My sister's wedding shower

I had a little garden party wedding shower for my sister Kaitlynn over the weekend for her friends and fiancé's family in Toronto. I was so happy that everything was in bloom in the garden and the weather was perfect that we could have it outside. It was a beautiful day! My sister is getting married August 1st and we can't wait for the big day. Love ya sis!

Happy Friday + Destination Wedding Talk

Happy Friday Friends!

I wanted to take a minute to share something cool with you today - I'm featured over at Just a Trace today talking about our destination wedding (five years ago - yikes!). I loved writing this post, but it's making me really want to go back now!

Visit Just a Trace to read the post and have a great weekend!

weekend: part 2 - save high park zoo!

My sisters and I wanted to have brunch with my mom this past weekend so we decided to go to Grenadier Cafe in High Park and then check out the zoo.

Me with my sisters Stacey and Kaite

First off: I was super surprised to find the Cafe half empty. I thought for sure it would be packed at 10, but there was tons of room on the patio where we ate. And the food was really good! Leo threw his on the floor, but that's no surprise. In fact, he was super grumpy and basically just walked around the patio talking to people and going up and down the stairs...

...loungin'

...playing with Daddy... everything but eating...

After brunch, we walked over to the zoo. If you live in Toronto, you've likely heard that it'll be closing in June unless they can raise enough money to save it. So sad.

We strolled Leo around to check out the animals. He didn't have much of a reaction to be honest.

He did look a little startled to see the lama up close...

Whoa Lama

Looking as started as a 17-month-old looks when he's really grumpy.

After the zoo, we walked over to a plant sale they have every year. I believe this year the money raised is going towards the zoo. I was so happy to see that some of the cherry blossoms were still out in full force. It was gorgeous!

So that was my weekend!

As a bit of a side note, today is Mark's and my wedding anniversary! We got hitched 4 years ago which I honestly can't believe. Seems WAY longer! ;)

Happy Tuesday!

A few wedding pics

Ok time for a few wedding pics -- sooner than expected! Our photographer Jennifer Kirk from Jennifer Kirk Photography sent over some teaser pics from our wedding and man I really can't wait to see the rest of the bunch now! oh did I mention she was amazing???? She lives in BC and loves to travel ;)


At Poppi Castle after the ceremony -- M and I drove around in this fun red car!


One of our many pics taken in the town of Poppi.


Our little red car! This road led to our villa.


At the villa showing off our puckers.


We had fireworks at the end of the night and Jenn managed to catch the moment perfectly!

the best of youth

when I was young fridays and sometimes saturdays were always movie nights in my house. I would get my pillow from my bed, fill a bowl full of plain rippled potato chips and a class of crackling raspberry gingerale (do they sell this any more?) and plop down on the floor in front of the television for the duration of many a cheesy movie. I loved this part of my childhood. the thing is... I don't really remember too many of the movies we saw because by the time I was done munching and slurping away, I passed out on my pillow until the end of the movie - missing the plot entirely and leaving me to ask many questions at the end.

This movie-watching challenge would not end as an adult. In fact, I manage to passout in the first 1/2 of a movie almost every time. This does not bode well with M - he doesn't like the fact that I fall asleep only to watch the flick alone. Ahhh what can I do - I get comfy.

This weekend however I think I had a break through.

M and I have been renting italian movies through zip.ca to help us with our Italian lessons for the wedding and although the first three movies that we've received haven't been the greatest, the one we started to watch on Friday was amazing. I say started to watch because it's a 6-hr movie. Yes 6-hrs. We weren't even going to watch it because it was so long but we only received the first disc which was only 3-hrs so we thought we'd start watching it and if we didn't like it we'd turn it off. Man was it great... so far. It's called The Best of Youth or La Meglio Gioventù and it's a story about 2 brothers over 3 decades of their lives and the various obstacles they encounter. One brother volunteers at a psychiatric hospital and meets a girl named Georgia. He doesn't like the way she's being treated so he takes her from the hospital and, with his brother, travels to her home town to bring her back to her family. The trip changes the lives of both brothers and the movie takes you through their chosen paths. The scenery is great and the music is fun and I can't wait to watch the second half. Three hours definitely flew by and I know that if we had the second dvd we'd have watched it.

SO all that to say that I stayed awake for the WHOLE 3 hrs! I think the trick is that I didn't have a pillow or a blanket and I was reading the sub-titles the whole time.

---

so enough of that.

Ok so I decided that I really need to get sewing if I want to make most of my gifts this year. I managed to finish one gift. Ta-da!





It matches the napkins I made awhile back. It's basically a place mat but I only made one so it'll be more of a table mat/runner type thing. I really like the way it turned out even if it was a pain the butt to make.

I also took a stab at making some stockings. I tried a new stitch on my machine and put the stars on the front.



and I have to mention my little sheep! I got them in a little antique/gift type store just south of Sutton, ON. So cute!

Ok have fun out there! I'm off to play soccer or should I say "gioco il calcio" for fifth place... last place... update: we lost! oh well - there's always next season!

italian wedding photo fun

my soon to be sister-in-law just informed me that my photographer has blogged about my wedding! We're getting married in italy in may and we're super excited to have her join us on the trip to shoot the wedding. Check her out!

the dress

I was just on martha stewart weddings and they have a post on their blog about JCrew weddings. I have a weird obsession with JCrew -- maybe it's because we don't have them in Canada? Anyway I just wanted to let you know that if you're in need of a wedding dress or a bridesmaids dress check them out! I got my wedding dress from them months ago for next to nothing and recently just ordered all of my bridesmaids dresses.

nuptuals

after a three-year engagement, my dad finally got married this weekend! it rained but it was a great weekened. here are a few pics of the festivities!