Thursday, April 26, 2012

Love, Flowers and Uncertainty

********While I'm still adjusting to the effects of jet lag, my friend Kelly Michelle is on here today to talk about how her wedding planning is going! I'm excited to see what she's come up with!  *********

So far, I am lucky that my fiance and I have had the same ideas and have agreed on most aspects of the wedding planning. From the venue that we both LOVE to the music that we are chosing together to the wedding website that we are making, there have been few disagreements during this process. The few that we have had quickly dissapated when either I better explained my vision, or showed him examples of other weddings that have done this (by this I mean yellow shoes for the bridesmaids, totally cute idea right?) or he has felt strongly and it isn't a big enough issue for me to throw a fit over. We work great as a team and are usually on the same page. Usually.

One issue that we aren't seeing eye-to-eye on, as you can tell by the title of this post, is the flowers. Being the DIY girl that I am, I would love to do all of the flower myself but also being the practical girl that I *sometimes* am, I know that this may just have to be an area where I might have to let a professional take the lead step in.

We recently met with a florist and before that meeting, I was not completely up to date on the price of flowers. I mean really, who is besides a florist? I know that if you buy seeds for 20 cents a packet, you can get a garden full of beautiful flowers but I don't know what the cost of an arrangement is. Well I certainly know now, too much! I tried to explain my vision for the wedding flowers to the florist but he seemed to be more along the lines of traditional bouquets and table arrangements for each table and the books he took out for my to look at styles seems ancient. Don't get me wrong, he was a nice man but I just felt like I wasn't explaining my ideas very well and I didn't even bring my Pinterest board to show him. (that was my first problem. Where is technology when you need it?!)

This is what I see when I think about my girls coming down the isle, blue
dresses and all.


Source: corenmooreblog.blogspot.com via Kelly on Pinterest


These would be my centerpieces for the tables.


Source: something-pretty.net via Kelly on Pinterest


And these would decorate the isle we walk down.


Source: iloveswmag.com via Kelly on Pinterest


The prices he was quoting for flowers certainly could not be what it would cost to make these a reality. Can't you see what I mean when I say that I could do this myself? I am not calling myself a professional by any means but I have a simple vision so it should also be an inexpensive one, in my opinion. My fiance isn't against my ideas but his anwser is that we can increase the budget for flowers, that we should have beautiful flowers for our day but I keep telling him, money doesn't grow on trees, but flowers do! Haha lame attempt at humor, I know, but seriously! The only drawback is that if the weather this summer is as crazy as it was this winter, who knows if my garden 1.won't grow 2.will die like 2 weeks before the wedding 3.will be eaten alive by all the millions of bugs that are
predicted to be around this year.

I know that it is probably too unpredictable to attempt to grow my own flowers but the frugal side of me says just do it. My frugal side must work for Nike... either way, I still have not called the florist back for his quote. I am not good at turning people down but I don't want to just settle either.

Kelly Michelle :)



I'm Back... sort of


I'm home from my trip! This jet lag is kicking my ass though so it'll be a few more days I think till I'm functioning properly. I'm having a really hard time adjusting back to this timezone and re-energizing from travelling! But I'll be back soon! In the meantime my friend Kelly Michelle has written a wonderful guest post that you should read!  It'll be up tomorrow so look for it then!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Kudjo's Nemesis

Right about now I'm basking on the beach and soaking in the sun! I thought I'd post a blog I wrote a few weeks ago but never got around to publishing then.  We still have snow back home but hopefully it's all melted by the time I get back!

Almost every morning on our walk we spot a bunny in the snow bank ditches along the road. When we don't actually see one, their tracks indicate they were there earlier. As soon as we're at the part of the walk where I let him off the leash, Kudjo makes it his personal mission to find these perpetrators that always seem to allude him.
But the other morning the bunnies hit Kudjo where it hurts.... his home turf! This little killer bunny was right outside our living room window, just taunting Kudjo!







Oh you crazy rabbit! It's a good thing I saw you before I opened the door! You live another day!

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane



This week I am heading on my first international trip! One of my best friends is getting married! So this girl is trading these cold and snowy/rainy temperatures in for the beach! Except for a quick road trip through the states 8 years ago, I've never been out of Canada! So needless to say I'm pretty excited! It'll be a little quiet around here. I have one post scheduled... Hello Writer's Block! See you guys when I get back!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Currently



excited for: my trip next week! I'm headed for my first international trip! My friend Lindsay is getting married!!

listening to: Anna Sun by Walk the Moon

eating: a tiny sliver of a delicious peanut butter chocolate oatmeal no-bake cookies that Jonathan made! Dangerously good. So he makes extra small ones for me and throws them all in the freezer. Out of sight = more out of mind for me!

watching: Missing. Have you gotten into this show yet?! It's SO good! Last week's blew my mind and this week's was no exception!

making: mental lists of things I'd like to/need to get done before I leave!

 

Monday, April 9, 2012

Geocaching



I've realized that I've never really fully explained on here what geocaching is!

According to the website they explain it: "GEOCACHING is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online."

Anyone can sign up for a free account (or upgrade to premium member). You can then download the coordinates to a geocache onto your GPS or smartphone. There is an app for geocaching that you can download them onto. Then you head out and follow the GPS to find the hidden containers! We LOVE geocaching! It's been a great way to discover interesting spots that we never would have found otherwise! Last year we went on a road trip and geocached our way down and all around Vancouver.

Last summer we decided to hide one. I thought I had posted about it but I guess I never got around to it! So now seems like a good enough time!
We started off by finding a plastic container that latches and is waterproof. We decided to tape it up with camo tape. Maybe it will help it blend in!

 

There are different sizes of geocaches. Some are super tiny micros or can be as large as ammo boxes. They can be in plastic containers or regular every day things revamped to have hidden log books. Almost every geocache has some form of a log book for you to sign and date.

Depending on the size of the container there can also be trinkets in there to trade for. To start with we stocked ours with a gift card, a compass, mini survival kit, glow sticks, key chain, and mini deck of cards. Sometimes there's some pretty cool things to trade for like local souvenirs, other times there's toys for kids, and other times there's random junk. It just depends!
When we hid our geocache we thought about it for quite a while. We wanted somewhere interesting that most people in our area might not have otherwise discovered. Where we were living at the time we took our dogs for a walk daily down some trails through undeveloped area. During the summer we often take our dogs out on the week-ends with us to hike and geocache so that was one criteria we wanted for our hide; somewhere people could take their dogs with them to.

We found the perfect spot a little ways off the main trail.

It should be safely hidden there!

 


And back we went! Waiting for it to be discovered! It's a bit of a hike in so we weren't sure how many people would want to find it but so far 5 geocachers have! Everyone has left a comment saying they love it!

This is one interesting looking one we found. It was hidden half under those bushes and looked just like a boulder. But on the end there you can see a plastic piece. It unscrews and inside is a log book and pen.

Another tricky one we found was this one





I missed this one but Jon has a good eye!

So that's a bit about geocaching! I definitely think everyone should try it! Have you gone before?

Friday, April 6, 2012

Playing On Repeat

I just discovered this song a few days ago and it's been playing on repeat in my head since then! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDVW81bXo0s