Six years of marital bling

Yesterday was my sixth wedding anniversary, and this is probably my favorite candid photo from our big day.

We had received the wedding Pez dispensers as a gag gift from a friend, but it so accurately captured our silliness that we used it as our cake topper (in this photo, my husband is pointing out that his ears closely match that of the Pez groom). 

In the six years we've been married, we've never really celebrated our anniversary because Wavey's birthday and Father's Day are both so close that we've always been wrapped up in doing other things for those ocassions.  This year, we decided to go to brunch - just us! - and then I got to pick out this little number:

Not bad for holding out six years before getting an anniversary gift!  Though, I should mention that the hold-out was entirely self-imposed.  I'd been the one who ruled "no gifts" all these years because we had babies on the way, renovations to make, tuition bills, or just life's more-practical-than-jewelry expenses. 

But, this ring was worth breaking the rules.

One-stop shopping

Near my home is a local pharmacy which displays a sandwich board outside their driveway.  The hodge-podge list of featured sales items cracks me up each time I drive by because it's almost as if the list could possibly be someone's dream shopping excursion. 

Recently, the items have been featured in this order:

* 12 pack of soda

* Shaving razors

* "Real soft TP"

* New Hampshire t-shirts, 4/$10

Now, that's my kind of Friday night.

1985 parenting

My dad found this little worksheet I completed when I was eight years old about being a parent. I could have done a little better in the spelling department back then, but apparently this was "checked for content only" and I passed with a loopy Orphan Annie-esque smiley face.

Unfortunately, I am not living up to the answers I proposed in the first three questions, but I was pretty spot-on in terms of predicting bedtimes.  Plus, the most important rule in our family today is indeed to be polite.

The purple ditto machine qualities really took me back on this!  Remember the distinct smell of those print-outs?  Classic elementary school.

DIY tile transfer, or "how to make your oven stinky"

I came across a DIY tile transfer project via One Pretty Thing that I wanted to try, but I lacked the motivation for getting into the car to drive to the home improvement store to buy a single tile for 50-cents.  Instead, I had some slate kicking around that I figured would be neat to try a black-on-gray transfer.  The results: a rough start, but a better than expected final product. Here's how it all rolled out:

I followed the directions from the online tutorial which called for ModPodge on the front of the medium and then again on the laser print-out.  You then sandwich the two items together, bake it in the oven and then delicately rub off the paper with water until the image appears.

I wont lie: my oven stunk after baking the slate.  This is probably because I used outdoor-grade MP instead of regular, so lesson learned.  I also mistakenly trimmed the image when I should have let it cover the entire slate.

Disliking the initial results, I flipped to the reverse side of the slate, started over and covered the entire area with the paper. 

The results were a million times better and I liked the oxidized/grainy look.  This probably and shouldn't be the case if you used a light colored tile for your transfer, but I'm digging this vintage appeal.

Now onto de-stinking my oven.

Cupcake cupcake toppers

Since the customer who ordered these cupcake toppers hasn't hosted her party yet, I don't want to give away too many details other than saying: it's a cupcake themed cupcake topper. 

Makes perfect sense.  :)

Get your craft on: DIY candle votives

What I wanted to do this past weekend but didn't have the time:

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Those crafty ladies over at Lemon Tree Creations are so inspiring.  I'm a big fan of candles, but not one of plain votives.  So I was disappointed when the weekend escaped me and I couldn't try to make these fun little DIY candle votives of my own.  I mean, seriously: that patina blue one on the left is practically begging to live on my mantle.

Next time, for sure.

Giveaway winner!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this week's giveaway and left such wonderful comments - you're the best!  Here are the results:

Super congratulations to Lindsay at Paint Me A Picture for winning her very own personalized Good Gravy! note cards and address labels for A Good Gravy! Giveaway!

Have a great weekend and see you back here on Monday.

Big boy bed

We've transitioned Griffin to a toddler bed.  This is a mix of emotions for me because:

A) I'm sad he is no longer my baby a crib.
B) I'm doing cartwheels because he's my big boy in a big bed.

I waffle.

Griffin is in the same toddler bed his sister was in when I snapped this photo when he was only a few weeks old:

The absolute look of mischief in Wavey's eyes cracks me right up.


PS: Today is the last day to enter A Good Gravy! Giveaway!  Be sure to click on the button on the right to enter to win!  :)

Free printable: DIY bright polka dot gift tags

We've been letting Wavey dress herself these days.  Below is a photo of a recent ensemble that arrived down the stairs as Wavey exclaimed, "I love polka dots!"

(Don't mind the kitchen in the background which is in dire need of a makeover.  Now that the exterior painting is just about done, you can probably guess what's next on my list.)

In honor of Wavey's recent choice of socks-pulled-to-her-knees (apparently an inherited fashion disorder), you can now download your own Good Gravy! free polka dots printable DIY gift tags in great, bright summer colors. 

Simply click here to download, print, cut and enjoy!

A Good Gravy! Giveaway (Closed)

To start the summer off right, let's have A Good Gravy! Giveaway!  One winner will receive their choice of a 10-piece personalized set of Good Gravy! note cards and address labels.  Plus, shipping's on us, too (that includes our international friends). 

Whatta deal, whatta deal.

Enter by this Thursday at 9:00 p.m. (EST) by simply leaving a comment saying hello or anything else on your mind...that's it!  Winner will be chosen at random and announced on Friday.

Good luck!

Having my cake and eating it too.

Its been feeling like a cake kind of week, and Memorial Day will probably be a perfect excuse to make/eat one.  Which reminds me that I forgot to share how cool Griffin's birthday car cake came out (made by my talented mother-in-law):

We have a rule in our house that if you want a particular slice of a cake, you can have it.  Case-in-point: Wavey wanted a piece in the dead-center.  After all, it's just cake...why be forced to eat from the ends in?

Speaking of cakes and celebrations, check out this well-decorated husky cake from Jessica at Barefoot by the Sea.  Patience and talent never looked so delicious:

Have a great holiday weekend and be sure to check back next week...an exciting Good Gravy! Giveaway is coming soon!

Bird wedding invitation + perfect pair bridal shower invitation

Its been a busy few weeks.  B-U-S-Y.  Here are just a few samples of what I've been working on:

This vintage bird motif is for an October wedding to be held in Saratoga, New York.  The bride chose a chocolate, meadow and navy blue color combination for her invitation suite - great for fall! 

I also just wrapped up a wedding shower invitation project.  The hostess liked the baby shower version I designed back in March and asked to modify it for a wedding shower and include matching thank you notes for the bride. 

Invitations + Matching Thank You Notes = Perfect Pair. :)


Personal information has been modified for privacy.

In 1957, everyone had poor posture

I'm helping a friend put together a slideshow for his dad's surprise birthday party, so among old family photos, I'm also scanning in his high school yearbook photo from 1957. The book contains quite a few gems from back in the day that are worth sharing.

In the photo above and below, why on Earth did the photographer make them all lean in like that?!

Among the senior class, each student had one-word career aspirations, such as "sailor" or "secretary" or "dentist."  There were also plenty of these careers:

And finally, while I took some weird electives in high school (hello, welding!), selling logs wasn't on the docket:

And I don't know what it was about the 1950s, but all the teenagers looked to be about 35 years old to me.

Weed farmers

We're so close to being done with the house painting.  The trim is just about finished and there's a little left down around the back, but hopefully it'll all be done by the end of this week. 

Which then leads me to my next issue: the severe neglect to the front yard.

We've been putting off any work on the front yard because we knew the painters would trample through it, so it was pointless to try.  But now that the exterior is shaping up, we need to shape up the garden!

You can probably guess what we'll be doing this upcoming weekend.

We've all got one or two of our own

I've found a new favorite crack-me-right-up website featuring Awkward Family Photos.  Along with the photo above, here are a few of my favorites:

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Perfect for a Friday.  Enjoy!