When it comes to gift giving for my husband I have a really hard time coming up with things that I think he will actually enjoy. I always seem to get stumped when trying to come up with something. This may be because I put a lot of pressure on myself to give a gift that is meaningful. I like to be creative but hate crafts...is that possible? Anyways, this year for Valentines Day I was again stumped for something that was just right to let my man know just how much I love him.
So of course I logged onto Pinterest and started searching for ideas. There were so many cute options...some way to "cute" for my manly man and others that were way out of my crafty abilities! So I adapted a few of the ideas into one big basket of love! I saw a pin that was of a bucket full of things that her husband liked...I stole that part for mine basket. Then I saw a bunch of love quotes that I felt were really great and helped me to express the way I feel about Matt...so I stole those too. I also couldn't help but notice the gazillions of free printable valentines that were EVERYWHERE....so I stole a ton of those too!
This is what I came up with in the end.
First I went to WalMart and went up and down the aisles looking for things that Matt would love. It got pretty easy once I hit the candy aisle! haha I then went to the craft area and found all the other supplies I would need to put my plan into action.
I found these really cute little packets of wooden numbers in the craft section for a buck! So I picked up a few. I wanted to do 25 things for the basket so I found all the numbers I needed. I ended up having to cut a few 7's into 1's because there weren't enough in all the packets but it all worked out and looked good in the end. I then used red and black sharpie markers to color the numbers...this was very time consuming and hard to do with Maitland constantly trying to steal either the numbers or the markers! : ) I also found a really cute heart punch for 3 bucks that made the heart shape on the card above. I used left over paint chip cards I had to punch the hearts from and skewers that I got as one of the gifts from my favorite things party for the sticks for all the cards. I know, I'm so resourceful. haha
I found this cute idea on Pinterest too and just had to add it to the basket!
It's Rolo's wrapped in red paper. Took me less than 5 minutes to put it together.
(Thanks Mandy for letting me borrow the red paper...the one thing I forgot!)
When I saw this printable on Pinterest I just knew I had to include it in the basket.
I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a key to go with it ,there was one available to print that had a picture of a key instead of an empty space but the real key was so much better, so you can imagine my delight when I turned the corner at WalMart and on one of the endcap thingys there was a bunch of charms and necklace stuff and this key was just sitting there smiling at me and waiting for me to take it home. Really, it smiled...okay the key didn't smile but it made me smile when I found it! I love it when a plan actually comes together.
This is to show some of the randomness that was in the basket. Some of my 25 things were candy or dvd's and some were little saying I found and glued to the cards and then spread them around among everything. I also found the cute little "I love you" sign and a bunch of other classic sayings that I put on skewers to give the basket a little more color.
This is what the whole basket looked like before Matt took it apart.
There were some really cheesy tags on some of the items...
Such as:
You are the apple of my eye (on apple juice...Matt really does love apple juice)
You are the tic to my tac. (on a package of tic tacs)
You are always there to "catch" me when I fall. (on Ketchup chips...a bit of stretch but it was hard coming up with cute saying for everything! Don't judge me.)
You are the peanut to my butter. (on the Reese's Pieces)
On the rest of the tags (about 10 or so) I wrote reasons I love Matt. It was really fun to make and I was so happy with how it all turned out. I was a little worried that he was going to come walking through the door before I got it all assembled into the basket! He actually brought me the red paper so that I could finish making the bomb so I covered the basket with a towel on the kitchen table and wouldn't let him see it until I was done. I may have banished him to our bedroom for a few minutes so I could put the finishing touches on it...is that bad?
Even though Matt had left over shepherds pie and I had itchiban for dinner it was one of the best Valentines days I have ever had. Maybe next week we'll get a babysitter and go out for dinner or something... even if we don't I still felt the love from my husband and little boy. They gave me the best gift ever and that was time together (and chocolate...the good expensive kind).
