Valentine's Day Gift For Him

I looked around for ideas for gifts for my husband for Valentine's day, but I couldn't find much that was up his alley. Most of the ideas people gave seemed like they were a bit of a joke. Gag gifts are fun, but not for the prices these were asking for. Others were thoughtful, but not something my husband would really appreciate. (Per example, an engraved guitar pick. Really neat, but neither of us play guitar.)

I'm an interesting combination of my parents when I'm trying to think of a gift. Like my mom, I try to think of something that is meaningful and sentimental. Like my Dad, I like to get people practical things that they have mentioned wanting or needing. So, I've tried to come up with both of these for Cam.

He's been saying that he wants a few pictures for his desk at work. He also likes motivational quotes and scriptures and things to work on memorizing. When he's at work I try to send him encouraging emails whet he get's tired or bogged dow, but I have a feeling that will be harder to do frequently once the baby is here.

So, I got a whole bunch of pictures printed of the two of us (I'll get him some of Baby when he comes) and printed out some nice quotes to go with them.

I was originally going to write all of the quotes by hand, but I've been teaching myself how to use photoshop and I love it, so I ended up doing them on the computer and then printing them with the other photos. I forgot that to get good quality you need to save it as a JPG not a PNG. Whoops.

Some of the quotes are motivational, others are just silly and hopefully will help him laugh and smile when work is boring or hard.

Same with the pictures. Some are sweet, and others are silly.

I was going to hang them all on one big piece of paper so that Cameron wouldn't have to pin them each individually to his cork board in the office, but he wanted to take them this morning when I showed them to him, so I guess that leaves more time for me to finish tidying up the house and getting ready for dinner tonight.

For our Valentine's Day date we went to see Frozen this afternoon (finally,) then tonight we're making breakfast for dinner! I may or may not also have plans for some 'better than whatever' cupcakes from the Cocoa Bean at some point this weekend. YUM.

What are some of your favorite Valentine's day gifts for your husband? What are your favorite gifts that you've received?

More Artwork for Baby's Room

Here's another piece I did for Baby's room recently.

I really like the quote. I think it's cute. I think most things Winnie the Pooh said are cute, though. If you haven't read the book, you definitely should. Especially if you've only seen the more recent Pooh movies (from 1990 forward.)

I was really torn between this quote and, "I wasn't going to eat it! I was just going to taste it," but I decided I probably wanted to have that one on a plaque in the kitchen at some point. Teaching my kids great eating habits from the womb, right? Haha.

What are your favorite Winnie the Pooh quotes? I'm trying to think of a cute one to go with a picture of Pooh hanging from a balloon. Although, that one may be cute enough to stand on it's own.

Sacred Gifts

Last Saturday Cameron took me on a date! It was our first one out of the home in a while since we've been sick and it was great! He took me to the BYU Museum of Art to look at the Sacred Gifts exhibit. Original paintings by Carl Bloch (that have never before left the Frederiksborg Castle since they were placed there in the early 1800's and likely will never leave again after their short stay at BYU,) Frans Schwartz, and Heinrich Hofmann are being exhibited along with some of their etchings in a beautifully redesigned and ornately decorated space.

Many of these paintings are from altars and similar spaces in churches and cathedrals in Denmark and Germany (as well as other places in Europe and America,) so the museum built temporary altar-like frames for them that lend a beautifully sacred ambiance to the exhibit, but are simple enough to not distract from the pieces themselves and their subject: Christ our Savior.

As well as being an enriching cultural and artistic experience, it was amazingly spiritual as well. The portraits of the Savior, although differing in physical appearance, all show an amazing depth of love, sacrifice, and holiness. The eyes of every portrait captivated me. I was amazed by how well these painters seemed to know their Lord. I didn't know before visiting this exhibit how personally religious they all were. Some of them painted for themselves as much as others. Hofmann's famous Portrait of Christ was originally placed in his bedroom to be a reminder for him of who he should be and how he should live. I thought that was really touching.

I would strongly encourage everyone and anyone who can to go to this exhibit. It is so beautiful and so touching. I'm so grateful for art and for the depth and beauty it lends to life.

To learn more about the exhibit or reserve tickets (they're free) go to http://sacredgifts.byu.edu/tickets/

Our Wedding: The Invitations

I had a great time designing our invitations. It was the first time I'd done much with graphic design since high school, and looking back there are some things I might do differently, but I really enjoyed it and was happy with the finished product.

I downloaded the script font from dafont.com and I used the word processor on my computer. If you're planning on designing something that has anything besides text, I would strongly encourage you to use a more sophisticated program like photoshop or something similar that is meant for this, because it is really hard to get everything (especially pictures) to line up the way you want in a word processor.

My mom bought the blank invitations online and printed them on our laser printer at home. They turned out great!