With Valentines Day fast approaching, its time to start thinking about ways to let that someone special know just how special they really are. Of course, you do this every day, right? But just in case you need a little help in making the day a special one, here are some creative as well as inexpensive ideas to sweeten the day and make it truly memorable:
Go out to lunch at a romantic restaurant on Valentines Day and then do something more low-key in the evening.
Have a carpet picnic in your living room or family room with a bottle of sparkling cider, champagne or wine, and add some cheese, bread and goodies from places such as Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Balduccis or Cheestique on Mt. Vernon Avenue.
Purchase a bag of fortune cookies, remove the fortunes and put your own creative, romantic fortunes inside (tweezers will do the trick for removing and re-inserting fortunes).
Buy a fancy box of chocolates from Alexandrias Kingsbury Chocolates or The Sugar Cube and have them wrapped up with a special hand-made Valentines card.
Purchase a gourmet cupcake at the Lavender Moon Cupcakery in a different flavor for every year (or week or day) you have been together.
Give your significant other a hand made gift certificate for tickets to a sporting event, play or something in the future. That will give you time to save up for it.
Buy a guidebook to a place that your significant other would like to travel to and wrap it up for Valentines Day. Then watch for great deals to visit there in the future.
Leave lots of little love notes in places where you know they will be found – in the car or inside cabinets – that indicate that you are crazy about the person.
Spend the night at an Alexandria hotel on Friday night and go out to breakfast on Valentines morning.
Create a hand made gift certificate to visit a bed and breakfast another weekend or mid-week when the prices are lower.
Go to the Morrison House bar for a drink and listen to the piano player, then go home for dinner.
Buy a nice photo frame at a place like Kiskadee on Mt. Vernon Avenue and create a list of all the things you love and admire about your loved one. Then put it in the frame and wrap it up.
Make a collage of your favorite photos together and have it copied on to a poster-sized paper at a place like Kinkos or Ritz Camera.
Buy a book of poetry and put little notes between the pages to indicate your favorite poems and passages.
Use Rain-X Anti Fog (used to keep car windows from fogging up) and a cotton swab to write a message that will mysteriously appear on the bathroom mirror while your sweetheart is showering. Or put an old tube of lipstick to good use with a greeting on the mirror.
Attach your card or gift to a three-foot string and tie it to the bottom of an automatic garage door. When your sweetheart comes home, the gift will magically rise to greet them.
For the techie in your life, change the screen saver on the computer to a scrolling message. For added effect, use a font that cant be read without decoding.
Send a singing Valentine! The Womens Barbershop Quartet from the Potomac Harmony Chorus will go to your special someones home, place of work or restaurant to deliver two songs and present your sweetheart with a box of candy and a card! The cost: $50 for a singing Valentine performed in person with candy and card, $20 for a singing Valentine via Telephone. Choose two songs among Blueberry Hill, Cuddle Up A Little Closer, I Dont Know Why I Love You Like I Do, It Had to Be You and Let Me Call You Sweetheart. For more information call 703-764-3896 by Feb. 9 or email potomacharmony@yahoo.com.
At the end of the day, on Valentines Day it IS the thought that counts and just showing that you thought about the day some time prior to February 13 is sometimes the best gift of all.
