100 Days of Marriage…and Counting

This week we flew uneventfully past the 100 days of marriage mark. Gosh. Where have the first three, pushing four, months of marriage gone? For me they’ve been all about working on the new site for The Sweetest Occasion, traveling (I’m in Chicago right now visiting Ami!), sifting through the seemingly endless stacks of wedding gifts, getting thank you cards written and in the mail, and dreaming big about things to come in the future – including possibly a house if we can swing it and find a place we love in the next year or so.

So. To answer the age old question, “does it feel different?” Yes. And no. No in the sense that I didn’t wake up to butterflies and rainbows and the stuff cheesy chick flicks are made of the morning I first woke up with a wedding band. Our relationship is largely the same, the good and the bad, and nothing revolutionary has been altered with the signing of a marriage license. Yes in the sense that now there is an extra sense of contentment, an even deeper understanding of partnership and foundation. Oh. And our coffee table is no longer consumed with the scraps of DIY projects and empty rolls of Xyron adhesive. (Which is a huge bonus of marriage if you consult my inner clutter-hating neat freak.)

Oh! Most notably, I finally have healthcare coverage for the first time in years. It’s definitely good to be the spouse of a teacher with the benefits that come from being an employee of New York State – after years of worrying and paying for healthcare out of pocket, I officially have great coverage again and that’s a huge relief. I’ll save my rant about the cluster that is our healthcare system for another post, but for now I can tell you simply that I’m happy to finally be covered again.

So, with that said – how did you spend your first 100 days of marriage? Did they feel any different to you or was it status quo?

The Sweetest Occasion

It has been a little quiet around here for the last couple of weeks and there’s good reason for that. I just launched my new weddings/events blog this morning, The Sweetest Occasion, and getting to this point has been a whole lot of work thus there hasn’t been a whole lot of free time for actual blogging. The Sweetest Occasion is going to be all about stylish inspiration for events, weddings, celebrations and entertaining. Ideas for birthdays, anniversaries, engagements, baby showers, housewarming dinner parties, backyard bbqs – you name it!

I have a lot of fun things in store and a lot of ideas I can’t wait to share. Currently, I’m on the hunt for a food blogger (or possibly two) with a passion for entertaining and great photography skills to contribute to the blog. If you know one – or if you are one – please email me at thesweetestoccasion(@)gmail.com and I’d love to share more details.

Now that things are getting going on that front, I’m planning to pull together a couple posts with details from our honeymoon trip to Bar Harbor, Maine. And with the holidays swiftly approaching, I’ll be baking and crafting away so there’s still lots of fun to be had here. Stay tuned!

Pistachio Press Letterpress Calendar

Obviously, I love letterpress. (If you didn’t already know, I work for Boxcar Press/Bella Figura/Smock so my love for letterpress is well documented.) But I also really really love calendars. A lot. The compulsive list-making organizer in me loves ticking off the dates and tracking upcoming events. It’s a bit of an obsession really. So a letterpress calendar is a happy marriage, if you ask me. Picking out just one? That’s the difficult part. Then I saw Pistachio Press’s 2010 letterpress calendar and I knew it was the one. The illustrations are gorgeous, the size is perfect, and it even has a section at the bottom for notes, which is crucial for me and my calendar employment methods. Pistachio Press, located in Rochester, NY, is also only an hour from us here in Syracuse so I love getting to support a local printer. (ROC, represent!) I love this calendar and I can’t wait to get it to hang over my desk. I think you should love it, too.

Lovely Letterpress Prints from Bespoke Press

Bespoke Press, out of Australia, has a blog that I adore. I stalk it shamelessly every day. Not only do they write about letterpress (um, clearly I’m a letterpress fanatic – I do hang out at Boxcar Press every day after all), but the photography is beautiful and their love for the craft is so evident I can’t help but love every single post. Today Bespoke announced an inspired art print series, designed by the finest up and coming illustrators and letterpress printed by Bespoke, featuring some incredible works of art. I could seriously hang each one all around my house, over my desk at work, you name it. I love the colors, cool and soothing and the images, ethereal and imaginative. Sort of like a dreamscape of fabulous letterpress. *swoon*

{All prints available at Bespoke Press’s online shop.}

Deliciously Girly Aprons at Anthropologie

I swear, one of these days I’m going to post about something other than things I want to buy. Today, my friends, is not that day. My latest obsession is the deliciously pretty collection of girly patterned and bow-bedecked aprons at Anthropologie. Yes, if you didn’t know, Anthro sells aprons. And, yes, they are fabulous.

As per my usual, I will take one of each, thank you very much.

{Aprons from Anthropologie}