Valentine’s Day is coming up quick. I know, I know, we only just finished the winter holidays, but it’s true, it’ll be here way before I’m prepared for it, I’m sure.
It’s a stressful one … don’t get me wrong, I’m a romantic, I love making wonderful little gift things that are sweet and romantic and red & pink for this (cheesy) holiday. And then there’s the whole S.A.D. thing – Single’s Awareness Day – where we shouldn’t discriminate against those who aren’t partnered! Right? Right. Oh it’s a challenging holiday.
So hey, let’s do a little give-away, shall we?
Come Together Gift Baskets specializes in sexy, sensual gift baskets made for lesbians by lesbians. These are perfect for saying, “Thank you,” “I love you,” “I want to see you again,” “Happy Anniversary,” or “I’d really like to tie you to the bedpost and have my way with you.” The majority of our products come from woman-owned companies who do not participate in animal testing.
(I’m pretty fond of the Rescue Me basket, myself.)
The fabulous queers behind this site have offered up the controversial (their word, not mine) I Kissed a Girl gift basket, which includes:
Soy Massage Candle
Massage Oil
Lip Butter
Lips Pillow
Silver Bullet Vibrator
Perfect for Valentine’s Day! Give it to your sweetie, or keep it as a lovely gift to yourself!
So: here’s whatchoo gotta do to win this bad girl:
Leave a comment in this post that tells me either:
– The best gift you’ve ever received in the mail
– A fabulous Valentine’s day present you received
or
– Your ideal perfect Valentine’s day gift
Winner will be chosen from the comments randomly on Friday, January 30th.
Three … two … one … go!
i've never had girlfriends who were the romantic type, and i've always been the one to make the effort, so i'll just tell you about what i did for my girl one valentine's day a few years back:
i made small, heart-shaped envelopes (32 of them–one for each month we'd been together) which held strips of paper (think: fortune cookies). on each strip of paper was a fond memory or something about her that i loved. i hid them all over the house: under her pillow, in her school notebooks, by her toothbrush.
i also made her dinner, which consisted mostly of dessert: baked brie with cherries, pecans, and honey, served with grapes and french bread; raspberry truffle tarts, milk chocolate truffles with homemade kahlua, strawberries dipped in both white and milk chocolate; and champagne with fresh raspberries.
and finally, before bed, we took a long bath together.
even if it can't be 'entered', I'm still entering.. and doing all 3!
-best thing I've received in the mail:
well, I'm addicted to snail mail. I joined sendsomething.net and postcardx.net and have received postcards, art supplies, letters, books, movies.. I also exchange letters, art projects, and more with friends on a semi-regular basis. :)
-the best valentine's day gift I got:
my love.. when she first came to visit, it was valentine's day weekend of 2005.. and the night of valentine's day [technically the morning of the 15th], we made it official. :) since then, we moved in together, broke up, spent 3 years apart and now history is kind of repeating itself [as you know].. :)
-my ideal perfect valentine's day gift:
that she could come back for valentine's day and we could maybe relive that first weekend.. but I don't think it's gonna happen, unfortunately..
perhaps unsurprisingly, me & my gf have a terrible track record with valentine's day. I could give you a string of really awful valentine's day stories, but I'll restrain myself.
the best gift I ever got in the mail? well, the year that M. and I spent apart, which was my freshman year in college, she sent me a letter every single day of my second semester. without fail. I thought it was really romantic, and I wonder why my roomies didn't guess sooner about us!
best V-day gift i've ever received: a lap dance from my femme, in a room in a rustic b&b in western mass…
My ideal perfect Valentine's gift?
Does saying that basket count?
No?
Hmm — how about:
A handsomely dressed butch (Jess) ringing my (our) doorbell. Taking me by the hand and walking me to the car… followed by romantic dinner for two at a dark, candlelit restaurant.
After some great, flirty conversation during which she finds constant small way to touch me… we leave to go ton a ride on a horse-drawn carriage where she spends her time holding me to "brace against the cold" and we steal opportunities to kiss each other as often and as heated as we want…
Then she takes me home to seal the deal. :)
That count?
The best V-day gift ever is for this year, and I have already received it. After over eight years in a long distance relationship Storm and I will be spending our first Valentine's Day physically together. We always celebrate, sending each other cards and little gifts and such but this year we will be able to look into each other's eyes and share our first Valentine's Day kiss. For me that's better than anything I've ever received.
– The best gift you’ve ever received in the mail
ooh, that's hard – all (real) mail is like a fantastic gift. honestly i think the proper, long, handwritten letters my friend athena sends are the best.
– A fabulous Valentine’s day present you received
i got those queen anne chocolate cherries and usually some silly stuffed thing from my dad every year as a kid (including in college, via mail).
my favorite v-day gift i've given was a half-dozen roses made of duct tape =)
Best gift received by mail: Up-Up Elmo (don't ask)
V-Day present: multiple orgasms
My ideal: multiple orgasms :)
the best v-day present i ever recieved?
a homemade lemon cheesecake. god it was delicious, and there was a romantical picnic involved with the giving of the cake.
I'm much more of a giver, so this is a story about the best gift I've given.
My ex and I had made plans to attend her college's Sweetheart Ball. I went all out, making her a beautiful seaood dinner, ordering a corsage with three red roses, buying her beautiful earrings to wear, and renting a tux. We pulled up to her school, a mostly military school in rural Georgia, and I escorted the beautiful creature on my arm all night. We walked in, and the gym was full of debutantes in horrid old prom dresses, and guys in Army dress blues. I led her to the dance floor, and everything was lost…except the way she looked at me.
It was a perfect evening.
The next year she took a stand against Valentine's Day, and forbid me to get her anything. We worked at the same place, and I called during lunch to have flowers delivered ten minutes before she left work. I watched as the bouquet arrived, and she didn't realize they were for her. She saw them on the counter, asked who they belonged to, and commented the red roses and purple irises were a lovely combination.
Then she read the card, and she started to cry.
Best Valentine's gift? I can't believe I'm saying this, but conversation hearts. It's kind of a running joke. It started our very first valentine's together. She was SO EXCITED because she just knew how much I LOVED conversation hearts, so she was SURE I'd love the BOXES of them that she got me.
Except that we'd already had the conversation where we both discussed how much we HATED conversation hearts.
She was so disappointed that when I reminded her that I hated them, but then we had a laugh about how she got it mixed up and everything was fine.
The next year… She was SO EXCITED because (do you see where this is going?) she just knew how much I LOVED conversation hearts, so she was SURE I'd love the BOXES of them that she got me.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
If you know my wife, you'll understand how hard it is to tell whether she's yanking your chain or if she's genuinely gotten the Hate vs. Love thing mixed up AGAIN. We've done this every Valentine's except for one – the year before last. She finally remembered that it was HATE not LOVE.
And, yes, I got mad at her.
Last year she got me the jumbo size bag of Conversation Hearts. :)
Retarded, but true.
– Best gift I've ever gotten in the mail: Odd as it is, socks. I was just feeling really isolated at the time and a friend had seen these fun Halloween socks and thought of me, so she sent them to me and they were a much needed ray of sunshine.
– Fabulous Valentine's day present: Haha maybe a gorgeous homemade card my mom sent me last year after I'd just had a crash-and-burn breakup that was subtly and tactfully but very decidedly dissing my ex. Bitter? Yes, but also fabulous.
My best valentine's gift ever: Last year my love gave me a wonderful homemade dinner for V-day, which we have decided to also celebrate as our anniversary, as it is a few days from the day that we met. (As long as we're celebrating a holiday about love, why not have it also be our anniversary?)
So, the dinner was carefully planned and layed out on the table: all foods that we had to eat with our hands… You see where this is going… We spent the better part of an hour teasing each other with strawberries dipped in chocolate sauce and whipped cream, and bread with decadent cheeses, and banana slices dipped in caramel and nuts, and olives and a delicious French wine… Followed up of course by some mind-blowing sex. For what would a V-day be without sex mind blowing sex and smearing chocolate all over your lover's body?
My best thing I ever got in the mail was a hand-painted picture on a canvas from my good friend, with the words printed on the back, "When I love someone, I like to give them something that is FROM ME. I'm learning to paint, so this picture is for you because I love you. xoxo" I have it framed in my bedroom to this day. I think part of why it is so special is because it was so unexpected.
I'd be hard pressed to name the best gift I've ever gotten in the mail, but last week I received a potato.
Not just any potato, but an Mr. Optimus Prime Potato Head.
Given my love of both Optimus Prime *and* all things starch, it was pretty damn awesome.
I am easy to please.
Suffice it to say, I'd be *easier* to please with that basket full of goodness.
Though most people are surprised to hear it, I actually would really like a romantic night (on Valentine's Day or any other day), with the girl making an amazing home-cooked dinner (and dessert), giving me flowers, etc. Oh, and then awesome sex that lasts all night. That's all!
I guess I have two answers for one of these prompts. I haven't had a lot of valentines gifts, but the best one I received was so because it was quite unexpected. It was from someone I had dated for a few month the past spring, but I had since moved away and we were just friends at that point. And I guess she was still into me. She had a dozen white roses in a beautiful vase sent to me.
My best valentine's day was actually last year when I was single. I spent it with my best friend, who was also single at the time. We spent the evening together cooking and eating. I gave her a cute valentine's mug filled with candy and she gave me an awesome mix cd. This day definitely tops the gift above.
On Valentine's day a few years ago I got a beautiful box of handmade truffles with a loving note in the mail. The friend that sent them to me died shortly after mailing them. The gift was bittersweet, but helped me find peace afterwards.
The best Valentine’s gift I’ve ever gotten was last year – a signed copy of the new book from my favorite writer, Joey Comeau. I’ve carried it with me halfway around the world this year, because I just can’t get over how great it is.
The best gifts in the mail:
I just got a beautiful handmade print from an artist pal; an orange heart and orange being one of my favorite colors. I had just changed my name to Birdie, and she drew pictures of me as my new name on the envelope. I love how she saw me.
The other would be perfume samples from my mom when I was in art school and a single mom. She lived in the big city (I was in Ohio) and would get the latest samples for me. I remember getting Opium when it first came out…I was poor as dirt, but smelled great. It was such a wonderful luxury!
My girlfriend and I will have been together three years this February, and I have the privilege/problem that our anniversary is on February 5, and her birthday (and, of course, Valentine's Day) is on February 14. This, of course, makes the month of February big for gift-giving.
Last year, she was in Paris for about 9 months, so every time she saw me was a gift in and of itself. But she came in in February for her birthday/our anniversary/Valentine's Day, and brought a particularly delightful gift.
Flash-backwards – I went to visit her in November (just after my birthday), and when I got to her little studio apartment she had a dozen red roses waiting for me with a card. They stayed out the entire week I was there, and were a really lovely greeting every time we came into the apartment.
Back to February, she gave me a pretty red box wooden, labeled 'Cafe de Flore.' I said it was beautiful, and she said, simply, "Open it."
It was a dozen dried roses, gracefully detached from the stems.
The best Valentine's Day gift I've ever received, without a doubt, and the only gift I've ever received that made me cry.
-R
The best Valentine's gift I ever got was in middle school. I was an awkward, unpopular, chubby girl with no faith in myself or in my lovable-ness–certainly no one I knew found me sexy, and although I had a crush, no one reciprocated. So I didn't expect anything on Valentine's Day, yet I found myself summoned to the front desk where flowers, a basket of treats, and a balloon waited for me, with a note that said, "From Your Secret Admirer." I knew, of course, that my parents had collaborated on my valentine–that I had no secret admirer in my peer group–and the knowledge was a little heart breaking. But I also knew that I had parents who loved me immensely, and that was, and is, the sweetest gift.
my ideal valentine's gift-
my girl, home from egypt. i don't get her back until june though…
The best Valentine’s Day gift ever was in college when my girlfriend at the time plastered my dorm room with almost a hundred sheets of paper on which she’d colored hearts and written “I love you,” “Happy Valentine’s Day,” etc…
a mix cd.
romance………omg I would love it if we just made love….. I have a brain injury from an accident…so thats mostly the reason. we are not active, But my wonderful butch has taken care of me and Hy deserves a great valentines day, cause above romance daily love wins everyday.
Wow, I am loving these answers! Can’t wait to see who wins.
i couldn't imagine a better gift this year than an hour massage. but i guess that depends on your stress level in february.
Best VD ever… being taken away unexpectedly to my favorite place in the world (Montauk). The whole weekend was arranged ahead of time, and it was wonderful not to have to do any planning or make any decisions (I have WAY too many decisions to make on a daily basis!!). It was bliss…
The best/ worst gift was the first: my ninth grade boyfriend and I were together for the WHOLE MONTH of February. I think he stopped in to a CVS on the way to school on Valentine's Day. They were apparently out of heart-themed gift sets, and so he bought me an Easter bunny with a plastic carrot filled with stale, waxy orange jelly beans. This he shoved into my hands, muttering, "see you at lunch," before doing an about-face and striding down the hall.
After that, all the gifts have been so uninterestingly on-message.
One of the sweetest gifts I ever got was from my best friend in high school. We were both single for valentine's day one year, and so she got my mom to let her into my house while I was out one day, and she "heart attacked" my bedroom. She cut out tons of construction-paper hearts and on each one wrote a reason she was glad we were friends. We were always completely platonic, but it remains one of the most wonderful valentine's day gifts I've ever received. (Plus, it led my mom to think we were dating, which was just funny.)
A perfect V-day gift:
Spending the day in bed with my lover, getting up only to eat (pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes and pumpkin soy milk!), change the DVD (watch lots of hot queer porn, But I'm a Cheerleader, Love Actually and Secretary), and drink some water. Lots and lots and lots of hot sex, screaming, fucking, eating out, beating, bruising, bondage and more.
That's all.
My girlfriend was living across the country for a couple months for work and so she was going to miss my birthday. From across the country she organized a scavenger hunt for my birthday presents by mailing them to our friends and family. Each present had a hint on how to get to the next one and it worked out so that I could do it all on my birthday with the last present being under my bed when I got home for the night.
my favorite valentine's gift was the chocolate lover's day at the spa! i felt totally and utterly spoiled!!
Best valentines gift ever: a handmade card signed by 50 or so people from my then community each telling me something about me that they appreciated. This is par for the course on a commune where they initiated a tradition of "Validation Day" on Feb. 14th to be a community-wide celebration of all the different kinds of relationships people have instead of just the romantic ones. Preparations begin sometime in mid January; people sign up to make each others cards (usually elaborate and 3 dimensional affairs with lots of collaging); the cards go into a box alphabetically; and people spend the week or so leading up to V-Day gathered around the box thoughtfully signing them and usually feeling much happier about their fellow communards – an important thing in the midst of winter doldrums and restlessness when everyone is all cramped up inside. After V-Day dinner, there's a playful round of trying to guess whose card is whose based on randomly selected comments and then they're distributed (after which a rockin' dance party commences). I've moved 4 or 5 times since my commune days and my Validation Day cards come with me each time – reading them over is the perfect antidote to bad self-esteem.
ephraim – I LOVE the idea of Validation Day! and what a wonderful tradition.
the winner is picked as of 11am on Monday — Jodi, #33! will be in contact via email.