My Anniversary Gift to Bruce

What exactly should you get your husband as an anniversary gift for year 13? Especially in a year when the schedule is as tight as the budget.

The traditional list for anniversary gifts suggests lace. And I can think of some fun ways to interpret that for a husband... but none that I would blog about. The modern list for anniversary gifts suggests textiles or fur. Let's just say, I didn't go that route either.

Instead, I gave him something very unconventional. He wasn't expecting it and it still made him smile the next morning when he saw it. What is this magical gift that makes him smile the next day and I can still blog about?

I cleaned our master bedroom.

Shocking. I know. I'm living on the edge here with my wild and crazy gifts. Seriously though, if you knew what I had to work with, you'd appreciate the 4 hours I spent working on the room to make it look like this:

The scroll work piece over the bed is new to us and I finally hung it up. This sort of thing is usually Bruce's job, but I did it and I'm very proud that I got it up level and even. Even better, I bought it at a yard sale for $5! I've seen these things sell for $45-50 elsewhere so I'm very proud of my deal.

Looking at the room this way, you can see one of my favorite pieces of art in the entire house. The gold plate on the dresser is from Hoy Poloi in Downtown Disney and was made by Stephen Schlanser. It was an anniversary gift to me several years ago, and I still feel as if I rarely live up to its sentiment.

(Image courtesy of Gallery Judaica, and his art used to cost a lot less than this!)

And in this picture you can see that we still haven't settled on a paint color for the walls. I'm leaning towards a warm taupe color since none of the blues really worked with our bedding.

A special thanks to my friend Amy too for watching the girls while I concentrated on making our bedroom something other than an oversized closet with a bed!