Our invites: blogged

With less than 4 weeks to go, we have sooo much going on with the planning and logistical nightmares of our wedding. It's making it really impossible to sit still for 5 minutes and do a wedding recap..

But in the meantime, here is a post from the brilliantly talented Kathleen from Jeremy and Kathleen and how our invitations were created. Oh yes, she did. and they are fantastical.. check them out for yourself!

Things we do: summer nights

The market is where we work and play both weekdays and ends...

Living in the burbs can be a little 'blah' at times... don't get me wrong. I love my neighbourhood. Sometimes the crazy dreamer in me wants to bust out a for sale sign on the front lawn, pack up our house and move downtown. Ottawa doesn't have the same vibe other cities like Toronto or Montreal may have, but it's a little offbeat and quirky in all the right ways.

I've lived and have loved working in the Market for years.. but my favorite thing to do is to pretend were tourists and just roam the streets and shops not looking for anything specific to do.

Last night was one of those nights. The goal was to hit the streets for gelato and what we ended up getting was a show..

Behold. Eden, swallowing a balloon... awesome.

Cool. Calm. Collected.

My house is finally empty. Well not in the literal sense.. read on.

For the past eight months, we've had borders rent out a few rooms in our home to help our cash strapped asses and ease the tides while the better half job hunted.
Not that it wasn't great or anything short of amazing.. trust me. We had our good times...

Not too long ago, we decided we needed our privacy back... get our turned 'frat house' back into our home. our love nest. And so we waited patiently for the time to come to say goodbye to our roomies, our friends.

Our house has been eerily quiet for a few days now. They call it empty nesters syndrome for a reason.. the silence is unsettling. You start hearing all the cracks in the ceiling at night again instead of the faint music or the sound of a television in the distance.. the dog, has adjusted quite well to the additional noise; he doesn't flinch as much as he used to when he sleeps, which has been a blessing. God knows how many times I can deal with being woken up by a panicking dog at 2am anymore.

Our rooms have becomes blank canvases again. Call it inspiration...

I'm excited for what's to come..

This made my day..

After lunch this afternoon, I received an e-mail reminder from PetSmart for a special someones upcoming birthday..

Rufus will be celebrating his 3rd big one next Wednesday..

Oh boy does time fly!!

Walking on Sunnybrooke..

Every night we walk our pup the same route and every time we pass this shrub, I always kick myself for not having a camera strapped to my body.

Glad I had it on hand tonight : )

ka-boom

This is what happens when I am left alone with my thoughts all weekend..

My better half left Rufus and I to play 'single man' with the guys, which I support %100 (sometimes). It took me all of 15 minutes to figure out what to do. Rufus spend most of Saturday hiding.. with good reason of course.. Things got a little messy..

Throwing rocks in coffee cups is a very messy and noisy hobby.. one Rufus doesn't bode very well with. Didn't stop me from having a little fun experimenting though..

I also may have overdosed on cookies for a little while...

(inspired by the cookie splash group on Flickr)

House plant love..

my 6 year old peace lily; first flower of the season..

City girls don't play with tractors..

After having a great brunch with family Sunday morning, we made our way over to a friend's farm for a cup of coffee.. I'm in no way mechanically inclined, but I'm glad I brought the camera in with me.

I am intrigued by shapes and objects that show their wear and tear proudly..

And Missy wasn't too hard to look at either.. : )

Grandpapa and the Old West

After going through boxes of old photographs and books that once belonged to my grandfather, I became a little disappointed with myself in how little I knew of him before he passed in 2000. Once in a while my grandmother will come out with hilarious stories on how they met, and their lives together but I'd love to learn more about his past, where he grew up..

A few things I loved very much about him was his obsession with Abbott and Costello VHS tapes, Anne Murray and a love for the Old West (he grew up in Alberta). As a tribute to his early years, my uncle sent him a collection of photographs inspired by the Old West for Fathers day in '78.

here are a few of my favorite photographs from that collection..

a keepsake project..

I've been going back and forth on creating a keepsake book of our memories together for about a year now. We are slowly creeping up on the 5 year mark in our relationship and I think I'm ready to start putting things together to build this behemoth of a book.

It will need to be durable and have many blank pages to fill since we're planning on adding pictures and souvenirs to it for many more years to come. It would be to document how we met, our first date, our biggest milestones (recent engagement and upcoming wedding) babies (a scary but exciting word) and our children's milestones. And of course, a special spot for Rufus, our fur baby.

First thing's first, our family tree..

My parents were only able to trace our family tree back 3 generations but eventually I'd like to go even further than that (more on that soon). For the time being 3 generations is more than enough for the project. I'd love to document where everybody grew up, how they all met, wedding dates.. cultivate as much information as possible. If we can, I'd love to have pictures of everybody either in the tree or next to it. But only if it's possible.. I know some pictures might have gotten misplaced over the years which is understandable (won't lose any sleep over it)

I am grateful my parents documented the first 3 years of my childhood in my memory book, but It still left me wanting more.. maybe I'll make a separate book for each of my kids to give to them on their wedding day or graduation.. I want to be able to preserve our fondest memories together for as long as we can.. I find myself looking back at my memory book every once in a while and I know I'll be thanking myself years from now when little details get forgotten..

I'd love to finally find our keepsakes a permanent home and to have it be something we can enjoy as a family for years to come. Like other things in our lives at the moment, it won't happen overnight, but looking at it as a long term goal, this will be a very special project and close to our hearts.

Can't wait to start working on this..