V is for Valentine’s

February 10th, 2006

yes ladies and gentlemen, it’s inevitable. we all know that the big V-DAY is coming up. it’s a mere 4 days away, so if you’re attached, and have yet to get your significant other a vday gift, you’re in deep shit. worse so if you’re a guy. girls, no worries, we’re the stronger sex when it comes to worming one’s way out of difficult situations.

anyways, i’m very sien edi of getting myself worked up and worried whenever my guy friends approach me with, “SU ANN!!! YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!!! I’M SO FCKED!!!”, only to get a “I HAVEN’T GOTTEN A VDAY GIFT FOR MY GIRLFRIEND!!!” as a response to my panicked queries. and here i thought we had an accidental homicide case that needed covering up or .. well, something more dramatic than a woman’s wrath when she discovers she has a sucky/nonexistent V-Day gift. actually wait, that is pretty scary, i remember when a particular ex-boyf didnt get me a vday present, i got so pissed that i yelled at him and then dumped him. hahaha. hey, what, we women are prideful creatures by nature, you know. how do you think we feel when all our friends have beautiful vday gifts from their boyfriends and we dont have? huh? huh?!?!

so yes, Su Ann The VDay Sifu™ is here to help all you destitute male souls who have 4 days more to crack your heads over what to get for your girlfriends. pros of listening to me, your gf will love you and you will probably get some hot vday nookie. cons of listening to me, there aren’t any.

and sorry girls, no guidance for y’all, but only cos i know you girls already went and got your gifts like 3 weeks in advance or something. good job! i hope the giftwrap is pink.

Things To Get Your GF For Valentine’s Day

1. Flowers

yes yes, i know, i know; flowers die after 3 days, they’re boring, conventional, and so freaking overpriced during Vday season. but i shit you not, no matter how many times your girlfriend hits you for ‘wasting money’ on flowers for her during Valentines Day, she’s secretly damn proud of it and would love to show the whole wide world her beautiful huge bouquet that her boyfriend got for her. no girl can resist flowers. really. even the least sentimental of women love the feeling of getting flowers.

TIP : get your florist to make the bouquet as ’showy’ as possible. get her to include more fillers (the little flowers like white peacocks, baby’s breath etc) or more paper, whatever, just so long as the bouquet looks prettier and bigger than other girl’s bouquets, haha. and please, if you’re going to get one stalk or the little 3-stalk-bouquet things, don’t bother. it makes you look really cheap, and i wouldnt be surprised if your girl smiles tightly at you and says she’d rather leave the flowers in the car then bring it to dinner with her.

TIP : send the flowers to her workplace or to her school. this is a winner. every. single. time.

Price : RM100-150

2. Scrapbook

if your girl is the sappy, romantic, handmade-gift sorta girl, go with this. if you dont know if she’s such a girl or would appreciate such a gift, think about whether she ever handmakes any gifts or cards for her friends, family or for you. if she does, chances are she will LOVE a handmade gift from you. if she hasn’t ever, she’s either just too busy or will not appreciate such gifts, so my advice would be to stick with something storebought to avoid her thinking you’re cheap :D yes guys, materialistic girls exist, but you know that already.

4 days is a bit tight to produce a whoppingly gorgeous scrapbook, but it’s entirely possible. if i can make a 20page scrapbook in 1 day, you can do it in 4. so go out right now and get a photo album, or one of those hardcover sketch pads with art-block paper in it. buy all sorts of coloured paper (please stay away from anything flourescent because you should be shot if you dont), giftwrap (go to MPH, they’ve got nice ones - and if you want to save money, come and beg me for free giftwrap cos i’ve got about 50 rolls of giftwrap that i dont use anymore), ribbons, crepe paper, glue, scissors etc. just about anything you can lay your hands on to make your book look pretty.

your scrapbook can have anything you want. photos, neoprints, ticket stubs, serviettes from your dates, lyrics to ‘your songs’, 101 Reasons Why I Love You, 100 Movies We Watched Together, 20 Things I Would Like To Do To You, Letters To You … ANYTHING! just compile everything you’ve got from your relationship and decide how you want it all to flow.

TIP : if you’re really not good at arts and crafts, please dont get someone to do it for you. when your girlfriend finds out she will be so pissed. if she can appreciate handmade gifts, she will want it to be 100% made by you. so it doesnt matter if you’ve got the artistic skills of a badger, just DO IT!

TIP : most storebought albums and sketchbooks will already have some weird cover of a paint palette or a cat licking its paw or something. wrap the cover with solid-colour paper and redo it, designing your own cover. a sengeted SAM & JENNIFER FOREVER is more befitting than a picture of a sunset in Bali, i believe.

Price : RM40-RM80

3. Wine Glass with Love Messages

i did this once for an ex-boyfriend and he loved it. i just went out to the stores and got a nice champagne flute, some red construction paper and some ribbon. then i cut out 50 hearts from the paper, and on each of them i wrote one reason why i fell in love with him. after that, i put them all in the glass, stuck 2 long cinammon sticks and some baby’s breath in there, and tied the neck of the glass with some pretty ribbon. tada! so easy. all done in less than 2 hours, too.

TIP : i have to say this as a stand-alone present is not enough, so if you are going to go with this idea, i would suggest you accompany it with something else.

Price : RM30

4. Jewelry / Perfume

these two are lumped together just because they are both conveniently The Usual Things You Get A Girl For Vday. for jewelry, avoid rings unless y’all are on the way to celebrating your 5th anniversary or something. bracelets are always safe. anklets are .. kinda odd i guess, but you can go with it if that’s what she would like. necklaces or pendants are good too. earrings are nice, but go for the studs instead of the dangly ones.

if you are going to stick with boring perfume, then my suggestion would be Davidoff’s Cool Water for Women. DKNY’s Be Delicious is yummy, and yes that’s the one that looks like an apple. Gucci - Envy Me and DKNY - The Fragrance are good as well. be careful when buying perfume though, cos most girls would have a few bottles and you dont wanna buy something she already has. her taste is also important, try recollecting the scent she wears most often, and go scout for something that smells sorta like it. even better, go to her room and take down the names of all her fragrances, and then get a saleslady (or ME!) to help you select one that she doesnt have, but smells like the ones she does have.

TIP : for jewelry, dont skimp and get some thingy from Jusco. that is the last thing you wanna do. suggestion, go to Goldheart cos their stuff is fab. if you’re rolling in the benjamins, Tiffany’s will make your girl melt on the spot. if you’re on a budget, try Mimosa or Perlini’s Silver.

Price : RM120-170 for perfume. Above RM200 for jewelry.

5. Jigsaw

if your girlfriend is into jigsaws, rush out NOWWWW to your nearest jigsaw place with a nice photo of you two and get the shop to do up a nice 1000-2000 piece jigsaw from the photo. this is a great gift, especially if the photo is a studio photo or something. unfortunately i think most shops require a week’s notice to do up a jigsaw from a photo, so 4 days may be kinda impossible. however, keep this open for her birthday or next year’s VDay :) it’s an idea worth considering.

TIP : if you dont want to go with jigsaws, and have a high-res photo of you both, AND if her parents are cool with your relationship, AND if you’re sure she doesnt mind staring at a sappy pic of you both every morning when she wakes up, go to a photo studio and blow up the high-res photo you’ve got and get it framed up in a nice frame. nice hor, like wedding pic only.

Price : above RM100

6. Clothes

this one is really risky, and you should go for it only if you’re REALLY SURE of her taste in clothes and you know her size and what she looks good in. this is really something you should avoid unless you both are connected by some mysterious telepathic force, or if she’s been dropping crazy hints about how she ‘loooooves that dress from Escada, oh if only she had the money!!!’. however, if you get the right item of clothing, it’s some serious brownie points.

TIP : go for dresses or trenchcoats.

TIP : if you so wish, you can spring for handbags or wallets instead. not very romantic, but some girls appreciate the practical gift. suggestion, Coach is good but not that worth it especially with the price you pay for their merchandise in malaysia. (for future ref : buy online or get a friend from the States to buy it for you first). Guess stuff (RM139 and up) is okay lah i guess. Folli Follie and Dior have my vote, but be prepared to shell out at least RM800 for the former and RM1200 for the latter.

7. Cosmetics

if your girl uses makeup a lot, trust me when i say she will LOVE a gift of cosmetics. reallyyyy wan. even if she doesnt use makeup, you can get her one of those starter kit things. it’s practical and girly, nice combo! go for M.A.C or Shu Uemura. Estee Lauder and Bobbi Brown are okay too, but M.A.C’s your best bet. the staff at the Mid Valley branch are real helpful — look out for this girl called Daya, she’s great — they’ll help you pick out stuff for your girl. tell them your girlfriend’s skintone, what she usually uses on her face, and what colours she already has.

TIP : dont just get like .. one pot of eye makeup, or one eyeliner, or one lipgloss, okay? dont be so stingy!! get a set or something. then get the staff to wrap it up in a nice little hamper for you.

TIP : if your girlfriend uses eye makeup but you’ve never seen her use brushes to apply it, for goodness’ sake please get your gf a brush set. brushes are CRUCIAL!!! and very well worth the investment, too. kinda expensive though, RM100+ for a brush and a set has about 5 brushes though you only really need 3 for the eyes. so see if you can work out with the staff a nice brush set for your girl — 3 eye brushes, perhaps one blush brush and one foundation/concealer brush. they come in a nice pouch and should be about RM300-500. hassle them for a discount, for some odd reason MAC has really good offers for their brush sets.

Price : above RM200

8. iPod / Webcam

again, one of those practical gifts that perhaps would be more appropriate for a birthday instead of Vday. but if she likes it, then why not? :) an iPod nano retails for just about RM1000 right now, if i’m not wrong, and a good webcam would set you back a mere RM100. (go to Low Yat plaza and scout around for the Philips 2001 webcam, it ROCKS!) throw in a microphone if you so wish, so you and her can Skype your days away into hermitdom.

Price : RM1000 for iPod, RM100 for webcam

9. Romantic Getaway

not too late, not too late. if you want something different, and you’re pretty sure that you both can get the day (or night, or the next day too!) off on Vday, hurry up and check out hotels in Penang, Melaka, or any other island getaways and see if they’ve got nice rooms available. if you can’t go too far, i would suggest Cameron Highlands because yesssssss, it can actually be quite romantic there. avoid Genting or Port Dickson, those places very blah oledi.

if you would rather stay in town, then go for one of those couple spa massage thingies. check out Starhill’s Pamper floor, they’ve got loads of good places there. Spa Indrani is great too from what i hear! but BOOK EARLY. like .. right now!!!

TIP : if you’re gonna go for the getaway - bring massage oil, wine, chocolate, love songs in a cd, or anything that will make the experience more romantic and sensual. bake a cake, bring a picnic, anything goes. also MAKE SURE she’s okay with getting up and leaving town just like that! um, also ensure her dad wont murder you or anything…

Price : RM400+

10. Lovebirds / Bunnies / Hamsters

this is a really sweet gift, especially if your girlfriend is an animal lover or a softie. get her a pair of lovebirds or bunnies (the white ones!!) or hamsters (dwarf hamsters, definitely) complete with the cage, bowls, food and any other things the cute little ones may need to live a happy healthy life. then surprise her with them after your vday dinner. you can even say something horribly corny like how the male hamster is your rodent representative and the female hamster is hers and how they will both live happily ever after just like you both. (or you can replace hamster with rabbit and insert some crude joke about sex and lotsa babies.)

TIP : before you show her the gift, make sure the animals are CLEAN and the cage is droppings-free!!! two white bunnies scuttling around a cage of poop isnt really very impressive.

Price : Lovebirds - RM60, Bunnies - RM60, Hamsters - RM100-120 (prices would vary depending on the housing, the pets themselves are real cheap)

11. Bedsheet + Comforter Set

this works best if you have access to her room before she gets there on Vday. go to Aussino or Metrojaya and pick out a nice bedsheet set that comes complete with pillowcases and comforter, then choose a few nice fluffy cushions that match the colours of the set. run down to the florist and get a bagful of rose petals and scented candles (actually, if you want tealights you can get them from me, i have so freakin many left over from prom), then call your gf’s mom or bro or maid or dog or whoever is your accomplice and tell them you are on your way. rush to your gf’s house, set up everything, dim the lights, put on some mood music, spritz on some cologne, then go pick up the girl and bring her home. then watch her melt. it’s the ultimate romantic setting, especially if no one else is home when you two reach her place.

Price : RM180-300

12. Care packages

dont raise your eyebrows just yet! people dont usually give care packages but that’s why it’s one of the best things to recieve. if you’re really on a budget yet want to not appear cheap, i think this would be the best thing to give. (though i am very biased wan, cos i love care packages). what you gotta do is just go and get a nice big paper bag, some nice pink tissue (Memory Lane) or crepe paper, and then start looking for stuff to fill your care package with.

suggestions : chocolates (Leonidas! i love you!), CDs you know she would love (or ones that you burned yourself), cutesy little teddies (very overrated, if you must buy soft toys either buy her one that would fit into a collection she already has, or one of those hugeass ones that cost rm500), massage oil, aromatherapy stuff, bathrobes, trinkets, jewelry, soap or skincare sets (Body Shop has great ones), makeup, personalized keychains (those engraved metal ones in Mid Valley), cookies (ones you made yourself, otherwise forget it!), or ANYTHING ELSE you can think of that can fit into a care package!

TIP : get stuff you know she loves. dont care how conventional it’s going to look, because when you have like 10 different things that she loves all in one package, she’s going to jump you out of glee and gratitude.

——————

and that’s it! we’re done :D 12 things you could get your girlfriend for valentine’s day. happy making your girl happy, wish i could be there to see it all .. :)

Happy Vday In Advance, people!!! MWAH.

PS : to all Vday scrooges who hate Vday, or have said “Valentines Day is so commercialised!!” at least two times in their life, go get a girlfriend/boyfriend. really. dont spoil the mood for those who are in love with the day :D

Entry Filed under: Lists