Succulent Surprise

Valentines Day was so last week, you say? Oh well, even if no one reads this, I want it on record that in 2013 I successfully surprised my hubby.

I have never successfully surprised Keith with a gift. Ever. It is a bit sad. I am just not very sneaky and Keith just finds out, even without really trying. On the other hand, the majority of the gift Keith gives me are happy surprises. If we had been keeping track I was loosing badly and I needed a big win.

Enter Valentines Day 2013. I finally got him.

Keith has a great interest in succulents, cacti, plants that eat bugs, and other such floral anomalies. He has occasionally talked about getting a succulent garden for his big office window sill but has never acted on it. In January I started thinking about V-day and trying to think of a little something I could do or get for my Valentine. Nothing seemed quite right until I was on Pinterest (yep, Pinterest) and saw a picture of a little succulent garden. A light bulb went off in my head. Perfect!

And then I had a crazy idea: I could try to make it a surprise!

I honestly didn't want to get my hopes to high of giving him a gift he would love and it being a surprise, but I did my best. I kind of expected all along that at some point he would figure it out. I found the perfect pot and then a few weeks later bought the soil and rocks and hid them in various places around the apartment. The plants had to be purchased on Valentines day because I couldn't figure out how to hide them without him seeing them.

During nap time I put it all together and was so pleased with how it turned out. The only place carrying succulents in the winter was Home Depot and they had a sorry looking collection, but hopefully they will grow and improve. If not, the farmers market has an amazing collection in the spring so we can get more.

Right before Keith came home I cut out little red paper hearts, wrote sweet nothings on them, taped them to toothpicks, and stuck them all over in the pot. (Awwwww!) I made him close his eyes, hoped he hadn't guessed, and showed him his gift.

Nailed it. It wasn't the face of someone who was trying to act surprised about something they knew about all along (I know that face on him), this was the real deal. He loved it and the bonus was that I had a ton of fun planing and creating it.