Goodbye, NaBloPoMo

A month of posting every day wraps up with this very post.  It's been a fun challenge and I'm glad I did it.  An added bonus is that my daily readership has more than quadrupled since I started the challenge, which isn't saying much because it was only sitting at about 6-10 readers daily.  Ha ha.

I supposed that depending on who you ask I didn't quite suceed.  I faltered due to Harry Potter with only 6 posts to go.  I didn't clue in that going to the 10 p.m. show meant that I wouldn't be home in time to blog before midnight.  I did blog before bed that night though, so in another way I think I suceeded.  Depends how letter of the law you want to be about the whole matter.

A few of my reader friends have been asking what I'm going to do with my blog now that it's over, and I'm not exactly sure.  Hopefully I can just ride on the momentum of this past month and post more regularly.  We shall see. 

One thing that blogging every day has made me realize is that I don't have very many friends who blog, and those who do don't do it regularly.  It's a bummer.  I like reading the blogs of my friends.  I read lots of random people ones but it's not the same.  I have blogs of my friends on a reader and every time I logged in in November it was always Kerry's posts because nobody else was posting.  It was nice that Kerry was NaBloPoMo-ing it up as well though.  And she actually succeeded I think, so WAY TO GO KER.  Also to Nicki.  Whooo.  It was much more fun knowing you two ladies were in it with me.

Lost my Jane Austen Groove

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

That's the opening line of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice".  I read it for fun in early university and loved it from the moment I read that sentence.  Her satire and wit took me by surprise.  Classics can often be epic, beautiful, important, well crafted and worth reading, but a lot of them are far from being entertaining and cheeky. 

I think I read P&P as a follow up to the dry, uneventful and humourless Robinson Crusoe (I'm sorry, I know that I am supposed to love it and respect it, but I just can't.  Maybe resepct, but never love).  That book is the equivalent of talking to the most boring person I have ever met.  Boys always seem to like it though, so...sorry guys for bashing your favourite novel.

After reading P&P I went on to watch a lot of the Jane Austen movies, old and new, and we had a good thing going for a while.  Lots of watching the multi-hour epic BBC version of P&P, loving Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, having a short-lived crush on a boy I met in Michigan who QUOTED THE FIRST LINE OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE TO ME when I told him I had read it recently, etc. etc. etc.  You nerds know what I am talking about.

But then all of a sudden I lost my groove.  Her novels sit unread in my "to read" pile, and this is the second time I have tried to read Sense and Sensibility.  It's going ok, but definitely not great.  What happened?  I am bummed out. 

Girls Girls Girls

This weekend has been girl, girl, girly.  I spent the weekend with my friend Natasha and Pencil the lap dog who is also a girl.  She was in town for the Royal Bison art and craft fair and stayed with me.  But it turned out her sister came to town as well and ended up staying with me too.  Then her other other sister and mom came over to hang out, as well as our friend Megan.  So basically to top off the girl fest we watched Little Women with many many people crammed on to my couch hide-a-bed.  It always feels like the beginning of winter and Christmas when I watch that movie.

 In this picture we are actually watching the Marcel The Shell (with shoes on) video that I posted a few weeks ago.

This morning, I went to breakfast with some high school girlfriends and then back to the Royal Bison, only to dsicover that Tash, her sister and I all showed up wearing striped cardigans with brown curly hair.  Three of us in a row behind Natasha's booth. People started asking us if we were all related and then eventually a girl (sweetly) asked us what our deal was "are you guys like, best friends or something...what's your deal?".  It was super funny.

And tonight was the swap.  Or, SWAP-O-RAMA, as we fondly call it.  I predict that Kerry will expand on this in an upcoming blog post, so I won't say a whole lot about it yet, but to whet your appetite I've posted a picture below of the climax of the event.  Kaeli is wearing like 80 items of clothing. 

Royal Bison, Lap Dog with Reindeer Antlers on, Royal Bison, Lap Dog, Lap Dog

Today was day 1 of the Royal Bison Art & Craft Fair.  My friend Natasha of Pretty Sketchy drove up (with her little dog, Pencil, and her sister and friend.  I usually sit at the booth with her.  Sometimes I sell some stuff, other times I just sit around and hang out.  It's a good time.

This time I'm selling a few pairs of earrings I made from the jewels off an old chandelier and the last pair of fabric flags from last time.  Tash, on the other hand is selling a whole bunch of great stuff.  Postcard packs, limited edition prints, adorable printed tea towels, necklaces, stationery sets and cards.

The show was pretty busy for most of the day.  We snuck in Tasha's little dog friend Pencil after we finished setting up and she slept in a box under the table. I used to say I hated lap dogs, but I'm not so sure anymore. Pencil's pretty cute.  We spent a whole lot of the weekend doing stuff with her and for her.  Like...

Tucking her into Kaeli's high-waisted pants.  Like a marsupial pouch.

Altering a cat costume that I bought at the dollar store to fit her little head.  The cat costume was too big for her.  Note Becky's one-piece PJs.  With footies.

 Here is Pencil wearing the completed reindeer costume.

 We spent half the day doting on her and letting her sit in our laps while we worked at the Royal Bison

 And letting her sleep wherever she wanted.  Even on the price sheet.  Come hang out with us tomorrow and bring us chai lattes if you want.

Bathroom Pics, House Tour Part II

I like having my own bathroom.  It's pretty sweet.  As I mentioned a couple of posts back, I have been working through all the random bathroom products I own and have acquired, and having my own bathroom has definitely helped me to focus those efforts because I know that everything in there is mine.  It's enabling the crazy.

 It's a really small little space, but it's all white and pretty cute.  There is no vanity or countertop since the sink is mounted on the wall so I mounted a little shelf on the wall to hold some of my stuff.  Hair elastics and bobby pins go in the little teacup, and the clock keeps me on schedule in the mornings so I'm not late for work, right? right?

 The cupboard above the toilet is totally awesome and holds a ton of stuff.  And the little baskets nailed to the wall are a storage solution from my first little place that I lived in years ago, which was a small room in a tiny attic (servant's quarters) apartment in a mansion overlooking Groat Road in Edmonton.  I had almost no closet space, no storage, and no space in the shared bathroom to put anything, so I nailed them to the wall and became strangely attached to their functionality.

Two of my other favourites are the bath mat and the shower curtain.  I hate bath mats that show footprints on them, because they always look sort of used and dirty even if they aren't really.  Plus I can't get enough of stripes so this bath mat won me over right away.

 The shower curtain is a terry cloth one with a grid pattern.  I loooove it.  Also, note the lavender shampoo that smells amazing but unfortunately doesn't work very well.  Dang organic shampoo.

And that's my bathroom.

Eames in progress

Well, I officially failed Nablopomo.  But sometimes, you just have to eat chicken and go see the new Harry Potter Movie.  Sorry folks.  Go easy on me.  I even had this post drafted and almost complete.  Ha ha.  Oh well, it's sort of like I posted it for November 25 because I haven't gone to bed yet...

I posted before pics of an Eames-style (authenticity undecided) lounge chair that Joel creatively acquired this past spring.  It's not done yet, but we did have an intense weekend of working on it a while back and it's getting close.  Perhaps Joel's roommates, who have been watching it sit in a relatively untouched pile on the floor lately, can attest to the fact that a) it's looking good, and b) that there is still a bit of work to be done.

We got the (off-white, buttery soft) vinyl through our designer friend Dawn of Dawn Stiles Design.  We wanted a high-quality almost-leather feel but weren't sure we wanted to pay for leather since we were going to tackle this job ourselves.  It would be much more tragic to ruin an expensive piece of leather than an only moderately expensive piece of vinyl.

We thought about getting it done professionally, but that's not nearly as fun I don't think.  So, after ripping it apart we set out to put it back together again.  In a lot of ways, it was as simple as tracing the pieces of fabric that we had removed on to the vinyl and cutting them out.  We chose to get buttons made by a professional upholsterer because we figured they would look waaaayyyy better and they only cost about $2 each. 

So, after cutting out the vinyl, we punched holes (with a hammer and a nail) into the vinyl where the buttons needed to be threaded through.  Now the tough part...we had to thread the buttons through the thick layers of foam and batting and out the back of the chair, but we didn't have an upholsterers needle.  At first it seemed impossible, but eventually with the help of a chopstick and a lot of grunt work, we managed to figure out how to get it through.

This is what the shells looked like after the buttons had been threaded, but before we started stretching and stapling.

After the buttons were in place, it was time to stretch and staple.  The first thing we stapled was the strings on the buttons so that they would be nice and tight.

We were careful about our first staples because if we stretched too much on one side it would make the buttons off-center.  We stapled opposite corners all around, continually checking to make sure the buttons were centred.  We bought an electric stapler for the job, which in the end worked out ok, but at first caused some troubles.  Mostly because the staples got loaded in the wrong way and are now forever jammed in the handle.  Because of the malfunction I insisted that we wear eye protection.  This is me in Joel's 3d glasses, making a cranky face to communicate the wayward-staple anxiety that I was having.

After I got over it, the electric stapler worked like a charm and nobody got staples in their face, eyes, or fingers.  After centering the vinyl and stapling the straight edges we worked on the corners.  They were probably the trickiest but Joel was a champ at folding them evenly.

Each chair has a rim of piping around the edge of the wooden shell.  It's hard to visualize without seeing the chair, but basically you staple the piping to the wooden shell and then the cushion fits in overtop.  This is nice because the sewing is fairly straightforward.  I haven't worked with piping on cushions before and I don't think it would be my idea of a good time.  I like sewing but I'm far from meticulous. So this is me sewing the piping.

And here is the cushion alllmost ready.  At this point Joel and I were still speaking and on good terms.  No major DIY blowouts yet.  It's one of the ways we are testing our relationship before the big day.  Ha ha.  Just kidding.  Sort of.

When our friend Dawn saw it she sighed with relief and told us she was so worried it wouldn't work out, but doesn't it look good so far? 

Using stuff up

Living in a house with roommates moving in and out over the years meant that a lot of stuff got left behind. Especially things like post it notes, pens and pencils, stationery, lotions, sunscreen, bath salts, extra shampoo, soaps and sometimes kitchen spices. I have a hard time just throwing things into the trash when there is nothing wrong with them, but all of these items would just sit around not being used because I already had my own stuff.

Over time, I developed a...um, dedication to using this stuff up.  I think it started because I have a really vivid memory of my friend Kerry, junk purger extraordinaire, becoming really dedicated to using up all of her old journals and pens, even ones that she hated. For some reason, that really stuck with me and the obsession was transferred over (I have a stack of empty journals that I have received or purchased that I am working on using...)

I became practically obsessed with using up all of the old products that were floating around at the farm house. For two years I worked away at a cupboard full of mushroom soup (????) and a big box of pasta, as well as a bunch of teacher gifts that my sister had left behind. Pomegranate lotions, grapefruit lotion, bath salts, shower gel, body butter. I put a personal ban on purchasing any items that I knew I already had. It was tough slogging, and a few items definitely got tossed when I moved this summer (although not all), but I am finally reaching the end of it. 

Too add to the crazy, I decided that I would help Melissa de-clutter her bathroom by stealing/demanding she give me all of her bathroom products that I want and that she never uses because she has purchased multiples or new onese that are better.  Best acquisitions so far include mineral powder from Sephora, straightening balm for my hair, and dry shampoo.

Last week at work I finally got to toss a thing of grapefruit lotion that I had been using at my desk for almost a year in favour of a new one that my friend Karen gave to me that I was soooo excited to start using. Yay for small victories.

To the right you can view a dramatic photo of the two lotions.

I just have a few more bottles of lotion at home, a pile of sticky notes, a whole bunch of scrap paper, about a million pencils and pens, and about a bath's worth of bath salts left.  I am racing to get it done before June 18. 

I realize this is all ridiculous, but at the same time it's helping me a) not be wasteful, and
b) not spend money on unnecessary purchases. 

And it's basically on the reusing/recycling spectrum, so that's a good thing.  Small victories, people, small victories.

Soleil

I hate weekday mornings.  Waking up has always been a torturous thing for me.  Even as a little kid, I was specially exempt from naptime at pre-school because it was so hard for me to have a quick nap and then get up again.  As I aged, I became notorious for my ability to sleep until eight minutes before school started.  My mom tried everything: singing me good morning songs, being gentle and encouraging, beign stern, yelling up the stairs, but nothing worked.  She used to holler up to ask if I was awake and I would sit up, throw the covers off, yell back "I'm up", and then lay down again and fall back asleep. This is a legacy I'm not sure I will ever be able to shed. Even for my birthday this past summer, my mom got a real kick out of buying me a coffee mug that says something about hating mornings. 

Now that I am on my own, I do the best I can.  I try (and almost always fail) to get to bed on time.  I set my alarm for earlier so that I can snooze it without making myself terribly late. I make my lunch the night before so that I have less to do in the morning and can sleep a few minutes longer.

I have noticed that it is markedly harder for me to rouse myself in the winter months, when daylight comes only after I have to be up and out the door.  My latest attempt is based on an alarm clock I heard about that is designed to simluate the sunrise, thereby tricking your body into gently waking up instead of having to be jolted by an obnoxious alarm clock. It starts with a gradually brightening light that begins before you have to wake up and continues to brighten until eventually an alarm goes off. 

So, not wanting to buy a large, ugly, and possibly expensive gadgety alarm clock, I decided to buy a lamp timer (like the ones people use when they go on vacation) and set it to turn a lamp on across the room about 1/2 hour before my alarm goes off.  After a few false starts, I finally got it to work today.  It was okay.  But seriously, I still hate mornings.  That's probably not going to change. 

Thrifting Uglies

After the successes of last weekend't thrifting, I wanted to balance it with some awesome ugliness that was encountered.

 This scary, scary doll was actually a lamp.  For reals.  I almost yelled in fear when I caught a glimpse of it. 
My favourite thing is the green price tag slapped on her cheek.

 Bag o' Barbies!

And just for some on-theme fun,  we made sure to check out the wedding dress section.  I came up with a new game by asking Megan: "ok, if you made this into a strapless dress and put it on the hottest person you know, would it be okay?".  The answer for this one was no.

The answer for this nice buttercup yellow one was also no. Turns out the wedding dresses at Goodwill aren't that cute.  Go figure.

Pushing Those Almost-Sisterly Buttons

My friend Kerry loves hockey.  We are good enough friends that I feel like it's ok for me to be open with her about the fact that I really don't care about hockey, and that I'm not super interested in her telling me all about hockey.  This might sound a bit mean, but she is one of my most vocal and prone-to-obsession friends, so I feel it is somewhat justified for me to stay strong in the face of her vocal obsessions. You can get a bit of background on our hockey dynamic by reading the second half of this blog post by her.

As much as I don't like or care about hockey, I do always think of Kerry when I see an Oilers game on tv because she has been so enthusiastic about her love for them. This happened last night when I was out at the bar with Joel and some of his grad school peeps, so because I have known her for a long time and know how to bait her and push at least a few of her buttons (in an almost sisterly sort of way), I thought it would be suuuper funny to mess with her by sending her strings of text messages as if I cared about the Oilers.  Mimicing actual texts that I have received over and over again from her in the past.

Here is a transcription of her totally falling for my tricks...

BB 8:22 OMG Edmonton is beating Phoenix!

KP8:22 As if you know that! What are you doing?

BB 8:24 Omg! Dustin Penner is so dreamy! #46 just pushed someone! Ahhhh 3 to zero!

KP 8:25 3 nothing? THe stupid internet cut out! Who scored the third goal? 46 is Zach Sortini! Is this Joel?

BB 8:25 Aw shit! Dubnyk just let one in.

BB 8:26 Nope! it's bb all the way.  I have no idea who scored.

KP 8:28 Darn it! But seriously 3-1? Because my internet died!

BB 8:28 Yep. 3-1. Now there is a fight!

KP Why are you watching? Where are you?

KP Penner scored #3. Why are you watching?????????

BB 8:30 I looooove hockey!!!!

KP 8:30 Plllllleease tell me.  You win. You have driven me crazy.

KP 8:31 stooooooopppp. My stupid internet! Why are you watching? Please just tell me!

BB 8:38 3-2! shit!

KP 8:39 I hate you. And Ray Whitney.

KP 8:39 Why haven't you cracked? This is mean. Although my internet is up again.  Were you a little interested in what was going on?

BB 8:39 Mua ha ha ha

BB 8:40 I was a lot interested in your reaction to what was going on.  I feel awesome and powerful right now! New favourite game!

Beezus & Ramona

Yesterday, on Kerry's repeated and high-pressure recommendation, I watched the new(ish) Ramona movie, “Ramona and Beezus”. As a kid, I read the Ramona Quimby books. They were, and still are, classic stories about little-girl-hood and sisterhood.

The movie was totally adorable and basically took all the highlights from the books and wove them into a movie plot. It was a really great remake of the books and it was actually kind of amazing to watch the scenes and be taken back to being 10 years old and reading the stories for the first time. They created them just as I had imagined. It was almost eerie.

For those of you who have read the books, the part where Ramona goes to try out for the part of the princess in the Royal Peanut Butter TV commercial and ends up making herself a tiara out of burrs from the park outside was perfect. As was the early scene where Howie and Ramona are jumping out of the hole in the back of the house as it is being renovated. Or the one where she tries to crack her hard-boiled egg on her head, only to discover that her dad forgot to boil it.  She ends up with egg running down her face right before class pictures.
Another big draw is that Aidan from SATC is totally the dad.  And Ginnifer Goodwin is the adorable Aunt Bea.  Their little family is so sweet. 
The most interesting part of watching the movie, though, was realizing that as a kid, and again now, I strongly associate Beezus and Ramona with my childhood/lifelong friends Kerry and Kim. Kerry being Beezus, and Kim being Ramona. Seriously. I don’t know why I didn’t realize this sooner. I'll be interested to know if those of you who know them agree...

Winter came late, but Christmas decorations are coming early

Joel and I just had a 'lively debate' (his words) about Christmas decorations.  He has a strict no music no decorations until Dec. 1 policy.  Whereas I like to decorate and bust out the Roger Whittaker and Amy Grant's cleverly titled "A Christmas Album" whenever the mood hits.  Which usually happens sometime in late November and often coincides with a mega snowstorm.  If you wait until December, then it's pretty much over before you even get started.

Confession: I pulled out some of my Christmas decorations today.  I couldn't help it.  I was home and it was snowy and it just felt right.  

I guess it could be argued that this is too early, I am celebrating the change of seasons more than the actual holiday in all of its meangingfullness.  But I can't help myself.  Being able to enjoy winter as a legitimately wonderful season is what keeps me happy living in a place like Edmonton.

As for commercialized signals that Christmas is coming, there are a lot of them that I like: the red Starbucks cups and the egg nog lattes that go with them, the twinkly lights on Jasper Ave, the anticipation of a break from work and time with family, yummy treats, shopping and gift giving.  I like that stuff. It adds a little romance to what can sometimes be a bleak season.  So I say bring it on.

The search for the perfect type of exercise

As a female, it seems like the obvious choice when thinking of taking some sort of exercise or wellness class is...yoga.  Always yoga.  And I can see why.  Especially for someone like me who sits at a desk all day and often is hunched over editing documents, opening up and stretching has a lot of benefits.  To that end, I've tried different yoga classes over the years but usually end up annoyed when I have to pay 16 bucks a pop to go do yoga in a room with a pretentious instructor and a bunch of clones in lululemon gear. But, if exercise isn't fun, or at least a bit lighthearted, I lose interest pretty quickly. 

Joel and I went to classes together at a couple different studios and I almost busted into a fit of laughter as the instructor made a poor attempt at describing super-scientifically what the yoga was doing for our bodies.  Being a real scientist makes it hard for Joel to let fake science talk slide. Other studios were so unwelcoming, boring and serious that it made me want to flip out.  I know that different people want different things from classes but I also know that serious and pretentious is not for me.

This led me and my friend Rebecca to try boot camp.  It was a hoot.  Yeah that's right, I said hoot.  We listened to music from The Bounce 91.7 (Katy Perry etc.) and did all sorts of hilarious stuff.  Boxing drills, cardio circuits, relay stuff.  It was a good time, and we lucked out because our instructor definitely had a sense of humour about it all.  Then Rebecca had to take a hiatus from it all, which led me to...

Moksha yoga.  I was skeptical when I decided to try Moksha yoga.  It's a type of hot yoga but it's not bikram.  And I totally like it.  Go figure.  It markets itself as being welcoming and they actually are for the most part.  And their studios are totally sweet.  They're newly built and have gorgeous change and shower rooms.  As someone who rarely sweats, even when I am exercising pretty hard, it's a new and strange experience to be somewhere so hot that my shins and inner ears are sweating.

Latest addition to the random fitness attempts is KARATE AQUASIZE.  Does it get any more hilarious than that?  I didn't think so.  It's totally great. 

Anyways, writing this post has helped me conclude that the big draw for me with exercise is to do something different and possibly ridiculous, amusing, or embarrasing.  Or, to put it scientifically for Joel

hilarity + intensity / embarrassment ^ 2 = success!

House Tour: Part I

I promised long ago on this blog that I would show you some pics of my little place when it was done.  The trouble is that with me it's never done.  I am always changing something.  So I decided to tackle this one space at a time.  That way I get like four NaBloPoMo posts out of it instead of just one, and I can focus on more details in each room.  So, to start...the makeshift enterance way!

 There are three doors into my one bedroom place, so I blocked one of them off with a chalkboard.  There's not much to say about the entrance, but I thought it would be a good place to start.

Horrifying things about wedding dresses and one or two good things

One of the interesting and challenging things about wedding planning so far has been trying to find a way to indulge my desire to have a fun and memorable wedding without buying into the ridiculous culture of bridal and wedding indulgence.  I want to vomit when I think about the huge trade shows like “Bridal Fantasy” and was floored when I saw an ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLAR engagement and wedding photo package.  I know it's important to value the services and equipment that a photographer provides, but my head about exploded when I saw that.

There is so much pressure to plan a wedding that is totally beyond our means, and in a lot of ways I feel like the wedding dress embodies or symbolizes the crazy insanity that weddings can become.  I was apprehensive when I started looking for a dress because I feel so uncomfortable with a lot of the things that are attached to THE dress.  Because of this, there were some things that I absolutely hated about dress shopping, but thankfully there were also some positives and things worked out almost better than I could have hoped in the end.

• The first thing I took issue with, as alluded to above, was the price. Oh my word.  I had budgeted a maximum of $1,000 with a goal of spending waaaay less, and when I would go into stores and be up front about my price, a lot of the stores were unhelpful, even though they totally had dresses for under that price point...they just weren’t all that interested in showing them to me.  I think every consultant I met asked me "do you have any wiggle room in your budget?".  So I would tell them that it wasn't that I couldn't spend more, it's that I had made a decision that I WOULDN'T spend more than that.  On top of that, almost every store told me it was impossible to find the kind of dress I was describing for less than 3 or 4 thousand.
• The next lame thing is the sizes. For some cruel reason they make wedding dresses to fit small, so you can count on having to buy one that’s at least one or two sizes bigger than what you would normally wear.  Way to make someone feel good in a white dress.  Jerks.
• Just as I was getting used to shopping for dresses, I ran into people at a couple of the stores who reminded me forcefully that you have to order your dress way in advance because ALL of the dresses come from China.  They went on to emphasize how timing is an issue because of Chinese New Year when all the shops close down for an extended period of time.  The sales person who told me this was acting personally affronted that those jerks in China would dare close down their businesses to celebrate a national holiday.
• Now on the positive side I eventually learned that not all dresses are actually made in China.  There is a line called Mikaella that makes gorgeous dresses right here in Canada (outside Toronto).  I probably would have ended up with one of those except for the price, which was reasonable for a wedding dress but still out of my price range.
• Enter: Bridal Consignment.  This is basically the best thing ever.  Dresses worn once sold for half the price.  I was sceptical at first and thought that it might be a nice idea in theory but feeling doubtful that I would actually find a dress that fit me while also being better than what I had seen in stores.  But, I did.  I found one I liked, tried it on, it fit great, I loved it, it was pretty much what I had been describing to people so I bought it and walked out with it that day.  No ordering 6 months in advance.  It was so easy, and now I basically get to feel good because I am recycling.

And finally, just to make this post more interesting for you all who might not care about the ins and outs of wedding dress shopping, here is a sketch done by Joel.  This is what he thinks my dress will look like. 

 *Untitled Ink on napkin, 1/1, Artist: Joel K. Date: November 2010. Price: $200

Virgin Mobile and Perfect Day, Part II (or should I say perfect weekend?)

Well, this post was going to just be about the outstanding customer service at Virgin Mobile, but then I had Part II of the perfect day, which basically turned it into the perfect weekend, so I figured I'd throw these together.

First off...

Dear Virgin Mobile,

You have been nothing but wonderful to me since the day I met you.  Your affordability, excellent customer service, ridiculously short wait times and sympathetic customer service have me swooning.  I will recommend you to everyone I know.  

Love, 

Bb

Seriously guys, they are amazing.  My cell bill is always low, they fix everything pronto, wait times are like 30 seconds when you call with an issue, and the person on the other end always treats you like they have a personal vested interest in making sure you are satisfied with you service.  It's almost disconcerting, but we love them for it.

And now, part II of perfect weekend.  You know how yesterday we were going to go to Sugarbowl but then we didn't?  Well, we went this morning instead and ran into our favourite Dieters!  Kevin and Reba just decided to bring little Mabel out for a trip to the sugs and didn't call us to join them, although they claimed they considered it.  So, there we were enjoying our breakfast when our Dieters walked through the door.  It just so happened that the big table was free (when does that EVER happen at Sugarbowl?) so we all moved over there and had breakfast with them.  Amazing.

And then Joel and I went glasses shopping and found him some cute nerdy sciency hipster manly glasses to replace the ones that must have been rolled up into someone's quilt at quiltfest and have not been seen since.

To top it all off, I called Virgin Mobile about a mediumly minor issue with my phone and they were all "sure we'll fix it for free because we love you and want you to be happy".  And that's why I wanted to post about their wonderfulness.

A perfect day?

My fabulous non-obligatory cousin friend came for a visit this weekend.  She is also my second bridesmaid (other than sister Kaeli).  Usually, we have a great but predictable weekend.  Shopping, Sugarbowl, drink, shopping.  This weekend, for some random reason, we ended up doing slightly different things and having pretty much a perfect day.  Reagan-ing, if you will, for those of you who watch 30 Rock.

When she arrived on Friday night I was in my bed fighting off a nasty headache, so Kaeli, Joel and Mel made nachos and caesaers while I lay there being pathetic.  I managed to get up and we had a nice evening anyways, but then the next morning I slept in while Kaeli and Mel cleaned my kitchen from the night before. 

We almost went to Sugarbowl for our traditional breakfast, but we called Joel and he was all "hey what about the Elm Cafe and the Christmas market downtown?".  So we went to the teeny tiny Elm Cafe and were about to order breakfast sandwiches but then the owner, Nate (who is also going to be our food-master at our wedding in June and we are soooo excited), told us that they had lunch sandwiches that were about to be put up on the board and one of them was a pumpkin sandwich and the other was pulled pork.  Delish, and pretty much created with Joel in mind.  So we tried them and stood along the bar (there are only two stools along the window bar).  It was so crammed in there with the four of us that the fun conversation we were having was echoing off the walls and amplifying to be a DOUBLY FUN conversation.  Joel chatted with Nate about food plus science, which I think they both liked.  I never thought another Edmontonian could have a similar fascination with the chemistry of food as Joel does, but I think he's met a kindred.

*shit, I just lost my whole post with only three minutes to spare.  Part I of perfect day will have to suffice for now. UPDATE: I rewrote it to finish the post below but left this in to mark the spot where it changed...

Then we dropped our vehicles off at Joel's house so that we could go to the winter market at Churchill Square, but first we went into Joel's house to pee and had a nice/hilarious conversation with Nay-Nay, who hadn't seen either Kaeli or Mel in a long time.  Then we walked over to the square to check out the market.  It has been so wonderfully and unseasonably warm and dry and I have been appreciating it.  It's like a little reward for the not-so-warm summer we had this year and that early bit of crap weather this fall.  Yay Edmonton. 

At the square we came across the Eva Sweet waffle truck at the square and Joel bought some waffles for the ladies. If you go to their website, you can read that "The story of Eva Sweet is a story of international intrigue.  It is a story that involves love, drama, family, loss and a dream coming true.  It is a tale of crossed borders,  migrant workers, secret meetups, family tragedies, forced separations, and bittersweet reunions. More importantly, it is a story about waffles.  If you yearn to know more, we just might tell you over a waffle and some coffee."  And it's totally true.  The guy gave us free coffee and told us how he was the top waffle seller in Brussels (think delectable Belgian waffles) and moved here when he married a Canadian woman, although the waffle truck is named after his sister Eva, who passed away and whose son works with him in the waffle stand.  This guy's legit and his waffles are great.  Go buy a vanilla one and talk to him.

After that, we browsed the market and bought a bunch of great stuff.  Joel's backpack was so heavy and stuffed with frozen meat that it was hurting him on the walk home.  And as a bonus, the market's also in City Hall so I saw Mayor Mandel getting on the elevator.  He looked sheepish, or at least like he didn't feel like being recognized.  Ha.  

Mel and I split off for some hard core craft supply and thrifting shopping after that.  We found everything we needed so that Mel could make a Christmas wreath, and had some EPIC thrifting luck.  We found great stuff at Goodwill and Value Village, but also came across a legit thrift store where every single item was $1 or less.  I found some awesome vintage metal milk crates.  For a buck each.  I was buzzing from the thrifting high.  Seriously. 

Then at the thrift store we ran into Heidi (my sister in law) who invited us over for dinner.  They fed us and Mel got to see their house and the cuties (niece and nephew) and then we came home and crafted up a storm.  LOVE IT. 

Thank you Mel, Kaeli, Joel, Heidi, Thrift stores, Edmonton, and basically everyone, for a GREAT weekend.

Back alley chairs

Joel loves mid-century modern chairs.  He has been collecting them at every opportunity lately and often manages to acquire them in creative ways.  I think he sort of looks at is as a rescue mission for under-appreciated iconic chairs. 

A few weekends ago we finally decided to tackle the crowning glory of his mcm chair collection...an Eames-style lounge chair found in a garbage pile!  He caught a glimpse of it as he was driving past and sent his dad on a recon mission to get it the heck outta the garbage and the rain, and into the safety of the shed. 

It might be a knockoff, but it definitely screams Eames with its curved wood shell, so we decided to relieve it of its hideous 90s upholstery and give it a new life with some buttery white vinyl. 

All it took to take it all apart was a few tools, some good tunes, and a whole lotta patience.  There were tons of staples that had to come out.

Below you can see the top pieces of the matching cordurouy ottoman.  Ewwwww.

The cotton and foam underneath was clean but it's still gross to touch old cotton and foam that used to belong to someone else...

And here's the vinyl!  Our friend Dawn helped him pick it out.  She's a designer with excellent taste.

It's not done yet, but there are in-progress pics to come!

A temperamental artist and a small lap dog walk into a bar...

November and December mark Natasha Lawyer's third art show at The Sugarbowl in Edmonton.  Aside from being a favourite friend, she is also a favourite artist of mine even though she turned American and moved away and left me here to eat chicken caesar salad alone.  She drove from Seattle through the night (maniac) and showed up at my house around noon on Saturday with tons to do before we hung her show at 6:30 a.m. the next day.

We ran around trying to find a place that would do a rush print job on watercolour paper of some last-minute prints for the show.  Tash ended up calling the guy at one place a pointdexter because he was being letter-of-the-law and refused to print them for her.  Don't cross Tash when she's tired.  Below you will see a picture of her smiling like she would never dream of calling anyone a pointdexter.  Don't be fooled.

While she was in Edmonton, she thought "why not pick up a puppy?".  Well, actually it was slightly more intentional than that - her sister Melissa decided to fulfil Tash's dream of having a little yorkie friend as an early birthday present.  So we went and picked up the tiny, hypoallergenic, and fabulous PENCIL. I proceeded to take a series of glamour shots of the two of them and gross Tash out by referring to her as Pencil's mom.

Then we had a pricing bee on my kitchen table.  Tash (with a little help) had collected about a bajillion vintage frames and painted them all white to frame her illustrations.  Her show this time around is crazy different than the last one.  It's very architecturally inspired and has some amazing paper weaving and metallic thread details.

My kitchen was so full of art, and is not very big anyways, so I had to improvise when I was dishing out the CCS (chicken ceasar salad) for our dinner.  If you look below you will notice a plate of salad sitting inside of an open drawer.

Pencil likes art.  These are the aforementioned typewriter prints on watercolour paper.  They are adorable and come in 9 different colours!  Awesome!  They are framed and selling for just $45 each, so they would make an excellent Christmas gift. The text on the paper in the typewriter says "I want to take you to all my favorite places".

Joel liked Pencil and came to help us with some last minute framing.  I think he was sort of enjoying scaring poor little Pencil too.  He was mostly nice to her but couldn't resist pushing her timid little buttons.

And then we went to bed at like 3 - which was actually 2 thanks to daylight savings time - and had to get up at like 6 the next morning.  But we slept in a little and ended up being late and leaving poor Megan at the Sugarbowl alone. Here is the classic temperamental artist shot with Tash scrutinizing the placement of the pieces.  She wasn't actually very temperamental, but it still is fun to tease.  Or maybe I'm just adjusting to the temperament.  Anyways, this picture shows off how sharp the white frames look on the brick wall.

Because of us being late and her being early, Megan was already pretty perky by the time we got there.  No fair that she looks so cute.  Here is a glamour shot of her hammering a nail.

We had breakfast at the Sugarbowl after the show was hung and then went to my house for a nap.  And then we finally got to hang out and chill out.  We took tiny Pencil out for a walk in the ravine by my new digs, and she kept running in between our legs and getting kicked by us by accident.  She seemed unfazed but I felt awful.  Right after I snapped this pic she ran between my feet and I almost crushed her little four pound dog body.  It took some fancy footwork to avoid it.  Worth it for the pic?

Overall, fantastic weekend.  Tasha's show is up until the end of December so GO TAKE A LOOK.  Pieces have already sold. 

We're still high fiving and I want to keep it that way

I haven’t really blogged about much to do with my wedding yet. I am (we are) finding the planning process to be pretty fun (with dashes of stress here and there). Lots of times, weddings seem to spin out of control and become stressful.  So, one of my main goals is to make sure that as much as possible, this process remains FUN for us and focused on creating an end result that is a meaningful day topped off by a superduper party. What's the point in planning a wedding together if it makes you want to claw each other's eyes out?

We've already had a couple of spontaneous high fives as we were chatting about planning. One of them was in a cande-lit corner of Culina Mill Creek. Not exactly a high-fiving kind of atmosphere, but it didn't matter because there was just too much awesome to not high five. I believe the other high five happened early on in the planning process as we were riding our bikes down the middle of an empty street late at night and chatting about wedding stuff. That's right people, we can ride bikes and high five at the same time.

We're just over 3 months in to planning and we have almost all of the big details in place: church, officiant, reception venue, caterer, flowers, photography, an almost-finalized guest list, my dress, his suit and a few other things.  We'd be patting ourselves on the back if we weren't too busy HIGH FIVING EACH OTHER. Just sayin'.

Anyways, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we are able to keep things fun (I know life's not entirely about fun, but I think that a very large chunk of it should be) most of the time. Oh, and also that we won't buy in to the ridiculousness that says we have to spend our life savings and take out a 2 million dollar loan in order to have a nice wedding.

Bahn Mi

Two years ago in Calgary, a friend took me to Thai Tai for a vietnamese sub, also known as Bahn Mi.  It's just a little chain fast food restaurant but it was so delicious.  Since then I have been wanting to eat it.  All the time.  But I didn't know where to get it in Edmonton until recently.

Before, the places you can get it here are a little more authentic instead of being a chain and, therefore, are not always as easily accessible unless you know what you're looking for.  Evenutally we found a couple places, and then a couple of months ago a little place called V Sandwiches opened up right next to my work in Rice Howard Way.  Awesome.

I recommend the beef satay.  It comes on a toasted baguette with cilantro and spicy mayo and pickled carrots.  But, if you are feeling even a little bit adventurous, then I recommend trying to make it yourself.  It's not that hard and the ingredients are pretty basic other than a few specialty things for the sauces.  I found a fun recipe that I tried the other day and it was easy.  You can link to the full thing with pictures here, or I have put the directions below...

For the chicken:
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2lb chicken thighs
1/2 cup coconut peanut sauce (see link or recipe below)


In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the lime juice, sugar, salt, and olive oil. Add the chicken and toss until well coated. Set aside to marinate for 20 minutes.


For the pickled carrots:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/8-inch match sticks


In the meantime, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a medium mixing bowl until dissolved. Add the carrots and toss until combined. Set aside to pickle for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

For the sandwiches:
2 baguettes, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon siracha
1 bunch cilantro, bottom of stems removed

Brush a  pan with olive oil and heat. Grill the chicken in batches and then toss it together with the peanut sauce (see recipe below) in a medium mixing bowl.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise and the siracha. Season with a sprinkle of salt.

Toast the bread on a cookie sheet under the broiler for a few minutes until crusty. Spread mayo on bread. Add the chicken, then top with the carrots and a handful of cilantro leaves.


And for the peanut sauce...

Peanut Sauce
Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients
½ teaspoon oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ginger, minced
½ teaspoon chili-garlic paste
1 cup low-fat coconut milk
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
juice of half a lime
 

Marcel the Shell

I had a great weekend.  My friend Natasha was here from Seattle to hang her show at the Sugarbowl.  I might post about that tomorrow because everyone should go see it and buy something.  Other highlights included my sister returning from the west coast (YAY) and hanging out with a four-and-a-half pound dog!  Cute cute and more cute. 

 

Last night, we wrapped up the weekend with a yummy dinner made by the newlyweds Megan and Joel.  Conversation circled around whether they were officially grown ups now that they are married and have a nice place to live and can cook dinners for people together.  But then we started watching youtube classics and all of a sudden it didn't matter whether we were grown ups or not. 

 

If my friend Megan was a youtube video, I think she would be this Marcel The Shell (with shoes on) video that she showed us last night...

 

 

She is shockingly good at the voice.

 

Watching this youtube inevitably sent us on a revisitation of a few classics from this past here, so I figured it was worth sharing links to a few faves.  Two funny, and two cute.  Shane Sings 5 Octaves stands out head and shoulders above the rest though...

 

• Shane Sings 5 Octaves on the Piano: wherein Shane tries (and dare I say, fails) to sing five octaves. On the piano.  Worth it for his strained facial expressions alone.
• Double Complete Rainbow: I thought everyone had seen this but Megan saw it for the first time last night. 
• Happy House Lamb: oh my gosh.  I want a happy lamb. 
• Baby Bunny Eats Tiny Flower: Exactly what the title says it is.

Hipster Central

So in September I got to eat some really great french toast in Seattle.  Some genius decided to make a toppings bar with a crapload of fresh fruit.  Pretty  much the dream of everyone's life.

 Highlights of the Seattle trip included Natasha's hipster glasses (Seattle is full of hipsters and plaid, by the way) and watching her text.  When she lived here she was a vocal anti-cellphone type, so I really enjoyed watching her do it.  She was posing, trying to look distressed and bad at texting.  I think it worked.

 We spent a lot of the week just wandering and shopping, reading and eating deli take out food on the beach.  This is a cute garden shop in U-Village.  Below is a picture of my cute friends at the cute shop.

And, Tash graciously took us to the Pike Place Market several times.  They have the most amazing flowers there.  I wish we could get Dahlias easily in Edmonton.  Dahlias and Lavender are two seriously lacking things in our city.

We had a few really beautiful days and one of them just happened to be when we were down by the beach in Edmonds.  We took some cute pictures, but I like this one below because I was imitating Kerry's fake smile from one of the other photos we took. Good times.

Suuuuper Belated Hiking Adventures...

I saved up my annual vacation for the end of August and mid-September this year.  Let me tell you, January through August is a long haul to go without vacation.  But it was totally worth it.  Our all-women hiking trip adventure to the North Coast Trail on Vancouver Island was pretty much a dream come true and exactly what I needed, and then Seattle was faaan-tastic. 

Lots of beach walking, even more forest walking, and overcast weather, plus four of the best hiking companions of all time added up to one seriously awesome trip. 

Basically, we hiked five (six?) days on the remote tip of Vancouver Island and served as entertainment/comic-relief for the hard core arcteryx-sponsored family of hikers that hit the trail hours ahead of us every morning, and were in camp hours ahead of us each night.  We were too busy laughing to hike at a regular pace. I think they liked us.

It was pretty remote...we saw two bears on the beach where our water taxi dropped us off at the trail head, and there were several bear sightings, wolf sightings, and even a cougar (apparently) sighting by other groups, but I think we were a bit too loud for the wildlife, so they scrammed long before we got close enough to see them.

In conclusion, I loooove my sister and friends and everyone should do the North Coast Trail.  The end.