Nine

Nine years?! Even though it feels like we've been together for ever, it is a little crazy to think that we have been a couple for nine years already. Where does the time go? In the past nine years, we've moved multiple times within three states. We've graduated from high school, college, and graduate/dental school. No wonder time has gone by so quickly, we've been busy! Since we've spent this past semester apart and haven't really had time to celebrate an anniversary with anything more than dinner for a while, we thought we'd take a day just for ourselves.

We were actually home for our anniversary this year, but since everyone was still in school, it gave us time to go downtown for a real date. (What are those?) We spent the morning at the Shedd Aquarium and then had lunch at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill. His food always looks delicious and I love his television shows. We never went there while we lived in Chicago, so Amit didn't really have a choice about this anniversary dinner.

Watching the Beluga check-ups and feeding.

See the little one off to the left?

That's the baby beluga!

Watching all that sea life made us hungry.

The guacamole was fantastic.

We ordered margaritas.

Mine was blood orange. Delicious!

Amit's dish was the mole trio.

I ordered the mahi-mahi in apricot mole.

The food was amazing!

The other highlight of our anniversary in Chicago? Spending our evening with these guys, right back where it all began. I wonder how we'll top this for our tenth?

Cousin Craft Day

Most of the crafts that I've done back home were done only with Mom, but Lauren has been begging for a craft day ever since I started posting my latest projects (which also happen to be my most fun). Since most of the girls were either still in school or had plans, we kept the project simple. I had done the floor shine ornaments before, so we brought all of our supplies to Tricia's and got crafting!

Some of our glittered ornaments.

Then we started to get creative.

I had seen painted ornaments, created by pouring paint into and draining it out of the ornament.

Major fail.

Instead, we started to mix random things with the floor shine. 

Paint + Floor shine = Success!

Clear Tacky Glue + Floor shine + Beads = Awesomeness!

We also mixed different colors of glitter.

The same girls who were bad at crafts were suddenly super creative!

Of course I can't forget the other reason we had craft day.

We had to meet Eli, the newest four-legged addition to the family.

I love him!

Our cousin craft day was a huge success! I'm so glad the girls were up for it! I had such a great time hanging out (as always) and I cannot wait to plan our next one. I'm thinking something HUGE for our summer project. Time to start brainstorming!

Christmas in NY

We're back home for the holidays! Since we're going to be super busy this week seeing family and friends, I figured I should post my current Christmas decorations for you to enjoy! Here's what we've been enjoying in NY:

The tree is up and decorated!

(Except for a tree skirt, which I still need to create.)

My nativity scene is safely displayed and nearly complete!

(Max likes to eat baby Jesus and the shepherds, 

so I'm not risking that with Emma.)

All of my snowmen and Christmas decorations are on display.

Emma was very excited for our newest snowman.

Our favorite new decorations are up in our entryway.

(Emma is clearly not impressed.)

Amit put our little tree in the hallway.

I love our sparkly teeth ornaments!

This makes me laugh...
Amit's mini-me has his own mini tree!

And the official pictures of my latest creations.

I LOVE how the pine cones look in my Crate and Barrel bowl!

My cookie cutter wreath looks great!

I'm just praying it doesn't fall apart (again).

So those are the highlights of this year's Christmas decor. I love having enough space to display all of my creations! Maybe we'll have enough time during this visit to make a few more?

My Last Crafts in Massachusetts

It's so weird to look at that title and think that at the end of the week, I will be on the road, heading back to Rochester for the last time. While I've missed Amit, I'm going to miss my school and my friends here so much! (Not going to miss the ridiculously long lesson plans, though.) So, in honor of my last week in Massachusetts, here are my absolute favorite crafts from this semester, just in time for the holidays!

So I seriously don't know how I would come up with craft inspiration, if it wasn't for Pinterest. I found some great fall projects, which actually turned out great. It's been a while since I've  made any big Christmas decor items, so I thought I'd finish my MA crafting career with a bang!

Melissa has a mantle that she decorates every year, so she wanted to make some fun, glittered canvas art for it. I don't have a mantle (yet), but I loved the inspiration project she found - Glitter Reindeer. It just seemed so fun and I knew I could fit it in somewhere.

Our Stencils -

Ready for glue and glitter!

Drying

So while browsing Pinterest for other ideas, I found a few different pieces of canvas art that I really liked. This Confetti Art is based on Kate Spade's dishes, but I loved the idea of gold circles all over my sign. I also loved this light-up sign, but only for the phrase "Merry and Bright" and the idea that I could make it look like snow was falling. So I blended the two ideas and came up with this one:

All lined up and ready for glue!

My two glitter masterpieces waiting to be hung!

(Ignore the mess of glitter - that's what happens when they travel six hours protected by plastic.)

Yesterday was my last craft day with Melissa. I'm going to miss our craft days so much! It just looks like I'll need to come back for some more! We had two big projects to do. First, I found a new wreath idea to try and then we found an awesome way to use up all of the extra pine cones in her backyard!

We decided to try our hand at a cookie cutter wreath.

I think I changed my arrangement a million times, just to get it right.

The gingham bow just makes the wreath!

Once our wreaths were done, 
it was time for some pine cones!
We covered them in crystal filler and glitter.

We made  a lot of pine cones...

Sparkly pine cones!

Waiting to be safely packed to go to NY.
(I can't wait to see them on display!)
They look like they're covered in snow and ice.

I love how my Christmas crafts turned out! Our craft days have kept me sane this semester. I'm now four days away from being in NY, for good! Just in time, too. I am dying to put these pieces up around the house!