My SO’s birthday is coming up a little too quickly, and I would really like to get some advice on what to get her. She’s in her 30’s, she likes the outdoors and animals (no squirrel stuff!! ;)), and she likes to read (Stephen King, pseudo-biographies, etc.).
Thanks!!
What about planing a special day for her? Or weekend? what about taking her camping somewhere nice and plan a nice canoe trip, hike or something. You could read to her out of a book you buy her. I always like presents that involve time with special people rather than just a material article, but both is great. Good luck with it.
What’s your price range?
Perhaps you could use the internet to find a rare or signed copy of a King novel. I am sure they are around. If you are looking for something a bit less expensive, then you can’t go wrong with a gift certificate to her fave bookstore. Be creative though, for example buy a dozen roses and place the gift certificate in among the roses.
Truthfully, no matter what your girl is into, you can never go wrong with jewelery. Just make sure you have her type right (gold or silver) and once again come up with a creative way of presenting it to her. Women love when you put actual thought into the gift, and that includes how you give it.
Good luck !
There are some decent used bookstores around here, if you want to get her several King books. I like the signed book idea too.
Jewelry is always great. I got diamond studs for my last B-Day, and hubby got major bonus points! They were not all that expensive either, just buy them at the right place.
To know your price range and time available would help greatly.
How about a Robert Bateman print.
Or a nice copy of “A Sand County Almanac”
A set of really good binoculars for Bird Watching.
A nice camera for taking nature pictures
A subscription to National Geographic
A membership in an organization that actually preserves habitat. ie. Ducks Unlimited.
For that matter a Federal Migratory Game Bird Stamp. You receive a collectable item and donate money to wildlife preservation. The Federal stamp is one of the best ways to support wildlife.
Good luck… any more info as in $ to spend and any more demographic info will make it easier to suggest stuff too.
You guys are awesome! Thank you for the responses.
I’m trying not to spend more than ~$120. I’ve got another somewhat expensive gift in mind, and I’m taking her to the beach (possibly camping at Fort Fisher State Park).
We’re taking a week vacation the first week of July, so I’m trying to save for that, too. I’m stressing.
Thanks again for helping!
Please let me know if you can think of anything else. The brain storming session so far has been great, but if it can continue on, that’d be helpful. The more options the better. 
There always seems to be little luxuries for camping at the outdoor store… a headlamp comes to mind (for reading in the tent at night). You can pick up a decent pair of mini-binoculars & a bird book (the National Geographic one is the best) for $120 or so, and they’re wonderful to have on a camping trip. Star Charts for stargazing are nice, and it’s amazing how much you can see with the aforementioned binoculars.
'course roses & jewelry are always a good way to go, too.
Last year for my soon to be wife’s BD I got a sapphire replaced in one of her old rings. We were about 6 mos away from getting married and had begun moving some of here things over to my apartment, when she found an old ring box opened it up humphed and dropped it in a box. I asked here about it and she told be it was an old ring that lost it’s center stone. So anyway, that night I called her mother and got here to find the box and grab it for me.
I got her completely by surprise (very unusual) and just happened to replace the old sapphire with a much higher quality stone (go fig).
Anywho, I don’t know how I’m gonna top that one yet, but I’ll be keeping an eye on this post too.
We’ve got an organization here that does bat rescue and you can adopt a bat in someone’s name. Laugh all you want, but I’ve been begging my spouse for a bat sponsorship since I found out about it.
hey, guano is different and memorable…
We’ve got an organization here that does bat rescue and you can adopt a bat in someone’s name…
HOw does that work? Maybe we could do that here & use butterflies instead.
How about treating her to a spot of lingerie shopping? If she wants, you can tag along, or she can coquettishly model your birthday present when she gets home. Just make sure she has enough money to indulge herself.
CrankyAsAnOldMan:
Do you have any more info? Web address, phone number, etc.
And I thought I was the only nut who liked this idea.
http://www.batconservation.org/
I hope it’s like Feed The Children where you get a photo of your bat and a little letter every now and then.
And this one offers som different stuff.
My hubby and I were at an auction once, and I briefly admired a treasure-chest style jewelry box. He had some friends bid for it after we left, and then spent the next few months buying me special pieces of jewelry. Come Christmas, he put all the jewelry in the treasure chest (along with a bunch of chocolate ‘gold coins’) put the treasure chest in a big box full of sand, and then on Christmas day gave me a card signed ‘Captain Kidd’ saying that only the most wonderful woman in the world was allowed to dig where ‘X’ marked the spot and retrieve the treasure.
(I managed to get to it anyway.)
Sweetest present ever!
Although this is a close second – he knows how much I like V8 juice, but I don’t usually buy it because it’s so expensive here. He has some friends who own a sandwich shop, and he bought some wholesale from them – surprised with a crate of the stuff! It was so incredibly thoughtful and sweet of him that it almost brought tears to my eyes.
And for one of my birthdays, he secretly arranged with my boss for me to have 3 days off, and then whisked me away on a long romantic weekend. It was a total surprise; I didn’t have a clue until the night before that anything was up.
Do any of these help at all? Give her something that shows you put lots of thought and caring into it, and make sure that whatever it is is a huge surprise – trust me, we’re suckers for that kind of thing! 
Stompy
Take her white water rafting. There are lots of places in VA and NC that offer packages.
I was thinking that the jewelry idea sounded good, but after putting some real thought to it, I don’t know what kind of jewelry to get. Aenea, how much are diamond studs, and where is a good place to get a pair? What other kind of jewelry do you suggest? Any more help/suggestions would be appreciated.
The book, bat, rafting, jewelry box, ring stone replacement, special weekend, roses, gift certificate, etc. ideas are all helpful. If you have any more ideas, please let me know.
Your email addy is not listed. Send me an email so I can talk shopping with you.