Sadie guest post

The guest post I mentioned that I did for the Sadie blog about my stay in Osoyoos is up! Check it out here. These are the last few photos from the trip that I'll share with you.















The fairy sign is from the fruit stand we stopped at to pick up yummy things like peach-flavoured honey. Yesss.

Osoyoos & Sadie

I've got a guest post going up on Sarah's blog soon about my trip to Osoyoos the weekend before last. Stay tuned, I'll let you know when it's up! I also have a few more photos I'll share when I let you know the story is up. In the meantime, here are a few favourites that didn't make it into the guest post.

Sunny weekend!

We finally had a gorgeous sunny weekend, and on the long weekend no less! YAY!! I used to carry my camera around with me EVERYWHERE and take tons of pictures, but I've gotten out of the habit in the past couple of years. I've been meaning to change that so I will make a more concerted effort to bring one and take pics in the future. I didn't know Ben was taking these photos, which are brought to us courtesy of his iPhone. We were dogsitting our friend's dog this weekend so we took all three mutts to the dog park at Ambleside on Saturday and let them run wild. Which was surprisingly not as wild as we'd imagined. Due to some of her earlier shenanigans we've been afraid of trusting Penny off-leash, so she's always been on leash when we go out. We've been working with a dog whistle at home though, and on Friday when she was tearing around the backyard with our friend's dog Luke she came right away every time I blew the whistle (knowing she was going to get a treat - she is HIGHLY food motivated). So Saturday we let her off leash and sort of expected her to go tearing off into the trees, but she didn't do that once. She stuck around us for the most part and when she did go for a run she didn't go far or out of sight. She also came back every time we called her or blew the whistle! Awesome! So it was a really good day and we felt great about our little dog :)

I was wearing my new Roxy sun hat, I think its pretty cute! I've wanted a hat like this for a couple years but I'm super picky and I couldn't find one that fit my fat head that I liked once I got it on. Now I also want another one I saw when I got this, a round wide brim cutie, but I can't really justify the purchase right now. It would be nice to get the extra shade, especially when we go to Osoyoos or Ruby Lake, but I still haven't been called into work so we're on a really tight budget right now. Oh well. It's tough but it's making me work on my shopping habit, haha.

We had a pretty low-key Canada Day celebration at my mom's on Friday night: she had a bunch of friends and family over and we can see the fireworks (from far away) from our windows and sundeck. What did you get up to this weekend? Any Canada Day/Fourth of July partying?

A wee update

I have been very bad about real updates here! Oops. There's been a lot going on. I really need to work on those time management skills!! Anyhow, let's see. The weekend before last I saw the play "The Graduate" and man, it was oh-so-good!! I've actually never seen the movie [but I will soon :) ] but I LOVED the play. It was put on at the Arts Club theater on Granville Island with music by the local band Ivory Sky, which was really good as well!

Then last week I went for testing for my new job. Did I tell you I FINALLY got a job?!? Yay!! It's with the Public Health Services (PHSA) and I am SO very grateful to Ben's mom for pulling strings to get me in. I'm now part of their "administrative resource team (ART)" which is basically their casual pool, so I could get called to work for 2 days or for 2 months, I really don't know. I get payed better than I had hoped and I can apply to full time positions from the inside now. I'm pretty psyched! Anyhow, I did testing for some Microsoft Office programs and typing and my boss was really impressed with my results! Yay! That means she can send me to more jobs. So now I just wait for her to call, haha. Tests were on Wednesday and since I didn't get called after that I worked at FurDoos (my old job at my friend's dog grooming shop) Thursday-Saturday. If I don't get any full-time work she will probably want me to come in on my free days to help her out as she's getting really busy now. But, I am supposed to go to a meeting about a job that may be full time for a month or two at the PHSA, so I am waiting for that call! I would be really happy to be making that money :)

This past weekend I checked out the new Anthropologie store in Vancouver (yay!) since I got a coupon for my birthday. I got a sweet butterfly-wing print skirt that should be good for wearing to work. It isn't really my usual style but I like the fit, it's very cute, it has pockets!! and I like the butterfly wings :) I also went to the Blim market and met Sarah of Sadie Designs! She is so sweet and it was great to meet her in person. I bought a pair of earrings I'd been lusting after online from her, as well as some sweet red rose cabochon stud earrings from another artisan. Here I am at Ambleside yesterday wearing my Sadie earrings (please excuse my squinty face, it was bright & windy).



I had hoped to get out and do more since it was a long weekend, but Ben's been sick so things didn't go quite as planned. Oh well. I just hope he's better soon, for his sake as well as mine. I think I will totally lose it if the freaking TV is on all the time for much longer. It drives me super bonkers!

I have more to share so I will be back soon!
xo.

Weekend part 2

Hello lovelies,
sorry this post is late. I have been dealing with some frustrating health issues lately and they've been kind of sucking my energy to do things. I am trying to get them sorted out but it's proving complicated, of course, so wish me luck!

Anyhow, I wanted to share a bit from my Sunday which was mostly lovely! Ben & I went to Make It, a really cool handmade market that happens twice a year. We planned on getting drinks to enjoy while walking around (we figured it's the only craft fair we know that serves alcohol so we should partake ;) ) and hoped to find a new wallet for Ben. Unfortunately we didn't find a wallet, but we did enjoy a beer each (and were congratulated on doing so by a number of sellers, haha), ate DELICIOUS pistachio macaroons from French Made Baking (seriously they were melt-in-your-mouth heavenly!!) and picked up a few small gifts for people. Then I picked up some supplies that I am really excited about! We headed over to Spool of Thread because I'd seen some fabric they have online that I "had to have" because it is gorgeous and is covered in adorable dogs (even though I'm not sure what I'll use it for yet). If you've never been, they are a sewing lounge: they have awesome fabrics and host sewing classes. They also have great neighbours including Collage Collage (love!! they host kid's craft birthday parties, among other things) and Ruby Dog's Art House (random awesome craft supplies, lots of vintage ephemera). I might have found a little something for Beca at Ruby's. Maybe. I also got some tiny keys which I am SO EXCITED ABOUT!!! They are going to make the best necklaces ever. They are real old keys, and the tiny ones that say "presto" are my new favourite thing. I bought all the ones I saw :O (I bought a lot of keys you guys. I better get makin'.)



The magnet is by Jennifer Conway (see and/or buy some here): it's for Ben's dad, probably for father's day? So cute! I thought the disk (I have more with other numbers) could be fun on a keychain with other beads/charms. We'll see how that goes. To see more of the fabric you can check out this photo from Spool of Thread's Flickr stream.

Ok. I think I am going to eat ice cream now. Maybe you should too.
xo.

Weekend part 1

This weekend was pretty busy too! We fit in lots of awesome. On Friday Ben gave me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, just cause.



I LOVE them. Sorry, those are the best photos I could get.

I took apart some donated jewelry which will be given new life in honeywild pieces (I take old jewelry apart and clean the beads so they can be used in new creations - more info under the tab up top, "recycle your jewels"). Here are some beads from the first few bracelets I killed ;)



Ben went to see the Whitecaps soccer game for his friend's birthday on Saturday and when I picked him up we decided to go out for dinner. I had a coupon for a restaurant called Eight 1/2 just off Main st at 151 East 8th Avenue. It sounded really cool - here is their blurb/mandate:

"eight ½ restaurant lounge is based on the principle that what goes in to our bodies should be simple, fresh and local. We pride ourselves on having a kitchen that has no need for a deep fryer or microwave, keeping our dishes and drinks healthy and fresh every time."

It was delicious! It's quite small and there was a large bachelor party there taking up a bunch of tables so we sat at the bar. We ordered the baked brie [filo wrapped brie, local buckwheat honey, sweet chili, candied apple slices] to start (sooo tasty) and then shared the mushroom risotto [a seasonal mix of fresh BC mushrooms, pine nuts, and baby spinach topped with white truffle oil and shaved Parmesan] which OH my my. So very delicious!! It was great and we'd definitely go back.

So that was the first half of the weekend. Sunday was super fun as well and I'll try to blog about it tomorrow :)

What shenanigans did you get up to this weekend?

Weekend treasures

Last weekend was pretty great! It felt much busier than usual. Ben went to West 4th with me Friday afternoon to exchange something at Lululemon. Well, I was only supposed to exchange one item but I ended up leaving with three things. I was very bad and Ben wasn't very discouraging, haha. He said he'd pay for part of my purchase, and I plan on putting birthday money towards the other things (it's coming up at the end of May). I got a new, comfier sports bra (the key seems to be going 2-3 sizes up from what I would normally wear), a pair of cropped yoga pants and a very cute/sexy workout top.

Friday night we went to see Bright Eyes play at the Commodore Ballroom. I think I saw him at the Malkin Bowl last time so it was pretty sweet to get more up close & personal :) Conor Oberst is one of my favourite artists. He rocks and the concert was AWESOME! By the end of the show my voice was a bit raw and my feet were sore and I was grinning. If you don't know him or his music, here's one of my favourite songs:



Other favourites include "Bowl of Oranges," "Old Soul Song (For the New World Order)" and "Method Acting." But those are just a few of them!

I bought this shirt at the show and I'm a little in love with it. It's super comfy and cute.



Saturday morning Ben brought me coffee in bed because he invariably needs to get up and consume caffeine before I am ready to leave my comfy cocoon. We went out to Pannekoek House for a late breakfast (delicious!) and used our Living Social voucher, which was great, then ran some errands. We dropped by his parent's place as they switched TV providers and gave us their Shaw PVR box thing, which means we can record shows and fast forward through commercials!! This makes me SO, so happy. I'm not a big fan of TV: I have a few shows I like, but I can live without them. I can't stand commercials, I don't like the news, and I HATE it when it feels like the TV is always on, which it often does, to me. Ben watches a lot of TV, at least compared to my preferences :) Anyhow, the box should hopefully make things a wee bit better. Then we went to Superstore, which was a ZOO. We don't usually go there but I wanted to get some cheap plastic drawers for organizing: unfortunately we didn't realize they were having a "No tax" sale. So we saved $11 on our bill but almost lost our sanity. It wasn't all bad though, I got a sweet pink suede belt for cheap and some pastel-y nail polishes which I'm excited to use! The grey one should be good for underneath this slightly ridiculous sparkly blue polish I bought on a whim but wasn't sure what to do with, haha. It should be fun for toenails...



I think the colours are a bit lighter than they appear in the photo.

We were going to see the movie "Hanna" Saturday or Sunday night but didn't make it out. We did some organizing and cleaning at home and a few more errands, like buying some badly needed new pillows at HomeSense. We can sleep through the night again! Yay! I had no idea a pillow could make such a difference. Anyhow, we're planning on going to the movie sometime this week.

What was your weekend like? What did you get up to?