Military Mondays- Care Package Edition

It's time for one of my favorite blog hops-- It's Military Mondays with Candace over at Army Wives Lives! Go link up your recent military related post with her and then hop on around to see what everyone else has to say today. As for me, I'd like to help my ladies in waiting out. If your military sweetie is deployed this year for Valentine's Day, this post is especially for you.

Care package preparation is an art form, isn't it? It can be so much fun. All the love and longing for that person has to be summed up in one little APO flat rate box so that when the service person opens it, he/she feels all the love from a million miles away. That's how I liked to prepare my boxes for Captain J anyway. And if it happened to be a holiday, his pride had to go out the window (For those who don't know, the army will go through the box to make sure there's nothing that isn't supposed to be in it)! For Valentine's Day that year, I went all out with pink and red and other embarrassing things.

I didn't go out of my budget, though. I was in college, people. Broke! Just because you don't have funds to buy something nice doesn't mean his Valentine's Day can't be special. Here's what I did:



Lots of cheesy stuff involved in this package! I used my crafting skills to put together a sweet note for him and various other reminders of why I love him ;) The dollar store helped out with this package, too. They had a ribbon there (see photo) which I can't remember for the life of me what it said, but it inspired another idea that I'll get to in just a moment. Captain J isn't a sweets man (which is nuts!) so I had to get creative with the food I sent. Wrapped up in pink tissue paper, I sent one of his favorites that he couldn't seem to get in Iraq- popcorn! On it, I left a silly note that probably said something along the lines of: "My heart is poppin' with love for you" or something equally corny (no pun intended there!)

Get a Valentine's picture frame with your photo in it so he can place it by his bed and think about how next year he might get to be with you when Feb. 14th rolls around! I also placed a candle in there (but you'll have to make sure that is an approved item).

Next, decorate the inside and outside of the box and fill it with red, decorative foods. I used kisses and twizzlers.

Voila! You have the beginnings of a sweet box! My favorite part of the whole Valentine's package was this, though:



The trophy! I went to my local goodwill and picked up a small trophy to recycle into something fun. Choose one that looks festive and not too sporty. Because Captain J and I weren't married yet, I gave him the "Best Boyfriend Ever Award". I personalized it by putting his name at the bottom. All I needed for this project were some markers, construction paper or card stock, and ribbon. Measure the parts of the trophy that need to be covered and then decorate accordingly. I had some extra heart stickers so I used them on the base, too for extra color.

I'd love to say he cherished this and it's sitting on our bedroom dresser now, but I'm pretty sure it didn't make it home from the deployment. As you probably know, being in Iraq surrounded by hundreds of bored soldiers can create some pretty interesting scenarios. This trophy ended up being re-gifted to someone in some sort of prank. At least they're having fun, right?

There you have it- a very cheap and easy way to show your man you're thinking of him.

Now, this post was geared towards those who will be without there significant others this year. It's about time to send off those packages so they'll get there in time! For those of you who get to be with your lovers this year (lucky!), I'm still thinking on ideas for us. Look for a post soon!

Happy Monday!