The Amazing Date

I feel like I can't say often enough how great our families are.

We both grew up with much of our extended family in another province.

So for our babes to have two sets of grandparents, 4 aunts, 1 uncle and even a great-uncle close by is a dream.

It also means that Jeff and I get the occasional night to ourselves.

Last Saturday night we had just that.

The kids were off to my parents {thanks Mom and Dad} and we had a date night.

If any of you parents out there are all "date night, what's a date night?" as we were until recently you're gonna want to have one of these.

Jeff and I sat next to each other, chatted without interruption, held hands and strolled leisurely.

No joke, there was leisure.

We finally made it to Noorish for dinner.

We have been meaning to go since Uncle Will gave us a gift card for Christmas.

And this place is amazing. 

Completely vegetarian with many vegan and gluten free options.

The majority of their ingredients are also organic and locally sourced.

The menu opened our eyes to many combinations and food prep that we weren't aware of.

Have you seen Baby Mama? 

It felt at first like we were in that restaurant with the "yeast ball for the table".

Then the food came and blew us away.

We had onion rings to start, a coconut curry and their award winning Bohdi Tree Burger.

It was all delicious and so satisfying that Jeff had to bring half of the curry home.

After dinner we headed down the street to the Movie Studio.

Also not a joke, there is still a movie rental store kickin' in Edmonton.

After a quick search it looks like there may even be a couple more.

This was a truly nostalgic experience for us.

Remember when video stores were huge?

It wasn't even that long ago.

 When we moved into our neighbourhood in 2007 there was the cutest little independent video store tucked into a local block of shops.

Once the big guys took the late fees away, she was done for.

It wasn't long before those big guys followed suit though.

Jeff and I have always loved browsing the aisles for movies.

We were two of the 15 people who were devastated when Rogers and Blockbuster shut their doors.

We had assumed that they were all gone so you can imagine our excitement when we noticed this little gem was still alive.

They even dish out free popcorn.

The night was amazing but that free popcorn really took it to the next level.

Everyone to the Gymnasium

Just wanted to share some pictures from our first carnival experience.

Thanks to our awesome friends and neighbours we made it to this local fundraiser.

The favorites:

1. Fiona's favorite activity anywhere we go, hockey.

2. Cedric practicing for soccer in a couple years.

3. Decorating cookies.

4. Sliding is always a hit.

 It has been so long since I've spent a chunk of time in an elementary school.

I forgot about the cute little germ repositories water fountains.

My favourite stations were Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Bunny and Beanbag-Toss.

And the ropes, remember the ropes?

This one was a little past it's prime but still evoked the same memories.

All in all a great event with some great folks.

Fiona's Room

I shared Cedric's room on the blog a while back.

I had a lot of fun decorating with the motor theme.

It came easy and felt right in our home and of course our lives as auto body shop owners. 

Fiona's was a little harder.

I kept feeling as though I should make it more girly.

Would I be depriving my little princess by not making the room various shades of bubble gum pink?

Of course not, I would tell myself.

 You'll be doing her a favour, maybe she won't even like pink.

{I laugh at my wishful thinking, her entire world would have a rose tinge now were it up to her.}

Anyways, I came across these pics from Cedric's newborn shoot.

Our {genius} photographer Elaine snuck these shots in at the beginning of the session.

This is when the room was in transition from nursery to toddler so there are some things not finished but it's still the same idea.

The quilt {hanging} was a wedding gift from my lifelong friend Diana.

I love how warm it makes the room feel.

The crib was my Dad's, Aunt's, mine, my sisters', you get the idea.

Just don't make things like they used to eh?

The rocking chair was my Gram's and was shipped here when they were moving out of their house.

I recovered the cushions with some spare fabric and added some ribbon to fasten them to the chair.

 The floor is original and was on it's last leg so couldn't have taken another sanding.

I'm glad because a good wash, prime and paint turned out great.

{I don't know that Jeff would have let me paint the floor otherwise.}

This way I also felt like the furniture wasn't too much wood and didn't have the itch to paint it.

 The toys were left this way by Fiona as was the crib.

I like how these photos are not at all staged but still look so cute.

 This little rocking chair was a gift from my Gram and Grandad {sourced by my Mom}.

 We found the antique chalk board and blue stool at the Old Strathcona Antique Mall.

The Ikea lamp behind the Ikea bookshelf is the perfect amount of light for bedtime stories.

The linen Ikea curtains are just enough to soften the morning light.

A last minute touch was a framed poster of Fiona's first {out of the womb} Dave Matthews Band concert.

The room came together in the end and feels calming and nostalgic.

Though I must admit it's now usually much messier and with many more touches of pink.

My Evening With Oprah

You know, just an intimate gathering of, I don't know, 10,000?

That's a guess obviously but you get the point.

The seats were packed with Edmontonians but we weren't alone.

There were people that came from out of town, out of province and even out of country.

All to catch a bit of the magic that is Oprah Winfrey.

I didn't even consider buying tickets.

As you know, we are not in the position to be spending on such luxuries.

Then out of the blue {though Oprah says there's no such thing} my Mom calls me up, informs me that she's going and invites me along!

{Thanks Mom, extra thanks since I just now noticed the ticket price.}

I wore tights you guys, a skirt and tights, any excuse to get dressed up you know.

Wonderful Husband came home early to give us lots of time to get settled.

We took a back route and made it to Rexall Place in record time, leaving an hour to get settled.

I thought at first that this would land us in a deserted arena.

Not the case.
At all.

The place was buzzing.

Bottlenecks were forming at the doors.

Line ups were forming at the ladies restrooms, prompting some of the mens to be temporarily converted.

Either everyone was really excited to see Oprah or the punctuality was due to the abundance of X chromosomes {sorry guys, it's a little true though right?}.

Maybe a little of both.

I mean, this was an important night.

As she herself remarked, Oprah has raised many of us.

I have memories at ten years old of my Mom quickly making an instant coffee, grabbing some social teas and settling in for Oprah after work.

I can't count how many times she or I have said, "On Oprah..." or "Oprah says...".

Too many "aha" moments to count.

Now, I promised a little inspiration.

This was mine, I do not expect it to resonate with everyone.

The beauty of this event though, was that there were so many great moments that it would be near impossible to walk away without your own "aha{s}".

~Your life is defined not by how successful you are but by how significant you are.~

This is not a direct quote since I couldn't get it in my iphone fast enough and continue to listen to the wisdom.

I just love the idea that we could measure the "success" of our company not by how many dollars we make but by how we put those dollars and our time back into service in our community.

This very idea came up in a recent planning meeting.

We all had this same sentiment but you can count on Oprah to put it so eloquently.

Our Constant Reminders

As I've said in past posts, we love nostalgia.

Displaying the photos and memorabilia of our ancestors is very important to us.

We not only feel compelled to honour these people, we also find it comforting to have them around.

Jeff and I each have 2 grandfathers who fought in WWII and came home.

We feel thankful for them every day as we do for all our veterans.

We will never forget.

Tap That

{It's not just you, the titles are getting worse.}

I have roots in Ontario.

Both my parents lived there until they were in their mid-twenties.

We went back every year to visit.

When coming home we often brought back a bucket of maple syrup.

That's right folks, a bucket.

Maple syrup is a staple out east.

Salt, pepper, sugar, maple syrup.

Not in that order.

So I grew up with an intense love for maple syrup.

REAL maple syrup.

I have often settled for "maple type syrup" because of the price difference.

Recently I discovered President's choice 15% maple syrup.

It's not the same as the real thing but it's a decent stand-in at a fraction of the cost.

Well, Diana and Carly were at the cabin a while back.

 Jeff, of course, made his to-die-for french toast.

And I took out the good old 15%.

Cut to a couple weeks later when they showed up with this...

...tied up with a bow no less.

Well, seeing as dinner was in the works, I wasn't about to whip up a batch of pancakes.

{I'm not above having pancakes for dinner.}

But I really wanted to dive into this jug.

Then I remembered something my Mom used to do.

Looks good right?

It is.

Vanilla ice cream sprinkled with granola and drenched topped with maple syrup.

{A special thanks to Kim for leaving the ice cream after our meeting last week.}

Ready to Rummage

Ok that was bad I know but it kinda rang true.

This weekend was the SEESA fall rummage sale.

I have been meaning to go to one of these for years!

Each year I'm either pregnant or have a baby so I forego the sale.

Well, this year I still have a baby but also had a Jenna and a Steve who offered to help out.

{Jeff was working on hail again this weekend.  

Thanks Daddy, we so appreciate how hard you work.}

I wore Cedric and Fiona was a doll on her best behaviour.

Success!

We went at opening to get the best selection.

Now I'm glad we did but that timing is what gave this post it's title.

Those rummage salers are ruthless determined!

Cedric actually got a hand in his face at one point so I didn't last long in the big room.

Despite that I managed to do pretty well.

 Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, I even went back on Sunday for a more leisurely {albeit picked over} browse.

I hightailed it out of there before the $2 bag madness began though.

I have my limits.

 Those little girl guides were also there and they just get me every time.

As my Grandma would have said "they're lovely girls".

{I'm channelling Grandma after seeing so much that reminded me of her this weekend.}

All that and I only spent $21!

Now I know I've been talking about purging rather than bringing more in.

The bonus of this though was that I was prompted to organize and clean up a bit to fit my new treasures in.

Just let me justify it ok?

Another Use for Burlap

Last year I decided to do burlap runners for Christmas dinner.

I had no idea how much to buy so I went my usual route and bought way too much.

{The stuff was cheap and I didn't want to risk another trip back to Marshall's with Fiona.}

Well, since then I have been finding all these little uses for burlap.

Fiona's birthday banner.

Jenna's shower gift.

Now, our newest addition to the stairway art.

These patches belonged to Jeff's Grandpa.

Heather {Jeff's Mom} brought them over a while back and I loved the way they looked.

Jeff and I both have a love for antiques and anything nostalgic.

We're the ones who get a call if there's an old piece of furniture up for grabs.

We love the look of these pieces.

Mostly though, we love the thought that our home is filled with pieces of the past.

Pieces of our families.