Wedding Gifts: Make it Count.

One of my favorite things is giving gifts.  I will admit: it can be scary sometimes, though.  Christmas time is kind of frustrating.  As much as everyone loves giving gifts, what's the point if you don't even know what to get them?  Why buy a gift just because you feel obligated?  I figured out the solution: only give personal or sentimental gifts.  Or a mixture between something they need and something personal.  I posted over the summer about my BFF's wedding and how we made them their tiered-towel-cake in their wedding colors:

The best parts about this gift?

1. We purchased the towels from their registry, so they got what they needed/wanted.
2. I made it myself and gave it a personal touch.
3. It matched their wedding colors and looked so darn cute on the gift table.

So, at the last two weddings that I have been to (both in the last month) I wanted to replicate that feeling (but still trying something different.  For my friend Meghan's wedding, I decided to make them some picture frames to remember their wedding.  Meghan and I had been talking about how she wanted more personal stuff in her house, so I did it for her :-)

I purchased three white frames:

An 8x10, a 4x6, and a 5x7 shadow box.  In the 8x10 I printed a big monogram "R" (for their new family name) on white cardstock and stuck it in there. 

not a very good pic

For the 4x6, I found this cute card at WalMart and LOVED the little love birds, so I bought that, cut it to size, and placed it in the frame.

I put them in a pretty bag (which I forgot to take a picture of) and gave them a really nice card with some cash.  Once again, they get the personal side and something that they need/want (money!).  I also told them that there was one more frame to come.  While at the wedding, I took this picture of Meghan holding the train of her dress by the little ribbon "strap".  It is about as artistic as my photo-taking-skills get.

I also stole the place card with their new "Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Rice" name on it from their actual table at the wedding.  I kept the stamp from the invitation I received from NY because it had her wedding themed stamp on it from her hometown postal office.  I also dried some leaves and flowers from my bridesmaid bouquet, put them in the shadow box frame, added the other stuff, and gave it as the final part to their gift a week or so later.

also not a very good pic

I did the same thing for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding on Saturday.  They were registered for a bunch of kitchen stuff and I knew they needed it.  Some of my favorite things in my kitchen are the little gadgets that I picked out and received for our wedding.  Especially because they all match and are in the same drawer.  Yeah, I'm type-A like that.  So I bought all that kind of stuff off their registry.

I also needed to give a personal touch.  So I bought them this beautiful and inspirational book:

He is the author of The 5 Love Languages.  And this book is basically a collection of a bunch of very inspirational faith-driven love stories that test time and test everyday life.  I thought it would be a beautiful and motivational way to start a marriage.

Another cool thing in this wedding was that my brother married a woman who already had a daughter from a previous relationship.  In the ceremony, they wrote and spoke beautiful vows to my new three-year-old niece, Baelee, and presented her with a necklace in which my brother promised to love her as his own and keep her safe forever.  It officially made me cry.  Here is a pic last Easter of my family with my dad:

My dad is holding sweet Baelee.

And her is a picture of Baelee on the wedding day showing off the flower girl dress (that I bought for her).  I just needed to throw that in there because I am proud of it :-)

So, I thought it was really important for me to give a gift to them that could be appreciated by their whole family.  I saw a few things online about creating a Thanksgiving jar.  So, I bought a little jar and put some cute gold stickers on top to say "give thanks".

I tied a ribbon around the jar and decorated some cards using white cardstock, markers, ribbon, some rhinestone stickers I already had, and a hole punch.

I wrote on their card that every day from now until Thanksgiving, they could each write something that they are thankful for, fold it, put it in the jar, and then on their first holiday as a family, they could pull them all out and read them together.  And if they kept the jar, they could make it a tradition each year (which I also plan to do someday when I have a family 'cause its just so cute). 

I also included a pack of colorful dry erase markers because 3 year old Baelee can't really write her thanks on cards this year, but she can decorate the jar with markers.  And the best part, she can wipe it off and redecorate it each year.

I bought matching gift wrap, bag, balloon, and tissue paper from the dollar store and bought hot pink ribbons and bows, too.  (Her colors were black, silver, and hot pink).

Once again, it looked absolutely adorable on the gift table.

There you have it.  Give sentimental gifts.  Take a few extra minutes and make it personal.  Think about your gifts ahead of time.  They will be remembered forever.

She is Framed.

So, since our visit with my dad and his fiance, Terri, we actually framed that canvas painting that they bought us in Haiti while on their cruise.  Framing canvas is tricky and there was no way I was trying it.  Plus, it was a really awkward shape and size and I wasn't about to build a frame.  I had never had anything custom framed before, so I went back to my usual place, Michaels.  I had a coupon for 60% off a custom frame, so I headed up there with my painting and was shocked to find out that even after the discount, it was still nearly $100!  And it was one of the cheapest options! The good thing is that it is made of real wood (most frames that you buy in the store are not) and it is of "gallery quality".  Luckily, dad had offered to pay for the framing once I got it done (thanks, Dad!).  And after about two weeks, she is official-gallery framed and hanging on our wall:

 

 We weren't exactly sure where to put her, but figured that this was appropriate enough because there was already a nail there and it filled some space above our bed, creating a bedroom which looked about .1% more "finished" than before.  I don't think this will be her permanent home (we have considered the top of the stairs instead of the mirror or in the guest bedroom once we start tackling that). 

We love how authentic it looks and it gives a fun and kind-of-weird touch to our room.  We also thought it was appropriate have the instruments in the background.  And the weird, long, and gangly arms are really neat when you look up close.  It seems like every time I look at it I notice something else.  I am also not so sure why I call her a "she".  There are most obviously men in the picture, but I think she is a she.  What can I say?

 

Has anyone else ever had anything custom framed?  Did the price shock you too?

Crabby Weekend Recap

This weekend my in-laws were here.  We went to our favorite all-you-can-eat crab house, The Red Roost.  It is officially the best crab house I have ever been to and if you are ever on the Eastern Shore, you should probably go (if you like crabs).  It's about 30 minutes away from where we live and pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  You drive and drive and drive in woods and fields and back roads until it appears.  

Yes, it's right there down by the "Chesapeake Forest Lands".  It also happens to be about a quarter of a mile from the Chesapeake Bay, where they catch the crabs.

It's one of those places where they give you tons of stuff to fill up on before they throw a pile of crabs on your table.  But, it's okay because the stuff they give you to fill up on is delicious, too.  We eat it all and it's worth every penny.

From the left: french fries, fried shrimp, clam strips, hush puppies.  In the containers: vinegar, Old Bay, cocktail sauce.  In the top left you can see the beers.  They also serve local microbrews, which is awesome.  

While you are eating those things, they bring out fried chicken (the best you will ever have), and an ear of local sweet corn.  Below is a picture of Josh's dad's excited-ness to see his fried chicken.  By the way, all of this is "all-you-can-eat".  If you want more clam strips, they will bring you as many as you can eat.

Next up is the real reason why we come.  The Maryland blue crabs.  Yeah!

I like to keep a tally on the paper on the table of how many I eat.  I am known to have eating competitions with my boss.  I always win.

So, how was your weekend?!

Office. Office. Office.

Ryan:	Did this happen on company property?
Michael Scott:	It was on company property, with company property. So, double jeopardy, we're fine.
Ryan:	I don't think-- I don't think you understand how jeopardy works.
Michael Scott:	Oh, I'm sorry. What is, 'we're fine'?

Do you watch The Office?  Because you should.  Season Premiere next Thursday.  Do it.

Speaking of the office, I decided to get right on it.  I mentioned in the last post how our office should be clean, organized, and a place to do work effectively.

The first step was to add a few more places for storage by painting the old ugly bookshelf and using it.  This bookshelf may be temporary, but this room needs it for sure.  We have two of these laminate bookshelves:

There is one more shelf to go in there.  But I had (temporarily) lost the pegs that hold the shelf up.  I later found out that they were in a ziploc in Josh's car.  Don't ask me why.  Anyway, this bookshelf, even though I can't exactly remember where it came from, certainly is not worth a fortune.  And it certainly isn't a fine piece of furniture.  It's made of laminate wood or particle board (whatever they call it).  So I was a little worried about painting it because I didn't really know where to start.  But I did a bit of research online and found that these steps would be the best for success:

1. Clean the crap out of it.
2. Sand it.  I mostly read that others would sand it with a really fine grit sandpaper. 
3. Wipe it clean again.
4. Prime then paint.  (Or purchase a paint with primer in it).

So I cleaned.  Then I filled the extra peg holes that I didn't need with spackle.

I spackled, then sanded the whole shelf with 320 grit sandpaper, which is very fine.  After I cleaned it off again, I started the painting process.  I had a good paintbrush and I had a small "trimming" roller.  I painted part of a corner of the inside of the shelf and immediately knew it wasn't going to work.  The paint literally wasn't sticking AT ALL.  I would paint over a spot and immediately it would stick together and form holes where I could see the shelf.  Yikes.  So I decided I hadn't sanded it enough.  I got out the 120 grit sandpaper.    Sanded the whole thing.  By now my arm was soooo numb and tired.  Tried again.  It was a no-go.  90 grit?  Try again.  I learned my lesson this time.  I didn't sand the whole friggin' thing.  I sanded a small spot and tried it out.  It was better but not perfect.  FINALLY: 60 grit sandpaper worked.  Once again, I sanded the entire bookshelf, this time successfully!  It just goes to show that the internet isn't always the best resource.  Or as Josh always tells me, "Maria, you can't believe everything you hear".  Except he is usually talking about the news.  I am a sucker for believing ANYTHING I see on the news.  Except FOX.

Back on track:  The 60 grit worked fine and I pulled a few muscles in my forearm.  You think I'm kidding, don't you?  I figured you would.  

Then I painted the first coat.  I bought Glidden eggshell plain white paint with primer.  I painted the corners and edges with a brush and then the rest with my roller.  Here is a peek of the first coat:

I chose white because it feels so clean and fresh all the time.  I forgot to take an "after-the-second-coat" picture, but plan on doing that when I put it in the office and get things organized a little better in there.  We are currently broke as a joke (my favorite saying) so purchasing a new desk isn't in the near future, but hopefully won't be too far away.  By the way, we aren't broke as a "joke" per say.  We would just rather spend our dough on my tuition and food and paint for the living room right now.

On a side note: my dad had surgery earlier this week.  He had an artificial disc placed into his spine up towards his neck.  His surgery was successful, but he could use your thoughts/prayers for a speedy and non-painful recovery.

And for the best news ever: It's the weekend!!!!!  Yippee!  In-laws are coming tonight and even though I plan to do nothing but grad school work tomorrow and Sunday, I still like having visitors.  Have an excellent weekend!

Last Weekend of Freedom

Tomorrow is the big day.  School starts again.  On our last weekend of freedom, we were accompanied by my dad and his new girlfriend.  It was the first time that they saw our house, so that's super exciting for us.  We love having visitors!  And even more than that, we love having visitors come back again so they can see our house progress in person.  We went out to lunch at The Shark, my favorite restaurant, also mentioned here.  We spent some time shopping on the boardwalk, laying out at the beach, making awesome dinners, and watching movies.  We even met my Uncle and his daughter yesterday and went to the zoo.  My 7-year-old cousin was the flower girl in our wedding:

What a cutie!

After spending hours at the zoo, the only really great shots I got were not of any zoo animals at all.  I almost stepped on this beautiful butterfly:

And this photo of my cousin pointing to something on the underside of a fake piece of wood:

All in all, we had a great weekend.  My dad also surprised me with a gift he bought in Haiti on his cruise:

A scroll???  Nope....

Some original artwork painted on canvas.  It is really cool, matches some colors in our home, and has music stuff on it.  Not to mention that no one else in the world has it.  I am really excited to get it framed, but have never had anything custom framed before... any suggestions on where to go?

Book Reading and Beach Bumming

The beach is great!  I am super tan, I have been eating well (junk food and seafood) and I have been sleeping approximately 10 hours per night.  It's awesome.  I have also been doing a lot of reading. 

Water for Elephants, by Susan Gruen is one of the top 3 books I have ever read.  The main reason why, you ask?  Because I could tell from page one that it would be one of the best books I have ever read.  I have never been so "hooked" in my life.  Wow, what an amazing talent an author has to do that to the reader!  It's also written in the first person from the perspective of the main character, a man.  And how she did that I will never know.  I believe they also made it into a movie, right?  I will have to look that up.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards is what I finished today.  It also happens to be in the top 3!  How luck am I that I got to read two out of the three best books of my life in the same week?  WHOA.  There are about 1 million reasons why The Memory Keeper's Daughter is in the top 3.  The main ones are:

• This book is about truth and dishonesty in human life.  No matter whose side you take or who you relate to the most, you can sympathize with everyone because it is so real and raw.
• Kim Edwards describes scenery like no one else I have ever read.  I absolutely felt like I belonged in the book, at the scene.  Like the book's world was in a little capsule and I poked a hole and slid in.  I could see everything.  For example, I was sitting on the beach and I was reading about a particular scene when the female main characters was knocking off a wasp's nest outside and the wasps were swarming around her.  I seriously felt like there were wasps swarming around me.  I even shooed one away!  But when I looked up, the wasp was real!  It really was there and just happened to stop by my beach chair as I was reading that part of the book. What a coincidence!  I would have felt the same either way, though.  That's how well she described the scenery.
• It made me cry.  Any book that can make me cry immediately gets in the top 3.  (Just so you know, it also happens to be the only book that has ever made me cry).

Have any of you ever read either of these books?  What did you think?

I will end with a beach picture, of course.  This is me, my father-in-law, and a friend, Nicole.  We are sitting on the crow's nest of the house with drinks watching the sunset.  Oh... and acting like goofballs.

Beach-y Baking

We are headed to the beach today with Josh's family and friends of family.  yeah, we are leaving in a moment.  Yes, I know it's 5am!  Got to beat the traffic!  Outer Banks!  I baked these goodies for breakfast and snacks on the drive!  I will share recipes when I get back.

These are Pillsbury Funfetti Cookies.  Nothing special, but very cute and very delicious.

I tried an interesting new blueberry muffin recipe.  You make them with yogurt believe it or not. 

Wow.  Look at those beautiful blueberries.

And for Josh's brother, the chocoholic, chocolate chip muffins... you can't really see the chocolate chips but there are a ton of them!  I made these with sour cream!

Tell me that doesn't look amazing?!

I may not be posting a whole lot this week while we are at the beach.  I'm taking a real vacation.  Well, except that my final project for my grad class is due on Monday.  Okay... the vacation starts on Monday.   Have an awesome week!

It's All in the Cards

When I was a little girl, I was a pen pal... with my great grandmother.  It was my mom's mom's mom.  She lived over an hour away so I didn't get to see her often.  So we would write each other letters.  I always used a goofy Lisa Frank type of stationery and she would always use the same flowery white card.  I was probably between the ages of 6 and 10 while I was writing and receiving letters from Great Grandma Dot.  Because of my young age, I wasn't thinking ahead very well and either lost or threw away all of the letters she ever sent me.  I didn't think much of it at the time.  She died when I was a senior in high school.  I remembered the letters and searched high and low for them but never found them.  A while later, my grandma (mom's mom) was going through all of great grandma's belongings and found a stack of all of the letters that I ever sent her, full of brightly colored stickers and even some silly jokes:

Yes, that is Pocahontas.

I still have all of them to this day.  Which is why it is hard for me to throw away cards.

Every year you get what seems like millions of cards for your birthday, Christmas, Easter, and any special events like a wedding or graduation.  Some of them are lame (let's face it), and some of them are really special.  But you always seem to keep them for a little while because you just feel like you have to.  For goodness sake, some of them cost as much as five or six bucks!  But... eventually you realize that there's really no point in keeping them and throw them out.  That's what I have a hard time doing.  So I have a ridiculously large box of cards from all sorts of events and from all different points in my life and from all different people.  But, because I am really weird, I keep the most special of all cards in a file in my filing cabinet.  Yep, I know it's weird, but it's true.  See?

And to this day all of the cards/letters I ever wrote to great grandma Dot live in the special card file.

When I saw this spring green beauty at Michael's (of course), I knew immediately what would go on it and where it would go.  It had to go in my closet and I had to put some of the most special cards I have ever received on it so I could see them every day.

Some cards are from family, some from Josh, and one from my best friend.  And I don't feel bad about keeping them anymore because they are special.  And my "card" file is a tiny bit lighter :-)

Wedding, 4th of July, Birthday

I have been busy!  I thought that summer was for relaxing?!

Two weekends ago, I went to Pittsburgh to celebrate my best friend's wedding!  It was the first wedding (other than my own) that I was in!  And it was a blast!  L was also in my wedding:

L is all the way to the left

And she looked sooo beautiful in her wedding!  I can't wait to see her bridal portraits because they are going to be awesome.  She hired a fantastic photographer.

The bride getting her hair did the morning of her wedding!

My first French manicure!

The whole bridal party

Best Horn friends from WVU

Cutting the Cake

Then Josh and I drove to Cumberland where we spent the 4th of July with my family.  It was a good time.  We hung out, ate food, watched fireworks, and made S'mores.  Always a good time.

L and her new husband(!) followed us back from Cumberland on Tuesday to Salisbury where they stayed for the night and got to see our new house!

Wednesday was my birthday!  We woke up, L and I went on a run, we came back and the boys were making us breakfast, we ate breakfast and then all of the sudden I remembered it was my birthday!!!  yep, we all forgot.  So, they apologized, we hung out, ate lunch, and they had to leave.  I colored all day and watched my DVR shows from while I was in Pittsburgh.  Then Josh took my to my favorite sushi restaurant for my birthday dinner:

Look how happy I am!

Lately, Josh and I have been doing some projects around the house as we get the money (we are currently broke as a joke!).  I will update :-)