It’s Valentine’s Day! Did you get spoilt rotten? I hope so! If not, there’s still time to drop hints about the half price fragrance sale at Boots unless of course you’re the one who forgot! The offer is only available today so hurry!

• Click here to go fragrance shopping with Boots*

So Valentine’s Day has finally arrived and I hope none of you were caught short. If you were there’s still time to make up for it with Boots. They’re offering 50% off several of their gorgeous fragrances so you may still be forgiven if you hurry.

Some of the fragrances on offer are the beautiful vanilla scented Lacoste Touch of Pink Eau de Toilette 50ml which has been reduced from £38.00 to £17.99 and the Ralph Lauren Eau de Toilette 30ml reduced from £28.00 to £14.99. I love the DKNY Red Delicious Women’s Eau de Toilette 50ml that is on sale for £31.99 (it was originally £48.00), delicious is exactly what it is.

Hurry now and don’t miss out on these fantastic savings, especially if you have to redeem yourself after forgetting to get a present for today.

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and I quite liked this as a little pamper gift. Something to help someone to feel a little spoilt. The Montagne Jeunesse Spa Treats was priced at £12.99 but has now been reduced to £9.49 so you’ll save a super 25%.

• Click here to treat someone special to a little pampering with Argos*

Valentine’s Day isn’t just to say “I love you” but also to say “Thank you” and “I appreciate you”. This cute little pack from Argos helps you do just that. It’s a lovely little set to give to someone special tomorrow so that they can relax and spoil themselves.

The pack includes a Dead Sea mud face mask (20g), Iced Crystal face mask (15g), Hot Chocolate face mask (15g), Passion Peel off face mask (10ml), Very Berry face mask (15g), a gel filled cooling eye mask and an exfoliating pom pom.

The set is packed full of the most delicious natural ingredients derived from plant and mineral sources and is suitable for all skin types. The products aren’t tested on animals either, smashing.

Use this Past Times promotional code to get 30% off your order and free next day delivery. If you've suddenly realised that you have nothing for Valentine's Day, desperately need a gift, and have no time to go shopping, then this code will be a lifesaver!

Click here to use your Past Times promotional code *

• Discount: 30% and free next day delivery
• Promotional code: HURRYLUV30
• Expires: unknown

To use this code, go to the shopping basket and enter it in the Discounts box. If it is accepted you'll see the discount appear immediately in your basket. Unfortunately I have no idea when it expires. Hopefully it'll stay valid long enough to help a few people out for Valentine's Day!

Normally, next day delivery is £4.95, so that's a pretty good saving on its own.

I tested the code out on this beautiful Stirling Silver & Abalone ring (see photo above), which was priced at £30. The code took that down to £21, so with the free delivery that's a saving of £13.95.

Thanks to ji29zd at HUKD!

Have you ever found yourself staring at your partner, trying to think of something you can do with your day off? I mean, you have the time but can't think of anything you'd like to spend your time on?  Well, how about a date night jar, where you can write down a long list of ideas, and draw a stick on those days that you just need a bit of motivation!

Use this Hallmark promotional code to get 20% off any of their cards. With Valentine’s Day only a few days away it’s probably about time you did something about it if you haven’t yet. Whether you’re doing a big fancy gift or just something small and special you’ll need a card to go with it.

• Click here to use your Hallmark promotional code*

•     Discount: 20% off
•     Promotional code: LASTVAL
•     Expires:  13 February 2013

To use your Hallmark code, use the link above to visit the Hallmark site and pick a special card for your loved one. Add your card to your basket and then fill in the promotional code LASTVAL at the checkout (the box is in the middle of the page). Your 20% off will be applied as soon as you do this.

I tried the code on one of their personalised cards. It’s pretty cool, you select your card and then add in the name of that someone special and write a personalised message. You can even add a photo in some of them. Go have some fun and make sure you’ve got the best card on Valentine’s Day.

Cathy from Nurture Store shares a fabulously easy Valentines craft-slash-baking idea for Valentines Day, perfect for kids to do with a little help on the hot stuff. Who doesn't like a rice crispy lolly pop!

Use this My 1st Years promotional code to get 10% off items in the Valentine range. My 1st Years specialises in personalisation. Most of its gifts come with the option of embroidering a name or message for a loved one, at no extra charge.

Click here to use your My 1st Years promotional code

• Discount: 10%
• Applies to: Valentines
• Promotional code: VAL10
• Expires: 15th February 2013

To use this code, go to the My Shopping Bag page and enter it in the Discount Code box. It will be applied automatically to your order, and you will see the discount appear in your totals column.

I tested it out on a really sweet Loves Daddy Tee (see the picture above). This was priced at £10, and the code took £1 off that. Not a huge amount, but it would make a gorgeous gift as it can be personalised with the child's name.

Standard delivery is £3. According to the website, all gifts come in a luxury gift box. A really nice touch, along with the personalisation, and with that in mind if you get something in the sale you'll have beautiful present to give someone without too hefty a price tag.

Thanks to goonertillidie at HUKD!

I adore Love Hearts. Partly this is nostalgic. I remember them as a child, pulling each one out of the packet to read the message. It all seemed so exciting. Partly because they taste great. And partly because I don't have any little fingers trying to grab them. My son doesn't actually like them, he says they're too fizzy. All the more for me!

Swizzels Matlow, a family run UK company, make Love Heats, and naturally Valintine's day is a big time of the year. For last Valentine's we reviewed the limited edition Love Hearts tin (RRP £2.49)- you can read the review here. This was a big hit for me, packed as it was with mini little Love Heart treats, and good value for money.

This time we've looked at two other Love Hearts products, one of which includes those lovely (or gorgeous, depend on your age) lads from boy band One Direction. Or is it 1Direction?

Use this promotional code at The Works to get 10, 15 and 20% off. This is a special Valentine’s Day promotion to help you get something special for your Valentine this year. Go have a look at some of the cool Valentine’s gifts they have on offer, everything from books to teddy bears.

• Click here to use your promotional code for The Works *

•     Discount: Up to 20%
•     Promotional code: HEARTS
•     Expires: 14 February 2013

To take advantage of this cool promotional code go to The Works and select your gifts. Once you’re finished shopping go to your basket and fill in the promotional code HEARTS. The discount of 10, 15, or 20% will be applied depending on how much money you have spent.

I decided to select items that were already on sale and that were not in the Valentine’s gifts category and the code applied the discount to those too, fabulous! I spent about £18 and it gave me a 15% discount. I think from my little experiment and the way they it’s worded that if you spend more than £10 you get 10% off, more than £15 you get 15% off and more than £20 you get 20% off.

Happy shopping!

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner and being a money saving mum it can sometimes be hard to conjure up the perfect gift. How about expressing your feelings for that special person in your life by having them printed in an e-book from Scribbler and getting a shot at winning an iPad? At the same time you’ll get a lovely 20% off Scribbler cards.

• Click here to get your Scribbler discount exclusive to PlayPennies*

Go enter the competition if you want to (you don’t have to) but whatever you do make sure you take advantage of this cool offer from Scribbler.

• Discount: 20% off
• Promotional code: VALENTINESB13
• Expires: 15 February 2013

The checkout process is a little long winded, you’ll have to fill out all the postal addresses and details before you can add in the promotional code to see what you’ll get off but you only need to do that once and then it’s done. The box for the code is not terribly obvious but if you look on the right hand side under the amounts you’ll be paying you’ll spot it. You then need to click on it to open the box.

The competition you can enter is centred around an e-book Scribbler are producing where they are asking the public for answers to the eternal question "what is love". They’ll be gathering responses via their website and via Twitter.

They'll be compiling all of the best (and worst) 'Love is' answers into an e-book, and giving out an iPad mini to the person with the best or most amusing answer. Time to get creative go and save some money with Scribbler.

Use this La Redoute promotional code to buy one and get one free for Valentine’s Day. The offer is for La Redoute’s gorgeous range of lingerie. The promotional code is valid for their Spring Summer 2013 full price lingerie.

• Click here to use your La Redoute promotional code*

•     Discount: Buy one get one free
•     Promotional code: 8120
•     Expires: 14 February 2013

To use this code, use the link above to take you to La Redoute’s Spring Summer 2013 lingerie collection. Select your two items and then go to the shopping basket page. There’s a box on the right that asks for your promotional code. Put in the code 8120 and you’ll get the cheapest item of the two FREE, lovely.

I tried it out on a pretty lace nightie and a cool stripy bra in the collection. True to their word the bra which was priced at £15 was free and I was only charged the £29 for the nightie. Postage and packaging was £3.99 on top of that. Even if you’re not buying it for Valentine’s Day it’s a great deal on beautiful lingerie so go spoil yourself.

On  a particularly house bound day this week, we decided to do a bunch of Valentine's cards for grandparents and daddy.  They're just paper crafts, really, but a three year old and paint pretty much equals a good afternoon's fun.

To make these three cards, you'll need two pages of card stock, and one painted paper and a few bits of shredded, colourful paper.

For the Window Card, fold the card stock in three parts.

Use this Interflora promotional code to get 5% off. Normally I don't tend to look twice at promotional codes that are less than 10%, but this one is particularly timely given that Valentine's Day is only a couple of weeks away and there's a good chance that lots of dads will be using Interflora's services.

Click here to use your Interflora promotional code*

• Discount: 5%
• Promotional code: february14
• Expires: 27th February 2013

To use this code, go to the Shopping Basket page. The check out process will take you there first, once you've entered a postcode, selected a delivery date, and hit the Order button on the flowers or gift that you like.

I tested the code out on a really gorgeous bunch of flowers from the Free Delivery section. As the name implies, there was no additional delivery charge for these. The Rose and Lisianthus Hand-tied bunch of flowers (shown above) are made up of Kenyan Roses and Oriental Lilies. Priced at £29.99, the code loped £1.50 off the overall price.

Thanks to Syzable at HUKD!

Use this Thorntons chocolate promotional discount code to get 15% off your order. Now if you're a chocolate lover that code will have you salivating.  Yum yum yum. But it also has potential for gift giving, with Valentine's Day on the horizon.

Click here to use your Thorntons chocolate promotional code*

• Discount: 20%
• Promotional code: VAEB
• Expires: 4th February 2013

To use the code, go to the checkout page and enter it in the promotional code box. It will immediately tell you if the code has been accepted and what you get.

If your other half likes chocolate, then this could be a particularly tasty present for Valentine's Day. You can pick something from their range, or from the sale section - this is divided by price. Handy if you're a bit strapped for cash.

Or, if you want to splash out there's their Gifts for Valentine's Day section. To be honest I think most of the stuff in here is a bit overpriced. I'd rather not pay a premium just for something that is heart shaped. But I thought the Alphabet Truffles, £14.99 for 22, were quite sweet. You can spell out a message on the buttery truffles.

Thanks to summumat HUKD!

We're into February and while I still saw some long overdue Christmas decorations up in a market stall today, the majority of shops are decked out with hearts and pinks, and it's time to get on board with Valentines day. Here Tinkerlab has put together the motherload of Valentine Activities for Kids.

If I'm going to send a Valentine's Day card then a homemade one just seems 'more' somehow, than one you just picked up from the shops.  I came across these 3D optical illusion lollipop Valentine's Day cards and think they're rather fun - you could also use this idea for any occasion that requires the giving of a card.

• Click HERE to read the original post, with full instructions, over on ParentHacks

I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day - not because of the romantic sentiment (I think that's important all year round, not just on one day!) but because of the OTT commercialism that comes along with it.  However, I'm rather tempted to join in this year, just so I have an excuse to make one of these amazing 3D optical illusion cards!

If you have a go too, let us know how yours turned out.

*photo credit - Betsy Ptak

Feeling a little less than inspired for Valentines day. Which is, you know, just over 2 weeks away? Here are 50 ideas to get your mind going in the right direction.

The internet is a wonderful thing! Rather than making a bunch of Valentine's themed activity sheets for my daughter, I've been able to download someone else's for free. Bonus.

There are 3 weeks to Valentines day, so if you've got any crafts to get done, now's the time to get to it. If, like me, all you can draw is a blank, then here are 15 ideas for crafts you can make. 

Take someone special to Istanbul for Valentine’s Day and pay only €1 for the flight! The way it works is one of you pay full fare from Istanbul on Turkish Airlines but the person you’re travelling with gets their flight for just €1, fabulous and so romantic.

• Click here to fly away for Valentine’s Day with Turkish Airlines

If you’re planning a romantic weekend away for Valentine’s Day then Turkish Airlines has got this awesome deal for you. You’ll pay only €1 for the person you’re with for all flights departing from Istanbul between February 9^th and 15^th.

The Valentine's Day Promotion is valid for tickets bought between January 8^th 2013 and February 15^th 2013 and for flights between February 9^th and 15^th 2013 (inclusive). As always there are quite a few terms and conditions such as the promotion is only available to Miles&Smiles members. However, the second passenger in the PNR (passenger name record) is not required to be a Miles&Smiles member. Passengers are obliged to travel together for all destinations and the dates and routes of the tickets cannot be changed, they are also not refundable.

Despite the obligatory terms and conditions it’s still a great deal and it’ll be amazing to do something a little different and special this Valentine’s Day.

Thanks to zahidworld at HUKD!