Breanna's Love Story!

So maybe y'all remember Breanna from My Beautiful, Crazy Life. She did a guest post for me a little bit ago, and she showed us how to make a Christmas ornament out of those adorable little clear glass balls that have an endless number of possibilities and she did such a great job! (And I just did a great job with that run on sentence, no?) I think it was last week when I asked for some guest posts because I was running out of useful things to say.... and she stepped up to the plate! She wrote down her love story (yay!!) for the first time (double yay!!) and sent it to me to feature (triple yay!). So....dear readers, be super sweet to one of my favorite bloggy friends: read her adorable little love story and show her some comment love! Also, you should go follow her. Again, that is http://breeeex33.blogspot.com/ and she is amazing. :) So...time for me to stop and you to swoon....

Share Your Story @ The Pless Press!

So...Do y'all follow Amber at The Pless Press?  If you don't you should.  She is such a genuinely sweet girl, with an adorable blog.  She is currently doing a series that I encourage you all to go check out.  It's called Share Your Story, and she is featuring tons of different bloggers.  Every Friday, a new blogger plugs in with Amber and shares her story about what God has done for them.  It's amazing.  She featured me some time ago and to be honest....writing down my story was a little difficult.  I have what some would call a pretty rough background.  But I'm thankful for my happy ending to a dark and scary path.  I have really enjoyed reading all of the Share Your Story posts, and I hope you'll go check them out as well!   

I found the post I wrote floating around in my ever-growing pile of drafts.  I figured I would post it and send y'all her way to read the other amazing posts she has featured!  AND...there will be more!  :)  So, do go check her out.  

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2011: A Year in Review

 
Do y'all know Lauren?  Hands down my favorite blogger.  So...go read her blog.
She encouraged her readers to write a post about the past year.  Since I was not a blogger until October, and this past year was basically the most important year of my entire life...I thought it would be a great little activity!  
ALSO, she linked up with Brooke over at Silver Lining.  She's doing a linky-party for these types of posts!  :)  She is adorable, their engagement pictures are slap-you-in-the-face amazing.  And their love story was super fast - just like mine - and I love that!  :)  

You should totes m'goats go check out these two amazing women and join in on the fun that is remembering a year's worth of smiles, tears, and surviving.  
So, without further adieu, here is what my 2011 looked like.
Please keep in mind that this has been the craziest, busiest, and most full-of-change year in my entire life and I'm going to extraordinarily honest.
All years start with the same day.  (Deep.)  So what was I doing when the ball dropped and it officially became 2011?  I was sitting alone in my one bedroom apartment.  I was hung-over and had been dealing with the most dreadful hangover of my entire life all day.  I partied entirely too hard the day before New Year's.  I snorted pills for the first time.  I was snorting pill after pill after pill, I was smoking pot, I drank an entire bottle of wine, I drank beer, I took shots.  I passed out.  Classy.  All of those toxins in my  body made for one heck of a hangover.  So I sat alone, smoking pot and self-medicating as I watched the ball drop.  I remember feeling lonely.  
January was when Mr. Robinson was trying to woo me.  I was not being very responsive.  However, according to my nifty Facebook timeline, on January 10th I posted a status that I remember wanting him to notice.  It reads, "shouldn't we hold out for the person who doesn't just tolerate our little quirks, but actually kind of likes them?"  It's a How I Met Your Mother quote, and I remember it reminding me of Mr. Robinson.  :)  And come to find out...he did notice it.  And had hoped it was about him.  And it was.
January 23rd was the day I got this tattoo.  Mr. Robinson drew it for me.  We were "just friends" then.  He said that this was the day he knew for sure that he was in love with me. 

In the first week of February, one of oldest and dearest  friends called me Auburn, Alabama (where she attends grad school) in hysterical tears.  Her first boyfriend, a man she dates for several years and was hopelessly in love with, had broken up with her because she had chosen a grad school "too far" away from him.  She was upset.  I made some arrangements with work and traded shifts (I was waiting tables at Ruby Tuesday during this time), hopped in my car, and off to 'Bama I went!  My friend needed me!  

I did a good job of cheering her up and raising her spirits.  The worst part was that this happened right before Valentine's Day, poor dear!  While I was there, I realized that I missed Mr. Robinson.  Weird.  
On February 13, we went on our first date.  :)   He asked me to be his Valentine, but we both had to work on Valentine's Day.  We decided a few days later that Feb. 13th was actually the day we started dating.  Haha, we are dorks.   

Two weeks later, we started talking about marriage and love and foreverness.  And started planning our wedding.
On March 15, he proposed!  And extreme wedding planning began.

On May 12th, we took our engagement portraits at Atalaya Castle.  It's a place that I've been to thousands of times and everyone from around here takes pictures there.  It is still beautiful.  "The Castle" was built as a residence in the 1930's.  It was to be used as the Huntington's winter home.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  Read about it here.  

 

May 23rd was Mr.'s 23rd birthday.  I have him lingerie but he had to hold onto it until we were married.  He kind of hated it...it was a big flop.  I thought he would love it haha.  He thought it was a mean trick.  
In June, I started bartending at Ruby Tuesday's!  It was such a great skill to learn and I had fun learning how to do something new.  Waiting tables had stopped being challenging and had started only being a pain in my rear.  
June 2, I went to Charlotte to see Kenny Chesney with a dear friend of mine.  She has MS and is in her early 30's.  She has three small children.  Her name is Cristine.  We met waiting tables, something she started doing to meet people.  Her MS was not very advanced at all, and I just fell in love with that girl's soul.  We got insanely trashed at the concert...I cried because I knew I was making a memory with someone I would always cherish, and we jumped over baracades to get close enough to touch Kenny.  And we succeeded!

In pop culture news, June 7th was the 18th birthday of the text message.  :)
On June 19th, I went to Mexico for a week with my parents and younger sister.  It was our last vacation as a family of four.  While on the trip, I convinced my mom that dolphins making oinking noises like pigs when they eat.  hahaha 

On July 5th, Casey Anthony was found not guilty.  I was an avid follower to the trial and was very upset by this! 

July 12th was my very first bridal shower!  Mrs. Tammy, my old Sunday School teacher from my days in youth group threw it at her new home.  It was for all of my mom's best friends and my close family members.  We also invited my MIL-to-be.  The type of shower was a pounding, where they brought goods to fill our pantry.  Best. Shower. Ever! So much fun!  

July 13th was my first day not working at Ruby Tuesday and my first day of working (again) at the family business!  I moved out of my apartment in the city, back home with my parents, and started working for the family again!  Whoop Whoop!!  
July 24th, we went to the mountains with the Robinson family!  :)  They go a "Pig Jig" up there every year, and it was my first time going!  So much fun, it was a beautiful place, and his 80 year old Nana drank moonshine.  Haha

July 30:  one of my best friends got married!!! :)  Hooray Brittany!  She's also one of my bridesmaids and I was one of her maids-of-honor (she had two).

The first week in August, my parents took my fiance and I to a Braves game in Atlanta, GA.  To be honest, we did not have a very good trip.  We had tickets to three different games.  We went to see the SF Giants play, that's Mr. Robinson's team.  However...before we left, we had gotten into a huge fight.  I mean, it was the worst fight we had ever had (and still is), and it was also the work fight I'd ever had with anyone.  It was horrible.  We almost ended that week in Atlanta.  I learned such a valuable lesson.... the words we say in anger have the potential to affect our relationship forever.  I learned that because I was on the receiving end of some very hurtful words...I actually ended up giving him the ring back at one point.  I just could not seem to make myself stop reliving the fight.  Every time he opened his mouth, I heard the hurtful words again.  It broke my heart to look at him.  I felt like I could not marry a man I couldn't bare to be around.  We (obviously) worked it all out.  He wouldn't accept no for answer...he promised that his words were only said in anger.  It came to trusting him, forgiving him, and moving on.  It took some time, but after a little while I stopped hearing the words over and over in my head.  And I'm so glad that I did.  This fight taught me a lot.  

August 14th was my bachelorette party!  It was just me, my three bridesmaids, and one of my best friends.  :)  We went to a pottery painting place and painted pottery for our new home!  Then we went out to eat, and to a comedy show!  It was amazing and I cherish the pottery we made!  Each of us made a piece, but I got to keep it all.  :)  I made a cookie jar for our kitchen.  My sister and maid of honor made a decorative plate with bride and groom stick people on it, "The Robinson's" across the top and our wedding date across the bottom.  Brittany made a trivet that says "love."  Lizzy made a vase.  Emily made a ring holder for me, with my new initials on it!  And finally.....we all decided that a little snake figurine would be a perfect thing for my dresser, to always remind me of my bachelorette party.  Lizzy painted the snake skin colored, with a "blue vein" on it's back.  haha Oh, and it was...of course....winking.  

August 27th, my parents had a cookout shower for us at their house on the river.  Everyone from the wedding was invited, but hurricane Irene kept most people away.  We still had fun though, and had the most precious cake! 

September 5th was the day we went on our last date as an engaged couple!

 We applied for our marriage lisence on September 6th!

On September 10, 2011 we became man and wife.
It was the most perfect, precious, intimate day.

September 11-19, we were in St. Maarten on our amazing, fairytale honeymoon! 

{Enter "Real World"}

We got these tattoos on October 1st.

October 13, we went to Scarowinds and I was too scared to ride anything! 

I started this blog on October 27th!

And then November 24 was Thanksgiving... we went to the beach with his family.  His parents had rented a beach house, promised us our own room, and when we got there....put us on the sofa  sleeper while the kids had their own bed.  Mr. Robinson was pretty upset, as he was too long for the bed and it was thin and it had no pillows and it had no comforter and it was in the middle of the living room.  Um...so we left and went and stayed at my family's beach house.  It was the first time Mr. Robinson stood up to his parents for the better good of "us" and "our family."  I was so proud of my man that night!  :)

December 2nd, we went to the Bush concert!  It was so amazing.  Bush is not our favorite band, or even in our joint or separate top 5.  However, we both said it was our favorite show we'd ever seen, hands down.

December 3rd was the Carolina Opry Christmas Show!  It was so great!  :)  We want to go see one Christmas show every year, but with us living close to coast we have so many options.  We decided to go with COCS this year, and even though we absolutely loved it...we are going to try out a different show for Christmas 2012.  It will be our little tradition.

December 5 & 6, our church put on a Live Nativity for the community and surrounding areas.  We participated as townspeople, and ran a "bakery."  I made all kinds of food, other church members donated food, and our little "business" was slammed the entire time.  I had participated in the Live Nativity when I was younger, but it was by force.  Mr. Robinson had never done anything like it.  It was a great experience for us both - a chance to tell the Christmas Story in a totally different way.  We had real animals, and a very realistic town was built, the choir sag the most beautiful songs....It was breathtaking and worshipful in every way.

And then....of course....Christmas.  :)

At Ma and Pa's house, Christmas Eve
Photo by:  Aunt Missy

At Our House, Christmas Eve
Photo by:  Daddy

How did 2011 treat you?  

Le Beanock

I know that I have not written about our Christmas yet...
but just to give you a little taste...
a little tease....
a little hint....
a little nudge at just how awesome it was....
We got a KING sized one of these...

Source: woohome.com via Kristina on Pinterest

BOOYAH!  :)  Stay tuned for more fabulous deets! 

2012

Can you believe that 2012 has snuck right up on us?!  
Crazy how we have an entire year to prepare for it and BAM, it comes out of nowhere. 
I try not to make resolutions for the New Year, really I do, because I'm not very good at keeping them.  Which neither are most people, I think, but I hate jumping on a bandwagon that I know, without a doubt, I will be falling right back off of in about a month, tops.  However, my dad told me about this person he went to high school with, who is now married and has children.  They make family resolutions!  Cute!  So, for 2011, their resolution was to go to Sonic as a family every single Tuesday.  And the amazing thing is.....they did it!  Wow!  The memories I bet they made.  My dad was even jealous and said he wished that our family had done something like that when we had the chance.  They were looking for a new resolution to make as a family for 2012, and my dad asked me for advice since I'm so creative and amazing.  :)  So naturally, the thing to do would be....come up with ideas of things I would like to do with my family.
So...I know that the "365 Project" has been done to death and is pretty much a cliche.  BUT...we are newlyweds, so it's different.  And I'm not going to call it the 365 project, because that what everyone else calls it.  I'm going to call it something different.  Maybe "A Year in The Life?"  Kind of like the scrapbooks people make called "A Week in The Life."  We'll see.  But I love the concept of capturing a new image every day  for an entire year...the first entire year we'll ever spend together.  
I would really like to be a better friend in 2012!  Wedding planning kind of took over my life in 2011.  I got engaged, planned a wedding, changed jobs, got married, went on a honeymoon, came home, moved, and then boom!  The holidays were here!  It was February just yesterday, I swear it!  So yeah.  I'd like to reconnect with the people I've basically stopped talking to.
We are living in my parents house.  It is cluttered to the max.  It was a full house when we moved in, and we brought two apartments worth of stuff with us.  So...we have some work to do!  I NEVER choose to be clean or organized for a NYR, but....Lauren over at Our Crazy Ever After pretty much is making me do this.  Just kidding.  But she has started a "De-Clutter The Crap Iniative" where she features different bloggers and we talk about organizing our homes and hold each other accountable.  She will be featuring me...so this resolution kind of just happened.  :)  If you are interested in participating, go visit her!  Click here.
Aaaaaand Mr. Robinson and I would both like to shed our winter coats.  :)  We'll see how that works out.  
What are your resolutions?   

Thriving Love Thursday (5)

Good Morning!  Thanks for coming back to my 5th Triving Love Thursday!  I do hope you'll grab a button, write a post, and link up!  

The Rules are....

Place the TLT button somewhere in your post! 

and

Write a post about what you've done in the past week to show love to the people you love the most.  Remember, there is always someone out there willing to give what you are withholding.  How did you help your love thrive?

So.  How did I help love thrive this week?
As you all are very aware of, Christmas was last weekend.  There was thriving love all over my beeswax.  Everyone was in a great mood, everyone was all huggy-touchy-feely.  There were only two things everywhere I went:  Christmas spirit and love.  I helped love  thrive for everyone important to me by searching out thoughtful gifts that the person actually needed or could use or just suited them.  My husband and I helped love thrive by visiting every single immediate family member we could find on Christmas Day.  :)
I bout some sexy santa lingerie about a month or so back.  I surprised my husband with it on Christmas Eve before we went to sleep.  ;) 
Mr. Robinson is a Red Velvet nut.  I made him red velvet chocolate chip pancakes from scratch on Christmas Morning!  That helped our love thrive and made for a very happy husband.
I helped love thrive by spending about 3 hours of QT with my mother-in-law Monday.  We actually had a better time than I had imagined.  Amazing things happen when you allow your heart to be open.  :)  I would love to have a better relationship with my in-laws, specifically my MIL.  The time we spent together on Monday really helped, and it gave my husband some time to bond with his father.  
Tuesday night I went out with my two best girls.  I left a little love note for my husband telling him what a good man and husband he is.  I hid it in the computer, a place I knew he'd be since we got a new computer for Christmas!  :)   Small love notes are a great way to help someone know you are thinking about them even when they are not around.  
Again, I have to brag on my husband!  I was a bit of a crybaby yesterday when I found out that he was not giving me a birthday present.  He said the restaurant we were going to was my birthday present.  I turned 23 yesterday and was not all that happy about it.  I was having a bit of an emotional day.  My daddy posted the sweetest ever birthday wish on Facebook.  Cue tears.  And then my husband casually mentioned that dinner is my gift.  The first thing to pop into my sick and twisted, quick-to-anger head was "what kind of fat cow does he think I am?  He thinks he can just stuff me full of food and I'll forget that he didn't give me a present?!"  He tried to make me calm down by saying that we had just been so busy with Christmas and everything that he thought I would enjoy a nice night out, just the two of us.  And he had told me we were going to a very nice restaurant.  But what did I hear out of all that?  "Because of Christmas, I forgot about your birthday" or "Your Christmas presents were also birthday presents!"  With my birthday being only three short days after Christmas, my birthday is almost always pushed to the side.  I mean, who am I to compete with Jesus?  :)  But I did not want that from my husband.  Cue more tears.  Instead of getting mad or frustrated with me, he was the sweetest.  He assured me of how much he loves me, of how I'm the most important person and thing in his life, and that he treats me special.  (All of which are true...I know he loves me, values me, and thinks I'm special.)  He tried to calm me down and assure me that he knew what he was doing, that going out to dinner was not a last minute cover for forgetting, and that I would love my birthday present.  I was a huge baby, sobbing on the phone.  I basically acted like a big, spoiled brat and I'm so embarrassed of myself.  But, my husband was absolutely right.  He took me to the Melting Pot, a place where dinner is $100 for two people, not including the tip.  And since we were both servers, we always leave good tips.  The service was exceptional, so we left a $40 tip!  The food was amazing.  If you've never eaten at The Melting Pot, look up the closest location to you right now and GO!  It's the best food you'll ever eat.  I don't know about you guys, but we don't just go around spending $140 on dinner.  So this was a big treat.  AND it was about 2 hours away from home.  I was a happy girl who had earlier in the day pitched a temper tantrum and was received love as a response.  My husband absolutely helped our love thrive.  Because he didn't get mad at me, I was quicker to apologize.  He loved me when I was not acting very lovable.  And I love that man.  :)  Thanks, honey!  
And now, I want to hear from you!  How did you help love thrive this week or what did people do for you to show love?  :)  I want to hear allllll about it!      So grab a button, write a post or add this button to an existing post, and link up!

Guest Posts

While the cat has my tongue, I thought I'd ask for some guest posts.
Please e-mail me if you are interested in writing up a post to be featured on My New Wife Life!  :)  
I would like for the topics to stick to my basic favorites:-marriage and/or love and/or romance-blogging-dogs and/or Chihuahua's-recipes-DIY projects-home making skills?
Oh, and btw, tomorrow is my 23rd birthday.  I'm pretty depressed about it.  And I'm taking the day off, so I won't be blogging.  haha
So....if you are interested, e-mail me at mynewwifelife(at)aol(dot)com and we will chat!  XOs!

Somewhat of a Christmas Post..

Well, our first Christmas was beyond amazing.  It was our first Christmas as a married couple, and it was also our first Christmas as a couple.  We were able to do everything we had planned, and we both have said countless times how perfect our first Christmas has been.
To be honest, my heart is still very full.  I don't think I'm quite ready to blog about it yet.  It would be great to let it all out, so to speak, but for the time being...I just want to hold it all in a little longer.  There is just so much to say and I don't know where to start...there are so many memories that I want to record!  I might see if I can get my dear, sweet husband to do a post about it.  :)  Regardless....
I just wanted to post something since I haven't done that in a while.  I hope y'all had a very wonderful Christmas.  I'll leave you with a picture of us from Christmas Eve....

Cookies & Cream Cookies

I have to apologize in advance for not having any pictures of these.  I've lost my memory card.  But these turned out absolutely amazing, and I encourage you to make them!  They are very easy...and this was my first attempt at making cookies from scratch.  They turned out perfect.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 (4.2 oz) package Cookies 'n Creme pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups white chocolate chips
15 Oreo cookies, very coarsely chopped

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream butter and sugars.
3. Add pudding mix until well blended.
4. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.
5. In a seperate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda with a whisk or fork.
6. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend.
7. Stir in the chocolate chips.and chopped Oreos.
8. Drop cookies onto a greased cookies sheet.
9. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops of the cookies are barely brown.

Makes three (3) dozen cookies.

A Christmas Break

Real life has set in...which means we are not in college anymore and do not get a month vacation for a two-day holiday.  I was lucky enough to work a place who let us off work today noon.  Mr. R will not be home for another hour.  We both are off all day Monday.  
I wanted to do a little post to let all of you know that I will not be posting anything new until Tuesday! I hope you all have a wonderful CHRISTMAS with family, friends, and all the people you love! 
Merry Christmas!  See y'all Tuesday!

Friday's Christmas Letters

This is seriously, one of my most favorite blogs to read.  She is hilarious and spunky, and you should -toats m'goats- go become her newest follower.  Right now.  

Ashley hosts a linky party on Friday called "Friday's Letters."  Even though she has not yet posted her link up for this today, I still wanted to write a post for Friday's Letters since this is the Friday before Christmas.  :)  But in general, you should link up with her on participating Fridays! 

Dear South Carolina weather gods,It's super weird that it's hot outside.  The warm weather is making my hair pretty peazy, which in turn makes it feel not very much like Christmas...you are killing my Christmas buzz and I beg of you to stop.  I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, k?  And that's not really possible in 70 degree weather.

Dear husband,

I am so pumped to spend our first Christmas together.  I seriously can hardly contain my excitement.  I have already enjoyed our Christmas season together so much.  The twinkling lights on the tree, our homemade ornaments, and pretty ribbons on the presents all pale in comparison to the feeling you put inside of my heart.  I love you so much, baby.  I have waited my entire life to be in love on Christmas…I am honored to have you as my husband, my best friend, my lover.  I am so excited about experiencing all of my family’s traditions with you and I am excited about experience your family’s traditions.  I love you!

Dear parents,

This year is going to be different.  I’m probably going to end up crying several times.  I am still in shock when I realize how much time has passed without me even knowing about it… it’s almost like I blinked and became an adult.  I hope you guys know how much I love you.  I look up to you both.  Thank you for loving my husband.  And thank you for allowing our relationship to go from parents to friends.  I love y’all.  Merry Christmas!

Dear Zombie,

You have so much character and I am so obsessed with you.  Stop being so cute before I gobble you up for Christmas dinner. 

Dear husband,

I can’t wait for tomorrow!!! I love you…and ps.  your Christmas present is legend (wait for it) dairy.  

Chocolate Covered Cherry Delights

You have not tasted an amazing cookie until you've tried these.  I am making three different kinds of chocolate covered cherries for my grandmother's Christmas gift.  CCC are her absolute favorites and somebody always buys her some for Christmas.  This year, I decided I would make her some from scratch.  :)
The first recipe I followed, for true chocolate covered cherries is here.
This recipe is actually for a chocolate cookie, with a cherry in the middle, topped with chocolate-cherry icing.  Mmm-mmm-good.  

A Beautiful Marriage

Source: witanddelight.tumblr.com via Michelle on Pinterest

...all i want is a marriage more beautiful than my wedding...

Thank you ALL for the great comments you left me on this post.  Your feedback was just what I was looking for.  :)

As you may know, I married the perfect man on September 10, 2011.

Not.

But he is pretty amazing and he reminds me every single day why I fell in love with him somewhere around January~February..

Screech!

Wait, what?!  I got married to a man 9 months after we fell in love?  Oh yeah.  You can read all about it here.

Anyway...I came across this darling little "pin" and became inspired.

Source: perfectbucketlist.tumblr.com via Jenn on Pinterest

 It's easy to pin cute things or special words {with great intentions} and forget all about it, isn't it?!  :)  I do it all the time.  It's a bad habit.  I end up with HUGE pin-boards that ultimately leave me stressed out because I feel lie I've put too many things on my to-do list.  But this pin really got me thinking.

A marriage more beautiful than my wedding.

Our wedding was so gorgeous.  [One day I'll share all of the details with y'all.]  But what could I do to make our marriage even greater than the wedding? 

What does a beautiful marriage take?
My readers say it takes....

Husband and Wife

a sense of humor

the gift of laughter

a place to call home

family

friends

love

chocolate

video games

retail therapy

forgiveness

pets

trust

frozen pizza

compassion

thankfulness

date night

tough conversations

saturday mornings spent in bed

memories

What do you think?  What does it take a have a marriage more beautiful than the wedding?  :)

Thriving Love Thursday # 4

Welcome to Thriving Love Thursday #3!  I am thrilled that you are here.Read the rules, grab a button, and link up!

The Funniest Thing Ever

Do you like to laugh?If so...this post is for you!  :)  I'm a little ticked at my husband right now and decided to cause myself to have a series of giggles as to prohibit ruining my day.  Enjoy.  :)

The "I Love You" Board

I feel like all of my great ideas come from Pinterest.  Maybe one day I'll have an original idea.
Not today!  :)  Have you seen this on Pinterest? 

Source: eighteen25.blogspot.com via Kristina on Pinterest

I just thought this pin was the cutest thing, ever.It is decorative.It is romantic.It is a great way to keep the romance alive!  :)  
So I made one out of scrap pieces of paper in coordinating colors.  I hand wrote "I love you because" because we don't have a printer at home and I'm Cricutless, and I was being impatient.  We are constantly leaving sweet little notes for each other.  :)  

Mine is not as cute as the one I found on Pinterest, but I've accepted it and moved on.
I know that handwritten decor is not as perfect or photogenic, but (to me) there is just something special about it.  
We proudly display our "I Love You" board on the dresser in our bedroom.  It's right in front of the light-switch, so we look at it every day.  Excuse the mess on the floor.   

Do you have an "I Love You" board?Do you leave love-notes? 
Is your floor cluttered and gross?  :)

Homemade Chocolate Covered Cherries

Every year, someone gives my grandma a box of chocolate covered cherries for Christmas.  She loves them, especially the Queen Anne brand.  It seems like each year, we raise the stakes and the cost of these cherries that we buy here gets higher and higher.  We try to get the most gourmet cherries you've ever tasted.  this year, I decided to make her 4 different types of chocolate covered cherries.  This recipe is for true chocolate covered cherries.  This means that they have sit in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks, so this is the recipe I made first.