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Birthday Jeopardy (and the best gift ever)

I love birthdays. I can thank my mother for that. She always made our birthdays wonderful. They are one day a year you get to feel special, or make someone you love feel special. Yesterday was Brian’s birthday, so I came up with a fun way to give him the gifts I’d gotten him.

BIRTHDAY JEOPARDY!

Birthday Jeopardy

I made a full Jeopardy board (Brian loves that show & trivia games) and came up with 31 questions to go with it! I  did one round, plus final jeopardy. Each category had a gift associated with it. My favorite category was: Tina, you “fat” lard. All of the answers had the word “fat” in them. And yes, the next category was Come get some dinner.

Here’s an example:

Tina, you “fat” lard

Watching, thinking of, hearing about or listening to Game of Thrones makes Jess this 8-letter word for tired.

What is ‘fat’igued?

Ding ding ding! For that question, B got the newest Game of Thrones book.

The best category and corresponding gift was in final Jeopardy.

Golden Retrievers

Jess’ three golden retrievers were all named after movie characters. Name the three films.

What are The Land Before Time, Indiana Jones and Ratatouille. 

Buzzzz. B got this wrong (he didn’t know my first dog Sarah was named after Sarah the Triceratops in the Land Before Time. Rookie…. Also, Remmy isn’t really named after the rat in Ratatouille. But it worked so well for the clue!).

Since it was his birthday, he still got his gift.

Birthday Portrait

A custom portrait of Remmy!

So this is basically the best, most amazing, adorable gift ever. As a blogger a super small small smallllll business owner (really, I can’t even claim that.. but whatevs), I always love to share other fantastic small businesses. I bought this print from Kathryn Selbert Illustrations, who has a shop on Etsy. I sent her three pictures of our pup with a few details, and she made this graphic drawing, basically combining all three into one adorable cartoonified Rem. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. I ordered this for B on Nov. 4, originally planning to give this to him for Christmas. But she sent me the file on Sunday (you can opt to print your own or she’ll send you a print) and I had it printed just in time for his birthday! Talk about amazing timing.

Here are the photos I sent her:

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Here’s the illustration she made:

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Is she talented or what?!? I love that she pulled in Rem’s bandana (which I think has since been destroyed) and that his big ol’ tongue is hanging out. I also love that it looks like a watercolor painting.

Let’s be honest, this was a gift for me just as much as it was a gift for Brian. We both love it. It’s definitely one of my favorite gifts I’ve ever given.

Kathryn has all sorts of other adorable illustrations available in her shop, so you should definitely check them out. She does two-week turnarounds, so there’s still plenty of time left to order your pet portraits before the holidays!

OK, I’m done raving now. Happy day-after-your-birthday to my main squeeze. Glad you liked your birthday game & gifts.

If you want to check out Brian’s other fun birthday “game,” check out my post on his beer scavenger hunt!

 

Life

A wedding and a birthday

My friend (and sophomore year roommate) got married last weekend! She looked beautiful. We had a wonderful time celebrating Liz & Chris last weekend.

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This weekend we celebrated our little buddy Declan’s 2nd birthday!

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Is he adorable or what? It seems like we were just celebrating his first birthday yesterday.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Life

Happy anniversary, A Smith of All Trades

Blogging anniversary

Holy cow, it’s my one-year blogging anniversary!

I started on this venture a year ago today after many months of trying hard to decide on a name. My coworkers had suggestions and we even had a white board in our kitchen with a running list of ideas. When I finally came up with a name I liked (I couldn’t sleep one night and A Smith of All Trades popped into my head), I started blogging pretty much immediately and haven’t slowed down since.

In 365 days:

  • I’ve written 274 posts — that’s a 75 percent posting rate!!
  • I’ve had 142,379 views
  • I’ve gotten 430 comments
  • I have 94 followers (which is more than I thought I had) on WordPress
  • I have 165 “likes” on Facebook

I have had a ton of fun in my first year of blogging all thanks to you, my readers. I know a lot of my readers are friends and family. It means the world to me that you guys come to my blog to show your support and keep in touch since life is always so crazy busy. And for those of you who I don’t personally know, you guys are awesome, too. The fact that you’ve stopped by once or keep coming back for more (especially since you have no obligation!)– well, that’s the reason I love to do this. I love getting your feedback on projects and hearing what you are up to.

I am very much looking forward  to my next year writing on A Smith of All Trades. I hope you’re ready to join me for another fun, project-filled year. If there is something you’d like to see from me, please let me know! As always, I love to hear from you all.

Here’s to another year!

-Jess