Love, Laughter and Happily Ever After

10 Day Challenge - Day 1 - A Picture of Me

2012-02-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

This is an easy topic for a Friday after a very long week.

I could use this to show another engagement picture, but I think you guys have seen pretty much every one at this point, so I will use one from New York

That's literally right after I got off of the bus (I think I look pretty decent after a 10 hour bus ride!)

I also want to wish my big sister a very happy birthday! She turns 36 today and she is almost 6 months pregnant....with a BOY! (She is trying to tell me she is too old for this but she's not. 36 is not that old). So Happy Birthday Carrie!

Happy Friday Everyone!!

10 Day Challenge - Day 2 - Songs

2012-02-09T06:27:00.000-08:00

I like to consider myself pretty musically diverse.

I grew up listening to oldies with my parents, then I got a taste of the 80's and early 90's from sharing a room with my sister for the better part of 10 years, by that point I was old enough to be entering my gawky boyband period and developing my own tastes.

I don't really have a specific "taste" in music. You will find me listening to and liking anything from rap to country.

Music is important to me. I use it to remember things. I associate memories, good or bad, with certain songs. There are songs that can put me in a good mood no matter what, there a songs that make me want to get up and dance, there are songs that I can't bring myself to listen to.

So naturally, I put a lot of thought into this topic, and I think I have narrowed it down.

1) Brad Paisley - "Then" - If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I was having an impossible time choosing our wedding song. I would find a song I loved and then I would either find a flaw in it, or another one would come along that I liked better. Chris and I do have a "song" but it is one that I felt was over done, especially at weddings (granted, the first time we danced to it was AT a wedding), and I wasn't really feeling it. The minute I heard "Then" I knew this was the song. Chris and I have been together for almost 10 years, so we have been dating longer than some couples stay married. We have been through so much together and I love how this song explains that. I also love how it gives the message that love grows stronger with time. I knew this song was Chris and I from the moment I heard it and I cannot wait to be dancing with him to it in a couple of months.

2) Black Velvet - I know, odd choice. I told you I was musically diverse. There's really no emotional meaning to this song. There were a million with meaning that I could have picked, but I went all sentimental with choice number one, so I figured I'd go a little different with this one. This song has been remade by a bunch of different people, but I have the Tanya Tucker version on my MP3 player. Like I said, no real significance, it's just one of those songs that I have to blast and sing at the top of my lungs every time I hear it.

Happy Thursday everyone!!

10 Day Challenge - Day 3 - Films

2012-02-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

Hey All!

I now it's wedding Wednesday, and I do actually have some stuff to talk about, but I'm still in the process of fighting off this brutal cold, so I will just do my challenge topic today and pick everything up next week when I am *hopefully* 100%

Films:

1) Grease - All time favourite. One movie that has it all and that I could watch over and over.

2) The Notebook - I happen to love movies that make me cry. I believe that every girl needs to have the occasional night where she sits on the couch in her jammies with a bag of chips, box of tissues and the saddest movie she owns, so she can bawl her eyes out. This is the go to choice for me.

3) The Wizard of Oz - I grew up watching this movie, and I could probably recite it for you. Brings back lots of amazing memories every time I watch it and I can't wait to curl up and the couch and watch it with my kids one day.

Again, this is a topic that I could write about for days. Chris and I see way too many movies and there are so many fantastic ones that could make the list.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

10 Day Challenge - Day 4 - Books

2012-02-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

Just four???? That's impossible! This should have been the category for ten!

I could list about a million books so I'm going to start with a few I have recently read, and go from there.

1) The Lost wife:

From Goodreads: In pre-war Prague, the dreams of two young lovers are shattered when they are separated by the Nazi invasion. Then, decades later, thousands of miles away in New York, there's an inescapable glance of recognition between two strangers. Providence is giving Lenka and Josef one more chance. From the glamorous ease of life in Prague before the Occupation, to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the power of first love, the resilience of the human spirit- and the strength of memory.

I read a lot of books. There are a million that I think are good and a few that I think are great but there are only a handful that grab my attention so thoroughly that it becomes impossible to put it down. The Lost Wife was one of those books, and also one of those that I picked up randomly just because it looked interesting. The story is heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time, switching between present day and World War II. It's realistic, it covers nothing up and it leaves your heart breaking. I would recommend this book for people interested in History and also those who have a soft spot for romance.

2) Wildflower Hill:
From Goodreads: Emma, a prima ballerina in London, is at a crossroads after an injured knee ruins her career. Forced to rest and take stock of her life, she finds that she’s mistaken fame and achievement for love and fulfillment. Returning home to Australia, she learns of her grandmother Beattie’s death and a strange inheritance: a sheep station in isolated rural Australia. Certain she has been saddled with an irritating burden, Emma prepares to leave for Wildflower Hill to sell the estate.

Beattie also found herself at a crossroads as a young woman, but she was pregnant and unwed. She eventually found success—but only after following an unconventional path that was often dangerous and heartbreaking. Beattie knew the lessons she learned in life would be important to Emma one day, and she wanted to make sure Emma’s heart remained open to love, no matter what life brought. She knew the magic of the Australian wilderness would show Emma the way.

I am an Irewards member which means Chapters occasionally sends me book recommendations based on books I have previously purchased. This is how I found out about Wildflower Hill, and because Chapters rarely sends me in the wrong direction I decided to buy this one on a whim (I do that a lot. You find some of the best books when you just randomly pick something up). This one did not disappoint. It also switches between the perspectives of war time and present day and it has everything. Love, romance, heartbreak, hatred, betrayal, secrets and so much more. You have to keep reading because you have to know what happened. My only disappointment was it left me wanting just a bit more. I felt like it cut off when there was still so much more to tell.

3) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: I'm not giving a goodreads bio of this one. It's pretty famous, I think most people know generally what it is about. This has probably been my favourite book since I have started reading. I'm pretty much a fan of any Charles Dickens novel, but this one holds a special place in my heart. I just love the story, the wording, everything. I have seen most of the movies, the play, read the book multiple times, I'm pretty sure I could recite the story by heart if asked. I know it's probably an odd choice but it's one I can't leave out.

4) Harry Pottter:

I know it's technically seven books, so I will say specifically the first one (even though we all know that I love them all). These books connect me to my childhood. I started reading them in middle school, and I think the final one came out after I was dating Chris. I loved these books. They are the only ones that I have ever pre-ordered (I believe when the 6th or 7th was released I was camping and desperately trying to find a way to have it delivered to the campsite). I know with every book it was instant connection. I wanted to find out more, I felt for the characters, I cried. I've seen all the movie's and I'm still a little sad that they are all over, it's kind of like the end of my childhood. If J.K. Rowling ever decided to write a book about the kids I would be all over that.

I could seriously go on about books for days. I've left out some amazing ones (Time Travelers Wife, Water for Elephants, Twilight, My Sister's Keeper, Firefly Lane, The Help and on and on forever). You need book recommendations let me know, I'm sure I can find something that appeals to you.

10 Day Challenge - Day 5 - Foods

2012-02-06T09:58:00.001-08:00

So here we are at Monday again.

This weekend was kinda crappy. I started feeling sick Friday night but was denying it, so I got up Saturday and proceeded to spend a full day running wedding errands. By Saturday night it was official, I have managed to pick up some random head cold. So I'm suffering just a bit, and living on Advil Cold and Sinus.

Sunday, while suffering, we watched the superbowl. I made Chili Friday night so it would be ready and because I was sick I talked the boy into buying cupcakes and cookies for dessert.

Chris is a HUGE New England Patriots fan (I mean we named the dog Brady....enough said?) so it didn't end exactly as planned, and we are currently taking a beating from all of our New York Giants friends (you should change his name to Eli or Manning.....we get it people) but that's ok. There's always next year!

So it's Day 5 of the 10 day challenge and the topic is food. I think this is kinda perfect for the day after the superbowl

1) Cookies: I love cookies. Any kind. They are my weakness. I could be complaining about my weight, or swearing I'm on a diet and not cut out the cookies.

2) Cheeseburgers: This is the junk food of choice. If I'm going to be bad and eat out it has to be somewhere with a good cheeseburger (Lick's and Harvey's come to mind)

3) Pizza: Another weakness. This is our lazy day food. When we don't feel like cooking or are getting home really late we order pizza.

4) Fruit: I know this is kinda a food group but it still counts. I also think it's good that I include something healthy on my list so you don't think I eat like a pig all of the time. I LOVE fruit. Pretty much any fruit. Give me a bowl of strawberries or an apple instead of chips and I'm perfectly happy.

5) Pasta: I eat a lot of pasta. Probably too much. If we are going out to eat I will most likely order some kind of pasta dish and if we are eating at home I will vote for spaghetti or Mac and Cheese.

10 Day Challenge - Day 6 - Places You Want to Go

2012-02-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

This on might be hard. I'm not a big vacation dreamer, I have a few places that I would love to go, but 6?

...Here goes nothing

1) Venice, Italy: It's been an obsession of mine since I was very little. My mom's best friend went on a vacation there and came home with all of these pictures and memories and my 8 year old self was instantly in love. Nothing has change, it is still #1 on my list.

2) Hawaii: Confession Time: I've always been a little bit obsessed with Pearl Harbor. I did a project on it for History in Highschool, I've seen the movie about a million times. So my Hawaii obsession has a lot to do with wanting to go there.

3) Ireland: Chris's family is Irish so I know I wouldn't have a problem getting him here. It's just so pretty and (confession time #2) the Irish accents don't hurt (I have always had a bit of an obsession)

4) Boston: Chris is a HUGE Red Sox fan and it has always been a dream of his to go here. I guess somewhere in the 10 years I have been with him it has become something I really want to do. He would be like a kid at Christmas with all of the baseball and I would have a blast watching that, as well as whale watching and going to Salem. We have actually decided that this is where we are going for our honeymoon. Can't wait!

5) New York: Yeah, Yeah I'm cheating. Yes, I have already been there, but only once. And yes, I did see a lot, but there is still so much more to see. I don't think I need to say again just how much I loved New York so I would go back in a heart beat.

6) Paris: This one I can't really explain. I think I just like the romantic idea of being in Paris.

That was easier than I thought. Apparently I have more of a desire to travel than I thought I did.

I know this is technically the 10 DAY challenge, but my computer and I take a well needed break on the weekends, so I will pick this up on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

10 Day Challange - Day 7 - Wants

2012-02-02T07:13:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how hard it is to think of things that you want when your put on the spot.

1) A house: I would love to buy a house. Maybe this one:

or something similar. Not like I'm dreaming big or anything.

2) A Car: I am 26 years old and have NEVER owned my own car. Granted, I currently work from home and really have no use for one, but I still want it.

3) Babies! - I can't wait to start a family. Obviously now is NOT the time, but when the time comes, I'm ready.

4) A million Dollars?? This way I could buy the house, car and have the babies. I would share. I promise.

5) Security: This is probably a bit more realistic. I want Chris and I to be secure enough to do all of these things

6) A Job: I love the job that I have currently, but it's not what I went through 4 years of University for. I'd like a job that pays something close to justify the ridiculous amount of student loans I'm now responsible to pay back

7) A Vacation: I don't even have to go anywhere. I just need a couple of days (or maybe a week) to lie in bed and do nothing.

Happy Thursday Everyone!!

Wedding Wednesday: The To Do list

2012-01-31T17:18:00.000-08:00

Well it's February 1st and I made some promises last month, figured this was the time to check in.

* LIMO, LIMO, LIMO: Yeah. There are honestly no words. I don't know why this is so difficult!

* Favours: I am in contact with the company and the order should be placed latest tomorrow. I'm counting this one.

* Tuxes: Yes! We got an amazing deal on our tuxes at Moores. The guys can go get fitted anytime between now and April and I absolutely cannot wait to see how they all look.

* Alterations: I also did this one. We have a place to do the alterations for a reasonable price and I am in the process of getting all of the girls there.

Bridal Party Gifts: Can I give myself half a point?? I have been researching, but I have not done any purchasing

*Flower Girl Dresses: We are going on Saturday. So close??

* Shopping for my mom's dress: We did this! Her dress will be in at the beginning of May and it is gorgeous

* Go for my first dress fitting: This one is totally not my fault. Stupid shoes that are coming from flipping London

* Find a Card Box: Nope, Nope, Nope. It would probably help if I could decide what I actually wanted.

* Book hair and Make Up Appointments: My amazing mother took care of this one for me. Good thing because my hair dresser (who has been doing my hair for as long as I can remember) booked her vacation to leave May 25th. Luckily, she loves me (seriously, she's invited to the wedding. We have a good relationship) so she moved it. My girls and I will be getting both our hair and our make up done at her Salon. I'm happy with this situation because we will all be in the same place and it will cut down on the running around which will cut down on the stress.

* Get Invitations ready to be sent: There they are. All addressed. I need to add maps and hotel information and put stamps on the last few and they will be good to go.

* Decide on an engagement print and order it: I also did this. We picked it up on Saturday and I love it.

Now for February:

* Find perfect hair pieces for MOH and Flower Girls: This is something I don't want to leave until the last minute and then be panicking about or scrap it all together.

* Find cake serving set: This shouldn't be difficult

* Get Favours filled and wrapped: This doesn't NEED to be done by the end of the month but I'm hoping to at least have it started

* Set appointment with Venue to set the meals: I'm excited for this one. I haven't been at my venue in a long time. I can't wait to see it again

* Find a Cake Topper: I actually really need to do this and soon so my cake lady can judge the weight.

* Find a rehearsal dinner dress: I would have forgotten about this one if I wasn't just texting the bestest (and MOH) about it.

* Frame my engagement photo: This should be easy.

* Find Flower Girl Baskets: They are throwing flower petals so the need baskets.

* Meet with the Minister: Our church has three, so I need to find out which one will actually be marrying us and meet with them.

* Decide what to give Chris: No clue. Seriously no idea. Suggestions are being taken

* Mail Invitations: This is so exciting!

* Write Speeches: I write parts of it randomly, in my head during the day. I need to start getting it all on paper.

* Work on Slideshow: This needs to happen. Like months ago.

It looks like a lot, but it's a lot of little things so it can be done!

10 Day Challenge - Day 8: Fears

2012-01-31T14:38:00.000-08:00

8 Fears. This could get interesting.

1) I said it in a post a couple of weeks ago. Spiders. They terrify me. I can't really explain why.

2) Sharks - This probably more of an ocean fear as I refuse to get in one, but sharks are a major contributing factor. Don't get me wrong, I think they are beautiful, fascinating animals, and I watch Shark week as avidly as the next guy, but I prefer to study them from the beach.

3) Driving in Snow: The first time I ever drove by myself in a snow storm, I slipped, hit a curb, and watched on coming traffic coming at me. A nice man helped me off but I swear it traumatized me because I haven't driven in the snow since. I live in Canada. I need to get over this.

4) Horror Movies: I'm a big chicken. I scream, jump, occasionally swear, have nightmares. Going to horror movies with me is probably very amusing.

5) Sleeping Alone: I love being home alone during the day and I'm normally completely fine at night. For some reason I'm terrified to actually sleep alone in the house.

6) Choking: Lack of oxygen seriously freaks me out. I am CPR certified and yet if someone is choking I am typically freaking out and running in the opposite direction.

7) Death: Yup. I'm one of those. I know it happens. I know it's gong to happen. I prefer not to think about it.

8) Complications: Being a diabetic and growing up surrounded by bad diabetics my biggest fear is probably the complications that surround the disease. Amputations. Kidney failure. Blindness..

I proud (and maybe feeling a little pathetic) that I actually managed to come up with 8!

Day 9: Loves

2012-01-31T07:09:00.000-08:00

Here they are in no particular order:

1) My Fiance: Obviously. Even though there are days that he drives me crazy, he is still the one person I want to talk to after a long day and the only person who can make me smile no matter what.

2) My Family: My family and I are super close. My mom and my sister are my best friends and I can't remember a time where I didn't tell them absolutely everything. My brother is going to be the best man in our wedding and my daddy is my daddy. Enough said. Every single one of them has always supported me in every decision and I definitely wouldn't be where I am today without them.

3) My Friends: These girls are like a second family. I have been friends with most of them since the 9th grade and we have survived pretty much everything together. I know that if I need anything it would take one phone call to any one of them and they would drop everything to be there.

4) My Nieces: I know they technically count as family but I swear I had no idea what love was until I met my first niece. I would literally throw myself in front of a bus for either one of those two.

5) The Puppy: I still say Brady was the best decision Chris and I have made. I love coming home to someone that is excited to see me every single day.

6) My Wedding Dress: I know that sounds a little superficial but I love my wedding dress. I was terrified that I bought it way too early and I was going to find another dress that I liked more before the wedding. Hasn't happened. I still love my dress just as much as the day I found it.

7) Long Drives: I love being in the car. Chris and I have always gotten in the car and driven anywhere, whether its a road trip, or driving just to see where we end up. We get along in the car and I find it less stressful than flying.

8) Bubble baths and Candles: Best way to relax after a crazy day. It's become a bit of a routine, and something I need to have a least once a week to help me de-stress

9) Lazy Days: As much as I like going out and catching up with friends, there is nothing I love more than lazy days where I can wear my comfy clothes, cuddle with my boys and watch movies.

2012-01-30T06:59:00.000-08:00

The bestest posted this a couple of days ago and I decided to steal it because I am suffering from major bloggers block and can't think of anything significant to write about. So 10 days of pre planned posts works for me.

Day 10: secrets
Day 9: loves
Day 8: fears
Day 7: wants
Day 6: places you want to go
Day 5: foods
Day 4: books
Day 3: films
Day 2: songs
Day 1: picture of yourself

Day 10: Secrets (I don't know how many of these qualify as secrets but whatever)

1) I LOVE getting mail. It's probably the highlight of my day and if I am home I will go check every hour until it comes. I even like getting bills and I'm secretly disappointed when there is nothing there for me. (This is going to make getting wedding responses back very fun)

2) I have to take a hot bath and read at least one chapter of my book every night before bed or I can't sleep (I guess this says so much more about my obsession with routine)

3) I have never been a "city" girl. I have always been more interested in a big country home, with a white picket fence, a couple of kids and dogs.

4) I am not a traveler by any means. I would much rather be at home than anywhere else. I have gotten better but taking trips are still not on the top of my list.

5) If Chris and I were ever financially secure enough I would love to be a stay at home mom.

6) I love surprises but I hate waiting for them. I'm the type of person that will ask what my Christmas present is and then when you go to tell me I will tell you not to.

7) I am a control freak. Lack of control drives me crazy and I will try to take over every chance I get

8) I take 2-3 needles everyday but I still can't watch anyone else get one. That includes on T.V. I will close my eyes every time.

9) I'm a big believer in first impressions. I will decide if I like a person or not normally within the first 10 minutes, and if I decide I don't there's normally no going back.

10) I have a writing degree with no real desire to write. I feel like University killed my love of writing by forcing me to think of everything in essay format.

Survey

2012-01-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

I realized Nathan tagged me in this last week and I never did it.

So, seeing as it's Friday, I'm tired and have nothing relevant to blog about, I figured I would do it now.

1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them that you've tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about "you are tagged if you are reading this." Legitimately tag 11 people!!

11 Random things about me:

1) I am deathly afraid of spiders. I'm not talking like ew that's gross and leaving the room. No. It's like paralyzing. I have been known to stand in the center of the room, with a broom, in a stare down with said little bug and I physically cannot bring myself to kill it. I know I'm 26 years old. I know it's irrational. I can't help it.

2) Speaking of irrational fears, I have a few more. Sharks (well maybe we should just make this the ocean in general because I won't get in it). I could go on

3) I was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes when I was 8 years old. It's not something I talk about a lot. There's nothing really to talk about, it's become a part of everyday life. I struggled a lot, mostly through highschool, with being "like everyone else" and not needing to watch what I eat or take insulin. Obviously, eventually you need to figure out that your not "like everyone else" and make adjustments accordingly.

4) I have quite a few OCD habits. I am meticulous with my things. I line my books up by height, my movies are in alphabetical order. I like even numbers (for example, if we are making mozzarella sticks, and Chris only makes 5, it drives me crazy...there are 2 of us, so you make 6 or 4...not 5).

5) I would love to own my own business one day

6) I have had the same three best friends since the 9th grade. We have literally been through everything together, and they have become more than friends and are now extended family. Later this year all three of them will be right beside me when I marry Chris.

7) Chris and I will be celebrating our 10th dating anniversary in March

8) I hate cooked carrots but I love raw ones. I also can instantly tell the difference between frozen vegetables and canned ones.

9) I am superstitious, but only over certain things. I won't change the calendar until the first day of the month. I also make everyone I am with stay up for midnight on New Years Eve, including the dog, who I woke up just before it happened.

10) I'm very shy. I normally won't talk to a person until they talk first. But once I get to know you it's pretty hard to shut me up

11) I absolutely LOVE pigs. I think they are the cutest things ever and if Chris would let me I would totally own one.

Now for Nathans questions

1. What was your favorite old Nickelodean tv show? Why?

Not going to lie, I had to google Nickelodean because I haven't watched that channel in years. I found out that they apparently make Degrassi, so I'm going to go with that. Degrassi has been a guilty pleasure of mine since middle school.

2. What was your favorite part of the 90's?

Boy bands. Hands down

3. This question was already asked by Jill but I liked it so I'm keeping it. Why did you start blogging?

My friends and fiance were doing it, so that's really why I started. I was also in University for a writing program and really needed to write as much as possible.
I continue to blog because I need to write, and I also have started to look at my blog as a journal. I am documenting my entire wedding process, which I will probably forget if I didn't.

4. If you had your choice of any vacation destination at this very moment, where would it be?

Venice, Italy. Followed closely by Hawaii and Ireland.

5. Does anybody remember the Pizza Hut clock? You know, the one that would go really really fast that said, "it's always pizza time". 24 hours would go by in five minutes. If you could apply that clock to any part of your life, i.e. work, church, school, etc. what would you apply it to? Why?

I do not remember this clock. I guess I would have to apply it to work, but life already goes so quickly I'm not sure I would want any of it to be gone in 5 minutes.

6. If you could change a few things about yourself what would they be?

I'm actually pretty happy with myself. Sure, like every girl, I'd like to lose a few pounds, but it's not the end of the world if I don't. Other than that, maybe become more forgiving and less judgmental.

7. I love life, life is good is not just a trademark for me, it's a fact. What are you most thankful for in your life?

I could make a very long list. I have a fiance who loves me. Friends who are always there no matter what and a family that would do anything for me.

8. What does the car you drive say about you? Does it say anything at all, or is it just a car?

I don't own a car, so I will get back to you

9. What annoys you the most?

Cockiness. Confidence is one thing. Cockiness is another. It drives me crazy.

10. Do you have any pets? If so, what do you have and why?

Meet Brady.

He's part German Sheppard and Part Collie, just over 1 years old and the absolute love of my life.

We researched a lot when we decided to make the commitment of a dog. We looked at tons of breeds, but Chris really liked German Sheppard's and I really like Collies.

But really, Chris went to go look at the puppies and pretty much fell in love (I mean who couldn't fall in love with that face)

11. As we begin another year, do you have anything special you're looking forward too?

2012 is a big year for me. We have the wedding, I'm moving out, hopefully starting a new job at some point, so there are lots of things to look forward too.

Here's the part where I'm going to cheat. I've been writing this post since I got up this morning, so I'm pretty much done. SO, I'm going to recycle Nathans questions and I'm going to tag everyone to do it.

Ready, GO!

Happy Friday everyone!!

Thoughts on Thursday

2012-01-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

* I'm exhausted! This week has been dragging, and I am ready for it to be over!

* I'm so excited for this weekend. Chris got me tickets to American Idiot for Christmas, and the show is on Sunday. We are going to lunch at the Spaghetti Factory (yum!) and then heading to the play. It's been a while since I have seen a live show so I can't wait.

* My life is turning into one gigantic to-do list. I have a constant stream of alteration schedules, last minute details, vendors and payments running through my head at all times.

* We have quite a few deposits due this month. Things are starting to get very real!

* Pinterst is NOT helping my problem with lists. I am literally on there ALL day pinning crafts I will probably never do, recipe's I will never make, and finding more and more wedding ideas that I never even thought of. This is sending me to etsy trying to find all of these wonderful things cheaper.

* I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to blog about when this wedding is over? Maybe I will magically find some money and I can start blogging about house renovations. One can hope right?

* I have to go back to work, so I guess that's it for today

Happy Thursday everyone!!!

Wedding Wednesday - Tuxes!

2012-01-11T06:10:00.000-08:00

That's right people, we did it!!

Now I know in my last blog, I said that the tuxes would be checked off the list by the end of the week. Well we did it on Monday, I'm still giving it to myself because it's done! (and technically in less than a week from when I set the goal)

When we firts got engaged, we joined out friends Steve and Vanessa for a wedding show, and for some reason ended up signing a contract with Moores which we thought only guaranteed $30.00 off of each tux.

While Chris was searching the internet he found a new deal, that still offered $30.00 off of each tux but the groom could choose between a free tux rental or a credit for a $400.00 suit.

We decided to go in on Monday and see what we could get, and we were lucky enough to be dealing with the manager who has amazing customer service.

He walked us through the process, and we ended up deciding on this Calvin Klein tuxedo for all of the boys to wear, as well as Chris, our fathers and the MC (with different coloured vests and ties).

The tux is originally 179.99, but the manager was nice enough to offer us the current wedding show deal, which was $40.00 off each tux as well as the credit for a suit for Chris. Sold.

At this point he handed us off to his associate, who he said was better at computer work. She came over and started typing and after a few minutes looked at us and said the original deal that we had from the original wedding show was better because it not only offered $30.00 off each tux, it apparently also held the 2009 prices.

So in the end we ended up getting an 180.00 tux for 119.00 a person, and to top it all off, because the manager felt bad for steering us in the wrong direction (which he didn't, he was just trying to help) we are still getting the 400.00 credit for Chris's suit.

I am so excited that we got this done, and got it at a price that was reasonable.

I Pin-Caved

2012-01-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

I have been hearing about Pinterest for months now from both blog friends and real life ones.

All I have heard is that I need to join this site, but I resisted, saying that the last thing I needed was another addiction to yet another social networking site.

Well last night, after much convincing from a work friend, I caved and I am now officially on Pinterest.

...and yes, less than 24 hours later, I am addicted.

So I'm there (putting my social network count to 5, seriously time to stop).

I'm learning. I THINK my user name is Ashley R, so if your on there come find me!

Wedding Wednesday: To Do List and Check in

2012-01-04T08:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday!

First of all, I have to wish my bestest a very happy 27th birthday!!

So it's officially 2012, which means that it is also officially my wedding year! This means that as of January 1st, I have turned into a crazy bride who needs to get everything done NOW.

Since I barely did anything in December (Christmas break....for the whole month..) I figured I would use today to look at the to-do list that I made in November and figure out what I actually did, and what still needs to be done.

* LIMO, LIMO, LIMO: This really needs to be done. If I don't have a lime by the end of the month there are going to be problems.

* Invitations: I did this! I got them from Invitation Styles and I absolutely love them. Now I need to get them all together and addressed so I can send them out in mid February

* Favours: I swear I know where to find them and I know exactly what I want. It's just the ordering that seems to be the problem. Another must for this month.

* Tuxes: Yeah there are no words. This isn't a monthly goal, this is a weekly one. My boys WILL have tuxes by the end of this week.

* Alterations: I'm working on it!

* Guestbook: Something I actually did! My guest book was ordered from Shutterfly and it's perfect.

Bachelorette Weekend: I'm making this one blue to help with my pride. I did my part of the bachelorette weekend. The second last weekend in April, my bridesmaids, mom, sister and a few close friends will be heading to Blue Mountain to spend the weekend in a beautiful chalet. I nailed down the date, guest list and venue...my work is done.

Bridal Party Gifts: Yeah not even close. I have ideas. Lots of ideas actually. My problem seems to be execution.

So I have managed to accomplish 3 things on my list...since November.....

And of course the list keeps growing, so here is what I hope to get done by the time February rolls around

*Flower Girl Dresses: This is probably the one thing I have been excited for since I got engaged, other than buying my dress. I can't wait to see the two cutest little girls all dressed up in their pretty white dresses. We have been putting it off because they are 7 and 3, and growing every single day but I think we are finally at the point where we can buy them and they will still fit at the end of May

* Shopping for my mom's dress: She's the one who has been putting this one off, but it needs to be done

* Go for my first dress fitting: My dress is in. As soon as my shoes get here I am making an appointment for my first fitting. I absolutely cannot wait to put that dress on again.

* Find a Card Box: I think I want a card box that holds pictures, I just need to find one that isn't going to cost me a fortune. I know you can make them, but the tutorials look a bit ambitious for this girl.

* Book hair and Make Up Appointments: This one is easy. I see blue in my future

* Get Invitations ready to be sent: I want to have them addressed, in envelopes with stamps, sitting and waiting to go.

* Decide on an engagement print and order it: I do really need to do this. My photographer wants to work on it and he's going to start getting mad.

I'm sure there is so much more that I am forgetting but I think all of this grouped with all of those daunting little red tasks above are going to keep me busy enough.

2011 in Reveiw

2012-01-02T16:52:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I took a slight break from blogging for the holidays.

Our Christmas was wonderful. Busy, but wonderful, and I was spoiled rotten.

New Years was a quiet one for us. We stayed in, ate junk food and watched movies, but to be honest I wouldn't have had it any other way. I rang in the New Year with my almost husband and our puppy and after the craziness of the holidays I think it was the perfect way to do it.

I know I'm doing this late, but I still wanted to do it.... SO here is my top 11 of 2011

11) Quitting my retail job: On March 1st, 2011, I officially handed in my resignation for the job that had been making me miserable for around 8 years. Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot from this job, I met some amazing people, but overall the job wasn't for me. After 8 years of abuse from both customers and management (my boss and I got to the point where speaking wasn't an option) it was definitely time to go! I appreciate everything the job gave me, including the ability to put myself through four years on University, but I have never been happier now that it is a thing of the past.

10) Family Traditions: Every year we have a few family traditions. We go to the cottage on Easter for an annual egg hunt in the forest that my MC and his family host.

as well as Tree Hunting in December

Although these are yearly "staples" so to speak, this year they were so much more special because it's my last year at home. Will Chris and I still participate in tree hunting? Of course! but next year we will be buying and decorating our own tree, so doing it this year with my parents and brother was pretty significant.

9) Cottage: Another staple! I don't think I need to say again how much I love the cottage. I love it even more each summer, when Chris and I head up there for 5 days with all of our friends. There are new memories made every single year, and I learn more and more about the people I was pretty sure I couldn't find anything else about.

8) Halloween Party: Again, all of my favourite people in one place. This year we did a decades theme which made it so much fun, and because I went to a different party last year and wore a decade theme costume I didn't have to buy anything. Stress free costumes are right up my ally!

7) Buffalo: In May, my mom, sister, niece and my mom's best friend headed to Buffalo for my niece's dance competition. The dance competition was only one day, but we stayed all weekend, giving us enough time to shop. The weekend was so fun, I don't think I have laughed so hard in my life (starting with the hotel clerk thanking us profusely for helping with the economy because they needed it to my niece's horrified cry of "but we went to Walmart yesterday!!!! When we pulled up to the second Walmart in two days). On a side note, she can also now describe Target's logo perfectly to anyone who asks, showing you just how much time we also spent there.

6) Sister Pregnant: Finding out my sister is pregnant again is definitely a 2011 highlight. Yes, she had to drop out of my wedding, and yes, it put a small damper on the plans but there is nothing I want more than another baby! She is going for her ultrasound to find out the sex on Wednesday and I cannot wait! (Everyone keep thinking boy for us!)

5) NKOTBSB: Part 1:

And Part 2:

I went to the first concert thinking it would be such a joke. It wasn't. The concert was amazing, so much so that my friends and I bought tickets to the second show a few months later, which probably turned out to be one of the best concerts of my life. It was so much fun reliving my teenage years with the same girls who went through it all with me and I am so looking forward to doing it all again!

4) Engagement Photo's: Even though we went through a bit of crap with being forced to change photographers a month before out pictures were scheduled, the actual picture taking was perfect. The day was gorgeous, our photographer was so friendly and we connected with him instantly and I absolutely love my pictures. Looking forward to doing it all over again in a little under 5 months (!) for the wedding.

3) Graduation: Even though 4 years of University has yet to pan out in the way I may have hoped, I'm still proud of myself for doing it. Graduation was a lot of fun, as much as I didn't want to go to commencement, I'm glad I did as it gave me the chance to say goodbye to the friends I made. I also have a wonderful family and group of friends who spoiled me with not one but two graduation parties.

2) New York: Honestly there are no words. Not only did I finally get to go to New York in 2011, I got to do with my bestest and my mom. I never thought I would ever fall in love with a city the way I fell in love with New York. There is no specific memory from this trip that stands out, the whole thing was amazing and I am so glad that I got to do it with the people I got to do it with. Trip of a lifetime.

1) Dresses: 2011 brought the year where we not only found the bridesmaid dresses (which are in and I could not love more) but I also bought my dress! My dress is in and as soon as my shoes get here I will be going for my first fitting. It's been almost a year since I last had it on so I cannot wait to put it on again. This time my bridesmaids will be with me, none of which have seen it yet which makes it that much more exciting.

The end of 2011 is a bit bittersweet for me. It marks a lot of "lasts." List Christmas morning in my bed, last time decorating my tree with my family. On the other hand 2012 marks a lot of firsts. It's my wedding year, It's the year I move out, it's the year I essentially grow up. It's left me feeling both overwhelmingly nervous and unbelievably excited.

I do know that this is going to be a busy, busy year and I'm excited to see what it brings.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

From my family to yours.

Everyone have a wonderful holiday!

Wedding Wednesday: Invitations!

2011-12-21T07:03:00.001-08:00

I ordered them!!!

Now obviously I can't show you them as I am currently buried in invitations, envelope's, response cards and maps, and they haven't been sent out yet.

But I did want to talk about the amazing website that I ordered them from.

Invitations were beginning to become the worlds most annoying wedding duty. I couldn't decide if I wanted to make them or have them made, and when I went out to look at either option I couldn't find any that I liked. Not only that, but prices were ridiculous. Most packages I saw did not include reception or response cards and were already over 200.00. Not going to happen...

So two weeks ago when Chris and I were both off, we made it a mission to find our invitations. After an unsuccessful day of searching stores, Chris decided to take to the internet and found invitation styles

This site is amazing. They have thousands of templates for you to choose from and everything is totally customizable

I picked my invite, and pretty much changed everything about it. The colours were off, I wanted different wording and I played with the spacing. I sent them my order and I had a proof e-mailed to me within 48 hours. I made some small changes and had another proof sent in less than 24 hours.

Once I approved the final invite they shipped them and the whole process, including delivery took less than a week. I actually sent my order in a week after my guest book order and my invites showed up two days before the Shutterfly package (which came today...one day late but who's counting?)

The process was completely painless and I absolutely LOVE my invitations (not exactly loving the assembly process, but that's another story).

What makes it even better is that I got 110 invitations, reception cards, response cards and two envelopes per invite and saved myself around $200.00.

So if your looking for invitations check out invitation styles (I'm not getting anything for this. I just love a good deal and want to share)

Tasty Tuesday: Melted Snowman Cookies

2011-12-20T11:33:00.001-08:00

Hey All!

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was crazy filled with last minute Christmas running around and our annual baking. I am like 90% done my shopping. I have some stocking stuffers left and the bestest's gift, which I will be getting tomorrow! It is going to feel so good to be done and finally get to sit back and enjoy the holiday (even if it is snowless...still a touchy subject).

Seeing as we just finished all of our Christmas baking, I figured I would use the next few Tuesday's to share some of the recipe's for our favourites.

This week: Melting Snowman Cookies.

My sister came to me a few weeks ago with these

Cute right?

Well they required about one hundred different ingredients and about a million different steps. Not very convenient when your making 8 different recipe's in one weekend, so my mom vetoed it. Until I decided that there had to be a way to do it cheaper and easier (I like modifying recipe's if you haven't noticed.

So here are my modified melted snowman cookies

We used a generic sugar cookie recipe. I believe we used one from Pillsbury but I'm sure any will do. When rolling the balls for your cookies make sure they are big. The cookies need to be large to make sure that you can fit everything that you need on them.

After they baked (about 8-10 minutes) we melted white chocolate to use as icing. *NOTE* Next time I would use icing sugar. The white chocolate is an off white colour so the "snow" looks dirty. Also you need a lot of white chocolate to make it look thick and drippy like it's supposed to. Icing sugar will probably be easier to work with and look nicer.

I placed a blob of icing sugar in the middle of the cookie and used a spoon to spread to the edges making it thick and drippy so that it looks like the snowman is melting.

After that comes the hard part. You need to take a large marshmallow and microwave it just until it becomes puffy (10 to 30 seconds). Then you need to somehow manage to grab them and put them on your cookie to make the snowman head. It's not easy. The marshmallow sticks to your hands and pretty much makes a mess. After a while you will get it down to a fine art and it becomes easier.

Then it's time to decorate! We originally bought mini M&M's to make the faces. I don't recommend this. They are far to big and the faces look scary and creepy instead of cute. After one we switched to mini chocolate chips for the eyes and nose and used the M&M's for buttons.

They were a lot of fun to make and I think they turned out fairly well, but I'm not going to lie, they were tedious and time consuming.

The marshmallows make your hands sticky and therefore everything else sticks which gets aggravating by the 20th cookie. I think decorating icing would make things go a lot smoother and may try that next time.

I also think these would be great to do with kids. You do the baking and they can decorate!

Thoughts on Thursday

2011-12-15T07:19:00.000-08:00

* 10 days until Christmas!!!

* 10 days until Christmas and it is currently raining outside. Raining and warm. I'm really starting to worry about my Christmas day snow situation

* 10 days until Christmas and I am not even close to finished my shopping. I swore things would be different this year...

* All my Christmas traditions are happening this week. Our annual baking is on Sunday and the bestest and I are doing our shopping trip on Wednesday. These are only a few of the reasons why I love this time of year so much, so I can't wait.

* Even though we have a huge baking day on Sunday I'm in a mood for baking right now. So I think I might be making cookies tonight.

* The Christmas cards are out and I'm pretty sure everyone has received theirs. Unfortunately I'm still at war with my scanner, so I'm having problems showing them to you. I may need to get the boy to come and look at it.... Stay tuned!

* OK I'm going to get off of the Christmas topics.

* I'm waiting (not so patiently) for my guest book from Shutterfly to get here. The range for delivery that they gave me was between Monday this week and Monday next week. In my logic that means it should already be here. Hopefully today!

* I missed Wedding Wednesday yesterday due to my work's Christmas party and I actually had exciting stuff to talk about! Oh well, there's always next week.

* That's pretty much it! It's going to be a busy but fun weekend, so bring on Friday!

Tasty Tuesday - Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese!

2011-12-13T06:46:00.000-08:00

I'm back after another crazy weekend!

A friend and I went to see this on Saturday:

It was actually really cute. I mean it's not going to make an Oscar list any time soon, but it was a cute, fun movie. Not to mention all of the amazing views of New York City, which is enough to make me happy. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I was very concerned that it was going to turn out like Valentine's Day, which was not so cute.

This weekend also included my 4th party lite party since September. I am literally drowning in candles. The bestest and I have decided that the power could go out for a year and we would be totally fine.

With all of these busy weekends I feel like December is flying by. We are already half way through and there isn't even snow yet! Today I could go out in a heave sweater and no jacket. As much as I hate snow, I want it for Christmas. I have never had a snowless Christmas and since there are only 12 days to go, I'm starting to get a little antsy.

With all of the craziness that December brings, I figured I would share a quick and easy recipe that Chris and I fell in love with a couple of months ago.

Chris and I both work full time, and I don't own a car, so he needs to pick me up before going home himself. After the drive, taking puppy out and finally getting ready to eat neither one of us wants to wait an hour for food to be ready, so recipes that are good and easy to make are very important.

I found this recipe on Campbell's website sometime last year and it became an instant hit. The hardest part is cooking the pasta, and then popping it in the oven for 20 minutes.

Quick and Easy Mac and Cheese:

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup

1/2 soup can milk

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/3 of a 1-pound package rotini pasta or medium shell pasta (about 1 1/2 cups), cooked and drained

1 tablespoon plain dry bread crumbs

2 teaspoons butter, melted

Heat the oven to 400°F.

Stir the soup, milk, black pepper and pasta in a 1-quart casserole dish.

Stir the bread crumbs and butter in a small bowl. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the pasta mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the pasta mixture is hot and bubbling.

My Adjustments:

I normally double the recipe (4 cups of pasta and 2 cans of soup) but I make them in separate trays to make sure the portions are right (and I may have once crammed it all into one dish and had a small exploding incident in the oven....not important...). This way we always have left overs the next day, meaning no one has to cook, and occasionally Chris has enough to take for lunch.

Honestly, the breadcrumbs are the best part and a tablespoon isn't enough. You barely know it's there. I normally use about 2-3 heaping tablespoons of melted butter, and then add the breadcrumbs until it is crumbly enough to sprinkle over the top of the whole dish.

Other than that I just follow the directions. Watch the oven because it will sometimes take less than 20 minutes and your breadcrumbs will burn (Also learned that one the hard way!)

Enjoy!!

Wedding Wednesday - Guest Book!

2011-12-07T07:24:00.000-08:00

I have been on a roll with this wedding this week. All of a sudden I got motivated and have been ticking things off the list everyday.

Since getting our engagement pictures done, I have become obsessed with getting my guest book finished.

If you know anything about me, you would know that I am obsessed with pictures. I ALWAYS have my camera with me, and I'm pretty sure my friends have just stopped bringing theirs because they know I will have mine and I will be taking pictures.

My room is covered with pictures of friends and family and I'm slowly running of places to put frames (this doesn't mean that I stop buying them or printing pictures. Nope, it just means that I have a nice pile of frames sitting on the floor waiting for a place to go).

So, when looking for a guest book, I knew right away that I didn't want a generic one. I didn't want a book filled with signatures that I probably wouldn't be able to read and would probably end up in some box in my non existent attic.

I wanted something that I could display, that showed our personality, that I loved looking at and most importantly that used the million engagement pictures that I payed a fortune for.

I used Costco to get my Christmas cards printed because of the location and price, but when I went to look at their guest book, I wasn't impressed. Not to mention that Costco's website limits the sizes of the pictures that you can upload, so most of the pictures that I wanted to use I was unable to actually upload.

I spent days on different photo book websites, Costco, Blurb, Walmart, Black's and my fussiness was starting to show because I just wasn't loving any of them. Either the photo book wasn't what I was looking for, too pricy or the website was impossible to use.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and listen to all of my bloggers and try Shutterfly. This was the one. The site is super easy to use, they put no limits on the size of your pictures, and you essentially drag and drop the pictures to where you want them to be. Super easy.

I worked on it for a few days, adding boarders and playing with the pictures to make sure it was exactly how I wanted it. I ordered it last Thursday (when it went on sale for 30% off) and I got the notification that it had shipped last night.

I cannot wait until it gets here. This was my first experience with Shutterfly and I can honestly say I will be returning. The prices are amazing, the shipping is reasonable and the website is so easy to use. I should have saved myself hours and just went there first!

In other wedding news my dress came in! Stay tuned for updates of fittings!

Long weekend recap!

2011-12-05T06:19:00.001-08:00

I'm back from my relaxing 4-day stay at home vacation!

We started it on Thursday by sleeping in (until after 11....heaven!) then getting up and heading out to grab some lunch. After that we hit some stores to check out invitations (this turned out to be very unsuccessful...I'm picky and didn't like anything I saw) and then went to see a matinee of Hugo.

I will admit that this was 100% Chris' pick. I had no idea what Hugo was, and when I was told it was 3D, I was even more disappointed. I find that 3D movies don't agree with me (unless they are really well done, like Avatar) they give me headaches and if the 3D is really crappy (*COUGH...My Bloody Valentine....*COUGH) I become nauseous. It's not fun.

Anyways, back to the point at hand....Hugo was AMAZING! The 3D was really well done, not overly blatant and there was never pointless objects flying in your face just because the director saw a good opportunity to show of his 3D abilities.

The story was even better. I'm not going to give anything away, but if you have the chance go see this movie.

The movie was actually fairly long so even though we entered in daylight, by the time we left it was dark, so we figured we should go home and spend time with the puppy. The rest of the evening was spent cuddling with my boys, catching up on the PVR and finishing my Christmas cards so they could go out on Friday. I also ordered my guestbook (more on that Wednesday) and found invitations from a site online that I loved and were a price I am willing to pay. I have a few details to work out, but hopefully they can be ordered sometime in the next week.

Friday we decided to get up early to accomplish the list of things that we failed to get done on Thursday (somehow lunch and a movie was so much more appealing than running an endless list of errands). We started by grabbing breakfast (gotta eat!) then ventured to Sears to work on our gift registry. We got a lot done on it, and I think the rest of it I can finish online. Working on the registry is fun, but I still find it so overwhelming. Who can remember what you have previously scanned? And the sales rep is a tad bit persistent and keeps sending us off in different directions. Needless to say I'm glad that process is over.

After that we went to pick up Miss. B and take her to Chapters for some Christmas gift ideas (very successful here, I picked up her gift at Walmart on Sunday), we had lunch while C got his hair cut. Then we dropped her off and hit some sport store. After that I met Mommy for dinner, a nail appointment, and a meeting to get a quote on bridesmaid dress alterations (this wasn't quite so successful, I don't think we will be going there). After a very busy day I went back to Chris' for another quiet evening catching up on the PVR.

Saturday was one of my favourite days of the whole year. We got up and met my family for lunch and then took off to go cut down our Christmas tree!

This is something we have been doing for 20 years, so pretty much as long as I can remember and I absolutely love it. It just wouldn't be Christmas for me without a real tree. I love coming into the house to the scent of fresh pine. I love tracking through the snow (although not this year) and watching the boys cut down the tree, and then going back to the chalet for hot apple cider.

My baby all ready to find a tree

Tree Cutting

Me and my boys

The family

We then headed to a crazy mall so Chris could buy a T.V stand for a T.V he doesn't have yet. Then it was nap time, tree hunting is hard work!

Yesterday was a bit of a lazy day. We visited Chris' grandma, and met his family for dinner to celebrate my future sister in law's birthday. Then it was home for football and, you guessed it, more PVR. A Good way to end a busy weekend.

It was a well needed break. I got a lot accomplished and I also got to spend some time with my fiance which is always nice.

Hope everyone else had an awesome weekend!

Weekend Recap!

2011-11-28T09:59:00.000-08:00

What a busy, busy weekend!

But it's ok because this is a short week. Chris and I are only working until Wednesday and then taking off for a long weekend. We aren't going anywhere but there are big plans for sleeping in and tackling that wedding checklist with a vengeance. I can't wait.

My weekend started bright and early on Saturday when my mommy and I plus s0me girlfriends headed to Niagara for a girls shopping day.

It was a beautiful day for outlet shopping, not too hot and not too cold. I apparently was not in a shopping mood because I barely spent anything (extremely unlike me).

I did manage to pick up a cute photo frame from Stokes to put on my signing table

Mine is black and slightly larger than this one. And really inexpensive! I only paid 7.99, which is amazing.

After we shopped ourselves out we headed back home and met the fiance at East Side Mario's for dinner. I also should add that Saturday was the 6 month mark for our wedding day!

It's crazy how fast time is flying! I remember when we set the date almost 3 years ago and I was so mad because I was out voted and had to wait what seemed like forever to walk down the aisle. And now I will be doing it in 6 months!

Sunday also started early with a trip to Costco.

I could spend a fortune in that store. I think I was in there for about 5 minutes and had a list of 10 things I wanted.

I behaved and only walked out with two books and a Christmas present! I'm loving the fact that I started early this year. My goal is to not be running out Christmas Eve for one last gift. I'm going to get it done early!

We spent the rest of the day visiting family, watching football and doing a mini photo shoot.

How cute is my baby?!?!

I also ordered my Christmas cards! I ended up using Costco because of their location and prices. It was so easy. I literally uploaded photo's, attached them to the card, wrote a little message and they were done. I'm getting 50 cards for 15.00 which is perfect and I can pick them up as early as today. Super convenient which is exactly what I need in my life right now. I'm feeling very accomplished that I actually got off my butt and did it this year. I have been swearing to send them for years and it just hasn't happened.

I can't wait to get them. I will post pictures as soon as I hear that people have started to receive them because there are people on my list that read this blog and we can't ruin the surprise!

Mrs. Hangers

2011-11-16T17:31:00.000-08:00

I'm absolutely in love with these

I have seen them in a few places while wedding planning and I really, really want one. The problem is they aren't exactly cheap.

So, me being all ambitious figured I would Google how to do it myself.

I should add a disclaimer at this point. I'm not what you would call a do it yourselfer. I much prefer someone to do it for me. I start out all ambitious and then it doesn't turn out quite how I imagined which causes disappointment and eventual quitting.

BUT I really want one. And from what I hear they are actually pretty easy to do, so I'm thinking I might give it a shot (I'm sure this is going to provide hours of amusement for Chris).

Did you have a name hanger? Did you make it? Was it hard?

Wedding Wednesday: Cake!

2011-11-16T10:44:00.000-08:00

First of all, I apologize for the lack of blogging lately! I feel like I only post on Wednesday's. I have a million drafts of posts that I start and then give up on halfway through.

Lots to talk about, but too much going on to actually finish a complete post.

This week I actually made progress on my cake!

I should start talking about my cake lady. After much debate, Chris and I decided to go with a family friend to make our cake. She has recently started a cake business, he cakes taste amazing, and to be honest, her prices are a million times better than anywhere else we have looked. The cake it not hugely important to me. I want one, but it doesn't need to be 18 tiers with special filling and a fountain.

I'm very indecisive (you have probably picked up on that through this wedding planning experience), so I was having a really hard time deciding if I wanted an actual cake at the wedding, or cupcakes.

When we first got engaged I wanted a cake. I wanted to have something that I could put a topper on and cut.

Last year we went to three weddings and the cake got cut only once. Two out of the three couples ended up taking their entire cake home because the venue either a) forgot to cut and serve it or b) ran dinner too long so it just never happened.

After thinking that through I started to lean towards cupcakes. They are cute and super easy because people can help themselves. I figured we would still have extras but at least I wouldn't be forced to eat an entire three tier cake just so that I didn't feel wasteful.

I was still on the fence because I figured cupcakes would be way more work and therefore way more expensive. I was not willing to go over budget on the cake, it's just not worth it to me.

I also wanted something to cut.

After about a million e-mails between me and my cake person, we have finally narrowed it down.

I'm going for something similar to this:

This way I can have the top portion to put my topper as well as do the cake cutting ceremony. It will be decorated with blue and silver gerber's just to give it a little extra something.

The flavours will be chocolate with vanilla icing and vanilla with vanilla icing (I'm boring, I know) and she will be using blue and sliver cake dust (matching my colours of course) to help guests know which is which.

And to top it all off it will only be 25.00 more than a regular three tiered cake!

I'm very pleased that this is crossed off the list, that my guests will get cake and that Chris and I will not be eating it for the rest of our married lives!

Wedding Wednesday: To Do List

2011-11-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

Since nothing significant has happened in the world of my wedding since last week, I figured I could use this week's wedding Wednesday to tell you about some of the things on my to do list. Maybe writing it down will motivate me to actually do some of it!

* LIMO, LIMO, LIMO: I seriously need to get on this one or I'm going to be walking to the church on my wedding day. No I still haven't made the decision between the party bus or the old car. Maybe if I got off of my behind and called for quotes this would become an easy decision.

* Invitations: I'm on the fence between being ambitious and doing it myself or being lazy and getting them done. Either way a decision needs to be made and soon.

* Favours: I know what I want. I know where to get them. I just need to order and pick them up. Who knew this would be such a problem

* Tuxes: Yeah this would be another must. My bridesmaids have dresses but at the moment the groomsmen are going naked. It's not like this is even difficult. It's just a matter of dragging our butts over there and making some choices.

* Alterations: Due to some dress drama (trust me, you don't want to know) I need to find someone else to alter the girls dresses. We are picking the dresses up on Tuesday so I have time.... right?

* Guestbook: We have our engagement photo's. I have pretty much decided on using Shutterfly to make it. Now I just need to DO it.

Like my shameless excuse to post another engagement picture???

Bachelorette Weekend: I want to go away with my bridesmaid and a select few of my favourite girls for a bachelorette weekend. Since I have had a recent MOH change, and the bestest has had a lot dumped on her, I am having a heavy hand in planning this little trip. So I need to find a place to stay, decide on a weekend and nail down a few other little details. Then my MOH and bridesmaids can go crazy.

Bridal Party Gifts: I have some idea's. Kinda.

Yeah this really didn't help.....and I'm sure this isn't even half of it. Cue Panic mode.

Some Friday Randoms

2011-11-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

Seriously TGIF! This week has been brutal. I'm tired. And cranky. And just not good. Bring on the weekend!

The fact the I am having such a long, tough week is making me feel very old. Apparently I cannot party like I used to.

Another thing that makes me feel very old is the fact that I have spent this whole week looking forward to the weekend because we had no plans. Yup. I was highly anticipating two wonderful days filled with sweat pants, sweaters, the PVR and bed.

Unfortunately this is not going to happen because we all of a sudden have two birthday parties to attend and a movie date set up with friends. I don't know how this happened. Maybe next weekend.

I have a serious addiction to eating the Halloween candy. I don't know what it is about making chocolate bite sized that makes it so appealing. It's not like I'm eating less. In fact, I'm probably eating about twice as much. Seeing as my dress is coming in ANY day, this is really not a good time to go on an adorable mini chocolate eating binge.

Now that Halloween is over, my holiday gets to start. I'm ready to break out all of my Christmas stuff (I just need to find room). I have Christmas scented candles burning (Peppermint Snow...Yum!). The stores are breaking out all of their Christmas decorations, I have seen a few Christmas themed commercials and I'm already thinking about presents. For me, Christmas starts November 1st. I absolutely love everything about it.

Since getting my engagement pictures done I have been looking into photo guest books to display at the wedding. I want a book that will display both sets of our engagement pictures as well as leaving space for guests to sign. Problem? There are so many options! Shutterfly (Do they even ship to Canada?) Vistaprint? Costco? Walmart? (Quality....?) I just don't know. Did you make your own guest book? Who did you use???

On a similar note, I'm seriously considering doing Christmas cards this year (I know I say this every year....but THIS year I'm serious.) Same issue as above. Who do I use? Shutterfly? Vistaprint? Walmart? If I do them, I want them to look good.

Happy Friday everyone!

Wedding Wednesday: Lessons

2011-11-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

When Chris and I got engaged almost three years ago I pretty much had my bridal party decided. I have three friends that have been like sisters to me since grade 9, so they were obvious picks. Chris' sister and my brother's girlfriend and I have gotten pretty close over they years so I knew I wanted them involved. And of course I wanted my big sister right beside me as my MOH.

My sister is ten years older than me but we have always been really, really close (I intended to have cute baby pictures posted here, but my scanner was being a large pain in the you know where, so I'm settling with those that I found on my computer)

Looking back through my childhood she has always supported me through any step I tried to take. Granted, being 10 years younger I'm sure there are times when I drove her absolutely crazy (stealing her clothes on a constant basis comes to mind) she was always right there when I needed her to be

I was her Maid of Honour when she got married to my brother in law 10 years ago, and it was always known that she would be returning the favour when that day came for me. I honestly think I was engaged for less than 24 hours when I officially asked her.

Probably the biggest lesson that planning a wedding has taught me is that absolutely nothing is perfect. When I first set out on this adventure I was convinced that by giving myself lots of time and micro managing every single detail that absolutely nothing would go wrong.

At this point SO many things have needed to be adjusted or changed, steering me away from my original plan and making me shift directions. Every time this lesson gets driven in just a tiny bit further....and it is now officially pushed as far as it can because......

.....my sister, and MOH, is 8 weeks pregnant!

Her official due date is June 4th, but because she had so many complications with Miss B. she will need to have a planned C Section, and from the sounds of it they want her to go 2 weeks early, which puts her right around my wedding day.

So this has forced her to drop out of my wedding.

Adjustments.

You have heard me talk about my bestest before, and how absolutely amazing she is.

We met the first day of grade 9 and connected pretty quickly over our mutual love of this boy

Over the course of our friendship we have survived 4 years of highschool

College

University

She's now almost finished teachers college and I could not be more proud of her!

There have been parties

Weddings

Broken hearts, stupid boys, arguments, experiences and far too much laughter.

I could honestly go on and on and on. She's the kind of girl who is always only a phone call away with ice cream, a girly movie and the ability to call whoever it is an asshole and take my side just because I need her to.

She is also the kind of girl who is willing to take on the responsibilities of MOH, including a shower, bachelorette and anything else that is required of her with only 7 months notice without batting an eyelash.

She is essentially another sister, and we have probably been through more together than some sisters have.

All of my friends and family expected me to flip when I found out that my big sister and MOH was pregnant. Like I said I have learned that weddings are about adjustments. My sister has already given me two absolutely beautiful nieces that I would give the world for. She is having a baby and there is no way I can be upset about that. If it means that she will be sitting behind me on my wedding day taking good care of my future niece or nephew then so be it.

Lucky for me I have an awesome best friend who can take over and who I know will do an amazing job.

So to my bestest... Thank you so much for stepping in. You know I love you and I could not be happier that you will be standing right behind me, supporting Chris and I on the most important day of our lives.

Tasty Tuesday's - Chili!

2011-11-01T07:43:00.000-07:00

Remember last week when I told you I had Chili cooking in my slow cooker??? Well this week I thought I would share the recipe with you.

I subscribed to a site where they e-mail me a different recipe everyday because, let's face it, I'm working hard to embrace this whole cooking thing, but I'm never going to be the kind of girl who can look in the pantry and make something magical with the things that I randomly have in there.

A couple of months ago they sent me this:

Quick Slow Cooker Chili

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped
5 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans with liquid
1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, with liquid
1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Directions

In a large skillet over medium high heat, saute the ground beef for 5 to 10 minutes, or until browned. Transfer to a slow cooker. Then add the onion, green bell peppers, beans and tomatoes to the slow cooker. Season with chili powder to taste. Cook on high setting for 4 hours, or until all vegetables are tender.

*NOTE* I totally suck at taking pictures while I cook. In my defense, I was doing around 15 things at once and taking pictures was not at the top of my list. I'll do better next time.

I made a few adjustments. Instead of 5 cans of kidney beans, I went with a 5 blend of chili beans. I just thought that 5 cans of kidney beans was a bit much.

I also used onion powder instead of chopped onions. The boy has a large aversion to onions, so if he saw or tasted any it would have been over. I'm not taking that chance so a dash of onion powder was used instead.

It turned out really good and it was super easy. It was my first time ever using the slow cooker and I must say I'm a fan of throwing everything into one giant pot, turning it on and letting it essentially cook itself. Definitely my kind of cooking.

I will suggest that of you like your chili really thick to either cut the cans of beans to three, or use a thicker blend.

Enjoy!

Looking Back: Halloween

2011-10-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

I think I have expressed my dislike for dressing up on Halloween before, so we won't go there again.

Somewhere along the way my friends got the bright idea that costume parties would be a good idea. I argued. Whined. Complained. Threw tantrums. But still managed to lose.

So I thought this year I would show some of my previous costumes

2005: Dr. and a Nurse

2006: SOMEHOW I managed to win the war and there were no costumes. That has not happened since. I need to remember what I did, and how I accomplished it!

2007: Red Riding Hood

2008: Go-Go Girl

2009: Cowgirl (Chris was an old man. I couldn't find a decent picture with his wig on)

This year I was DETERMINED not to spend money on a costume. So I went out and spent money on super cute boots and made a costume around them.

2010: 80's

This year we had two events to attend.

The first one was with friends and the theme was decades. Because I didn't see these people last year when I wore my 80's costume, I decided that it would be fine to just re-use it.

Saturday we had a Halloween/Birthday party for my Brother in Law, and they did see my in my 80's costume last year, so I went as a cowgirl again because its easy, and I do love those boots :)

This year was pretty cost effective and easy, which is a good thing seeing as I do have that whole wedding thing right around the corner that seems to be costing me a small fortune.

That's it for the parties. Tonight I will be heading out with my sister and the little ones for some Trick or Treating (I draw the line at dressing up for this. I will be in jeans and the biggest sweater I own) then heading home for some quality T.V time with my boys.

For those of you driving, be smart and safe!

Tasty Tuesday

2011-10-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

I'm suspending Television Tuesday for this week, even though there is TONS to talk about (Um...Once Upon A Time....!) because I had to share a fantastic new recipe that a blogger shared with me.

A couple of weeks ago, Nicole, from Life's a Beach, posted this recipe.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try them. Chris LOVES Red Lobster....and I hate fish. Therefore, we don't go that often, so I figured it would be nice to make him something that tastes like something he would get at his favourite restaurant.

My sister's candle party last weekend (in which I spent way too much money....again) was the perfect opportunity for me to try them out. So the night before, at about 10, I got out all of the ingredients and gave it a go.

Seriously guys, these things are amazing. The first batch that I made didn't make it to the party (I had to go back and make more) as they lasted about 15 minutes before they were gone (which is fine because they take about that long to make). They are fantastic when they are fresh out of the oven. Warm. Soft. So Good.

They also weren't too bad the next day and went pretty fast at the party.

I am actually making them again tonight to go with the Chili that is currently cooking in the slow cooker (I've honestly begun to tackle this cooking thing. I'm even confident enough to consider myself decent.)

So go and try these, you won't regret it. And go check out Nicole's blog for even more tasty ideas.

Weekend Recap

2011-10-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

What an insanely crazy weekend!

After work on Friday we dressed up and headed out to a baseball banquet.

Chris, my sister and my brother in law all joined a summer baseball league and this was the event that brought the season to a close.

My sister and I

I was pretty excited for it. Chris and I don't get to dress up and go out very often. Although the food wasn't fantastic and the music could have been better it was still fun to get all pretty and dance with my hunny.

My beautiful Mama and I

Saturday started with celebrating my Mom's birthday. She didn't want anything "big" so we decided to just have the immediate family over for pizza, cake and presents. I suck and barely took any pictures.

After that Chris, my brother and I were off to meet a few friends at Wonderland for Halloween Haunt. I have talked about this before. We go every year. Haunted amusement park. I hate it. Remember?

It actually wasn't SO bad this year. It was beyond packed, and you go in the houses in a single line, so it was pretty easy to figure out where the scary things were by the screams ahead of me. This kept me calm and at one point I was actually encouraging going in the houses instead of on the rides.

This in itself was enough to make me exhausted. Ever since I quit my retail job in return for a cushy office job I do literally no standing. So after 5 hours of walking around a gigantic park I was not only ready to sleep for the remainder of the weekend, but I was also in pain. Everywhere.

But that didn't stop me from getting up on Sunday and venturing to Downey's Farm with Chris, my sister, Brother-in-law and two beautiful nieces.

Downey's farm is exactly how it sounds. A farm that the owners have taken and turned into a fun thing to do with the kids. It was a gorgeous day, and the kids had a blast.

After that it was off to meet my brother and his girlfriend at the movies to see Paranormal Activity 3. I'm not going to insult my own intelligence by trying to review a movie in which I watched half of it from under my sweater. If you like movies that scare the crap out if you then be my guest. Otherwise I wouldn't.

That ended our very busy, very expensive weekend.

Although I'm exhausted, and I feel like I have been hit by a truck (seriously getting too old for this crap) it was a lot of fun.

Wedding Wednesday: Tranportation

2011-10-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

With just a little under 7 months to go before the big day, Chris and I have all but one of our major contracts signed, all that is left is transportation.

The reason that the OCD part of me has yet to nail this part down is largely due to the fact that I have absolutely no idea what I want.

The church and venue that we picked are about 45 minutes apart (I was very picky when it came to my venue site, and nothing close to Chris's family church was working for me, so we had to look elsewhere), so there is no doubt that we NEED something to get us from point A to point B.

When we initially got engaged, this was my FOR SURE method of transportation

....until we booked our venue, and Chris nicely informed me that horses don't travel well on highways.

Then I was convinced that I wanted something like this

so that Chris and I could have some alone, down time (the very little that we will get that day from what I hear) in between the ceremony and reception sites.

If this was the plan, I would also book a limo to make sure that my entire bridal party had safe transportation both to the venue, and to the hotel after the reception.

Sounds like a good plan right? So why am I even bothering talking about it? Well because when I was at the bridal show last November I met with a limo company who was offering this

for about half the price of what we would pay for the car and the limo.

This wouldn't have been an option except for the fact that my loving sister (and MOH) dragged me onto one, and I actually kind of fell in love. It's like a mini club inside, with a big screen T.V, music, lights and a fully loaded bar. Not to mention that it will comfortable seat 25 people. I have vision of the fantastically wild time that we could have with our entire bridal party on the way to our venue.

And of course the price doesn't hurt. Chris and I are all about saving money where this wedding is concerned.

So now I'm conflicted. Do I want the quiet ride with Chris, or do I want to party it up with some of the most important people in my life?

What did you do? Was the down time worth the extra money?

Happy Birthday Bubba!!

2011-10-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today this guy turns 1

It feels like yesterday when Chris was messaging me at work to tell me that he picked a puppy.

I rushed home and got to meet this cutie, who very quickly became my little lap dog.

I can't believe how quickly he has turned into my 60 pound lapdog....

It's been a big year for Mr. Brady

We had baths

Tried some sweaters

Discovered snow

Rang in the New Year

Visited Family

Learned to swim at the cottage

Went for a boat ride

It's also been quite a year for Chris and I. We learned how to be responsible for something other than ourselves, and gained the confidence that we can work together and keep something that depends on us alive (gives me optimism for our future children).

Even though he is a lot of work, he is one of the better decisions that Chris and I have made. I absolutely love coming home to someone who is excited to see me every single day. I also don't mind the fact that I have made him a 60 pound lap dog, cuddling with him makes my day.

So happy birthday to my baby who, in only a year, has managed to make me one of "those" people. (Seriously. There are big plans tonight which may or may not include treats, presents and a party hat.)

Television Tuesday

2011-10-03T17:14:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I missed last week. You should be used to my crazy, sporadic blogging by now!

It's two weeks after the launch of fall T.V and our PVR is full. I seriously don't have enough hours in my day to keep up.

Two weeks ago I wrote about my excitement for Glee

We are only two weeks in (week three tonight!) and it is already miles better than last season. The storyline is better, the music is better, pretty much everything is better. Way to go to the Glee production crew for deciding to go "back to the basics."

I also told you about Unforgettable

I have only watched week one (week 2 and 3 are PVR'd....Again, not enough time in my day!) and I have to say that so far I'm not impressed. It's pretty much the same cookie cutter crime show that I can get anywhere, and honestly CSI does it better. I found myself bored during the first episode, but vowed to give at least the second week a chance, so I will, although I see this being the first one to go when I re-evaluate my television line up.

Some shows that I didn't talk about but have caught my attention are

Twin sisters Bridget and Siobhan (both played by Gellar) have been at odds for the last six years and find that their lives are both unraveling at the same rate. Bridget, a recovering addict and ex-stripper, is on the run from the mob after witnessing a murder. She flees to her twin sister Siobhan's home. The sisters seem to be repairing their broken relationship until Siobhan mysteriously disappears overboard during a boat trip the sisters take together. Bridget soon discovers her sister's seemingly perfect life is full of secrets after she is attacked in Siobhan's future apartment. (From Wikipedia)

First of all, I'm a HUGE Sarah Michelle Geller fan, from way back in her Buffy days, so that in itself caught my interest, but the show is also really good. I spend most of the time trying to figure out what is going on, and anticipating what is going to happen (which I like). It is quickly becoming my favourite new fall show.

I also look forward to

Umm....Hilarious. The casting department hit a home run with Zoey Deschanel as Jess. She is perfect for that role, bringing the right amount of quirkiness and personality. This was one show that wasn't really on my radar, but I find myself doubled over with laughter every week, making it a definite must see.

And topping my disappointment list this week is:

The trailers for this show had me so excited. It looked hilarious, perfect for couples who are either new to parenting or close to it.

Unfortunately it's not working for me. I just don't get it. Most of the time I find it really awkward. Like last week when they were practically stalking their brand new neighbours. Why? Is there something I'm missing? Am I just having problems relating because I don't have kids yet? Maybe it's just me, but I'm not seeing this one lasting long.

Those are my opinions so far. What do you think??

New York, New York - Part 3!

2011-09-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

I need to start this post by explaining to you just how amazing my bestest actually is.

Saturday was our last day in New York, and it was also a free day, meaning no tours or required meeting spots, we had the day totally to ourselves to do whatever we pleased.

Knowing this, and also knowing that it was my very first time in New York City, my awesome best friend spent the better part of a month scheduling a detailed itinerary based on what I wanted to do, and the things that she thought I should do.

Unfortunately I had to go and screw it all up.

My Saturday morning didn't exactly start well. It actually began with me running full force into a wood bed and breaking my toe. Only me.

Then my diabetic thing decided that it was pretty much done with the whole New York life, and by the time the bestest and I had showered, dressed, and made our way to McDonald's in Time's Square to meet my mom and her best friend, I pretty much felt like I was dying.

To make a very long story short, this all ended up with a rushed breakfast for everyone else, a trip back to the hotel room (where I passed out in bed), a rushed trip to the drug store for batteries (the battery in the machine that monitors my blood sugar decided that this was the opportune time to die) and a lot of tears. In any case, the problem was that I ate much too late the night before, also drank more than I probably should, and my blood sugar was not the slightest bit happy. It also meant that I wasn't able to move myself from bed without the fear of losing anything left in my stomach until 10:30, cutting a good two and a half hours from our day.

And yet, because my best friend is so amazing, she just adjusted and carried on like everything was fine. Love her.

So once I was moving, we tried to salvage the rest of our day and carry on, as planned, starting with the Staten Island Ferry (I was still not eating at this point, but I was drinking an amazing Strawberry Yogurt smoothy that was amazing). Even without food, and the occasional wave of nausea, these sights were amazing

After the Ferry we headed to Ground Zero

There are honestly no words. It was something I felt like I needed to see, because I, like the rest of the world, remember exactly where I was and how I was feeling on that day 10 years ago. It was enlightening, and upsetting all at once. It is also something I think everyone should do. It's unfortunate, but it has become a part of New York. It is still so fresh even after 10 years, and it made me gain a new respect for the people of New York and how they are managing to both remember and recover.

After we left ground zero came the first flaw in the itinerary. I got hungry, and needed to eat immediately, not exactly leaving time to get to the restaurant that the bestest had planned to eat at. So we found a small little cafe very close to ground zero, which was good, but not a part of the plan.

Then came more shopping. We hit Crumbs (best cupcakes ever), The Strand (four floors of books? For a book lover it's like I died and went to heaven), Barnes and Noble (I'm an addict...what can I say?), DSW (which included me talking the bestest into purchasing her third pair of Uggs. They were cute and so worth it).

And because of the morning incident, after all of this we were pretty much out of time. I had to get back to the hotel to meet my mommy for dinner and a play, meaning that the bestest could not go see the carousel in Central Park (I'm a horrible bestest. Where she is still amazing).

I finished my time in New York at an Irish Pub for dinner with my mom and we went to see "When Death Takes a Holiday." The play was good, but it also wasn't my first choice. I figured while in New York I should see something like "Wicked," or "Mamma Mia" but I got outvoted.

After that it was getting back to the hotel, icing and elevating a very, very swollen, bruised and broken toe, and waiting for the bus to come to take us on a very long trip home.

So that was my experience in New York City. I absolutely fell in love. It was nothing like what I expected it to be (which is a good thing). Trip of a lifetime and I'm so glad that I got to do it with the bestest friend in the world, as well as my amazing mother.

My Dream ______

2011-09-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite bloggers posted this and I thought it would be fun to play along.

My Dream......BODY

I'm not totally dissatisfied with the body that I have, although I am a bit "curvier" than I would like. Of course I wouldn't mind looking like this:

But I don't see it happening anytime soon.

My Dream..... VACATION

This one is easy. I have a top three, but first on that list would 100% be Venice, Italy

Ever since I was little I have wanted to go here. It's just so beautiful and romantic, and falls in with my little girl fantasy's of princesses and prince charming. Second and third on my list would be Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Ireland.

My Dream...DRINK

Not sure I fully understand this question, so I'm going to go with my favourite one. Again it's a toss up between

Malibu and Diet 7up (or sprite) or

Cherry Whiskey and Diet Coke

My Dream House

Put it out in the country, slap a white picket fence around it and add an additional balcony from the master bedroom and it would be perfect.

My Dream.....JOB

This one changes.....a lot...

When I started school I wanted to be a editor. When I graduated, I wanted to get more on the side of distribution.

If we are being realistic, I think I would love to stay at home with my future children.

My Dream....CAR

I've never been the kind of girl that dreams about a car. I don't own one, and never have, but I have been looking around lately as I'm going to eventually need it to get from point A to point B. This is probably the one thing in my life I'd like to be practical about. I want it to be good on gas, not too pricey and dependable. Lately I have had my eye on this

The Honda Fit. I think they are absolutely adorable, while also fitting in my price range. This being said, I am extremely picky about how my cars drive, so it would all depend on how the test drive goes.

My Dream.... MAN

Was there ever any doubt? I mean I have loved him since I was about 14.

But of course we can't forget this guy

Cue rolling eyes....but we can never forget him :)

New York, New York - Part 2!

2011-09-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is a tad bit overdue!

Friday in New York started um....early. I believe the time that we had be down in the lobby was 6:30. Yeah. That's up, dressed, and ready to leave at 6:30 a.m. Needless to say, I'm not exactly what can be considered a morning person. I'm bitchy. cranky. miserable....

...But I did it. I wasn't pleasant (I believe the bestest decided that the best route was to just stop talking to me after about 15 minutes of "we're in New York. You don't sleep in New York. When is the next time we will be in New York?!?" to which she got responses close to "New York will still be here at noon.") I'm sure there was some explicit language in there somewhere but I really don't remember. The only important thing was that I was, in fact, following directions by being awake and moving. There was nothing in the itinerary that required me to be chipper.

Why did we have to be up and ready to go at 6:30a.m on a Friday? To go here:

This is unfortunately the extent of my early morning photo taking abilities

It's called Ellen's Diner, and it is the cutest, little fifty's diner where the staff literally sing and dance while serving you. The bestest kept telling me (as I complained about the time) that this place was worth it and she was completely right. All of the waiters/waitresses are struggling performers, and 100% of their tips go to helping them succeed, making the experience even better.

After we finished eating (phenomenal food by the way) our tour bus arrived and we headed out on a tour of Brooklyn. This was the tour I was least anticipating, but it turned out to be the best one of the trip, much to do with this man:

That's Tony. Our very own Brooklyn tour guide. We spend the morning, and a good portion of the afternoon, driving around looking at beautiful scenes like this:

We stopped for lunch and got to try real Sicilian style pizza

Best pizza I have ever had. And I eat a lot of pizza.

We then ended the tour at Coney Island with these amazing sights

After our tour it was off to New Jersey for some shopping, and much too much money spending. I don't have any pictures of my purchases (although my cute boot splurge may make an appearance in my engagement photo's *HINT HINT*) but we can just leave it at I did well.

After a long trip back into New York (something like two hours. Trying to get back into New York City on a Friday, in rush hour wasn't the easiest thing), a quick shower, we were headed out to our formal dinner....which I don't have good pictures of (FAIL!) I was too busy eating and drinking.

By this point it was very late, after a very early morning. The bestest and I found ourselves wandering through New York City (maybe the slightest bit tipsy) on a mission to find me a New York Hoody (we were successful...even if we were tipsy!)

We also managed to find this guy

Only in Time's Square!

Next Up: Free Saturday!

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Pictures

2011-09-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

After some very unnecessary photographer drama, we finally got our engagement pictures done.

Oh wait...I didn't tell you about the photographer drama...(trust me. If I told you all of the drama that has been surrounding this wedding lately you would be shocked!)

If you remember, booking my photographer was a bit of a difficult decision. It was probably the most important one I had to make, other than picking my venue. I'm going to have these pictures forever, and I want them to be something I am proud to display. This being said, I also didn't want to sell my future first born in order to pay for them.

After searching, we found Piper Studios. We met with them, looked over some proofs, got some questions answered and booked. I still had some concerns, namely that Piper is a studio and they employ many photographers, and the person that we booked with wasn't one of them. I was reassured before we booked that I could get the same photographer for our engagement shoot and wedding day, and if I had any concerns at all a new photographer would be assigned.

I wanted my engagement pictures done in August, and a photographer from Piper contacted us at the beginning of the month to make arrangements. Due to scheduling conflicts we couldn't arrange to meet in August, but we did set a meeting on September 25th. All was good. Until he e-mailed me at the beginning of September saying something came up, he had to cancel and we could reschedule for the last weekend in October.

Um No. Don't get me wrong, I understand that things happen. I am the queen of things happening. But my pictures were already booked for a month later than I originally wanted, and he wanted to push it back another full month. That would put me in a whole different season.

After a few e-mails to the lady I booked with, Piper proved that I made the right choice booking with them by promptly finding me a new photographer that could do my engagement shoot on the original booked day, as well as our wedding day.

So on September 25th we ventured out and met with Paul, who was awesome. He made us feel so relaxed, and he knew exactly what I was looking for.

We started at Graffiti Alley downtown, to get some contemporary, different poses that was what I was looking for in my pictures.

We then moved to a beach/park area to take what Paul referred to as the "mom pictures"

Although the drama was a bit more than I needed, Paul was amazing and I absolutely love my pictures.

Thought on Thursday

2011-09-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

I feel the bunch of little, insignificant thoughts that are floating around in my head warrants a thoughtless post.

1) I'm so happy that it's Thursday because that means that tomorrow is Friday which means that we are that much closer to the weekend.

2) This weekend is so busy because on Sunday we have our Engagement pictures! Meaning that my Saturday will be spent running around making sure I'm ready

3)
I finished The Hunger Games at lunch today. I liked it. I thought it was an interesting idea. Kind of a cross between futuristic reality T.V and the Olympics. This being said, from all of the reviews I have been reading in the past weeks one would think this book was life changing. I'm not there. It was good, but it's not the best book I have ever read.

4)
I'm officially suffering from wedding stress. I'm so done thinking about colours, flowers, dresses and suits. I JUST WANT TO GET MARRIED! We have about 7 months left, and even that is too long. Let's just do this! Any other brides reach this point???

5) Thinking about where we are going to live is not helping the stress at all.

6)
I wish money grew on trees.

7) Job searching sucks.

8) I am WAY behind on my New York updates. It's not like I have been home for over a month or anything. My pictures are not on my work computer, and after 8 hours I don't really feel like turning on my other one. I'll try harder.

9) I also want to take pictures and show you the adorable scarf that my brothers girlfriend knitted me and I LOVE. So many goals!

10) I have fully embraced fall. I'm liking my sweaters, and Uggs. And to be honest, my fall scented candles, as well as the amazing amount of T.V is not hurting.

11) It has taken me a little over 3 hours to write this post as I keep stopping to do real work.

That's all of my thoughts for today. Happy Thursday!

Television Tuesday

2011-09-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

Probably my favourite part about fall is the return of all my T.V shows

Our PVR is seriously overrun because there is honestly not enough time in our day to watch them all.

So I figured I would use Tuesday for the next little while to let you in on what I'm watching.

This week I'm excited for:

Obviously! I think I have made it clear how obsessed with this show I am. Last season wasn't fantastic, but the producers have stated that this season they plan on going back to the basics. So I'm very excited for tonight!

The new show that I'm looking forward to is:

Synopsis (taken from Wikipedia): The series follows a former New York City police detective named Carrie Wells, who suffers from hyperthymesia, a rare medical condition that gives her the ability to remember everything. She is reluctantly asked by her former boyfriend and one-time partner to join his homicide unit after he asks for help with solving a case. The move allows her to do the one thing she has been trying to remember, that of finding out how her sister was murdered.

I Say every year that I'm not going to start watching new series because a) I don't have time and b) I typically end up getting addicted and then they get cancelled. But this year, like every other, I failed.

I'm a complete sucker for the crime genre. I read the books, watch the shows, I guess it's my guilty pleasure. So this show immediately appealed to me. It also starts tonight (Tuesday's are going to be a big night for me). Hopefully it does well and I don't have to be sad when it gets cancelled.

That's my top two this week. What are you looking forward to? (not that I need any more temptations)

Bandwagon hopping

2011-09-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

I have finally hopped on the bandwagon and started reading this:

I have picked up this book so many times that I have lost count. Each time I decided that it wasn't for me, put it down and bought something else.

This being said, I am officially sick of hearing from everyone and anyone how amazing this series is (blogs, friends, Chris's co-workers, T.V, my brothers girlfriend.....seriously EVERYONE) So I finally bit the bullet and bought it.

I'm about 50 pages in and I will say that I'm intrigued. I'm not going as far as I like it....yet....but it has definitely caught my interest.

So who has read it? What did you think? Anyone out there dislike it???

TGIF

2011-08-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-08-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-08-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-08-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

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.

Vacation Days: Cottage Life

2011-08-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons that I have been completely MIA recently is that I am right in the middle of prime vacation season.

At the end of July I spent five amazing days here

With 11 of my closest friends (and pretty much my entire bridal party).

The cottage is my absolute favourite place to go (yes, I would actually prefer to be at the cottage over Cuba or Mexico). I feel like the minute I get there I am instantly relaxed, which lately is exactly what I need.

Our 5 days were spent:

Swimming

Even Brady participated

Drinking (probably a bit too much), which may or may not have led to...

...Antics...

Photoshoots by the lake

Girl Talk

Reading:

and most importantly...

RELAXING!

Perfection!

In other vacation news, this Wednesday the bestest, her mom, my mom, my mom's bestest, a whole bus load of woman and I will be leaving on a road trip to New York City. I have never been, but have always wanted to go and am extremely excited.

The bestest has gone every year for a few now, so she knows where to go, and pretty much has a whole itinerary fully planned. Can.Not.Wait.

Be expecting a full post about my adventures when I get back!

Wedding Wednesday: Back From Vacation!

2011-08-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

Lets start this post by sharing that I am writing it from my new tablet, which I am absolutely in love with. It is the most convenient, cute little machine that literally travels with me everywhere. Chris has me fully set up with games, so it can pretty much occupy me anywhere. Who knew that making a computer tiny would make me more willing to use it, even after staring at a screen all day.

In other news, to say that I have been on a bit of a wedding hiatus is probably the biggest understatement of the year.

There has been a lot happening on this front, some of which I'm not going to talk about due to the unsurity of it all, some of which I will be covering in later posts, which explains a good portion of my extreme laziness. The other portion can probably be blamed on the fact that I have pretty much everything that I need to actually get married checked off the list (dress, rings, chrurch, venue, photgrapher, DJ, Groom). All that was left was minor details, most of which I was beginning to waver on the actual importance of. I think I needed to take a step back, enjoy my vacation and not let the wedding consume my entire life, especially when there are so many other BIG things happening at the same time.

This being said, there are only 297 days (seriously just gave myself a heart attack. It's under 300 days! When did that happen?!?!) until the big day, so after my mini vacation there was definitely some work to be done.

Within the last week we have done so much, including setting up an appointment with a florist to take place the week I get back from another vacation (more on this later) in just over a week. I don't know if I have mentioned this before but I used to work for a florist, so flowers are something I actually know a bit about (finally, some part of this wedding that will cause no stress because I know exactly what I want!)

Obviously I need to narrow down specific colours when I meet with my potential florist, but I know my wedding will be full of these:

Gerber Daisy's are my absolute favourite flower, so I obviously want them everywhere. So far I have managed to incorporate them into the potential centerpieces, invitations, cake and bouquets. I'm thinking the girls will have something similar to this:

LOVE how it is completely Gerber's with lots of fillers so that it looks bigger. My Groomsmen will more than likely be rocking something similar to this:

As for my bouquet, I want something bigger, with more variety. I'm obviously putting Gerber's in there somewhere (what's the fun in filling the wedding with my favourite flower, if I don't get to carry any?) but the look I'm going for is more something like this:

It's nice to be completely positive about the things I'm looking for!

There have been other wedding developments recently, which I was planning to share in this post, but apparently I'm capable about rambling for much to long about flowers, so I'll save it for another Wedding Wednesday!