On Valentine's Day, it can feel like there is a lot of pressure to come up with just the right gift.
However, you don't need to spend a lot to make your love known. Homemade personal gifts are often the ones that communicate our love the best.
You can't go wrong by making the effort to show and recognize your love on Valentine's Day, but you could go wrong by just ignoring the day entirely. Aren't your loved one worth it?
Check out these 20 Valentine's gift ideas to ease your stress over the holiday and make those you love feel amazing!
1. ENGAGE ALL FIVE SENSES
Decorate a five drawer set for the holiday and put something to tease each of the five senses in each drawer. Ideas would be perfume, candy, massage oil, lingerie, etc. This gift can also be made for the woman in your life. Use your imagination and watch your Valentine be surprised!
2. BEER ME FLOWERS
Who says you can't get a man flowers? Any beer lover would love this adorable valentine!
3. A GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING EVERY DAY
All you need is a white board marker to tell your loved one how special they are everyday just by changing the message. Easy to make with simple craft store items!
4. FOR YOUR BOOKLOVER
This one appears to be possible to DIY, but it also has an online order option. The online option is not cheap, but would be a forever keepsake for your most beloved book worm, or give the folding a try yourself.
5. ALL THE PIECES OF YOUR HEART
This Valentine is personal, special and affordable. Surprise your Valentine with a puzzle made from your favorite picture of the two of you.
6. PERFECT MATCH
This gift is simple, easy to make and yummy!
7. MANY HEARTS CHEESECAKE
This would be an adorable surprise for your sweetheart. And it looks very impressive!
8. TREASURE HUNT
This says it's for a husband, but it could be for wife, girlfriend or boyfriend. Send your loved one on a fun treasure hunt ending just where you want them to!
9. CUPCAKE BOUQUET
For this cute gift, you could bake your own cupcakes or buy a variety of bakery cupcakes to put in your arrangement.
10. HEART BATH BOMBS
Any woman would love to get this gift. Bath bombs can be pricey to buy, but you can make them yourself. Pair it with other bath spa items and have a night of romance.
11. TWO PERSON JOURNAL
This is a couples journal for you both to complete by filling it in. This gift will help communication and connection building!
12. CHOCOLATE DIPPED STRAWBERRIES
Doing chocolate dipped strawberries would be a wonderful valentine treat for a man or woman. If they are a football fan, consider this added white decoration.
13. PHOTO PHONE CASE
Your valentine will always be holding you in their hands with this gift.
14. ENGRAVED ALLOY WALLET CARD
Make a message to your loved one a permanent reminder they can see everytime they open their wallet.
15. A YEAR OF DATES
Why not celebrate your love with a special date night once a month? Use a basket and twelve envelopes to hold each date description. Prepaid and pre-planned! What a great idea!
16. JENGA LOVE GAME
Take a normal Jenga game and put clever questions or loving actions on each piece. If they pull a piece, the action is to be followed.
17. CHOCOLATE DESSERT BOWLS
How about skipping the heavy dinner out and do dessert in? This is sure to be a sweet hit.
18. BREAKFAST IN BED
Simple and thoughtful. Everyone loves to be surprised with breakfast in bed. Try this simple twist on cinnamon rolls.
19. LOVE PAINTING
Just by gathering your kids, some paints and a canvas you can create a one of a kind piece of artwork for your valentine.
20. LOVE BOX
Put together a box with fun small gifts and messages of love for your valentine to dive into on a bad day. This is great for a long distance partner too!I hope you found something to spark the inspiration to recognize your special valentine!
Featured photo credit: Valentines Day background with hearts and flower via shutterstock.com
The post 20 Really Cute Valentine's Day Gift Ideas For Your Special One appeared first on Lifehack.
A 64-year-old former banker, Chief Femi Eboda, has pleaded with the Agege Customary Court to dissolve his marriage to Mrs. Olufunke Eboda over negligence and lack of respect.
The couple has been living together for 21 years and blessed with two children.
Eboda told the court that there was no more love in his marriage; no care and his wife was always provoking him.
He alleged that the wife stole and embarrassed him publicly as they were always fighting.
But the wife dismissed all her husband's claims in court and said she was not ready to dissolve her marriage.
She said she was too scared to let her husband's family members know all that was going on in her marriage, because if she did, her husband would beat her.
She added that her husband has been diabetic for 14years, and she has been the one taking care of him.
She said despite her young age, she still loved him without having sex with a healthier and younger man, but with all that, her husband was still cheating on her.
"To prove to my husband that I wasn't sleeping with any other man, I removed my menses and used it to swear before him that I wasn't cheating on him so that he could stop cheating on me.
"I did that after I heard him talk to one Bukky on the telephone. The girl was asking him if he had sent me out of his house.
"He beats me every time. I'm his fifth wife and before I got married to him, his younger brother warned me that he was too wicked, that I should be patient with him.
"There was one time we went for a ceremony at Abeokuta, and I heard that my husband was in a hotel with another woman while I and his children slept together in one small room," she said.
She said she hadn't done anything to warrant any divorce, adding that all she did was to care for him.
Eboda, who lives in New Oko-Oba area of Lagos, however, disputed everything his wife said, maintaining that he was fed up with the marriage.
He said that he had been to a court before in 2006 to divorce his wife, but he was begged to be patient, and he had tolerated her till this time.
He said when he first met his wife, he didn't plan to marry her but she got pregnant for him and he couldn't tell her to abort the pregnancy, so he married her.
He said he had already done this before he was told that she had been married to a man before and that he took another man's wife.
He said, "It was after I met my wife that I started having all these terrible illnesses. I have hypertension, ulcer, stroke and diabetics.
"I went to her house and sat on her bed, unknown to me then that it was her other husband that got her the house and a shop. I sat on her bed and I started urinating on my body.
"I dealt with that for four years, it was when I went to my village in Ijebu that they told me that I had gotten the disease from my wife.
"I had a stroke after I intervened in her family matter over the property of their late father. I and three of her brothers suffered a stroke; one of them is dead now. It was then I knew that they were fetish in her house.
"While I was trying to satisfy her and give her all she wanted, I bought shops in her name to do her fashion designing job. I also bought her a big house with a receipt bearing her name, but still, what did I get?
"Her elder sister's husband duped me over a piece of land worth millions of naira and when I asked for my money, her sister gave me a dirty slap and my wife didn't say anything.
"Her family succeeded in chasing my entire family out of my house and my life, to the extent that none of my other children graduated from the university.
"It was even my wife's younger sister that helped me to write my Will, in which I willed everything I own to my wife and I signed it without knowing what I was doing. Today, I don't know where the Will is because they have been hiding it from me."
He admitted that he was speaking to Bukky and stated that it was because his wife didn't take enough care of him.
He said that he sent Bukky to school and she has got her Higher National Diploma, because he knew his wife could leave him anytime.
"The day she heard me talking to Bukky on the telephone, she removed her menses, threw it on the floor and cursed me. And in my place, such a thing is a taboo. It could put my life and that of my children in trouble," he said.
The court president, Mr. Emmanuel Sokunle, advised them to maintain the peace and adjourned the case till August 13, 2013.
Source - Punch News
A West Haven woman was allegedly upset about an ex-boyfriend seeing another woman, so she falsely accused him of rape and kidnapping, according to police.
On June 4, police got a report of an abduction and sexual assault, according to police spokesman Capt. Ronald Smith. When officers arrived at the Hubbard Place apartment, Jessica Barrett, 20, of 52 Main Street, West Haven, told them that she had been kidnapped and raped by her ex-boyfriend, he said.
"Barrett, advised officers that on June 3, as she was walking near the Truman Street School in New Haven, her ex-boyfriend exited his vehicle, punched her in the head and then forced her into the vehicle," Smith said. "Barrett further advised officers that her ex-boyfriend drove her to the Hubbard Place address, where he raped her several times.
"She further claimed that her ex-boyfriend kept her in a closet for a period of time," Smith said. "In addition, she was not fed for nearly 24 hours. Barrett was subsequently transported to the Hospital of Saint Raphael."
The next day, Detectives Donald Remillard and Sean Dolan met with Barrett, when she told them she "fabricated the entire story because her ex-boyfriend had been dating another girl," Smith said.
After an investigation, Remillard submitted an arrest warrant application to the court, Smith said, and on Tuesday Barrett had turned herself in at Hamden Police Headquarters. She was charged with falsely reporting an incident and second-degree false statement.
She was released on a written promise to appear in Meriden Superior Court on Aug. 6.
http://hamden.patch.com/articles/cops-woman-lied-about-rape-kidnapping
One of the issues that has come up as I have gotten a little bit older, is seeing a lot of my friends settle for whatever guy they can get instead of really setting their sights a little bit higher. There are plenty of good men out there, so this idea that you have to settle for whoever happens to be around at a certain age isn't one that you have to accept if you don't want to. Besides, I have had the experience of seeing women that I knew get married at 22 and then divorced just a couple of years later. If you don't want to have that kind of an experience, then you shouldn't allow yourself to settle just because you reach a certain age and feel the pressure of having to be in a relationship with a guy.
Here are some tips that can help make it so that you don't have to settle for just any guy who comes along:
1. The more places that you go out to meet men, the more likely it is that you are going to meet one who seems to be a perfect match for you.
One thing that really leads to settling is when you don't really go out looking for good guys to date. Then, when you do meet one, you feel like you have to give him a chance because you don't know when the next one will come along. Really, if you go out and try to meet enough men, you'll know that there are plenty out there and you won't be so inclined to end up with the next one that comes along. You'll be more likely to wait for the RIGHT one.
2. When you know what you are really looking for in a guy, you'll also be less likely to settle.
Knowing what you really, really want in a guy is important. A lot of women don't really know what they are actually looking for. You have to give yourself a good idea of what kind of man you really want to be able to attract. When you do know what you are looking for, you are a lot more likely to actually find it.
Just because you might feel like it is hard right now to meet the right guy, it doesn't have to stay that way. You can end up attracting the right one, so you shouldn't feel like you have to settle for someone who really might not be right for you.
Credit: pickup-and-love.blogspot.com
There are some people who are so good at being leaders that some may say they were born that way but the reality of it is that they are leaders due to the experiences that they went through. Leaders possess qualities that are considered extraordinary by others and those qualities are what give a leader the strength to make the decisions that he or she must make. It is not easy being a little if you don't know what you are doing. There are 3 qualities that you must possess as a leader and so you must get familiar with what I am about to tell you.
CONFIDENCE
The first quality a leader must have is confidence because there will be times where decisions must be made and even if they are tough a leader must always try to remain in control and show those who he is leading that everything is fine. How can you expect to lead thousands of people if you have no confidence in yourself as a leader? You must begin to believe in yourself and others will start believing in you.
DECISIVENESS
A leader must always be sure of his decisions and not be afraid to make them. There is a huge difference between analyzing the situation and be afraid to take action. The only way for you to learn and to become a more efficient decision maker is to actually begin to make important decisions. So take the first step and start making decisions today.
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH LEADER
As simple as that sounds you must surround yourself with those who represent what you want to become. By having great leaders around you it is attracting that to yourself. By watching those great leaders and interacting with them you will eventually begin to pick up habits from them. Learn from all the leaders that you can and become better. There is so much to learn and so many people who can teach it. So when you get an opportunity to surround yourself with leaders take it.
These qualities are what leaders are all about and so you must make sure to develop these qualities.
Origin: art-of-kisses.blogspot.com
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BIG HINT: attitude directly affects relationships of all kinds. Find out what you can do for yours, easily, and why you should bother...
Let's talk about attitude today, especially how it can affect attraction and your relationship. The vast majority of the women who keep me honest in giving you advice on female perspective have shown me that a positive attitude can create massive, overwhelming attraction FAST, especially when coupled with fun, playful behavior. Conversely, a poor attitude can kill it instantly to such a degree that it can be hard to impossible to bring back until she's had time to forget it.
Let's be clear here, I'm not talking about ruining your relationship by coming in once in six months frowning and saying you've had a crappy day. Everybody has a crappy day now and then. It's no license to be abusive to others around you (and that's another discussion we'll have soon), but nobody expects you to be "up" 24/7/365. That's an event, not the by-product of an attitude. What I am talking about is having and keeping the kind of attitude that causes you to treat a crappy day for what it is, just a day when things were difficult to some degree, and expect things to get better and be better because you deserve better and are capable of making them better.
People of both sexes love to be around an achiever, because achievers are at heart romantics: they look inside themselves and around them for the biggest, best and most beautiful that can be found, and they recognize it. Among the several definitions for "romance" found in "The American Heritage Dictionary" are these:
2. A mysterious or fascinating quality or appeal, as of something adventurous, heroic, or strangely beautiful.
3. a. A long medieval narrative in prose or verse that tells of the adventures and heroic exploits of chivalric heroes: an Arthurian romance. b. A long, fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary or mysterious events. c. The class of literature constituted by such tales.
Life for the achiever is about the big, the heroic, the beautiful - about what CAN be done and not what can't. Hence, the attitude is one that women (and men, in case you're one of those guys who doesn't have any friends or a woman who has a hard time attracting a guy!) find exciting and fun to be around. This is because when things get bad, achievers are still looking for improvement, and often looking for a way to make it happen themselves, which involves things like leadership, courage, self-assertion, etc., that women also find incredibly sexy.
Every time this subject comes up, I am reminded of the character of Howard Roark in "The Fountainhead," when he said, "The question isn't who's going to LET me; it's who is going to STOP me." They've chosen to succeed and something is going to have to work hard to stop them; they're accustomed to getting things done. Thus, they keep their wits and sense of humor about them, something women also find incredibly attractive, whether sexually, professionally, or casually. Indeed, there is a member at our forum, http://forum.makingherhappy.com/, who goes by the nickname of "Cyno," who setting a great example of heading down this path and sharing much detail about the positive impact it's having on both his life and his marriage.
Really, do you even want to sit at a bar or in a coffee shop or waiting area and try to have a beverage or think while sitting next to some moron yapping about how "the system" is against him, or how everything that is wrong in their life is someone else's fault, and everything in their life is something wrong? Not just no, but hell no! Neither does anybody else. They gravitate toward that "life of the party" sort, who is the life of the party precisely because they have that positive, attractive attitude that draws people to them like bees to flowers.
Now, what about the other side of the coin? How sexy do you think whining and complaining is? Indeed, chronic complaint is taught by a great many relationship experts as a HUGE red flag. Why? BAD ATTITUDE! Chronic complainers don't make things happen, they gripe about what others make happen. How sexy can that be? How much fun is such a person? Such a display of bad attitude is an instant turn-off to everyone around, not just members of the opposite sex. You'd better do a quick reality check and make sure this isn't you!
The most pathetic of all the complainers is the paranoid, the insecure, fatalistic person who, no matter what happens, thinks it's directed at them if it's bad and away from them if it's good. You'll hear them say the most ridiculous things, like when approaching a traffic light, "That light just turned red because I'm in a hurry," and when somebody has something good happen to them, says, "it would never turn out that way if I tried it, because good things just can't happen to me." Guys, I kid you not, this kind of behavior can make a woman want to live somewhere besides your house about as quickly and as vigorously as finding you in bed with her sister or another man!
A close second (and parallel) to the paranoid is the guilt-ridden, the guy who has mucked up his life and/or career by being deceitful, and projects his own deceit onto those around him. He differs from the generally paranoid because the closer you are to him, he more he expects you to do to him what he's already done to you and others, i.e., the guy who has had an affair and is constantly in fear that his partner is having one, either on the premise that she's doing it to punish him or the uglier premise that since he can't be trusted, he can trust nobody.
What to do? I hope it's obvious. Develop -- and KEEP -- a good attitude, no matter what it takes. Find reasons to succeed and enjoy your life instead of reasons to fail and hate it. If you have self-esteem issues, tackle some smaller things you can accomplish and start building some self-esteem from there. Achievement builds both self-esteem and character like nothing else can, and once you see that you don't have to live in a rut and can get things done, it's much easier to expect that kind of performance of yourself.
If you've had a bout with clinical depression and fallen into a habit of griping and keeping a bad attitude, break the habit. If you are currently depressed, find some competent professional help to determine if it is chemical/physiological or a matter of habit/attitude, and get it fixed. Life is too short to spend it roaming around whining and complaining, and it's too short for the woman (and everybody else in your life) to spend it sitting around listening to you doing it.
You don't have to be in the Army to "be all you can be" (that is one of my favorite mottos or slogans), and when you're doing it, and walking into the room with your head up, shoulders back, and sense of humor locked and loaded, it won't matter if you're tall, short, hairy, bald, too thin, too fat, or whatever; the woman in your life will see that self-respect and respond to it, because in her eyes, you're the perfect man and you're hers.
The information and steps you need to be you can be, especially in your relationship, is in the 118 pages of high-quality, tested and proven advice in "THE Man's Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage" at http://www.makingherhappy.com/. It's an instant download and will fix what ails your marriage or relationship, so go for it! Give yourself and your partner the gift of a better life together, because it's there for the making, for nothing more than a little time and effort, and it's fully guaranteed for a year from purchase. It just doesn't get any better than that, so get to it!
In the meantime, live well, be well, and have a wonderful day!
David Cunningham
"Being a man is something to which one should aspire, not something for which he should apologize." --David Cunningham
