Valentine's Day Gifts for Him

Valentines Gifts for him by a_trevino on Polyvore.com

With Valentine's Day approaching I thought it'd be appropriate to share some of my gift ideas for that special someone!

Starting at the top left, I Frickin' Love You cotton black pants from Bonobos these pants flatter the male form so sweetly and they also come with free I frickin' love you boxers for a limited time!

Nordstrom Silk Valentine's Day Boxers, we all know a man can never have enough boxers!

Lingerie from Victoria's Secret, because let's be honest its really a gift for the both of you!

Golf clubs or anything golf related I know golf is high on the list for leisurely activity for a lot of men, this set from Overstock!

Personalized calendars with photos of you and your love this one from lulu the possibilities with making your own calendar are endless, if your man is on deployment make it a countdown calendar and every here and there include your fondest memories together!

Valentine's cake from Bake Me A Wish sends cakes worldwide to APO/FPO addresses and as an added bonus 5% of every order is used to assist in their effort in sending these delicious cakes to soldier's overseas!

Last but not least, making e-cards, or dance videos with your faces from Jib Jab are a lot easier than you think and sooo entertaining!!

I hope this helps and lets not forget little things like a handmade card or heart felt letter are always the best and most meaningful gifts :)

xox,
Ann

P.S. What are YOU getting your man for Valentine's Day?

NYFW 2011

A little more to know about me, I am a fashion design major and for the past 2 years I've been to every NYFW working backstage at various shows dressing models and helping control the hysteria that is New York Fashion Week! SO exciting, yet VERY tiring! Which brings me to the very sad announcement that I won't be going with my fellow fashionistas next week to fashion week! :(

In light of it being my birthday weekend (I turn 23 on Feb 13) and for that matter Valentines weekend (which both will be spent without my man waahh waaah), some close girlfriends and I have decided to take a trip to NOLA! So even though I will be sad about missing fashion week I will be filling the void with hand grenades, karaoke at Cat's Meow, Beignets from Cafe Du Monde, and all else that is cajun greatness!

But don't you worry I will be keeping myself up to date with the happenings from NYFW through various twitter updates, refinery29 and fashionista (two of my favorite fashion websites!!).  Check them out if you're also a budding fashionista!!

xox,
Ann

Mushaboom

Is it already happening again, ANOTHER deployment? Although I must admit I feel like our relationship has been one huge deployment. You see, I am not only dating a Naval Officer but we are also in a long distance relationship and have been going strong for about 2 years now. When my man is not deployed he is stationed in Hawaii and I live in Texas finishing up college.

How do I do it? Is a question I get asked a lot. To that I usually reply, "I really don't know how I do it, it surprises me too. I just try and take things day by day." Which is entirely true, because before when I would find myself looking too far into the days to come before we'd be together next, I'd become weak and throw endless pity parties for myself. Now who wants to be in a relationship of any kind with someone like that? Definitely not me!

After days of trying to snap myself out of my initial hysteria, I realized the only way I was personally going to survive was to take our long distance love one day at a time and concentrate on the little everyday things that we did have together. What are those things? They are the little sweet text messages, the inside jokes, looking forward to a simple phone call, the daily e-mail (when he's deployed), surprise food deliveries, surprises of any nature and especially the planning of the next time we are going to see each other. Easier said than done thats for damn sure! But after nearly 2 years of this method I am going to toot my own horn and call it a success! TOOT! TOOT!

Back to today, the last time I saw my love was in November right before Thanksgiving since then he's been deployed to Japan getting ready to leave on cruise which should happen sometime soon. Hopefully, if everything goes as planned he is scheduled to return sometime in late summer but if you're dating someone in the military you know how easily plans can get changed and rearranged (advice to new military girlfriends, don't set your heart on one specific date of when you're love will be back..always add some time from what he tells you just to save your hopes from getting up too high).

After August I will only have about 9 months left in Texas and then we can finally live in the same city/state again! I'm definitely looking forward to that more than anything and I figure August-May will be some smooth sailing!

xox,

Ann

This is a new blog, that I am going to try and update daily, so if you have any questions you want to ask or stories you want to share feel free to comment or e-mail me at blacknailsandredwine@gmail.com