One Year Anniversary

Last week to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary, we took a little trip to the Outer Banks along the beautiful NC coast.  Last year we spent our honeymoon on Hilton Head Island so I guess it's becoming somewhat of a tradition to head to the beach!  Strangely enough, the day of our anniversary (September 10th) is actually the peak of hurricane season (remember, giant weather nerd here)  but fortunately we have been lucky enough to have great weather for both trips.  As well, there was much to celebrate with having survived the first year of marriage and all... ha  ;)

Here are a few photos from our trip:

My favorite picture  ❤

At the end of photo shoots we almost always end with silly pictures!

Sunset from the pier

Jockeys Ridge Sand Dunes

Erik tried (unsuccessfully) to boogie board down the dunes!

I scored this sweet little dress for only $10 at the beach shop next to our hotel.  Apparently everything goes on super clearance at the beach after Labor Day, so needless to say we did a LOT of shopping!

Baywatch style... haha.  Trying out his new boogie board and bathing suit in the cold ocean!

Mimosas on the balcony on the morning of our anniversary

Several weeks before our trip, I had this "great idea" for a photo shoot on the actual day of our anniversary that involved dressing up in our wedding attire and taking a few photos on the beach.  Little did I know the evenings would be much cooler than the days, accompanied by gale force winds.  Ok so I don't exactly know what "gale force winds" even means, but let's just say had it been any worse it would have lifted up my dress and carried me away Mary Poppins style...  Despite the cool weather and blustery conditions, we still managed to have a successful shoot.  Here are a few of my favorites:

The tag was suppose to "dangle" more from our fingers but with the wind and all this was the best we could do!

Yes, in the chilly air and gale force winds (ha) we decided to do the photo I had been looking forward to most of all...  Taking off our clothes and running towards the beach in nothing but our undies!  :D

tiles borrowed from one of our favorite board games...

Along with taking a bunch of photos, we also went to see a band called Perpetual Groove, rode our bikes around Kill Devil Hills, did a lot of shopping, a LOT of eating, lat night hot tubbing, visited the Wright Brothers Memorial, went to the Sand Dunes, and even did a little dancing after our fancy anniversary dinner.  So much fun, we have already discussed which beach we will be heading to next year...

We survived year one, here is to many more to follow...

Love Rocks

After a string of many sad, angry, and depressing posts in a row, I have decided to try and put the blog back on some neutral ground...  I am still not feeling quite back to normal, but writing about something else might help me to get there...

Realizing that lately I have not been doing any of my favorite things I normally love to do, I decided it was time to get back to those previously enjoyed activities.  Crocheting for me is somewhat of a de-stresser, it allows me to focus my thoughts on one very specific task for as long as I wish to do so.  As well, the colorful yarn, stitch counting, and the creation of something beautiful happening before my eyes is somewhat mesmerizing...  Sort of like active meditation.  Anyway, I don't remember the last thing I crocheted that was not baby-related, so this weekend I had to browse the pages on Ravelry to find something to make specifically for me...  I came across some unique crochet covered rocks and they caught my attention right away.  They are kind of like a mini yarn bomb you can display in your house all the time.

I got my inspiration from these lovely creations:

You can find the originals: here, here, here, here, and here

Not only did I have the tiny hook and thin yarn required to make these, but I had the rocks to do it too.  And they are not just any old rocks, but special rocks we used in our wedding ceremony last September.  

During the ceremony, our wedding officiant Jeanne handed us each a stone that she had collected from the river which flowed next to the outside ceremony site.  She said that each of the stones represented our hearts, and had us trade stones and give our "hearts" to each other.  We then had the stone building ceremony, which involved us together stacking river rocks on top of each other to make a tall pile.  She said that as we did it some would fall down, and we would pick them back up and keep building - a metaphor that in life sometimes we fall down but together we can get back up and be stronger because of it.  The final top two rocks were our "hearts."  She encouraged us to take home the stones and keep them by our bed, Erik's "heart" near my side and mine near his.  We have kept them on our nightstands ever since...

Stone Building Ceremony, 9-10-11.  Photo courtesy of Jesse Kitt Photography

Part of the reason I wanted to make this project, was that I thought it would be neat to "decorate" the ceremony stones.  I used a different pattern for each stone, they can be found here and here.  I lightly modified each one to fit the stones.  See my work below...

Erik's "heart" is on the left, mine is on the right

I used a lightweight sock yarn which allows for some stretch so I can later take off the crochet part if I decide to.  They were a fun, simple project that took less than an hour each.  A perfect way to get me back to doing something that I really enjoy...

I can't help but think it was more than a coincidence that I stumbled across this pattern and decided to make it using our wedding stones.  It reminded me of our lovely wedding day and the lesson demonstrated by the stone building ceremony - sometimes in life you fall down, or things happen which "knock you over" and the best thing to do is get back up together and just keep building...