Rice Kisspies

Time for a little midweek romance, people. How about packing these in your love's lunch or setting them by the door as a greeting for when they get home?

"Rice Kisspies"

This idea and picture is from Jessica over at Or So She Says.

You'll need:

• A fresh batch of rice krispy treats. Recipe HERE. (Substitute strawberry marshmallows if possible)
• Tin Foil
• Slips of paper with love messages
  
  While your rice krispies are still warm, shape a bite-size amount into a hershey kiss shape. (You can use a kitchen funnel to help shape.) Wrap a piece of tin foil around, insert paper.
  
  What a fun idea...I'll bet you can't wait to try it, huh?

Spicy Dice

Here's a fun way to spice up your next date night. The best part... it comes with a little bit of anticipation. This will be a date night that the man in your life will especially appreciate...



Have you seen these before? I call them Spicy Dice...you can call them whatever you like (Dirty Dice is another catchy name..)

(I found these at Dollar Tree.) If you can't find these to buy, then glue word strips to real dice. The results are the same.

Here's how it works:

The day of your date night, give your spouse a mini gift bag with the dice in it. Attach a tag to the bag which says, "Life with you is Pair-A-Dice. Can't wait for date night with you tonight..."

If you use a set of three dice, you could change your tag to say "Are you feeling lucky? Can't wat for date night with you tonight..."

Here are some other spicy dice sets to give you ideas if you need to make your own. Google "spicy dice" or "love dice" for other ideas and images.

Sweet Thoughts

Look at this fun idea I found at We Are THAT Family...

You could have a big jar like above with fun-size candy bars inside, each wrapped with some "sweet thoughts"--loving sentiments. I think I would give this to my husband as a gift for when he needed a little "pick me up".

Your love could keep it in a deep desk drawer at work....or perhaps in their locker at school...or in a bedside table. Whichever they prefer.

...and when it gets low, be sure to give them free refills (of candy AND of new, sweet thoughts).

The Love Dare - Giveaway

Remember when I posted about Fireproof, the movie? No? Click HERE to refresh your memory.
Okay, now that you're all caught up...

Take a look at what Kathryn, a follower of Love, Actually, is giving away!!



Pretty cool, huh? I'd love to read this book and of course take the dare myself...so, of course I entered the giveaway... If you'd like a chance to win, skip on over to Kathryn's blog to enter!

Giveaway ends: Monday, July 27

Emerald City

About a month ago, my husband and I toured New York City. We had really been hoping to get tickets for "Wicked" (the broadway prequel to The Wizard of Oz). They were sold out and we even waited in line for an hour for the "lottery" tickets. No luck.

So...I thought I'd create my own production of The Wizard of Oz...using a little inspiration that has been in the back of mind since this blog began. That inspiration is from one of my favorite authors, John Bytheway and his wife, Kim who wrote What We Wish We'd Known When We Were Newlyweds. This "date" was something Kim had done for John and he wrote about it in this book.

What you'll need:

- Lots and Lots of GREEN stuff (stuff around the house or dollar store)
(plastic tablecloth, balloons, plastic plates, streamers, green plants, green sheets, towels, etc.)

- Yellow "bricks" - cut out of cardstock/construction paper
(I distressed mine with a little brown ink around the edges)

- Red socks, slippers, or anything relatively close to it
(I got lucky and found mine at the dollar store)

- Printed signs as instructions (see pics below)

- Green Food/Drink
(I just put green food coloring in Sprite, and drizzled green candy melts over plain popcorn--delicious!)

- Items for the Courage, Brain, and Heart challenges

(see below)

- The Wizard of Oz Movie
1. Have the "ruby red slippers" waiting for your love when they walk in.
2. Next to the slippers...an instruction to follow the Yellow Brick Road.
3. When they get to the end of the road (your closed door), have the next instruction to click their heels together 3 times and say, "There's no _______ (husband/wife) like ___ (your name)." example: "There's no wife like Kim."
4. After they do so, declare from inside, "YOU MAY ENTER."

5. Allow them time to adjust their eyes...(No, it's not St. Patrick's Day, hunny)
6. Eat. Drink. (be merry is a given.)
7. Just like the lion, tinman, and scarecrow....make them demonstrate/earn courage, a heart, and a brain through a set of challenges.

Courage - (example: make him suck on 2-3 Warheads (sour candy) at once).
Brain - (example: have him find 2-3 green glow-in-the-dark sticks hidden in the room..hide them well, have him search in the dark). OR any task that you can justify using his brain for.
Heart - (example: cut a heart out of construction paper, cut into simple puzzle pieces w/ a love message, have him put together to earn his "heart")

This one takes a little work and a desire to be creative. But it's totally fun if you're in a total rut and need something to mix up your dating life! Who needs to go out? After all, "there's no place like home..."

Christmas in July

There seems to be a trend of celebrations in July being named "Christmas in July". So, I thought this would be a fun theme for a date night, too!

Here's a few items you may want to pull out of storage....

- a strand or two of lights

- stockings

- wrapping paper

- any other holiday decor that's easy to put up and make your room look Christmasy/Wintery with

- makeshift "mistletoe"

Then....

Crank the AC (to make for a chilly, winter night), get into some pajamas, and welcome your spouse home with "Merry Christmas!" After you get a funny look from them, point to the fake mistletoe (a picture of it will do) above you. When he/she is all setted, accompany them back to your room which is decked out in holiday decor (well, enough to get the idea, anyway). Have some holiday music playing and have him/her open a little gift you got for them or maybe their stocking with some fun and simple stocking-stuffer type items. Make a treat that is normally reserved only for the holidays for you both to enjoy while you watch your favorite holiday movie.

C'mon...this one is totally do-able and fun. AND, it would be totally unexpected!

Love Debit Card

You know how they say you can never have too many credit cards? {Oh, they don't say that??} Well, I DO! And, I'm about to add a new one to your love's wallet!

*download link below*

There's two ways you can do this.

First, you can use this as a quick and easy date night idea. Make 6 cards and then sit down together and write on 3 each (to give to each other). Set an established expiration date. (This way they don't turn into love coupons which tend to be forgotten about.) This is nice because you can get something fun out of this, too!

Second, you can sneak it into his/her wallet for a fun surprise!

This could be especially useful for couples in a time when money is tight. Put it in your love's wallet with some kind of written sentiment:
“Who needs money? We’ve got each other…and our account is (or, "our investments are") growing everyday..."
"I know money is tight, but I felt like splurging...on you!"

Many thanks to Jena for providing the inspiration for this idea!

You can download the Debit Card PDF file HERE. *Please comment if you download!

Movies in the Park

I was just thinking back to the days when my husband and I were dating in college. We both had apartments full of rommmates and none of them were dating. We didn't think they'd appreciate our lovey-dovey-ness, so the park became our place. Often, after dark, we would pack up the laptop, a DVD, a blanket, and a few snacks and head to the park.

This is us...except, we were in a park, not a meadow.
And we didn't have a logo in front of our faces. :)
Oh, and my husband is WAY better looking!

Okay, let's be honest here...movies in the park could be translated into makeout in the park. Perhaps you can relate? Now, I'm sitting here wondering,

"WHAT HAPPENED to those days? Did we grow out of that? Are we too old now?"

It's not like it's hard to do or expensive...nor does it require much planning. (Okay, if you have kids, your babysitter might think it a little weird that they're being paid while you two go to the park, of all places. And your kids might hate you for going to the park without them....but, someday they'll understand.)

I see no reason why we can't still do this. So, this will be our next date night.

How about you? Is there something you did in your dating days that you wish you still did?

Lovopoly

You may have heard of this before...but have you ever gotten the creative guts to make your very own personalized version? This is perfect if you have little or no budget for date night.

I've featured Becca from Happiness is Homemade before...but what can I say, she is brilliant! She created this game for her husband's birthday.

Here's the breakdown of how she did it:

• Made her own board, cards, and money using poster board
  
• Borrowed the dice, houses, and motels from the real Monopoly Game
  
• Cut out pictures of their faces for the playing pieces
  
• Found the Monopoly rules online and cut and pasted them into Word, and then just replaced some of the words to match her game (turned "Jail" into "Doghouse", "Go" into "Home", "Community Chess" into "Family Jewels" and "Chance" into "Get Lucky."
  
• For the "Family Jewels" cards, she put in expenses from their real life.
  Examples: "Time to buy more diapers pay $25" or "Grandma sends a birthday card, you get $30"
  
• For the "Get Lucky" cards, she put in romantic memories from their love story.
  Examples, "Head on over to the Ghost Swing. And while you're over there, share your first kiss." She chose properties that had special memories to them like where they had their first date, where they first held hands, kissed, where he proposed, where they spent their honeymoon, etc.
  
• Instead of using the four railroads, she did four cruise lines: Passion Pacific, Sweetheart Ship, Cupid's Cruise, and Lover's Line. When making the cards for the properties, she copied the numbers for the values for mortgage, rent, and house prices from real properties in real Monopoly--it just made it easier.
  
  If you need a little more inspiration, go to lovopoly.com where you can plug in your own information and it will generate an image for you.
  
  Fun, right?! Thanks for the idea, Becca!
  Do you have pictures of a board game you personalized?! I'd love to use them in a future post. Email to: ccloveactuallyATgmailDOTcom

Saturday Spotlight: {Blush}

Okay, I know it's not Saturday...but, since it's 4th of July tomorrow, I figure you'll all be out blasting fireworks and such. Thus, I hereby declare today Saturday Spotlight day!

So, I hope you all know that I diligently try to keep this blog as G rated as possible (okay, maybe it gets a little PG-13 sometimes), BUT.....I have a blogging friend who had a great post about a topic that is very applicable to my blog as well. Read on...

Ashley over at A Daily of Dose of Dieting posts simple, daily tips for heathy living and dieting.


And how does this apply to all you lovers reading this blog?!

Well, since you ask....healthy living is so important for romance! It boosts your confidence, helps you look and feel more attractive, and keeps you feeling healthy and young so you don't turn into an "old hag" (forgive the term) so that you feel like romancing your spouse for years and years!

That's all I'm gonna say before I send you over to Ashley's blog...
Check out this post first: {blush}
Then, browse around her blog...and let her know you were there!

Cereal Box Prize

Every kid loves opening a cereal box to discover a prize.... And even though he's not a kid anymore, I thought my husband might appreciate this little Midweek Romance.

So, I bought a box of his favorite cereal (I know what you're thinking..."Rice Squares?"...yup, he's adventurous, that husband of mine) and carefully opened it so no proof of tampering would be evident when he opened it for the first time. I put his "prize" inside (he'd wanted this DVD for a while) and sealed it back up. I let him pour his cereal before me that day. He saw the label on the box and asked, "Did this come on the box?" I said, "Ya..weird, huh?" He opened it to find his movie and looked at me in disbelief. He still wasn't sure if it came that way from the store or not! (He's not usually this gullible...)

For the prize, you could use a variety of things:

1. A love note

2. A love coupon
3. An item that he/she wants that actually fits in the box
4. Tickets to a movie/event he/she wants to see or go to
5. A favorite candy bar
6. A Lotto Card
7. An invitation for a romantic evening: Love Doctor, Camp out at Home

8. Gift Card to their favorite store (for no reason at all)
9. Gift certificate to a restaurant for that weekend