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FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
Your
darling can never be told enough that he or she is loved and
special. An inexpensive way of doing so is by sending a card
or note. An inexpensive and CLEVER way of doing so is by
sending a coded card or note.
It is easy to come up with codes. You can use the standard
1=A, 2=B, 3=C, etc. or you can come up with a completely
different code using letters, numbers or symbols of your own
creation. If the code is simple enough, you may want to let
your sweetheart try to solve it on their own or for a
complicated code, you might want to send the key to the code
at a different time.
You can mail the coded message, fax it to him or her at work
(the co-workers will be so envious) or place it in a book she
is reading. You may want to cut out letters from magazines or
newspapers to address the letter or fax so she won't recognize
your handwriting. Watch out 007!
GIVE THE GIFT THAT GROWS AND GROWS
It is
popular and traditional to give flowers to the one you love.
They're romantic, beautiful and smell nice. Then they die,
turn ugly and begin to smell not so lovely and must be tossed
in the trash.
Why not consider giving a gift that is attractive and smells
lovely and will continue to do so for months, even years?
A plant or tree not only makes a perfect gift, it continues to
delight year after year. For an anniversary, landmark birthday
or perhaps to celebrate a birth of a child, a young tree could
be planted and you could watch it stretch its branches toward
the sky as you grow older and deeper in love.
For other special occasions or for those who do not have space
for a tree, a houseplant such as an African Violet would bring
warmth and delight to any house.
Plants not only bring beauty into a home, they also help
purify the air and many people find tending their plants to be
therapeutic.
Beauty your home and your relationship at the same time as you
watch your gift grow and grow.
RETURN TO SENDER: FLOWERS THAT IS
Have you ever received flowers from someone? Most of us have.
Do you throw them out when they begin to wilt? Most of us do.
Why not consider saving those flowers and returning them to
the one who sent them? Sound rude or strange? Actually, it can
be quite romantic.
There are a few different ways you can prepare the flowers for
their journey back to their giver.
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Take some of the flowers and press them between sheets of
wax paper in the pages of a dictionary or other large book.
It will take several weeks or months for the flowers to
properly flatten and dry, but the results will be worth it.
Then you may want to frame the blossoms behind glass, create
a card and glue them on the front or iron them between two
pieces of laminating paper to be preserved forever.
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The second way to preserve flowers is to remove the blossoms
from their stems and dry them to make potpourri. There are
several ways to dry whole flowers or just the petals. You
can do it with an oven, microwave, silica crystals (found in
craft stores) or simply air dry them. You may want to check
out a book from the library that would give instructions on
drying flowers and perhaps a book that would give some
recipes on making potpourri. You can put in whole spices
like cinnamon and cloves or dried orange peels for
additional fragrance. Many craft stores sell oils that can
be added to dried petals for an array of smells.
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A third way of preparing flowers for a return shipment is to
make a dried flower arrangement. Again, you may want to
consult a book on how to dry flowers. I have had good
success with drying whole flowers by hanging them upside
down in a dark, dry closet for a couple of weeks. It is
important to begin the process before the petals begin to
fall off the flowers. Once the flowers are dry, arrange them
(or have someone help you if you have no talent in this
area) and put them in a vase. You can buy an ordinary vase
or search flea markets or antique stores for an old teapot
or brass pot to go with your arrangement.
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The fourth way you can return the flowers to their sender is
to save all the petals and return them in a crystal bowl or
vase. A friend of mine dried the petals from all the roses
her boyfriend had given her and they looked strikingly
beautiful in a crystal vase.
These gifts are not the same as buying potpourri or a dried
flower arrangement from the store down the road. These are
gifts that have history and meaning. You received these
flowers, adored and cherished them and then took the
initiative to preserve them for everlasting enjoyment.
If fresh flowers can enable one to feel the warmth of
someone's love, imagine what returned flowers can do.
A GIFT TO REMEMBER
So you still don't know what to buy for that special occasion.
Maybe it's your honey's 40th birthday or your 25th
anniversary. Here is a sure fire hit.
It takes a few weeks or maybe even a few months of planning
ahead, but the results will be no less than magical if you can
pull it off. What I am speaking of is a "This Is Your Life"
kind of gift. You will need to secretly obtain as many
addresses and phone numbers of past and present friends,
school mates, coworkers and family. Sneaking through stashes
of old letters and address books is one way to obtain the
contacts. A better and perhaps less obtrusive way is to
recruit a close friend or relative of the honoree to help you
with your mission.
Either in a phone call or letter ask the people you contact if
they would please contribute something memorable toward the
upcoming special occasion. It could be old photographs, a
story, something from a scrapbook or just a note of
congratulations. Also, ask them to pass the word along to
anyone who may have known the person you will be honoring.
For secrecy you will need to have all the correspondence
mailed to you at a location where it will not be seen by
you-know-who. Have it mailed to your work address or maybe
your coconspirator will agree to receive the mail. People are
notorious about being procrastinators so it will probably be
necessary to remind them a week or two before the event to get
the information to you, pronto.
Once you have received all the interesting tidbits you will
have to decide how to present them. You can do them in the
world-famous "This Is Your Life" format with secret guests and
a big production. What is more realistic would be providing a
scrapbook filled with all the mementos and cards of
congratulations. It you want something more dramatic like the
"TIYL" format without all the work, you can read the letters
and notes one by one, building up the suspense by not saying
the contributor's name until the end. A nice photo album or
scrapbook could be given so the honoree can put in all the
pieces themselves.
If you know someone who is hard to shop for, this may just be
the perfect gift for that momentous milestone in his or her
life.
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