swing and a miss

#nofilter

Happy Friday!

You ever have one of those weeks that just seriously kick you in the tail? This is week 2 in a row where I feel like it's life = 1, Brittany = 0. 

It's been a whirlwind of stuff happening; one thing after another (feel free to replace the word "Stuff" with whatever word you please. It's been rough).
:: not hearing back about my car from the mechanic after a whole week. boohooo. I've been taking Tim's car to work every day, and he does the 1/2 hour commute (at 5:30am, mind you), on his scooter.
:: Annoying and flaky craigslist buyers. How hard is it to just show up when you say you will? There goes my entire evening, thanks.
:: working on Monday, but having to take Wednesday off because of a really fun! stomach bug. Yay.
:: Can I just generally put "work" on here? I've had such a tough time discovering what the expectations are, let alone meeting them.

However, rather than focus on the negative and making my week seem like a total downer, I'd like to point out that HOLY CRUD the week had some pretty great things in it, too.
:: birthday hot-tubbin' with friends we don't see enough of.
:: LOST finale-ing. Seven seasons in four months: #slightlyashamed (but also a little proud..)
:: Midnight houseguests :D (Sorry about our more-than-a-little-obnoxous bird this morning!)
:: Wonderful parents who came and spent last weekend (and parts of this week) with us. LOVE THEM!
:: Fabulous anniversary-ing with Hubby all. week. long. Also cake-smashing. Had to relive that part of our wedding ;)

On top of that, the weekend is lookin' up. WAY up. Can't wait for double-dates, engagement parties, and just all-out merry-making. I might even do my nails! 

Got any fun plans this weekend?

paper

So, our anniversary.

A while ago, we decided to make our first anniversary pretty low-key. Since we were taking an epic trip so close to our actual anniversary that would eat up quite a bit of green, it felt a little silly to go crazy all-out for our anniversary, too.

But did frugality keep us from having some fun with our anniversary gifts? Heck no. Quite the opposite, actually.

Traditionally, the first anniversary is the paper anniversary. So, my gift to Tim was a sheaf of envelopes.

Kidding.

Aside from my card (which was inspired by this darling post on The Daybook), inside each of the envelopes was either a Living Social/Groupon Voucher or gift certificate, along with the booking information for the activity included on the voucher. The activities were all over the map: a couples massage, whale watching (which due to my stupid migraine we had to postpone), tickets to a comedy club (Tim took me to a comedy club for our first "anniversary" when we were dating; I thought it was only fair to return the favor), gourmet food delivery.

Along with the vouchers, he also got something that at first glance looked like grainy photos for his office.

Upon closer inspection, though, you could see that the "grainy-ness" was because each photo was made up of thousands of other tiny wedding photos.

If you look closely, you can see exactly what's happening in each of the photos. I used a program called AndreaMosaic to do them, and they were TOTALLY a hit. He loved them.

I stretched the activities over the course of the week, so we'll be celebrating all week long. all for much less than half what we would have been paying. Way to go Groupon, making our low-key paper anniversary a whole lot swankier.

ps. I just said the word "anniversary" a total of 10 times. I think that's a record.

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dear baby brother;

My mind is blown that these pictures were taken so long ago.

 

Your senior prom, five years ago  // My wedding day, a year ago

What trips me out even more, though was that this picture was taken twenty-three years ago.

As if you didn't know, today, you turn 23. And I've been on a jaunt down memory lane. As I usually do on your birthday.

I love you, buddy. Happy Birthday.

365

A year ago today, we did this:

Unbelieveably, today is our first anniversary. Mind = Blown.

 It's been quite the journey.

Today, we'll exchange our paper-themed gifts and recover from a sugar high from our cake yesterday (We picked up a replacement cake from Trader Joes, because ours was too nasty to save. Sadly, the TJs cake tasted like what we imagined a year-old cake would taste like!). It's the thought that counts.

This next 365's going to ROCK.

{All wedding photos are used courtesy of Jessica Fairchild Photography}

goodbye eighth, hello ninth

via

Okay, first of all, shout-out to Tim, who hijacked my blog  yesterday without me even KNOWING until a whole day later. Sneaky sneaky. And sweet. Love him.

Second, how is it already September? I swear this year has flown by.

Looking forward to our anniversary, a few birthdays, and the start of Fall, all of which are causes for celebration. Maybe by the end of the month we'll be able to shut our windows at night without melting. It's unlikely any of my cute scarves will get to show their faces until well into October.

What are you excited about this month?