Message in a Bottle

Remember when I was all like, "I don't like anything romantic for Valentine's Day! I only want things that are funny and witty, and maybe even borderline offensive!"? Well, scratch that. If M were to give me a card I would not only die of shock, but would prefer cheeky to mushy.

However, if he's reading this (he isn't--he doesn't follow le blog) and he DID want to splash out on the romance I think these Message in a Bottles (from Miniature Rhino) would be the perfect way to do it.

Why, you ask? Well...

1. I love getting real mail.

2. They're not your typical cheesetastic Hallmark cards.

3. The message can be totally personalized.

4. Really, they're just adorable.

Aaaand they would work for any occasion.

Your personal message gets hand-transferred by typewriter onto vintage book paper then sealed with red wax and put into the glass vial you see above. Your glass bottle gets decorated with a tiny, monogram-stamped key tied on with twine.

I'd love to unwrap this on Valentine's Day--or any day!

And if the message inside was funny, cheeky and/or witty all the better.

So what do you think?

Message in a Bottle - yay or nay?

Dating, married or single I hope

you have a wonderful day today!

Some great Valentine's Day Quotes

via last year's post xoxo



Domestic Romance: Tips to Create Ambiance at Home

Valentine's Day is on a Monday this year, which likely means we'll spend a low key night at home and probably do something more on the weekend. If you'll also be spending the night at home here are five suggestions to make your place more comfortable, inviting and romantic on Valentine's Day--or any day.

  

BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS

A foolproof way to brighten up your home and make it a feel good space is to decorate with some buds. A great idea is to create a monochromatic arrangement of tightly clustered flowers in small glass vases or mint julep cups.

SWEET SCENTS

Add to the ambiance with a subtle interior spray or aromatic candle in your favourite scent. Your home will seem totally welcoming when it smells amazing. Don't forget to spray on some perfume too!

TEXTURED AND SOFT

Touch is such an important sense, especially when you're trying to create atmosphere. Think of investing in some good Egyptian cotton sheets, a soft fur throw or even some silk if that's your thing.

DECLUTTER

Organizing and tossing the things you don't need won't cost you a thing, but you'll be glad you did it long after Valentine's Day is over. Coming home to stacks of letters, scattered papers or unfolded clothing can be stressful. If you want your home to be a romantic escape getting organized is a great way to start.

DIM THE LIGHTS

This has got to be the most effective way to bring a little romance into your home. Harsh, bright lights just don't have the same effect as dim lighting or candles. The kind people at the Home Depot recently sent me two Philips light bulbs (their energy efficient 9W Dimmable Ambient LED, said to last up to 20 years, and the 14 Watt R20 Energy Saver Reflector Soft White Flood Bulb, which will also save you on energy costs), both of which I'm excited to try to add a bit of low lit ambiance.  Of course, candles are always a great, atmospheric alternative to a glaring overhead light. 

How to do you make your home inviting and romantic?

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Images: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Valentine's Day 2011 Gift Guide: For Her, By Colour

What are you hoping to get from

 your honey for Valentine's Day?

My 2010 Valentine's Picks for Her: Under $75

Valentine's Day 2011 Gift Guide: For Him

You can also check out my

2010 Valentine's Day Gift Guide for Him

Do you know what you're getting your

 significant other for Valentine's Day?

Funny & Cheeky Valentine's Day Cards

{I Effin Love You Card by Crab Apple Design}

So, here's the deal.

I like Valentine's Day.

Gifts, chocolates, wine.

What's not to like?

{All That and a Bag of Chips Card by Creativity Cards}

That said, M and I are not really mushy romantics.

And M is definitely a man of, shall we say, FEW words.

We're not the type to give each other heartfelt cards..

A funny/witty/cheeky card on the other hand?

I am ALL over that.

...kinda like how butter loves toast...

{Fuzzy Grapefruit}

Some other funny cards that are right up my alley:

{Uncooked}

I think this card appeals to me because of the dog

rocking out on the tambourine--in a tutu.

{You Rock My World Card by Betty Bits}

For taking that new relationship to the next level...

{A Confession Card by Navy Blue Notes}



{Uncooked}



Which, let me tell you, is a hell of a lot.

{Lovely Little Nest}

If your relationship is of the Ronnie and Sammi variety

this Love is a Battlefield card would do nicely.

{Apocalyptic Valentine's Day Card by Surly Ben}

{Uncooked}

I like the ostriches.

{You're Really Good at Kissing Card by Shira Leuchter}

I don't think this is strictly true in my case...

{Crazy Love II Card by Up Up Creative}

{Uncooked}

{Yo Girl Tiger Card by Wild Little Goose}

For the single gals -- they should get Valentine's Day love too!

{Creativity Cards}

I think this (or the first) may be the winner for me...

{Uncooked}

So tell me, what do you prefer?

Funny or romantic?

Happy Monday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Etsy's CoffeeStencil

In that book which is my memory,

On the first page that is the chapter when

I first met you, appear the words,

"Here begins a new life."

La Vita Nuova - Dante Alighieri  

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

 

Sonnet XVII - Pablo Neruda

 

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous.

But let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone

though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together;

For the pillars of the temple stand apart.

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.

The Prophet - Kahil Gibran

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Cloths of Heaven - William Butler Yeats

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being in love which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.

 

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernières

Photos:  We Heart It

Alla Prossima

Favourite Romantic Movies: Part 2

5.  Reality Bites

"This is all we need. A couple of smokes, a cup

of coffee, and a little bit of conversation.

You and me and five bucks."

"You look like a doily."

"There’s no point to any of this. It’s all just a…a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details. You know…a quarter pounder with cheese, those are good. The sky about ten minutes before it starts to rain. The moment where your laughter becomes a cackle. And I sit back and I smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt."

4.  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

"I could die right now, Clem. I'm just...

happy. I've never felt that before.

I'm just exactly where I want to be."

Clementine: This is it, Joel. It's going to be gone soon.

Joel: I know.

Clementine: What do we do?
Joel: Enjoy it.


3.  Ever After

"You cannot leave everything to Fate,

boy. She's got a lot to do. Sometimes

you must give her a hand."

"Choose wisely, Henry. Divorce is

only something they do in England."

Gypsy Leader: M'lady, you may have anything you can carry.

Danielle: May I have your word on that, sir?
Gypsy Leader: On my honor as a gypsy, whatever you can carry.
[Danielle lifts the Prince over her shoulders and begins to walk off with him.]
Gypsy Leader: [laughing] Wait! Please! Come back! I'll give you a horse!

Danielle: It is not fair, sire. You have found my weakness, but I have yet to learn yours.

Henry: But I should think it was quite obvious.


2.  Brown Sugar

"You are the perfect verse over a tight beat."

"I met this girl, when I was 10 years old.

And what I loved most, she had so much

soul. She was old school, when I was

just a shorty. Never knew throughout my

life she would be there for me..."

I Used To Love H.E.R. - Common

"So what's the difference between rap and

hip hop? It's simple. It's like sayin' you love

somebody and bein' in love with somebody.

Rap is only a word."

"To hip hop. I loved you,

I still do...and I always will."

1.  Sleepless in Seattle

I've probably seen this movie a million times, there is something so sweet about it.  My favourite scene is probably the one where Rita Wilson starts blubbering about An Affair To Remember and then the guys counter with their own tearful recollection of The Dirty Dozen.

Annie: Now that was when people KNEW how to be in love. They knew it! Time, distance... nothing could separate them because they knew. It was right. It was real. It was...
Becky: A movie! That's your problem! You don't want to be in love. You want to be in love in a movie. 

Dr. Marcia Fieldstone: People who truly loved once are far more likely to love again. Sam, do you think there's someone out there you could love as much as your wife?

Sam: Well, Dr. Marcia Fieldstone, that's hard to imagine.

Dr. Marcia: What are you going to do?

Sam: Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out... and, then after a while, I won't have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while.

Dr. Marcia: Tell me what was so special about your wife?

Sam: Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were suppose to be together... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic.

Sam: I am NOT going to New York to meet some woman who could be a crazy, sick lunatic! Didn't you see Fatal Attraction?
Jonah: You wouldn't let me!
Sam: Well I saw it and it scared the shit out of me. It scared the shit out of every man in America.

Agree? Disagree? What are some of your favourites?

Images via Google Images



Alla Prossima

Favourite Romantic Movies: Part 1

To continue this week's Valentine's Day theme I've decided to round up my top ten modern romantic movies in no particular order.  I decided to leave classics like Casablanca out and just concentrate on movies from the 90s on.  Its so hard to choose and there were many movies I love that are not on this list (Bridget Jones' Diary among them, what can I say? I'm a sucker for Colin Firth!) 

10.  Love Jones

"All of these people running around here

jumping, skipping, falling in love...falling

in love ain't shit. Somebody talk to me,

please, about how to stay there."

"We're just... kickin' it..."

Nina: You always want what you want when you want it. Why is everything so urgent with you? 

Darius: Let me tell you somethin'. This here, right now, at this very moment, is all that matters to me. I love you. That's urgent like a motherf****er."

9.  Four Weddings and a Funeral

Sure, Andie McDowell was annoying, but Hugh Grant and his pals make this movie.  Charles getting decked in the church is classic and that funeral scene?  Kills. Me.

"He was my North, my South, my

East, and West. My working week

and my Sunday rest. My noon, my

midnight, my talk, my song..."

Gareth: He'll ask her to marry him.

Charles: Brilliant! Brilliant!

Gareth: Suddenly they've got something to talk about for the rest of their lives.
Charles: Basically you're saying marriage is just a way of getting out of an embarrassing pause in conversation.
Gareth: The definitive icebreaker.


8.  The Cutting Edge

Doug is macho hockey player who gets injured at the Olympics ending any dreams he had of going pro.  Kate is a spoiled little rich girl looking to finally medal in figure skating.  When her coach brings an unwitting Doug in to be her partner the sparks--and insults--really begin to fly.

"Toe pick!"

Hale: I don't like to see her upset.

Doug: If I was you, I'd invest in blindfolds.


Kate: We never get along. I mean, we're always fighting.
Hale: Foreplay.



7.  P.S. I Love You

This movie made me lose my shit.  Its a rare film (ahem, Love Story, Beaches and Terms of Endearment) that can make me cry from beginning to end, but this one made me do it.  I'm talking sobbing, hiccuping, the whole deal.  I'm not even a big Hilary Swank fan, but God love Gerard Butler!

"Every morning I still wake up and the first

thing I want to do is to see your face."

Gerry writing to Holly:  "You made me a man by loving me Holly. And for that, I am eternally grateful... literally. If you can promise me anything, promise me that whenever you're sad, or unsure, or you lose complete faith, that you'll try to see yourself through my eyes. Thank you for the honor of being my wife. I'm a man with no regrets. How lucky am I. You made my life, Holly. But I'm just one chapter in yours."


Holly Kennedy: That's a real honest to goodness couple right there. They've probably been together since the flood.
Daniel Connelly: We're so arrogant, aren't we? So afraid of age, we do everything we can to prevent it. We don't realize what a privilege it is to grow old with someone. Someone who doesn't drive you to commit murder or doesn't humiliate you beyond repair.
 
 
6.  Love and Basketball

"I've been in love with you since I was

eleven, and the shit won't go away."

Young Quincy:  You want to be my girl? What do I have to do? I guess we can play ball and ride to school together and when you get mad at me, I gotta give you flowers.

Monica: But I don't like flowers.

Quincy:  Oh.
Monica:  How about Twinkies? My mom won't ever buy them.

 What are some of your favourites?

Images via Google Images

Alla Prossima