Valentine's Gift for Him

January 31, 2008 2:09 PM

A Valentine's day question - mea culpa! I'd like to go for something handmade and creative for the dude, but I'm afraid school is sucking up my imagination. Ideas?

So I realized just today that there were two weeks left till Valentine's day, and I'd like to get a head start on figuring out what to do. I've read through the old Valentine's Day posts on Metafilter - good ideas, but none of them quite as relevant as I need them to be. I'm a girl, he's a guy, we've been together a couple of years, I've been crazy busy for the past month (and will be for the next two weeks), and am on college student budget.

Things I've done in the past for various occasions: Mix CD with custom liner notes, Video game montage set to music, Origami stars, cartoon drawing of us, hand painted mug, mini scrapbook made from scratch (hand bound and everything)

He's pretty ambivalent on flowers - he'd like them 'cause it's me, but not much beyond that. I thought of doing origami flowers, or stealing the wire butterfly idea, or combining them, but there seems to be something missing. He's not a crossword puzzles kind of guy, though I wouldn't mind trying to set up a treasure hunt - but even then I'd still need ideas for how to set it up, as well as the finale. Also, caveat: I have a midterm on the 15th, and I'd only be free after 7 PM.

Other info: We're usually pretty low-key. His vices: video games, hardware, sound systems, 3D modelling, electric guitar/bass, Monty Python, local wildlife (chipmunks, squirrels and birds primarily) and chocolate/candy. He lives in residence. I have access to the local craftstore and lots of origami paper. Dinner and desert will be par for the course, I imagine. We do go out semi regularly (once every month ish). Hope me?

Actually. If anyone can recommend a low-key, not-toooo-sappy love poem intended for a guy that I could calligraph or something, I would love you forever. Something like When You Are Old by Yeats, but less ... feminine.

Anon 'cause I occasionally ask questions for him and he checks my profile.

posted by anonymous to grab bag (12 answers total)

I'm not really a Valentine's Day person, but if you are in or near any of the cities listed, you might get some ideas from attending ReadyMade and Anthropologie's workshop on making love notes.
posted by kitty teeth at 2:27 PM on January 31, 2008

A blow job while he is playing a video game. I am not kidding.
posted by spec80 at 2:31 PM on January 31, 2008 [8 favorites]

Last year, I printed a bunch of clipart with hearts and valentine'ish stuff from the internet, and taped them wherever he might see them as he went about his day. Hanging from the ceiling fan in the bedroom, inside the pantry, in his shoes, in the dash of his car, on the computer mouse, etc. Goofy, but memorable.
posted by chiababe at 2:35 PM on January 31, 2008

This is my favorite (and probably extremely well-known) e.e. cummings poem... I have no idea if it's non-"feminine" enough for you but anyway:

it is at moments after i have dreamed

it is at moments after i have dreamed
of the rare entertainment of your eyes,
when (being fool to fancy) i have deemed

with your peculiar mouth my heart made wise;
at moments when the glassy darkness holds

the genuine apparition of your smile
(it was through tears always)and silence moulds
such strangeness as was mine a little while;

moments when my once more illustrious arms
are filled with fascination, when my breast
wears the intolerant brightness of your charms:

one pierced moment whiter than the rest

-turning from the tremendous lie of sleep
i watch the roses of the day grow deep.



Also, I just ran across these, which are a nice tie-in to the "roses" reference, but maybe that's too matchy-matchy. Also, I don't know if you have access to leaves this late in the season, or ever (where you live).
posted by dorothy humbird at 2:37 PM on January 31, 2008 [5 favorites]

I hate to say it, but spec80 is probably right on. Unless he's specifically told you otherwise, I don't know a single guy that would just love to get origami as a gift.
posted by desjardins at 3:03 PM on January 31, 2008

Guitar picks - but arrange them to look like a pretty flower.
posted by Sassyfras at 3:10 PM on January 31, 2008

I recommend making a tshirt... I did that for a bf's birthday once and he really liked it. I cut out a stencil of a bass guitar, bought two colors of tshirt ink (for painting, not screen printing), and painted it on. Pretty simple, but definitely creative. For your bf you could do a video game themed stencil or even monty python (killer rabbit, eh?)
posted by pontouf at 3:18 PM on January 31, 2008

A blow job while he is playing a video game. I am not kidding.

Granted my sample size has been low, but this has been more frustrating for ex-boyfriends than appreciated. (Some because they didn't give a damn about the game. Some because I was ruining their game.)

My paltry ideas:

I'd get a solid color guitar strap for him and either fabric paint it or sew cool felt things to it, etc. (Or make one from scratch if you're good with leather.) A guitar case, particularly if it was decorated in his favorite 8-bit video game characters might be awesome (I hated that gig bas were always so boring). A tuner might be appreciated if he doesn't have one and you could stitch a little bag for it.

I'd go sexy, not romantic - with the poem, with anything.

Off the top of my head, I can only think of the poem I want in big stickers over my bed (but I'm a Ferlinghetti fan):

Number 8

It was a face which darkness could kill
in an instant
a face as easily hurt
by laughter or light

'We think differently at night'
she told me once
lying back languidly

And she would quote Cocteau

'I feel there is an angel in me' she'd say
'whom I am constantly shocking'

Then she would smile and look away
light a cigarette for me
sigh and rise

and stretch
her sweet anatomy

let fall a stocking

Lawrence Ferlinghetti
posted by Gucky at 3:31 PM on January 31, 2008 [1 favorite]

local wildlife (chipmunks, squirrels and birds primarily)

So, these may end up being the dorkiest ideas in the thread, but I bet you could modify these instructions to make a birdfeeder (uh even in the shape of a heart if you wanted but that might be totally embarrassing for him) and if you throw in enough industrial wire it might look.... uh, not quite as frilly as it might look otherwise.

Or you could give him some sort of planter full of soil that has planted in it seeds of plants that attract, say, hummingbirds? It carries some sort of "our love is sprouting" message (hopefully they do sprout) but since the physical item could be semi-tough-looking (dirt in... wood or metal or something) it might be something he wouldn't dislike. But it sounds like you guys might be in dorms, in which case it wouldn't work as well.
posted by salvia at 3:42 PM on January 31, 2008

I think the best Valentine I ever gave was a giant Hershey's kiss. I filled the box with normal Kisses, and customized all the little flags. The big one just said, "I love you" (or something equally generic), and the little ones were each something I loved about him. It looks like Hershey's sells the reverse (custom big flag, little "I Love Yous"), but it's better when you do it yourself obviously.
posted by natabat at 3:58 PM on January 31, 2008

Ok, I truly have the best gift ever, although it's not homemade: Scharffen Berger chocolates. I don't know where you are located or if you can buy some locally, but seriously, a great gift. I got a box of "tasting squares" for Christmas. They are so delicious. The box comes with milk chocolate, bittersweet, and semi-sweet small squares of chocolate.
posted by Sassyfras at 6:00 PM on January 31, 2008 [1 favorite]

The most popular valentine's day gift I ever gave to a guy was a plate of home-made heart shaped cookies. I've never met a guy who didn't love cookies.
posted by happyturtle at 10:48 AM on February 1, 2008