Anniversary celebrations

We were married June 4, 2004.  Last year was our 10th anniversary.  But we had a new baby, and didn't do much.

This year our anniversary falls the week we move cross-country, and we knew ahead of time that we wouldn't celebrate it properly.

So we decided to observe it a month early, on May 4th.  We... wait for it... hired a babysitter, went out to lunch, and saw the new Avengers movie.  But unbeknownst to the other, both of us decided to go big on the gifts.  We both happened to get the other custom art pieces!

Jonathan commissioned this amazing piece, below, delineating love in all our fandoms, in their fabulously correct fonts.  He found the artist online.  It's acrylic paint on wood with a silver frame:

In order, they are:

Star Wars

Firefly

Battlestar Galactica

X-Files

Princess Bride

Dr. Who

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Spiderman

Iron Man

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Lion King

Addams Family

I think he got them all save Lord of the Rings, and that's because he knew I'm not a big Aragorn/Arwen shipper, and the alternate pairings aren't nearly as well-known.  It's already hanging in my office, I put it up myself.

I commissioned a mixed media piece by someone I met quite randomly.  On the way back from Florida in February, I sat next to a woman who sells things on stampinup.net, a scrapbooking/artsy site.  She told me all about her teacher, Bonnie, who I then contacted after the plane landed.  Bonnie and I designed the below piece as a funky family portrait:

The lions are us, of course, and surrounding it are a heart, raised letters, the Hebrew phrase ani l'dodi v'dodi li, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine" from Song of Songs 6:3,  the words "discover, journey, explore," icons of travel in French and English, a nautical symbol, nature imagery and leaves, a star of David in a Celtic knot, and more.

My silly presentation.

Opening the gift.  You can really see the texture.

Up on our mantle.  (The 3rd baby book is on its way!)