Love is there, and whether you do Valentine’s Day or not, it’s always waiting for us to celebrate it and in the hustle and bustle of daily life, celebrating love, doing nice things for each other, a surprise, thoughtful gift or experience… well, let’s just say a week can turn into a month and into a year in between real efforts to celebrate love – such a shame really, because it’s the best thing we’ve got whether it’s love for our partners, kids, siblings, parents… And so, with Valentine’s Day next week, I thought a little post on things to make, do or buy for your romantic love might be in order. I’d love to hear – if you do celebrate it – what you do!
MAKE
It could be that you take a pottery class or art class together, take a cooking class and make some delicious food to share, but making things together sets you on an even keel of ability in learning together at the same time, and that’s a very constructive dynamic for a couple to be in. You could also make a pretty Crochet something by hand by joining Carly Jacob’s amazing Crochet Coach community which I’ve decided to join myself this year for a meditative hobby making lovely things for my favourite people – talk about being able to gift from the heart!
Make body scrub for each other or a massage body oil, make chocolate for each other whether it’s the quick fix raw chocolate bar, chocolate chilli pizza or the 30 second freezer fudge.
DO
Go to the deli and farmer’s market together, grab a bottle of wine if you drink, and have a picnic in a favourite spot. Even if you have kids this can be (not always depending on their age / temperament but CAN be) still a great way to do something special and say hey, love you!
Take a cliff walk together somewhere beautiful, or a walk in the forest or by the ocean and go for a hot chocolate together afterwards if it’s cold, or a refreshing sundowner drink if it’s hot where you are.
Make dinner and be in charge of a course each – one of you do mains, the other dessert and then sit to the meal together after the kids have gone to bed.
One my favourite things to do with my husband is go out to a special dinner to an amazing place. We don’t get to do it as often as we used to in our hospitality years when it was more part and parcel of being in the industry, BUT, a favourite thing my husband and I do is pop away spare change through the year and once it’s full, it’s our special-dinner-out jar where we don’t worry about the price, we just go to our favourite restaurant Est. and act like king and queen for a night.
BUY
For the couple who has everything – Rose Quartz coasters for cosy love moments with tea or champagne together. Rose Quartz is famous for attracting and keeping love of all kinds, so these are perfect for the occasion of celebrating love together.
I love, love love Pastiche jewellery and this gorgeous necklace is elegant and bound to get a million wears in its life, for how many things it would go with. I have a pastich necklace and bracelet both from Kitsa for birthdays-past and Kitsa knows how to pick jewelry better for me than my husband. Ha!
Celebrate the bedroom with a beautiful new flax linen quilt cover from BIOME. These are stunning, soft and totally low tox and instead of buying each other stuff you don’t need, how about a gift to the bed – and then you can take that wherever you fancy whether it be visualising a whole uninterrupted night’s sleep or a cosy couple session 😉 With having to refurnish for the new apartment we’re moving to, we’re moving up to King sized bed and thus treated ourselves to this quilt cover. I just love it and can’t wait to get all set in the new place week after next and share a picture!
Candles: always romantic, always make dinner feel more special. I adore Queen B and Cate the founder will be on the podcast soon talking all things candles and some of the misconceptions around candle making of the ‘natural’ kind which I know you will love a good nerd out on, as I do… Here’s an archive post I wrote on candles years ago.
We’re starting to be spoilt for choice in the natural phthalate-free fragrance department these days and I have smelt the men’s one in this range and it’s delicious. For him, the stunning One Seed fragrance or for her the One Seed Eau de Parfum. 
Some ethical, SLOW flowers might also be just the ticket – If you’re still buying perfect looking roses from far away countries, unfortunately, you’re bringing toxins into the home from methyl bromide in the import process, to herbicides and insecticides sprayed on most flowers routinely. Have a read HERE about what’s up with your average mainstream flowers and how to go low tox in that department!
I hope you like those ideas and discover a little something you hadn’t seen before. However you celebrate, whatever you do, free and creative or gifting something useful or beautiful, love is there for the celebrating, so here’s to celebrating it more often because it’s good for our health – Valentine’s Day or not.
Low Tox. Happy lovers. Happy planet
