Put some snap in your Valentine’s Day Gift with a Love Basket created just for your favorite Sweetheart! You’ll enjoy the results, and your lover will know you mean it when she hears those three precious words. Love Baskets are created once and used for a lifetime. Just start with a medium sized basket, lid is optional, but the handle is necessary. You’ll want a nice sturdy handle!

Step #1 – Line your Love Basket

The liner is important, because you’ll use the liner often for other purposes. One of the best liner choices is a patterned cloth in a smooth weave with a hemmed edge. This can be one layer or reversible, but you’ll want something nice and soft. Remember your lover’s tastes when choosing the pattern, but think romance.

Step #2 – Love Basket Essentials

A set of crystal goblets meant for two. If by some chance you have a set from your wedding, you can use those. Or if not, buy a nice set of stemmed and fluted goblets from the store and tie a pretty ribbon around the stem. Add a bottle of your favorite bubbly (non-alcoholic grape juice is a nice alternative) and some white linen napkins. You now have the essentials for your basket, everything from this point on is optional, but you’ll want to consider filling it up.

Step #3 – Setting the Scene

Table service and flatware for two is always a nice additional touch. You never know when that scene might include a wonderful menu to share. There are some nice simple dishes you could add to your basket at any discount center, just select the ones you find most appealing, add silverware and a sharp knife with a cover and you’re set for almost any dining experience.

Step #4 – Ambiance?

Candles are a wonderful touch. Scented candles in a glass jar add an extra special ambiance to your love basket. Perhaps you’d like to include an aroma that brings back memories of your first night together. I’d almost bet it’s vanilla. Take a chance! Add in bath beads, salts, and bubbles if you expect to make a romantic evening of your Love Basket experience.

Step #5 – Frivolous Accessories

A slinky negligee for her, perhaps some boxers for him? Matching silk robes? Perhaps you’ll want to skip the clothing and just get matching top hats? Whatever accessories you might choose, consider your personal choices and think from your lover’s perspective. What might she appreciate?

Step #6 – Yummies

These can be anything from a full five course meal to decadent snacks, but I’d recommend for the first basket, you consider chocolates, gourmet foods, or delicate confections. Consider your plans for the evening and buy goodies accordingly. Perhaps dried fruits dipped in chocolate with an accompaniment of cheese and bread? Be original, be decadent, be romantic.

Step #7 – The Gift

Diamonds are nice. Sapphires twinkle. Rubies and Emeralds leave a lasting impression. If you haven’t thought of the gift for your favorite love, this is the moment to seriously consider the gift you’ll include in the Love Basket. No, the basket itself is the wrapping, not the ultimate gift. Wow your lady with diamonds!

If you haven’t decided what to give your love for Valentine’s Day yet, this is an awesome and reusable gift. Just refill for special evenings all year long. The Love Basket might even become a romantic tradition.

Jan Verhoeff enjoys promoting business, but there’s always a moment to take a day or a weekend off. Visit http://janverhoeff.com and sign up for Jan’s News and Updates for FREE marketing and promotional ideas.

Are you still playing the field but want a monogamous relationship? With the number of divorced women over forty, you may think they don’t want to be married, or they don’t want monogamous, but the reality is they don’t want demanding irrational relationships that don’t last. And, SURPRISE, men over forty want the same thing.

Over forty relationships will be successful with mature, capable individuals who want to share life together and each have viable lives of their own. Are you ready for some solid sound advice on meeting your one and only over 40?

1. Be real.

Nobody expects you to be perfect. You can actually have a few personality flaws, a belly, or a butt and your over 40 partner will not only accept you with it, but love you for it. If you’re not perfect, they can be real too.

2. Don’t compete.

Who wants competition? What ever happened to just being comfortable within your own skin? Can you honestly say you want to compete with Barbie or Ken? If you’re comfortable with who you are then your date can just relax and enjoy the evening without feeling the need to compete with who you want to be.

3. Know what you want.

If you agree to a date with a city boy knowing nothing less than Farmer John Brown will satisfy you, you’ve got a problem from the beginning. Select people you have something in common with, but acknowledge that you don’t have to be joined at the hip.

4. Accept independence.

Find some mutual interests, but understand that you both have a past and you both have a future. Be willing to share the future but realize you can’t and won’t want to share everything. Accept the differences as benefits and appreciate your time alone or with friends too.

5. Quality.

After you reach 40 you’re allowed to expect quality from the person on the other side of the table. You should be able to carry a conversation, understand basic concepts, and comprehend current events. Intelligence and Values are part of the package, if you don’t have them, you won’t obtain them in the future.

6. Past.

You both have a past, you have children, family, and friends, and you should be able to mutually share those without having to compete over whose family is better, or loves them more. You just have them, and you share them. Period.

7. Religion, Politics, and Sex.

Yes, dear, these are topics of conversation and you’re expected to participate as a mature adult with an opinion, not a temper tantrum. If you can’t discuss these topics and keep a cool head, you might want to find out why and have that part of your anatomy surgically removed.