Year 1

Tom and I recently celebrated our one year anniversary!  How crazy is that?!  We had so much going on this year that it really did fly by.

Tom and I do not really buy each other a lot gifts throughout the year.  So no gifts for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, Easter, Casmir Pulaski Day… etc.  The longer you are with someone, and especially if your finances are combined, it just seems sort of silly to be buying each other gifts for every little thing.   Typically, we will just go away for the weekend and that’s better and way more memorable than an actual tangible gift.

However, we decided, awhile back, that since our anniversary is a special holiday for us (and all the veterans….we got married on Veterans Day), that we would break our no gift rule and do something special for each other.  Keeping with tradition, we decided to give each other the different materials by year.  Seemed like a cute idea and requires a little more thought.

This year: Paper.  When I first read it I thought, oh like something out toilet paper.  TOILET PAPER?  After I realized that was probably the dumbest response I’ve had in a while, I realized this was going to be a thinker.  I can’t draw.  I already planned on writing him a special card – but that can’t possibly be the only thing I do.

After thinking about it for a few days, I remembered that Tom is a huge fan of the artist, James Jean.  He went to school to be an illustrator and was pretty inspired by him.  I’ve seen a lot of the stuff he has done and it can be pretty dark but visually really beautiful.

Looking around online a little bit, I found out that he just had a show in April and that he was going to release a limited edition of the exhibit in October.  This book sold out in 10 minutes.  I did not expect that but managed to get a copy fast enough.  After a few back and forth emails, he confirmed that it would be signed by him.  I was pretty stoked by this gift because I actually remembered all the times he had showed me pieces of his and told me how he designed certain things with his style in mind.  Wife of the year award goes to me…..and I was ready for the parade in my honor come November 11^th.

Anyway – naturally Tom blew my gift out of the water.  The last year, I have gotten into photography.  During our travels, I have taken a bunch of really cool photos and planned on making some photo books that are still currently on my to do list.  Tom took three photos – one from New Orleans, Ireland & Norway – blew them up and edited them with different colors.  I am OBSESSED with them.   Best gift, hands down, he has ever gotten me.

He loved the book too, by the way, and the night I gave it to him he stayed up late drawing in his office.  The book was meant to inspire him and it did that.  Check out the stained glass work he did.  Stunning.

Anyway – I’m pretty happy with our first year of marriage. People tell you that things will change after you get married and I really didn’t find that to be true.  If anything – after a year of nonstop planning a wedding, it was so nice for us to just be married.  We traveled a lot and had a blast at other peoples weddings.  I still feel so excited to be with him and despite having to start the count over (5 years together – 1 married), anniversary wise, I couldn’t be more happy.

Let’s go Year 2!