Want to impress your date but don’t have a big budget? Here are five inexpensive gifts you can buy that will keep your date in love with you.

1. Handmade Valentine’s Day card. Show your love by creating a unique, sentimental card that demonstrates you care more than a store-bought card ever could.

2. Cake with a personalized message. Buy an ice cream or chocolate cake, along with colorful icing. Pour your heart out in a sweet message of love written across the cake.

3. Love song mix CD. Download or record the most meaningful songs in your relationship and compile them together into a greatest hits album. Or make it a DVD with a slideshow of the cutest couple!

4. One hour massage. Leave no body part untouched as you use your hands to melt away a year’s worth of stress.

5. Poem of love. Say it all in words by declaring your love in a creative poem. Have it framed for posterity, and the words will be an eternal reminder of your dedication to each other.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a new web site is offering 50 free printable Valentine’s Day cards. Free Printable Valentines, at www.FreePrintableValentines.net, lets users download any of 50 Valentine’s card designs, which can be printed in moments on any printer. Categories include Love Valentines, Friendship Valentines, cards for kids, and cards featuring animals.

Each Valentine card is available in two versions: a free, ready-to-use version, and a $4.00 version that you can customize. The free versions are available in Acrobat (.PDF) format: just download one, open it in Acrobat Reader, and print. The $4 versions are available in Microsoft Word (.DOC) format: users can download one, open it in Word, and customize the text before printing.

Both the free and paid versions can be printed any number of times, making it easy to give Valentine cards to dozens of friends, co-workers, or sweethearts. (However, www.FreePrintableValentines.net does not recommend attempting to woo dozens of sweethearts at one time.)

In addition, the Free Printable Gift Tags web site at www.FreePrintableGiftTags.net has added to its inventory of Valentine’s Day gift tags. The site offers more than 100 free gift tag designs that you can download, customize, and print. The Valentine’s Day Gift tags include adorable images for friends, sweethearts, and other Valentine’s Day gift-givers.

Related Links > http://www.freeprintablevalentines.net, http://www.freeprintablegifttags.net

For a modern twist on Valentine’s Day, give your sweetheart a bouquet of the naturally heart-shaped flower called anthurium.

Anthuriums grow in tropical climates and come in a variety of colors ranging from white and pale cream to lime and deep chocolate. The anthurium’s graceful narrow stem and large, glossy head are perfect for many simple, elegant presentations. The flower can be left long for displaying in a slender vase or cut short so just a single heart-shaped head is floating in a shallow bowl.

Tips >
Use a branch of ornamental grass to tie the three red anthuriums together for the arrangement in the short clear vase.

For a short, opaque flat vase, use a florist frog to secure the stems in the arrangement.

Anthuriums have a vase life of about two weeks and mix well with other tropical flowers, leaves and ornamental grasses to make lively, bold bouquets.

Before purchasing the flowers, check for spots, cuts in the petals and curling around the edges, which can be signs of age.

You can find anthuriums year-round at grocery stores, florist shops and through online flower companies.

We spent over a billion dollars on chocolate last Valentines Day. What’s the best for your money? Consumer Reports just tested more than two dozen gift-box chocolates, everything from traditional truffles to adventurous fillings and designs to get the answer.

Jacques Torres’ shop is filled with specialty chocolates made by hand. It’s a delicious way to show your love. “Chocolate is so sexy. Just the way it is, especially the way we have it laid out and the fun names we have like the love potion number nine,” said store manager Kathryn Berger.

Consumer Reports just tested more than two dozen boxed chocolates. They cost anywhere from nine dollars to nearly 90 for boxes that weighed from seven to 21 ounces. Included were boutique chocolates as well as several familiar names. Consumer Reports found the more costly chocolates were usually of better quality, but not always.

“The Les Petits Richart Intense collection had some pieces that are very good, but they also had some pieces that had jarring flavors, like a super sour citrus note or a soapy wild-flower type flavor,” said Erin Gudeux of Consumer Reports.

The 62-dollar price, for less than half a pound, was also hard to swallow. But Consumer Reports testers did find many excellent choices ? each unique. Top-rated are the Norman Love Confections for 55 dollars a box and the Woodhouse Chocolate Assortment for 68 dollars a box.

“The Norman Love Chocolates looked like these beautiful pieces of modern art and they enrobed these amazing flavors, like apple pie or passion fruit. The Woodhouse chocolates were these exquisitely delicate little pieces that burst with flavors, like pecan pie and real whipped cream,” Gudeuz said.

Two Best Buy gift boxes also rated excellent. Candinas 36-piece box for 41-dollars has ultra-smooth dark and milk chocolates with traditional fillings, like caramel and hazelnut. Jacques’ Choice from Jacques Torres, for 48-dollars a pound, is for the more adventurous, with flavors ranging from passion fruit to chile pepper.

No matter what kind of chocolate your sweetheart desires, one of these is sure to please. The gift-box chocolates mentioned in this report are primarily available online, so you’ll have to factor in the cost of shipping. You can find information on where to order these chocolates ? as well as the complete list of the eight top-rated chocolates in Consumer Reports’ February issue now on newsstands.

Who wouldn’t fancy a peek into Elle Macpherson’s boudoir? I imagine it’s full of haute couture pieces and leans towards the ornate and vintage styling. So it’s apt that right on time for Valentines her lingerie label has released a high-end French looking range entitled “Boudoir”, celebrating modern day sex with style, eroticism and sensuality.

Boudoir brings haute couture to lingerie and reflects fashion’s fascination with burlesque, with quarter cup bras, suspenders, garter belts and torsolettes. Elle Macpherson says the Boudoir collection is all about bringing the art of seduction back into our lives.

“I hope it inspires women to embrace their own sexuality and identify what intimacy means to them. I won’t pretend it isn’t sexy, sensual or even provocative, but it’s also romantic, luxurious couture lingerie and above all, made to be worn and have fun on our own terms,” she says.

“It has always been my objective to encourage and support women to embrace their sensuality and femininity…Boudoir is the perfect opportunity to do this with a sense of humour!”

For Valentine’s Day, Boudoir 001 is all honeyed charm in Cream, with a light Marquisette fabrication and corsetry styling, trimmed with graphic contrast braid, velvet ribbon, silk rosettes and lace highlights. The collection comprises a quarter cup contour bra, a standard contour bra, thong and suspender belt, as well as a torsolette with its own slender velvet ribbon suspenders.

Sinfully sweet but far from innocent, the collection includes a contour bra, baby doll slip, torsolette, thong, suspender belt and a waspie – perfect for enhancing a feminine silhouette. Boudoir 006 revisits classic glamour in liquid stretch silk to tantalise the senses. The collection provides careful attention to detail with dramatic appliquéd contrast lace and ruffled edge trims, and is available in a contour bra, torsolette, thong, bikini brief and suspender belt.

Elle Macpherson Intimates Boudoir is available in New Zealand stores from 22 January 2007.

A Guy’s Guide to Choosing Lingerie from Uplifted Lingerie: Five Steps To Underwear Heaven This Valentine’s Day
Jamie Chapman of Uplifted Lingerie offers a guide for anyone buying lingerie for a partner (mistress) this Valentines Day.

Rule one > Find out her bra size > OK, guys, this may sound like a simple start, but it’s amazing how many of us don’t actually know the size of our partner’s bra size, one in five men I surveyed. This one’s not worth taking a chance on, so take a sneaky look in her underwear draw or ask her friend - but remember, be discrete.

Rule two > The big pant debate > Shorts, briefs or thongs? Remember you are looking to impress her, not offend her, or worse still scare her off. There is a balance between what men want our partners to wear and what she likes to wear, (my survey showed the full suspenders, bra and pants is the preference, or even nothing at all) so take notice of what underwear you have seen her in. If you don’t know, drop it into conversation what pants she prefers. However, Upliftedlingerie.co.uk polled over 200 women and found that the majority of women, 36 percent preferred briefs whilst only 3 percent preferred strings, with 28 percent preferring thongs, whilst 8 percent preferring Bridget Jones style pants.

Rule three > Don’t be colour blind > Decide on the purpose of the purchase before choosing the colour. If you are looking to spice things up a little then try something daring in seductive colours like black with a splash of pink or yellow, as opposed to porn star red. If you are not feeling over confident, stick to pastels. Our poll showed an overwhelming 56 percent of women would prefer to get black underwear for Valentine’s Day, whilst only 8 percent prefer white, however red was popular at 20 percent.

Rule four > Shop online > Mates, colleagues and myself included have made disastrous purchases on Valentine’s Day following a panic because of a bad shopping incident. Enjoy the experience of underwear shopping, by going online to avoid stress of entering the dreaded lingerie shop.

Rule Five > Buy a set > Almost 60 percent of women like to be bought lingerie in sets. This doesn’t necessarily mean a matching bra and knickers set; why not go all out with a corset or baby doll with matching pants.

Last, but most importantly > Never buy shaper underwear as a gift, control briefs, waist nippers and slimmer shorts are all a big no, no, unless you are looking to be single this Valentine’s - but if you do get it wrong, if you buy through http://www.upliftedlingerie.co.uk, delivery and returns are free.

For more information, visit http://www.upliftedlingerie.co.uk or contact 0870 443 1905.

Note: Surveyed 400 people in the U.K. between December 2006 and January 2007 through http://www.surveymonkey.com 

For a longer-lasting, eco-friendly alternative gift to a bunch of flowers this Valentines Day send a tree sapling from award-winning ecological gift company, Tree2mydoor.

Their sustainable tokens of love are not only good for the environment, but they can last hundreds of years. This is a real symbol of your lasting love and commitment to your nearest and dearest (rather than a bunch of flowers which dies within a week!)
Tree2mydoor has five tree species in their Lover’s Tree Range. According to ancient lore unearthed by Tree2mydoor each tree has its own unique properties and they have been used for thousands of years in Britain as symbols of love and dedication. The top three Valentines Trees are:

- Crab Apple Tree Gift : The Tree of Love, perfect valentines gift for your partner. The Crab Apple is a small tree and has been used for thousands of years as a token of love before we had budget airlines.

- Wild Cherry Tree Gift : A blooming lovely tree, perfect Valentines Gift
for your partner. A Wild Cherry tree is small with a striking pink bloom during Spring months.

- Oak Tree Gift : The Father of the Woods, perfect Valentines Gift
for the man in your life, particularly if he is a dad! Oak trees grow into large trees, so pick a good spot in a garden or a safe place in the countryside!

The big seller for Valentines Day is the Crab Apple Tree or The Tree of Love as the Celts used to know it by. One Tree of Love Gift will set you back £24.95 plus P&P.
If you dont have so much room, you can order some Love in a Bag, this is a lovely gift that contains a mix of native corn poppy and corn cockle seed packaged up in a little drawstring jute bag.

Tree2mydoor’s service includes a free greetings card that you can personalise at time of order, each tree gift is packed up individually into really unique jute and cardboard packaging. Your order can be sent by courier directly to your Valentine on Valentines Day. Remember to send it to their office to make sure it gets there in time!

Tree2mydoor is holding a 2007 Valentines Day Poem Competition. They want to attract hopeful romantics to create their own very special Valentines Day poem to be published on the website to win free Valentines Day Gift or £100 worth of Tree2mydoor gift vouchers. Find out about the Valentines Poetry Competition now.

Each tree sapling costs £24.95, for more information and to order please visit the comprehensive website: www.tree2mydoor.com or call the sales line on 0845 241 8733

Background information > - Tree2mydoor do what they say on the tin; they deliver a living tree directly to your door in a biodegradable postal tube with a personalised greeting card. There are 30 different UK grown saplings to choose from and they all come in a little draw string jute bag.

- 28 year old, Ecological Entrepreneur, Gareth Mitchell launched Tree2mydoor in November 2003

- They were winners of a 2004 Gift of the Year Award

- Tree2mydoor was also a finalist at the national Startups Awards for ‘Best Online Business of The Year’.

- Tree2mydoor run a Tree2reforest program where they work to support a global network of conservation projects. Customers can dedicate a tree in project of their choice. 100% of the profits are dedicated to the conservation project managers.

- Also available are other eco-friendly gifts such as wildflowers and eco friendly shopping bags.

- For more information visit www.tree2mydoor.com