Your favorite someone is having a birthday or has just been promoted.  It may be your anniversary or Valentine's Day.  One sure-fire way to celebrate and share your affection is a special dinner.  A good restaurant is often the answer.  However, restaurants can be overcrowded and certainly aren't private. 

♥Consider making a memorable meal for your special person: splurge and go for lobster or a hearty steak, an interesting salad and, of course, dessert.  If you're watching your pennies, try one of our easy chicken recipes.  

Once you've settled on your menu, here are some suggestions to insure an outstanding evening:

♥If you have a fully equipped, elegant dining room, you're all set. 

If not, choose the most romantic area of your home and improvise: pull the patio table into the living room or bedroom.  Set up a card table.  Get creative. 

♥Cover your table with your best tablecloth, or a sheet or quilt that will hang to the floor.  The idea is to conceal a less than gorgeous table.  Besides, fabric puddled on the floor lends to the romantic ambiance. 

♥Pull out the good dishes, the fine china you have to wash by hand, or invest in clear glass plates from the dollar store that will match most everything.  

♥Tie a ribbon around the stem of each piece of glassware.  Dip the rim of the water glass in water and then into colorful sugar crystals (the kind you have in the spice cupboard for decorating cookies). 

♥Cloth napkins are a must.  Tie them with a ribbon and tuck in a fresh flower or an interesting twig you picked up on that daily walk we know you take.  A few green leaves will work too.  Look in your jewelry box for colorful pins like the ones with rhinestones you inherited from an aunt.  Pin them to the ribbon for sparkle.  

♥The centerpiece can be flowers, but you may receive flowers, which, of course, you will display in a prominent place. 

A bowl of lemons or mixed fruit dotted with greenery from that walk would be fresh and exciting. 

You could lay some pretty branches on the table and set simple votive candles among the leaves.  Or try the same thing with lots of ribbon.

Fill a wide vase with dry beans or rice and insert feathers or a few flowers in individual water vials. 

Put waves of loose ribbon or round Christmas ornaments in gold or silver in a big bowl. 

♥Ladies only - put on a pretty shade of lipstick and kiss the rim of the dessert plate!  It's fun, it's romantic and he's sure to remember it always.

Inspired by this article and Romancing the Room, Bonnie Shivley wrote of the wonderful evening she shared with her husband on his birthday and how she'd helped a young friend prepare an evening to remember before her fiancé's departure for Kuwait.  Here are some of Bonnie's suggestions:

Line the large dinner plates with a half unfolded red napkin and then put the smaller luncheon plates on top.