This year, we decided to have Christmas at our house and my brother was determined to cook the turkey for the very first time, Gordon Ramsay style! A bit of a change, since my mom has been cooking the turkey since… pretty much forever! I was in charge of the mashed potatoes, stuffing and my special fondant potatoes! I also made some awesome champagne + fruit punch that my grand-aunt downed in a heartbeat (that was her hidden alcoholic personality coming out!). But I have to admit, it was pretty good :) And I’m not the least bit biased!

On Christmas Eve my mom and I decorated the house like crazy to make it a little bit more festive. We hung a generous amount of fresh wreaths around the living room and cut a few plants and flowers from the back yard and threw them in a vase :) Not bad for some last minute decorations.

Every year we make custom family Christmas cards, and this year was no exception. However, it was a little different this year because instead of your typical family photo, my brother drew a caricature of all of us and turned it into a Christmas tree. The weird and funny thing about it is that, it actually looks like all of us! :)

First of all, I’d like to thank my awesome coworkers for telling me about this lovely area in Old Langley. I vaguely remember being here way back in elementary school for a heritage field trip, but have absolutely no memory of its old-town charm. It almost felt like I was at Stars Hollow (a Gilmore Girls reference….)

My mum and I took a day trip to Fort Langley this weekend, mainly to check out the area, but also searching for a vintage pastry tier. We are planning to have a high-tea party at home, so she’s been looking for the perfect tier, one that is 3 layers high, with a dainty pattern and slight vintage charm. Unfortunately, we didn’t come across such a pastry tier. There was, however, a lot tea cups, but we have waay to many of those!

I contemplated about buying this mirror and brush set mostly for the rose pattern on the backside. I really just wanted the mirror, but they were only selling it as a set. The brush still had someone else’s hair tangled between the bristles, so that made me rethink the purchase! Haha. Not the best photo of me below, but I think my brother took this shot at the exact moment I saw the hair.

A few months ago I bought a Groupon deal for Blurb.com, an online book printing company that makes some pretty awesome photo books. My original intention for the Groupon was to make a family photo book with old pictures from the past. Unfortunately, as usual, I completely forgot about it until I received an email reminder that they were expiring in two days. There was no way I would be able to scan all of our old photos in such a short amount of time, so I came up with another idea: Onedrgirl* In Print.

I was surprised to see the paper, printing and construction of the book done incredibly well. Usually, I’m quite hesitant ordering things like this online just because I get very picky about printing quality and paper (this is the graphic designer in me coming out), but they did such an amazing job! The combo I chose was the Standard Portrait size, Hardcover with Dust Jacket, printed on Proline Pearl Photo Paper with Proline Black end sheets and custom logo (to remove the default Blurb.com logo at the back). It’s definitely a great keepsake if you ever want to create a printed version of your blog!

I don’t normally dress up in costume for Halloween, but thought this year I’d change things up! And of course, there is nobody else I would rather dress up as than my ultimate idol, Wonder Woman! Unfortunately, though, this weekend hasn’t been as exciting as I hoped. The flu has been circulating around at my workplace and it was due time for me to fall victim. Let’s just say I have been hit with the works: runny nose, headache, fever, etc, etc. I was too ill to attend any Halloween festivities this weekend, so instead, I paraded around my bedroom wearing my costume and decided a photo shoot would make me feel better :) Makeup does wonders to hide a pale, nauseated face!

The rest of the day was spent carving pumpkins with my brother and decorating the front door for the kids tomorrow. I tend to become an over-achiever when it comes to decorating :) Anyhoos, more Halloween themed photos to come tomorrow. I’ll try and sneak in a few shots of the cute little kids in my neighbourhood!

It’s that time of year again! The annual Cloverdale Rodeo is on this weekend and my friends and I decided to spend Saturday night at the fairgrounds. It’s not as awesome as the Calgary Stampede, but it’s good enough to stand in line for almost 5 hours just to get into the Longhorn Saloon! What a crazy adventure! The waiting in line was TERRIBLE, but once we got in, the night transformed into one entertaining evening :)

The main stage didn’t have the best performers but it was good enough to dance to! They covered a lot of great country hits which was awesome, because country is the new black, yeah?! Or at least I think so :)  Above is Ken McCoy performing American Pie.

And we ran into Kelly halfway through the night! I love bumping into old friends at random places like this! It just makes the evening so much better :) Overall it was a good night!