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As January and February wear on, it's easy to slip into the winter doldrums. After all, with wind and rain lashing at your windows and those dark morning journeys to work, who wouldn't start to long for balmy summer days? However, there are some days that you can look forward to during the slow winter months: Valentine's Day, for instance, is a certain fixture in everyone's calendars, whether you're concocting a surprise for that special someone or simply planning to send your mother a card.
It might seem a bit like Christmas has only just finished, so your potential to come up with new and exciting Valentine's Day gifts might be fairly strained. Rest assured, however, there are plenty of resources available - both on the high street and the web - that can help you come up with innovative gifts for your loved one, whatever your budget.
If you're planning to spend a lot this Valentine's Day, there are plenty of options available to you: for instance, if you plan far enough in advance, why not take your partner to an exotic holiday destination? Spend a week in a romantic island location, such as the Seychelles or the Maldives, and you're sure to stoke the flames of passion during your vacation. Alternatively, travel a little closer to home and take in the romantic wide sandy bays and clear water of Jersey, or spend a weekend in rural Yorkshire or the Scottish Highlands; the rugged beauty of the surrounding scenery is sure to ignite the romantic in you, while the searing cold outside will give you an excuse to cuddle up close!
Place notes in your lover's lunch telling him how much you love him.
* Page you sweetheart with an I Love You page.
* Give her a soft kiss.
* Make everyday things special.
* Give your love a little note or sending him an e-mail with a poem in it.
* Listen to her every word.
* Making a list of everything you love about them. No matter how stupid.
* Spend quality time with the one you love.
* Have flowers delivered with a note attached saying simply, "I love you."
* Give unexpected hugs and kisses in unexpected places.
* Cook them their favorite meal.
* Hold each other when you fall asleep.
* Just be together.
* Give your love a long hard kiss on the lips, followed by a gift.
* Sending romantic postcards on a daily basis.
* Get off work early and surprise your sweetheart with a dozen roses and dinner, just because.
* Spend all week thinking of something special for the weekend and then... do it!
* Give him a loving smile from across the room.
* Draw or obtain a new romantic picture of two lovers in each others grasp and give it to your love as a reminder of your passion.
* If you live quite a distance from your love, surprise them with a visit.
* When she is asleep in the morning, cover her with rose petals and wake her up to an I love you breakfast in bed.
* Secretly write S-H-M-I-L-Y anywhere your lover will find it. SHMILY= See How Much I Love You.
* Rub your nose on your sweetheart's nose!
* Grab him by the waist, pulling him towards you, then softly touching his lips with yours.
*Have a romantic weekend.
* For a week, smothering your spouse with all the small intimate things they like.
* Do a simple act of kindness, such as a backrub when he feels sick, to brighten his day.
* Make a big sign (like the ones you use for demonstrations) quoting "Did my heart love 'til now? Forswear it sight, for I never saw true beauty 'til this night."
* Make a web page for your girlfriend to tell her how much you love her.
* Write long, erotic letters where you describe how much you love them.
Flowers are a passionate subject to shoot. Whether you’re shooting below, above, on the side, far or up close, flowers will always remain to be an interesting subject with many possibilities. If you’re using a DSLR for shooting roses or any type of flora and fauna, it is important to remember the color rule - that red is the most powerful color in photography. Even so subtle, the color red if placed in any photograph will tell your eyes to move towards it. Thus, red attracts the human eye.
If you have styling experience and want to go the extra mile, experimenting with dew drops can create very pleasant effects to your photos. Have you ever seen those photos where a plant leaf has a single dew drop hanging by its tail, waiting to fall to the ground? This very dramatic shot can be achieved in many ways but the formula for creating the dew can be made at home. There are two ways to recreate the image that your flowers are "fresh from the rain." Simply put dewdrops can be sprayed onto flowers with water to create that artificial effect.
For a more "solid" dew you can hop over to your local drugstore and purchase a bottle of glycerine (Mercury Drugstore in the Philippines carries these) which in turn you have to mix with a little water. A 50-50 solution of glycerine and water and poured into a small spray can can create a more consistent dew effect for your flowers.
Of course, there is nothing better than the real thing. Studio shots are great but don’t you think something out natural should be taken out in the wild? The best way to photograph flowers out in its natural habitat would be to do so early in the morning or sometime in the afternoon but never with the noon sun because your subject will appear saturated.
When it comes to names of all flowers, we can say that they are classified in the same manner as other plants. To put in simple words, each of the different flower types has two names - common name and scientific name (or Latin name). The common flower names may vary according to the language and region, while the scientific flower names are accepted throughout the world. At times, two flowers that look similar may bear the same nickname or common name. Or else, a single flower specimen may have two different common names within the same region. In order to avoid this confusion, scientific flower names are given according to the ICBN (International Code of Botanical Nomenclature).
The ICBN follows binomial system of taxonomy for assigning scientific flower names, which in turn uses two words for naming flowers. The first word is the genus name (genera to which the flower belongs) and the second word is a species name. For better understanding, let's take an example of China rose, which scientific name is Rosa chinensis. Here, 'China' is the genus name and 'chinensis' is the species name. In some scientific names, author citations, in abbreviated forms, are used after the species name. For example, the scientific name with author citation for Damask rose is Rosa damascena Mill., in which Mill is the abbreviated form of the botanist Philip Miller, who had published the scientific name for Damask rose for the first time according to the rules and regulations of the IUCN. This article sheds light on the flower names list, their meanings and pictures.
Flowers are the most beautiful things to have around… apart from being fragrant; they turn any atmosphere into a pleasant one with their mere presence. Be it any occasion, from Valentine’s Day to even a birthday celebration, flowers add beauty and joy. A single, long-stemmed rose has many meanings to convey, such as love and attachment towards a person. It’s no wonder that flowers are the best choice to represent feelings for special occasions. But what does a person do when near and dear ones are based faraway? Sometimes, it may not really be possible to deliver flowers personally to our loved ones. And this is where online florists step in to make the entire process easier!
Online florists bridge the gap between people who are separated by miles altogether! Online florists deliver beautiful flowers along with personal messages to people anywhere across the world. There are many websites that cater to many countries worldwide and operate through their branches set across in different cities. Through these websites, one can buy flowers online and send them to any destination. There are many websites that also have the option where one can even select and send gifts along with the flowers. Often the one question in the minds of buyers is how to find the best flowers online. Finding the most beautiful flowers along with the most reliable service is what proves to be a slightly tedious task. Here are some tips to find the best flowers online.
One of the big attractions of buying things using the Internet is avoiding the middleman. By buying direct from the manufacturer, or at least from a wholesaler, you avoid a whole lot of transport, storage and advertising costs added to the price of the product, as well as general business overheads. It's easy to think that florists online are the same. So when you've got a sick cousin who lives in New York, you might think the best thing to do is get online and do a search for "New York florists". By ordering flowers locally for your cousin, you believe you'll get fresher flowers and cut out any extra fees charged by a centralized ordering service.
Of course the big problem with the Internet is that appearances can be very deceiving. Unfortunately this has happened to the florist industry online. National companies set up websites or advertisements online, which appear to be for a local florist in New York, for example. But although you might think you're ordering flowers from a New York florist, so you get a better deal, in fact your order gets sent to a central booking office and is then sent on to a local florist - with extra fees included.
It's a very frustrating situation, because it's not always that easy to spot the bogus advertisers. Often they have thousands of web pages online, each one targeted to a specific city. They also pay high prices to make sure their ads are at the top of the list. The phone number is a local number, so it looks genuine, but then it redirects to a central location. Many consumer groups and other authorities have condemned this practice for its misleading nature, but it still happens.
