I know it's a bit late for you for Valentine's Day (unless you are like me, in which case, this will work well for a last minute idea), but I always have a hard time buying cards to go with gifts. It feels a bit weird to me to pay upwards of $4 for someone to kinda sorta say how I feel for me. So I usually just ignore it and a shove a gift at someone, mumbling "This is from me, I hope you like it." Except when it comes to St. Valentine's Day. When the rooster and I started dating, for some reason, though it is quite out of character for both of us, we decided to have a sickeningly sweet first Valentine's together (perhaps because we weren't actually together - we were dating long distance). So I made him a little booklet with an illustrated poem.
Though my rhyming skills have fallen off over the years, and it seems they get uglier and uglier as the years go by, the tradition of me making him a little illustrated booklet in lieu of a card has stuck. They are not very pretty to look at - that's kind of part of the tradition - but they are heartfelt and they always have a theme.
This year's book is "We already." It is full of things we do that make us pretty much an elderly couple (at least things we tease each other about e.g. being tightwads, "just resting our eyes", watching old biddy mysteries). As my last page says "We already grew old together. I plan to enjoy it for a long time!"
He loves these and refuses to let me put the stack of them anywhere but on our dresser, next to our wedding photo (including "I can't wait... to be your wife" from the year we got married, and "My favorite things," shown below). This year, for your special occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine's) with your loved one, instead of spending a half hour in card aisle, spend that time making a super cheesy booklet that tells him/her how you really feel!
