Weekend Wrap Up : Besties and Babes

First of all I committed a major wife fail and did not have a post up yesterday for Mister and I's anniversary.  We celebrated with 7 years of marriage, woohooo!  Each year gets better and better but having LM around makes this year even more fun.
We LOVE to do the traditional gifts each year.  This year was copper and wool, I'll do a recap soon of what we got each other!
Love you Mister ;)

I was slightly distracted because we traveled to Indianapolis over the weekend to see some of our best friends.  We had a miracle weekend where (almost) everyone was free and able to get together.

 It was very good for this mamas soul to hug some necks, have girl talk and drink some wine!
It was the first time all of our new babies were able to be together...our days sure have changed but for the better.

It was SO fun to see all the babes together!

It was a constant rotation of baby trading and I loved every second.  We even attempted a bath with the babes but that ended poorly after about 30 seconds when a chain reaction of tears began.

But we tried and have photos to prove it/embarrass them with ;)

I am so proud of our friend group and the MANY years of friendship we've shared and I love seeing everyone conquer each new stage of life and how we support one another.

6 Year Anniversary Gift Ideas

We are big fans of celebrating anniversaries with traditional gifts.
We've been doing this since our first anniversary and we love to continue it each year.  It is so fun to see what we each come up with and get our creative juices flowing.

Once one anniversary is celebrated and over, we love to look up what the next years is and brainstorm  all year. 

Mister always knocks it out of the park with his gifts and ideas, every single year.

You can see my other gift guides and what we've given each other here.  

So as I mentioned, year 6 is iron and candy, which, in my opinion, is crazy. BUT we are not ones to back down from a challenge.

So we went with it.  We opened the playing field eventually to all metal because just iron was getting a little tricky.  I will show you soon what we ended up getting one another but first here are where our ideas stemmed from.

Cast iron skillet (the best way to make corn bread)

Cast iron griddle/grill pan (we use our grill pan ALL the time)

Iron shepherds hook (for beautiful Spring hanging baskets of flowers)

Candy of any shape and size (Mister will always choose Reese's)

Iron sculptures (I would choose a basset)

Branding iron/grill press (for yummy Summer burgers)

An actual iron (sometimes practical comes in handy)

Golf clubs (a great way to spend summer evenings together)

Personalized iron signs/sayings (sky is the limit here! Monogram, anniversary, first address)

The other option is to go with a 'half dozen' theme and put together a collection of 6 of something.  Obviously the first thing that comes to mind is doughnuts :) 

6

Sunday marks 6 years that Mister and I have been married. 

6 whole years that have gone by in a flash but also seems like (in an extremely good way) that we've been married for years and years. 

No one makes me happier, smile more and laugh on a daily basis.  

I'll save everyone the mushiness but let's just say, being married to your bestie is a whole lot of fun.

We are continuing our yearly tradition of giving each other 'traditional' anniversary gifts.  6 years is 'iron and candy'.  Come back next week to see what we came up with! 

And there's a very good chance I will keep my yearly tradition of putting my dress on for a twirl around the house on Sunday ;)

15.5

I am going to go ahead and get this one out there.

We are one of those dorky couples that celebrates silly anniversaries.

Though I am sure you could guess this given the fun we have celebrating our wedding anniversary with traditional gifts. 

But really it's only 3. 

That's a reasonable amount, right?

They are all totally valid ones at least.

Wedding, first kiss and first 'I love yous'.  

All significant moments in a relationship if you ask me.

I love all of our relationship celebration dates a lot but I do have a special place in my heart for June 10th. 

15 1/2 years ago Mister and I were sitting on the sofa and had just finished watching Tin Cup.

He turned to me and said some really sweet words, words that I have always truly treasured.  Those words are between us but I can promise they made my heart melt.  And I just knew he would continue to make me swoon for years to come.  When you know, you know :)

(ironically this photo was taken at Top Golf...we like to keep the Tin Cup/golf story going strong)

All these years later he still melts my heart and I couldn't imagine it any other way ;)

And mushy post...out!

Weekend Wrap Up : Celebrating 5

With our anniversary on Friday we knew we wanted an entire weekend of celebrating.

And celebrate we did!

Friday before dinner we exchanged our wood themed gifts.

Guys, Mister did so well.

Drumroll...

A picnic basket because it is made out of wood!

Genius!

I am already planning an assortment of snacks to fill this adorable basket with and enjoy some Spring weather at a local park!

I gave Mister a WeWood watch...which I totally failed to photograph but it is this one.

A watch, made of wood! And I thought I was the clever one.  He did better than me, once again!

My plan is to have a 'wood' gift guide up later this week for more ideas.

Ironically, Mister said he almost got me one of the watches as well.

They say you've been together too long when... ;)

For dinner we headed to Red Feather in Oakley.

Oh my lanta.

The wine was amazing, whipped ricotta on grilled bread, salmon with a crisp outer layer, melt in your mouth short ribs...it was all to do die for. 

I am still dreaming about this meal.

I recently had my rehearsal dinner dress altered so I wore that to dinner along with my most favorite bright pink wedding shoes.  I am huge dork and love to try to wear my shoes every year with my dinner outfit.

And then, of course, it was wedding dress time.

Floyd was not really into our photo shoot.
I will, again, fully acknowledge my dorkiness BUT I LOVE my dress and I love this silly excuse to put it back on each year.

Other weekend highlights included enjoying a bottle of wine we had been saving, popping into Famous Footwear for some shoe shopping and the outlets for Spring clothes.

The man knows the way to my heart...wine and shoes and clothes.  And adorable picnic baskets.

Saturday night we headed over to Katie's for a chili cook off a round of the Newlywed game...only appropriate for our anniversary weekend, right?  I have to say Mister and I did pretty well!

5

We did it, Mister!

5 years of wedded bliss!

Good thing we had 10 years of dating to practice up to this point ;)

I am over the moon every single day to be married to my best friend, closest confidant, person who makes me laugh and smile on a  daily basis.  I can't imagine doing this life with anyone else (and Floyd, duh!).  Every day is a new adventure and I can't wait to see was the next 555 years bring us :)

Happy anniversary to the cutest, most handsome man I know.

P.s. we all know this means I will be putting my wedding dress on tonight...it's almost my favorite part of our anniversary each year. 

And you know how much I love the traditional gifts...5 years is wood.

I will have a gift guide up next week...couldn't do this week or Mister would know his gift!

15

Would be the number of years that Mister and I am have been dating as of today.

I lived it and I still just do not believe it.
To find the person in the world that makes you ridiculously happy at all moments is incredible.

It all started 15 years ago today when...

Mister and I were standing at my house...

me with rollers in my hair (thank you cheerleading)...

and he kissed me...

and I kissed him back, of course...

and then I freaked OUT (inside of my head, of course).

I had to cheer a game shortly after that and could barely keep it together.

Before that night, we had been on a few dates and I was 100% smitten with him.

My friends and I made it a daily (probably hourly) point to always 'just happen' to walk past him and his friends in the hallways at school.

We had to do something to get those senior boys to talk to us freshman girls.

But, hey, apparently it worked and we've high school sweethearts ever since ;)

Just a few shots of us looking like children.  Babies.

That first one is straight out of high school.

His hair...my eye makeup...it is a good thing we've both evolved.

Mister has made me feel so incredibly loved every single day in the past 15 years.

He makes me laugh, shows me unconditional love and patience at all moments.

He makes me smile just to look at him and think about his cute face and grin.  

He knows me way better than I know myself and I can't think of a better person to spend every day with than with him as my best friend by my side. 

Well, him and the basset hound, of course.

Annnnd that's enough sap ;)
Back to regular programming shortly. 

Just Perfect

And now I am finally around to recapping our anniversary.

Mister and I had really, really been looking forward to our anniversary dinner date night for quite a while.

We don't tend to go out to eat too terribly much so when we know we have a dinner out on the schedule, we get very excited.

#hugedorks

But before we headed off to dinner and drinks, 2 things needed to happen.
1. Dress putting on

and 2. fruit and flower themed gifts

Which I did a terrible job of photographing but I promise they happened.
Ironically Mister and I had very similar ideas for each other and almost ended up getting each other Nutribullets but changed our minds at the last minute.
I ended up getting mister and 'Apple' iHome with a radio so he can listen to Reds games in his office.
And Mister gave me an 'Apple' iTunes gift card to download music for running a Lowes gift card to buy flowers to plant this spring.

Then we headed out to Boca for drinks and over to Sotto for dinner.

Both places were new to us and I can't believe we hadn't been to either before but it certainly won't be the last time.  The interior of both places are amazing and I could have spent all night looking at the architecture and light fixtures.

And the food.  My lanta I'm still thinking about it.  Is there anything better than handmade pasta?

And that's a wrap on our anniversary, just a perfect night.

Fruit & Flowers : 4 Year Anniversary Gift Guide

My 3 year anniversary gift guide was a huge hit last year so I am back again this year with a 4th year round up.  

And for a little back story, at our first year of marriage, Mister and I (let's be honest I did) decided that we would attempt to go the traditional route with gifts each year.  

We both love the challenge of coming up with creative, clever and thoughtful gifts this year.

And here we are at year 4 and the traditional gift is...are you ready for this...

fruit and flowers - at first glance, not the easiest of prompts

And the 'modern' gift is appliances.

Well lucky for both of us, we did invest in new appliances for ourselves back in January.

But we still wanted to go the traditional route (and on a budget) on our actual anniversary.

Let's get the obvious gifts out of the way...

Wine and flowers.
Easy peasy, done and done.
And I honestly don't think any girl would appose either of those.

But! Let's take it a few steps further and get a little more creative.

A few of these may be a stretch, but let's just call them extra clever.

Wine of the month club (great for girls and guys)
Edible Arrangements (I mean it's fruit in the shape of a floral arrangement)
Apple products (iPhone, iHome, iPad, iPod, iTunes gift cards)

Fruit themed kitchen towels/accessories (Target or Crate and Barrel are good places for these)
Seeds to plant apple, orange, banana, etc trees
Nutribullet, Ninja, Vitamix (to make fruit smoothies)

Flowers/landscaping items- a 'day in the yard' gift basket

Kate Spade often has fruit and floral themed items - bags, wallets, clothing etc.

Cologne/Perfume (floral scents)

Garden tools (to plant flowers)
Fruit flavored olive oils

And there you have it, fruit and flowers!
What ideas do you have for 4 year anniversary gifts?

Come back by tomorrow to see what Mister and I gave each other and how we spent our anniversary. 

Things That Make Me Smile

How about a few doses of happy on this Friday?

1. It's finally warmer!

Let's all just take a second and rejoice in that.

2.  Anniversaries with my love (a full recap and gift guide to come next week).

Thank you everyone for your sweet notes yesterday.
We had the best evening...drinks and dinner out at to new (to us) places downtown and both where very, very scrumptious.

3.  This sleepy, frito paw smelling, sweet face.

4.  This blog. I just found it and can't stop reading.

These posts are my favorite.

5.  THIS.

So I'm sure by now you've seen #fashionbymayhem floating ALL over the internet.

Well, turns out that doll face lives in Cincy and I was lucky enough to run into her at Costco earlier this week.  She is just as adorable in person and her mama is the sweetest.  If you aren't following their instagram, you should get on that, stat and prepare to smile the rest of the day.  And also want to break out your craft supplies.

Happy Friday friends! 

Our Love : 4 Year Anniversary

Today marks our 4 year wedding anniversary and I literally can't believe it.

I still remember our wedding day so vividly and it makes me so so happy.

There are times when I want to live that day over and over again (and wear my dress - which I will 100% be doing tonight).

But at the same time I love that we have 4 years or marriage under our belt.

4 years of growing (well 14 if we are counting from the beginning), 4 years of understanding our marriage and each other, 4 years of owning and running a home, 4 years of making dinner and going on date nights together, 4 years of going through the good and bad and ups and downs, 4 years of love that continues to grow each and every day.  And I can't wait to see what the next 444 years hold. 

Andddd that's enough mushy ;)

Because I am craving a vacation and sunshine like whoa I thought it would be fun to recap our honeymoon.

Our honeymoon was a 100% complete surprise to me.  Mister planned and orchestrated the entire thing.  I had no idea where we were going until we got to the airport and even then I didn't really know what to expect.  I always suggest to my friends getting married to go this route.  As much as I love to plan and be in the know, not having to worry about a single thing to do the with honeymoon made the wedding planning process so much easier.  Mister told me to pack for warm weather and the beach and that's what I did and it worked out perfectly.

We went Secrets Capri in Riveria Maya and absolutely loved it.  It was one of the prettiest and nicest places we've ever stayed.  I mean they welcome you at the door with champagne, it can only get better from there. 

I fully believe that all inclusive is the way to go for a honeymoon.  The less you have to worry about the better! Plus they just keep the drinks comin'!

And...room service.  Possibly the best part ever.

We met 4 other couples while we were there who were also on their honeymoons and became great friends with them for the week and still talk to them to this day.  

It really was just the best time and I would go back in a heart beat.

Can we, Mister?!

Mister and I are big fans of traditional anniversary gifts so I'll have a gift guide up next week for 4th year anniversary (fruit and flowers).  I couldn't have it up this week or it would have spoiled Mister's gift ;) 

Weekend Wrap Up : Spring In My Step

After a winter full of staying in and not having many plans, our weekend was chock full of fun with friends.  With a good dose of relaxation thrown in as well. 

I'm ignoring the forecast for the rest of the week and pushing on vicariously through the dose of sunshine we had over the weekend and the fact that Thursdsay is our 4 (!) year anniversary- more on that later this week.

Here's what went down...

1. Dinner with friends at Coopers Hawk.  I am really loving that place and their wine.  They may need to get my own barstool soon.

2.  Cranked out an 8.5 mile run on Saturday morning and felt great the whole time! Flying Pig I am coming for you.

3.  I worked on a project (reveal later this week) and Floyd barked orders at me from inside.

4.  And then he was so so tired that he needed to nap in the sun.  

5. Saturday was rounded out with drinks and dinner with some of my favorites.
6. It was the strangest thing (according to Floyd) that the popcorn just fell on the floor.  I'm sure he was just watching it for me so no one took it.

It's a wonder what a bit of vitamin d will do for your soul.

Weekend Wrap Up: Easter!

Everyone else in a Peep and ham coma too?

Floyd sure is.

We traveled home for Easter and spent a lot of great time with our family celebrating Easter and a little anniversary celebrating too!

We share an anniversary with Mister's sister and her husband (we copied them; wanted to make it an easy date for everyone to remember ;) ) and Mister's family got us all a delicious cake! So on top of all the Easter goodness we had cake too! 

We are all wiped out from the weekend so this weekend wrap up is brought to you in photo form and mostly of Floyd.

Floyd gets SO exhausted visiting Grandma's.

He spent Saturday night snoozing in Sophie's bed which is about 3 sizes too small for him.

Floyd doesn't get rawhide bones at our house but all bets are off at Grandmas.

Again, all bets are off with the Grandma.

 Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Linking up with Sami, Leeann, Carly and Molly

Three Years

And in the blink of an eye, we've been marred for 3 years.

What?

Where has the time gone?

I can literally remember the day like it was yesterday...the friends, the family, the getting ready, the excitement.  I can still see it all so vividly.

We had such an amazing, beautiful day with all of our best friends and family members.

I can't believe that it's seriously been 3 years already.
It seems as if we were just walking down the aisle.

 In the past 3 years of our marriage, Mister and I have accomplished, been, seen and traveled a lot.  And I can't wait to see what else comes our way next.

We have made our house a home with Floyd and we have grown as a couple and as individuals.

I didn't know it was possible but I love Mister WAY more than I did the day we walked down the aisle 3 years ago.

He is my rock, my best friend, my sanity, my better half, my personal comedian, love of my life and all around my most favorite person in the world.

I thank God for him every day and that our paths crossed many moons (14 years) ago.

I can't imagine anyone else getting or loving me the way he does and that's just plain amazing.  There's a chance I can be a tad difficult at times ;)

Mister,I love you to the moon and back and can not wait to spend the new 333 years with you and see where this fabulous life takes us! Muah!

And because I'm a total sap...here are a million few shots from our special day.

 Eeee! Can we do it all over again?!
(weather included...)

Tonight to celebrate we plan on eating some delicious steaks, drinking some special wine we've been saving for just the right occasion and enjoying our evening together. And exchanging (leather) gifts of course.

There's also a large chance I'll be putting my dress on....
stayed tuned on Instagram (totalbassetcase) for that one.

Linking up with Shanna 

3 Year Wedding Anniversary Gift Guide: Leather

Our 3 year anniversary is tomorrow (time flies when you're having fun and hanging out with your BFF every day).

And besides being lovey dovey and looking through our wedding album, gifts are always one of my favorite parts of the day.  That and the steak we are planning on eating.

Starting with our first year of marriage we began giving each other variations of the 'traditional' anniversary gifts each year. 

I like the challenge of finding something within the genre and getting creative with the gifts each year.

Last year the challenge was cotton and I made Mister this.

And for our first year (paper) together I gave him tickets to a comedy show.

Also I like to see what Mister comes up with because he is one heck of a thoughtful gift giver.

 For instance, since last year was 'cotton' he gave me a gift certificate for a manicure/pedicure because they use cotton to take your old polish off.  He's a thoughtful one that Mister.

As I was racking my brain (and the internet) for leather ideas I was finding more and more that there aren't that many out there.

I thought I would put together a list of some ideas that I came across for all of your ladies out there searching for gift ideas.

Phone Case | Travel Kit | Wallet | Shoes | Belt

I think most of these are self explanatory and fit within the 'leather' realm.  I also think that these are things that all guys would love to get.  A few of my guy friends have that J.Crew phone case and love it.  The more you use the it, the better, more worn and broken in it looks.  An idea for the travel kit is to go ahead and fill it with with travel size toiletries and then your man is half way packed for his next trip.  I love the gray boat shoes by Sperry but Target also recently came out with a similar pair that are just as cute.  Nice, classic dress shoes for work are also an option. 

Now, what I got Mister may or may not be on this list.

Time will only tell ;) but I can't spill the beans quite yet. 

I'll share our gifts to each other later this week!

Do you stick to the traditional anniversary gifts?
If so, what did you give as a 'leather' gift?

DIY: Basset Silhouette Pillow

Are you ready for the 'cotton' anniversary gift reveal?

As your recall, I was desperately searching for a gift.

I finally settled on this shirt

 

and a DIY gift.

It all spurred from this pillow from Pottery Barn

 but at almost $50 ($40 for the pillow and $8 for the insert + shipping)

I wanted a slightly cheaper option.

Then I had an DIY idea!
 Why don't I just make the Mister a basset pillow??
A silhouette pillow at that! 

I hopped on over to TJ Maxx and was able to found an orange pillow that matched our sofa.

I then printed out a photo of Floyd's profile

I then sketched Floyd's profile onto a piece of brown felt, cut it out and pinned it to the pillow.

 I wanted the stitching to be very thick and show up really well so I used cream colored embroidery thread.
 I sewed around the perimeter and the whole project was done in about an hour!

 
Ta da!