The best ideas for Valentine's are often the least expensive, even free...such gifts truly come from the heart

Whether it's Valentine's Day, your anniversary, your birthday, or just because day, the best gifts in life often cost very little...or to use the old classic song title, "The best things (gifts) in life are free".  I know it seems strange for me to promote free gifts since I own a gift store, but I can sympathize, even fully understand what many of you are going through right now...I am in retail after all...I see, and live it, firsthand.  Many of us find ourselves in a tough spot financially.  We want to do something special for those we care most about but often money is a huge obstacle.

Quotes
In my last blog I discussed quotes.  Quotes enable you to express what you feel and think in ways you might be challenged to express yourself (okay, I will speak for myself).  A simple store bought card with a beautiful quote included inside from you is a very personal (and if appropriate, romantic) gift for Valentine's Day.

Romantic Dinner at Home
Buy a new cookbook (good investment if you like to cook - come check out our cookbooks from local authors) and treat your significant other to a romantic candle light dinner (maybe you need a few candles for the table...okay, we have a great selection of Caspari and Root candles).

Little Gift Ideas
For those of you who can't imagine not giving something for Valentine's Day, here are a few inexpensive ideas...

• Vera Bradley's limited edition promotion piece - Kiss Me Twice double lipstick case (suggested retail only $10) combined with a cute pack of kleenex (just $1.50)
• Adult Mad Libs just $3.99
• Compendium books - new inspirational titles just in include Five and One.  Another idea is  -- depending on the couple -- the book The Tickle Monster and its companion the Tickle Monster mitts.  One and Five as I mentioned are both great inspirational books, while The Tickle Monster...well, I leave that up to you to figure out...

The take away here...it's not what it costs but the thought behind the gift that counts.  Happy Valentine's Day to all!  Jennifer

Great Gift ideas for Valentine's Day - Quotes

Everybody loves a good quote, and I am definitely no exception to the rule.  I like to use and/or refer to quotes in almost every aspect of my life, from thank you letters to a recent story I was asked to write about my niece Allison, who by the way is 14 and preparing to make her confirmation in church (see her quote below).

When it comes to love quotes, I simply melt, which is what happened to me last August (2009) while my my husband and I were visiting the Ben's Garden booth at the New York International Gift Show.  We arrived at his booth and it was covered in decoupage quote plates, but one that has continued to stay in my mind (and which we carry at Blackstone's) is a quote by A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh:

“The best part of the day is when you and me become we.”

another great quote of his from Pooh is...
“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”

One last famous quote suitable for a great gift for Valentine's Day from Ben's Garden is...
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.” - Charlie Brown


Do you have a favorite quote you would like to share?  Maybe it could be the next available at Blackstone's on one of Ben's Gardens decoupage plates.  Let me know...

Here is the quote I shared with Allison in her letter:
"Dare to be different; life is so full
Of people who follow the same push-and-pull,
Poor, plodding people who, other than name,
Try to pretend they're exactly the same.

God made men different; there never will be
A replica soul made of you or of me.
The charm - the glory of all creation
Rests on this very deviation.

Your charm -- your own glory, too,
Lies in being uniquely you --
Lies in being true to your best,
That part of you different from all of the rest."  Helen Lowrie Marshall

A wise man taught me though, that the best part of sharing a quote with another is when you can personalize it and add a part of yourself to the quote for the person with whom you are sharing the quote (thanks Mark - you are my wise man).

Great Gift ideas for Valentine's Day

According to the online source for all information - Wikipedia - Saint Valentine's Day^[1] (commonly shortened to Valentine's Day^[1][2][3]) is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.^[1][3] The holiday is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The holiday first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.
Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.^[4]



Older tradition
The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th century America, where many Valentine cards are now general greeting cards rather than declarations of love, was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.^[5] It's considered one of the Hallmark holidays.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association estimates that, in the US, men spend on average twice as much money as women.<sup>[6]

Modern traditions - Blackstone's Great New Gift Ideas for Valentine's Day</sup>

<sup>Our well-liked Caspari Greeting cards for Valentine's Day definitely support the U.S. Greeting Card Association's estimates.  We also have chocolate lovers covered with local Harbor Sweet Chocolates.  But at Blackstone's we like to find unique gift ideas for all reasons and all seasons and Valentine's Day is no exception.  For the romantics, we have a great decoupage plate by our friends at Neptune 1 Studios.  The plate depicts one of three sections of a “pocket puzzle” made in the early 1800s. It appears to be an offer of marriage. To whom and from whom is unknown. The folded square piece of paper appears to have held a ring within.

The verse reads ....
“This heart which you do now behold, Will break when you these lines un...fold, Even so my heart, with lovesick pain, So wounded is,will break in twain.”. 

More great Valentine's Day gift ideas for the modern romantic to follow tomorrow including some great love quotes on Ben's Garden decoupage plates.</sup>