Two Years

Our second married year is now in the books!  Our anniversary was on Tuesday, but with Chris out of the house at 5:30am for work and not back until 9pm from class we didn't really celebrate until Saturday.  I couldn't let Tuesday go by without doing a little something so that night I picked up some creme brulee from Brio that we enjoyed after his class ended.

Hey Brio - Where's the caramelized sugar??

We didn't exchange gifts this year as the theme was "cotton" and we still have new bedding and bath towels from the wedding that we have not even opened (I can't wait to get them out of storage once we finally, knock on wood, start the house hunt this summer!).  Instead we gifted ourselves a couples massage Saturday morning (under cotton towels, so that's close - right?)

 and then headed out to the Melting Pot for dinner.

Our favorite drinks

Where we finally got our caramelized sugar fix with our dessert fondue!

I have a feeling that our next year is going to be a memorable one, so I can't wait to see what we have accomplished by the time year 3 is complete.

Alphabet Wall

Babies, babies, everywhere!  It seems like all of my friends are having babies, more than a couple are actually on baby number two right now.  In fact 2 of my closest friends Colby & Kristen (BM Cali and MOH Navy from back in my Bee days) are both due with baby #2 within a week of each other.

While I was able to make the shower for Colby's little boy one week after our wedding, I will miss out on the sprinkle for her daughter :(  Although I won't be there in person, I am happy to take part in her alphabet collage.

On the back of the shower invite every guest was assigned a letter with no rules on shape, size or style.  The host only asked that the letter coordinate with one or more of the colors on the invite.  I think this is the cutest idea and after a quick stop to Michael's I was ready to get started on my letter "Y".

I wanted to do a little more than just paint the letter, so I opted to cut Frog tape into circles for the polka dot effect.

Once all those little circles were placed it was time for a little Martha Stewart Glitter paint. 

And by a little, I really mean a lot.  It took a good 6 or 7 coats to get to the shade of pink that I was going for (or, you know the color on the store plaque in front of the bottle).

As you can guess, I finished this last night so the glare of the light doesn't do the glitter justice.

A close up to really get the glitter effect

I hope Colby and her daughter enjoy this "Y" and I can't wait to see a picture of the whole collage put together!

Have you seen or taken a part of any cute baby shower ideas?

Shredding It

Well, well, well... long time no talk!  I can't say that I'm surprised it's been so long.  My work projects have filled my days and by the time I'm done with work for the day I tend to stay away from the computer screens.

In all honesty I haven't done much blog worthy activities in the past month either, but that's not to say that I'm not enjoying my down time.  My best friend Kristen (MOH Navy for those of you that followed me on WeddingBee) is back in the states with her little son, and son #2 on the way.  It's been amazing just to hang out and catch up on life changes during her time in Japan.  San Fran/Napa plans with Corinne are coming along - flights have been booked and hotel/bed & breakfast reservations have been made.  I don't think I'll make it to August without some sort of trip, so Chris and I are starting to look at a weekend road trip.

And then there has been this:

Mom got this crazy idea from her sister to try out this new diet and roped me into it.  We started right after the Superbowl and are now nearing the end of our 5th week (we took a week off when we both made trips to Florida for work).  I'm not going to lie, after throwing up on day 1 I did not think I would be able to make it through 6 weeks of this.

But surprisingly, I'm getting it done.  5 weeks in, 16 pounds down and I just feel better in general.  

I'm now walking/jogging 1-2 times a day, 6-7 times a week and I honestly look forward to this time.  I used to enjoy my morning walks with Gypsy, but as the weather got colder and with the loss of my walking partner I just stopped.  Now, I look forward to my lunch break everyday so I can get away from work, listen to my iPod and just think about anything and everything.  I even packed work out clothes and made it to the hotel gym twice during my 3 day trip to Jacksonville for work.  Everyday when my mom gets home and goes for her walk, I join in.  It's a great time to catch up on our days and just get in some quality mother/daughter time that I know I will miss when we move into our own house.

When it comes to food, there have been some hard days (I'm not a big fan of veggies, but I'm getting better) but for the most part I've never been hungry.  I guess that happens when you're having 4 small "meals" (which can range from protein shakes, smoothies and salads to chicken and veggies) and 3 snacks a day.  This diet has really helped us to look at the labels when we're grocery shopping and think twice about what we order when we eat out (we tend to do the diet for the majority of the week, allowing ourselves one night to eat out).  That food knowledge and increased physical activity are the two improvements that I know we will take with us once this diet is complete.  

Have you ever had success with a diet? 

Benched

After getting our hair done on Saturday, Mom and I were off to run some errands.  She has been on the hunt for a statement mirror to go above their large mantle in the living room so we try to frequent our local Home Goods.  The problem is, good finds go quick at that store!  And with the hold area at the front of the store (items purchased and waiting for the customers to come back with larger transportation) you always see those great finds and get jealous that you didn't find them first.

Mom struck out again on the mirror hunt, but I scored a home run with this lovely bench!

I have dreamed about our future master bedroom which includes a new king bed to go with the king bedding that we received for our wedding (we were thinking ahead!).  I've always loved the idea of a bench at the end of the bed, but didn't have space for it in our old apartment.

Just enough space for one person to walk between the bed and dresser

While walking through the mirror section with mom, I actually spotted an identical bench in darker brown first.  It was nice, but once I saw the neutral color I knew it would work better with our bedding (and any future changes in bedding).

Pillows from our king bedding

And true to the nature of good finds going fast at this store.  From the time I spotted the bench and decided to buy it (standing by it while waiting for the guy to carry it to the front), 2 sets of people came up voicing interest in it.  

And the best part?  It has storage space!  

Perfect to store some of the blankets that always seems to be thrown around during the colder months.

Do you have anything at the foot of your bed?

30th Birthday Destination

First off - Thank you all for your sweet words on my last post!  We were both pretty ticked off with the outcome, but we're pushing forward, rearranging some plans and will be oh so happy if things work out for the August graduation.

So now onto the fun part! The destination for this year's annual birthday trip is...

via Wikipedia

San Francisco and Napa!!

There were some close guesses in the comments last week (Carol's San Diego).  We will be heading west to California, adding another state to our map.  Although I have been to Los Angeles & San Diego before, Chris has never set foot in the Golden State.  Since we both turn 30 this year, we decided to do a little more than a road trip.

One of the best parts about this trip is that we will be meeting up with my life long friend and her husband!  C and I have known each other since we were babies - our parents met in Lamaze class when they were pregnant with our older brothers who were born 2 weeks apart.  In 2011 we had the joy of being bridesmaids in each other's weddings.  We've been talking about planning a trip together ever since our weddings, and finally pulled the trigger for a fun week out west in August.  I love the timing because we get to continue our birthday trip tradition AND we get to celebrate C and her husband's 2nd anniversary out there.

Now for some advice!  I know that some of you live (or have lived) in San Fran or have traveled to Napa before.  I would love any tips/places to see/wineries to visit if you would like to share!  We are going to hit some of the big tourist attractions like Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, but if you have any other spots we should check out or places to eat do share them in the comments! :)

This and That

A quick drive by of random updates:

1. Some advisors need to get better at their jobs.  Chris learned last week that his transfer electives did not transfer over as "advance" electives.  You would think the advisors would have caught that before he applied for graduation since he went to them every semester to make sure he was taking the correct classes. They apologized, but it still means no May graduation :(  We're crossing our fingers that he can find any 4 classes to fit the bill (his advisor said it could be anything including advance basket weaving, ha!) this summer and graduate in August.

2. Due to #1, we canceled our plans for DC in May.

3. Although there is no trip in May, we have booked our annual birthday trip for August!!  Hopefully it will be a birthday/graduation celebration trip and this year we're traveling with friends so I know it'll be a great time!  I'll post more on it later, but here's a hint: we're heading west.

4. I'm a little obsessed with Tervis cups right now.  It's a good thing because I find myself drinking a lot more water during the day.

5. I finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Onto The Goblet of Fire!

6. Have you heard of the Paper Tongues or Hollywood Undead?  I had not until Chris downloaded them.  Now I'm a little hooked listening to their songs during my daily jogs.

Do you and your spouse have the same taste in music?  Any guesses where we might be going in August?

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Birthday Trip Wall

As I try to get back into the groove of things with the new year, I'm anxious to work on another project.  A while back I read through the Young House Love book and jotted down all of the projects I would love to try out.  Chris already nailed #155 with the silhouette of Gypsy that he made for Christmas, so I selected #126 which is to add a surprise slice of color to a frame.  It's a quick project that involves painting the side edges of a white frame.  

I headed over to Ikea and picked up a stash of white and silver Ribba frames.  

Some of these pictures may look familiar if you were a reader back in 2011.  They are all shots from our annual birthday trips!  Our birthdays are 12 days apart, so the trip always takes place in August.  Back in 2007 Chris and I took our first trip together to San Antonio for his birthday.  In 2008 we headed to New Orleans for my birthday (although the trip was cut short by a hurricane).  We loved the tradition so much that we have continued it every year since.  2009 - Hot Springs, Arkansas.  2010 - Fredericksburg, TX.  2011 - Atlantic City, NJ and 2012 - Albuquerque, NM.  To commemorate these trips, I decided to work on a mini gallery wall for our future house (hopefully in my office).

It's harder to notice in photos than in person, but I really like the mix of silver frames with the white ones.

So back to the YHL inspired project.  I originally wanted to paint the sides of the white frames and somehow incorporate the year the trip was taken.  In my head it worked out by placing stickers down before painting the side and then removing the stickers to reveal the year in white.  While this plan sounded great in theory, once I got the frames home and laid them out I recognized that the painted sides wouldn't have the same effect as part of a group as it would on an individual frame. 

Although the original plan to paint the sides probably isn't going to work for this (but I plan to try it with another project), I would still like to incorporate the year of each trip in some way.  I'm tossed between painting the mat and leaving white numbers for the year, or just writing (or using scrapbook stickers) the year on the bottom middle of the mat.  It's harder to imagine with just words, so I might have to just test out both ideas in reality.  If I don't like either I know that photo mats are very easy to replace.

What would you do?  Would you paint the mat and have white numbers for the year, or just write the number on the bottom middle of the mat (or use nice script stickers)?  Or would you just leave it as is and hope that your memory will stick with you through the years?