Painting!

As I mentioned, I painted my kitchen.  A super cute aqua colour. It was SO fun to paint after years of not being allowed. 

And my parents brought over an intense picnic lunch because they are adorable.  And then Joel christened it with a closed-eyes dance party.  He didn't actually say I could put this picture online. 

So that's painting.  Next up: finished house!

The reverse penthouse

More than two chaotic months ago, I moved.  I feel like I've hardly been home since the August long weekend (a good chunk of that was vacations, so I'm not complaining!), and it's just now that I am finally starting to catch up and feel like my little place is becoming a home (for now, even if not for long).  Anyways, I meant to post "before" pics when I moved in and just didn't get around to it, so here they are now...

 Above: the living space, complete with laminate floors that help it not to feel so basementy and a little fireplace which means I can control the temperature down here.  Whooo! Also, it's totally big enough for a living room space AND a desk/sewing area behind.

 Above: my bedroom.  Well, they were drying laundry in there when I took this photo, but you get the idea. 

 The shared laundry area, in progress with painting.

 My little bathroom.  All mine.  All white.  All the time.

 The kitchen, before I got my hands on it with a can of paint.  It has those cute metal retro knobs and is actually pretty spacious considering it's a little basement suite.  Or, reverse penthouse, as my friend Amy would say.

So, that's the idea.  Yay for my new place!

Engagement Reactions

Ahh, this blog is going to make a liar out of me yet.  I promised engagement reactions.  So, here are my faves, finally.

1. My dad.  Well, in the summers my dad works really hard.  Long days, lots of computer work.  But in recent months he and my mom have made going for almost daily swims a priority and as such, he has decided that on hot days especially he will work in his bright red swim trunks on the laptop at the dining room table.  Usually he wears a shirt, although quite possibly not always.  Anyways, the day that Joel and I got engaged we came over to share the news and caught a whole crowd of people in the back yard eating dinner.  My dad in his summer uniform, sitting at the picnic table.  So we told them and after all the exclaiming was done, my dad stood up and said, half to me, half to nobody, "Well, I knew I wore my good shoes for a reason".  I hadn't noticed, but he was wearing trunks, a polo shirt, and black leather tasseled loafers with no socks.  I love him.

2. Lewis.  He knew in advance, but when we stopped by to head out for some celebratory drinks he just gave me a huge bending over (because he is tall and I am short) hug and just kept saying "Ohhhhh, ohhhhh, Bethany I'm so happy, Ohhhhhhh".  It was super cute.

3. Uncle Doug and his son Aaron.  The next day I told Uncle Doug and Auntie Nola that Joel and I were engaged and they were SUPER excited.  After the mood calmed a little, Uncle Doug stood at the kitchen counter shaking his head and saying "Joel, well, he's perfect".  And then he kept saying "That's the best news I've heard in a long time".  Later that evening Joel and I called my cousin Aaron in Toronto to tell him the news.  He exclaimed for a minute, then settled down and said "Well, that`s the best news I`ve heard in a long time". I started to laugh and when I told him that was EXACTLY what his dad had said, he responded `Well, the apple doesn`t fall far from the tree does it Marilla?".  Now, for those of you who don't know, that is an Anne of Green Gables movie reference.  Which is pretty much perfection.

4. Um, pretty much all of my besties dear friends, who were all SO happy for us and made me feel so happy.

He asked, I said *nods head vigorously*

Joel took me on a bike ride last week and asked me to marry him. Apparently, my answer was *nods head vigorously* followed by ”...yes”! I’m not sure I remember that part but he says it’s true.

The proposal was fantastic and lovely, which was no surprise, especially when the proposer was the king of orchestrating surprises.

But I was surprised by how great it was telling people the news.  I have lovely friends and family and am so glad to be with someone who they all love too.  Thank you everyone for being so happy for us, and for telling us so.

I might spend a bit of time posting some of my favourite reactions to the news. There were a couple of real winners.

Braving the clowns is totally worth it for pizza this good.

It's festival time in Edmonton and that means a delicious selection of lunch food choices for those of us lucky enough to work close to the square.  The only trouble with the most recent festival is that, well, it was the Street Performers Festival.  This festival has the ability to give me "the knot" (thanks Dietermans for coining the phrase and putting words to that awful feeling of awkward, make-it-stop, embarassment on behalf of others that plaques the pits of the stomachs of overly socially conscious people everywhere).

I was walking through the square the other day when it was on and watched an unsuspecting office worker strolling past a peformance.  The performer stopped, ran out of the circle he was performing in and chased them down so he could pummel them with some sort of fake balloon sword.  UGH.  All this to get a half-hearted chorus of chuckles from a crowd of kids and parents.

Anyways, Joel and I went back later looking for a snack that didn't involve sitting inside at any sort of restaurant and we found something that totally made it worth enduring the awkward.  Some genius ordered a wood fired pizza oven on wheels from freaking Italy and is now making awesome pizzas at festivals in Alberta. His oven is on a trailer.

We shared a BBQ chicken pizza and it was so good that I went back the next day in a thunderstorm to eat it again for lunch.

Braving the clowns is totally worth it for pizza this good, my friends.

Craft camp

Traditions are nice.  I think the best kind of traditions are the accidental ones.  Like the fact that it seems like Kaeli and I have done some sort of ski trip on all of her past few birthday weekends.  I don't know if it ranks as tradition yet, but it might be starting, and that's nice.  Another good one is going canoeing on my birthday weekend down the north saskatchewan river with a pack of my friends every year for several years now.  Another good one is eating chicken ceaser salad with natasha.  A not so great one is drinking diet coke with Natasha. ha.

Every Canada day weekend for the past 14 years, my extended family on my mom's side has gathered in Saskatoon.  This is pretty much the tradition to beat out all other traditions as far as my life goes.  We eat good food, have fun times, and craft our brains out.  My friend Rebecca has started calling it craft camp.

It started out when my sister and I spent a week with my aunt each making our own quilts.  I was 12.  The next summer we went back and made another one, this time for my parents.  And my brother tagged along and spent the time working with my uncle in his fully equipped wood working shop. And the next summer we decided to get together and make a quilt for my cousin who was getting married as a gift from all of us.  By this time we were noticing the pattern and somebody dubbed the event as QUILTFEST as a joke, but the name stuck.

Then we started doing other sorts of projects.  Making canoe paddles with the help of my patient uncle.  Making cutting boards, knitting, upholstering, gocco printing.  Anyways, here we are 14 years later still going strong and taking on even bigger projects, like my brother who put the biggest log of all time on the lathe...


Joel made a quilt and a lemon meringue pie using a blow torch...

Other projects included making dresses, drum sticks, upholstering, a huge cedar bench, a giant set of pick up sticks, a wooden bowl.

I almost feel sheepish at how great my family is when I talk about Quiltfest, but then I remember how to everyone else we just sound like a bunch of nerds, so it can't be that bad to gush a bit.

just the five of us

I usually let May long weekend pass without any major plans, but this year some sweet plans fell into my lap.  When I was visiting Kerry early this spring we spotted some serious antique cuteness in her house and asked about it.  She told us it was from Nanton, which has great antique shops and an all girls road trip was born. 

It was a great weekend.  We picked up Kerry at camp and headed straight to Nanton.  I had no idea they had all those antiques.  Being in the car for that long got a little tiresome, but over and over, there were little moments where we all felt glad to be friends.  I like those moments...the ones where you know that everyone  is thinking the same thing: how am I so lucky to have these great people as my dear friends.  There were five of us, and I've known them all between 9 and 23 years.  That's a lot of years.

Sooooo, because I am lazy, a photo collage clockwise from top left: we found letterpress blocks at the last minute, antique gates and beds, sharing a milkshake, we're not sure, grumpy family vacation photo, kerry and tash against a brick wall, best pic ever of kim wearing an aviator hat, pretending to walk down the street in nanton, grain elevator!