Friday Five - Wedding Edition! (Part I)

We received so many AMAZING gifts at our wedding - the most amazing of which, obviously, was being able to celebrate with our friends and family. In addition, we've been having a LOT of fun with our new wedding gifts and I'd love to share a few of my favorites with you guys every week. I already mentioned the yogurt maker from Ben's mom, which we use all the time, but here are a few others that we've been enjoying lately:

1.
Awesome Adam Turman print of Target Field
Our friends know us too well... this gorgeous framed print by local artist Adam Turman is now hanging in the living room next to Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb, so that particular corner has quickily become the Baseball Shrine.

2.
"From the Deep" Stoneware
These were actually on our registry... we skipped china and silver and went for regular old dishes instead...but these are quirky dishes and I love them. They remind me all at once of Treasure Island, Pirates of the Carribbean and maybe Moby Dick.

Please not that the teacup handle is a tentacle. Love. It.


Back of the dinner plate


One version of the salad plate - Puffer Fish (we also have some with a striped fish)


Back of the salad plate (the back of the Striped Fish plate has the fish's tail continuing around the side and onto the back of the plate - also awesome).

3.
French Tablecloth
Ooh la la! Hehe. This tablecloth from my friend Tessa and her parents is a bit long for our dining room table, but that isn't stopping us from using it! The matching napkins (which I don't have in the picture unfortunately) are really beautiful, too. And check out those flower centerpieces... a little dried out but still hanging in there!

4.
First Year of Marriage Memories Book
This has to be the most creative gift we received. Ben's lifelong friend Krista, who was a groomswoman in the wedding, and her boyfriend Paul gave us what at first appears to be just an ordinary antique book - which is great, because we love books...

...but when we opened it, we realized it was much, much more than just a book.

She even scattered pictures of the two of us (copied and printed off of Facebook I'm guessing) throughout the pages - this first one is when Ben proposed to me in India. He was very sneaky in having our tour guide take this photo, but I'm so glad we have it because I know we will cherish it forever.

We filled the first pocket already - with my plane ticket from my business trip and momentos from the Harry Potter Party on Saturday.

5.
Sara Teasdale Poems
...and it's a first edition advanced copy. NO idea where my friend Rachel found this, but apparently she saw it just a few weeks after finding out Ben and I were engaged, and it practically fell of the shelf and into her hand (metaphorically speaking). The poems are beautiful - I only wish we'd had it earlier so we could have used one for a reading!

The Tree of Song
I sang my songs for the rest,
For you I am still;
The tree of my song is bare
On its shining hill.

For you came like a lordly wind,
And the leaves were whirled
Far as forgotten things
Past the rim of the world.

The tree of my song stands bare
Against the blue --
I gave my songs to the rest,
Myself to you.

In other news, the temperature has finally calmed down to a much more reasonable 85 degrees (as opposed to 105 for the last week or so). The dew point is still a little out of control, but at least now it doesn't feel like a tropical jungle. Thankfully there are still hilarious signs like this one at the Uptown Theater to make me laugh: