Halloween Rewind...

I had SOOOOOO much fun at our Halloween party this year!!! Many thanks to all of the people who brought food and treats (Amanda, April, Leah, Jill, Victoria, Jen, Heather... I could probably go on for ever). There was way too much but it made me so much more relaxed to know that I would not have to refill food trays and worry about refilling drinks. Everyone took care of themselves and, while that makes me seem like a terrible hostess, I don't think that at this type of party anyone noticed. Thank also to April for helping set the food out and making me drinks while Leah and I feverishly got ready. Halloween was full of great memories (and yes, I do remember): Lisa had a REALLY good time (Acai Tequilla anyone?), the costumes were amazing, the dance party in the living room was non-stop (and bettered by KC's "the party stops here" sign which was assaulted in the process), and the laughter was constant. 

In the end, the costume that Jill helped me put together turned out fab! It was totally worth the loss of skin that occurred when we glued the outfit directly to my skin by accident the night before. Totally! There was supposed to be two black swans at our party and apparently the other person thought that she would have outdone me. I dunno... I'm pretty awesome... Check it out for yourself:

And check out Amanda who won for scariest costume. Her "Two-Face" outfit and hand-crafted burns were incredibly awesome and disgusting. Well deserved win. I wish I had taken a picture of the trophies I made - you would have laughed at the grotesque over-crafting - they were hideously wonderful if I do say so myself. 

Thanks again to my beautiful, kind-hearted friends and family. It was so nice to enjoy an evening with you! You made my favourite holiday a blast!

Canada Day in the Hood

I love the Millwoods' Canada Day celebration. Most of the years David and I have been together we have walked down the hill at the corner of 23rd Avenue and 66th street and enjoyed as good a fireworks show as I have ever seen. It's delightful and snuggly - what could be better? So that's what the two of us did. I tried to get a few shots with my iPhone. You can tell I had to take a couple by the apprehensive look creeping across David's face :) When we got home the furry bambinos were so scarred by the noise of the fireworks and so happy to see us. Awww...

Camping in Alberta/When Will I Learn

This past weekend was David's mother's side's (usage of apostrophes questionable) annual camping trip at Jarvis Bay (Silvan Lake, Alberta). Half of this side of the family lives in Calgary so this is a nice mid-way point for us to meet. As per usual Alberta weather - expect the unexpected. Friday night was very cold and we spent all evening crowded around the fire playing camp fire games and making the best of it. Having taught all day I decided to go to bed "early" sometime between 11 and midnight only to find that despite my touque (sometimes worn on my head, other moments me socked feet), fleece jammies and a heavy duty sleeping bag I was shivering so badly that I could not sleep. At 2 am I went to find the hubby to try to convince the radiator of  man to get his butt back to the tent. Whilst waiting for him I found the ultimate solution and a little shut eye thanks to my LuluLemon hoodie which I managed to put my feet through. Honestly, those things are soooo warm. In the morning, David and I woke up at immediately the same time. No, we are not so connected that our circadian rhythms are in sync. We both woke at the same time because our tent had fallen on our faces and the cold snow on top of it awakened us! Yeah. Snow. I thought we were out of there for sure but we built a new fire and toughed it out and by 3:00pm it was 17 degrees out and lovely camping weather. More about the weekend when I managed to scrap some of these pictures but here's a pics from our adventurous stay.

Trying to stay warm in bed and questioning our choice in provinces to live.

 Great book! Highly recommend if you're into neuropathology or just think that learning about how the brain works or, in this case, doesn't work is extraordinarily interesting!

Little BIL playing the gey-tar. Very talented.

 David's camping beard... yummy... Didn't know he had the mountain man in 'em but I kinda like it :P

Trying to stay warm. Heart.

Death Cab is Dreamy

Tuesday night I went to Death Cab for Cutie with my bestie and her husband. Better yet my sister in law and her bestie were also there. Death Cab was simply scrumptious! I so wished David had come with us too, he would have loved it. So many songs have become "our" songs over the years that called him about 14 times during the concert and just held phone up so he could "hear". The only song he managed to decifer was one of our favorites: "Transatlantism". The lyrics are, in part, "I need you so much closer" and David told me it was what he listened to over and over when I was away for a week in Scotland a few years ago (the only week we have ever been apart since we started dating). Melty heart. Here's a few pictures from my iPhone, which I am currently using to post while in the bath tub. Must flee!

Don't be a Drag, Just be a Queen

The dust, feathers, eyelashes and miscellaneous costume paraphernalia has settled and I'm still here. My 28th birthday was another great excuse to get my friends together and have a fantastic get together... in drag of course. Originally I invited everyone to, what I called a "tickle trunk" party. More often than not we have theme parties but I recognize that not everyone is as "into it" as we/I are/am. So my thought was to put out a bunch of costume pieces and some cardboard cut-outs you put your head in etc., and have everyone be a outrageous (or not) as they wanted to. Great idea. Stole it from Jill. But then Jill had another idea, she wanted to dress up as a male drag queen. Flash back to my 26th birthday: equal amounts of glitter, hilarity and "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" antics. That party was one of my best costume ideas yet! So Jill and I decided to relive the party from a few years ago by dressing up ourselves. Just her and I. When Victoria got there she dolled up in record speed and the three of us looked like idiots for the rest of the evenings. Many people played along with the "everything goes" theme, including Heather (astronaut outfit, shiny silver wing, butterfly wings and a top hat) and Jen (boa, Cruella Deville wig). Yours truly? See for yourself:

 Terrifying I know. But admit it, you want to try drag now. Don't 'cha? And here are some of my gifts. I'm so spoiled! Note the homemade card with googly eyes. The brown card stock in the background has been made to look like cork by my SIL Jen using a little black ink and a mean flick of the wrist. The phrenology head is wicked! Jill found it for me. She's so smart! I just recently bought some lazer cut chipboard from TM with a phrenology head. I reminds me of my psychology days... sigh. Those were the days....

 Beautiful crafting supplies from the hubby. I'm dying to use that yellow Basic Grey paper - yum!

  Beautiful flowers from my mom who found the time to be sooo thoughtful while taking care of my step-father overseas. Geez. What a lady.

Thank you loving friends and family. May day was delightful!

Thank You Ginger!

So 1 month ago today Ginger was kind enough to award me with a Liebster Blog award.

(Yes. One month ago. I have been terribly lazy lately... can you tell from the lack of posts.)

Well I think that Ginger is pretty much the coolest thing since sliced bread. She has completely branched out, taken on new challenges and become quite the member of the blogging community. Basically, when I grow up I want to be just like her, and Lisa, and all of the wonderful crafters out there who reach out to each other and take online classes and try new things... I'm hoping that this summer I can become one of those people. From when I started blogging, I think I've already made some (small) leaps and bounds. It's true that my school work takes up the majority of my time but this year I have really tried to set aside some time for me. Judging by the sheer number of posts each year alone, I'm already getting better. So thank you Ginger for recognizing my minimal posts and I hope to live up to a fraction of your awesomeness this summer break.

As for recognizing some small blogs that I think are fab, well I just can't help but be biased.
Jill - my sister who used to have a fantastic scrappin' blog. I'm hoping she will come around and bring the Infamous Crooked Scrapbooker back. She is so talented. Another one of her talents however is making things look good. Her new company Tilt Staging and Design is going to be epic!

Kara - oh how I love thee. Style icon? Yes, I think so. I can't wait to visit her new store. She is also an all around crafter and the thriftiest, most adorable girl I know. Need some wardrobe inspiration? Check her out.

My last nomination is really a bribe. Chantel has been promising to post a craft every Monday. Now I know she is very busy owning a store and raising a baby, but seriously, she's so awesome who doesn't want to see more? More, more, more!

Thanks again Ginger!

Our 1st Anniversary

Thursday was our first anniversary. It was delightful to just do nothing together for the whole day, exchange gifts and go for a casual dinner at OJs (Original Joes). Just our style (you may remember that Original Joe's is where we had our engagement photos taken). David got me a beautiful, thoughful card that made me cry, flowers, two novels and some stickers for school; this being our "paper" anniversary. Delightful. I made him a card and bought him an antique, a cookbook from 1871: "Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery". He loves to read cookbooks and loves "old" things. It was too good to be true! Some images from our cozy day...

 

So Proud!

My sister, Jill Williams, is working so hard to make her dream a reality. I am so proud that she has decided to make the life she sees for herself happen now and not wait for some serendipidous happening in the future.
Need a home staged? A retail space re-energized?

She's AMAZING!

Stay calm. Carry on.

One of Jill's favorite sayings: stay calm and carry on.

This is my new mantra. There are some (for lack of a better word) uncomfortable things going on in my life but I also have lots to be grateful for. Thus, I shall stick to the positice until I snap and write a ranting, biting, scratching, spitting blog post that will make you all shudder. Nah. Stay calm. Carry on.

You know sometimes I feel like I have to give up teaching. I want to do so much for my students. I always have this constant feeling that I have not done all that I could, that kids have slipped through the cracks, that I've missed goldern opportunities. Plainly, that I am not the teacher that I dream of being. Today, however, one of the department heads at our school stopped me in the hall today to tell me that "all of the kids are talking about me". Apparently some of them do think I half decent. Not to toot my own proverbial horn - but I needed that.

In other news... here is a picture from the break of my husband and I being our dorky selves. Decked out in our Oiler's gear before going to the game (thanks Dad!), we look like we are trying to converse with the camera. Trickery, as we are really just trying to get our small Oiler's Christmas tree in the background with us. Check out my cool vintage sweater from Mom. Do you think that the Oil is using my mantra as well? Sigh.

My best Zach Stortini impression. (I was unwilling to knock out some teeth for this photo.)

It's beginning to look a lot like....

HALLOWEEEN!!! My favorite time of year!

You can tell that school has started and that I currently have no life if you've checked in lately and heard the crickets call through your speakers and the tumble weed roll across your screen. I have some projects currently on the go and desperately want to dive back into the craft world. For now here's a few crummy pictures of some of the decor I've put up so far... more to come!

My halloween tree.

How cool is this witch's boot? Heart.

Da Da Daaaaaaaaa...

Well folks, in two hours I will have a corneal flap, yes flap, created and the underlying layers resurfaced and reshaped. Yep. Having laser eye surgery. I have already had some major gastrointestinal and sleep issues relating to this wonderful invention. I became a biology teacher because I love things like anatomy and physiology... but let`s face it - eyes just gick me out! Therefore, the mental preparation for this surgery has been unbearable. I have not slept; visions of zombies with bleeding eyes dance in my head. This morning I am very ill which generally happens whenever I`m extremely nervous about something. Seriously, I would rather watch them remove my gallbladder or perform open heart surgery on MYSELF than this. BUT I must keep reminding myself that I WILL BE ABLE TO SEE!!! Having glasses since grade two means that I don`t ever remember waking up and just seeing. The thought is just unfathomable. And now an homage to a bygone era: last year's glasses.

The blue and lime green ones:

The pink and black ones:

The black and white ones:
I do plan to actually get some scrapbooking done when I can finally see again so in the meantime, I leave you with some pictures of my latest attempts in cupcakes. Ah, cupcakes. Why can't I just think about those? Got to go - I think I'm going to be sick...

Grateful!

Hello Friends! I have just returned from a GREAT camping trip with great friends. Despite several severe changes in weather (we are talking sunshine to golf ball-sized hail in T minus two seconds) we managed to go on a couple hikes and enjoyed camping 20 metres from the riverbed. If you ever have the chance to visit the Bragg Creek, I strongly recommend it. The walk-in sites at Beaver Flats (where we stayed) are hugely unpopular, namely because you have to hike your coolers and all smelly articles to the car each night to prevent being eaten by a bear. We love them however! (The sites, not the bears, well I mean bears are cute and all but also hungry and strong.) They are so close to the river you are lulled to sleep each night by the sounds of the water. The pictures taken below are mere steps from our siteView to the right of our site.

View to the left of our site.

We walked down to Elbow Falls one day, an hour hike each way. Breath. Taking. We all just kept saying "this is the time when you are proud to live in Alberta". (It completely wipes away all images of silver genitalia hanging from the back of trucks; if you live in Alberta, you unfortunately know what I mean) I didn't bring my camera on the first hike as we had to cross several rushing streams but I managed to get a few photos the second time. Except for the first picture below, I literally just held my camera out on the automatic setting and clicked while I walked. Gorg!

I have some craft challenges in the works for myself... I'll be updating again soon I hope!

Wedding Reception Pics

So. I'm dumb. I never did give our FAB photographer any credit in my engagement photo post. Her name is Ashley Champagne and you can find her here. She is incredible and has photographed Gaga - who, she tells us, introduced herself as "Gaga" not "Hi! My real name is Stephanie Germanotta but I prefer to be pretentious, disyllabic and completely deranged." What a weirdo. Anywho, Ashley came to our reception to take some candid shots and man did she ever. I will just post a few of the details (I know you crafty folk like the details) and a couple of my favorites. "Cootie catcher" favors (they were fun to design and fold - not- thanks for the idea Martha) with chocolate bars nestled within - yum!Also my beautiful tropical inspired centerpieces were created by none other than Lindsay Best. She is amazing and has recently started a new blog to showcase her incredible talents.

The head table had long intertwined pieces of bamboo with orchids and palms and other beautiful delights wrapped around them... so cool! I found a similar design on internet and Lindsay did it even better!!!

Dave and I love to laugh. I heart this photo for that reason.

Grammy. I had a reception in Edmonton with the hope that both my Grammy and Grampy could attend. Unfortunately, Gramps was ill but Gram was looking fineeeeeeeee....

Anyone notice that I've uped the posting? Woot! Woot!

Engagement Photos!

Only one week until our Jamaican nuptials and we finally have some engagement photos to show. I'll just post some of my favorites. I can't wait to be married to this adorable boy :)