5-Year Celebration

 It's a little on the late side, but I wanted to post a bit about our five-year anniversary celebration. We wanted to go on a trip but everything about life was conspiring against it. Instead we headed out to the artful Stove restaurant in Portsmouth. The restaurant is a creative, idiosyncratic take on Southern food, decorated with the owner/chef's distinct flair. The art reminds me of early 90s Nickelodeon cartoons in the best way!

 I sipped on a pineapple sage martini...

And Sean enjoyed a Pork-a-Rama, a plate loaded with house-made sausage, slow-roasted pork belly, ham on "smoochie bear" ham, stove sauce and topped with pork belly jam.

 I had shrimp and grits, with the delicious house-made pimento cheese.

 And topped the night off with a rosemary cocktail, too.

My favorite decor element: Seussian vases loaded with flowers, mounted to the wall. Inspiring!

And we finished our anniversary weekend by purchasing a new car! It seems more exciting than it really is. The sad part of adult life is that buying a new car is rarely a treat for yourself; it's brought on by months or weeks of limping along in a car you were really hoping would last longer. But the good news is that every time I walk by the car, I think to myself, "Gosh, that is pretty." Life certainly could be worse.