Wedding Wednesday – Ceremony Music Part 2

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! We have had the strangest, most wonderful weather…RAIN! I know most people want some snow now that it is getting closer to Christmas but not me. Snow means shoveling and snow plowing. Snow means Ryan has to be up at 2 in the morning to go work on removing snow.

2 AM + Ryan = Very tired man! 

Today on Wedding Wednesday I’d like to continue on with my wedding post from last week. Last week, we talked about the style of music we wanted. This week I’d like to tell you who’s going to help us with this.

I come from a very musical family. Specifically, my brother is AMAZING on the guitar. My dad plays a mean bass fiddle and piano. Mom and I like to sing and I can tickle the ivories a little too. This is fine but for my wedding day my family will have other responsibilities.

I wasn’t too concerned though because there are so many great musicians in our home town. Let’s start with this guy:

Please meet Denis. I have known Denis for probably about 10 years now. He has some MAD skills as the mechanic on the turf farm here. He is such a fun and sweet guy!

Denis is an AMAZING musician. His instrument of choice…The Fiddle.

Ryan has teased Denis now for a couple of years about playing at our wedding. Before we were engaged Denis would bug him about when he was going to ask me. In return Ryan would joke that at our wedding Denis had to play some Metallica on his fiddle in front of everyone!

Now, as pretty as the fiddle is Ryan and I decided that it would be nice to have another instrument.

Please meet Rolly. I have known Rolly all my life. As a little girl attending church and Sunday school I always remember Rolly playing an active roll at the church. He was always my favorite Sunday school teacher!

Anyone who actually knows Rolly would probably agree with me, he is one the nicest people, ever! He is a staple in our community. He lends a hand for almost all community and church events.

Rolly is an all around amazing musician. Between singing, banjo and guitar it’s hard to choose which one he excels at more. Ryan and I asked Rolly to play his guitar and sing for us on our wedding day.

Luckily, both Denis and Rolly both agreed with play for us on our special day. It means so much to me to have two people that I know and love be part of the wedding.

They are amazing musicians, co-workers and friends. I can’t wait to hear that guitar and fiddle play as I want down the aisle to my future husband.

Happy Wednesday!

xo

The Weekend To Get Ready For Christmas!

Another weekend passed by WAY to quickly! I was sitting last night watching the Grey Cup game with Ryan and saying how I feel like the weekend didn’t even happen.

Here’s the proof that it did:

The weekend started out right because when I went to get the mail there was a package for me!!! My Canadian blogswap partner Lena from Mom2MemphisandRuby, had sent me my package! Being that we just live about 30 minutes away she could have just given it to me in person but she didn’t! And I SO appreciate that because I LOVE getting mail!

In my package there was a pair of comfy reindeer socks, some of my FAVORITE mitts, Hershey chocolates and two movies! Elf and Fred Clause. Neither of these movies I own and I am SO excited to add them to my Christmas movie collection! Thank you Lena!! 

Friday night was our company Christmas party! An event that I look forward to all summer long! It’s a great get together with all the gang and it’s a SURE sign the end of the busy season is over! This year in particular we had a special “Movember” event. For every employee who showed up with a mustache the company would donate $25.00 to prostate cancer AND they would get a drink ticket.

The group with their mustaches.

A little close up.

Dinner was AMAZING as always and the gift exchange was a hoot. Finally, the band started and everyone got to the dance floor for a dance.

It was such a fun night! It’s great celebrating the end of a successful season and Christmas with a great bunch of guys and girls!

Saturday morning I was up early to pick up Jilly and head on our last ferry ride of the year! We were headed to the bridal salon where we had ordered the bridesmaid dresses! Bekk met us there and the girls tried on their dresses and they look AMAZING! But that has more to do with the beautiful girls in them then the dresses themselves! (P.S Wish you were there Manda!).

A little sneak peak.

After breakfast Jill and I had many laughs on our ride home! Between Moms dress being TOTALLY wrong, me forgetting to tell Mom about making funeral sandwiches and Jill getting winter tires on her Rav, without actually having tires there! We are quite the pair! Geesh!

We then headed to friend Sharon’s for an awesome Christmas craft. I have to be honest I was a little worried about what we would be making but it was super fun! I could have sat there and make 10 more!

 

It’s a Christmas ornament ball! Made of fabric and lots of folding and pins! It was a great craft! Thank you Sharon!

Saturday night Ryan showed up with these beauties! My favorite Gerbers!

Saturday night I settled into watch Marley and Me. Big mistake!!! By the end of the movie I was BAWLING! Like, snot dripping, loud sobbing kind of cry! It was pretty ugly! Friggin’ movie!

Sunday morning I was off to church! Then, for the rest of the afternoon, Ryan and I “Christmasified” the house!

Garland is up, trees are up but not decorated and it feels so Holly Jolly in the house right now!

How was your weekend?

xo

Extreme Couponing – Canadian Style

As some of you might know already from reading this little blog, I am frugal. While some may call me cheap I would have to disagree. You see, I love a deal. My clothes? Ya, I RARELY pay full price for them. Why would I pay double the price for something if I can just wait and get it at 50% off!?

Where I don’t look for a deal is for my home. When doing my renovations I would look for some lesser expensive products but rarely would they be on “sale”. When renovating I kept thinking to myself….”I won’t be changing this room for probably another 10 or more years. So, what’s $200.00 over a 10 year span?”

The number one place I look for deals is at the grocery store because yes….

I am a couponer. 

Don’t think of me like those crazy ladies on that Extreme Couponing show buying 120 cans of cat food. Cuz’ I'm not that extreme. But I am proud to say that in 4 months I haven’t paid money for any tooth paste, shampoo or deodorant. Here’s how.

See this….

This is my lovely pile of clipped coupons! Where do they come from? LOTS of places. Websaver.ca, save.ca, P & G, and the newspaper. Not to mention my mom and sister in law usually pass along their coupons to me too!

Now, each crazy couponer has their own crazy system. For me, it’s easy to divide my coupons into different sections. Personal care items like deodorant, toothpaste, and shampoo go in a pile. Then items we use around the house like toilette paper, laundry soap and dishwashing liquid goes in another. Then the “other” pile consists of food items and other things.

I’ve had a friend ask (Hi Sharon!) how I can coupon without buying loads of processed foods like they do on T.V. Easy….

I don’t use every coupon that’s available.

I’m selective with my coupons. I don’t just buy something because it’s free. I manage coupons for things we need in our every day lives. I don’t like to keep too many processed foods around the house so we hardly have any food coupons. We do however have coupons for condiments and staple items like milk, or butter. Not to mention LOTS of coupons for soap, toothpaste, shampoo and toilette paper!

See this little date….

It’s the expiration date. The grocer that I go to checks EVERY coupon’s expiration date. I know a lot of people who use coupons. Most of those people, do it wrong.

Most of the time a coupon’s expiration date is a few months down the road. The best thing to do is keep that coupon for as long as you can because most of the time you will get another coupon for the exact same item.

Example:

Coupons 1:

 

Coupons 2:

 

Coupons 3:

 

I know it’s SO tempting to go out and redeem that coupon right away! But WAIT be patient! Collect those coupons!

Speaking of being patient…DO IT! It’s so easy to go out and use those coupons right away! But most of time, you will find items that are on sale. Especially if a coupon is for months down the road. It will be worth your wait!

I know a lot of people hate coupons and hate couponers even more! And I understand that. To each there own. But for me? It works! I love saving the money for our every day essentials and I try to be as organized as possible so that people behind me at the cash aren’t getting mad.

There are three key elements to successfully couponing. They are; searching, organization, and patience. Together, if you can do those three things, you will save a TON of money for every day household needs! So, get out there and start clipping!

Happy Friday!

xo

Wedding Wednesday – Ceremony Music

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today feels like winter. I like the work break winter offers but I HATE being cold! So, today, with the snow, I’m hibernating near my heater.

What warms me up is thinking about the upcoming nuptials. So, today on Wedding Wednesday I’m going to share with you what Ryan and I decided to do for our ceremony music.

Now, I know normally, especially if you are getting married in a church, you get someone to play to organ or the piano. Being that my Dad plays the piano I’m sure that’s what some people assumed I would be doing.

After some thought I realized that the formal piano/organ didn’t reflect us and didn’t reflect our idea for our wedding. We knew we wanted something special for our music. I mean, I come from a very musical family and music is very important to me.

The piano/organ is something that we listen to when we are at church on Sundays. I love the piano. I have very fond memories of listening to my Dad practice every Sunday before church. But, I find the music that we listen to when we celebrate when family and friends get together looks something more like this…

And that’s what we wanted for the wedding ceremony.

We wanted the warm sound of a guitar and the smooth harmony of a fiddle. The two have the ability to have give you goose bumps during a slow tune and make you want to tap your foot to the beat of an up-tempo waltz.

Now, I don’t mean to brag or anything but there must be something in the air of our small town (or water. That’s a whole other post for another day, yuck!) of the Pontiac because we have some AMAZING musicians here.

It’s rare that you don’t go somewhere and no one has brought a musical instrument. A good time can be created anywhere.

The music is classic bluegrass, Irish ditties, new and old country, classic rock/alternative, plus lots of original pieces like “Poncho”.

It’s music that my grandparents, parents, and our generation all know and sing along to.

It’s the sound of some of the greatest gatherings surrounded by friends and family.

There’s no other sound or music that represents us, our community, and our lives better then that of a small town jam session.

 

Now, we need to find the perfect people to help us. Stay tuned for that next week!

Happy Wednesday!

xo

Breaking Dawn Part 1….Is There Anything Else To Talk About, Really?

It all began on Thursday. The day I was looking forward to for about a month. Yes, it is nice starting your weekend on a Thursday but it is even more nice loading up in a car with some of your best friends, heading to the city and staying up all night to watch the midnight première of….

BREAKING DAWN PART 1

To was such an exciting day leading up to leaving for the premiere. To focus on work was nearly impossible. But finally the hour had come so Jill grabbed her Burger King Twilight crown and we drove to Sharon’s blasting the Justin Bieber Christmas C.D…Epic start!

Sharon, Jilly and I drove to pick up Britt then grabbed our tickets and settled in to Montana’s to have a nice, long supper.

We arrived at the theatre at 9 PM. Exactly how we had planned it. We got comfortable at the end of the line of hard core fans. All the sudden, 30 minutes later, there was a a bunch of screams and stampeding. They had opened the doors to the theatre!

We settled into our awesome theatre seats and relaxed, slept and read before the movie! Surprisingly enough the time passed by really quickly. I guess that’s what happens when your with your friends. Finally, the beginning of the movie….So exciting!

The movie was EVERYTHING I hoped it to be! Not disappointed at all! Bella and Edward have really grown up and now are husband and wife! It’s a surreal and sad feeling knowing there is only one more twilight movie. The midnight premiere experience was just that; an experience. As tired as I was it added to the excitement of watching the movie for the first time! I would definitely do it again next year for Breaking Dawn Part 2!

Friday, being off, I relaxed, cleaned up and slept after not getting home until about 3:30 AM! That evening I headed to Shawville to go out for a Baby Shower dinner in honor of Priscilla!

It was a great night chatting about the newest baby that is to arrive within the next month! Chat, eat a yummy meal, and compared baby bellies!

Saturday was such a great day to get stuff done around the house! I was up with the birds and gave the house a good cleaning. Then I prepared some breakfast because Sharon, Wayne and little Emma were joining us for brunch and a quick game of Euchre where us girls were the winners! Woo Hoo!

Sunday, after church, Ryan and I headed over to Mom and Dad’s for Holly and Dad’s celebration movie night and dinner! The movie of the birthday boy’s choice, Finding Nemo. Faith and her new buddy Brodee settled in together.

There were so many yummy snacks to nibble on during the movie!

After the movie we ate some supper and then it was birthday cake time! Faith LOVES singing Happy Birthday!

The birthday boy and girl with all the kids!

It was a FULL busy weekend but super fun! It started with a midnight premiere and went up hill from there!

How was your weekend?

xo

Wedding Wednesday – Save The Date Postcard

It’s really hard for me to focus today. It’s Wednesday which is normally exciting because it’s "Wedding Wednesday” but today is Wednesday….you know the day before Thursday. And Thursday means BREAKING DAWN PART 1!

Today on Wedding Wednesday I’d like to show you our save the dates! Now, I know normally people from this small town don’t usually send save the dates. In fact, I’ve only ever gotten one before and I thought it was the nicest keepsake. So, being that some of our guests are from out of town we (and by we I mean me) decided that it was a fun little token to send out.

While chatting with Julie for the first time about engagement pictures I mentioned an idea I had. The idea was instead of sending out a save the date that I needed an envelope for we would make it into a postcard. The whole stuffing envelope thing is totally over rated anyways!

Engagement pictures went off without a hitch and Ryan and I picked a couple of our favorites photos. I had seen an example of a verse that I loved and used that for the back. It said:

We have set the date of May 12th, 2012 for our wedding. Please save the date and mark it with a big heart on your calendar. You are important in our lives and our wedding will not be the same without you there.

Formal invitation to follow.

Love, Lindsay and Ryan

Cute right? Julie sent me a few mock up’s for us to choose from and get this…I let Ryan pick the winner! Yup, you read that right. This control freak let her fiancé choose the save the dates. I liked this one….

But Ryan liked this one. So, it was the winner.

Now, I’m going to confuse some people because I recently learnt this is not how most people do this whole “guest list” thing.

In our area very close family and friends get invited to the wedding, dinner and reception. Then there is reception only people. They get invited to the dancing portion of the wedding. It’s not that reception only guests aren’t as important. In fact, we wouldn’t want to have the reception without them. But there is only so much space for wedding guests in halls/churches and then usually more reception space to boogey!

So, after that back ground, we made our “wedding guests” and “reception guests” list. We were going to send save the dates to wedding guests only and we (and when I say we I mean me, again) needed to gather mailing addresses!

Holy Moly is that ever hard! In the world of e-mailing and texting I RARELY send mail! Getting addresses was hard work but finally they were done! I used labels to print the addresses and stuck them on the save the dates with a stamp! Last Sunday, November 13,1 day less then 6 months till the wedding, we sent the save the dates!

My little package all ready for the mail box.

In the mail they go!

It was such a relief to get the save the dates sent and an even BIGGER relief to say that I have all the mailing addresses for wedding guests when we need them! I hope all the guests like their save the date postcards!

Happy Wednesday!

xo

Craft Fair Weekend, A Little Recreation and Vampires!

Happy Monday! The weekend passed in a blink as the weekends usually do. It was a weekend frenzy of activity! Let’s start at the beginning.

Friday afternoon I gathered and finalized all of my projects for the Onslow School craft sale on Saturday. I have been crafting for a while for myself and my family/friends. I knew some of the things that I was making people might like so I took my chance and put a table into the craft fair. Was I nervous? Absolutely. Not only am I as awkward as they come (standing behind a table while people come up to talk to me) but I also had the crafts that I love on display for scrutiny. Yikes!

Here is what my table looked like:

I had crayon rolls, aprons (tied with a wooden spoon), hair bows, holiday gift tags, nativity scenes, body sets (2 homemade lip balms, body scrub and soap) and wooden angels (actually Ryan made these). Yes, pretty random stuff, I know. Normally tables have a theme but I just wanted to make all the stuff that I love to make.

Overall, the craft fair was a great experience! I met some pretty great ladies some for the first time (Hi Jen!) and I got to sit across friends Stacy and Josee and chat when things got quiet. It was fun showing off all the things that I make while making some money for Christmas as well. Thanks to everyone who came out to see and support me on Saturday! :-)

After a busy craft fair I had to lay down for a quick nap because that evening Ryan and I picked up his niece and nephew and headed out for supper. The kids got pretty antsy during supper anticipating some skating! We headed to the arena and laced up our skates and skated to the music for an hour and a half.

It was fun visiting with the kids but I was pooped keeping up to them! ha ha! It was fun skating for the first time this winter season.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed over to my parents house for coffee and breakfast! We wanted to get there early to wish my Dad a very happy birthday!

Sunday afternoon I finally put away my Halloween decorations! I’m so glad to finally have some free time to take them down but it took all my strength not to go ahead and put up some Christmas decorations. Do you have any Christmas stuff up yet?

That afternoon I headed over to Sharon’s with Jilly for supper and a Twilight marathon! We have tickets for the MIDNIGHT PREIMERE of Breaking Dawn this Thursday and we wanted to refresh out minds (and hearts) to our favorite little vampire and werewolf. I haven’t seen the movies in forever and it made me super excited to see the next one on THURSDAY! WOO HOO! Hope the days pass by quickly.

How was your weekend?

xo

House Tour – Stairs and Hallway

Happy Friday everyone! Is it just me or has this week been going slooooooow! Not that it has been a bad week, it’s just dragged on! This week I’ve been working my behind off finishing some things for the up coming Onslow School craft fair! But, I’m there and excited to show off some of the things I love to create!

This past Tuesday a Rav full of ladies and I went to see Footloose (on cheap night I might add, $5.99, woo hoo!). I’ve heard mixed reviews about the movie. Some love it and others who had a connection with the old one didn’t like it. I went in there open minded though.

I have to say… I loved it! I had to hold on tight half of the time so that I didn’t start busting out the dance moves in my seat. I really enjoy fell good kind of movies. And this guy….

Made the movie for me! I love that dorky, funny kind of guy! I loved Willard!

They showed a preview clip before the movie of Breaking Dawn, Part 1 and I let out an excited gasp! I cannot wait to go see it next week!

Alright, onto the title of this post already. So, early on in the renovation we replaced the carpet upstairs. Gray, 20 year old carpet, bleh! We decided to replace the floor in the hallways and bedrooms with what was original to the rest of the house, birch.

Before

Upon lifting the carpet we found more super glued  tiles…good golly! A little elbow grease and lot of blood, sweat and tears (well ok I was the only one that cried) it was all up!

The hardwood went down and I couldn’t have been any happier!

 

After

I personally have a dislike for carpet because I like to see the “clean” in my floors. My mind starts playing tricks on me wondering what could be underneath carpet. 

The stairs were a WHOLE other ballgame. Yes, they had the same dingy grey carpet on them and the railing my parents painted chocolate brown when they first moved in as newlyweds.

THEY PAINTED THE NATURAL WOOD CHOCOLATE BROWN. I nearly strangled them when I heard this.

We tore up the carpet, removed all the staples and then hired a professional to strip the stairs to their natural state.

It saved us A TON of money by leaving the spindles and risers painted and giving them a fresh coat of white paint. The railing, steps and big posts were stripped and then coated in a clean stain.

It was a lot of work to get all of it done. But here they are in all their glory, the new stairs.

This was literally the first “big” project that was completed in the house. This project was the start of the “great renovation adventure of 2008, 2009, 2010 and on going”. Mom and Dad had never actually painted their walls upstairs before. So, we gave the white walls a fresh coat of paint and replaced the old brown light switches with new white ones!

I didn’t have the heart to paint over this little scroll that Mom painted on the stairs when they were first married. So, it’s gonna stay probably forever or until someone else lives there and decides they don’t like it.

Has it been a stressful process throughout these last 3 years of renovating? Heck yes. Is it over? Definitely not. But, it is totally worth it? Most definitely! It’s nice to have completed another part of the house. 

Happy Friday!

xo