Monthly Favourites

So I realized a couple weeks ago that I completely forgot the Monthly Favourites post last month... sorry! Here are my favourites for the month of July.

1. Rose Gold - The watch can be found here and the ring here. Rose gold is in right now. I adore it. I don't like gold at all but rose gold... Yes Please

2. Chain-Link Bracelets - Love these bracelets. I'm not a huge huge fan of jewelry but I love these. I have this specific one. It is so cute and what I like most is that the material is silicone so you don't feel that cold metal feeling. 

3. Wide Toothed Comb - For those with thick hair, you need these for brushing through it while wet. I used to always use my brush because I had no patience to use a comb but it is way better for the hair and when I want to leave it curly, it preserves a bit of the curls as well. Never brush your hair wet with a brush!

4. Baseball T's - Otherwise known as Raglan Tees. I had to look far and wide for one of thse which is odd because now that I have one, I see them everywhere. But anyways, they are so comfy and the look it gives is very effortless but they are still flattering. If you don't have one, you need to get one. Period.

Georgia Peach!

I've always wanted to visit the southern states. I have some alter ego of a Southern Belle. Don't laugh at me! So my brother got invited to a national soccer camp which was basically a try out for the Wolverhampton Wolves Academy in England. So we took a little (14 hours) road trip:

We passed through quite a few places I've wanted to visit including The Kentucky Horse Park which was beautiful! I didn't manage to snap a picture though because I was driving but man..whoever has seen that .. you know what I'm talking about.

The camp was at Darlington School in Rome, Georgia which is this expensive prep school that's totally gorgeous. Here are some pictures I took from the trip:

 The bridge going into Detroit

 Cincinnati which was way bigger than I thought it was

 Tennessee was gorgeous to drive through

 I had to take a picture because a lot of people didn't believe me when I said there is such a thing.... 

And here are a few pictures that the photographer with the academy took 

So yea sorry for the picture heavy post.. there are actually way more but I picked out the best ones. The trip was good and I found most of the people extremely friendly down there (but sometimes hard to understand the thick accent). I would love to go to Nashville one day. It pained me to just drive by it haha!

Weekend Recap

I've recently made the decision to change up the schedule on my blog. Before I would try to do a post every other day or so but lately I've been finding it harder to post on the weekends. I've decided to now start posting Monday-Friday... kind of like a job and then leaving my weekends free to enjoy and relax! 

So with that being said, Mondays will be dedicated to a little Weekend Recap as a ways for my family and friends back in BC to keep up with what I'm doing. Also, it will give a chance for anybody who follows my blog that I don't know to get to know me better!

On Friday we pretty much just relaxed at home but what I did do was work on the sign for my ring bearer to carry. You can see the post on that here. 

Saturday was another pretty chill day. Brandyn and I have been looking into moving into Burlington which is basically halfway between Toronto and Niagara Falls and it is right on the lake. The reason being, that is where he works. We called our insurance place to get a quote on if we moved there and we found out the car insurance would drastically go down so that was another plus plus! 

I started looking at apartments and let me tell you, Burlington ain't cheap but I did find a place that I loved and we could afford! Check out this floor plan:

Do you see what I see?! Ample closets... I count 3! A washer and dryer in the suite AND a little storage room! So perfect. Brandyn wasn't sold on the price of this place but then I mentioned that the building has a gym, sauna, hot tub, and salt water pool plus a games room with a pool table and such. Then he was all for it. Unfortunately, they don't have any of these suites available at the moment so I'm just going to keep checking in periodically to see if anybody has given notice. 

On Sunday, my brother had a game so we went out to Burlington (ah you hear that name again) to watch. They won 3-1 :) And then we went to my Aunt's house to celebrate my Grandma's 78th birthday! While I was there I snapped this (poor quality) shot of my cousin's dog sleeping on my arm like a baby! Such tenderness!

Anyways I hope you have an awesome week! Tomorrow I will be posting about our road trip to Georgia!

The Wedding Sign

... is almost finished!

So as you may have saw here and here, I got the board for free from Home Depot and then I drilled the holes in for the rope or string or whatever I will use.

I went over to my Step-Mom's place and used her electric sander (that was pretty cool since I had never used one and I think I will need to invest in one myself). I also used some leftover white paint from when she painted her shed. 

Then I implemented this trick I saw online. After a few tries I had printed off the font I wanted in the right size and I turned it over to the back side and shaded over the words with a pencil.

 

After that, I put the paper right side up again and placed it on the board. I then traced the words with a pencil. When I lifted the paper up, the pencil from the backside had transferred onto the board. As you can see, it was very light which was good and bad. Good because if I don't quite go over it or I mark some where it won't really show up to other people and bad because I had a hard time seeing it! I had to take a lamp that had a spotlight and shine it on the board. 

 

Here is a picture of me being all concentrated while doing it. I was very sure I was going to screw up.

After I did that, I took a black Sharpie and just traced the pencil and colored it in. Voila:

 

Because the pencil was so faint, Brandyn came in and thought I was doing this free hand. I wish! Now you may or may not be able to tell in the picture but I did screw up a bit. I won't point it out but if you don't see it then it basically proves this point: Don't worry about it if you do because when it is all done, it is hardly if not noticeable!

So yea now all I need to do is figure out what I'm going to put in those holes. Here are my options:

• White ribbon
• Pink ribbon
• Grey ribbon
• Rope (although Rope doesn't really match my theme much)

Let me know what you think or if you have any other suggestions!

Throwback Thursday

So I'm back from my trip to Georgia, I will post on that later. I've got another Throwback Thursday for ya. 3 in a row with no other posts... but I promise some real posts will be coming now. 

October 2006!

Throwback Thursday

Hey so I haven't posted anything in a week and I did have blog posts scheduled...its just things were a little crazy this week.

1. I was having fun in the pool.. not spending time inside lol

2. My jaw muscles are all flared up because I'm a grinder so since Sunday I've been withering in pain and popping Advil like a mad woman. I don't know if anybody has experienced this but think of when you got your wisdom teeth out. It feels like that. 

3. I'm off to Georgia this weekend. Will take pics. Will update with details later. This is another tick off my bucket list so I'm so excited. I can finally channel my alter ego as a southern belle!

But anywho... here is a Throwback to September 2006. Just starting grade 9.

Throwback Thursday

Just a few pictures here from July 2006.

My brother looks so different now it is crazy...

Wedding Sign Update

If you've been following, you know that I have started to DIY a "Here Comes the Bride" sign for my ring bearer. If not, read about that here. 

Well here is where we stand as of right now:

The board is cut down to a better size and the holes for the rope are drilled!

To drill the hole, Brandyn just showed me his drill bits and I just picked a size I thought would be right. Nothing scientific or mathematical there lol but he did measure to make sure they were even and all that.

Next up I am sanding and painting it white!

365 Day Project!

This is a bit overdue but I finally finished my 365 Day Project. For those who don't know, I decided to take a picture everyday of the year and then post it on my blog here. If you look up at the tabs, you will see one for it or you can just click here.

It is kind of cool to be able to look back and see what I was doing on this day and have that picture bring me back to it. 

Here is a picture from the first day: June 14th 2012

And the last day: June 14th 2013

Funny how they are both selfies! Haha I swear I didn't do that on purpose. To view my journey through the year, check out that link I posted above.

Wedding DJ

 We have booked the DJ .... yay *round of applause*

It feels good to be checking things off the list.

My budget for the DJ was a measly $652.... 

The average DJ in the Toronto area runs about $1500 and up

....womp.

So if you find yourself in this kind of predicament like myself, here is what you do...

Use people! I got on the local board in my wedding forum and asked if anybody knew of any budget friendly DJs.... It is funny how "budget friendly" is the known term for cheap. 

 Someone answered my call and recommended this DJ out of Hamilton. I looked them up and sure enough their package is $550.  Perfect! I called them and made an appointment and the guy drove all the way out to my area to meet me which was awesome and there is no travel charge for the day of the wedding.

For those wondering, it is about a 45 min to an hour drive from Hamilton to my area depending on the route you take.

Here are some questions I made sure to ask:

1) What exactly is included in the package?

2) Do you have cultural (Portuguese) music?

3) Can I customize the music to what I like (ie. no play / must play lists)

Here is my package:

NEW YORK PACKAGE

5 pm to 1 am, request cards, light show, early set up, consultations

 My Mom wanted a slideshow but that was an extra $100 so I said if she wants it she can pay for it :) Even with that slideshow I actually still come under budget which is great. 

Couch lovin

I was browsing the Ikea website one day (I think I know their inventory by heart) and I spotted this!

The color really stood out for me. Love light/pastel hues of mostly every color in the chart! But as I looked at this sofa I thought, "Well that looks a little dinky."

I was mistaken. I went into Ikea for their summer sale and I saw it in the showroom. It is HUGE! You could have two people sleep on those cushions they are so deep and it was so comfortable.

Here is a picture of it all set up in a room to give you a better idea:

Isn't it be-u-ti-ful! 

While I love the blue color, I like to play it safe and I'd rather get something more neutral... like this one:

While I love the big huge sectional, I don't think it would fit into most living rooms we will be occupying in the near future. So I picked this one....$1,140 price tag.... It's not thaaat bad right??

But... I don't think that we will be buying this thing anytime soon although I would love to... We have a sofa and we also don't really have our own living room to put it in sooo

Until then I will just dream :)