8 Years!!

Our anniversary was exactly a week ago, but I couldn’t publish this until now, for reasons that will be explained below.

 

First of all, here we are 8 years later.  Unfortunately, I do not have any of my wedding pictures digitized to show you here.  Actually, that’s probably for the best, as I suffer in comparison with a younger, pre-pregnancy self who had just spent $$ on my hair and make up and even more $$$$ on a fantastic photographer to record that  day.  Here, it is 10pm and I am holding the camera in front of us for that unique I’m-holding-the-camera-myself angle.

 

But here’s what I am really excited about.  The traditional gift for the 8th anniversary is pottery.  So we went to a ceramic store where you pick out the item you want to paint, then decorate away with the paints, stencils, and sponges stocked at the store.   Then you leave it there and come back a week later to a fired piece of pottery.

Dwayne and I originally thought we paint for about an hour and then have dinner at our favorite restaurant, Sages.  Two and a half hours later, I had to leave to pick up the kids and Dwayne stayed almost another hour to finish his work of art. 

This experience almost perfectly typlifies the differences between Dwayne and I.   He chose a more elegant, beautiful (and expensive) piece.  He then researched themes, sketched his ideas out, traced perfect circles on the platter, traced and drew his design on the platter, began meticulously painting it, using sponge and brush techniques, and had a nearly perfect piece when it was done.

 

   

 

Then, after the firing:

 

Dwayne will point out the imperfections, but I think it is interesting, bold, and beautiful.

In contrast, I chose a simple dinner plate.  I painted one side my favorite color of green (to match the walls of my kitchen) and the other same shade of red to match my regular dishes.  I had in mind the “Special” plates I had seen before—a plate that the birthday person or new graduate or gold-star winner would get to eat from for the day.

I plunged into the project by painting the base color first, and then thinking about how to get the letters on.  After I asked the person who worked there her advice, I scrapped off the paint with a stylus to reveal the first layer of white pottery.   Then it didn’t look that interesting, so I grabbed some squeezable white paint and free-handed some designs, half-heartedly copying from some store display samples.  When I went back with the stylus to define the lettering, the excess red paint got mixed into the white “icing” I had done around the edges.  I know from past project experience that any attempt to fix that would result in a mess, a ugly project, and a potential heartache, so I left it.

The finished product:

So Dwayne does a lot more planning, uses real designs to create a unique art piece that comes from his own imagination and talent.  His projects take time and money.  (Think backyard—retaining walls and staircase.)

I jump into a project, steal ideas like crazy, leave lots of imperfections, and complete the project in a timely manner.  (Think any room of our house.)

And I really like how both of our projects turned out.