Valentine's Day Buckaroo Barbie Style

This is a repost of last year's Valentine blog, but with a few new tidbits added in. 

I always feel a little jumpy around February 14. 

I feel as if EVERY day should be Valentine's Day. I know I've mentioned this before, but I have watched my father romance my mums every day as if it was specially set apart for them by Hallmark. If you're in a relationship that needs a special day to make you feel treasured, then please rethink your relationship! Love should be found in the coffee you make each other, the way you speak to one another...love should be found in the every day, seemingly insignificant actions we live towards one another. 

Every memory that I treasure as highly romantic, has been on every day BESIDE Valentine's Day. It was the flowers he picked for me while out moving cows, the coffee he'd bring me in the morning and the way he helped me learn to make my rawhide better. Love is found in the small details. Cards and candy and flowers are a nice touch, but it's the little stuff that lasts. Don't forget that. 

So if you can't make it into town for a movie, expensive dinner and a night filled with chocolate and champagne, don't despair!! You can still have grand fun!

Buckaroo Barbie Scenario #1

It's snowy and cold and you and your Buckaroo Man have a bunch of first time heifers to calve out. You're going to be tired, your honey will be tired so don't make elaborate plans in your head and then be disappointed and heartbroken if some mama cow's labor pains take preference over Valentine's Day. Keep it sweet and simple. Plan something for dinner that doesn't depend on having hours of free time to prepare it. Something hot and spicy in the crock pot, perhaps? When you go to town for your grocery shop this weekend pick up some champagne and strawberries as a treat. When it's dinner time (whenever that may be), pile up a bunch of pillows and blankets in front of your fireplace or wood stove picnic style, and serve your dinner on trays! As a treat pour you and your baby the champagne you picked up in town (but let him open the bottle, make him feel all manly), add a couple of strawberries and you have a romantic winter picnic dinner, even if one or both of you has to rush back out into the dark of the night far too soon!! 

Menu: 

Spicy Beef Stew
Biscuits served with Honey Butter
Basque Salad 
Champagne served with Strawberries 

Outfit:
Winter Cap
House Slippers
Fresh Jeans 
Spritz of perfume 
Lip Gloss 

Cold Hands, Warm Heart Playlist:
Mariposa Wind: Mike Beck
Little Lion Man: Mumford and Sons
Awake and Alive: Skillet
Gypsy Woman: Muddy Waters
Rain Patty Griffin
Hands:Adrian
All American Nightmare: Hinder
Love Never Comes At All: Ian Tyson
9 to 5: Dolly Parton
Marry Me: Train
Cowboy Girl: Any Old Time String Band
Roll On Owyhee: Ian Tyson
Angel of the Morning: Juice Newton
Sun is Gonna Rise: Bill Miller

No matter if you're calving, dancing, laughing, wishing you were sleeping or eating, love is beautiful.

Buckaroo Barbie Scenario #2 

It's a clear, cold and beautiful Valentine's Day. What's a Buckaroo Barbie to do? Why shoot some clays of course!! Fill a thermos up with coffee, grab a baggie of cookies and a box of shells and head on out with your sweetheart for some friendly competition!! Instead of playing "pig" (you have the letters p-i-g to miss, and whoever spells pig first loses), play a game of love! Loser forfeits a kiss. Once you and your man are thoroughly chilled, head home, wipe the snow off your barbecue and fire her up! Make dinner together and yes, he has to help too!! After your amazing meal play a game of cards, cribbage, braid some rawhide or just watch a movie. And enjoy just being you with just him. 

Menu: 
BBQ'd Elk Steaks
Twice Baked Potatoes 
Cheesy Cauliflower 
Homemade Sangria 
Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Outfit:
Puffer Vest or jacket
Hair in Pigtails
Nails painted alternating pink and red
80's Old Man Ball Cap
A Smile

Shooting & Grooving Playlist:
Shoot To Thrill: ACDC
Dad's Gonna Kill Me: Richard Thompson
Touch of Evil: Tom Russell
Photograph: Nickleback
Sorry: Gary Allen
Fastest Girl in Town: Miranda Lambert
Fuzzy: Randy Rogers Band
Ain't No Rest For the Wicked: Cage the Elephant
Cavvy Song: Adrian
Sweet Dreams: Eurythmics
Thrift Shop: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Summer of Love: Mike Beck
Highwayman: The Highwayman
The Steeldust Line: Ian Tyson
Wanted Dead or Alive: (Tom Cruise Version)

Couples that ride, rope and shoot together...stay friends forever. 

Buckaroo Barbie Scenario #3

Your man has free time and you've been planning this night for a week. There's fresh flowers on the table, sour heart shaped candy and chocolate kisses piled in tempting heaps around the house. Your special Buckaroo Barbie Playlist is quietly playing in the background and everything is almost ready. You built a frothy, frilly fort in the living room for you and your man to watch Rocky from later, once dinner is over. Hey, if everything else is so girly, he outta be allowed to watch a manly-man movie at least, right?! Right! You've showered, curled your hair into Victoria's Secret model worthy waves and are all dressed up in your town clothes, even though you have no intention of heading into town. All you have to do is wait for your Prince Charming in Chinks to arrive and your romantic evening will commence. 

Menu: 
Starter of Salmon Spread and Cheese and Crackers
Steak with Whiskey Sauce
Loaded Baked Potatoes 
Garlic Green Beans 
Fresh Loaf of Sourdough Bread 
Red Wine with Dinner
Red Waldorf Astoria Cake
Coffee and Bailey's Irish Cream

Outfit:
Whatever you feel the most beautiful wearing. It could be a LBD (little black dress) or your favorite jeans and sweater! 
Simple jewelry

Romance at the Ranch Playlist:
Romance in Durango: Bob Dylan
Come Over: Kenny Chesney
Hot Summer Tears: Ian Tyson
Sweet Disposition: Temper Trap
At Last: Etta James
Campfire Waltz: Dave Stamey
I and Love and You: The Avett Brothers
North Dakota: Lyle Lovett
For You: Angus and Julie Stone
Stacks: Bon Iver
Striptease: Hinder
Just a Dream: Nelly
Sunlight On Silver: Jesse Ballantyne
Spanish Ranch CowboyCalifornia Girl: Adrian
Love Me Tender: Catlin Martin

Bare feet or heels, diamonds or pearls....you keep me coming back for more. 

 Just remember you don't have to follow ANY RULES to have a wonderful and special Valentine's Day with your love. 

Just be you. Do what you want. And smile.

xo xo Liz 

You Beautiful Thing You

Happy Valentine’s Day Dolls and Gents!!! In all honesty, we have been stalling writing this post for the last couple of days. Not because we dread Valentine’s Day or love, or being single ON Valentine’s Day….it’s just that we honestly don’t think it’s that big of a deal!!! We wrote the couples post because it was requested, but if it hadn’t been requested we probably wouldn’t have done anything. We’ve watched our dad love our mums every day of our lives and he treats her like it’s Valentine’s Day, everyday. And Valentine’s shouldn’t just be the love shown between lovers, it should be lived out to our brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents and friends...to the people found in our everyday lives. In our family, it’s not about showy gestures this one day of the year…love is in the everyday actions.

Love should be found in the common place, in the routine and the boring. If a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates is enough to erase the memory of not being shown “commonplace” love throughout the rest of the year then we don’t want it!! Please, if you are single and “alone” on Valentines, don’t be bitter, or sad or feel like you’re missing out on something your friends in relationships are!!!!

You’re not!! If you’re single, decide to give yourself the most beautiful gift, worth way more than all the roses, chocolates and diamonds in the world combined. Fall in love with yourself. Yup, we know that sounds cliché, BUT….until you treat yourself like the most precious, worthwhile person you know, no one else will treat you that way either.

Assess yourself and your life. Are you where you want to be with your education, your career and your other relationships? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Share your strengths and talents with the world around you and work on your weak spots. Don’t fret and fuss how you don’t have a boyfriend and no one to go to the movies with…you should be so comfortable in your own skin that if you want to go see a movie, then you take your sweet a$$ to go see a movie and don’t feel sorry for yourself at all!!

When you fall in love with you and your life and focus your attention on reaching your goals and making your dreams come true, the right kind of people will eventually find you.

We promise.

So we’re not going to tell you to pamper yourself, although by all means do!! And we’re not going to tell you to curl up watching Jerry McGuire with a vat of ice cream and cry about the idea of “completing” someone….you’re enough and you matter and you shouldn’t have to go get a hot-oil massage to feel special today…today should be a great day because you’re going to focus on YOU and making your life the most exciting, barrier breaking and passion filled life that you can.

Hugs!!!

xo xo Liz and Adrian

Heifers, Shotguns and Lingerie....Valentine's Day Buckaroo Barbie Style

Adrian and I got a request the other day to write a post on ways to spend Valentine's Day that are still special even if you're living out in the middle of nowhere and cooking for your man is a daily occurrence. And we are more than happy to comply! We got to talking about our favorite Valentine's that we had spent with boyfriends, and we both realized that our favorite memories are actually pretty "tame"...time spent at home together after riding colts and finishing shows...no trumpets blaring or cupids giggling in the corner, just enjoyment of a quiet moment spent with the one you care about.

Adrian's favorite Valentine was spent in town, singing at some show in the afternoon and then riding colts with her boyfriend in the evening. She says it's her favorite because they weren't stressed or in a hurry and then they went inside and made dinner together and watched the Hangover. Truly romantic stuff right there.

My favorite Valentine was spent miles from town and my boyfriend and I went to the local bar after a long and cold day of riding colts in the snow because I was too tired to cook! It was grand fun, there was no one there, stuffed pork chops were on the menu and the owner lit a candle for us, which we all thought was hilarious because I'm pretty un-romantic!!

So if you can't make it into town for a movie, expensive dinner and a night filled with chocolate and lace and silk sheets, don't despair!! You can still have grand fun!

Buckaroo Barbie Scenario #1

It's snowy and cold and you and your Buckaroo Man have a bunch of first time heifers to calve out. You're going to be tired, your honey will be tired so don't make elaborate plans in your head and then be disappointed and heartbroken if some mama cow's labor pains take preference over Valentine's Day. Keep it sweet and simple. Plan something for dinner that doesn't depend on having hours of free time to prepare it. Something hot and spicy in the crock pot, perhaps? When you go to town for your grocery shop this weekend pick up some champagne and strawberries as a treat. When it's dinner time (whenever that may be), pile up a bunch of pillows and blankets in front of your fireplace or wood stove picnic style, and serve your dinner on trays! As a treat pour you and your baby the champagne you picked up in town (but let him open the bottle, make him feel all manly), add a couple of strawberries and you have a romantic winter picnic dinner, even if one or both of you has to rush back out into the dark of the night far too soon!! 

Menu: 

Spicy Beef Stew
Biscuits served with Honey Butter
Basque Salad 
Champagne served with Strawberries 

Outfit:
Winter Cap
House Slippers
Fresh Jeans 
Spritz of perfume 
Lip Gloss 

Cold Hands, Warm Heart Playlist:
Mariposa Wind: Mike Beck
Little Lion Man: Mumford and Sons
Awake and Alive: Skillet
Gypsy Woman: Muddy Waters
Rain Patty Griffin
Hands:Adrian
All American Nightmare: Hinder
Love Never Comes At All: Ian Tyson
9 to 5: Dolly Parton
Marry Me: Train
Cowboy Girl: Any Old Time String Band
Roll On Owyhee: Ian Tyson
Angel of the Morning: Juice Newton
Sun is Gonna Rise: Bill Miller

No matter if you're calving, dancing, laughing, wishing you were sleeping or eating, love is beautiful.

Buckaroo Barbie Scenario #2 

It's a clear, cold and beautiful Valentine's Day. What's a Buckaroo Barbie to do? Why shoot some clays of course!! Fill a thermos up with coffee, grab a baggie of cookies and a box of shells and head on out with your sweetheart for some friendly competition!! Instead of playing "pig" (you have the letters p-i-g to miss, and whoever spells pig first loses), play a game of love! Loser forfeits a kiss. Once you and your man are thoroughly chilled, head home, wipe the snow off your barbecue and fire her up! Make dinner together and yes, he has to help too!! After your amazing meal play a game of cards, cribbage, braid some rawhide or just watch a movie. And enjoy just being you with just him. 

Menu: 
BBQ'd Elk Steaks
Twice Baked Potatoes 
Cheesy Cauliflower 
Homemade Sangria 
Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Outfit:
Puffer Vest or jacket
Hair in Pigtails
Nails painted alternating pink and red
80's Old Man Ball Cap
A Smile

Shooting & Grooving Playlist:
Shoot To Thrill: ACDC
Dad's Gonna Kill Me: Richard Thompson
Touch of Evil: Tom Russell
Photograph: Nickleback
Sorry: Gary Allen
Fastest Girl in Town: Miranda Lambert
Fuzzy: Randy Rogers Band
Ain't No Rest For the Wicked: Cage the Elephant
Cavvy Song: Adrian
Sweet Dreams: Eurythmics
Thrift Shop: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Summer of Love: Mike Beck
Highwayman: The Highwayman
The Steeldust Line: Ian Tyson
Wanted Dead or Alive: (Tom Cruise Version)

Couples that ride, rope and shoot together...stay friends forever. 

Buckaroo Barbie Scenario #3

Your man has free time and you've been planning this night for a week. There's fresh flowers on the table, sour heart shaped candy and chocolate kisses piled in tempting heaps around the house. Your special Buckaroo Barbie Playlist is quietly playing in the background and everything is almost ready. The table is opulent...covered with a table cloth and flowers, candles and pearls dripping off its sides. You built a frothy, frilly fort in the living room for you and your man to watch Rocky from later, once dinner is over. Hey, if everything else is so girly, he outta be allowed to watch a manly-man movie at least, right?! Right! You've showered, curled your hair into Victoria's Secret model worthy waves and are all dressed up in your town clothes, even though you have no intention of heading into town. All you have to do is wait for your Prince Charming in Chinks to arrive and your romantic evening will commence. 

Menu: 
Starter of Salmon Spread and Cheese and Crackers
Steak with Whiskey Sauce
Loaded Baked Potatoes 
Garlic Green Beans 
Fresh Loaf of Sourdough Bread 
Red Wine with Dinner
Red Waldorf Astoria Cake
Coffee and Bailey's Irish Cream

Outfit:
Your Prettiest Underwear
A Dress...(it could be as simple as a sweater dress with leggings and your town boots or as special as your fancy black wrap dress and bare feet.) 
Simple jewelry

Romance at the Ranch Playlist:
Romance in Durango: Bob Dylan
Come Over: Kenny Chesney
Hot Summer Tears: Ian Tyson
Sweet Disposition: Temper Trap
At Last: Etta James
Campfire Waltz: Dave Stamey
I and Love and You: The Avett Brothers
North Dakota: Lyle Lovett
For You: Angus and Julie Stone
Stacks: Bon Iver
Striptease: Hinder
Just a Dream: Nelly
Sunlight On Silver: Jesse Ballantyne
Spanish Ranch CowboyCalifornia Girl: Adrian
Love Me Tender: Catlin Martin

Bare feet or heels, diamonds or pearls....you keep me coming back for more. 


These were just our ideas, Dolls and we had so much fun putting our heads together and coming up with some different scenarios. Just remember you don't have to follow ANY RULES to have a wonderful and special Valentine's Day with your love. Just be you. Do what you want. And smile.

Picture Credit: Adrian 

And for you gals who are single, don't worry!! We've got an awesome post coming up especially for you in the next couple of days!!

xo xo Liz and Adrian