Valentine

So, this is really a Christmas gift that I gave my husband this year but I thought I'd post it here for a Valentine idea. I have a husband who has pretty much everything he could ever possibly want or need. For some reason he seems to attract friends in the outdoor retail business who have excess 'stuff' and love to give it away...this means that he is already well equiped for pretty much all of his interests. Great for him, bummer for me when I'm brainstorming for gift ideas. Another interesting thing I've learned about my guy is that he's a 'quality time' lover. If you've ever read or heard of 'The 5 Love Languages' you know what I'm talking about. Basically it means that he really feels loved when you spend good quality time with him. He's also in the 'acts of service' camp too (another love language)...like he'll clean house or do the dishes or watch the kids for a day so I can go to the opera with a good friend (like he did this last Sunday:) just becuase he wants to show me that he loves me (don't I have a GREAT husband?!). Anyway, this year I was really trying to think of something he'd appreciate for Christmas that would speak his 'language'. I was checking out gift ideas on the internet when I came across a little notepad idea. It was so cute, made up like a little book of matches only with scrap paper inside. I didn't really have a use for that, but I decided it could pair quite nicely with the old coupon book idea. So, I made up a stack of coupons like '1 day of skiing with a friend', 'An evening by the fire with me', '1 steak dinner', '1 day to yourself', and so on. There are back rubs, car washes and coffee dates in there too. I did put an expiration date on them all of December 31, 2010 and a place to write the date that each one was redeemed. This way, he's required to use them all within the year guaranteeing that we'll spend some good quality time together and we'll also have a record of when we did what over the last year. These days, if we don't plan our time together it's likely not to happen!

Anyway, you can make one of these too! Just type and print out your coupons then cut and stack them in the order you want. Cut out some card stock that is a little longer than twice the length of your coupons (you'll have to use the 12x12 paper for this). Fold the card stock so that it wraps around the coupons and then overlaps toward one end and staple it all together. Then you can tuck the longer end of the cover into the stapled end and voila! You have yourself a cute little coupon book. This was a big hit for us, in fact a few of them have already been put to use. If you make this, write me a comment and tell me how it goes!