February 3rd - A bunch of Stars
Materials: Strips of origami paper for folding stars, a gift bag, and some napkins to help fill up the bottom of the bag.
Cost: $0.00 (Supplies were donated by a friend of mine.)
Rating: B+
This was super cute, but lacking in visual impact as well as practicality. I folded a bunch of little origami stars, and gave them to him, "My favorite Star Person" (he's Lakota, and they call themselves the Star People). Folding the stars took quite a bit of time, and while I did something on the order of 150+ of them, they not even half filled the smallest little gift bag I could find.
February 4th - Goldfish Love Note
Materials: Paper, Watercolor Paint, Elmers Glue, and one Googly Eye
Cost: $0.00 (Was doing a project with the kids at work, and just made one as well, then asked if I could bring it home.)
Rating: B
With the exception of drying time, this was very quick, and particularly easy. I already had the stencil that I was going to use for the kids project, and so I just made one as well. (I'll provide photos later, and maybe a stencil&directions depending on demand - you can probably just find it on the internet.) On the back, I wrote a cheesy love note, and voila. Neat looking, and pretty useless.
February 5th - IT'S A TWO-FER! Ironed some of his shirts (9 of them, to be precise), and had flowers 'delivered' to him at work.
Materials: Iron, Spray Bottle, Flowers, Vase, Card, and a willing friend
Cost: Approximately $15 (For the flowers and card - borrowed the vase and a friend 'delivered' the flowers)
Rating: A+
Wolf's penchant for over-the-top romanticism really helped make this one a hit. Not only did he get flowers, he got them at work, where EVERYONE could see that he was getting flowers delivered. Wolf loves this sort of attention, so he was talking about this all weekend. Grade A+ for impact, and it got both of us kudos from all of his coworkers - I get to be the awesome wife, he gets to have the awesome wife. It's a win-win. The ironing of the shirts, while time consuming, was also very useful, and he appreciated that as well.
February 6th - Garage Door Love Note
Materials: Paper, Pen, Painting Tape
Cost: $0.00 (Had everything we needed already)
Rating: A+
For this one, I wrote one letter on each piece of paper (large enough to be read from the street), then taped the pieces of paper across the outside of our garage door. Quick, easy, with high visual impact, and it plays right into his love of overly showy gestures.
February 7th - VS Catalog
Materials: Pen, Post-it Note, Victoria's Secret Catalog
Cost: $0.00 (They give the catalog away free at the store, and the other stuff I had)
Rating: A
This one gets an A rating because of it's potential. The VS Catalog has everything from every day wear (shirts, jeans, etc) to lingerie - basically, I wrote a note that invited him to go through and rate the outfits, 'Just for future reference.' Even if he never gets around to it, its fun and flirty, took all of 30 seconds to put together, and gets the mind to work.
Tomorrow: A short love note, including a list of things I love about him.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
12 Months Of Excellence
January was "Spiritual Development Month" in my "12 Months of Excellence" project. Every month I will be working on different aspects of my life.
For the moth of January, I was working on my spiritual self. The goals were to 1) eliminate impulse buying, 2) journal for 15 minutes every day, 3) meditate for 5 minutes every day, and 4) do some sort of 'spiritual' reading every day.
I did remarkably well with goal number one, eliminating impulse buying; I was able to pay off my credit card bill in full for the month of January as well as December, front rent for the house, pay off 2/3 of my doctor bills, and still squirrel away some money into savings.
Journaling also went well - I did 26/31 days, which is a lot more than I would have done otherwise. Meditating was sort of hit or miss after the first week and a half, and reading I did about 2/3 of the time.
I declare January a success.
February is "Fit and Flirty Month" - I will be performing one romantic act each day (actually from January 30th to Feb 28th, so a full 30 days) on shoestring budget, as well as working on getting in shape.
The romantic acts I have completed thus far:
January 30th - Constructed a ginormous card out of a cardboard box and some tape.
Materials: Cardboard box, packing tape, painters tape, markers, scissors, a bunch of Lunardi's bags.
Cost: $0.00 (everything I needed, we already had)
Rating: C+
As far as visual impact, this one has a lot of potential - unfortunately, it took a lot more time and energy than I had anticipated, and as such I ran out of steam. It was a fun and cute idea, but next time I would give myself more time so that I don't just end up scribbling on it - it'd look cooler if I had taken more time.
January 31st - Burned him a CD of Queen's greatest hits.
Materials: Computer with itunes, original CD, and a CD to burn it onto
Cost: $0.00 (borrowed CD from a friend, and the CD-Rs were donated from my parents)
Rating: A+
Not only was this quick and easy (I lucked out and have a friend that had the music I wanted to burn), but it's actually a usable gift (unlike the humongous card). He loved it, and it's something he'll get to enjoy over and over (and he can think of me every time he does!).
February 1st - Made a mobius strip love note.
Materials: Pen, tape, and a large piece of construction paper that can be cut into strips
Cost: $0.00 (used paper from work, extras were used for an art project with the kids)
Rating: B
The hardest part of this was the spacing; getting the wording to end where it was supposed to took a while, but other than that it was pretty easy. Even having to rewrite it, the entire thing only took about 30 minutes to put together. Gave it a B because while it's cute and pretty easy, it lacks both visual impact and usefulness.
February 2nd - Recorded me singing a verse of 'Have I Told You Lately' and sent it to him on his phone via MMS
Materials: Iphone
Cost: $0.00 (Already had them)
Rating: B+
Though it lacks in visual impact and 'usefulness', the ridiculousness of this one (I'm definitely not a trained vocalist) definitely earns it points - not to mention that it takes no physical space to store, he can play it back whenever he likes, and he can use it to embarrass me at the drop of a hat. ;)
February 3rd (Tomorrow) - I folded a bunch of little origami stars, and I'll be giving them to him, "My favorite Star Person" (he's Lakota, and they call themselves the Star People). More on how that goes later.
Getting 'in shape' takes the form of working on my diet - increasing my protein intake, as well as diligently separating my carbs from my proteins - and getting some definition back, specifically in my core.
For the moth of January, I was working on my spiritual self. The goals were to 1) eliminate impulse buying, 2) journal for 15 minutes every day, 3) meditate for 5 minutes every day, and 4) do some sort of 'spiritual' reading every day.
I did remarkably well with goal number one, eliminating impulse buying; I was able to pay off my credit card bill in full for the month of January as well as December, front rent for the house, pay off 2/3 of my doctor bills, and still squirrel away some money into savings.
Journaling also went well - I did 26/31 days, which is a lot more than I would have done otherwise. Meditating was sort of hit or miss after the first week and a half, and reading I did about 2/3 of the time.
I declare January a success.
February is "Fit and Flirty Month" - I will be performing one romantic act each day (actually from January 30th to Feb 28th, so a full 30 days) on shoestring budget, as well as working on getting in shape.
The romantic acts I have completed thus far:
January 30th - Constructed a ginormous card out of a cardboard box and some tape.
Materials: Cardboard box, packing tape, painters tape, markers, scissors, a bunch of Lunardi's bags.
Cost: $0.00 (everything I needed, we already had)
Rating: C+
As far as visual impact, this one has a lot of potential - unfortunately, it took a lot more time and energy than I had anticipated, and as such I ran out of steam. It was a fun and cute idea, but next time I would give myself more time so that I don't just end up scribbling on it - it'd look cooler if I had taken more time.
January 31st - Burned him a CD of Queen's greatest hits.
Materials: Computer with itunes, original CD, and a CD to burn it onto
Cost: $0.00 (borrowed CD from a friend, and the CD-Rs were donated from my parents)
Rating: A+
Not only was this quick and easy (I lucked out and have a friend that had the music I wanted to burn), but it's actually a usable gift (unlike the humongous card). He loved it, and it's something he'll get to enjoy over and over (and he can think of me every time he does!).
February 1st - Made a mobius strip love note.
Materials: Pen, tape, and a large piece of construction paper that can be cut into strips
Cost: $0.00 (used paper from work, extras were used for an art project with the kids)
Rating: B
The hardest part of this was the spacing; getting the wording to end where it was supposed to took a while, but other than that it was pretty easy. Even having to rewrite it, the entire thing only took about 30 minutes to put together. Gave it a B because while it's cute and pretty easy, it lacks both visual impact and usefulness.
February 2nd - Recorded me singing a verse of 'Have I Told You Lately' and sent it to him on his phone via MMS
Materials: Iphone
Cost: $0.00 (Already had them)
Rating: B+
Though it lacks in visual impact and 'usefulness', the ridiculousness of this one (I'm definitely not a trained vocalist) definitely earns it points - not to mention that it takes no physical space to store, he can play it back whenever he likes, and he can use it to embarrass me at the drop of a hat. ;)
February 3rd (Tomorrow) - I folded a bunch of little origami stars, and I'll be giving them to him, "My favorite Star Person" (he's Lakota, and they call themselves the Star People). More on how that goes later.
Getting 'in shape' takes the form of working on my diet - increasing my protein intake, as well as diligently separating my carbs from my proteins - and getting some definition back, specifically in my core.
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