Valentine's Day is upon us once again and every seasonal aisle has turned into a sea of horrible red and pink tones.

Teddy bears of all sizes slouch on the shelves waiting to be snatched up like that last resort gift along with a heart-shaped box of artificial chocolates and a cookie cutter card that probably reads "I love you."

Out of curiosity; has anyone ever dreamt of the day when your crush reciprocates your feelings towards them by giving you a giant pink fuzzy teddy bear? The answer you're looking for is absolutely not.

So please, for the sake of your own pride, do not make the mistake of buying your guy or girl a giant stuffed bear to show your affection.

Odds are, teddy will find its way to the donation box by this time next year. And in case no one has ever informed you, boxed chocolates taste like cardboard so please do not resort to these either.

If the paragraphs above sent you back to the drawing board, (sorry to crush your ideas, but someone needed to tell you) then allow me to give you some suggestions of what you should buy your special someone.

For those of you who are not creative in the slightest, but still want to show that Valentine's Day affection, flowers, homemade dinners, and hand-written cards are a great place to start (and yes, I said hand-written). Cupcakes and cookie cakes are also hard to pass up.

For the creative minds out there, I would suggest a DIY. Not only can it be a fun project that gets your creative juices flowing, but it also shows your special someone that you care enough to invest time and effort. I would recommend using Pinterest for ideas. Homemade sweet treats can also be fun and inexpensive.

But please, for everyone's sake, do not find yourself in the checkout lane of your local grocery store on February 13^th holding a stuffed bear and a box of strangely flavored chocolates to profess your love or liking to someone.

Thank you.