Thursday, March 22, 2012

Three things Thursday

Oh hi! I realize I have been away from my blog for a whole month! Apparently I guess I just needed a little break!

Will start with three things on this fine Thursday!

1. I am excited to go to my cousin's wedding this weekend! It's in the mountains and it's going to be a lovely getaway! I am leaving tomorrow and I am so looking forward to spending time with my family - we always have the best times! Sadly, Noel is working all weekend so he won't be joining me, but will be holding down the fort at home. But secretly I am looking the most forward to having my very own hotel room and vegging out!

2. Things continue to fall into place for our wedding! I seriously cannot wait! Only five months to go! This week I ordered the remainder of our teal blue mason jars (will be putting cream peonies in them for our centre pieces). We also ordered 9,000 hydrangea petals for some candles (a fun DIY project), I booked a slack key guitarist for our ceremony and we are almost settled on an officiant. I also booked hair and makeup for the day of and ordered flowers too. It's been a busy couple of weeks!

3. For the last month I have been meeting up with my personal trainer three times a week. That, combined with cardio on my own, and a meal plan I am losing weight. Yes! I'm also losing quite a bit of inches also - awesome! Cannot wait to see where I'll be in a few months. I love seeing progress!

Hope you all are having a great week!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Our invites!

To say we were happy with how our invites turned out would be an understatement! We were really thrilled! And I got them on Etsy so they were extremely reasonably priced. We didn't want to spend a fortune on them, because really, who keeps them?

Also, the reason we have two separate invites is because we invited close family and friends to our wedding and reception and extended family and co-workers to our reception.

So here they are! I of course took out all personal information, but you get the idea.






Word on the street is they are actually arriving at our guest's homes as we speak! :)

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Three things Thursday!

This is my second post this week! I better check to make sure I don't have a fever! LOL!

Here are three things on this sunny and warm Thursday!

1. I am so glad Noel is on days off. We are celebrating his birthday with a family pizza party tomorrow night. I also look forward to and cherish the time I get to spend with my family - especially my niece and nephew. They really are the light of our lives!

2. My grandpa has a heart of gold. This week while he was at the used book store and bought me a new book on wedding cakes. Problem is, the book is from the 1970s! Haha! The wedding cakes are truly hideous, but it's the thought that counts and I love that he seemed so proud of his find.

3. My sister, her husband and my 1-year-old niece are hopefully moving to the same city as us soon! They are currently looking for places to rent which makes my heart burst! They live about four hours away right now, so the thought of being able to see them on a regular basis makes me jump with excitement!

And a bonus thought: I am loving this warm weather we've been having! Jackson has been loving it too as it's such a great temperature to take him for walks in! He doesn't like it too hot and obviously not too cold either. We have been getting out daily and enjoying it!

Chat soon!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Our love story

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I have seen this done on quite a number of blogs and thought I would play along too! So here it goes!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We will be celebrating our 13th anniversary this coming May! Wow!

2. How did you meet? What’s your “love story”?

We literally met 'on the road'! My best friend and I used to drive around aimlessly listening to music and just hanging out. There wasn't much to do in the small city we lived in and we weren't quite 18 yet, so we weren't allowed in the bars. Noel and his friend drove up beside us on their motorbikes and we stopped in a parking lot to chat with them. Noel and I exchanged phone numbers. We went on our first date a few days later and the rest was history!

3. How long have you been married? If not married, is this the guy you hope to marry?

We will be getting married in August and we seriously can't wait!

4. If you are married, where did you get married? Big or small wedding?

Being that we will be having a destination wedding we are only inviting about 80 people, but we expect between 20 and 25 people to actually come. In October we'll be having a reception back home where about 150 people will attend!

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

I usually call Noel babe and he usually calls me his beauty. We also call each other mom and dad when we're talking to Jackson.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

I love that he's so hard working and takes such good care of Jackson and I. He has unconditional love for us and for both of our families. And I adore his love for kids - he's going to be a terrific dad someday!

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

Noel proposed to me on my 30th birthday last year. Early in the day Noel had gotten me a dozen roses and then right before we were going to go to my birthday dinner he gave me a single pink rose. He said the first 12 roses were for the 12 years we had spent together and the single rose was for all the years we'd spend together in the future.
He got down on his knee and pulled out my dream Tacori ring that I had my eye on for years! It was perfect!

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

He is definitely a flowers-type guy. He spoils me often with flowers. I feel so lucky. I got these pretties today!


9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

It really depends. I love both! Just depends what kinds of mood I am in and if we're celebrating something particularly special or if it's just because.

10. Tell us one thing you’d like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

Top of the list for me is to have kids. I cannot wait to be a mom and I know Noel will make the best dad. I also look forward to travelling with him. My top destination is Italy!

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine’s Day.

Noel is actually working nights right now. But this morning he gave me a card and sent flowers to my work. We will probably have a dinner at home before his shift tonight.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine’s day?

Nothing! Just time with Noel! But he has already spoiled me!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Communication is key. And of course you have to sprinkle in some fun and laughs too!

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you.



Thursday, January 26, 2012

Three things Thursday!

Happy Thursday everyone! I remember my alarm going off this morning and wishing that it was Saturday so I could sleep in! By this late in the week I am ready for a sleep-in day!

Here are my three things on this beautiful sunny Thursday!

1. I am really excited to take Jackson to his first doggy daycare this weekend. We are going to let him try it out for an hour or two to see how he does with the other dogs before signing him up. I'm excited at the thought of him being able to play with some doggy friends during the day instead of being home all by himself!

2. We are going to look at wedding bands this weekend! This makes my heart smile! I love doing this kind of stuff and Noel is super excited to go too! He's really getting into the little details of planning with me. I never thought he would be this way. But I love it!

3. I am so looking forward to dinner tonight. As a matter of fact it's all I can think about this afternoon! We are trying a new recipe in the crockpot called Buffalo chicken. Toss in four chicken breasts, mix up 1 cup of wing sauce and half a package of powdered Ranch dressing and pour over chicken. Let it cook on low for 4-6 hours. Add two tablespoons of margarine and shred chicken. Serve on a bun, with some cheese and lettuce. We'll also be having a salad. Yum! I will let you know how it turns out.
We are also going to be trying another recipe called Drunken Roast this weekend which uses a whole can of beer! I love my crockpot!

Make it a great day!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Bad blogger!

I seriously am a terrible blogger. I read blogs almost on a daily basis but often feel like my life is not overly exciting and that I never really have exciting things to talk about.

Today though (and probably straight through until October when our reception is) I will chat about wedding!

I am truly loving every single minute of wedding planning. Sure, there have been times when I have felt overwhelmed and somewhat stressed - probably because I'm planning two separate things and because Noel is always so busy with work that it feels like we have a small window of a few days each month to make decisions together.

But I am feeling much better these days because all of our big stuff is booked or in the process of being booked.

We of course have decided on a place to get married as well as a wedding date - hello Hawaii can't come soon enough, especially when we saw temps of almost -50C last night with the windchill! Gross!

We are in the process of booking flights and our hotel, which will be done on Noel's next set of days off. We have decided on what hotel though! We have booked our photographer and a musician (a ukulele player to be exact!) for our ceremony. We are in the process of booking our flowers and a dinner after the wedding as well. Our invites have been ordered and will be mailed out as soon as we get them. They are gorgeous and exactly what I wanted! I will post them when they get here. My dress has been ordered as well. I still need to book hair and makeup for the morning of our wedding.

We have booked our reception for Oct. 6th where we will invite all of our friends and family! We have booked a live band which we really have hummed and hawed over for the last six weeks. But it's done now and we are excited! They will also bring a DJ to play in between their sets and after as well.
We are gathering ideas for decorations for our reception but we have a pretty good idea of what we'll be doing. A family friend is making our favours for us as we speak - pineapple jelly. We will also be bringing a pineapple spice back from Hawaii to add to the favours as well.
We still have to book a tasting for our reception, but I think beef will be on the menu.

And we continue to work hard and save, save, save for both our wedding and reception. Going into the planning we only had one rule - we would not put a single thing on credit. We don't want to be paying for our wedding for the next year. It will be all paid in cash and that way we can just enjoy the moment as it comes!

We are so happy and continue to get more excited every day!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Welcoming 2012!

What a whirlwind the last couple weeks have been! Between Christmas and New Years, getting together with friends and family, travelling and trying to relax somewhere in there, I can't believe we've already hit 2012!

I have BIG plans for this year! Of course we are getting married! We have actually set the date. We will be getting married in August in Hawaii! We are extremely excited!

The reception will be booked by this weekend. Noel is coming home tonight and is on his days off so we will be getting to work. We do have two venues on two different days tentatively booked though so I feel good!

Wedding planning has been somewhat stressful. It has been fun for the most part but I am basically planning two different weddings - or so it feels like - so the coordination of a ceremony and reception in Hawaii and then a reception here has been somewhat trying on my nerves at times. All of this while Noel works away 90% of the month so I am really on my own when it comes to getting things done.

2011 was a great year as well but I am definitely looking forward to 2012! For some reason I feel like it's a fresh start and it's time to turn over a new leaf. I'm not too sure where this is coming from, but I have never felt it before when another year has gone by.

I don't really make resolutions per se, because I think for the most part you are setting yourself up for failure. But there are some things that I want to work on this year and they include of course continuing to live a more healthy lifestyle, being more financially responsible, saving more, trying to not let the little things bother me as much, relaxing more and continuing to appreciate what I have on a day to day basis.

Here's to 2012!!!!