Baby Step Kind of Week

WHEW!!!!

This was not a week of breezing through projects... it was not a week of setting small stones and making small leather projects.

It was EPIC. Which (according to my wise and beautiful sister Julie) means it had elements of both profound joy and terrible awfulness.

I cannot share pictures of the bags with you as they're not really done per se, but they are so gorgeous and they make me so proud and so full inside that I look back on Wednesday's post and realize that I was so right about the fact that while you're in the thick of repetitive motion and riveting and punching holes and tooling large areas you cannot feel the joy of the completion - now that they're about done I cannot stop the silly grin I've got going all afternoon.

One thing I can show you is a ring using one of the most amazing opals I've ever come across: it's a doozy!!

Oh deary me, what a joy that creates: a design come to fruition for someone I hold dear.

This weekend Anthony and I are going to Monterey for our anniversary trip and my birthday, which are on the same day - I do nothing halfway!

I cannot wait to share tidepool pictures with you and feed you a bite of gnocchi from The Whaling Station through the computer screen...

I also cannot believe my husband and I are one year old. I could never begin to express how deeply and completely he has touched my heart and nurtures my soul.

Our love is a miracle in my life.... 

here's to many many more years of love and adventure with that adorable, intellectual, quiet-and-yet-not-at-all-quiet, delicious man of mine.

Shalom!!!!

P.S. - Can I share a little story with you?

When I first met Anthony he was working at Electronic Arts, where I was a receptionist for two years. I fell for him in the most gradual, natural way after a self-imposed vacation from dating anyone.

Each day that passed he simply grew more and more adorable - I mean, look at the guy - he's the cutest!!

One day we finally went on our first date after a few lunches out: lunches where I was so nervous that I would ask if we could grab burritos and walk, as I was too jittery to sit at a table opposite him and actually, you know, talk!

On April 9th, 2006, Anthony picked me up and took me to a Japanese/Korean barbecue where we ate and kind of had a hard time with conversation because we were BOTH so nervous by now.

As we waited for our car to come back from Valet (oh, Los Angeles...) I was struck by how badly I wanted him to put his arms around me.

He was beautifully tall and he smelled really nice, like Polo...

When he dropped me off in front of my apartment I was as giddy and strange as a crane fly - now, normally I was smooth and easy to converse with, easy to kiss, easy to laugh, but tonight I was awkward, gangly and slow to process simple things - this was new!

I turned to him and without a word I grabbed his face and kissed him hard on the lips, barely mumbled 'goodnight' and left the car at a quick clip.

Anthony sweetly refers to it as our first drive-by kiss.

The End.