graveyard "dirt"

A few Halloweens ago, I made a graveyard "dirt" cake to take to a Halloween party. It was a big hit... complete with cool whip ghosts and milano cookie gravestones!

This year, I decided to scale back this idea and make individual "dirt" cups. They're simple, fun and easy to take on the go. Plus, they took all of 10 minutes to make...which is my kind of "cooking."

wedding tree

With it being the month of our first wedding anniversary, I thought I would share some DIY projects and fun ideas that made our wedding really special to us. First up...our wedding tree!

photo by heather brincko

We did a special reading during our ceremony and used our tree in place of the traditional "unity candle." The moms came up, one at a time, and put a small scoop of dirt into the pot around the tree. They then passed us the watering cans and we watered our tree together. We loved the symbolism of it and the casual style fit our personalities so much better than the more traditional options.

We decided on a "Serviceberry" tree - it is a native tree to Pennsylvania and the guy at the nursery raved about how pretty they were. It gets delicate white flowers in the Spring, sweet edible berries in the Summer and the leaves change colors in the Fall. Each season the tree changes - and we loved that! For our ceremony, I simply wrapped the standard black pot with burlap and a purple ribbon.

Here was the reading that was read during our ceremony:

Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether you roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

After returning from our honeymoon, we planted our "love tree" (that's what we've been jokingly calling it) at our new house.

The tree has grown a bunch and we've spent the first year of our marriage happy as can be. We're looking forward to many years to come and watching our "love tree" grow. It'll be fun to have a picture with it every year on our anniversary. I've already told Adam that if we ever move, that tree is coming with us - it's part of the family now.

10/01/12

10/01/13

[p.s. this post may be linked to any number of these blogs]

the weekly creative #3

Welcome to week #3 of The Weekly Creative! Thank you for all who linked up projects last week - the constant inspiration is refreshing. Here are this week's features (don't forget to grab a button from the sidebar):

[1] I LOVE this Frankenstein Bento Lunch by Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons. Will someone please pack me a lunch like this?

[2] The pretty orange color of this Colors of Fall necklace by Little Treasures make me swoon. I want one! [3] These Halloween Lanterns by Let's Meet For Lunch are sure to light up your home for Halloween. How cute!

...& If you missed them, here are the projects I shared last week:

 
Now...onto this weeks party :) 
The rules are pretty simple: [1] Link to a specific post & feel free to link as many projects as you'd like ( sewing, crafting, recipes,  photography, life, etc. We love it all!) [2] If you have time, visit at least 2 other links and show some comment love. [3] Become a follower of my blog (not required, of course, but I love new followers. You can also find me on facebook or twitter). [4] Stop by next week to see if your project has been featured. [5] Please link back to my blog so others can share in the fun - if you want, grab a button from my sidebar. [6] Keep creating :)
Thanks for stopping by to link up your awesome projects. I can't wait to see what everyone's been up to this week...

date night scratch-offs

For our first anniversary, I wanted to make a sweet little gift for my husband that was fun yet practical. These date card scratch-offs were just the ticket. These will help us with the "what do you want to do tonight?"..."I don't care, whatever you want to do" moments.