Valentine's Day

[pandabee]

H it looks great! I love me some Pandora/Troll bracelets

cygnet that is such a beautiful tapestry! Such great detail. You guys are building your own mini art museum between that and the painting of your bf!!!

$500 is nuts. I would think S did something very remorseful if he spent that much on me for vday. lol. $100-150 including dinner sounds much more reasonable. Gifts aside, we pretty much did nothing all weekend and just lounged and enjoyed each other's company I know many LDR couples have it much worse, but I still don't do well with only seeing him every 2 weeks! Got too spoiled at first haha. It was good to just enjoy each other's company again doing everyday things though.

 

[cygnet]

H it looks great! I love me some Pandora/Troll bracelets

cygnet that is such a beautiful tapestry! Such great detail. You guys are building your own mini art museum between that and the painting of your bf!!!

$500 is nuts. I would think S did something very remorseful if he spent that much on me for vday. lol. $100-150 including dinner sounds much more reasonable. Gifts aside, we pretty much did nothing all weekend and just lounged and enjoyed each other's company I know many LDR couples have it much worse, but I still don't do well with only seeing him every 2 weeks! Got too spoiled at first haha. It was good to just enjoy each other's company again doing everyday things though.

Thanks! I love it. The frame is pretty beat up but I think it just adds to the charm. Hah! I don't know that we'll have anywhere near enough art anytime soon to call our place a mini art museum.... but our house is definitely starting to look more grown up since within the last year we've started buying real art. G is so funny-- sometimes he acts like such a dudebro, but every time we pass an antique store, he gets really excited and pulls over so we can have a look. Last summer we bought an awesome 6 ft long painting from 1916 and it's hanging in our dining room now. Here's a pic:



We finally got our fake antique painting framed! It's hanging up now and everyone who comes in the house has a hilarious reaction when they realize the painting looks exactly like him. It was probably the best gift ever.

 

[madelise]

Average is $500? Wow. SO didn't get me $hit.

Nooooo, just that one guy who called spent $500. He said it was a brand new relationship and he bought her a diamond necklace, box of chocolates, two dozen roses and was going to spend $200 on a fancy dinner out. Apparently the couple hadn't had sex yet and he was really hoping that all that would convince her.....that's totally not slimy at all

I think they said the national average was like $100-$150 or something. That includes dinner out.

HMmmm.. Maybe I should hold out more often, then

 

[pandabee]

Average is $500? Wow. SO didn't get me $hit.

Nooooo, just that one guy who called spent $500. He said it was a brand new relationship and he bought her a diamond necklace, box of chocolates, two dozen roses and was going to spend $200 on a fancy dinner out. Apparently the couple hadn't had sex yet and he was really hoping that all that would convince her.....that's totally not slimy at all

I think they said the national average was like $100-$150 or something. That includes dinner out.

HMmmm.. Maybe I should hold out more often, then

Idk man...other than THE rock, I could do without him buying me jewelry and flowers (I'll just buy it myself and say it's from him lol). I'd rather have the !!!

 

[StacylikesSparkles]

Cygnet...where in the world did you get the fake painting?! That would be right up my alley as something ridiculous to get the hubs! Our first dating anniversary I got him a custom bobblehead of us, so a custom fake 'painting' would be totally awesome and he would love it!

 

[cygnet]

Cygnet...where in the world did you get the fake painting?! That would be right up my alley as something ridiculous to get the hubs! Our first dating anniversary I got him a custom bobblehead of us, so a custom fake 'painting' would be totally awesome and he would love it!

Aw yay!

Well, it's actually a real oil painting, but it's a fake antique. When I met G, he joked around a few times that he wanted an extremely dramatic historical oil painting featuring a sea captain at the helm in a storm, or in battle or something like that-- but with a twist! He wanted the face on the painting to look just like him, so he could make up some story about how he's descended from a long line of Dutch pirates and tell everyone that's his great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. So this past Christmas, I decided to make his wish come true, because he hadn't talked about it for a long time, so I knew he wouldn't suspect it was coming, and I also figured that if I didn't do it, it would be one of those things that he'd always joke about but never prioritize spending the money on it for himself.

So the place where I got it-- Omniportraits. (http://www.etsy.com/shop/Omniportraits) It's an etsy seller who paints portraits from photos. I have mixed feelings about recommending him. His prices are reasonable and obviously the painting turned out amazing, but it took a while for it to get there. I sent him copies of the painting I wanted to copy (fittingly, a famed Dutch naval hero-- G is very Dutch and proud of it, I'm going to have the Dutchest last name in the world when we get married) and several photos of G's face, one of them at the exact right angle he needed to paint. He sent me pictures of the final draft of the painting and they were RIDICULOUS-- the proportions weren't right and the hair looked awful and I couldn't believe that a guy with the amount of artistic talent he had would make artistic choices that were so.....wrong. Like, OMG R U SRS wrong. So I had to be incredibly specific and detailed about what I wanted and give him instructions that were VERY LITERAL SO HE WOULDN'T MESS UP, and after a few iterations the painting was perfect. Of course then he shipped it late, so I didn't get it by Christmas and I was pissed, but everything is okay now and we have an awesome painting so that's that. I'd say that if what you care about most is the final product and you're willing to work to get it right, then I could recommend this guy. It's hard to find someone who will paint something this well on canvas for so little cash, relatively speaking. But you have to be okay with knowing that you're gonna get frustrated with the guy during the process. But I'm really, really happy with the result.

 

[StacylikesSparkles]

Thanks, cygnet! I will do some research and see if I can find anyone else, but I certainly appreciate all the feedback on the seller. SO helpful! I seriously think this is an awesome idea though!!