July: unexpectedly crazy

In the weeks leading up to our wedding I kept telling people that we'd have lots more time in July to hang out. I'm here to tell you now that I accidentally lied. This was UNTRUE. We have hardly had any time. Once again, it's been crazy, but still mostly fun. Here is July, in a nutshell.

1) Mexico

We flew to Mexico right after dumping all of my belongings into Joel’s house, leaving a disastrous mess of boxes behind for poor Lewis to live amongst.  It was a week full of sun, delicious Mexican food (GUACAMOLE! Piles and piles of it eaten on the beach), hangouts with family and my friend/cousin Melissa and her man-friend, topped off by the wedding of my cousin Lindsay! It was a good time, although poor Joel had to hole up in our hotel room studying for his defense, which leads me to the next major item…

2) Dr. Husband!

We flew back to the airport in Calgary on Sunday night and drove the rest of the way home in a  rainstorm. Monday and Tuesday were full of thesis defense prep, and on Wednesday, he/we spent dawn-til-dusk defending and partying. Well, I didn’t do much defending, but I consulted on tie choice (see above), drank coffee (pictured above), waited around, and watched the presentation (which was excellent)…and then I went out to party afterwards. So proud.

3) Vancouver House Hunting

Now that we had the gigantic PhD defence out of the way, we drove out to Vancouver to look for our new home. We left on Monday morning, arriving late that night, and budgeted…ONE DAY to find the perfect home to rent. Ummmm, whose dumb idea was that? Turns out it was OURS! We pretty much did it though, and I patted us both on the back for the entire drive home for being so organized, prepared, and lucky in our house hunt. We found a great place, and although things looked a bit dicey for awhile, it’s ours now for the next year and that’s all that matters for now. The pics above show the tilework at the entrance to our building, and the rows upon rows of lavender growing out front. I think it was meant to be.

 4) Rosebud

We drove back from Vancouver right after we signed our new lease and felt confident that we would have no problem driving the whole way to Calgary. But then we realized we left Vancouver at close to 4:00 p.m.  Another brilliant idea. So we slept in Golden after a white-knuckle drive through the dark for several hours and woke up early the next day to rush to Rosebud, AB. We saw “Jake and the kid” with my parents, sister and aunt and uncle. Rosebud was just as sweet at my mom has always said.

4.5) Calgary Folk Festing  

We went from Rosebud directly to Calgary Folk Fest, which froze us out via miserable rain, and then eventually cleared up enough for us to enjoy. We met up with Kerry and Leanne at various points, and stayed with Melly.Tasting a maple bacon donut (pictured above, bottom right) at "Jelly" is an part of the weekend that should not be overlooked. Fun if you like donuts, which I do. As a donut-appreciator, I am always surprised how many people don't like them. I think at least 60% of people who say they don't like donuts are just telling themselves that so that they aren't tempted to eat them all the time for every meal. Donuts are delicious. 

5) Birthday and Garage Sale

 

When we got back from Calgary it was my birthday the next day, so Joel made a delicious dinner of pork tacos with homemade tortillas for me and my family. So fun. Then we got down to business and prepped for our upcoming garage sale. We cleared space in Scott and Heidi’s garage and loaded all of our crap over there to make sweet moolah. It was SO WEIRD the things that people bought. So if you are ever having a garage sale and wondering whether to include an item...DO IT. Someone will probably buy the thing you least expect them to. Also, it was fun to hang out at their house all weekend and we made a decent profit, which we used to buy ourselves a new couch! But more on that later, as it is sitting flat-packed in our basement right now.

6) Dave and Jamie's Wedding

And then, after all that, Dave and Jamie got married! Those are two fine people and they put on a great wedding. It could not have been more perfect for them. Beautiful day, thoughtful ceremony, and ridiculously awesome entrance into the wedding being carried by their friends on custom-made wooden platforms. Oh, those two. 

All in all, a good month.

June in a nutshell

After a month-and-a-half hiatus from my regular life, I decided to pop up and populate my neglected blog with a new post, since I can’t see life returning to anything closely approximating regular for quite some time. At the rate we have been going, I am thinking I might start to unwind sometime in January 2012.

That’s fine with me though. Life is good and fun and exciting and we are still young enough to keep up. I’ll start at the beginning of the chaos and do a little whirlwind update. I originally planned to do it in one giant post, but I think I’ll just start with June for now.

1) Wrapping up the job I’ve worked at for the past three years

In a truly inspired moment, Joel suggested I wrap up work before our wedding instead of after, thus leaving us a bit of time as newlyweds wrapping up our life in our beloved Edmonton --- not kidding about it being beloved, by the way, so keep your comments to yourselves any Edmonton-haters --- before we have to pack up and start a new love affair with Vancouver (that's a lot of endings before we get to the new beginnings). As well, after years and years of work, Joel was almost ready to say goodbye to student life and hello to life as Dr. Kelly (PhD, not MD). But that’s a story for my July-in-a-nutshell post. Basically, we wanted to be able to take maximum advantage of this interim period, because I’m guessing it won’t be often in the coming years when we are both able to be off from work/school at the same time. Anyways, wrapping up was a positive thing. I think they were sad to see me go, which is a nice feeling when leaving a job, and the timing turned out to be perfect, since we had a bunch of chaos (both expected and unexpected) in our general lives, so it has been nice to have the extra time to deal with it properly instead of rolling it all up into a giant ball of overwhelmed-ness and disorganization that we would have to deal with once we got to Vancouver.

The pic above is the Louise McKinney walking bridge looking over to downtown. I'm pretty sure one of those towers is Scotia Place, as it is one of the downtown buildings that you can see from almost anywhere in the city. 

2) Getting married (!!!)

 Best thing I’ve done. Seriously. I never suspected it would be such an absolute blast to attend my own wedding. We had an amazing time. Our families and friends amazed us with their support and helpfulness. All of our wedding vendors were champs. We were in love. What more can you ask for? After the excitement of the actual wedding was over, my emotions were running so high that my eyes welled up with happy tears at least once a day for twelve consecutive days afterwards. Hilarious. Following that it was about once every two or three days. It was all just so overwhelming and excellent. I recommend it.

The picture above is the reminder Joel set in his iPhone for our wedding day. Ha.

  

3) Honeymooning

We figured we’d have a lot of time this summer. We were mistaken. This makes me increasingly glad that we decided to getaway for the week following our wedding. We had a super relaxing week full of sleeping in, swimming, bbqing, hiking, canoeing, biking, and coffee. I would not trade that week for anything.

4) Packing up and moving out of my old place

I decided to leave my little apartment basically untouched while we went away after our wedding. It was good not to worry about moving before the wedding, but the major downside to that was that we had to come home and pack and move me in a three and a half day span of time. Whose idea was that? Ummmm. What a whirlwind. I tapped into the most dedicated version of myself and spent a few 16 hour days packing before Joel and Lewis championed my move up to my new home downtown. Thanks guys.  Then I returned to clean up and say goodbye. This is a final goodbye shot in the bathroom mirror where Natasha had drawn a sweet heart for us to return home to after honeymooning.


That brings us to the end of June. I'll tackle both the wedding and July later on. And by then it will likely be time to catch you up on August.

House Tour: Part V

I spent part of Saturday tidying up my house because it has become a pit of wedding preparation. I decided I would focus on my bedroom so that I could post the pics AND run away from the clutter that is all around. Not that I don't LOVE the clutter. I do. It's so fun to have 20 projects on the go all at once. Just...busy and messy.

Anyways, here's my room.

And my giant green dresser/credenza from Goodwill. And on the right a giant "a" scored by Natasha's sister and passed along to me. Oh, and a little ceramic bust of a composer on the bed side table.

My styrofoam and fabric upholstered head board, little library drawers, and my Anthro knock-off bed spread from Target.

 This is the view from the bed, into the laundry area that leads to the bathroom. And the chair that me and my mom recovered.

And my jewelery catch-all and little moss terrarium.

And on the other side of the door, my letterpress drawer from my sis, a chalkboard I made out of a thrifted frame, and more jewelery stuff.

And...the finale...MY SUPER ORGANIZED CLOSET. And it OFTEN looks almost this clean. I am pretty stoked about it.

Wedding Guest of the Week Pt. IV

Lisa, who has asked to be referred to as the wedding guest of the millennium, is a friend of mine from university. We spent hours locked in the newspaper office together drinking fruit and veggie juice and eating subway sandwiches...oh, and putting together the paper. And bonding with Joel. Me a little more than her.

The picture of us here is from a trip Lisa and I took to Montreal where we had tons o' fun doing parkour all over the city. So much fun that when people ask me what I did in Montreal, I can't really remember anything except for the parkour. And the poutine I guess. GREAT DAY.

Here are her answers:

Q: Favourite punctuation mark?
A: The interrobang!?

Q: Favourite chemical element?
A: gin

Q: Chicken or fish?
A: camel

Q: Worst wedding idea you have shared with the couple so far?
A: that bethany knit her own wedding dress. clearly crocheting is far classier.

Q: Best wedding idea you have shared with the couple so far?
A: planking-themed hen party. duh.

Q: I knew it was true love when __________.
A: when joel pulled bethany out of GIS to give her a Safeway sandwich. and then pulled 13 all-nighters with us in the chronicle office.
 
Q: I am most looking foward to _______:
A: the parkour portraits

And just for a bonus, here is a video of what started it all:

House Tour: Part IV

I am determined to wrap up this house tour before I move out of the dang place. And by "the dang place", I really mean the place that I love. It seriously has been such a great place to spend my last year of singleness. Whoooo!

We have finally arrived at the living room, where I spend most of my time when I'm home. Usually right in front of the fireplace. Laying on a giant pillow on the floor with  my feet almost touching the glass. All basement suites should have fireplaces. I'm convinced.

Below is the view from the kitchen. That side table on the left was a kick ass Christmas gift from my brother. It's a cedar beam shaped into a stool/table and sanded until it's soooo smooth. He also gave me the art rail because he didn't feel like returning it to IKEA. And I love it. Less holes to patch when I move too. I just made those pillowcases for the throw pillows this week. They were bed linens, but the pin tucks and buttons made them a nightmare to sleep on, and I'm not much for decoration pillows on the bed (Along Came Polly, anyone?), so I cut them up and sewed them into something better.  The card catalog coffee table was saved from a Lloydminster library by my librarian aunt and uncle, and found its way to me from their garage when they moved to Edmonton. Yay! And finally, on the right, on the bookshelf, is a kickass gift from Joel. A huge wooden ampersand that was the beginning of an accidental ampersand collection. Oops. 

Here are my tiny windows, and a giant letter that Natasha saved for me from the sign yard by her place.

 

And here is the fireplace. Another salvaged letter. And a cork board that I made out of a thrift store frame, covered in postcards from Joel. 

 And some cute stuff....including a teacup from Joel's mom's side of the family.

And my little bird under a bell jar.

And my tv. Covered in crap in an attempt to make it cuter. Or less obvious. Or something.

And the first gift I ever got from Joel is under the bell jar. A tiny atlas. I liked it then, and I like it now.  Just like him. Awwwwww. The striped pillow was originally purchased for a pillow case that I bought in Paris, but I am obsessed with stripes in clothing AND decor at the moment, so I've just been using it as is. Also that is my in front of the fireplace floor-lying pillow.

So that's the living room. You can see glimpses of the other half of the room, which is my crafty area and is a disaster of wedding stuff at the moment...so you'll have to wait a little longer for that one. After that all that's left is the bedroom. I know you are all dying from the anticipation.

Wedding Guest of the Week, Pt. V

Time for some Kaeli action here on wedding guest of the week. Above she is pictured saving a starfish. What a champ - both as a sister and as a starfish-saver.


Q: Favourite punctuation mark?
A: Definitely Ellipsis...I highly overuse it, yet i don't feel guilty for that because it is highly under-ridiculed and under-criticized! Also... it makes a simple period look sophisticated.

Q: Favourite chemical element?
A: Beryllium & Thorium....if you put them together they spell BeTh (sorry Joel...no elements spell your name)

Q: Chicken or fish?
A: Pulled Porckenfish

Q: Worst wedding idea you have shared with the couple so far?
A: Hire the Canadian Blood Services to Host a combo Bachelor/Bachelorette party with a "Blood Donor" theme. I was kind of serious for two reasons: 1) JK & BB always donate blood when they go on dates 2) If we all donate blood, we will get tipsy faster and you won't have to drink so much

Q: Best wedding idea you have shared with the couple so far?
A: That is debatable. I thought they should have had Frodo for a ringbearer

Q: I knew it was true love when __________.
A: Mr. Joel Kelly used his super powers to have David James Duncan mail Bethany a postcard in Switzerland! ....or the time that JK sent BB 25 consecutive postcards in the mail from Hawaii???
 

Q: I am most looking foward to _______:
A: moving in with the happy couple for the rest of their lives!

Pretty things on a Thursday afternoon

I am - once again and SO predictably - drooling over something white and ceramic. Sorry to rave on white ceramics yet again, but this ETSY store has me smitten with their shoes on a wire. Other favourites include the cloud factory, which Natasha owns and has blogged about, and the tree ghost. Oh my goodness.