Birthday

Recently The Beard had a birthday and like any good girlfriend I wanted to make sure we celebrated in style! So I covertly booked us a room at the Alexander Hotel downtown and put it in our shared calendar.

Calendar Side Note: If you and your significant other don’t have a shared calendar system on your phones I highly recommend it! We use the google calendar app and that allows us to share our schedules with each other. Add that unexpected meeting, or that extra work shift, that doctor’s appointment, or block out a weekend on the calendar so nothing else is schedule because we are having a date night! It eliminates confusion, frustration and the argument that you did indeed mention that we are having dinner with your parents.

The hotel turned out to be amazing and we would gladly stay there again! It was a chic art boutique type hotel. Was that enough adjectives for you? Basically it was awesome! Let me give you a tour of our room.

See I told you it was amazing! I also brought along some flameless candles for ambiance.

So back to the birthday celebrations! I picked up some GF cookies from Baked and his favorite cold brew from Uel Zing for in room feasting.

We dressed up and went downstairs to the Cerulean Restaurant.

Being a special occasion we wanted to try lots of things on the menu, although to be honest we usually do that anyways. Pork, Lamb, Goat, basically all the major food groups.

Present Time! I wanted to make something special for The Beard and this year I decided to make him a table with all the GPS coordinates of our hikes.

Good news: He loved it! I also included a pair of Navy and Leather Chukka Boots, a new dress shirt from express, a mustache trimming kit and a Tile Tracker Wallet Edition.

If you’ve never heard of the tile tracker, it’s a pretty amazing invention. They make them to attach to your keys, purse, inside your wallet etc., and their location shows up on an app on your phone. Once you are within the vicinity they make noise, allowing you to find your misplaced items! Occasionally The Beard plays hide n seek with his stuff and this little device will help him win the game! Tile Tracker Tile Wallet Tracker

We had breakfast at Yolk, a cute cafe attached to the back of the hotel. The food was delicious but my favorite was the strawberry orange juice!

Some of the art in the parking garage.

We had a great birthday get-a-way. I’m a lucky girl to have such an amazing partner and I will never stop making the effort to make him feel special!

May, May go away…not really but I am getting tired! May is a busy month for me. It includes my Fathers birthday, Mother’s Day, my Mother’s Birthday, my parent’s anniversary and three of my cousin’s are graduating high school this year! Technically while not in May, my sister’s birthday is June 3rd, which I feel still should count as part of the mayhem!

So while I may be running ragged, I thought you should at least benefit from some of my gift ideas!

For Mother’s Day I decided to we would do brunch. Last year I went all out and made brunch at my house complete with springy place settings. This year, I decided to take her out to a local restaurant called Feast. It’s a super cute cafe and she was excited since as she put it, “I never get to go to places like this!” Another lovey dovey note: The Beard and I had our first date on Pi Day. So being the incredible guy that he is, he decided to bring me a pie! After calling all over town he found a place that sold pies, and it happened to be this very cafe! *Insert awes*

Mother’s Day in our town falls on the same weekend as the university’s graduation. That means thousands of people descending upon us taking up parking, getting confused by one way streets and stealing all the reservations at every restaurant all weekend! Thankfully, we timed our brunch when the graduation ceremony was to begin, so we got a table right away!

I quickly learned their chai latte’s were amazing! Although I ordered a jumbo, which is basically a mug the size of your face, I was sorely tempted to order another round. My name is Jessica, and I have a tea obsession.

My mother tends to gravitate towards primitive, rustic style decor and when I saw this sign from Eco Flower I knew it would be perfect! If you haven’t heard of Eco Flower, they are amazing! They make floral arrangements from wood and paper. The flowers on this sign are made from wood and scented with blackberry vanilla.

This gift was a big hit and she sent me pictures that weekend of it hanging in her bedroom! As for my Dad, he’s a very easy going guy. I could put a giant tin of cashews in front of him and he’d be happy for days!

For several months my Dad had made mention of a tree that he passed during his occasional travels down south. He had wanted to stop and take a picture of it for months and never had the time until a few weeks ago. Being the good daughter that I am, I decided to get it matted and framed, along with a certificate for golf lesson for his birthday. He was so ecstatic! Although he’d been talking about golf lessons for over a year, he was more excited about the picture and immediately hung it up in his office.

I’m half way through the month, and after several deep breaths, stress away essential oils, and wonderful massages from The Beard, I think I will survive! Stay tuned for my awesome grad gift ideas! (They don’t graduate till this weekend!)

Beauty And The Beard

A Very Bearded Birthday

Mayhem of May