Valentine's Day Gift Guide
Lavalife weighs in on the perfect gift ideas to rock her world
By Lisa Daily
Chocolate and jewelry and sex! Oh my!
Retailers and flower shops have worked themselves into a pink lather as they do every year around this time. But even if you love the romance and excitement of Valentine's Day, navigating the gift-giving portion can be a terrifying prospect.
As always, your pals at Lavalife are here to give you the lowdown on the most romantic and/or unabashedly self-indulgent day of the year. Wherever you are on the lifestyle wheel -- single, dating, committed -- there's ample reason to enjoy the day and lots of ways to make it fit with your status.
If you're single and loving it
Just because you're single doesn't mean you shouldn't celebrate Valentine's Day. If you're a single guy with no attachments, send your mom a card. If you're a really nice guy, consider sending some non-red roses to a female buddy. That good-guy karma will pay dividends for years as she tells all of her single friends what a good catch you are.
If you've only had a few dates
Guys, this may come as a shock: Even if a woman has had only one date with you in the month of February, she's hoping you'll send her flowers for Valentine's Day. For most women, watching the parade of flower-delivery drivers at work on Valentine's Day is a lot like waiting to be picked for the dodgeball team in sixth-grade gym class: Nobody wants to be the one left over at the end.
If you choose to forgo flowers, candy is by far the next best thing.
Emily's Milk Chocolate Love Fortune Cookies come packaged in an adorable red Chinese takeout box. Inside you'll find six delectable milk chocolate-dipped fortune cookies, each containing a love note ($4.99, available at retailers everywhere and at http://www.emilyschocolates.com/).
The 10-pound Monster Chocolate Bar ($49, www.heavychocolate.com) is billed as the world's biggest. It's made of Guittard gourmet chocolate and boasts 1,000 bites in every bar. It's not just huge, it makes a big impression as well.
The Edna Valley Pinot Noir ($19.99, http://www.ednavalleyvineyard.com/) is a pioneering (and still reasonably priced) label from California's central coast. The close proximity of the vineyard to the Pacific Ocean creates a rare east-west oriented vineyard with an ideal region for producing fine wines, particularly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes.
KarmaThreads T-shirts fuse vintage flair with contemporary design to create "feel good" messages for women. And they donate a portion of proceeds to charity, which is good...you know, karma. We like the Become, Love is My Religion and Love Happens models ($40, www.karmathreads.com).
If you've been dating for a few months
If you're not quite ready to take the jewelry plunge, consider getting some bling for her iPhone instead. Gilty Couture is a fabulous new line of Swarovski crystal cases for Apple iPods and iPhones. Try the silver case with pink crystals ($55-$200 at http://www.giltycouture.com/).
If you've been dating six months or longer
Six months or longer means jewelry. If you're steering clear of commitment, the safe bet is to stick to bracelets, necklaces or earrings. If you need help picking something she'll like, ask her best friend or sister to go shopping with you.
For wine lovers, we like the IntelliScanner Wine Collector 250 -- a portable barcode scanner that works with your phone or PDA to organize your wine collection, determine the best drinking time or just make you look really cool in front of your friends. Just scan the bottle (right at the table or store) and the software will automatically give you details on the wine, from winery to color to variety to region, including ratings from Wine Spectator and eRobertParker.com The tiny keyfob scanner fits easily in your purse or pocket ($299, www.intelliscanner.com).
If you're short on cash, you can still make a big splash using a little creativity. Paper her bathroom in heart-shaped Post-it notes ($2.49, available at mass retailers everywhere) or give her a post-dinner massage using the Hot Heart Massager and the Burning Desire soy massage candle. The soy oil is warmed by the flame but never gets hotter than your body temperature ($13 each, http://www.pureromance.com/). Make dinner special by making or ordering a special drink (like the Christi Kyss) or a bottle of champagne.
Greg Godek, author of 1001 Ways to Be Romantic, also suggests some offbeat ideas:
Instead of roses, get her flowers that begin with the first letter of her name. Get her a single daisy with a note attached that says, "She loves me -- she loves me not." Then trim the petals so that there's an odd number
Queen of romance Patty Brisben, CEO of Pure Romance says, "When couples give something of substance, it means so much more." She suggests:
Make a journal of things your significant other does that make you happy or feel loved over a month or a year and present it on Valentine's Day. Give a gift that will let you spend more time together -- a cooking class, ballroom dancing or wine-tasting.
Finally, if you're up for a super-romantic trip this Valentine's Day, consider taking a trip to Lovelock, Nevada (about 100 miles east of Reno). Couples come from all over to "lock in" their love forever by placing a lock on the never-ending chain of more than 900 locks at Lovers Lock Plaza.
The custom, according to city officials, is based on an ancient Chinese tradition -- as long as the lock remains on the chain, love will endure. In addition to Lovers Lock Plaza, Lovelock boasts dozens of après-locking activities as well (http://www.loverslock.com/).
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