the Seventh Moon by Victoria Holt - that first scene in the hunting lodge - ahhh.
Fantastic post, Vonda!! And great comments, everyone! Eliza, those quotes gave me chills. Made me want to re-watch both movies. I've never been good at remembering movie quotes, but one of my favorite romantic movies is A Room with a View. The movie Metropolitan is also on my short list, and I've been meaning to re-watch it since reading that it's a remake of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
p.s. I tried commenting yesterday, but it looks like it got lost in the ether...my apologies if this appears twice!
Sarah, thanks for the recommendation! I'll check it out.
Carol, may you get a romantic vacation soon! It would do you good. Braveheart... sigh, yes very romantic.
Veronica, I agree and forgot to mention before about Eliza's ring inscriptions with the words from Braveheart "I love ya, always have." How incredibly romantic! I loved that scene in the movie. And thanks for the other movie recommendations!
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