TGIF

I have a busy but fun weekend ahead of me because.....

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND! (Chris and I are born two days apart so I don't get a birthday. I get a birth week or weekend depending on where it falls, which works for me because I absolutely LOVE my birthday.)

The festivities start tonight with a candle party that my bestest's mom is hosting. Big plans to buy myself a early present.

Saturday we a getting up and heading downtown for a baseball game, then meeting Chris' family for dinner here:

and then hiting the Royal Canadian Exhibition for an evening of games, shopping and more food (I'm pretty sure the wedding diet is on hold for this weekend. It's my birthday.)

Sunday is my actual birthday and I have no big plans yet. Maybe a mani/pedi date in the morning with my mommy. I know there is a family BBQ scheduled for some point, and hopefully Chris has something up his sleeve. Possibly taking me to see this (shameless hinting happening right now):



Cannot wait for this day to end!

Hope everyone else has an awesome weekend planned!

Summer Blues

It's coming to that time of year again. The days are getting shorter. It's getting colder.

Lately I have seen several of my favourite bloggers posting about their excitement about the impending end of summer, and the beginning of fall.

I'm always conflicted at this time of year.

I like fall because it means this:

Pretty colours

Fall Fashion

Warm Boots

And scarves

Fall TV

Unfortunately it also means the end of this:

Summer Fashion:

Hot Weather:

And the rapid arrival of this:

Yeah I think I will keep my mini skirts, tank tops and warm weather.

Wedding Wednesday - Registry!

This week for Wedding Wednesday I'm talking about our wedding registry.

This is something we were putting off big time. We don't currently live together and our plans are still a bit up in the air, so I figured this would be both frustrating and a giant argument waiting to happen.

But with only 9 months to go, I really needed to get on this as I know talks about my shower are in the works (yes loving bridesmaids. Your not as sneaky as you think you are.) So a couple of weeks ago we sucked it up, got in the car and went to Sears to at least get the registry started.

Boy was I wrong about the whole process. This was probably the most fun I have had since I started planning this wedding two and a half years ago. It's like shopping without spending any money.

I will admit to getting a bit out of control with the scanner. There was an incident with a cute tea set that wasn't priced but I scanned anyway. I think it totaled about 1000.00. Chris won't leave me with the scanner ever again.

Anyways, it feels great to have this at least started, with plans to finalize it within the next couple of weeks.

And seeing as nothing makes you want to buy and decorate a house more then scanning things to put in it, I figured I would show you some of the ideas that my registry has inspired.

For example, my duvet has made me long for a bedroom that will one day look like this:

And my red appliances have me dreaming of a kitchen that looks like this:

or this:

That's what I have so far, but I'm sure as my registering continues I will get lots of ideas for my hypothetical bathroom and living room.

Stayed tuned and happy Wednesday!!

New York, New York

I got back from my trip to New York a week ago and there is only one way to describe it.

I LOVE NEW YORK!!!!

I believe I had a bad perception of New York before I actually went there. After spending three day there, I believe that the media portrays the city as violent and dirty, and pretty much somewhere I didn't want to be. The bestest and her mom (who is pretty much my second mother. Seriously this woman is amazing.) go every year (her mom and her bestest actually plan the whole trip and it's a lot of work. I honestly doubled my respect for both of them after this weekend. I would not have the patience to put together what they do). Anyways, they got me there this year, and my opinion of the city has changed. It is so beautiful, and SO clean, I actually found it cleaner than my hometown.

We were only there from Thursday Morning (after spending 10 hours, overnight, on a bus) until Saturday night (before spending 10 hours, overnight, on a bus) but our days were fully packed so we got to experience as much as humanly possible. It was overwhelming. And exhausting. And the most amazing trip I have ever been on.

I'm going to do my recaps by day, only because we did SO much and I don't want my post to be a novel.

First up Thursday:

Thursday was a bit rough as we spend the whole night on the bus, changed at a McDonalds and literally jumped off the bus the minute we got there, hopped on the subway and went shopping (what can I say? The bestest and I have priorities and there wasn't a whole lot of time.)

Quick stop at Times Square before shopping

Even being as exhausted as I was, waking up and seeing a view like this is 100% worth it.

Crappy picture taken through a bus window. But you get the point

We had about 2 hours before we had to be back at the hotel for a film and television tour (during which I managed to buy both a purse and a necklace....neither of which I have pictures of. I'll try for the next post.)

The film and television tour was probably the thing I was looking forward to the most. I have said before that Chris and I watch a lot of movies, so I was excited to see some of the locations. I took a million pictures, and looking back, can't remember what movie half of them are in. Fail. Next time I need to take notes. Here are some pictures of the locations I do remember.

Our tour guide was apparently on American Idol. I don't remember him. Maybe you do??

House from "I Am Legend:"


Firehouse from "Ghostbusters"


The Bestest and I on the steps of the Cosby House


Apartment from "Friends"

After the film and television tour we had time for a quick dinner (Olive Garden. Yum. So wish we still had these in Canada.) We then met the rest group and headed to the top of the rock. This was my favourite part of the whole trip. The view up there is phenomenal. We went right at sunset so that made it even better. I'll leave you with some pictures, which honestly does no justice to how beautiful it actually was.

My Mommy, her bestest and I

The bestest and I

And that was my Thursday in New York City! Up next: Early Mornings, Brooklyn and dresses!

Wedding Wednesday: Honeymoon!

As the wedding gets closer and closer the top two questions that I seem to get asked are

1) Where will you be living? and
2) Where will the honeymoon be?

The answer to question one is still who knows! Although we have some thoughts, plans and ideas floating around, we still have nothing set in stone. I'm starting to see why couples move in together before the wedding, because doing it all at the same time is quite stressful.

The answer to question two we have finally made a decision on!

To begin, Chris and I are by far not "beach" people. I could probably lie on a beach for a couple of days and be fine, but Chris by far would not be. Chris is adventurous so he would be antsy to leave the resort (not going to happen), swim in the ocean (no thanks), scuba dive (again, I'd prefer not to see the things underneath me), and a plethora of other things including but not limited to parasailing, boating, exploring....

On top of this, the wonderful man I am going to marry is very often sweating and hot in 40 below weather. Therefore, forcing him to suffer on a beach would probably be the equivalent of torture. So the whole beach themed honeymoon was ruled out fairly quick (can you say disaster waiting to happen?)

Once this was decided we started considering other options. My top three dream destinations are:

1) Venice, Italy - (Big wedding....therefore too expensive)
2) Hawaii - see above
3) Ireland (Chris has family in Ireland. I'm on my honeymoon. Not. Going. To. Happen.

As you can see we put a lot of thought into this, and it was starting to become frustrating. We were beginning to become resigned to the fact that the only thing we could do that would be both a happy compromise and affordable was a cruise.

Until a couple of weeks ago when we decided that we would be going here:

Boston.

Here are some reasons why:

-Chris has been a HUGE Red Sox fan since birth. It's always been a dream of his to go watch a game in Fenway Park. I am beyond excited that I get to do that with him. (seriously he's going to be like a kid a Christmas. I can't wait.)

- We are definitely more of the "touristy" types. We love sight seeing, taking a million pictures (ok that might be a bit more me), going to museums, and finding new places to eat. We couldn't do that in Mexico but I think Boston is perfect for it.

- It's cheaper!

- Chris is by far playing a good sport with this wedding. If he had it his way we would have been married a year ago, at city hall, with a handful of out closest family and friends. This big wedding is happening because Chris knows how much I want it. So I think because he is doing that for me then the honeymoon should be about him. Since he has been planning this trip since he was old enough to plan, I would say I have succeeded.

To say I'm excited it an understatement. We have SO many things planned such as:


And of course


Honeymoon planning became SO much easier when we realized that we didn't have to do something tropical just because it was expected. Instead we made the honeymoon about us.

NKOTBSB Take 2!

Remember this post where I gushed and raved about the amazingness of the NKOTBSB concert? Well the disclaimer is that this post may be 10 times worse.

The latest NKOTBSB concert was on Saturday (this being the one that we bought tickets for the day after we came home from the last one). Saturday's concert was 10 times better than the last one. Better seats. Better energy. Better luck. Just better.

I'm not going to lie, insider information is a wonderful thing. Going to the show in June gave us the ability to pick the best seats for this show. Meaning that our 15 year old selves got to be thrilled when we realized that the aisle seats that we so carefully purchased turned out to be the exact aisle that Nick and A.J came down during Shape of My Heart (which I will be honest and admit I didn't hear a word of. I believe I was too busy overusing the phrase "Oh My God" and screaming...and jumping...and basically not acting at all like the 25 year old, soon to be married, university graduate that I actually am.) Oh well. I think it's good to relive your youth. Keeps things fresh. And of course I got to do it with two of my best friends (and bridesmaids!) who I have experienced every BSB concert with since the age of 15.

Anyways I will stop rambling and leave with pictures.

Disclaimer #2: Better seats mean better pictures so be prepared for a photo overload.

The above two were taken when they were right beside us.

Honestly words and pictures cannot describe how amazing this show actually is. The atmosphere and energy in the building is enough to get you excited and the performance is phenomenal. If you had the chance to see the show but didn't out of doubt (I was doubtful before the first show. I believe I stated that the whole thing was going to be hilarious....) trust me when I say that if and when they come back get the tickets. You won't be disappointed.