{three cheers for three years}

Today marks three years since our wonderful wedding in China. And to celebrate three special years together, we've immortalised ourselves onto china! 

Inspired by Donna Wilson's Meg and Beardy plates (which I wrote about here), we loved the idea of a more personal set, that we can eat off or hang on the wall as we fancy. I found Porcelaine pens on sale at the craft shop, and we used two plain white plates that a previous tenant had left in Justin's apartment many years ago. Nice.

Yes, this is Justin writing me a card in front of me. I've accepted that this is how he works. At 8:30am on whatever birthday, anniversary or celebration it might be, Justin runs to Walmart to pick a card. And then writes it while I watch!

We sketched out our designs for the plates on paper first.

And set about trying to make the silly pens work. We shook. And shook. And shook. We pressed. And pressed. And pressed. The brown worked well, for a few minutes. The black never really got going. And the red was only good for giant uncontrollable splodges. I'm not very impressed with Porcelaine.

But, we persevered, and really enjoyed it. Especially the splodging of cheeks!

Here's a photo of us for reference. I was drawing Justin as he was three years ago, i.e. with the facial hair. More of a Goatee than a Beardy. He was drawing me after a day of sunbathing, I think -- hence all the freckles!

And, just because I gave RoboPanda such a bad rap last time I mentioned him, here he is looking sweet. In truth, he's one of the funniest presents Justin's gotten me. And probably the most talked about. (But no, I don't want the big Mama Panda version, as Justin sometimes threatens to buy me!)

Thanks to all those who were there to celebrate with us in Beijing, and to all those who've helped us grow stronger over these last three years. We love you!

{two part harmony}

Do you remember my idea for a handmade book telling the story of how Justin and I met? Well, good old Justin dutifully did his homework and filled out all of his pages, as did I, and so I set about harmonising those two very different sets of answers to the same questions.

I'm not a hoarder of (too) many things, but we do have a sizable stack of old number plates, which I thought would lend themselves perfectly to making covers for our little book. We met in Arizona, hence the front cover. It was the number plate to my first car -- 765, Yeh! And the back cover is a Texas plate, to show where we are now.

So, onto the stories. I laid the book out so that Justin's version and my version of each story faced each other, for easy comparison of details. Not surprisingly, each of my pages is full of text. Justin is much more minimal, but also much more exact. While I waffle on about what constitutes a "first date", Justin gives an address for the cinema we went to...

...and isn't afraid to restate the important facts (i.e. that his team won at Human Battleship!)



With the text pages facing each other, the backsides of each page were blank. So I added a few photos that seemed significant. Yes, I know, I was born to be a Texan...

Some of our answers were pretty similar, with only small differences in dates and details. However, it turned out that our stories of our wedding couldn't have been more different. While I described our beautiful wedding by the Great Wall, surrounded by friends and family, Justin gave his account of our legal ceremony, back in Tucson. Check out his memories. Seriously, a born romantic.

(The very top question is "when was the wedding?", in case you're wondering!)

But it's wonderful to have memories of both days written down. And, can you believe, I never noticed that our judge only had one arm. I was too focused on being in love. Or maybe too worried about getting mugged?

Each page is simply laid out in Pages (with text-box 4" wide and justified to one side), printed out onto medium-weight cardstock, trimmed to 5.5" wide, and then punched with two holes. The book is bound together with circular binder rings, which can be found at craft shops. This will allow us to add in more pages as we want, and to continue our story. 

I'm already looking forward to reading Justin's account of Tilly's birth, and I've got this photo to stick in somwhere:

We took it at Dave and Busters years ago. It's supposed to predict what our baby would look like. Granted, it's a boy, but not even close to how Tilly turned out. Shows what arcades know about genetics.

I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse of our seven-or-so years together, both from my point of view, and from my dear funny Justin's perspective. I'm sure we'll enjoy reading back over these over the years!

{finer china}

Justin and I will have been married for three years next Saturday. And this year, we're switching it up a bit, and taking a break from the whole trying to surprise each other with presents thing (which, let's face it, can be pretty stressful for everyone -- poor Justin worrying that he'll get me something I don't like, and poor me worrying that I might be opening another RoboPanda. Go on, click on it. Yes, he really bought me that.)

So, what we're doing this year is starting a collection. I got very inspired by all these lovely hand-drawn plates, and thought that the fact that we were married in China the country meant that we can have china the plate as our little theme every year. (Rather than having to find something leather for our third year, as tradition would have us do!)

Meg plate and Beardy plate, by Donna Wilson

Blossom and Bill tray, by Isak

Summer Pizza Plate by nitchii

Bear plate and Wolf plate, by jimbobart

Nestled Mini-Dishes by baileybowls

So, I offered Justin the choice: we could treat ourselves to a fun designer plate from the selection above, or we could have a go at drawing our own. (I'm not sure which option I was hoping he'd choose!) 

He picked making our own, and so that's what we'll be doing during one of Tilly's naps next Saturday. We both love the idea of recreating Donna Wilson's Meg and Beardy, but as portraits of each other. I love Beardy's beard, so might be painting an earlier, hairier version of Justin. We'll see. 

We'll be sure to show you the results!

{a love story in two parts}

As our third wedding anniversary approaches, I'm planning a little book of us -- a handmade little collection of memories of how Justin and I met, our first date, our trips together, our story.

The problem with writing our story is that there are many details that we remember differently. Justin would say that we met on my birthday, a week into the fall semester; I would swear that we met four days after my birthday, the weekend before classes started. Maybe you and your partner are the same way?

So, I thought I'd try to come up with a way to tell the story from both points of view. How he tells it, how I tell it, next to each other. The whole truth.

At the moment, we're still in the data collection phase. I've jotted down a few prompts -- when, where, favourite parts -- and packed one copy up for Justin to take off on his next business trip. Yes, complete with a pen, so there's no excuse for him not to fill them out!

How exactly it'll come together, I'm not sure yet. Hand-written, printed? With photos, souvenirs, and maps? I've been itching to try binding books -- any advice, for a complete beginner?

So Much Love

There are some people who would go to the ends of the Earth for you.

Okay, China might not quite be the end of the Earth, but I'd say it's pretty close when most people were coming from America, England, or Denmark.

And when I think back to our wedding day, as well as being filled with love for my husband, I'm overcome with how much I love all of the people who made such an effort to be with us on that special day.

Immediate family, second cousins,

friends from childhood, friends from university,

some people I hadn't seen in years.

But somehow, over the course of the week of sight-seeing and fun before the wedding, it stopped being important how exactly people were related, or how long it had been since we'd seen each other. All that mattered was that we were in Beijing together, and that each of these people had chosen to be there with us.

No doubt making sacrifices of time, money, and other plans to do so.

And I feel so incredibly grateful to these people, who showed us that our family really means something to them. It's not just a word you use to define how so-and-so is related to you, it's a real bond that drives you to be active and connect and show those people that they matter to you.

So, this date reminds me not just of the beginning of my marriage, but of the wonderful family I have, who don't just say they 'would' go to the end of the Earth for me, but have done it, and proved it, and are stamped on my heart in a way that won't ever be forgotten.

Two Years

Two years ago today

with the Great Wall of China just visible

through the mist of the mountains behind us

we were married

Two years ago today

with our family and friends smiling

beneath pink parasols beside us

we started our life together

Two years ago today

we would never have dreamt

we'd be so blessed

and about to become three