celebrating 5 years of marriage

Today is my 5 year wedding anniversary.  I've known Jake since I was 16.  We've been together almost 10 years and have been married 5 of those years.  Getting married is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  Jake is my best friend, and I'm very fortunate to call him my husband, too.  We have been through a lot during the last 10 years, but it's been worth it.  I hope that we have many more years together.

I thought that you'd enjoy seeing a few older pictures of us before I show you my new ring.  The earliest digital pictures I have of us are from late 2005 and I didn't scan anything older so these pictures are mostly 2006-2010.  Please don't leave me any comments about how we look really young and/or we look way too young to have been married for 5 years.  It isn't appropriate or original and just don't need to be said here.  Thanks.  Enjoy!

Christmas with my in-laws (Christmas 2005)

formal dinner night on an Alaskan cruise (June 2006)

 wedding reception with two of Jake's good undergrad friends (December 29, 2006)

 on our honeymoon, at the Benihana's in the Hilton complex in Oahu (New Year's Day, 2007)

Jake's undergrad graduation (May 2007)

my little sister-in-law's 8th grade graduation (June 2007)

Iowa State Fair (August 2007)

Mexico/Honduras cruise (late December 2007/early January 2008)

Minneapolis, MN (August 2008)

my cousin's wedding (May 2009)

a good friend's wedding (May 2010)

Match Day (St. Patrick's Day 2011)

Jake's med school graduation (May 13, 2011)

my little sister-in-law's HS graduation (June 2011)

(For anyone wondering where the photos of my graduations are, I didn't attend my undergrad or master's program graduations for various reasons.)

Most of you already know that we have done a lot of neat things since we moved to Milwaukee, but I don't have very many pictures from events that include both of us.  I'll have to work on that!

Of course I had to include a photo of our little Angel, too.  She's 16 years old.  She lived with my in-laws for 10 years and then moved in with me right after I finished undergrad.  She's been with us through a lot, too.

As many of you know, what I really wanted for our 5th wedding anniversary was a ring.  After a lot of searching and much debate about what kind of metal I wanted (you really don't want to know how long I've been working on this little project), I finally settled on this ring from Madelynn of onegarnetgirl.  She did such an amazing job with it.  I could not be more happy with my decision and with her work.  If you're thinking about ordering metal gemstone jewelry, please consider her shop.  You will not be disappointed.  Click to see the larger photos.

Thanks for taking this personal trip with me today.  Stay tuned tomorrow for our regularly scheduled programming.

I included this post in Erika's It's a Wrap Link Party - Happy New Year!.

winter Art Beads piece

For the winter Art Beads piece for the design partner program, we were allowed to choose any components that we wanted from the Art Beads site for a winter piece.  An idea came to mind for a winter piece about 24 hours after I got my e-mail.  I ordered my beads right away.  You can see the components that I used here.

As I mentioned in my post with the components, this piece is part of my new line.  I have to be honest: I am keeping this one.  But I am starting to list other pieces from the line in my shop.  I'll have a post about that and the pattern for the line later this week (or you can go to my shop now if you can't wait to see what's already available).  And as always, if anyone wants one with this particular color scheme, please let me know.  I'm always happy to do custom orders.

All of the beads that I selected for this piece are from the glass beads section of Art Beads.  I used Toho cube beads and Czech dagger beads.  The majority of the beads in the piece are from Art Beads with a few others from my personal collection thrown into the mix.  If you want to know any of the specific colors that I used, please let me know.  I'll be honest again: I DO order a lot of my Toho cubes from Art Beads.  I normally DON'T order my dagger beads from Art Beads.  I order them elsewhere in bulk.  But I watch for sales on Art Beads.  Throwing a few of their patterned daggers into a mix with solid color opaques and AB finishes can add a wonderful hint of detail.

I selected two "special" components for this piece.  Most of my dagger fringed bracelets won't have these, but I thought it would be a neat touch with this mix.  The first component is a button from their Swarovski collection.  As you know, I love all buttons.  The Swarovski buttons are pretty cool.  The second component is a sterling silver charm from their charm collection.  You can find that charm right here.  I normally order silver plated charms because they're considerably cheaper.  However, sometimes I like to splurge on some higher end pieces through the design program.  I'm a sucker for heart jewelry (such a cliche I know).  I don't go overboard with floral themes in my life because that would be pretty corny for obvious reasons, but I thought the rose here would be a subtle touch for this piece.

I love how the color theme came together for this piece.  I didn't make this at the same time as my winter leafy bracelet, but it has a very similar feel.  I still have a lot of the cubes left so I will most likely make something else with a similar color scheme at some point.

Here's a posed shot with the clasp showing so you can see how that comes together.

And here's a shot with it turned the way that you would normally wear it so you can see how the daggers will hang.

I am currently in the middle of writing the pattern for my dagger design with the cube base.  I'm hoping to release it around the same time that I start rolling out the new line on Etsy.

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.