Birthday coupons for Mr.A

It’s birthday season again! Mr.A turned a year older & wiser on 9th Nov. and as usual I got kinda crazy with ideas about how to make it special this time around 😀 I usually knock myself out making him fun & absolutely useless things for his birthday, and am thrilled how he loves them, too. Heehee, it’s the silly things that tell you how perfect your are for each other!

I have been wanting to make him some personalized coupons for a while now. I thought about it last Valentine’s day but a birthday is as good an occasion as any.

I used the pixlr express app that I have downloaded on my  Chrome browser. It’s a great app for quick picture editing and I use it quite often on my blog. I took a blank .jpg file as the base. I wanted to apply a similar look for all my coupons but with different colors. I also wanted to keep it simple & sober. Browsing though the various looks I arrived at background -> ink -> blackfive. Adding some text, I came to this template that I used for all the coupons, applying different filters to change the background color. Next I added some fun freebies for Mr.A to redeem at will.

I added a bolder border before printing them out, then cut them out, punched a hole in the top-left corner of each & stringed them through a piece of ribbon. Done! Try this fun idea for a dear one, you could allow your imagination to choose any kind of treat. Btw, Mr.A loved this gift – success, yeahh!

Aerial tour of Stockholm

A couple of years ago some of our friends gave Mr.A a special birthday gift, but what’s more, it turned out to be a bonus gift for me as well. Tickets to a chopper ride for two over the city of Stockholm, no less! Having already accomplished a sky dive the previous year, we both knew very well that neither of us had an insane fear of heights and were very excited about this adventure. We waited nearly a year to fix the perfect day to make it happen. On any given flight, I always make it a point to look out and take in the city from above. It’s just one of those things I enjoy. Since a helicopter does not fly as high as an airplane, the sights become so much clearer and way more vivid.

Join me on an aerial tour of Stockholm…

The chopper was a fine black bird. Since the motors bellowed & thundered, we had to communicate through the headphone-and-mike things hanging from the chopper ceiling. It felt so cool, I tell ya!

        

I got the lucky front seat next to the pilot!!

The chopper took off from the Bromma airstrip & the first landmark to catch our attention was the Solvalla horse racing track.

The iconic Stockholm City Hall

Riddarholmen island & the distinct black spires of the Riddarholmskyrkan

Picture perfect Gamla Stan, with a closer look at the Tyska Kyrkan or the German Church.

Slussen

Skeppsholmen

Gröna Lund, the exciting amusement park on the island of Djurgården

Kaknästornet, the TV tower, which for a long time remained the tallest building in Stockholm.

The cruise terminal for the Tallink & Silja Line fleets.

Friends Arena, the shiny new stadium with a  retractable roof, which houses football matches and concerts, both very popular in Swedish culture.

What’s more, we spotted our apartment as a big bonus! It’s in one of the green buildings towards the lower right of the picture. Yes, you are most welcome to visit!

An adventure, a joy ride in every sense of the words 😀 So much fun! Hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we did.