A Year of Dates

Thanks April for posting! It is great to see your mad skills! :)

So for my craft sharing this week I thought I'd share a little in the dating realm. I don't know if you and your hubby or boyfriend are anything like us, but we have the darnedest time trying to come with dates on a monthly basis, let alone weekly. So when I saw this idea on Pintrest I couldn't resist putting my own together. The idea from Pintrest originally came from Find Joy in the Journey.

And an ahead apology that I didn't do this post before the beginning of the year in case you'd want to do it too, but even if you do want to do it, you could still make it a years worth, just start with Feb, or even March, and hey, this could also be a great Valentines Gift, eh?

So the idea is pretty basic. You get 12 manila folders and label for each month of the year (whenever you start the year, it wouldn't matter, and you could even do six months if you wanted). Then you load each envelop with at least one specific date that you could do for that month. This can take a little extra time and planning out, especially if you can think of specific events that happen only in certain months, maybe you could get tickets for that event and save it in the envelop? Or get gift cards at certain restaurants, so that money is set aside just for that date for that particular restaurant. You options are endless based on the town you live in, and if you have a hard time like we do to get out of the house because we don't like to have scrounge for a babysitter, you can also plan the dates to be at home. So to give you a little more of an example of how this works, this what I did:

 I had a little extra cash from Christmas time, so I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of random things, or games, or cookie mixes, or magic tricks, or poppers, or coloring books and then I got a few gift cards for a few of our favorite places. I know a lot of these items are cheesy and cheap, but I am pretty sure they will still add for some great fun.

 Then I laid the folders out along our couches, Jan- Dec, and then "mapped" it out for each activity that we could do for each month. Then with the little bit of cash I had left over I added to some envelops to help add to extra fun if we wanted to use it. (I also subtracted all the cash that I put in the random months from our budget, so that when we open each envelop with a little extra cash, it will be like a little bonus, we wont have to factor into our budget, like winning a little lottery...kind of :-)

I tried putting items that best fit that sort of month, like the candles in this picture I put for Feb, so we could do a candle lit dinner, wherever we'd like, in relating to Valentines day. Or for Jan, I put in a little cash so we could go Ice skating (which we actually went sledding instead, since we haven't done that yet together, and the crappy $5 sled didn't last more than 10 runs, beware of the cheap sleds at walmart!!).

So far this has been a great addition to our date life, since we are such boring people that need a little extra spark and spice and random to our date ideas. The great thing about this is you can make it match you and your significant other in any way you'd like. And you don't necessarily have to spend a lot, or even at all, just plan ahead. For reference on this little project, I spent about $30 at the dollar store (which I really probably could have spent MUCH less, I was just getting a little carried away!) And then I spent around $20 on random gift cards, and then had a little left over cash to disperse between other months. You don't have to spend this much, or you can spend more all depending on what sort of things you'd like to venture out and do with your man!

So anyway, there you have it! A lovely gift that goes a long way!! Oh and a little side note, I also made a date idea box (sorry, no picture, I will try to add one soon, if I remember :). I just got a recipe box and filled it (LITERALLY!) with date ideas on 3x5 cards. I wrote each idea small on the top of the card, so that when we do the dates, we can write about how it went, as like a journal sort of thing too. I googled, pintrest, and even facebook-ed to friends for cheap date ideas and filled up the box, I have probably over a 100 ideas in there, maybe one of these days I will just make a new post on just on that, and I can share the lovely list I put together in case you'd like to do this too. It has been fun and handy to have around so that when we get in the stump of what to do, we just pick a card, any card!

Okay, that's all I have for today! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Until next time!. . . ..

Let's have a Ball!

I love the fall time. I am not sure the reasons for it, but there is just such a special feeling about it. Going off these fun special feelings, our family is starting a fun new tradition.

We were discussing it over on how fun it would be to have our own family annual ball. And what a better time to do it than the fall!

I think the idea of this whole Ball idea clicked for us based on our very first date together way back in high school (it was for a school dance...nonetheless in the fall!)

Then we had our own special dance at our wedding (almost in the fall...)

Then our first full year here at school we went to a Mascaraed Ball, and yes, it was in the Fall!!

Back when I was big and preggo!

With lots of fun decorations!...

So since we have a history with dancing in the fall, and now with a little kiddo (so its harder to get out), we thought it would be fun to make an official family tradition but at home! So here is this years First Jacob Fall Ball in action. . .

This year I actually made it as a surprise, or at least the decorations part, so I timed a decoration run while he was at work, for how long it would take me to put it all together, so for the real night I would know how long I would need while I had Michael run to the store and get something....then SURPRISE! (and it only took me like 7 minutes to whip it all together. . .not bad eh?)

Then here is the decorations of the actual night. ..

You can't have a Ball without a disco ball! I made this by making a paper mache balloon, let it dry, then I wrapped it/glued tin foil on, then I cut up old CDs and glued them on, Wall-ah! A lovely disco ball we can now use for other future balls too!

Then I spread our lovely dance floor with fake rose petals that I got for a $1 at the dollar store, and cut out with construction paper flowers and hearts

Then to have some more fun in reminiscing of our past, since we had a carriage at our wedding. . . .

I made a little carriage as part of the decorations and we also looked at the book Michael made to propose to me with inside our carriage. All I did for this was get large white poster board, cut them out like wheels, then I put our big exercising ball on our dinning table and threw a fitted sheet over the top to hold the ball in place and to give it a fun rounded sort of look. . . .

What do you think? I also thumb tacked sheets to the ceiling to give some fun draping looks (I know its a little cheesy, but that's why its at home for just our family :)

Then remember our little bench? I took off the leaves from my fall decorations and Velcroed hearts to it, then I also tapped stars to the leaves I hung.

Then also at the dollar store I found this lovely plastic glass set and little miniature Sparkling Cider (which worked great since I really don't like soda type stuff, this little thing was the perfect size!)

Then I displayed our lovely crowns, from our wedding, and we wore them later for fun!

I also made us little white sign things. . . . I can't think of what they are called, but you know, the things Miss America wears, well I made some for us too, just for fun! :)

It was "Royally" a fun night! This year Addie didn't join us for our Fall Ball cuz I think she is too little to enjoy and she was in bed, but come next year and on, this won't just be a fun date night, it will become a family event!

Anyway, so there you have it! Sorry for not posting this last week, it got a little busy trying to cram on finishing our costumes. .. which I finally finished! And will also share those with you this week too! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!