I don’t quite get the idea of having a cyber-boyfriend or girlfriend. How do you “date” or have a romantic relationship with someone who you don’t physically see in person? Full disclosure, I also don’t fully trust the process of online dating for myself, but I never had to either… filtering and select a potential partner or love interest from a thumbnail and bio–especially considering the looming prospect that they could be totally scamming you (hello… ever watch Catfish?).
Category: Anniversaries
Art For Everyone
Cue Stephen Sondheim…
But seriously, art isn’t easy or everybody would do it. For me, it’s been about making mistakes, facing my fears, bearing my soul, finding my truth, discovering what’s holds me back, and, slowly, becoming free.
How To Get Away Without Going Away: Aka My 6th Anniversary
My wedding anniversary was coming up and I wanted to surprise my darling husband… Now, let me just say it’s impossible to surprise my husband. Ok, not impossible. I did it once. For his 39th birthday because I knew his 40th would be too obvious. I had a surprise dinner for him with a bunch of friends. But that was a few years ago. Never before or since.
Because its so hard to surprise him, trying to plan a gift involving travel is doubly challenging. So I hatched a plan…
Chic Summer Style: Delicate Jewelry
To me, summer style is all about breezy-chic and no-fuss cool (I don’t mean “funky-fresh” cool, I mean temperature cool). What says that better than delicate jewelry that doesn’t weigh a ton, but looks sweet and maybe even sparkles. I’ve been keeping a list of items I want to snatch-up–either for me or for the summer birthdays I have to buy for, and truth be told those might be a “one for you, one for me” situation.
Inexpensive Date Ideas

Coffee, muffins and Scrabble for iPad in Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem, NYC
I’m a big believer in dating. The excitement, the energy, the getting dressed up and primping for the other person… And then of course the actual experience of having time together, knowing smiles and flirting across the table, brushing hands and fumbling fingers. In particular, I don’t think married people date enough.
Unique Gifts for the Love of Your Life
The romantic love of my life was born on Halloween so it’s fast approaching. Every year it’s so hard to identify a gift that illustrates how much he means to me… How when he came into my life it debunked (much to my then dismay) all my firmly held beliefs about relationships… How much he taught me by encouraging me rely to on him and that ultimately helped me believe in romantic love again. And when we eventually got married, I never looked back.
There are a few gift lists my hubby has inspired, like this one on baseball and this one on football. But below is a list of intimate gift ideas when you want to give a piece of yourself, and more importantly, when the recipient is ready (and dare I say worthy) to receive such a prize. So it’s fair to say he is the muse for this one as well, but for entirely different reasons. Happy birthday my darling, I’m grateful for the day you were born and that I get to celebrate each passing year with you.
Colorful Engagement and Right Hand Rings
The beginning of fall always makes me want to break out big beautiful gemstones like topaz, citrines, emeralds and sapphires. I love mixing, layering and finding gemstones that are meaningful either because of a birthstone or anniversary month…or just because a color speaks to me. I was browsing on one of my favorite sites to go to when looking at jewelry–my grandmother, aunt and mother are all Ross-Simons alum and turned me on at an early age–and came across these rocks (the lead image is a ruby ring I am currently lusting after) and had to share these pretty colorful finds since they are all so diverse and can be used for an engagement, right hand ring, anniversary, or just because you are fabulous. Oh and you know what else…most of them are under $1,000.
Gifts for Fashionistas
With NY Fashion Week approaching it felt appropriate to start dreaming up gifts inspired by and that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to give to my Louboutin wearing Birkin toting friends (both of them). But regardless of who you hang with, I have always felt fashion epitomizes fun, fantasy, reinvention and escapism and if one interpretation doesn’t do it for you, there’s always another collection or another season right behind. So enjoy…or hang tight, there will be more to come soon enough or even better, chime in with a spin of your own.
Discount Gift Card Shopping Sites
Ok, don’t take this the wrong way…but I’m a sucker for a deal. Case and point, I spent about an hour trolling the aisles at DSW earlier this afternoon. So how psyched was I when I found out there are sites to buy discounted GIFT CARDS…yep, you read that correctly. Gift cards. Apparently it’s a whole amazing exchange system that I won’t go into (but I do link off to resources that will tell you more if you’re interested) which can result in some serious savings if you do your research right.
The other part of the process, which I’m not going to focus on because its not the bent of my blog but file under “nice to know” is that you can sell those gift cards you’re never going to use on most of these sites and get cashola back in your possession for stuff you really want. Ok, moving on…
Anniversary Gift Tips
My husband and I are about to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary and as we prepare to surprise each other (or try to) I started to think about all the pit-falls we have encountered along these last few years. Here’s a list of what to avoid when shopping for an anniversary gift for your better half from both a male and female POV, from me, the Gifting Whisperer and my man, the Gifting Whisperers’ Husband. Hope this clears up any confusion or provides some entertainment…best case it does both. Below is our wedding picture, taken almost five years ago.