Very Dangerous.....

So I haven't been shopping at all this last little bit, but I have still been window shopping on Etsy. I just found a new website that lets Etsy retailers offer a half price coupon (think Groupon but for better stuff!) You should check it out (and not just because the link has a referral bonus!)

Click Here!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom who has taught me many things over the years:

#1- I can't pull off the sailor look, no matter how cute I am!

Family Photo circa 1990??

#2- That life is more fun when you kick up your feet and laugh!

Maui 2002

#3- That it's surprisingly hard to get a photo of our family with all our eyes open!

Movie night 2004

#4- That we are good at posing for photos

Karen & Paul's wedding, 2005

#5- That, at one time or another, we all need a bib

Easter 2010

#6- That if you work hard enough for long enough you get to buy pretty dresses!

My graduation from University, 2010

#7- That sometimes it is acceptable to require 10 people's help to get ready in the morning...

My wedding day, 2010

#8- That you are always there for me (if you agree with my choices or not!)

An etsy find

I love you!

Maple Bacon Fudge

Yup, you read right! Jonathan's Valentines Day present arrived today and holy man is it ever amazing!!! My Etsy addiction is continuing, this time it is a lovely lady in Los Vegas who makes homemade fudge and gluten free baked goods. I think I will have to order more of her goodies for our drive to Victoria!!! Click on the photo of the fudge to go to her shop, there is tons of flavours to choose from!!!

Thanks Julie!!! He unwrapped it before I got home (I am horrible at keeping anything a surprise!) and he loves it! 

Puppies, Birthdays & Addictions

Today was a good, lazy, at home to do nothing day. Other than dinner plans we really had nothing going on. Jon did laundry and changed the bed linens. I did nothing. No, that's not true, I relaxed and lounged and dilly-dallied.

Jon's parents volunteered to dog sit for their friend. While  this is a normal occurrence for them, it's a strange one for our cats. The kitties are friendly, but like to be dominant. They don't have the guts to be dominant against big dogs, so they do the next best thing- hide downstairs, howl and become very clingy. This is them while I was eating lunch. They are on the chair next to me...

We had a few hours today that we were the only ones home with all 4 pets. Since we live in the basement the dogs wanted to come downstairs with us. Sassy knows that down here is the cat's domain, and mostly respects that. She keeps a watchful eye out for Firefly who will enforce the space rules and chase her back up. Bailey, who is here for 4 days doesn't understand the rules. She just wants to play and be loved. Jon had a yogurt before lunch and was teasing the cats with it. They were begging like crazy, and, despite being strong willed,  he did eventually give in. While he was on the floor with them I snapped this photo....him and all 4 of the animals. Sassy looks a bit out of the loop all the way in the back, but she was so excited to steal the big cushion from Bailey....

I took Bailey outside for a bit and realized that she is the perfect dog for this kind of weather. She loves chasing balls and it is just warm enough outside that the snow sticks perfectly. We spent about 20 minutes outside, me making snow balls and her chasing them in the 4 foot deep snow pile we call a yard. She was in heaven, and was so tired after that she had a nice long nap, upstairs, and left the kitties alone! Perfect!

We went out to a great restaurant for birthday dinner #2 with Nicole & Greg since Nicole has to work on Saturday when all of us are going to dinner and the bar. We checked out Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria and loved it. We shared prawns and prosciutto wrapped mozzarella and then they brought my salad, Jon's sandwich and 2 pizzas. It was all really, really, really good! They picked me up the next two books in the series that i'm reading, which is awesome because I finished book 6 a few days ago. I am very spoiled...

I came home and sat down thinking I was going to do a quick post. Apparently I need to learn how not to get distracted (or ramble!) I did a quick check in with the blogs I follow and found a great link in Mommakt's Blog It is for a site called Pinterest, and people use it to create a photo catalog of things they love and where to find them. I have heard about it in the past, but have managed to never click to it. I know how easily addicted I get when it comes to pretty things and great photos. I'm not sure why I clicked onto it this time. My Etsy account now has 3 more favorite stores so I can order from them once we move.

Now to fight the urge to keep exploring Pinterest and Etsy and go to bed....maybe to start book 7.....must sleep soon though, gym time comes early in the morning...Goodnight everyone!

Cards and Crazy Weeks!!

This week flew past and despite the efforts to sit down to blog it didn't happen. I'm here now although I really should be in bed.
Monday started out with an evil cold & sore throat. A few days of sleep and lots of Veronica Mars and I am feeling better. The crazy thing is that it was the first really sore throat I have had since I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. I spent the first day trying to figure out what I ate the day before that caused the reaction. Once I woke up the second day I figured out I was just sick, not reacting. That was a bit better.....not much, but at least I knew I didn't mis-read any labels. I am back to being super careful about everything I eat.
The rest of the week passed by pretty uneventfully. Lots more snow, a few days at work and lots of relaxing. I finished Glee, sadly now I am dependant on the TV schedule for more episodes. It has reminded my why I like to watch old shows. TV on DVD means no commercials and it is ready to go whenever I am!

There were a few highlights though....

1. We booked out flights to Victoria to house hunt, job hunt and explore. I am pumped! Jonathan is pumped! We still need to figure out hotel when we are there, but that's the easy part!

2. I set up shop on the table today to make some cards. Jonathan saw what I was doing and grabbed all his models. He was building his Warhammer army, so we spent the whole day gluing, filing and creating together. 

3. I opened up an Etsy shop, check it out here! I started scrapbooking and making greeting cards a few years back and love it. In reality, I probably love it a bit too much, years worth of gathering goodies to use means a big backup of supplies and cards. I made a bunch of new ones today but the shop also has some older ones that I made multiples of. I love everything about Etsy and the fact that it is all homemade things. I have about half of my listings up, I am excited to see them fly!

I will be here more often, I promise! Thanks for reading!!!

The Holidays (only a bit late...)

2010 went out with a bang! So many things to do, so little time to sleep. I looked a my computer each night and said tomorrow I would post. So here I am, a week and a half later, with only one post up.

So....Here is the last two weeks in a highlight reel:

December 24th: Christmas Eve

After a short day at work I went home to get ready for the evening. Our family goes to church every Christmas Eve and then we all head back to Mom & Dad's place for games and way too much food! The church sermon was awesome, the message was great and lots of beautiful music. The organ always blows me away, but it is spectacular when combined with a clarinet, tuba, violin and drums! We arrived at Mom & Dad's and spent the evening eating, drinking and playing Christmas themed Charades. It turns out I am a really, really good guesser, but an awful actor! I blame it on my luck when grabbing things like Holiday Affair out of the bag. Really.... I meant to have my camera out (I am usually the family shutterbug) but it spent the evening in my purse....

December 25th: Christmas Day

We woke up early to head over to my sister's house for brunch and gifts. It was fun to see her little guy open presents and play with all his new toys. Last year he was still a bit too young to really understand. We spent a lazy morning there and then went back home for presents and late lunch with the Latours... 

We opened up our stockings and then our gifts. Tons of fun, and we were all very, very spoiled. I got the  mitts that I subtly blogged about earlier this month, along with a pair that were hand knit by my Mother in Law and a few pairs of long warm ones from my Mom. I gave Jon the ornament that I ordered from Etsy. It was a big hit! I think that is going to turn into a yearly order for the very talented painter! 

After a quick nap we went over to a friend's house for dinner. We have done Christmas dinner with my family for the last 2 years, so it was the Latours turn to have us for the feast. They moved to Edmonton from Montreal and created themselves a new family here. Dinner at Barb & Raymond's had been the tradition for the last 22 years, and now that I have been there I see why. Great food, great company and some very strong Pictionary rivals. Raymond is also celiac, so there was lots of gluten free goodies for me to snack on! I, once again, decided I need to learn french asap! I had to draw a stork, and I did a pretty good job, but they took forever to find the word in English for me. My team was shouting the answer in french, and the men weren't going to help us get the point by telling me that they were right. 

December 26th: Boxing Day

We woke up early and went over to Grandma & Grandpa's house for a drop in brunch. She made a ton of food, and we all stayed for a visit and to see who would drop in next. It was the first year in a long time we haven't had a family gift exchange on boxing day, so after the visit we went boxing day shopping! Kingsway mall was a zoo, but less crowded than I was expecting it to be. I picked up a few great jackets and some new work clothes, so overall it was a great shopping trip. I kept laughing at Jonathan, he likes shopping (in small doses) and insists to be my packhorse while we walk around. All the women in the stores were fawning over him as he carried my stuff, they kept saying how they wished their husband would do that. It inflated his ego a bit, but it was fun! We picked up season 1 of Glee, which I have seen bits of and loved. After shopping we came home and started watching it. So good!! 

December 27th: The Spa Day and Wedding Day
In November my gel nails suffered an unfortunate run in with a dresser at work and a few split off. I got impatient and filed them down so they could all grow out a bit. The longer they were filed, the more impatient I got and eventually I just pulled them all off. That was not an easy task! Those buggers really are on there! My thumb nail was the worst, the gel was not leaving. Eventually I coaxed it off, but it took half of the real nail with it. Suddenly the gels that I have had for the last 5 years weren't a possibility until it grew back in. A month and a bit later I finally could get a new set put on. I was at the salon at 10am to get them attached, they are so pretty! Purple and sparkly with pretty blue and white designs painted on my ring fingers. While I was there I got a pedicure and then headed home. I had just enough time to eat lunch and then it was time to head to Southgate

Jonathan and I were, against better judgement, in matching outfits. I usually am very adamant about not matching, but his Mom always tells me the photos will be better. I may have to start listening to her, all the shots of us together are cute. We both rocked the black and red outfits!

December 28th: The Hangover Day
Lots of Glee and couch time. In fact, the rest of the Glee season 1 and cuddling on the couch. That is all. Such a good day!

December 29th: Saying goodbye to Rocket
We spent a lazy day at home and spent some time cuddling Rocket before bringing him to the vet. He was very loved and is very missed. Our poodle is still running around the house looking for him, and our cats still pause when coming up the stairs to see where he is. We spent the evening talking about him, and I got to hear a bunch of stories about him as a puppy. One great one about when the Latours took a road trip across Canada and had him with them. He really, really liked the fish nets in the Maritimes, much to the dismay of his car mates!

After dinner I introduced Jon to Gilmore Girls. He has seen snippets of the episodes over the years of girls nights and couch days that we watched the discs over and over again. I figured it was absorbing enough to distract him a little bit, and that it would help explain some of the quotes Shannon and I use. He says it's a chick show, but is still willing to watch the seasons with me.

December 30th: Work Work Work
After a quick stop at Transcend coffee I went in to work for the day. It was insane! The boxing week shoppers were out in full force and we were crazy busy. The day flew by and we had a blast! Jonathan spent the day at home doing errands for his Mom, who was busy preparing for her annual New Years Bash. Four Gilmore Girls episodes after work and then bedtime for us.

December 31st: Work and Party
Thursday was nuts at the store, so I was fully prepared to run around like crazy on Friday. Apparently all the shoppers were at home getting ready for parties. The store was so slow! Fortunately my Dad came in and we got a bunch of the tedious accounting stuff done. We went home as soon as the warehouse guys came back from delivery and got to work helping with the party.
Sylvie does a theme party each year, and this year's gala was Glitter and Glitz. She spent the morning covering the house with silver organza and white twinkle lights. I got there and helped out with food preparation and more setup. Soon it was time to get ready for the party. The only catch after all that setup? We weren't staying at our house. So, while everyone came here we went to our friend's place which is just down the street. We have a very friendly block, and while the parents all went to the lovingly named Geezer party, us members of the younger generation also all got together. Tons of food, jello shots and board games filled our evening. We did the countdown, the kisses and the hugs and then ran over to crash the other party for more hugs and wishes. Such fun!

January 1st: Yay! Today! Couch Day!
Wow, you stuck through this post all the way to today! Look at you go! Thanks for reading! Today was another relax on the couch day. We watched a bunch more Gilmore Girls and Karate Kid (apparently we were lacking in the testosterone friendly viewing)  Breakfast, lunch and dinner all consisted of New Years platter leftovers. I capped off the evening with a bath in one of my Lush Christmas present goodies. For those of you that don't know me, I am totally addicted to Lush. I love pretty much everything they make, and this beautiful gift box was under the tree for me this year! All of their limited edition Christmas goodies in one big pretty box. I used the bubble bar that looks like Santa Clause tonight. Yay!

Now that I am done this mammoth post it is time for me to go to bed! I promise tomorrow won't be so long winded!!! I hope you all had great Christmases and fun New Years Eves! I am so excited to see what 2011 is going to bring!!

Goodnight!

It's Monday and i'm in love....

Dark Grey Gloves with Lace Edge by Afra

I am always cold.....always! When we were in Greece for our honeymoon I still wore a jacket as soon as the sun went down and the temperature dipped below 30 degrees Celsius. At home in Edmonton I live for cozy sweaters and pretty layers, but sometimes the warm things get taken off for convenience sake.

And no matter what I invest in pretty gloves I always take them off to use my iPhone. One day I will buy one of the stylus pens that will let me answer the phone with my mitts on, but in the meantime, I want these!!!! Can you imagine? Warm hands while walking and using my phone??? AMAZING! Plus, they are so cute!!!!

I found these on Etsy and almost bought them for myself, but have made a no-shopping-for-me deal with myself for Christmas. I usually drive family nuts because I see things that I like or need and pick them up as I shop for everyone else. It seems like a fair plan, I am supposed to be shopping for others after all, but when I find that perfect item it's hard to walk away and hope they find it in a week or two when they starts their shopping trips.

The Book of Awesome.
  By Neil Pasricha in April 2010
  AEB/Putnam, a division of Penguin Publishing.

I did go against the rule and buy myself this great book. It is based on a blog that the author started about day to day things that make you smile. I was laughing so hard in Chapters that I had to take it home and read the rest of them. So far my favorite awesomes are:
-When you press the button for the elevator and it is already there.

- Strategic Trick or Treating
- Old, dangerous playground equipment.

So funny and such a great author! I am excited to get the rest of the way through it!

I love Etsy!!!

I just found an awesome Christmas Gift on Etsy and am so excited I need to share!!! It is a Christmas tree ornament, and she custom paints them for whatever portrait or occasion you want! I am so excited to get mine and see the look on Jonathan's face when he opens it!
This is the demo pic for the auction I bought- isn't it cute? She also does family photos, baby's first Christmas and any other photo occasion! I'm thinking this is going to be a yearly keepsake for my little family!!!

Magic Marking's Art Shop

Once I get ours I will post a photo of it, until then I dream and watch the mailbox!!!