Flourishing (Learning to write pretty)

At Christmas, Nathanial and my mother-in-law teamed up to surprise me with a calligraphy class I've been wanting to take. I've been following a professional calligrapher on Instagram for a few years now but couldn't take a class because we were in Alaska and her classes were mostly in Texas.  She books up pretty fast so Nathanial scheduled me for a February class and last week it finally happened. It was such an incredible experience!

The class was during the evening in Fort Worth so we took the opportunity to explore a bit during the day. We stopped at the Perot Museum in Dallas on the way.  It was easily the most fun museum I've been to. It was chock full of interactive exhibits - my personal favorite was in the sports hall where you got to race an animal or athlete. Both Nathanial and I are faster than a t-rex :)

After fun exploring and a great dinner, it was time to head to class. I was a little apprehensive about what to expect. Would I be good at it? Would I be the only person attending alone?  I had no reason to be nervous; the teacher was incredible and the ladies at my table were so sweet!  The class lasted over three hours and a new hobby was born. I've been practicing several hours a day since.

It's been about a week and I've already gone through:

6 nibs, 1 pot of ink and lots of paper.

I've written the alphabet, names, song lyrics, random words and lots of Bible verses.  

For a few days, I kept writing "pickle" over and over again because my p and k needed some work. 

Want to help me practice? Leave something in the comments I can write for you. Favorite verse, movie quote - name it and I'll write it!

I'm a Survivor

Everyone is complaining about how much food they ate yesterday. Not me. I guess that's one benefit of the Whole 30. I survived a Super Bowl party with plantain chips and La Croix. 

Want to know what else survived the weekend? My flash drive. I had a major freak out on Friday afternoon when my laptop got knocked over with my flash drive inside. The tip of my flash drive, which happened to contain important and irreplaceable files from my career, broke off. 

Brilliant husband to the rescue. 

Nathanial mentioned it could be salvaged with some quick soldering. A trip to Radio Shack and Lowe's later and we were in business. 

Of course Nathanial didn't tell me until after he was finished that he was never very good at soldering. 

I don't think many things exist that he's not good at. I'm happy to report the files were retrieved and backed up. 

Two Years Down. A Lifetime to Go.

Nathanial and I celebrated our SECOND wedding anniversary on Sunday. We opted for something a little more low key because I'm doing the Whole 30 (more on that in a future post) and Nathanial's arms still have a ways to go from last weekend's accident. We'll take a trip to further celebrate in the next few months after things calm down work wise. 

The traditional theme for the second year gift is cotton.

I stuck with the theme and opted to make a basket. I had an item for each letter of cotton (t is for tickets) along with some actual cotton items. 

Nathanial didn't really embrace the theme at all but got me something that's been at the top of my wish list for a while- a ladder bookshelf. 

I love it! It's the perfect addition to my office/ craft room. Now all that room needs is a new paint job. 

Nathanial fixed an incredible dinner. Lamb isn't something I eat often, but if it's always that good, I may need to add it to the rotation. 

We capped off the evening by watching our wedding video and then Rambo because marriage is all about balance. 

Here's to many more years of married bliss and adventures!