My Mother loved daisies. Chris’ Mom liked Forget-Me-Nots. I like pink roses, personally. I had a beautiful bunch of them in my wedding bouquet, and Chris brought them to me in the hospital each time one of the kids was born.

If you don’t know what your wife or girlfriend’s favorite type of flower is, ask! Or, to be less obvious, wait until you are shopping at a store that has an outdoor garden center, steer her in that direction, and pay attention to what kinds of flowers she looks at.

Not sure where to buy the freshest, nicest flowers? Look in the Yellow Pages under florists, or for convenient delivery, try using an online <a type=”amzn”>flower delivery</a> service like ProFlowers. When I worked in an office, I never saw a single female coworker NOT be thrilled at the site of a delivery person walking up to the reception desk with a flower delivery! We all secretly hoped it was for us

You don’t need a special occasion to send flowers, you can send them “just because”. Your special lady will feel spoiled by your attention, too.

Now that March is turning to April and the snow is finally melting in Eastern half of the U.S., women’s thoughts will soon be turning to sandals. We can finally pull off our boots and our thick socks and slip our feet into all kinds of strappy, thong-y, letting-our-feet-breathe sandals. Aaaahhhhh.

But first, we have to get our feet ready. We have to have layers of thick winter skin pumiced off, cuticles pushed back and nipped, and our toenails buffed and polished so that they look pretty and soft. And that, gentlemen, requires a pedicure.

Surprise your wife or girlfriend with a gift certificate to a nail salon for a relaxing pedicure and I promise she will be thrilled. Dads, don’t even hesitate when she asks “what about the kids?” Just tell her “the kids and I will be fine, don’t worry”, and send her out the door.

She will return with a smile on her face wearing disposable flip-flops and sporting lovely toes and feet. Make sure to compliment her on how pretty her feet look, say something nice about the color of the nail polish. Want to score even MORE spoiling points? Tell her you’d like her to go buy a nice new pair of sandals to show off the pedicure.

And Dads, don’t forget to give her newly pedicured feet a massage after the kids go to bed

Tonight I got home from a long day of life and my wife and children were in bed. My wife and I had agreed that we weren’t going to spend any money this Valentine’s Day. That doesn’t mean you don’t give a gift to your wife for Valentine’s Day. It just means that you have to be more creative in the gifts that you give her. Tomorrow I’m going to give her a CD mix and redo the ones I gave her previously that have gotten scratches. Should be a nice touch.

However, I’ve wanted to do something more. When I got home tonight the house was quite the mess. See the pictures to see what I’m talking about.

Bathroom Before

Living Room Before

Kitchen Before

In popped the perfect idea. Clean the house. What better Valentine’s gift or any gift could my wife wake up to than a clean house? So, I went to work picking up all the crap my children had spread throughout the house. The bathroom was a particular joy. My children had enjoyed themselves so much in there I couldn’t even walk into the bathroom because there was crap everywhere. I’m sure my wife was looking forward to cleaning it up tomorrow, but instead she’ll have a nice Valentine’s surprise when she sees it all cleaned up and organized. For good measure I also did all the dishes and put the laundry in. Here’s the after shot:
Bathroom After

Living Room After

Kitchen After

Now I just wish that I could get a picture of my wife’s face tomorrow when she sees it all clean. The amazing thing is that seeing her happy actually turns out to be a great gift for me too.

It’s close to Valentine’s Day.
Well, make that painfully close to Valentine’s Day, if your a guy without a gift for your special someone.
There are still easy gifts to snag. Here are some easy picker-uppers:

• Flowers
• Picture frames
• Chocolates and candies
• Restaurant reservations

It’s not necessarily the timing that matters for Valentine’s Day… it’s the availability. If you don’t move on things early, you’re left with the scraps left by other guys, who move a little quicker than you.
On Valentine’s Day, it’s survival of the fastest.

True Love Dozen Roses Vased This popular vased bouquet features one dozen beautiful roses arranged with greens and accents. A sure-fire way to make any heart skip a beat. When ordering simply click on your color preference.

Amazon Unbox is a really cool service that sells movie downloads that would make a really high tech Valentine’s gift. Sure, there is something cool about having the movie in your hand, wrapped and ready to be opened. However, for those people interested in being a little more green this Valentines, you might consider giving the gift of a downloaded movie. Same great gift, but no wasted paper or other packing materials. Check out some of the hot movies Amazon Unbox has available for this Valentines:

We previously wrote about giving the Amazon Kindle as a gift. It turned out to be very popular with our readers and many people were able to give their loved one the very unique Amazon Kindle as a gift this year. The problem was that back in December the Amazon Kindle was quickly sold out and so many people had to wait over a month to get their Kindle actually shipped to them.

Well, no need to worry about that problem for Valentine’s Day. The Amazon Kindle is a great gift for the readers in your life. That turns out to be most people. Add in the incredible battery life, free wireless connection to download books and you have a very unique gift for that person you love. One review I read of the Kindle even described how the user was able to download for free the first couple chapters of a book and decide whether it was worth purchasing before doing so. Ended up saving him a bunch of money.

Buy the Amazon Kindle for the love of your life this Valentine’s Day. You’ll be glad you did.

As we all know, roses come in different colors and, for guys, they better be coming to the doorstep of your special lady’s house on Valentine’s Day, or there will be problems.)

But, did you know that the colors of roses indicate certain emotional attachements (or lack thereof)? So, review the following Valentine’s Day flower guide to make sure the arrangement you send your sweetie isn’t undoing the arrangement, so to speak.

Red Roses… love (naturally) and also passion.
Yellow Roses… friendship and domestic happiness.
Pink Roses… elegance and poetry (You can mix these with the red roses for romance.)
White Roses… flowers for brides.
Purple Roses… eternal love (Or, you’re in love with Prince.)
Black Roses… death, as in you’re sleeping with the fishes.

So, when you’re ordering your bouquet, you can add the right combination of roses to make sure your message is coming in loud and clear… well, maybe not loud… that would be a neon green or paisley rose.

You barely have the confetti vacuumed out of the carpet and the hype for Valentine’s Day has already started.
Don’t shrug it off. This could be the most important spoiling day of the year: the one critical time to spoil your wife or girlfriend; the one day you have to totally spoil your husband or boyfriend.
And your significant other will be watching you, especially in mid-February, for the following signs:

• Perspiration and shortness of breath
• Bad hair
• Crazed, harried look in the eyes
• Phone calls at odd hours

All these signs indicate that you haven’t done your Valentine’s Day shopping and that you haven’t made reservations for your special dinner.

To avoid this suspicion, shop early… and shop often!

Old man winter is not known as a wistful romantic and Valentine’s Day is still a month away, but you can turn winter drudgery into romantic spoilings.
Here are a few ideas to show her how much you care:

• Clear the frost off of her windshield in the morning before she goes to work or school.
• Shovel her walk.
• Walk her to her car if the walk is slippery.
• Buy a cozy, warm throw or blanket.
• Fix her a hot bowl of soup for lunch.
• Make a nice meal after work, or take her to a favorite restaurant.
• Buy her a book or magazine for those shut-in snow days.

So, put on your hat and scarf and prepare to do battle with the elements while you win your true love’s heart… and maybe a little frostbite.

New Year’s Eve is a great time for popping the question… or for considering the idea of popping the question.
After all, New Year’s is a time for thinking about the future… that and experimenting with hangover remedies.
So, if you are ready to get engaged, or just want to see what options are out there, check out some local jewelers, or do a search online to see what types of engagement rings are out there and what the relative costs are.
You can even take your sweetie to a shop and have her get some feedback. If you’re afraid of spoiling the surprise, you can try this maneuver. Have her friend… or one of your female friends… take her to a jewelry shop. The friend can tell her that they’re boyfriend is looking for rings for them. Then, have her gather some info on what types of rings your sweetie likes and dislikes.
If you’re not ready, consider a promise ring.
For the ladies, this is a great time to start dropping some hints. Send the guy in your life a few links, or strategically place a jewelry advertisement in between his Sports Illustrated and Fly Fishing magazine. Hey, it might work.