Yesterday Sam and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. My lovely husband sent me some beautiful flowers at work:

After work we went out for a nice dinner at Olive Garden (yum!) and then came home to the traditional 1st anniversary dessert:

The cake… well it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Kinda dry, but other than that it was okay. Not something I’d eat for kicks, but impressive for a year in the freezer.

We also had a bottle of grape juice that we bought at the Biltmore on our honeymoon. We hadn’t intended to keep it til our anniversary, but after we kept forgetting to drink it we decided just to save it for the special occasion. It hadn’t been opened so it was still good.

But the highlight was the freshly baked pineapple upside down cakes. That is by far my favorite type of cake. My grandmother called and asked me to stop by when I got off of work. I went over and she had just got done baking these two little cakes for us. SO good!

We both had a really great anniversary and I’m so blessed to have had Sam as my husband for the last year!

I’ve started getting more and more nostalgic lately for simple things that remind me of my childhood. That’s just a part of aging I suppose. I had a great wave of nostalgia at the end of last year when making the Cup Cozies that were a staple of my childhood at both my parents’ and grandparents’ homes. They’re so cute and useful.

Recently I’ve had thoughts about how useful little stools (that my great grandmother made out of juice cans) were. When I was little we would put a tray on them and eat off of them, we’d sit on them, we’d use them to reach something tall, to rest our feet…. I remember her making some when I was younger, but I don’t think I was ever around to see her make one. Unfortunately she passed away some years ago so I can’t learn from her directly. At Easter dinner I asked my family how she made them and got pretty good direction. Finally this weekend I took the time to sit down and make one. I’m REALLY happy with how it turned out, almost exactly how I remembered. It really warmed my heart to think that I was crafting something that my great-grandmother once made. Now I have something useful that will remind me of my family every time I make use of it. Plus, I think it’s totally cute too!