it's a celebration: 2 years!

we celebrated our 2nd anniversary w/ a nice quiet dinner at home last night. wade picked up dinner at the tin angel around the corner from our house and i created ambiance!! ;)

fine china & crystal, candles, the pretty bouquet wade had delivered earlier in the day & ray lamontagne on vinyl in the middle of our blooming container garden. our own private 5 star restaurant. i even dressed up our terrace lighting w/ yellow and white draped streamers. (note to self: next time check the wind speed! they were pretty - but a bit of a fire hazard once the wind started blowing.)


i have a feeling we'll be spending many more evenings out on the porch this fall!

celebrating 2 years ...

wade and i celebrate our second anniversary today!

i've always wanted to do "performance reviews" on (or around) our anniversary - so romantic of me! this morning we talked a lot about what we've done with the past 2 years and what we look forward to and want out of the years to come. we talked about the things that we were proud of in our marriage along w/ areas where we each wish we were better. i am such a lucky girl. i really love this guy. and i am so thankful to be w/ someone that love me & encourages me the way that wade does daily! it only gets better! :)

i've shared several of these pictures before - but a little walk down wedding memory lane:

photography: adrian hitt // venue: historic rose mont in gallatin, tn // flowers: import flowers (designed by myself + mother & bridesmaids the night before!) // catering: val cheatham  // cake: patty cakes // pies: mother & mother-in-law / band: hit & run bluegrass // dress: pattie talbot @ seam // bridesmaids’ dresses: dessy // bride's makeup: heather cummings // bride's styling: samantha roe // photo booth: reed hummell photography

bracelets & soccer balls - the update!

wade and i are 2 weeks out from the marathon (yikes!).
then we're 2 weeks out from my little brothers wedding.
and then we'll be 2 weeks out from ethiopia.

exciting!

and making it even more exciting ... we've started to get soccer balls + bracelets in the mail for our trip. we've had an awesome response. i love putting this blog into action.

soccer balls from mama bear. and a little arm party for a very good cause!

(don't worry - i just put them on for the picture!)

i love getting snail mail - especially when it includes an envelope full of gifts for the kids of the awassa children's project! these amazing bracelets are from one of my sponsors this month - bonny bee designs on etsy:

the summer after bonnie's junior year in college, she volunteered in tanzania for 5 weeks. while she was there, she taught women at the community center how to make bracelets so that they could sell them. one of her new friends made her a bracelet and she put it on that day (over 4 years ago). worn and a bit smelly, she reluctantly took it off for the first time earlier this month. and then she read our post about our trip. she emailed and volunteered to make bracelets for the kiddos ... some w/ the very same cord she had bought in tanzania.

we're so very grateful for her sweet bracelets and the time it took her to make them! please check out her etsy store and support her w/ us! and of course - message me if you'd like to get involved too!!! there's still time!

speaking of bracelets - have you heard of band for good?

my friend faith brought me one of these bracelets over the weekend. and i love it! i love the bright colors - but even more i love that it is fashion w/ purpose.

each year, off the mat - a program bridging yoga and activism - sponsors an international service project called the global seva challenge. these off the mat global wristbands support local artisans in thailand and otm’s 2012 seva challenge focusing on rehabilitating women and children involved in sex trafficking in India and worldwide. check out the offthematintotheworld.org and globalwristbandproject.com for more information and to purchase your own!

my valentine: part 2

 part 2 - at last. yesterday was a ridiculously busy day. a ton of work deadlines. car was back at the shop. a late lunch w/ one of my high school girls. followed by more work deadlines and an after work run. but before valentine's day is too far behind us, one more post!

each of us bought the other person flowers: 

and planned a little something handmade:

for my love ... if you know me personally (or heck blog-ally) for very long, you'll know that i'm a budget stickler. and it's annoying at times ... ask wade. so i made him a set of word picture date coupons. if he could guess them - he got to keep them! ... and best - the dates are OFF THE BUDGET!

any guesses?

bell + cork - k + t =		p + buckets - b =
a date to the belcourt,		a day trip to leiper's fork, tn
the indie theatre in our neighborhood		lunch @ pucket's grocery store

 

from my love ... wade wrote me a poem! and he agreed to me sharing it w/ you all.

adventures with hippopotamuses


I.
   i stood by cedars on an old gravel road,
   at first light, in tennessee, when the livestock stuttered
   above the dewy grass.

   i fell in with them; they were all i knew,
   a bucolic world across a broken fence.

   beyond a horizon thistles grew.

   my eyes were opening.

II.
   share with me adventures.

   from your porch stoop in illinois,
   a place defining, sublime.

   two children tearing off wild,
   laughing mad,
   through a world of dancing stars and hippopotamuses.

   find us a place of wildness.
   
   let us wonder where we went. 


i love it! and once again - can't wait to surprise you all with some fun adventure news in a few weeks. until then ... hippopotamuses?!? ;)

{ hello munday } our first anniversary

a bit of a different {hello munday} this week. instead - a recap of our 1st anniversary celebration(s) yesterday! celebration(s) - bc both wade and i were determined to plan the day. as a compromise - we split the day into 2 parts: i planned breakfast & wade planned dinner.

part 1: a sunrise breakfast picnic.

i kicked wade out of the apartment on saturday so i could do all of my preparation ahead of time. {it is after all almost impossible to keep a surprise when living in a 750 sq foot apartment.} thanks to some {PINspiration}, i prepared a little sunrise picnic for radnor lake:

* an old quilt
* a couple of books of poetry
* orange juice & champagne for mimosas
* heart-shaped honeydew & cantaloupe
* a yogurt, granola, dry fruit & nut parfait
* mini mason jar strawberry pies
* two warm mugs of jasmine green tea
* our wedding china & silver
* and these yummy cinnamon & sugar french breakfast muffins (via velvet lava cafe):

on sunday morning, i woke wade a bit after 6. we packed our picnic into the car and drove to the park. unfortunately nature wasn't aware of my picnic plans - another rainy fall morning in nashville, tn. nor was the park - plastered w/ big NO PICNIC signs. and then there was the incredible vegan indian food from the wedding the night before. ho hmm. glum but not defeated, we drove back to the apartment instead and picnicked at our kitchen table.

part 2: dinner & a movie.

unfortunately we couldn't dedicate a full day to our anniversary. we went to church and then drove to gallatin for wade's grandpa's 78th birthday party. and i ended the day w/ my high school girls bible study.

while i was away, wade prepared his dinner surprise:

* tons of candles.
* lemon rosemary chix
* smashed sweet potatoes & asparagus
* red wine
* our wedding china, silver & crystal
* the wedding blanket we brought home w/ us from morocco
* our very own private viewing of casablanca
* and a million sweet memories of our honeymoon.

he was even at one point determined to turn our living room into a tent - much like the one we ate under while on our honeymoon. note to self: must purchase more sheets for spontaneous tent building.

a very delicious and successful anniversary - if i do say so myself. :) i hope you had a lovely weekend too.

{simple things} craft hope

have you heard of the site craft hope? one of my favorite bloggers, ashley ann at under the sycamore did a post this morning about participating in the most recent craft hope project which reminded me of this sweet cause. their mission is to help crafters (like us) share handmade gifts w/ those who need them around the world. currently they are on project 12.

a few heartbreaking statistics:

• more than 1 million orphans are waiting for a home in russia.
• in russia, 60% of girl orphans become prostitutes and 70% of male orphans become hardened criminals.

for this project, craft hope is partnering with orphan outreach. they will be working at st. petersburg’s crisis center 15 - a center for children ranging in age from infant to teen who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. craft hope is encouraging crafters to make bracelets to be given out during the trip!

i'm definitely on board - and since the rain won't go away ... i'll make good use of my couch time! and bonus: i'll share a little tutorial later this week w/ my bracelet of choice.

interested too? check out craft hope now! :)

{love} england's royal school of needlework

i haven't posted a single thing on the royal wedding this week. my blog is never really about current events anyway ... BUT i saw this a couple of weeks ago on CBS sunday morning - and i have been dying to share it ever since.

so - this will have to count as my bit of royal fever:


okay - for reals!?! "i want to go to there."

{source: royal school of needlework}

have you caught the fever? my intern and her friends are having a tea party bright and early on friday am to watch and celebrate the nuptials. okay that's cute! but she'll be absolutely useless on friday {i kid!}. think i could convince wade to wake up early so we can have a tea party of our own?

{love} weird science ...

i never really got into chemistry in high school. i credit my passing grade to having a good lab partner. but i'm really digging these upcycled chemistry sets + pretty pretty fresh flowers:

{source: violeta from portugal, cloudfront, hautelook}

everything's prettier w/ fresh flowers.

someday: wade will have his ginormous garden. and i will have endless fresh bouquets!

{love} totally rad actions

yesterday, ashley ann at under the sycamore posted an amazing DIY on the wall photo collage in her living room. love! definitely inspired - though our poor little apartment is about out of wall space. we shall see. {at least i'll categorize this as a "note to self".}

{source: under the sycamore}

do you know what i love even more than her incredible DIY? i love that she shared this INCREDBILE site - totally rad actions. they provide the photoshop action that she used to color correct all of the images for her collage. immediately i knew this was something that i needed for work (and a little play on the side!)

what are photoshop actions? well in photoshop, you can click the action and it pretty much does the work for you. i used to use actions for basic things - like resizing images for the blog. but totally rad actions provides a wide palette of color and tone treatments to add a unique edge to your photos! love it.

here's a plain ol' picture of wade and i ... rather - our feet:

and as an example, here are a few of my favorite actions (w/ descriptions from t.r.a.)...

1 // troy - golden, desaturated colors with crushed shadows and soft highlights. cool-cyan shadows:

2 // lux (hard) - warm highlights and cool cyan shadows with a bit of kick and contrast:

3 // sx-70 - emulates the look of polaroid sx-70 film. reduces contrast, compresses the tonal scale and gamut, and softens the image slightly. retro-fun!

4 // b!chin' b&w - l.a.b. based b&w conversion – great for creating creamy, smooth skintones. adds a little snap as well:

5 // super old skool - simulates the look of a vintage (circa 1900) photograph:

incredible, eh!?! now to decide which action is my favorite & which would be the coolest for our wedding pictures. even more motivation to get started on laying out our wedding book! help me out - which is your favorite?

ps. so thankful for our wedding photographer - adrian hitt. she does beautiful work ... even with ankles!

{love} visions of the south

wade and i enjoyed a date night to the belcourt theater on friday night to see elia kazan's WILD RIVER.

the belcourt opened its doors in 1925 as a silent film house. it was the home of the children's theatre of nashville after 1931, the grand ole opry between 1934 and 1936 and the nashville community playhouse after 1937. then in 1966, it became the belcourt cinema returning to its original use as a movie theatre. today, the belcourt is the last traditional neighborhood movie house in nashville.

filmed in rural tennessee in 1960, WILD RIVER peaked wade's interest - he loves all things tennessee history. and my interest - i love old movies and date nights! the film serves more as drama than a study of historic events. it is the story of a proud 80-year-old matriarch who refused to leave her land which was to be bought & flooded by the tennessee valley authority in the early 1930s. (wade's great grandparents had land that was also flooded by the TVA.)

it was the kick off to the belcourt's 23-film journey of "thoughtful, authentic portrayals of Southern culture as presented throughout 20th century cinema" - a series called VISIONS OF THE SOUTH. wade and i live just around the corner from the belcourt - though we don't take advantage of it as much as we should!

so glad we found out about the festival - check out the lineup (and message me if you want a date!):

{love} norma clare

last night i attended a trunk show for sweet friend anna redmon's fashion line "norma clare". i've had the privilege of hiring anna to style a couple of our photo shoots - but i didn't realize her full fashion genius until checking out her upcoming spring collection yesterday. beautiful!

confession: i spent 95% of my march blood money. {and it's not yet march. eek.} including this darling little dress ...

all this talk about budgeting and i go and do something crazy like that. but for real people ... check out her lovely collection from this past fall:

{source: norma clare}

as soon as her spring collection launches you bet i'll be posting about it! (and the fantastic shirt i picked out!!!)

check out the norma clare facebook page for a little of current stores carrying norma clare.

love: haven hammond

today is my grandpa's birthday.

{can you tell which is me!?! yes the porky little one.}

not a day goes by when we aren't reminded of what an amazing man he was. i so wish wade could have met him ...