Happy Anniversary, Nataku!

Yesterday marked the very first anniversary for myself and my husband!! I am so happy and proud to call him my husband -- he is such a wonderful, caring, thoughtful and loving man, and I couldn't ask for anything more from him.  I found out that he didn't really have much or any of our wedding cake last year, so I called up a friend of mine that does custom cakes to make one for our anniversary.  I knew that she was talented, and I gave her an idea of what I wanted from the cake...but I am just blown away by her talent and the thought that she put into the cake.  The first picture is our wedding cake:

We had a cherry blossom theme, because my husband's maternal side is Japanese, and I thought that cherry blossoms are just beautiful! Just a way to honor his side of the family that couldn't make it to the wedding.
Here is how the anniversary cake turned out:

Thank you so much, Danielle!!! You did an awesome job!!!
I also got my hubby a little something extra....I know that he just adores sock monkeys, and what do I come across at Target? A baby sock monkey! Now the family is complete!!!

 Happy Anniversary, my Nataku. I love you!

Happy Birthday to me! =]

Well, Happy Belated Birthday to my lovely self =] My birthday was two days ago, but that's okay.  My wonderful husband surprised me at work by bringing flowers and balloons!! Okay so it wasn't much of a surprise considering I told him that's what I wanted for my birthday, bu needless to say, I have the greatest husband in the world. I haven't got much for presents (which is totally okay), but my mom said that she'd treat me to whatever when I'm down in CA in about 3 weeks!! I'm so excited to see her again!

On a side note, I finished my "surprise" present for my bestie.  It was going to be a birthday present, because I thought it would take FOREVER to finish and obviously as the queen of procrastination here, I gave myself ample time to finish it. But voila! I finished it tonight (albiet I should be in bed right now as I have to get up in 6 hours for work...) and I am kind of impressed with myself! I'm more impressed with my ability to *paint* Japanese characters pretty darn well.  My husband was impressed with me, that's saying something =]  I made it with pieces of felt that I cut out myself, and then sewed on to the little bag.  I filled in any little characteristic things with black, white, and yellow fabric paint.  If you know anything about the anime Naruto, then you know that this is the "chibi" version of Naruto's Jinchuriki: the 9 tailed fox.

Here's a picture of it:

And here's a picture of it next to the original art by my close-to-no-ink printer by some unknown fabulous artist online:

What do you think?  So it's going to be Roxie's graduation present, and I'll get her something from CA for her birthday.  Love you girl, I hope you like it!!!

Update!

It's been a while since I updated my poor blog.  I feel like I've been neglecting it!
Well, an update as far as crafts go -- I finally finished those darn crib bumpers.  I decided I didn't want to tackle quilting the blanket (even if it is machine quilting) that goes along with it quite yet, so I decided to do a mini project! I made a "Moo Moo Measure" for my bestie's mom, fondly known as "The Mame" :] Here's how it turned out:

I also decided that I'm going to make a present for my bestie for her birthday.  Hopefully I won't put it off too much and get it done by her birthday in June.  Also, a big fat CONGRATULATIONS goes out to her for getting her B.A.!! I was so excited to see her graduate! Congratulations, Roxie!!!

The weather here has been so cold and gloomy lately that when we get some sunshine and the temperature is over 40 degrees it definitely is cause to celebrate!  I'm hoping that it won't rain on my birthday next week, even though it's supposed to. Went shopping to the Mall of America on Saturday, with intentions of buying a sundress, but I couldn't find anything that I really liked for cheap.  Thus, I decided that if I can't find something, then darnit, I'll just make it myself, so I picked up some patterns and CUTE fabric from JoAnn Fabrics. That's next on my to-do list (after the bestie's birthday present :).

Not much else going on here right now, just working and spending time with the hubby every chance I can get!!

I am a Disney FIEND.

That's right.  Guess what my WONDERFUL husband decided to get me for an early birthday present??  Well, see for yourself.

You'll see that only ONE movie is non-Disney.  And that would be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1, but that's because it's pretty epic.  Ah, I have the best husband in the world.  The best part?  All of these were either on sale or bought at a half-price store.  Score one for the P household.  I'm so excited.

I also found some great Adidas black tennies at Costco that I've been looking for.  I had some "in style" tennies that always gave me blisters, and so I thought, "Forget being in style, I want to be comfortable when I'm walking around."  Ah. I love my life.

Oh, and have I mentioned that I'm *still* not done with those crib bumpers?  Good news is that I finished sewing shut 3, I just have the last 3 to do.  Tonight. Hopefully.
** Also -- update on the whole dream/Mom situation: I'm going down to CA in June to see her for a week!! I had enough money left over with my paycheck to get a plane ticket! I love you Mom, can't wait to see you!

Bad dreams

Woke up this morning from a very vivid dream where my mom was about to die.  Needless to say I was bawling and my husband couldn't figure out why I woke up crying.
My dad died when I was 15, very suddenly, from a car accident.  I'm so blessed that my mom is still here and alive, it's a miracle really.  I'm still a little shaken up from it.
Moving on...working today, then I'm going to finish those darn crib bumpers while watching TV (background noise, of course) tonight.  Then I'll be able to a) finish the quilt that goes along with it, and b) start on other little projects! Yay!!

Awww, look at the little babies...

First off, CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Leah for landing a fantastic dreamy job!!! I'm so proud of you, girl!!
I'm so excited for my friends Stephanie and Rebekah who both within the last 24 hours welcomed their newest member of the family to their lives.  Congratulations to you both and your husbands (even though I'm not sure anyone actually READS this blog, haha).  I've only seen pictures of Rebekah's daughter, but it's been interesting and exciting following their updates within the last 9 months.
Thinking about babies has made me think a lot about family planning for Brian and I.  We both want kids, but it seems like my maternal/biological clock is ringing like there isn't a snooze button.  But considering that we're only 10 months into our marriage, and we've got a lot of different things on our plates, I know that now isn't the right time.  Brian wants to wait a while too.
But who's to say it's up to US when it's time?  God has so many wonderful and blessed plans for every single person on this earth.  I know it's not really up to us -- everything is in God's timing.
I've been making these crib bumpers (which, yes, I have STILL yet to finish...grumble grumble...) and I am so happy with the progress that I've made that I can't wait to see what the finished set is going to look like.  Originally I was planning to sell the set of bumpers + fitted sheet + quilt on a website like Etsy, but I'm super attached to them now.  We'll see what happens.
Well, altogether, babies are on my mind now.  Maybe I'll go watch more Scrubs to get my brain cells to stop firing for the night. :)

Holy shopping, batman!

The hubby and I headed down to Rochester this weekend for a CE conference. We stayed in a pretty nice hotel, and it was downtown so everything was connected to everything via skyways.  The CE conference was great, we ate out way too much, but all in all, it was a good getaway weekend.  We also spent too much money.  Shopping on awesome things.  I took pictures to elaborate.

First off, as a Dental Hygienist, I get easily excited by anything toothbrush or teeth related.  Hence the reason we bought the two little guys in this picture.  The red guy is a toothpaste cap that when you take his hand off his mouth...toothpaste squirts out of his mouth.  Super fun.  The little blue guy holds FLOSS and you cut it off with what looks like a little slingshot in his hand.  The green guy that looks like he's hiding in the cup is a cotton swab holder thingy.  It's pretty cool!

 

From the same designer comes a toilet brush, but we found some nice mixing bowls/colanders/measuring cups that were equally as festive but from a different designer.  And they ALL fit together.  How cool and handy is that??

This second thing that I bought is a gift for a lovely friend of mine who professed to me once that she's a kitchen-gadget-a-holic.  Which is why when I saw this (can you guess what it is?), I thought, "I bet she doesn't have this!!"

I'm also a self professed shoe-a-holic.  I love shoes.  I just know how to spend my money wisely to not have ten million pairs (although my husband, who has an equal-to-or-greater-than-me shoe problem, would disagree).  So when I saw these shoes...and found out they are HAND MADE in the USA, I HAD to have them.  I thought I'd model one of the pairs on my nice pasty white legs too hehe.

And today, at the end of our vacation, we treated ourselves to some gelato.  Mine was lemon (my FAVORITE) and his was creme brulee flavored. Can you believe that this was the small size?Yum!!