Photographer

Well we have shelled out some more $$ .... I mean, we booked the photographer for our wedding!

View her website here.

Believe it or not, I found her through Craigslist last year.  Every photographer I had booked was way over our budget. What was our budget? The calculator thing pooped out a whopping $1500 and that was after we lumped the videographer budget with it because we decided against having one.

In Toronto, most photographers start at $3000 and that is for like 4 hours of service.... no thanks. So I went to craigslist to see if I can find some amateurs. I found Vanessa's website and was actually really impressed with her pictures. She is a creative photographer which is exactly what I wanted. 

Jump ahead to now, we had a meeting and I decided to go with her. The total that we are paying is $2400 and here is what it includes:

• 8 hours of coverage
• 50 retouched images
• One 7x7 book or one 8x10 book (40 pages, premium lustre paper, hard cover image wrap)
• DVD of all the images (and they aren't watermarked)

Pretty good hey? 

We did go over our budget by almost $1000 but we were willing to for a photographer because there are three things you take away from your wedding: your marriage certificate, your rings, and the pictures. I still think I did good though ;)

You also may be wondering why we made the decision to nix a videographer.... I know it is nice to have but it wasn't necessary to us. We would rather spend our money on other things and it is tight enough as it is with our budget. 

So anyway now for the good stuff, here are some ideas to go on the "must have" photo list:

Throwback Thursday

March 2006

These pictures represent all my friendships :)

 Every time I look at this picture I burst out laughing... I'm an interesting person lol 

 My kitty, Dodger. We got him when I was 4 and he died March 2009 - When I was 17.

He was such a grumpy old man.

Spring Cleaning Part 3

Well, we are rounding up to the third and last week of spring cleaning. Can you see the finish line? Soon you will have a perfectly clean house (if you are keeping up of course) 

Here is part 1 and part 2. 

• Deep clean the bathroom 
• Start with the top and move down to the bottom ending with the floor. I also like to throw away any products I bought and never used or pull forward products that got hidden in the back. 
• Wash all your windows inside and out. 
• Vinegar and water again 
• Scrub all your window tracks
• Soapy water and an old toothbrush should work but for really tough and nasty messes, try vinegar again
• Go through your wardrobe and switch out your seasonal clothes
• Treat all your dingy white clothes to to a soak in a bowl of vinegar or borax. 
• Polish any wood.
• I personally use the Pledge Orange stuff but see below for a green alternative

If you are looking for a green way to clean your bathroom, I suggest this:

I've heard out of all the natural ways, this one really does this trick. 

Also, here is a green alternative to the Pledge Orange from care2.com

So there you have it! All done! You are now ready to enjoy your clean house just in time for summer.

Organizing the Blog

There is one thing that keeps this blog rolling with posts every few days.... and that is organization. I come up with a lot of ideas and if I didn't schedule them or write them down somewhere I would definitely lose them. I didn't always have this system in place, in fact it is quite recent. 

I use microsoft office OneNote. It is seriously my favourite program. You can have all your tabs in one place. I have 2 separate "notebooks." One for work and one for personal. I used the work when I was in school for notes and stuff and the personal one has my blog, wedding, and other things I might find handy like a list of (expensive) shopping items I want to save for but don't want to forget about! 

So here is what my blog tab looks like:

I basically get a picture of the calendar month from the internet, plop it in there and then what is great about the OneNote is that you can click anywhere in the page and start writing so... I just plug in my blog post schedule. Another great thing about doing it this way and not on a real notebook is I can easily make changes without marking everything up. 

Underneath the calendar I put ideas for future posts that don't have a spot in the schedule yet. I also have a list building up for my end of the month favourites. 

So as you can see, it is very easy and I can keep it separate from my actual calendar (which is on my phone)!

Throwback Thursday

Today's Throwback Thursday  is of my 14th birthday - February 2006. 

Strange, I feel I haven't changed that much since I was 14.

Spring Cleaning Part 2

If you read part one here, I started spring cleaning the place. The idea is to do one a day and it will be done in 3 weeks. Click on the link to view what I did the first week. I actually took the weekend off and just piggy backed a couple. Here is the list for week 2:

• Sprinkle the mattress with baking soda and let sit for at least an hour, then vacuum it all up with the brush attachment. You can also wait till next time you wash the sheets to do this.
• Vacuum all upholstered furniture and vacuum or launder curtains.
• Take rugs and mats outside and beat with a broom handle
• Vacuum the floor really thoroughly before you put the rugs back
• Spot clean the carpet stains
• Spray stain with Windex  put a towel over it and iron over it. If it doesn't work fully the first time, do it again.
• Deep clean the oven, counter tops and clean out all the bottom cabinets
• To clean grease off your oven burners, put them in a baggy with 1/4 cup ammonia and seal the bag. Let it sit overnight (outside because it will stink) and then wipe it off in the morning with a sponge. 
• If you have water spots on your faucets, take some wax paper and rub them off with it after your are done cleaning it.
• Clean out the fridge 

If you are looking for a new vacuum, I highly reccomend any Dyson model. I don't have one myself but it is definitely on my registry. My Mom has the regular model and and a friend has the cordless for his apartment. They both love them and I have been known to borrow my Mom's every now and then to clean my place. They are expensive but well worth it and they give great customer service. Something in my Mom's broke and they sent her a new one right away, no questions asked. Ps. no this is not a paid advertisement for them lol. 

Dyson

Also another tip, when you are cleaning out the cup boards and fridge you should also be checking all the food or anything that expires and throwing them out if they aren't good. 

Soapbox Sunday: Open Relationships

Today's Soapbox is on the subject of open relationships. I don't understand them and here is why: