5 Valentines Day Ideas!

Valentine's Day - have you thought about it? Are you doing it something for it? Do you want to do something for it? Or are you avoiding the whole commercialised event and ignoring it? However you plan to spend Valentine's Day we hope it you find some joy in it.

Over the years we have written about Valentine's Day for numerous reasons:

• The facts and why it became an event here!
• A history of our Valentine's days together here!
• How we spread the Valentine's love with those around us here (think cookies and cakes)!
• We had an outright debate on whether children should celebrate Valentine's Day here!
• One Valentine's Day we dedicated to people we love (other than each other) details here.
• And just for good measure:
• We had 'wedding' in Australia with our family and friends to celebrate Valentine's Day here

But anyway onwards and to our 5 Valentine's Day suggestions if you are looking to do something this year:
1) Keep It Low Key - have a night in, get a take-away and watch the movie you have been meaning to. It may not be extravagant BUT time is often the best gift of all and if you can orchestrate and evening with minimal 'life' distractions it's amazing how you can reconnect to the love of your life!

This simple gesture was L's phone background was months!

Sometimes it's the simple things that mean the most.

A walk in the park?

2) Do Something Different - again doesn't have to be big, just book to do something you have never done before, or tried or that you have been meaning to try. It doesn't even have to be on the day, a nice card saying we are doing xxxxx on xx date will mean just as much. You may have seen our posts on Buckt a subscription service that sends you five new activities to do every month. Now subscribing may be a 'big gift' (although cost effective) but check out their site for suggestions and maybe gets some new ideas.....axe throwing, rage room, rifle shooting, meditation, llama walking, butterfly farm, dog rescue centre, local events...you get the idea. Just do something different.


3) Afternoon Tea - If you are more of a traditionalist what about a romantic afternoon tea? Or if that's not your cup of tea (boom boom) what about a tipsy afternoon tea. It seems to be the new thing for traditional bars to increase their trade by offering a selection of afternoon teas. Take Slug and Lettuce for example, I have only ever known them as a bar stop on a night out, turns out they now have fancy decor and a afternoon tea menu. Check out the details here. Or if you want somewhere a little more unique check out Dirty Martini if you have one near by - there twist is 4 martini's as part of their birdcage 'tea'. Details are here.

Slug and Lettuce

4) Enjoy A Stay-cation or a local-cation (is that a thing :) ) anyway just as you could do something different you could make a plan to enjoy your local area and maybe include some new places to check out. As you know we live (and love) Birmingham and the way this city is growing means there is always something new going on. Not just that, even doing something we have done before creates new opportunities. You may have seen our day in the life vlog here, it was a fairly usual weekend day in Birmingham and yet we found 3 new restaurants we wanted to try and numerous newly opened stores to check out.

We often plan weekends for our guests to show them highlights of the area so it's great to look at your home town like a tourist. Here was one of weekend plans, we are fortuitous enough to have beautiful places like the Cotsworlds, Droitwich, Warwick, Leamington Spa and so many more within an hours drive. That's the great thing about the UK!

5) Make It A Mini-break! Okay so this is a 'go big' present but one that shows thought and is a great chance to get quality time together. Over our 10 years (eek) together we have often surprised each other with a mini-break or trip, somewhere not too far but far enough for a change of scenery.

A chance to get lost together

Our most recent trip was to Wales but our favourite romantic getaway of all time was to the Upper House Spa on the Welsh border. A scenic spot with a beautiful cottage and everything you need for a weekend, including a spa should you require it!

Time to just be together

So there you have it, our five suggestions depending on your budget, level of effort and partners requirements! Hopefully it'll help with the ideas process. I always find myself frantically Googling 'Valentine's ideas' to come up with something new and then I remember it's just about the time, thought and preparation......oh and LOVE!

Happy Valentine's Day