Ok, how fun would it be to invite the love of your life to be your valentine with a sweet love note.  And I mean a sah-weet love note.  The kind that has chocolate and other sugary goodness attached to it.  Write your sweetheart up a candy gram!  I know candy grams aren’t new or original, but everyone loves sweets.  Here’s my take on the idea.

Here’s How:
1)  Hit up the candy aisle at the grocery store or the Dollar Store or wherever and grab 5-10 candy bars that you think you’ll be able to use in your love letter.  Need some ideas?

2)  Grab a piece of poster board.  I’ve seen these in my local Smith’s and at the Dollar Store as well.  Just grab one while you’re getting your candy.

3)  Head home and start concocting your letter.  It’s not supposed to be serious.  Make it funny.  What’s life, and love, without a little playfulness?

4)  Write out your letter on the poster board with permanent ink.  Tape or glue the candies where they are supposed to go in your letter.

5)  Give it to your sweetie in a fun way.  Tape it to the bathroom mirror, hide it in the fridge or the dishwasher (with the clean dishes!), roll it and a stick in in his undies drawer.  Gifts are always more fun when you aren’t expecting them!  Share the candy and a kiss.  A real kiss, not a chocolate one.  But you could share those too, if you wanted.

1)  Plan your menu.  Keep your budget in mind.  Need recipes?  Google is a great place to start.  I’m a fan of allrecipes.com, cooks.com and foodnetwork.com.  Get as extravagant as you dare (and your budget will allow).  If you plan right, you can make your prep last for two meals or at least get lunch the next day out of it.  It’s absolutely alright to make a little extra.

2)  Do your grocery shopping.  Think frugal, but keep quality in mind as well.  I would probably get veggies, fruits (as long as you can find decent quality, sometimes it’s hit and miss), and other baking supplies at Wal-Mart or Super Target, but meat I would get at the grocery store or Costco.  Personal preference.  Stick to your list though.  If you have thoroughly thought out your meal, you won’t need to grab extras.  If you get too much, you will 1. blow your budget and 2. have to spend 9 hours prepping for a 2 hour meal.  The amount of time you spend in the kitchen doesn’t equal more or less romance.  Don’t complicate things.

3)  Table decor.  Okay, if you’re like me “table decor” means metal silverware, instead of plastic.  Alright, I’m not that bad… not usually anyway.  But for this dinner, go all out.  And I mean all out.  Get out the wedding china, the “real” silverware, the stemmed goblets (even if you aren’t an alcohol drinker, you should have a pair of these.  If not, consider investing in some.  They don’t have to be expensive.  Wal-Mart and Target are good places to check.  If the budget is really tight, check your Dollar Store.  I promise it will be worth the $2.  Sparkling Cider in goblets is so much more romantic than in your typical dinner glass).  If you have fabric napkins, get them out too.  Candles are a must.  What is a romantic dinner without candlelight?  For less than $5 you can get a pair of candlesticks and tapered candles at the Dollar Store.  After you use them, add them to your Romance Kit.  A table cloth is also recommended.  Any nice restaurant has table cloths.  This isn’t required, but will help set the mood.  Just be careful and don’t knock the candles over.  =]  Faux or real rose petals and tealights are also ideas for your table decor.

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4)  Decide if your date is going to be focused on dinner (and dancing in the kitchen?) or if you want meal prep to be part of the date.  In my house, my hubby enjoys cooking.  He enjoys not cooking too.  If you decide to prepare the meal all yourself, make up a little time table.  That way you can get an idea of what time you need to start all your preparation.  How much of a mood killer would it be for you to be rushing around the kitchen, completely stressed out, the kids plopped in front of a movie or reigning mayhem on your house when your sweetheart walks in the door?  If you plan it out, it should go more smoothly.  Not promises though.

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5)  The Kids.  If you can, get a sitter for the kids.  Preferably one that will watch them at their house.  Valentine’s Day can be a rough day to get a sitter though.  If you keep the kids home, prep them something easy for dinner (Mac & Cheese?), bath them, and put on a movie while you prepare your dinner.  Or ask your sweetie to get the kiddos ready for bed while you fix dinner.  Work as a team.  The night will go much better if you do.

6)  Music.  Spend the time to put a playlist together for your evening.  It will be special touch that makes the evening perfect.  Besides, it’s a lot easier to dance around the kitchen if there is music playing.  =]

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7)  Leave the dishes til morning.  It won’t hurt this once.  Continue your evening in the bath tub, shower, or bedroom.  Pull out all the stops in there too.  You don’t have to go out to have a great date.  Some of my favorite dates were at our little house.  That is actually one of the things I am the most excited about once we get our own house again, at home dates.

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Happy Romancing!

Guess what happened over the weekend?  Why, yes we did take Little Monkey to Urgent Care, he didn’t sleep or eat the entire weekend, and the magnetic force field in my hip must have been activated because that’s about the only place Little Monkey would stop crying..  Oh, yeah, and my 500th friend signed on to follow this insane madness!  YAY!  I wanna give you all a great big, warm welcome.  And in celebration, let’s have a giveaway!

In my Etsy shoppe I have several items that might help out with your Valentine’s Day plans.  One of these items is a set of 5 Lover’s Lotto Scratch Off Cards.  That’s right, just like a lottery card… Scratch off and all.  Well, I am going to give one lucky follower the chance to try these out, on me.  If you’d like to get your hands on a set of these, now’s your chance!  Bytheway, these include several new cards, so if you’ve gotten these in the past, this is a different set. 

Here is how to enter:
1)  Be a public follower of While He Was Napping.  Leave a comment telling me you are.
2)  Visit my Etsy Shoppe and leave a comment here telling me what one item you’d like and why.  You must tell me why or this entry will be void.

That’s it.  Easy peasy, right?  This giveaway will be open for seven days and will close on Sunday, January 16th at 9pm PST.  Winner will be chosen through Random.org and announced on Monday, January 17th.  Please be sure to leave an email address where I can contact you if you win.  Winner will have 24 hours to claim the prize before a new winner will be chosen.

For the tutorial on this project, as well as where the original idea for a Lover’s Lotto Scratch Off Card came from, click here.