Sixth Wedding Anniversary: Iron!

First, a quick shout out to my amazing and wonderful husband.  This marks our 6th wedding anniversary!  Time really flies.  I am so eternally grateful to have been blessed with such a great life partner, to have shared these past 6 years (and beyond), and look forward to all of the future years to come.

As you may know from previous years, I like to do DIY anniversary gifts.  However, I am not a blacksmith, so creating an iron gift was a bit out of my wheelhouse.  Nor could I find any gifts made from iron that seemed either a) useful, or b) like something The Hubs would appreciate.  So, I had to dig a little deeper.

Iron City beer sign:  Pittsburgh Brewing is one of the U.S.'s older brewing companies, located in Pennsylvania for over 150 years.  We've not been there, or tried any of their beers, but the name works, and it'll make a nice addition to the Craft Brew Room.

Iron Man shirt:  The Hubs likes Marvel, so it works.  Plus this shirt is super soft.

Iron-Themed beers: I hit up our local Brown Derby International Wine Center (aka "the big Brown Derby") and asked a customer service rep in the beer department to help me find Beers either with "iron" in the name of the brewer or the beer.  The rep's eyes lit up--a challenge!!!  We scoured the aisles and found these two perfect options:
- Left Hand's Cast Iron Oatmeal Brown
- Robinson Brewery's Trooper "Red & Black" Porter, created in collaboration with...IRON MAIDEN.  It was a good pull on part of the rep. I would have totally missed this bottle if not for him.

Over the weekend, my in-laws volunteered to keep Lil' Man for us for a while so we could have a date night.  So we checked out a new tap room, then had dinner at White River Fish House, sampled a few moonshines, perused some of the shops at Branson Landing, then had dessert--24 Karrot Cake from Dino's (very yummy).  

After that, we played a twilight game of mini-golf (until twilight turned into "I can't see the course anymore"--so we got through 13 of the 18 holes), then picked up our kiddo and headed home. It was a great day.

If we look tired, it's because we are. Happy, but tired. Teething toddler with a cold = crappy sleep for parents.

To see previous year's gifts, check out:

Year One: The Paper Anniversary

Year Two: The Cotton Anniversary

Year Three: Leather / Glass

Year Four: Fruit & Flowers

Year Five: Wood

If you missed it, I did a "Wedding Week Countdown" after our first year of marriage. Here's the links if you're interested!

The Proposal

Finding The Dress

Engagement Photos

Planning & Prep

The Ceremony

The Reception

The Honeymoon!

Fourth Wedding Anniversary: Fruit 'n Flowers

The day: July 10, 2011.
The place: Rogersville, Missouri
The weather: 103F & Sunny, with a brief (and blessed) breeze right around 1pm (the same time as our ceremony).
The peeps:  Me and this awesome dude I've known since I was 16, and about 150 of our friends & family.
The Cake: AWESOME.  As always.

This Friday, the Hubs & I celebrated our Fourth wedding anniversary--four years of marital bliss!  I still love being married to my best friend, staring at his beautiful blue eyes every morning (but like, not in a creepy way or anything), and laughing with him as much as possible.  I love him in spite of his mischievous inner child that thinks it's funny to wait until all the lights are out in the house and then let out a pterodactyl scream at the end of the hallway...and hilarious to hide in closets & jump out at you...

Year Four has been a good one for us.  We visited the Smoky Mountains together, sold our side business, and managed to (finally) make a baby after about a year & a half of trying (HINT: a relaxing week in Mexico with unlimited access to mojitos apparently REALLY helps).

If you missed it, I did a Wedding Week a few years ago—here’s the links if you’re interested:

• The Proposal
• Finding the Dress
• Engagement Photos
• Planning & Prep
• The Ceremony
• The Reception
• The Honeymoon

For our first anniversary (Paper), I did this heart map collage; and for our second anniversary (Cotton), I made The Hubs a pillow with a collage of ticket stubs.

The third anniversary is Leather (or Glass for the “modern” interpretation), so he got a personalized leather luggage tag, a leather-bound men’s devotional book, and a fancy-schmancy tulip glass from Deschutes.


Fourth Anniversary is "Fruit or Flowers".  Sure, that's easy...if you're the guy.  (FYI--the "modern" option is "Appliances".  I tend to be of the opinion that an appliance is generally never a good romantic gift.)  So what do you get for the man in your life that's fruity, flowery, and yet still manly?

A)  A pie.  His favorite pie, in fact. (Coconut Cream, homemade--and let's not get into a debate over whether coconut is really a "fruit".  Most pies are fruit-filled, so that's the general idea--make yo' man a fruit-filled pie.  You know what he likes.  Aaaaand he'll probably share.)
B)  An iTunes gift card (Apple--get it?  Eh?  EHHH????)
C)  A kit to brew his own fruit beer, or a mixed pack of fruit beers (because the hops cover the whole "flowers" bit).  If your man's not a home brewer and you go for the latter, my personal recommendations are Leaky Roof's Bond Burner (Smoked Jalapeno & Pineapple--though TECHNICALLY this is a mead), Lazy Magnolia's Bramblin' Man (blackberry), Abita's StrawGator (strawberry), Shiner's Ruby Redbird (grapefruit), Piney River's Hot Date Ale (dates), and O'Fallon's Wheach (peach).  If you want to add another flower layer to the theme, hibiscus beers are trending right now (try Boulevard's Hibiscus Gose, Stone's Stochasticity Series Hibiscuscity...Or, if you live in the NOLA area & can get it, Courtyard Brewery's Mike's Hibiscus Ale) NOTE: I picked these because they're not overwhelmingly sweet or fruity--very well balanced beers.  Most dudes I know are not into super-sweet fruit beers/ciders, so your man should hopefully appreciate these.  If he's more of a wine guy--grapes are fruit.  Buy a bottle of his fave.  If he prefers hard liquor, find a distillery near you that makes infused liquors (our personal favorite--Copper Run sells infusion kits on their website; the apple pie moonshine is UH.MAZE.ING).  
D) A bottle of sparkling grape juice for you to share (since the baby belly has you playing permanent DD for a few more months)

For our anniversary celebration, we had a delicious dinner at Touch restaurant in Springfield, MO (though I was tempted to go with Aviary Creperie so we could gorge ourselves on fruit-filled crepes), followed by a showing of "Hairspray" at Tent Theater.

Dessert at Touch--chocolate flourless cake w/ raspberry coulee & mint chip frozen custard.  YUM.

Happy anniversary, love--and here's to four........ty plus more awesome years!

Third Wedding Anniversary: The Leather/Glass Anniversary!

This Thursday marked our 3rd blissful year of marriage. Three years ago, it was crazy hot.  We were crazy nervous.  We were crazy for thinking we could have a midday Sunday wedding and people would dance (aside from the kids—the kids will always dance).  But that’s okay, because we’re a crazy bunch! 

(…that will never win a synchronized jumping contest.)

Sadly, I spent most of my anniversary day in another town for a training class, but we’re going away for the weekend so that makes up for it.
Things I Learned in Our Third Year of Marriage:

• If you decide to buy a “side business” with your husband while you both still keep your full time jobs…you might be crazy.  But you might also learn a lot, and get to eat a ton of ice cream.
• If you decide to take a bus tour of New England, you might end up being the only Americans on the trip.  But this is okay, because a) it forces you to spend a lot of quality time with each other, b) you may learn how to distinguish various Asian communities from each other, and c) your Chinese tour guide will probably take you to the BEST Oriental buffet on the planet.
• The Daniel Fast is tough—but it’s easier when you’re doing it together.
• And finally—the secret to a happy marriage?  Is STILL separate bathrooms. :)

This one’s mine. Obvs.

If you missed it, I did a Wedding Week a couple years ago—here’s the links if you’re interested:

• The Proposal
• Finding the Dress
• Engagement Photos
• Planning & Prep
• The Ceremony
• The Reception
• The Honeymoon

For our first anniversary (Paper), I did this heart map collage; and for our second anniversary (Cotton), I made The Hubs a pillow with a collage of ticket stubs.

The third anniversary is Leather (or Glass for the “modern” interpretation).  Unfortunately, I have no leatherworking skills, so making something myself kinda went out the window (well, to be honest, I thought about making him some “fruit leather”, but didn’t have an opportunity to sneak it in before our anniversary.)
However, I still wanted to stick with our travel theme.  So, I found a gal on Etsy who made personalized leather luggage tags, so I made him one in a bright color (figuring that would help him pick out his bag when we fly, since our luggage is black & gray):

I also picked up a leather-bound men’s devotional book, and got us a half-price deal to do some ziplining (since you have to wear LEATHER gloves when you go).  Since there’s also that “glass” tradition, I also picked up him a fancy-schmancy tulip glass from Deschutes (a brewery we’ve recently discovered)—which would have been a perfect place to stow the fruit leather…bygones.  He’ll stow beer in it.  Temporarily, anyway. :) 

For our anniversary, we touristed it up down in Branson:  got a room at the Chateau on the Lake, went to a dinner show (Marco Polo), and of course, checked out all the winery & brewery tours we hadn’t yet been on (Copper Run Distillery, Stone Hill, Bear Creek…also the microbrews at Charlie’s Steak-Ribs & Ale, but we weren’t impressed).

 Happy anniversary, Love!  Here’s to many, many, many more!

2011

2014

Homemade Lotion Bars & Peppermint Body Scrub

This year, my family decided to have a white elephant gift exchange for the adults.  I wanted to put together a “pampering” gift set to bring, but my sis- & mom-in-law have both gone uber-organic & all natural with their food, beauty products & household cleaning.  So rather than spend hours on the EWG Database trying to find products that get a grade they would approve of (and pay who knows how much, which would limit the number of things I could include in the gift), I decided to just go homemade.

There’s some comfy PJ pants on the bottom, and some of my homemade cocoa mix in the mug… homemade peanut clusters & peppermint bark in the star tin (not really “organic”, but what’s pampering with out a “little” indulgence?)  And the other items:

Peppermint body scrub in the small jar, and solid lotion bars in the tall jar.

Peppermint Sugar Scrub:

2 cups granulated white sugar

1/4 cup olive oil, almond oil, or melted coconut oil (your choice)

Peppermint extract or essential oil (3-4 drops)

Directions:

Mix the three ingredients until well combined & place into a clean, sterile jar.

 

Lotion Bars: (makes four 2’'”x2” bars)

2  Tbsp organic beeswax (I got this from our local natural market in the bulk section)

2 Tbsp Coconut oil (I used Lou-Ana because I already had it in my pantry, but you can get organic for a couple bucks more)

2 Tbsp sweet almond oil (also found this at our natural food store)

10 drops Vitamin E (Wal-Mart)

12 drops essential oil (I used vanilla, but pick whatever scent you like.  Here’s a good guide for blending scents if you’d like to use multiple oils) – found this at Hobby Lobby in the soap/candle making section, and used a coupon to get it half-price

Decorative ingredients (I used dried lavender sprinkled on top, but I’ve seen some with whole coffee beans that look really pretty) – Optional

Glass jar (something you can dedicate to this project—it will be really tough to clean it out afterward. I used a well-cleaned pickle jar).

Mold (I used a metal mini tart pan; you could also pour them into mini-muffin wrappers)

Directions:

Add 2-3 inches of water to a small pot that the jar will fit into, and heat water over medium heat.  Add all of the ingredients except the essential oil, and stir periodically.  The beeswax will take the longest to melt.  Don’t let the water boil, you don’t want to scald the mixture.

When the beeswax is fully melted, add the essential oils.  You can add more than 12 drops if you want a stronger scent.  Test it by dropping a drop of the mixture onto a plate, let it set, and then run your fingers across it & rub into your skin.  When you like the scent & feel of it, you can transfer into the molds.  Silicone molds can be found at craft stores; I used a metal tart pan that has removable bottom plates, so I could easily pop them out.

(This was the first batch I made—I originally tried making five bars but they didn’t fill the pan well, so I scraped the mix out of two, re-melted, and then poured it into another shell.)

Once the bar starts to harden, you can add the decorative ingredients:

Place in the fridge for about 15 minutes to fully set up.  Then you can pop them out of the pan!

I shredded some brown packing paper in our paper shredder to help decorate the jar, and then placed the bars inside (with small squares of wax paper between to keep them from sticking together.)

Of course…I had to hold back a couple bars for myself!  I love the smell and the feel of the lotion. It dissolves well & just melts into your skin.  I definitely want to try a few other scents in the future—maybe even infusing my own essential oils!

And the best part?  It was SUPER cheap to make!  Organic hard lotion bars can go for $4-5 per bar, for less than 1 oz of product!  This cost me a whopping 35 CENTS per bar.

Homemade Fire Starters!

 

I have to thank my friends & coworkers Em & Babsy for this idea, in that they inspired this project by both having wood-burning stoves in their homes.  I was contemplating gifts to give to my coworkers earlier this year, while sipping coffee in the break room with these two lovely ladies as they chatted about their stoves, and it hit me.

Well…it was also spawned by the fact that a few days prior to this conversation, I’d been out with friends trying to build a fire so we could roast hot dogs & marshmallows, and our fire would never take off. Someone mentioned how great it would be if we had some fire starters…

You know what’s super easy to make? Fire Starters.  You know what takes almost NO financial commitment to make because they’re made from cr@p you already have at your house?  Yup, fire starters.  And when you have a lot of coworkers to make gifts for, cheap is handy.

What You Need:

Cardboard Tubes:  TP Rolls, Paper Towel Rolls, Wrapping Paper Tubes… it all works.

Lint/Used Dryer Sheets

Shredded Paper (if you have it.  If you don’t, you can just use the lint.)

Wax Paper

Tape

 

Directions:

If you’re using larger tubes, go ahead & cut them down to about the same length as the TP Rolls.

Use the dryer sheets to make yourself a sort of “recycled crap burrito”:

Stuff inside of the tube.  (if you run out of dryer sheets, no biggee, just start stuffing it directly into the tubes)

Wrap in the wax paper, twist like a Toostie Roll, and tape the ends.  You can then bundle them up with some raffia or rustic cord & add a cute label!

Note: If you happen to have any old candles that you’ve been trying to use up, you can also pour some of that wax into the tubes as well.  It’ll give a nice scent to the fire for a while!

(“Warm Wishes for 2014” seemed appropriately cheesy.)

Merry Christmas Y’all!!!

An extra-special newborn Christmas: Money Bank!

Kids are so easy to shop for…once they can talk and tell you exactly what they want.  But gifts for brand-spankin’ new nieces and nephews?  Aside from things they need (diapers) and things they will quickly outgrow, it’s a harder shop.

My mom crochets baby blankets for the new family initiates.  However, I never learned anything beyond single & double chain…which is great for scarves or potholders, but otherwise somewhat limited.  They’re still too young for books (my typically “go-to” kids gift) and they probably could drown in all the stuffed animals & receiving blankets they’ve gotten.  So how about a gift that kids can’t outgrow?

MONEY.

I know, it sounds so superficial.  But I’m not talking about a ton of cash.  Rather, a collection of unusual & rare mint: like a $2 bill, gold dollar coin, buffalo nickel, wheat penny, state quarter from where they were born, a Kennedy half-dollar?  Heck, you can even give them their first Canadian coin, which they will no doubt later become familiar with when a vending machine rejects it three times in  a row.

What to put these simple treasures in?  How about an equally sweet & simple change bank?  Something for them to shake and rattle as they get older, just to listen to the musical clamor of coins.

My sis-in-law just had a new daughter, so that’s what we decided to go with for her.  I scoured the thrift shops, looking for something fun to fix up, and came across this ceramic bird bank that was just chirping with potential:

He didn’t have a stopper, but that’s easily fixed at the hardware store (about 75 cents), and for the $2 price tag, I just couldn’t resist.

 

What You Need:

Bank

Sandpaper

Paint

Clear coat

Money

 

Directions:

Sand down any rough areas, and the stopper opening if it’s not the exact size for the stopper you find at the store.  This one had someone else’s initials scratched into the base, so those had to go.

 

Give the bank a base coat of paint to cover its previous paint job (this one took two coats).  For paint, I went with an off-white, and then a pearl coat on top of that….these are just what I had on hand, so you can use whatever looks nice to you.

 

The nice thing about the neutral color as well is that it can go with any nursery theme, no matter what their color scheme is.

Once you’re happy with the coloring, take it outside and give the bank a good spray of clear coat.  This will add some extra shine and protect the paint job.  Then just feed the bird some money & wrap ‘er up!