A Long Time Ago...

Well, it really wasn't that long ago.

4 years to be exact.

It just feels like ages since our wedding day.

So much has happened since then, how could that only have been 4 years?

The decision to get married wasn't if, but when.

We had been living together for 4 years.

We had 2 dogs.

We owned 2 properties and had been through 2 already.

Not to mention the businesses.

Jeff proposed in September 2008 and we were married in November 2008.

{To be fair, we had started planning in August.}

We didn't give our guests a lot of notice but they sure came through.

We had almost all of our family from Ontario and even some amazing friends from Denver.

{Love you Charmian and Heather!}

We were married at Murrieta's here in Edmonton.

Our ceremony was during cocktail hour and we loved walking down the aisle while our friends and family sipped their wine.

The dinner was great, as it always is at Murrieta's.

Finally, we danced until they started setting up for breakfast.

It was a perfect day.

I know this is probably more than enough pics but if you want more check out our feature on Style me Pretty.

Pinterest: Keep it and Kill it {Take 3}

Bridal showers.

Am I right?

They have become a whole different ball game now thanks to Pinterest.

There are so many good ideas at your fingertips.

We decided to throw a "Pinterest" shower for Jenna a while back.

We would peruse her boards and take ideas from them for the decorations, drinks and food.

 {Except the wedding board of course that would have been cruel.}

The funny part was that Jenna didn't remember pinning many of these things.

That's my issue with Pinterest.

I pin away and rarely go back to look at said pins.

{Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy pinning.}

These are a couple of projects I did for the shower.

 Keep it:

This was an idea for house numbers.

                                                                 Source: ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com via Jenna on Pinterest

Jenna has actually done this and it turned out great.

I decided to take an old piece of baseboard (6") and twine and do one with her wedding date.

I was really happy with it and she now has it in her home.

 Kill it:

I'm really not being fair to these poor doily lamps.

                                                                               Source: shexists.com via Jenna on Pinterest

The actual pin looks great.  My adaptation, not so much.

I didn't have a stash of crochet doilies and with no rummage sale in my near future didn't know how to acquire any.

I used paper and these are the pathetic results.

I put them up anyways and wish I hadn't because they looked even more pathetic hanging at the party.

Green Jeans

Not literally. 

Though coloured jeans are hot right now, they're not for me.

As I said in this post, I have been trying to recycle more lately.

Not like blue bag recycle but a more traditional kind.

This week I decided to take a pair of dated old flare jeans and turn them to skinnys.

In the past I would have thrown them in the donate pile and bought a new pair.

They're not the best jeans I've ever worn but they are exactly what I needed and cost me $0!

It was surprisingly easy.

I put the jeans on.

Marked the spot where they started to flare.

Measured how much they needed to be taken in at the ankle.

Took them off and turned them inside out.

Pinned the leg so they tapered to the measured spot at the bottom.

Sewed.

Cut off the excess a cm outside the seam.

Wore them.

These were cheap Gap denim a thin denim  so the new seam wasn't bulky which it might be if you were using a thicker pair.

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.

Yesterday {in Pictures}

We started the day out watching Obama's victory speech.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying a snow day.

That's that.

Splish Splash

Why am I always shocked, come winter, by how early it gets dark?

Once our clocks "fall back" I'm ready to go to bed at 7:00.

Bedtime used to creep up on us as we played outdoors.

Now the evening seems endless.

I don't tend to take the kids out once it's dark.

This means that we're stuck in the house from 5:30 on.

No quick walks around the neighbourhood for us.

What to do to pass the time?

T'is the season for long, warm bedtime baths.

The kids could go for days in the summer without bathing.

We have to make a conscious effort to get them in the tub.

The winter is a different story.

They make a splashy mess of the bathroom bathe almost daily.

It's extra fun now that Cedric is sitting and splashing along with his big sis.

The only challenge is to keep their skin from drying out.

T'is also the season for moisturizer, and lots of it.

{I hear that.}

The Green Thing

A couple of weeks ago I told you about the SEESA Rummage Sale.

On my second trip, one of the lovely volunteers packaged my items.

{By the way, this was done with more care for my $2.50 purchase than is usually done for purchases I've made for hundreds of dollars.}

She picked out a shoebox that was in really good shape.

"This would be a good box for wrapping gifts" she said.

I replied "perfect with Christmas coming".

Her eyes seemed to light up that I was on board.

"We call that recycling" she told me with a smile.

If it had been anyone else I would have thought she was mocking me.

She was, however, completely sincere.

It reminded me of a story I read {on Facebook I think}.

I searched for the story and couldn't find an original but did find this adaptation.

We do "the green thing".

We put our recyclables in the blue bag.

We started composting {and are horrible at it}.

We do cloth diapers.

I consider myself relatively "green".

The truth is though, there is so much more I can do.

Lately, I have been paying attention to how much we waste.

How much we buy on a whim that isn't needed.

How much we have that we don't use.

I am now making a conscious effort to reduce and reuse more.

Starting with:

Burps cloths to face cloths.

I have a ton of burp cloths.

My amazing friend Kim gave them to us when Fiona was born.

Thankfully we are now through the spitting up phase.

{Cedric was never really much of a spitter-upper.}

I do however need face cloths and lots of 'em.

We go through multiple each day for after meals and snacks.

I started using burp cloths to wipe faces and found they were too big.

This meant they stayed wet for a long time and started to smell.

I decided to take advantage of the serger I am returning today and went to work.

Each burp cloth yielded 4-6 face cloths.

Now we're all stocked up.

Cost $0.