Hey there Hello Kirsti readers.

Well, it’s officially been 6 months since my husband and I said I do!

Here’s a look at the fabulous banner Kirsti made us to use in our wedding pics!

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I’m a romantic sap…total over the top celebrator of all things lovey-dovey. Yup, I’m that girl who celebrates her dating anniversary, her engagement anniversary, her first time we kissed anniversary (okay…I’m not that bad but you get the idea)!

So, since it was our ½ a year wedding anniversary I thought it was necessary to get a head start on a wedding anniversary tradition…the eating of the cake topper!

Since we didn’t save our wedding cake topper (that whole tradition of eating a cake that is a year old just seems gross) I had a half a cake made. Luckily for me there is a wonderful cake baker I know named LeAne.  Check out her creations at http://www.sweettraditionsbyleane.com (if you’re near Raleigh, NC you must try her cakes!)

We brainstormed a little and this is what we came up with.

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I surprised my husband with it at 5:30 pm…when we’d officially been married for 6 months.

He was really surprised! Hope this gets you inspired for the next celebration in your life.

Happy new year! Remember to celebrate everything this year.

This past weekend we celebrated my parent’s 25th Anniversary. Bestie and her new hubby were able to drive up to Maryland from Raleigh for the weekend.
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The Happy Newly Weds

Bestie is a card and gift champion so I’ll share her cleaver idea with you.(She writes a ‘mean’ thank you note too!)
She looked up all the major traditional ‘yearly’ anniversary gifts and built a gift basket around them, too clever!
Becca's pretty card, she's a pro
She made the card with her new Cricut Mini, and also included an ‘explanation card’ linking each item to it’s year.

Becca & Eric's Clever Gift!
Year 1 : Paper : Cookbook
Year 5: Wood : Cutting Board
Year 10: Tin : Baking Tin
Year 15: Crystal : Bar Set
Year 20: China : Cupcake Boxes made in China (too funny!)
Year 25: Silver : Silver Serving Pieces
How clever is that?

The goods =)
Here it is all laid out with it’s basket.
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Mom and Dad at their party =)

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On Saturday Andrew & I celebrated the fourth anniversary of our first date. On Friday night, Anniversary Eve, we went to dinner with his parents and hung out for a bit. As we were leaving Andrew A.K.A. “Coffee Fein” said he was craving a ‘tasty coffee drink’ and suggested we go to Bongo Java, the coffee house where we had our first date. I was surprised but went with it, looking up when they closed on my phone. It was 9:36 and their site said they closed at 10 since Belmont’s classes hadn’t started, Andrew said “Well lets try anyway” much to my surprise (The site Andrew looked at earlier said they closed at 11).  We get to Bongo’s interstate exit at 9:55 and Andrew takes the exit, at this point I know something is up. We get a parking spot easily, and walk over to the coffee house just barely before 10, we sneak in the door and grab some iced coffees and then sit outside on their patio where we talked forever on our first date. We talk for a bit about our first date and the funny things that happened like my Dad calling me right in the middle of it. Then Andrew keeps messing with the toe box of his shoe, being me of course I go total “mom mode” and pester him about cutting his nails etc. After playing with his shoe some more, he gets up to ‘inspect it further’ and he’s down on one knee, with the “dream ring”. I of course say “yes” grinning ear to ear.  We then finished up our coffees and took a walk around the empty Belmont campus (where I went to college) and sit and chat in one of the Gazebos that dot the main quad, staring down every 3 seconds at my new “sparkly”. the-ring-2-hello-kirsti

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On our anniversary morning I surprised A with a crockpot breakfast casserole, a card, and his mug.

I got the mug idea from the sharpie mug pinterest thing, some googling revealed that the sharpie only lasted 2 runs in the dishwasher so I went the ceramic paint route, a little harder to paint than draw but I was able to start over by wiping the wet paint off with rubbing alcohol and a paper towel.

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I used the website Note Flight to ‘compose’ the music for the mug, Andrew’s a musician who plays drums and trumpet, and his nick name is A Sharp, so I started it off with A sharp note, I used a Scrabble dictionary to figure out what words I could make with A-G and decaf popped up, and the irony of “A Sharp Decaf” was born. Ever the perfectionist Andrew played ‘his song’ on his trumpet and felt something was missing, so some more playing with noteflight we created a great collaboration you can see here. 4/4  time of course for our fourth anniversary!  Custom-Ceramic-Music-Gift-Mug  Custom-Ceramic-Music-Gift-Mug-001

I used my Cricut and the Shark Army font to create this card based on this pin. I used one of my favorite handy sites TimeAndDate.com to figure out the times, Andrew thought it was totally fitting since I am “statistic fact girl”. (Check out last year’s drum inspired card in my 3rd Anniversary post.)

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Saturday morning after coffee we headed over to his folks to hang out and make the calls to family and such.

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That night after a week of joking about how Andrew had got us reservations at Shoney’s we enjoyed a wonderful meal at a ‘new to us’ restaurant, The Palm. It was delicious! I even got to wear my dress!

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Last night Andrew and I celebrated the 3rd anniversary of our first date, which was at Bongo Java across from Belmont’s campus.
I made him a custom card of course, but for it to make sense I’ve gotta explain it a bit.

Andrew’s one 80’s lovin guy, remember that 80’s party I threw him last year?
Well one of his FAVORITE movies is Manhunter. In fact when I met him there was a Manhunter poster in his bathroom! Well his favorite song from Manhunter is Red 7’s Heartbeat, and it one of those tunes he’s constantly humming.
Listen you'll recognize it. Ok yeah it's not really what you think of as an anniversary song, no worries we listened to romantic Diana Krall in the car on the way to the restaurant.

Now on to the second half of the back story. Andrew is a VERY talented drummer, I’ve attempted to become one too…
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so since that hasn’t worked out for me I’ve decided to become a drum tech pro instead, I can proudly say I can assemble and tear down most of his kit and tell you what the parts are.
Now combine those two things and you’ve got my inspiration for my super awesome anniversary card.

Front featuring his actual bass pedal (told ya I was a good tech)
listen-to-my-hear-beatInside (Featuring his favorite Dave Weckl sticks)
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And of course he totally loved it!
We dined at the Capital Grill at the Hermitage Hotel downtown where we shared a rib eye (something I totally wouldn’t have eaten 3 year ago, such a good influence this guy is..)


Glen Leven Beef Filet


Jack Daniels Semifredo

Jack Daniel’s Semifreddo for dessert. Swoon

We made the major mistake of taking our picture after our food fest, when we were full and sleepy. This was the best of the bad, sorry A.

It was a wonderful day!!