valentine's day presents

I know Valentine's Day was almost a month ago but I figured it's better late than never so here's my little baby post about what I received from Alex on lovers' day.

Valentine's Day gifts from Alex

To be honest, I knew what I was going to get because I told him to get them for me. Haha, it kind of ruins the surprise but every occasion where a gift is involved, he always says the same thing, "I don't know what to get you." It boggles my mind how men never seem to know what to get women, there's SO MANY things out there that we want. If it weren't for us, the global economy would tank <(￣︶￣)>

I even asked him to get me a card. I LOVE cards, to the point where I will buy cards for myself because no one else gets them for me (I'm a loser, yes). I usually get a card for Alex whenever there's an occasion, usually for my own joy because I love to pick out cards. I especially like more unique and unusual ones and letter pressed cards are one of my favourites. I love running my hands over them... I'm not creepy.

Anyway, this bulldog puppy is too cute and it has a lining of red sparkles along the side. Alex wrote a really thoughtful and touching letter inside. It made me feel like I should've put more effort into writing into his card.....it was comparing Shakespeare to Stephanie Meyer. 

Arpakasso Heatful Valentine Series

Weeee! This arpakasso is so adorable. I actually wanted the tan coloured one but it was sold out (TωT) It's back in stock now but I'm trying to cut down on buying kawaii (which is kind of working) so one's enough for me! It's incredibly soft like most arpakassos and it has an adorable little heart badge saying, "Love Me." As if anyone in their right mind wouldn't love him. LOOK AT HIM!

Tag

Sorry for the crappy picture of the tag, I honestly look all these pictures with my iPhone 4s because I've been so busy. I took these pictures in between cleaning my house and taking pictures of kawaii for sale to upload to my shop.

I always find the pictures of the real alpacas in the alpacasso/arpakasso tags to look high. 

Ladurée Arabian Nights Candle

Last but not least is this beautiful Ladurée candle. Lately, I've been obsessed with Ladurée, it's a French pastry company renowned for its macarons. Obviously started in Paris, they've expanded and opened many stores in chic cities all over world (not surprising that they don't have one in Montreal). 

But like all fancy smancy-oooh-la-la things, it's freakin' expensive. I really love their packaging because I find it's colourful (well not really this one) and their style is similar to my tastes. The candle lasts for 55 hours.

Top View

I had told Alex that I'd like a Ladurée candle but he would have the choice of choosing which one. He chose this one because he said its description said it had Orient fragrances so he thought it'd remind us of our Asia trip together. Here's the description from its website.

"The fragrance of a dream, the Orient of the imagination, which diffuses like a warm breath all the scents of wood from the Orient. An enveloping and voluptuous smell, which brings to mind a magic potion."

Bottom View

The bottom of the candle is engraved with the brand's name. I liked the cool and smooth feel of the candle holder itself but I also found that it gets dirty really easily. It's almost like chalk and almost everything that touches it will show. There was actually a bit of a dark smudge on the white spot of the candle when I got it. I tried to rub it off with some water and it got most of it off, but not before spreading it (.﹒︣︿﹒︣.)

Arabian Nights Candle

We lit it up after Alex gave it to me and it does have an really nice smell to it, although a little musky. I'm not great with describing smells so I'll just say, it was good, haha. The smell did remind me of the Middle East so I get why they mentioned the Orient part, it just wasn't the Asia Orient Alex was thinking of (hence the name Arabian Nights). The power of the scent is also not overwhelming so it's not like it suffocates you when it's lit. I was able to even smell a bit of the candle before taking it out of the box but surprisingly, when you hold the candle itself, the smell isn't overwhelming.

When we lit it though, it was creating black smoke, which is kind of cool but also a little alarming. It turned out, we didn't trim the wick that's why it was creating the black smoke. The size of the flame is also pretty big and it looked nice with the black and white candle holder.

Magazine Shot

 Here's a little magazine shot of the candle along with my bag of bath salts in Alex's bathroom. Once the candle is all used up, I'm planning on using the candle holder as a pencil holder or something.