Yesterday was the first of Jessica's showers (ohhh wedding season has begun - so thrilled!), hosted by my grandma and my aunt Yvonne at Great Cooks on Eight (in the Simpson's Tower) downtown. This is where I had my family shower as well, but the place has gone through some renos and now looks even better than two years ago. The servers were great and so helpful! Here are some pictures from a lovely ladies afternoon: Nice, airy venue with a few of old City Hall Simple and pretty table settings Pink tulips Close-up! View of the whole room Delicious sandwiches (goat cheese and cucumber, also BLT with avocado were both incredible!) and cheese Mom with Mischa and Rachel Gabriella doing Eden's nails Jessica arrives and Eden jumps into her arms! Such a sweet photo of Jessica's mom and little sister Eden I love showers for the pretty wrapping paper and bows (I still have most of my gift bags from those days!) My gift to Jessica - another MadeByGirl purchase Jessica with her sisters (and bridesmaids and flower girl) and mom And some photo edit fun with another family pic Mmmm cake - strawberry cheesecake, chocolate, and carrot from Dufflet Pastries View of Queen Street below and all the shoppers! My shutterbug friend - we are going to have some fun in the Dominican together! All my family's girls together! TIme for gifts! First gift - time to pose! There were a lot like this...I decided to just post one with this face, lol Cutest plates for the patio - from The Bay Yay my present - which she didn't even realize said "Jess and Adam" until way later that evening, haha Beautiful Bride-To-Be Jess and Rachel Lovely ladies on my mom's side Cute kid - love that she was wearing my gift bow in her hair My teenage cousins look so grown up...wait a second...is that WINE? My grandma and aunts Monica and Monique Aunts Jay and Jenny Sisters Sister-in-laws to be! She's tall and wearing huge heels...and I'm really short (even in heels!)
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I took over 300 pictures last weekend - I already posted Jack's birthday and the sparkler post, but here's some more of random pictures of people and animals over the weekend. I'll have one more with pretty landscapes and sunsets! Then back to Home Improvement - I promise! At Mardi & Tony's cottage - Lynn was our photographer, as usual! L-O-V-E Meg and Haley lounging after a long day of eating and drinking Matt putting up with my photo-taking...he wants to get the fireworks going! My duck friend, Daisy. She appeared right behind Connie in the shallow end but since those pictures featured her in her bathing suit, I was nice and did not put them on the blog. The duck decided to stay awhile. Here are afew of the far too numerous pictures I took: Meg trying to photo-shoot with Tabby Tabby was not impressed. Moments later he hissed and ran away... Despite soaking the cedar for 3 hours, it still caught on fire. Oh well, made for a great steamy picture! Matt grilling the salmon - yum! Burned two fires, and there is still a tonne for Joni's Bachelorette next weekend!
Meg and Hailey helped me this weekend at the cottage with something I wanted to try with my camera. I saw a blog post about how to capture words and pictures in sparklers, and I wanted to try it myself (I'm sorry - I can't remember what blog it was, but if I come across it again, I will let people know). Anyway, it pretty much just involved really slowing down my shutter speed, staying very still, and putting my camera on continuous shooting so it would take picture after picture until we got it right. So the final result was some cute pictures of hearts and stars, plus some initials. Pretty fun, and I'm going to try names and words over the July long weekend! After a lot of failing, we finally got a good one! Here are the rest: Plus some cool fire colours!
This past weekend we were at the cottage for the long weekend, and it was Matt's great uncle Jack's 75th birthday, so we went to his cousin Mardi's house to celebrate! Matt playing "two square" with Conner - which turned out to be like tennis without a net... Absolutely beautiful girls - Meg and Hailey I now know where Meg gets her creep-into-photos skills from! Irene, Momma, and Jack in deep conversation More deep conversation...I think I'm the creeper now... Poor Murphy hurt his paw on a rock earlier this day...we socked him... My fav picture - little boy seemingly tuckered out ...and he's up! Happy 75th Uncle Jack! Birthday boy So hygienic! Joy.
Last weekend during an Ikea trip we found a useful kitchen "island" for our teeny tiny kitchen. It is simple wood butcher block, and I'm planning to paint it a bright colour and sealing it in the summer. It is the Bekvam Kitchen Cart. Now we have a place for a few things that were taking our counter and dining room hostage, like random fruits and vegetables, and cookbooks. Best part? I put it all together MYSELF - I used two different screwdrivers and a wrench - no Allen keys here! No, there are no pictures, as usual. But here's some pictures of the finished and styled product: Yes, our kitchen needs a lot of work in general. Painting will be the temporary fix, but we actually want to completely redo it - change the layout, the backsplash, the cabinetry, and the flooring. Now if only we had the money...
Nope, I didn't run it, but Matt and my brother did, for the third time each. Adam's fiancee, Jessica, did as well, for the first time. I thought about it, decided against it way back when, and when I realized I should do it, it was too late, and I hadn't trained enough. Oh well, there's always next year! Everyone was above their goal time - it was very humid outside during the run, but they all still did really well. Jessica's goal of 1 hour was SO CLOSE (1 hour, 39 seconds), Matt's goal of 45 minutes was done in 48, and Adam's goal of under 40 was done in 41. I am so proud of each of them, and I made them pose for a sweaty picture outside when they were done and back at the house. The three runners (the close-up shots were not great) in their vibrant-coloured running attire Running is a great stress-relief to planning a wedding... They seem to be handling it okay!
I had been thinking for a while about what I wanted overhead in the living room. We don't use the light very often, but I wanted something besides the empty junction box cover that was currently there. I wanted to continue the trend of dark wood, didn't want something to darken the room, and didn't want to add a lot of shiny pieces into the rustic room, and I randomly found the perfect light in Home Sense on Sunday! Ceiling before...boring and empty New light - looks like wood but is actually just painted light-weight metal I also got a little something to spruce up the room for summer. I replaced the red holly in the wicker vase with some green branches! BEFORE: Living Room shortly after Christmas AFTER: Living Room last Sunday
Oh yeah, also got that red and white Paris pillow a few weeks ago too! Last Saturday night we headed out with the family for dinner at Mezes on Danforth to celebrate Jamie's grad from university. Next year he's headed to teacher's college! Here are a few pictures from the night: A toast to the graduate (although the pic didn't turn out as well as the toast...) Meg is a great way to test the light - always posing Jamie and his proud mom Mmmm flaming cheese (I wasn't quick enough to get a pic of it on fire) Daddy's girl Meg Just realized that Matt and I outfit coordinated a bit, haha... The proud grandmothers from both sides of the family Classic Jamie face Ended up focusing the background instead of us - still a pretty cool shot!
So I'm a bit behind on posts - I have a backlog of them to write. I write titles when I think of something to post about but then don't actually add in text or pictures until I get a chance. This one is from over a week ago! Last Saturday was the last of three night performances of Seussical The Musical at ND. For those who haven't been reading past posts, I was one of two vocal directors for this incredible musical. I went into it not knowing the story or the music at all, only wanting to help a bit, and ended up taking on a huge 32 song list (compared to 8 from last year) and a nice big cast. It was overwhelming at first but the students were so amazing and the play is such a great story that I couldn't help but stick with it! We started planning late October and did 6 months of intense vocal and blocking rehearsals. In the end, there were two matinee performances for local elementary schools and the three night shows for ND students and their family and friends. My parents came to see the play on the Friday show, and my brother and his fiancee, and of course, Matt, who was FINALLY home from Vancouver came to see the show on the Saturday closing night show. The students were so sweet and called up all us directors onto the stage and thanked us and gave us flowers - I was once again overwhelmed by how incredible each and every one of them was. I am going to miss them for the rest of the year, especially the ones I know that are graduating at the end of June - there is so much talent leaving us, yet so many new faces who blew me away during the auditions, rehearsals, shows, and even the talent show we did last Friday. I can't wait to see more of them in the next few years. I didn't really take any pictures from the shows, but one of the students is a shutterbug and I will share a few of the students in costume as soon as I get them from her. Here are a few I did take from the closing night. Flowers Matt got me for the last show My brother, Adam, during the intermission Adam and Jessica at intermission (also lovebirds, getting married in less than 2 months!) Matt and I during intermission in our school cafeteria Our school is lucky enough to have an incredible theatre (which we share with the other attached high school - yes - there is a Catholic and Public Secondary School joined in the middle - and the town) Mr. P with his choir who added their sweet voices to our chorus during many of the songs 2 sets of flowers - one set from Matt, and the other from the Seussical students Upcoming Posts? 1 - Jamie's Grad Dinner 2- Sporting Life 10K 3 - New living room overhead light 4 - New kitchen butcher block island 5 - New front hall runner & door wreath 6 - Guest bedroom renovation start and purchases Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Matt's mom, and all the grandmas, plus all the other lovely ladies with little ones! We saw both our mothers yesterday - mine at brunch, and Matt's at dinner. My mom and I at a wedding shower - July 2010 At my wedding - August 7th, 2010 Mom with brother Adam - March 2011 My mother in law, Lynn, at a wine tasting weekend - October 2010 One of the few digital pics of me with my grandma, who died in 2007 but who will be forever in our hearts - June 2007 My grandma and Matt's momma - June 2011 Us with Matt's nanny - June 2010
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