10 Reasons....

Why My Wife Rules.

1.

'nuff said.

2. Lists. They even keep me in line...some of the time.

3. Her wardrobe is organized by color.

4. She rides a red scooter when it's nice outside.

5. She loves gerber daisies the best (yay for cheap flowers).

6. After a long day of work bringing home the bacon, she still enjoys cooking dinner. (Don't worry friends, I do the dishes!)

7. Laundry Fairy.

8. Sultry Alto Voice.

9. She lets me drive her to work in the jeep, even though there "isn't enough room for my stuff!"

10. And finally,

This is sugar. My wife's her mama. That makes her my "Sugar Mama." Oh ya.

Wedding Reception Photo Booth - BRILLIANT!

At the risk of sounding incredibly Bridezilla-esque, I had one really awesome wedding planning idea. The best part is that it actually turned out as well (or better?!) than I'd imagined.

Behold the Photo Booth:
Okay, so it wasn't my own original idea...I saw it on the wedding blogs first...but I tweeked it my own way so I'm claiming it. The PB was a cheap way to liven up the reception and ensure fun candids of something other than cake-cutting.

In truth, it wasn't a booth. It was a wall. We found a big piece of red fabric at a discount warehouse in Minneapolis and taped it to the wall. We set up our own tripod and digital camera (since the last thing on my mind that day was snapping pictures) and took a few test shots to ensure the lighting was okay.

Behold the test shot:
I raided my costume bin and that of an equally well-provisioned friend, and then added about $14 of silly stuff from the party store.
I grabbed a couple cheap frames from Goodwill and spray-painted them black (ala Mrs. Lovely).
And tossed in a couple cheap dry-erase boards (lots of people were using chalkboards for this on the fancy wedding blogs).
But the best part comes to us from Her Royal Craftiness, Martha. Her Moustache-on-a-Stick idea (with a few modifications) won the day!

(This *may* have been their family holiday card)

We made the moustaches out of thin stiff felt (found at Michael's) and hot-glued them to small dowels (also found at Michaels).

Good times had by all! And these are going straight into the guestbook =)


Saved for last, my favorite PB shot:
If you've ever met my crazy step-dad this makes all kinds of sense. Sometimes I look at it just for a good laugh.

YON Progress Update: #12 Craft

I made a little progress on the Year of Nothing list! Today I can report finishing two craft projects...both of which have been sitting patiently for quite some time.

First, a mini-book from my bridal shower way back in April. The girls started this little book for me as a shower gift, and I finally finished it up!

I added my copy of the invitation (since it was a work of art ala Erin).
To keep it simple, I printed photos and adhered them back-to-back to make their own pages.

We had shower games that were actually fun (who knew?!) and I saved them in a vellum envelope. It's pretty funny to read back over them, even now.

I saved a tag leftover from the favors. Needless to say, the M&M's didn't last...

When the girls started the book, they printed a bunch of these little fill-in-the-blank prompts. Each shower guest filled one out, documenting how long we've known each other, where we first met, their favorite memory of our friendship, and some relationship advice. I paired them up with photos of each gal.

And finally, I had one leftover thank-you note to include as well.
So...this project came to the finish line in just barely less than a year. Sheesh! The good thing about being behind on the project was the joy of reliving it over the last few days.

What took even longer (TWO years and 16 days to be exact) was finishing my Happy Book from the day we got engaged.


This one sat half-finished for over 18 months. Long enough that I even notice changes in my style from start to finish! Again, it was a fun trip through the special memories and I'm so HAPPY it's complete ;)

Year of Nothing?

At the close of 2010: Year of Awesome, we determined that the new year should be 2011: Year of Nothing. Now that we've tried YON on for size I can safely say that I'm not cut out to do nothing. So it's really morphing into Year of Want To (as opposed to Have T0). Would anyone be surprised if I told you I made a list of all the Want To's?

In no particular order, I give you things I want to do (and a few things that just really need to get done):

1. Picnic. We received three different picnic kits as wedding gifts and they're all different. Clearly it's a sign that we should be dining al fresco. A lot!
2. Family Camping Trip. Nearly a year ago we promised my aunt and uncle that we'd help them break in their camper and boat. Sounds like tough duty, huh?
   
3. 20th Anniversary Celebration. 2011 marks the 20th year that Brenda Lee and I have been BFFs. We told ourselves we'd celebrate on our 10th anniversary, and then we didn't. Our 15th came and went before we knew it, so now we need to go big for our 20th!
4. Close probate on Dad's estate. It's not fun, but I really want it finished.
5. Organize & consolidate our finances. Between the two of us, we had a ridiculous snarl of accounts, cards, banks, investments, etc. It's time to bring order to the chaos.
   
6. Remember how to read. Though I haven't regressed as far as illiteracy, my post-graduate school moratorium on reading has gone on too long. I downloaded the BBC Book List and will be reading my way through it. I'm not reading everything, though. The Hobbit is just creepy, and I'm the one person I know who doesn't like the Chronicles of Narnia. This is not a forced march so I'm skipping the weird stuff. My progress on the list will be a post for another time.
7. Spend time with my girls. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: friends don't get better than my girls. I don't want to turn in to one of those married ladies who doesn't spend time with the gals.
   
8. Get Dad out of the closet. We need to spread Dad's ashes this summer. I'm sure the office closet was not his first pick of final resting places. Everybody will be happier when we "out" him.
   
9. Golf. At least once with the Davidson fam.
10. Learn about home-buying. I have a LONG way to go in that particular realm. If I don't start educating myself now, our first home will be a retirement home!
11. Paint my nails a dark color and leave it for a week. I already confessed my inability to get past pale pink on my digits so this will be an interesting experiment. Just for funs.
    
12. Craft. Thanks to Year of Awesome, I'm more than a year behind on scrapbook and photo projects. Must make & do!
    
13. Welcome Jimbo to adulthood. The Dish Fairy hits the big 3-0 this year, and continues to insist that birthdays are no big deal. I just can't tolerate that kind of attitude and will be mandating birthday hoopla.
14. Play tennis. OSU's new courts are nearly finished and I'm about to forget which hand swings the racket.
    
15. Spend less time at the Vet. We're seven months into Sugar's epic food allergy investigation, and have had a few other mishaps along the way. I think we're finally making progress, and am hoping it won't be long before our disposable income goes to something besides hypoallergenic kibble and steroid injections.
    
16. Take dance class. While Jim was away at school we often talked about what we'd do when we lived in the same zip code and this one came up over and over.
17. Do something with the wedding photos. They are beautiful and precious and intimidating. I don't even know where to start with the framing and albuming and scrapbooking but I don't want them to gather dust in the closet with the golf clubs.
18. Figure out how to cook steak. As a recovering vegetarian, I'm really good with chicken and flummoxed by beef, pork, and a fair amount of fish.
19. Go to the coast. Even if it's just for a day of kite-flying. 
20. Go to the Farmer’s Market.  An absolute necessity, right?  The Farmer’s Market is one of the things I love best about Corvallis – they really do it right.  We might live here for the rest of the year or the rest of our lives, but I’d hate to miss out on the market either way.   And then there’s the deliciousness to consider…nom nom! 
21. Welcome Baby Benaim.  In keeping with the current trend among the ladies in my life, my darling Schmerin has a bun in the oven.  And what a cute oven it is!  She’s one of those gals who carries her pregnancy like she’s smuggling a basketball under her t-shirt.  
22. Welcome Baby Lovely. That trend I was referring to?  It’s no joke.  Nikki-6 is sporting her own baby bump, due within a week of Miss Erin.  I wonder if this will slow down her running, canoeing, biking, hiking, or DIY home improvements?  Probably not!  

This list has been formulating for awhile, so I already have some progress to report. I'm relying on ya'll to keep me accountable!

This message was typed by fingers bedecked in Quarter of a Cent-Cherry.