'What I Got My Boyfriend For His Birthday'

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I know that this isn't in any way related to beauty, make-up, hair, fashion (ok, there is one item of clothing that I'm going to show) or anything else that my blog is typically about, but I am assuming that most of my readers are beautiful females and that a large chunk of you are likely to have a man in your life. In that case this post may actually be of some kind of use to you if perhaps you have a boyfriend/husband (or maybe even a brother) with a birthday or an anniversary coming up and you need some hints or ideas for what to get them.

I find buying gifts for males such a challenging task and for 19 years my dad and granddads have had to put up with a new book and a pair of socks from me on special occasions. Last August when my boyfriend turned 18 it had been the first chance I'd really had to go all out and treat him so I in in my full effort and filled a huge box with individually wrapped presents, each one numbered from 1-18. Some of these were just little things, 'stocking fillers' if you will, such a lottery tickets and a scratch card, a car air freshener, socks, boxers or a set of golf balls (golf is his passion), whereas others had a more meaningful background to them and had personal touches such as a DVD of the film that we watched on our first dates and a framed picture of us on a formal occasion (*I'm not trying to make anyone throw up by being overly soppy here!). Then there came the pricier gifts such as a new pair of trainers, a couple of Hollister tees and a bottle of Jagermeister - he did hit the legal drinking age after all - and while all of this was very fun and exciting it did mean that I had exhausted almost every gifting option on the first chance I got. Rookie mistake. Did I mention that I included a batch of homemade cookies that spelled out 'Happy 18th Birthday'?

Since then we've had Christmas 2011 and Valentines Day 2012 both of which have left me stumped for gift ideas and have settled quite boringly and unoriginally on just a new t-shirt or new jumper, often with a DVD or an Xbox game and some chocolates thrown in there too just to mix it up a bit.

So now here we again, one year on, and now my lovely lad is turning 19. Not a huge milestone or anything like that, but a birthday is a birthday and you want to celebrate it all the same. This time around I strayed away from the material gifts (slightly) and opted for something that was a little bit more of an experience - something that we could do and remember. So here is what I got him for us to celebrate him becoming another year older:

Moonpig Card

Everyone needs a card, and if you had a browse at my 'Instagram Diary of Marbella' post (link) then you are likely to recognise most of these pictures on the card. I got the extra large size as a bit of a novelty but it ended up coming to just less than £7 which is definitely more than I typically spend on a card.

Michael McIntyre Live Ticket

Something for us to do together. Something for us to remember. Something for us to get excited for. It means a road trip away to one of our favourite cities and something the promises (hopefully) to be fun and entertaining. There was a couple of other events that I could have chosen from but a lot of them were a long time in the future and this was the soonest one; two months from now, and we both enjoy Michael's humour anyway. When I showed this to my sister she was slightly confused why it said just '1x' on my DIY ticket and thought that I was making him go alone! I just meant to show that this was his ticket and I assure you that I bought a 2nd one for me to join him.

Friday Night Overnight Stay

Liverpool isn't miles and miles away from where we live, it's only about an hour and a half driving but staying over just saves the hassle of worrying about getting home late at night after the show finishes and also it means that we can blissfully spend the night in luxury and have a 'city day' on the Saturday to prolong the trip; perhaps go out somewhere fancy for breakfast and lunch with a splash of shopping in between.

Jack Wills Polo

Okay, I said I'd only slightly moved away from the materialistic gifts, ha. But what's a birthday without a new addition to your wardrobe? I do think that Jack Wills is over priced for what it is, especially when you aren't always getting what you pay for in terms of quality, but it is one of my boyfriend's favourite brands (thanks to my influence) and I picked this up in one of their sales so with some money off it did make the price a bit more reasonable.

In Time DVD

A DVD - how original and exciting - I know! We both buy each other a lot of DVDs and have filled up many of Blockbusters loyalty cards in the past, but we do spend quite a few rainy weeknights after work cuddled up and watching films while scoffing our faces with sweets, especially now that summer is bidding us farewell and the darker nights are soon to be creeping in. We saw this film at the cinema together and both LOVED  it - favourite film of the year without a doubt.

Chocolate, Sweets & Cake

Need I say more??

Also, his birthday isn't actually until Saturday which is two days from now, so I hope he doesn't see this before then and ruin the surprise ...not that he's a regular reader of my blog or anything!

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