“Bah humbug. The romantic notion behind the ‘celebration’ of Valentine’s Day is a load of bunk. It’s too commercialized and made up by candy, floral and greeting card companies. Besides, it’s on a Monday so it’s too inconvenient”.
Sound familiar? Whatever your justification might be, we all have a tendency to procrastinate every now and then. Even if you didn’t procrastinate, but you still feel that Valentine’s Day is a load of bunk, keep in mind that someone special to you still might be hoping for at least the tiniest nice gesture on February 14th. Do something spontaneous without making it seem so! Originally this post was going to be about ideas for last minute date and gift ideas but instead here is a short list of nice gestures for your sweetheart that are low-cost, high impact, and are appropriate for ANY occasion… even if that occasion happens to be on February 14th:
Instead of going out
to dinner, make a meal together
Cook up some fun by trying out a new recipe. Make themed meal, or bake a
cake. Either way, you can work together to create something that you’ll both
enjoy. My classmate Emily has some fantastic recipes you could try.
Turn off the electronics and do something
low-tech.
Seriously! Turn off your PDA’s, cell phones, computers, gaming consoles, and
TVs. Work on a puzzle, play a board game or cards by fireside or candle light.
Your sweetheart will appreciate having even just an hour of your undivided
attention.
Take a moonlit stroll
On the beach, by the lake, overlooking the city. If you live in a warmer climate,
bring a picnic dinner (even if its just sandwiches). If you live in a colder
climate, bring some hot chocolate in a thermos.
Tackle that to-do list
Think about all the chores that your sweetheart would normally do on the
weekends or after work when totally exhausted. Take care of those chores. If
you can’t think of anything, look around you for piles, dust, or disorganized
areas. These are generally good places to start.
If you would prefer to give a gift:
Flowers or houseplants that can be
planted or re-potted
These can be just as nice and certainly less expensive than a bouquet of fresh
cut roses. With proper care, they can last just as long. Check Lowe’s or The
Home Depot’s inside garden section. Add a bow to dress it up. If you live in a
warmer climate, consider planting a tree together.
Write a letter
Express in a written note how you feel. Emails, texts, tweets, and wall posts
DON’T COUNT. I’m talking real paper and a pen. You don’t have to have the
nicest handwriting in the world or even be able to spell correctly. If you get
stuck, write a list of 10 reasons why you like/love/can’t live without that
other person. Receiving something like this is something that the other person
will cherish for a long, long time. You can do it!
If you can’t manage to DO one nice thing for your sweetheart, at least make the effort to BE nice. Your success depends on you!
About this time last year, the DC metro area was
experiencing record amounts of snow. Without getting into my own opinions as to
why, the clean- up effort took longer than necessary expected, thus leaving
many people confined to their homes. We were not alone, and in addition to
learning how to brew beer, I had to find other ways of keeping myself
entertained and distracted from the anxiety of waiting for graduate school
admission decisions. This is how I ended up making fabric flowers by the
dozens.
When my mom saw pictures, she called them “Crazy Daisies”. At least I think it was my mom. Anyhow, these turned out to be a great stress-reliever, not to mention a cute little gift for friends, office mates, or just a different way to express team spirit. Here’s a tutorial on how you can make these fun little guys in about 20-45 minutes:
Supplies:
Tip before you begin: Don’t get frustrated if you struggle on your first or even second try. The pictures you will see in this tutorial are actually from two different attempts to make it! Have some patience and you can have a lot of fun with these.
1) Begin by pre-threading your needle and placing a secure knot at the bottom of the thread. Set aside.
2) Place your first square with a corner pointing towards you. Bring down the top corner to the one closest to you. You should have an upside-down triangle.
3) Bring in the two sides so that they meet at the bottom point.
4) Flip the square over and fold the corners in so that they meet in the middle.
5) Fold in half vertically and flip over, pinching the bottom. Congrats, you just made your first petal! It should look like this-
6) Very carefully, thread your needle through the sides of the petal, making sure to catch every layer of fabric. Do not push your petal down to the knot; leave a little bit of a tail.
7) Repeat steps 2-6 for each petal you want for your flower. Look very carefully to make sure that the petals will be facing the same direction before you thread it… I’ve made the mistake before and it’s a PITA to re-do!
8) Once you have your petals on the thread, trim the bottoms so that they are all flat.
9) Take the tail you left at the end and your remaining thread and tie together so that the petals form a circle (the flower!). This is the most difficult part; do not tie it too tight or the thread will break, do not tie it too loose or the petals will go wacky—and not in the way you want them to.
10) Once you have your basic flower shape, mount the back to prevent fraying. For this one, I used a wooden disk (center), but you could also use ribbon (if you intend to sew or glue it onto a fabric surface). Another idea is just to make a simple broach out of it.
11) After the backing has been placed, glue a button to the center to hide the raw edges and finish it off. In the spirit of today’s Superbowl XLV, I chose a black button to go with the yellow flower.
Try experimenting with different colors, sizes, buttons and number of petals!
I saw it, I made it, you can too!
