Done and Done!

I bought this book over five years ago with absolutely no idea what I was going to use it for, but I liked the design.

I am so happy to report that I found the perfect use for it – a wedding scrapbook! I actually began this scrapbook a long time ago. One of the best things about having a blog is that I can look back and see that on May 18, 2009 (wow, almost two full years ago) I wrote about starting the scrapbook and being so happy that I was half-way finished. Little did I know!

Now I am not huge into scrapbooking at all. I don’t do the fancy papers or use cool scissors to cut different designs. Give me a few decoration thingies from the dollar store, a marker, photos, and tape and I’m all set. Except do you know how long it takes to sort through hundreds of pictures and choose only a few? I had to scour friends’ facebook pages for random pictures I didn't have personal copies of and print off terrible quality photos, but such is life. AND, rejoice, it's done and I am so relieved! It's lovely :)

Pretty much every detail about our wedding is included in this book from the engagement to celebrating our first anniversary. I think it’ll be really nice to look back on it to remember our wedding day.

I know they're small pictures but here's a few sample pages so you can get an idea of what the book entails.

I'm pretty proud of the finished product!

I can finally cross this off my 36 in 365 list! Ahhh, feels good!

More Cake Talk

Two cake posts in a row, wow!

The top tier of our wedding cake sat in my parents' freezer for over a year, until we decided to open it to celebrate our first anniversary. We brought the cake to the cottage to share, thank goodness, otherwise we would have been eating cake for days!

My dad packaged it up really well. Two garbage bags, a huge ball of saran wrap, and duct tape!! It took me 10 minutes to unwrap it.

Not bad, not bad! The flowers on the top had flattened, but other than that it looked pretty good!

Not quite as good as the before picture, but I'll take what I can get.

A lovely picture of us, especially since I'm wearing my pyjamas.

Here's the inside. Vanilla bean cake with espresso frosting. For year old cake, it was delicious.

And some action shots! Oh aren't we so adorable.

One Year + Three Days

I can't believe it's been one year and three days since I woke up to this:

I had the BEST night's sleep before my wedding day. It was seriously so good. I wore ear plugs so the birds wouldn't wake me up and I didn't have to set an alarm, which always puts me in a happy mood. And I actually slept the entire night through, which rarely happens.

I was absolutely stress-free on the wedding day and actually had time to do this...

and of course do some of this.

The only time I had a little panic was when I forgot the ring bearer pillow in the limo and thought the limo had taken off, but my great bridesmaids ran out to get it.

I love reliving the day through our fantastic pictures. Here's two of my faves.

Aren't I just the luckiest girl in the world? I sure got a winner!

Happy Anniversary, Buddy!

PS - Thank you for the cards!

Niagara VS Camping

To celebrate our anniversary M and I wanted to do something, anything! Our first idea was to go to Niagara-on-the-Lake, stay at a bed and breakfast, have a nice dinner, and go to some wineries. That would have been great I'm sure, but also quite expensive.

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Here are some rough estimates about the costs of staying in Niagara.

Hotel: $200
Wine Tours: $40
Dinner: $75
Other Meals: $60
Total: $375

Spending that much for one night seems like a lot so we started thinking about different options and came up with camping. Camping is relatively cheap as long as you have the supplies!

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Here's what we spent for one night of camping.

Campsite: $45
Wood: $15
Propane: $5
Groceries: $25
Total: $90

Way better! They are two very different experiences, one WAY more luxurious than the other, but both good times. If you're married, do you remember your first wedding anniversary? What did you do?

The Song

Last night M and I went to see City and Colour at Massey Hall. Oh so good! Really, what's better than a man with a guitar AND a harmonica?

The show began with a vocal warm-up to "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was pretty fun. Dallas sang all of the songs one might expect plus a few covers. All I can say is that his voice is pure heaven.

A while ago M was telling me the story of "The Girl" and how Dallas had written it for his now wife, Leah Miller. He wrote a slow and fast version of the song and asked Leah which one she preferred. She suggested both, and that's how the song is recorded now - begins slow and repeats, much faster. It's great.

We actually chose this song as the first dance at our wedding, very much as a last minute idea. Usually we think of "Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional as "our song" but it's just way too fast to dance too. Believe me, we tried, and it wasn't working! So, we browsed through our collection of music and decided on "The Girl".

I think it's pretty perfect.

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Reminiscing

I knew that I'd eventually make a wedding scrapbook, but I didn't think it would take me 10 months to begin! Shortly after getting engaged, our guest bedroom became my wedding room. And it still is, but hopefully not for much longer. I have given away or sold almost all of the leftover wedding stuff that was at my condo (sorry mom, you still have a lot at your house) and all that's left are papers and mementos from the planning process.

Finally, this weekend I got the motivation to begin! First it started here...

Then moved to here....

And now I'm happy to say it's all in here...

I finished taping in all of the pictures, papers, etc into a book. That took me over 8 hours. Blech. I used about 3 rolls of tape! Now the hardest part is left - writing all about it! My goal is to finish before summer!

I have only ever made one scrapbook in my life about our first trip to Europe - and I must say it's awesome taking it out and reliving our adventures! I know this one will be worthwhile in the end as well!

Finally Finished Blurbing

Earlier today M and I finished up our honeymoon blurb book. Finally! I'm very excited to see the finished product and I hope the quality is great. We'll wait and see - right now it's expected to be shipped by the 26th.

You can go look at the first 15 pages here. It's 70 pages in total, hard cover, and cost $45 - and that's using a free shipping coupon. I also opted for the "premium" paper, whatever that means.

Here's what the cover looks like:

We came up with a very creative title, eh?

Blurb is the company I used to make the guest book at our wedding! I was happy with that book, so I can't wait to see this one!

What To Do About Martina?

Every time I go home I think about poor Martina. She's hanging in the basement - alone and dirty.

I knew Martina was the one because well, I liked her right away and this is silly, but, she fit into the family well. You see, Marnie.. Marina.. Martina! Perfect!

I love Martina, but I just don't know what to do with her now. I don't think I'm ready to part with her yet. Maybe in a couple of years, but for now, thinking of giving her away just kills me!

I really wanted to do a trash the dress shoot, but isn't it a little weird waiting so long now? I don't want to clean her because what if that type of opportunity magically arises - I'd have to clean her again and that's expensive.

So I guess there she'll hang, until I can either say goodbye or come up with another brilliant idea.

She's so shiny and beautiful. What to do, what to do?

Just Makin' Some Fruitcake!

One Year Ago..

Exactly one year ago during the March Break I was:
...stirring and stirring and stirring some more
...burning my fingers repeatedly
...and praying for non-runnyness

Can you guess?

Making jam, of course! Before this, I had never made jam, and after this, I may never again! Or at least not 144 little jars of it! After a week of making jam for many hours a day, I'd had enough for long, long while!


With the help of my mom, I was also:
...mixing, mixing, and mixing some more
...soaking cheesecloth in booze
...and praying for tastiness after a four month period

Can you guess this one?

Indeed, making fruitcake! Don't ask, it's just a wedding tradition! I wish we would have made more (or just cut smaller pieces) because this was very surprisingly a hit at the wedding!

Those were the good old days, but hey, Cuba doesn't seem like a bad replacement!

Happy Birthday Daddy-o

Today is my dear dad's birthday! I love my dad a lot. He is so sweet, and smart, and funny, and hardworking, and he knows all the answers to all my questions. Frankly, he is the best dad I've ever had! And maybe if he's really lucky, I'll go to church again... one day...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! xoxo