Valentine's Day 2013

As I lucked out and married a chef who can make food better than most restaurants, it's probably not a big  surprise that we don't celebrate Valentine's day with the typical fancy dinner out.

We do do gifts however, and this years were a lot of fun for us both :)  So what did I get (besides a yummy home cooked meal by my hubs)?  Well, something I've been wanting for years now, it even made it onto my Christmas wishlist...

A vintage oscillating table fan in a fun colour.  I mean what can be more fun (or more me) than an aqua and white 1950's fan, I mean seriously!  H and I actually spied it on one of our treasure hunting adventures (we found it on New Westminer's Antique Alley for any locals).  And after testing it out to make sure it worked ok --- to make sure it "oscilates" and that it's quiet which we have noticed on other vintage ones we've seen is not always the case.  We scooped it up for such a great price we didn't even bargain!

Our at home research shows it's a General Electric model manufactured between 1950 and 1959.  It needs a good cleaning (50+ years worth), but she's already parked in our living room ready for the summer, bring on the sun!!

And, he surprised me with a plant I've been eyeing for ages, but felt too guilty pulling the trigger on (please tell me I am not the only one who does this!).

image source

It's a Myrtle topiary, which for some crazy reason are super expensive for such a little plant (or I'm just cheap!).  It now has pride of place on our kitchen table so I can fondle gaze at it everyday :)

What did H get ?  First up he's not a "stuff" kinda guy and hates little chochke kind of gifts, so I bucked my natural tendency towards clothes, chocolate, etc... and put all my eggs in one basket.  Even though he is a new Canadian (< 3yrs), H has really embraced our national sport, Hockey like any native born.  He was never into sports before moving here (not even European football (soccer)), so the hockey love has come as a bit of a surprise to me (us both?!).  With this in mind, I picked us up a pair of ticket's to see our local NHL team so we could share an "experience" instead of "stuff" (sorry for the blurry iPhone pic).  It seems to have been a big hit, so I think I've finally cracked H's gift giving code!

So that's it, that;s how we celebrated V Day, what about you?  Does anyone else struggle figuring out what your partner will appreciate for gift holidays?!