Valentine’s Day| Ideas For A Special Day

 

With little more than a week to go I’m sure those with partners are busy wracking their heads for ideas on what to do for Valentine’s Day. I have been with my boyfriend for five years and I still end up over thinking about what to buy him, or how to spend the day. It is one of those holidays where although the aim is to show your loved one’s that you care, it is difficult to demonstrate your love, and figure out how to make the day extra special. I know that just spending the day with your partner should be enough, but it is nice to go that extra mile to make Valentine’s unforgettable. So for those who struggle for ideas I have put together a few homemade and inexpensive ideas along with the help of Pippa Middleton and her book Celebrate. 

Dine In

There is no need to folk out for expensive set menus in busy restaurants and hotels when making dinner at home can be just as special. I don’t cook at all, so at Valentine’s I make the effort to design and make a three or four course dinner for my boyfriend. Try and pick foods which you can share, my favourite is chocolate fondant with strawberries and marshmallows! Make it extra special by making your own menu, decorate the table, fill the room with candles and create a soft. romantic playlist full of your and your partners favourite songs. 

Cute Cards

Valentine’s doesn’t have to be just for those with partners, share the love with all those that are special in your life by delivering homemade cards. Knowing that you have put in the extra effort to make a card will really brighten up someone’s day.

Picture Perfect

An inexpensive and thoughtful gift is that of a photograph. Create an album or scrapbook with your favourite pictures of you and your partner. Annotate it with your favourite moments from your time together; your first date, the moment you fell in love etc. It doesn’t have to be an album, how about picking your favourite picture of you and your partner, printing it out and putting it in a cute frame. This works great for those in long distance relationships; you can print out a picture of yourself for your partner to put on their bedside table.

A Hundred Reasons Why

For those on a budget look no further. Find an old glass jar (Asda sell them for £2), some ribbon and a sheet of paper. Cut your paper into one hundred pieces and on each one write a reason why you love/fell in love with your partner. Fill the jar woth the hundred reasons and tie some ribbon around it. The perfect sentimental present for very little money.

I Owe You

Sometimes the best present is quality time. Take 20 pieces of card and write an IOU on each of them, tell your partner they can cash one in each week so you are guaranteed some quality alone time together. IOU’s can be as sweet or as saucy as you want, some ideas would be; massages, breakfast in bed, dinner at your favourite restaurant, a bath together etc.

You’re My Sweetheart

Shop bought sweets or chocolates can be great but how about making your own. It is relativity simple and cheap to make your own cupcakes, popcakes, gingerbread hearts or chocolate truffles and they are so much more impressive than shop bought ones.

A Year of Dates

Again a gift of time. Fill twelve envelopes with twelve notes detailing twelve different dates. At the beginning of each month give your partner the envelope detailing the pre-planned date. To make it extra special write a poem that hints as what the date will be so they can spend some time speculating what you have planned for them. Some ideas; Dinner for two, A couples massage, Night at the movies, A picnic on the beach, A bubble bath and foot massage, Tickets for a concert or sporting event.

A Perfect Place

On a map of your town, mark all the places that hold happy memories of you and your partner. Mark out your first date, first kiss, favourite view, favourite place for breakfast etc. Use hearts to circle your special places. You can easily print out maps from Google and can even frame the finished product, or leave it unfinished so you can continue to mark it together.

Remember Me

Similar to “A Hundred Reasons Why”, but instead your partner will fill the jar themselves. Either sew or cut out a number of hearts and plant them around your house and amongst your partner’s belongings, places such as; their suitcase, work bag, coat pocket, gym bag, shoes, underneath their aftershave, anywhere an everywhere! Then give them a jar wrapped in ribbon with a tag stating “Remember, I love you.” The aim is that everytime your partner finds a heart they will think of you and smile, they then return the heart to the jar after they have found it.

I hope you have something special planned for Valentine’s day, and if you haven’t that my list has helped you. Let me know which one is your favourite and what you like to do for your partner on Valentine’s day to make it extra special!

Christmas Day 2012| Santa was a very kind man

 

So this post is a little late, I know the majority of you got your Christmas Day Present posts up on Boxing day or soon after, but I have been a very busy bee and have only just had time to sit down and relax after travelling around the country for the past 11 days.

Like many I was unsure as to whether write this post, as there has been some mentions in the blogging community that it’s bragging or showing off, however I have had people asking me what I received for Christmas and I want to share with them what I did receive, as I am very grateful and thankful. So if you don’t like these posts then please stop reading now…

If you are still there, I will continue. I’m going to keep this short and sweet, seems it is so delayed! I love these posts, as I am very nosey and love to peek into people lives. To find out what a person receives for Christmas can give a real snapshot into their personality and their likes, as well as the personality, traditions and tastes of their family.

I received a lot of cosmetics and beauty products… I assume you did too! I received the Soap and Glory Gift Set along with the Sanctuary Gift Set…. both are some of my favourite brands, so I’m excited to start pampering and reviewing some of my favourite products for you. The Lady Million perfume by Pacco Rabanne is a new one for me, I have tried it in the shops and loved it and Matt kindly bought it for me. From my friends I received a caviar nail varnish set and the ELF Smokey Look Palette, both I image will be fun to try and review.

I received two bags, a clutch and a tote bag, both I adore… a girl can never have too many bags! I also received a new purse from my mum’s friends, which is gorgeous, and she must be a mind reader as I was desperate for one but forgot to ask Santa for one. The leopard print and snake skin bag at the front of the photo are my new makeup and toiletry bags. I didn’t previously have a toiletry bag and was scared of things leaking in my holdall when I go away at the weekends, so was desperate for a cute one. I also got the red leather gloves… very glam! And a cute new brolly… definitely needed here in the lakes where it rains 90% of the time!

I always receive some gorgeous books at Christmas despite having a Kindle. As much as I love my Kindle I still love to have a bookshelf full of beautiful books and the two I received are both fantastic in their own ways. My mum and Steve bought me the Diva Dogs book which is full of info on your dog and how to pamper it. It’s quite funny, but at the same time has some interesting facts in it. The Pippa Middleton book I was pleasantly surprised with. I’d heard bad things about her book, and yes some of her ingredients are a bit ridiculous, but I love it! I can’t wait to start planning dinner parties and being the perfect little hostess. There is also a lot of DIY and crafty bits in it, which are all very cute. The DVD was a great surprise as it was my favourite film when I was a little girl, so my mum tracked it down for me! On the top of the pile are my new diary and organiser/ notebook. I was desperate for a Filofax seems I’m a working girl now, and Matt excelled himself and not only got me the diary but also a thinner, sleek notebook so I can go to meetings now looking glam rather than scribbling notes down on a notepad.

And this is my new baby! As you will have seen in my New Years Resolution Post I mentioned I received a new camera for Christmas and here it is! Previously I had taken all my pictures either on my iPhone or on a compact camera, and although they were ok, when the pictures were blown up and uploaded to my blog the quality was not to my satisfaction. You can even see on this post the difference between the quality of pictures; all the previous pictures were taken on my new camera and the picture above was taken with my iPhone. I’m still getting to grips with it as I’m a complete novice but I’m excited to be able to do more close ups and be able to write more Face Of the Day posts, as this little baby really picks up all the little details, including my blemishes and fine lines unfortunately!

I also received Michael Buble tickets off Matt as my main present from him. I already knew about them as I ruined the surprise when the tickets were released and I tried to buy them myself, so Matt had to tell me then that he had already bought some for us. However he was a little cutie and wrapped up the confirmation in a giant box and filled it all with tissue and put it under the tree so I didn't have clue what it was! I was rummaging around in what I thought was an empty box! So I have a wonderful weekend away in London in July to look forward to!

So that is my last Christmas post of the year… cue tears and sad face from me! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and managed to spend it with your loved ones and received some lovely gifts. Let me know what you received, I would love to know, feel free to share your link below.

A Crafty Christmas

Firstly thank you to everyone for your Birthday wishes on my previous post! It means so much to have such lovely, supportive readers and followers, and I’m over the moon that my little blog is one year old!

Anyways onto the reason for this post! After seeing many of my fellow bloggers sharing their Christmas craft ideas, I thought I would take the plunge myself. Someone had mentioned on their blog that creating gift tags out of pictures of your pets is a great personal touch to gift giving, plus a very cheap alternative! (If you are the blogger who suggested this, please let me know, as I have completely forgot who it was… a to hazard reading so many blogs!) I had also played with the idea of making my own gift wrap, but decided one craft afternoon was enough for me this year… maybe next year I’ll do more! I will talk you through how to make the gift tags above;

1- Firstly you need a willing volunteer, who will become your muse! I used both my dogs, one is photogenic (George the black and white one) the other could not be less impressed with a camera (Archie the ginger one). George even got into the Christmas spirit and allowed me to decorate him with ribbons…he’s such a daft pretty dog!

2- So after you have your picture of your pet you need to make the picture Christmassy. I did this by super imposing a Christmas hat onto each of the dogs, and writing a greeting on them. I then printed the pictures out on card.

3- I decided to add some glitter to my tags to make them a bit more special. I added glitter to certain areas by using a wooden skewer, however anything with a pointed edge will work fine.  I dipped my skewer into a PVA glue and dabbed in onto the areas I wanted to.

4- Next you need to sprinkle glitter onto the card, which will then stick to the areas that are glued. Try to shuffle the card around so you can cover all the tags evenly. Then stand the card vertically and tap it onto some newspaper so the excess glitter falls off the page.

5- Once you have added glitter detailing to all your tags you can them cut them up and use a hole-punch to make a clean hole for your ribbon.

6- You can now thread ribbon or string through the hole, so that the tag can be attached to your parcel.

7- You now have your pretty personalised Christmas tags, ready to be attached to your Christmas gifts. I think these tags add a little something extra to your gifts and make them stand out from the others underneath the tree.

So what do you think? Do you like the idea of homemade gift wrap and tags? Have you been getting crafty for Christmas? Do you regularly give homemade gifts on special occasions?

Glitter and Gold| NOTD

My first actual Nail of the day Post! I unfortunately don’t get to paint my nails as much as I want to as I work in hospitality, and we are not allowed to have nail varnish on at work, so with working at least 4 days a week, it’s pretty pointless. However over the holidays I always paint them, plus I have a week off work this week, so I may paint them every day… YEAH!!

I received a few nail varnish sets, and bought a few shades in the sales so it has inspired me to try a few new styles.

This one is the one I wore to New Years Eve. (Please excuse my orange hands)

Lovely and glittery to see in the New Year.

Presents and more Presents

So this Christmas I was a very lucky girl and many lovely things for Christmas. I do truly love gifts. Not just receiving but also buying, wrapping and giving, I have actually been buying and planning my family’s gifts since October. I always insist on people opening them in front of me as well, as there is no greater pleasure than giving someone a gift and them truly loving it!

 I got the usual smellies, perfume, beauty products, and many vouchers to buy clothes. I also received the lovely snowman charm for my bracelet, and from my boyfriend an organised trip to Edinburgh Zoo to go and see the Panda Bears… which I am hugely excited for.

What was everyone else's favourite present?