Valentine’s Day is nearly here! What are the Best Valentine’s Day Gifts!? Dinner? Candy? Flowers? Perfume? Laundry done and the house vacuumed? El O being ..well, El O, I am always a bit conflicted. “What if he forgets?” battles with “what if he DOESN’T forget but gets me some Walmart pestilence and I have to pretend I like it?” . This has been going on for 12 years. And I’m sorry – I just can’t do a Wishlist for Valentine’s Day (isn’t that strange? I have no problem for Birthday, Christmas…it’s the Same Guy for all of those holidays – am I nuts?). Anyway, I finally resolved it by sending out a Very Strong Hint: I will get my own perfume/wine (he got me a bottle of Korbel one year. I nearly fainted).. he is off the hook if he comes up with a bag of Hershey’s Kisses (regular) and a card. Oh, hell – card is optional. And does one ‘me’ thing – this year it is finishing the stand for my beehives. Listen, you work with whatcha got. But! I am a self- indulgent beast, so that leaves me with the quandary: with what to indulge myself this Valentine’s Day? We’re still digging out of a funky first quarter so money is still tight. But what good is a wishlist if you can’t dream, right? So high to low, here’s my Usual Suspects Categories – these are the things that make my pointed little heart go pitty-pat. And there’s a Quirky Category, just for giggles. fwiw, this is either my stuff or stuff I wish I had (but nobody’s offered – esp the diamond!)
Beauty:
High: Amouage Lyric Body Cream. One of the most beautiful, romantic rose scents ever made. I love those glittery crystal jars, I do! I love what’s in them even more! Normally the price makes my stomach hurt but MiN New York is having a Valentine’s Day Sale – 15% off (Code:LOVEMIN) so I might just..
High: Carnal Flower Body Butter. The most perfect tuberose ever. I love this even more than I love the perfume.
Low: Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Oil Moisturizing Cream. Oh, yes! I know…this doesn’t sound very romantic but smooth skin sure is. This stuff is wonderful!!! I have a lot of milia issues – this cream doesn’t aggravate that at all and it is just wonderful (In winter I even use it on my face). Wait for the free shipping codes, which come pretty regularly. I use the unscented, spoon a little into a bowl and add a drop or two of my favorite essential oil blend(s). If I want to use up a perfume sample I’ve been known to dump it into that little bowl and mix it into the cream. Yeah, like you’ve never done that!
Perfume:
High: I would shriek like a 3rd grade girl to find a bottle of MDCI Enlevement au Serail tucked next to my champagne glass. Or Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Cuir Fetche. Or (gasp!) a bottle of Chanel Cuir de Russie parfum. Alas……
Low: Fresh Lemon Sugar. And since we’re going there…I confess to loving, still, Coty’s Muguet des Bois. Yes. Even now. It costs, I dunno…$11? It smells so nice, sprayed on the inside of a cotton blouse.
Chocolate:
High: Recchiuti Fleur de Sel Caramels. They really aren’t expensive – if you live in SF. What terrifies is the shipping. But..oh! they are so wonderful. Unlike a lot of caramels that sprinkle the sea salt atop, Michael weaves a thin ribbon inside the chocolate ……..I would tell you more but my tastebuds are already leaping around like Baryshnikov.
Other High: Miette chocolate sables. Again with the SF thing. I might as well just move.
Ultra High: Pierre Herme chocolate sables. I’m sorry that one is just mean, isn’t it? – even I think it’s a bit..much..to fly to Paris for a cookie. But..day-am! they are exquisite.
Low: Trader Joe’s Tahitian Vanilla Caramels. Who knew the Key to Happiness lay inside a $1.99 purple bag? 
Low (and everywhere): Hershey’s Kisses. Yah. Don’t hate. Like you wouldn’t wrestle me for that bag.
Quirky:
High: Graff diamond ring. Hey, go big or go home. There is nothing I love more than a huge, flawless emerald-cut diamond ring; Graff does it best. I have worn both this ring and bracelet shown ANNND the matching necklace (my Graff SA is very indulgent) -the magpie in me loves the ring the best (I can’t spend all day in front of a mirror and the bracelet isn’t as shiny as I’d like ..so..sigh..if I must..the ring it is! 
Old Crow Woodcrafts
Low: Bat House. Yep. Big Ol’ Bat Lover Here. Nothing better than a bat. Between them and the dragonflies this property is pretty much mosquito-free . I have been waiting for TWO YEARS for this man to build that damn bat house. Birthday? No Bat House. Christmas? Ditto. If I don’t get it for Valentine’s Day I’mo go buy one from my Other Porn Place, Wild Birds Unlimited. This man could build the Taj Mahal. Build the damn bat house, already. Or I’ll make you buy me that ring.
But wait! you say! Is it all youYouYOU? What about US? You promised a giveaway! Well o-Tay! A giveaway it is! And it’s NOT a bat house! Instead, it’s a lovely gift from MiN New York – a 30ml bottle of Andy Tauer’s Une Rose Vermeille! It’s Valentine’s Day – what better way to celebrate than with a gorgeous rose perfume. I’m fussy about my roses – this one is a beauty! Here are the notes (courtesy MiN New York)
HEAD NOTES A citrus chord with lemon and bergamot with a whisper of lavender. HEART NOTES Sumptuous bouquets of roses and violets, kissed by luscious raspberries. BODY NOTES The richness of vanilla, sandalwood and tonka beans, touched by the elegance of ambergris.
MiN New York
TO WIN: drop a line here, letting me know your Valentine’s Day plans, real or fantasy. I’ll get one of the bats to pick a winner via random.org – you won’t get it before Valentine’s Day but I’ll announce the winner on Valentine’s Day !
Not a VD celebrator but not a hater either . . . so eating a yummy dinner for two at home but wearing RED pants. 🙂 Thanks for the chance to win some Tauer!
This old married couple is going out for drinks tonight and then calling in “sick” tomorrow morning. 🙂
Spending the evening with my roommates, eating food and watching movies.
so. i recently met a guy. we’ve been on two dates. haven’t dated a guy in a while so i’m excited to be going out later tonight.
fingers crossed. 🙂
We’re celebrating Valentine’s along with our two little girls… not very romantic, but it’s good for them to feel all the love around them 🙂
no shame re: the hersheys, i still prefer reese’s peanut butter cups to a lot of fancier chocolate – and i’ve tried quite a bit!
my fantasy valentine’s would involve finding out that i didn’t fail all the finals i just took over the past couple weeks – yes, still a student. unfortunately the person with whom i’m infatuated is with someone else, so maybe i’ll allow myself to mope about that a little.
I love Valentine’s day! That’s why my fantasy is: to wake up tomorrow and NOT to be sick (I hope I’m just tired and it’s not the beginning of flu 🙁 )
If everything’s goes as I want, it will be a romantic dinner at home with my very significant other <3
My Valentine’s Day plans are to lie low and stay as far away from bars and restaurants as humanly possible: Too many people on dates out there. Now, my FANTASY Val Day would be a date with George Clooney at his Lake Como villa. If you’re gonna dream, dream big! This Tauer sounds lovely, just lovely. It’s a line I’d like to explore further!
Thank you for the draw. I do not celebrate Valentine’s any longer. Just a quiet evening at home with my boys.
I usually bring in some cinnamon hearts or the like to work. It’s the office equivalent of grade school’s valentines-for-everyone…
I don’t have any plans for Valentine’s Day, so I’m going to make winning this draw my big hope for the day! 🙂
I don’t have a Valentine, but I will be spending the weekend at home with my family which will be nice. I have a date with my car driving back to my parents house tomorrow night!
I’m a little anti-valentine, so my plan is spend the whole day trying to make this day one more of the year, just go to class, laugh, wear perfume, etc…nothing too romantic, please!!
Thank you for the draw!
I absolutely adore fragrance and feel naked, if I don’t spritz some on a daily basis!
My fantasy Valentine’s Day would be enjoying the day on a lovely, deserted island with
my husband…Many thanks, Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
I don’t have a date for Valentine’s day. However, it is my best friend’s birthday and we are going to go for a few cocktails and cheer each other up. Thanks for the draw!
Ok that’s it, I’m telling Mr. AbsintheDragonfly I want a bat house this year 😉
Other than that, I think he’s making us steak and something else for dinner! And I might have to make him drive me to Chocolaterie Stam for a truffle.
I’m getting my feminism on leading a local action in support of One Billion Rising, a global anti-violence movement. Then in the evening my darling man is taking me out for a meal at our favorite restaurant. My fantasy life is my real life. 🙂
Dunno if they’re available where you live, Musette, but here in New England you can buy already built bat boxes in all sizes. But then the problem might be to get El O to hang it up. 🙂
We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day, but I think dinner will involve cheese and pasta, and after dinner will involve at least a spritz or two of Coco.
Thank you for this giveaway!
Fantasy Plan: A gorgeous surgeon takes me out for dinner and wine and kisses me goodnight at my front door.
Real Plan: Another single mom and I are getting together with our kiddos for a red dinner, “safe” darts, and wine for the mommas…that fantasy plan sure looks a lot nicer……
My boyfriend is an entertainer, and he has 2 gigs on Valentines Day and Friday, so we are celebrating tonight at his house. He has sent me gorgeous roses at work and is making me a special dinner tonight. I got him a really nice bottle of red wine, dark chocolates he loves, and new Jazz CD’s he has been hinting at. I would love to win Une Rose Vermeille…I do not have a rose fragrance, just red roses to sniff and they smell wonderful. Thanks for the draw.
We are going out of town for some shopping today and a nice dinner tommorow. 🙂
Thank you for the draw.
I’m single this Valentine’s day and leaving for vacation on Saturday, so I’m working like a crazy person this week. One of the bars near us is throwing a singles “It’s not me, It’s you” event. That name cracks me up!! Shots for the singles! If I get more done than I expect over the next few days I may stop in, otherwise I’ll just treat myself to a coffee, and a rosebud, and hugs from my dog. I’d be thrilled to win a decant, let alone an entire bottle. What a giveaway!
I fully understand the bat house!! I grew up in the woods and when we were kids, I remember the truck chugging down the street spraying fogs of DDT. I think bats are the way to go over that!!
Musette- a bat house!!! You have given me a great idea for a birthday present for my husband!
Valentine’s Day will find him working a 12 hour shift and coming home exhausted. He is the cook in our family so maybe I will make him a nice late dinner, which really would surprise him! Candy for the teenagers is all the celebration there will be around here.
I will be spending Valentine’s Day with my husband and grown son who’s girlfriend is a doctor and will be working hard in the A&E (Accidents & Emergency) department of her hospital. We are having a selection of lovely foods from Marks& Spencer which is always reliable and tasty. As I am at work from 08:30 until 17:30, there is no time to make a homemade meal. We are having steak with peppercorn sauce with crispy French fries (Chips) and salted caramel parfaits for dessert. All shared between my two favourite men in the world – My husband Ian and my son Jonathan xxxx
i take relationships very seriously and only want to pursue a relationship once i have settled well job-wise so that i can enjoy the time with the ‘one’.. i have plans to travel the world and maybe i find my Cinderalla in some faraway land..one thing is for sure, intelligence attracts me more than looks!
Valentine’s Day? business as usual,… but it would certainly be enhanced by a bottle of Andy Tauer’s Une Rose Vermeille!!!
Great post, thanks…now I need some chocolate. I also need some AT Rose Vermeille. I am a rose hater who is in love with this rose scent. Turns out, I guess I just hate fake rose scents.
No massive Valentine’s day, just a nice brunch after my partners shift.
ERMAHGERD! This is the Tauer i most want to try!
I have no Valentine plans, being a single lady, but my wildest dreams might involve Colin Firth or some such dashing gentleman, majestic steeds, castles in Scotland, mist, fireplaces and ah, “snuggling.” Yeah, that’s it, snuggling. 😀
heck, being single means You Can Do What You Want! Champagne! Chocolate! Flowers, Perfume! I figure ‘love thyself’!!! xoxoA
My plan is to write him a letter to go along with a scarf (sorely needed this time of year), and we are going out to a nice-ish dinner (this was his idea, which is quite thoughtful). Mostly I wish I could leave work at 5 PM and go hang out with him doing utterly unromantic but fun stuff, like go to kickboxing class 🙂
My fantasy would be simply to have someone wonderful to spend the day with. Since that’s not possible this year, I’ll be buying myself a small decant of Hermes 24 Faugourg or Hermes L’Ambre Des Merveilles to cheer me up. Although winning this draw would be especially wonderful as well 🙂
My hubs is a decidedly unromantic man, much to my endless frustration, so I am expecting nothing more than perhaps an outing to one of our strip malls for a bit of browsing and perhaps a meal; I’ll spritz one squirt of Midnight Poison for the occasion, as it’s one of the few scents we both like. If I could have the VDay of my most recent dreams, I’d take both him and my parents to Mexico City for a visit with family, followed by a few days in Paris, Rome, Barcelona, and Madrid (where we’d meet up with some more relatives). Ah… there’s always next year if this VDay is a failure. 🙂
NP
heck, if he doesn’t want to go, I will! xoxo
My plan is to break out my bottle of original Gucci, orange blossoms, skank, and all. We are having a health problem with our beloved 18 year old cat right now, so odds are we’ll just sit around spending time with him, but I’ll smell lovely. I’ll also be filled with gratitude that my husband committed to my animals as well as to me, and has kept his promises.
I plan on giving flowers and taking my mother out to dinner, she deserves it for being a great mom. Also plan on eating alot of chocolate! LOL.
I have no partner at the moment. So to me, this will be the friendship week. I will be spending valentines day with all my bachelor friends, eating, drinking , having fun! 🙂
A bubble bath in rose peddals followed by a dinner on the beach under the moon light
No big fancy plans, but I’m going to meet my partner for lunch at a nearby Japanese restaurant (I love their tea). It’s going to be a hot day, so I have a good excuse to wear my new op-shop dress! 🙂
Money’s tight here, too. I ‘m planning on homemade ice cream sundaes with the kids. I think I’ve pretty much already bought my own Valentine gift by exceeding my perfume budget for the month, so hubs is off the hook!
I so want to try Une Rose Vermeille! Thank you for not giving us the bat house! 😉
No Valentine’s day plans this year. In my fantasy my hubby would cook me a fabulous meal AND do the dishes. Sadly unless I want to eat toast that will not be happening although he is able to do dishes.
I dunno what I would get. He’s best at those nasty burgers with the pink slime. So..toast it is!
xoxoA
My plans are dinner, gifts, the usual but the night before Vday. Fantasy plans would be with same with Colin Firth. Har, har.
well, heck yeah!
real story: both my husband and i have crazy amounts of work to do so we will meet for dinner here at home. i will cook something lovely and we will share a bottle of wine. we bought bianca (white chocolate drink) for dessert along with rose petit fours so i cannot complaint. now fantasy will probably take me far away from nyc and deep into some remote island.
Once a year, my valentine makes me my favorite brownies. I usually eat the entire pan. 😉
On Valentine’s I’ll spritz some Love Don’t Be Shy by Kilian, his favorite, put some Seal or Moody Blues on the speakers, don only my CFM boots and a big red bow and wait for the love of my life to come home….shhhhhhh….the rest is a secret….
😉
After I finish college, I plan to go and purchase a gift for my girl since I get paid this Thursday 🙂 Than, I will go at her place and relax watching a movie with her! During the weekend we will most likely go to a nice restaurant as well since it’s gonna be packed on Thursday! Happy Valentines day and thank you for the giveaway!
Believe it or not, after work, I am planning on going to meet a friend for drinks and stop by Recchiuti’s Chocolate Lab 🙂
And I intend to wear my nicest rose for the event (at least that’s how I feel about it this week)–Rose Nacree du Desert by Guerlain.
My OH will be working away – being a boffin, OH never notices significant dates and is often absent for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays (and is absent-minded when present!) – but that’s life with OH.
Wishing everyone a lovely St. Valentine’s Day nevertheless:-)
This Valentine’s Day I will be working all day, then taking two dance classes in the evening: Caribbean belly dance & Zumba. Since I’m single, I will spend the evening improving upon myself, dancing the night away to some fabulous tunes. These days I’m trying to celebrate LOVE every day! Happy Valentine’s Day to all.
My honey and I have been married 30 plus this year, and we adopted last year , so our plans include a comfort food family dinner and a kids movie : ). It’ll be a good quiet pleasant evening with most of my sweeties! ‘d love to be entered in your draw Muesette. I’m looking for a rose perfume and it sounds great! Sending happy thoughts for a lovely day your way!
It is my fiancées first Valentine’s Day so I decided on the classic chocolate and teddy bear and duck for a romantic dinner. I hope it will be unforgettable.