101 in 1001 List Update!

It's about time for another list update. I've managed to cross off and start quite a bunch of things! I am kind of running out of time for some of the bigger goals, like the ones that involve doing something for a year. This list ends in December 2014 so I should really start attempting those ones now or they'll never get done. It's sad that some things just won't happen. I can't see us taking a trip to Vegas before next December, or seeing a Green Bay game. We might try to go to a Buffalo game next year, so I might call seeing an NFL game at all good enough to cross that one off! It's also going to be hard to go on a girl's weekend with my sister, but maybe we will make it happen near the end of my deadline... We will see where the next 16 months take me :) Updates to the list are in GREEN!

Start blogging (Started in May 2012)

Take a photography class

Take a cake decorating class (Completed in April 2012 at Michael's)

Blog every day for 30 days (Completed December 2012)

Go to NYC (Went for our 1st anniversary in May 2012)

Plant a vegetable garden (Planted a veggie garden with my mom in June 2012 and 2013)

Sell 1 item a month from our Etsy shop (My mom and I had to temporarily shut down our Etsy shop so she could sell her stuff at Christmas craft markets!!! Hopefully soon we'll be up and running again)

Lose 20 pounds (get to 160 lbs) (In progress! I'm about 6 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight, and 21 lbs from 160 lbs)

Maintain weight for 6 months (see above)

Refinish a piece of furniture - if anyone remembers my post about the box my papa built, that's what I am planning on refinishing :)

Reupholster an old piece of furniture 

Go to Las Vegas

Take a knitting class

Knit a winter hat

Take one photo I am really proud of (See the photo at the end of the list! I'm breaking the "no Madeline photos on the blog" rule for this one :) )

Take a photograph of a rainbow (This was actually code for "get pregnant again and carry to term!" She's now 4 months old!!)

Say “yes” to something I wouldn’t normally

Host a dinner party for 8

Go a week without buying anything

Read 40 books (I am only 5 books in... Really need to ramp this up asap!!)

Don’t say anything negative for one day 

Complete a 365 day photo challenge

Try a sport I've never tried before (My husband and I played flag football summer 2012!)

Donate money to a charity

Kiss in the rain

Make spaghetti sauce from scratch - as soon as my tomatoes ripen out in the garden I'll be tackling this!!

Bake and decorate a birthday cake for someone (Baked my husband's birthday cake in June 2012)

Try a new recipe once a month for a year

Find out my blood type (easy! Had to do this when I got pregnant, I'm O+! August 2012)

Go to the gym 5 days a week for a month - probably not going to happen since I'm not renewing my membership! I think working out 5 days a week for a month will be good enough :)

Take a cooking class

Send a hand written letter

Spend a weekend without the internet (We did this when we went camping! August 2012)

Make bread without the bread maker

Train Leroy to come when called (HAHAHAHA. I highly doubt this is going to happen!!!!)

Learn how to cook fish!

Finish the photo wall going to the basement - just need to add a few photos of Madeline and this will be completed!

Go to a wine tasting

Make homemade ice cream

Watch Gone With the Wind (Loved it! July 2012)

Carve a pumpkin

Figure out what to do with my wedding dress (I donated it to a charity here called The Breast Dress Project which raises money for breast cancer research - October 2012)

Send in the paperwork and get my PEng - working on my experience diaries! Blah!

Have a blog post published on a well known blog

Have my blog redesigned to have a more personal style (Thanks to Emily at oh hello, love! this has been completed, July 14, 2012)

Make a meal with all ingredients bought at the farmer's market

Throw a surprise party for someone

Go on a girl's weekend with my sister

Have a will written

Try being vegetarian for one week

Write 100 thank you notes

Meet an internet friend in person

Go on a picnic (We went to a park downtown for a nice picnic in June 2013)

Go camping with the dog (We went camping in August 2012)

Go to trivia night

Be professionally fitted for a bra

Send at least 3 letters to the editor of our local paper

Move my blog to self hosted

Give up Facebook for a week

Try 10 beers I have never tried before (Rickard's White, Molson Canadian 67 Sublime, Upper Canada Lager, Prison Break Breakout Pilsner, Big Rig Gold, Flying Monkey, Propeller IPA)

Go to an exercise class that makes me feel awkward

See 45 movies in the theatre

Go for a ride in a helicopter

Get a promotion

Eat at 10 new restaurants (In progress - Must Wine Bar, Pocco Pazzo, Don Cherry's)

Host Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner (planning to do this for Thanksgiving this year (2013)!!!)

Make a surprise visit home to see my family

Spend 1 day a week television free for 6 months (Started this in July 2012, didn't complete. Starting again now, we are doing Wednesday or Saturday depending on football haha, starting August 21st, 2013)

De-clutter our house

Go to a comedy show (went to Absolute Comedy with two of my coworkers! July 2012)

See The Nutcracker at the NAC

Do something nice for someone anonymously

Go to a spa (Had a lovely pedicure at the March House Spa, twice! April 2013)

Go to a Green Bay Packers game

Give a 100% tip

Have a booth at a craft sale

Take a spontaneous road trip

Create a scavenger hunt

Decorate Christmas cookies

Finish bathroom and back room in basement (Just getting started now!)

Finish the fence in the backyard (Last pieces went up in May 2012!)

Buy a mouse pad for my desk at work (Just did this! I got a mouse pad AND a keyboard wrist rest. July 2012)

Learn how to use all of the applications on my Mac

Grow and use 3 varieties of herbs (Grew basil, oregano, and parsley, used all 3 in my roasted red pepper soup! July 2012)

Organize all of the documents/photos on my computer

Finally load up my digital picture frame... yeah this is not going to happen because I decided to get rid of the frame!

Go to a drive-in movie theatre

Have someone guest post on my blog

Go on a date night once a month with my husband (Edited to add a timeframe - let's go with a year! Started this in July 2012 and epically failed. Plan to restart once Madeline is taking a bottle!!!!)

Get 5,000 views of my blog

See the Best Picture Oscar winner from the last 10 years. (In progress, Argo (2012), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Million Dollar Baby (2004). I've seen some others, but don't remember them enough so will be re-watching!!!)

Enter a photo contest

Complete a crossword puzzle

Host a poker night (We did this recently, it was so much fun! We had about 8 people and I made homemade pizzas and had some other snacks - November 2012)

Buy a bigger TV for our basement den (We unexpectedly crossed this off on Black Friday 2012!)

Plant a tree

Read a novel in french

Make homemade jam

Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years

Write a list of 101 things I have already achieved in life

Celebrate finishing this list!

Madeline is pretty bored with my goals list!!

New favorite show?

We just started watching Homeland! We're on episode 3 of season 1 and are officially hooked. My parents are coming this weekend but if they weren't we would totally spend the whole weekend watching hours of this show.

I can't wait to get caught up!!!!

Interesting...

Apparently the Starbucks barista spells Simon way different than most people...

Another 101 in 1001 update!

I have actually crossed quite a few more things off of my list, so I figured it was time for another update! Some of these things will have to be put on hold for a little while, like I won't be trying any more new beers for a while... or I won't be losing 20 pounds in the immediate future... But I think I'll still have time to fit everything in :)

Start blogging (Started in May 2012)

Take a photography class

Take a cake decorating class (Completed in April 2012 at Michael's)

Blog every day for 30 days (In progress as we speak!!)

Go to NYC (Went for our 1st anniversary in May 2012)

Plant a vegetable garden (Planted a veggie garden with my mom in June 2012)

Sell 1 item a month from our Etsy shop (My mom and I had to temporarily shut down our Etsy shop so she could sell her stuff at Christmas craft markets!!! Hopefully soon we'll be up and running again)

Lose 20 pounds (get to 160 lbs) (this will now come AFTER baby is born :) )

Maintain weight for 6 months (see above)

Refinish a piece of furniture (A work in progress, hint: it's for the nursery!)

Reupholster an old piece of furniture (See above!!!)

Go to Las Vegas

Take a knitting class

Knit a winter hat

Take one photo I am really proud of

Take a photograph of a rainbow (in progress - this was actually code for "get pregnant again and carry to term!")

Say “yes” to something I wouldn’t normally

Host a dinner party for 8

Go a week without buying anything

Read 40 books (It's sad, but I have read 1 so far - The Help. I have edited this and picked a better number, 100 in 1001 days?? Yikes. Who can read 1 book every 10 days?? Yeah, new updated, I have still only read 1...)

Don’t say anything negative for one day

Complete a 365 day photo challenge

Try a sport I've never tried before (My husband and I played flag football summer 2012!)

Donate money to a charity

Kiss in the rain

Make spaghetti sauce from scratch

Bake and decorate a birthday cake for someone (Baked my husband's birthday cake in June 2012)

Try a new recipe once a month for a year

Find out my blood type (easy! Had to do this when I got pregnant, I'm O+! August 2012)

Go to the gym 5 days a week for a month

Take a cooking class

Send a hand written letter

Spend a weekend without the internet

Make bread without the bread maker

Train Leroy to come when called

Learn how to cook fish!

Finish the photo wall going to the basement

Go to a wine tasting

Make homemade ice cream

Watch Gone With the Wind (Loved it! July 2012)

Carve a pumpkin

Figure out what to do with my wedding dress (I donated it to a charity here called The Breast Dress Project which raises money for breast cancer research - October 2012)

Send in the paperwork and get my PEng

Have a blog post published on a well known blog

Have my blog redesigned to have a more personal style (Thanks to Emily at oh hello, love! this has been completed, July 14, 2012)

Make a meal with all ingredients bought at the farmer's market

Throw a surprise party for someone

Go on a girl's weekend with my sister

Have a will written

Try being vegetarian for one week

Write 100 thank you notes

Meet an internet friend in person

Go on a picnic

Go camping with the dog (We went camping in August 2012)

Go to trivia night

Be professionally fitted for a bra

Send at least 3 letters to the editor of our local paper

Move my blog to self hosted

Give up Facebook for a week

Try 10 beers I have never tried before (Rickard's White, Molson Canadian 67 Sublime, Upper Canada Lager)

Go to an exercise class that makes me feel awkward

See 45 movies in the theatre

Go for a ride in a helicopter

Get a promotion

Eat at 10 new restaurants (In progress - Must Wine Bar)

Host Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner

Make a surprise visit home to see my family

Spend 1 day a week television free for 6 months (Started this in July 2012, we're going with Wednesdays!)

De-clutter our house

Go to a comedy show (went to Absolute Comedy with two of my coworkers! July 2012)

See The Nutcracker at the NAC

Do something nice for someone anonymously

Go to a spa

Go to a Green Bay Packers game

Give a 100% tip

Have a booth at a craft sale

Take a spontaneous road trip

Create a scavenger hunt

Decorate Christmas cookies

Finish bathroom and back room in basement

Finish the fence in the backyard (Last pieces went up in May 2012!)

Buy a mouse pad for my desk at work (Just did this! I got a mouse pad AND a keyboard wrist rest. July 2012)

Learn how to use all of the applications on my Mac

Grow and use 3 varieties of herbs (Grew basil, oregano, and parsley, used all 3 in my roasted red pepper soup! July 2012)

Organize all of the documents/photos on my computer

Finally load up my digital picture frame

Go to a drive-in movie theatre

Have someone guest post on my blog

Go on a date night once a month with my husband (Edited to add a timeframe - let's go with a year! Started this in July 2012)

Get 5,000 views of my blog - I just checked and I can't believe I've already passed this goal!!!!!! Thank you to everyone for reading :) (5550 of 5000)

See the Best Picture Oscar winner from the last 10 years.

Enter a photo contest

Complete a crossword puzzle

Host a poker night (We did this recently, it was so much fun! We had about 8 people and I made homemade pizzas and had some other snacks - November 2012)

Buy a bigger TV for our basement den (We unexpectedly crossed this off on Black Friday 2012!)

Plant a tree

Read a novel in french

Make homemade jam

Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years

Write a list of 101 things I have already achieved in life

Celebrate finishing this list!

An important milestone...

Sitting on the bus is such a rare occurrence! I commute about 40 minutes each way to work and by the time my stop rolls around there are rarely any seats left. This was complete torture during my intense morning sickness days, as standing in a moving vehicle just made things so much worse!!

Lately though, I've been getting seats. Is it weird that this was the point in pregnancy I was most looking forward to?? People are actually giving up their seats for me. I'm finally looking that obviously pregnant! Yay :)

As a side note: this 30 posts in 30 days thing is rough. I'm aware that my topics have been boring, but my everyday life just isn't that exciting! I have some Christmas baking to do and parties to attend though, so I'm pretty sure it's going to get better for you guys :)

A photo recap of our trip to Halifax!

My husband and I were able to go to Halifax to spend Thanksgiving with  my family this year, and it was so much fun! My parents had just bought a 27 foot boat, so we went on two trips around the harbour on that.

We also had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner filled with good food, and great company! I was so excited to have some of my mom's (best in the whole world if you ask me!) pumpkin pie. With fresh whipped cream. Yummmm.

All in all it was a great long weekend! Can't wait to go back at Christmas. I think the Christmas trip will be my last trip home before the baby comes, I'm planning on really savouring it. Too bad it won't exactly be boat weather... damn you winter!!!

I know American Thanksgiving is coming up soon, what are your plans? If you're Canadian, did you do anything special this year?

Tails & Toes made its first big sale!!

My mom and I were SO excited to get our first big sale this week! We sold one of my mom's beautiful baby quilts, and a few bibs, all in one order. I was so excited to send it off, so I spent a few hours brainstorming how to package it up all nicely. I strongly feel that in a creative industry, first impressions are so extremely important. Whenever I order something on Etsy, I love when it comes packaged all nice and pretty :)

Here's what I came up with! I put the items in clear plastic bags, which I sealed with our shop sticker (forgot to take a photo of this detail - damn!). Then I wrapped the package in raffia, tied in a bow with our business card attached. Lastly, I put the Etsy invoice in a pretty pink envelope.

And off it went! Can't wait for more orders. If you haven't yet, please check us out here. 

Our very first camping trip..

I apologize for not getting this up yesterday, like I promised. I have an ok excuse. We were out all evening getting new iPhones last night!!! No? Bad excuse? Oh well :)

Our very first camping trip as a little family of 3 was a giant success! We all had a ton of fun, and it was incredibly relaxing. If you follow me on instagram, you've probably seen a lot of these photos already. We didn't have a signal out in the woods, but I still took pictures using my iPhone. I wouldn't say we were exactly "roughing" it... Haha.

Our campsite! Up a big hill.

We arrived on Saturday around lunch time and immediately got to work setting up our tent. We may have gone just a touch overboard by purchasing a 7 man tent... we wanted to make sure it would be big enough to set up Leroy's crate if needed, and it came in such a small bag we didn't think it would be, well, HUGE. Oh well, it should last us a while and we can eventually fit a couple of kids in there! There were some tensions and some moodiness while setting up the tent, but no arguments. The ground was extremely hard and that made it very frustrating, but in the end, we did get up and then we said a little prayer that it wouldn't collapse on us as we slept... and it didn't! Wohoo!

After setting up the tent, and some lunch, we wandered down to the lake. Leroy wasn't allowed on the main beach, so we had to walk a little further down to the boat launch to take him in the water. He's never been swimming before, but he loves his kiddy pool and sprinkler in our backyward, so we were hoping he'd be a natural, and he was! He went right on and was super excited. He could have chased the water frisbee we bought all. day. long. I actually had to drag him out of the water when we were ready to leave!! It was adorable. I tried to get a couple of pictures, but I didn't want to get my camera too close to the water, so they're not the best. We came back to swim 3 times! It made us really sad that we don't have anywhere we can take him swimming here at home. We might have to make a few day trips back to the campground for some doggy swimming before the summer is over...

Other than the lake, we really just ate, relaxed, ate, drank, relaxed, and sat in front of the campfire! Did I mention we also ate and relaxed? :) The day before we left they finally lifted the full fire ban that was in effect. Thank god! What is camping without a fire? That was our evening activity both nights we were there. It was a lot of fun, and kept the bugs away.

What did we eat, you ask? For dinner, a gross sounding but totally amazing concoction, suggested by my sister: Kraft Dinner with taco beef and tomatoes. It was insanely delicious and now I want to make it for supper every day of the week... if only it had some actual nutrition in it... damn. For lunches we ate egg salad sandwiches and party mix, and for breakfast we had scrambled eggs and homemade banana muffins (recipe to come sometime this week)!! Camp food is awesome.

When it came time to leave, we were looking forward to getting home and showering. Neither of us slept very well while we were there either, so we were definitely looking forward to sleeping in our bed, and last night we went to bed super early, before 9pm. The bed felt like sleeping on a marshmallow compared to the concrete feeling of the forest floor. It was heavenly.

Weekend Recap, Vol. 4

This weekend was awesome. Absolutely awesome. We just got back from our very first camping trip together! It was a complete success, we had a few moody moments, but our relationship came out unscathed. Leroy even made it back in one piece (he was an excellent camper by the way). I'll be back on Wednesday with a full recap post, but first I will leave you with this little instagram sneak peak:

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! What did you get up to?

Friday Blog Favorites...

Happy Friday to everyone!!! It's a long weekend here and we are headed camping. Wish us luck. Leroy has never been camping, and my husband and I have never been camping together... hopefully putting up the tent doesn't result in a giant argument!

Last Friday I wrote a post with my favorite blogs of the week. This week I was thinking of changing it up a bit, and instead of listing my favorite blogs of the week, I will be listing my favorite blog posts of the week. This way I can spread the love to the same blogs more than once! I just recently participated in the GFC Blog Hop, and I made a ton of new friends. My blog reader is getting insanely full! It's hard to keep up, but everyone is just so awesome, I have been spending my evenings with Breaking Bad and blogs :)

Via

There was so much to chose from this week. It was really tricky for me to come up with the top 5 but here they are, in no particular order:

1. The Anatomy of a Campire... over at Life on LeRoy (The whole LeRoy part is, by the way, the initial reason I started following this blog! Our dog's name is right there in the blog name! haha). I think since we're camping this weekend this post really drew me in. Love Alli's writing style and the cute dog pictures help too! We'll definitely be smore-ing it up this weekend, even if we have to do it over a stove and not a fire (stupid drought, stupid fire ban).

2. Classic peanut butter cookies... over on Kitchen Trial and Error. There are so many yummy sounding/looking recipes on this blog, but this one made it into my favorites this week because I am a SUCKER for peanut butter cookies! This recipe looks and sounds awesome and I can't wait to try it.

3. My dog picks up trash... over at The Coffeehouse. Just loved the humor in this post! Also, I can relate because Leroy is a garbage dog too. I should start taking pictures of the gross things he picks up.

4.  Adrian's Summer Entertaining Series: Easy Decor... over at oh, hello love! All of the posts in this series have been awesome so far, and I am excited to try the guacamole recipe shared last week for sure! Loved this post by Emily on easy decor ideas for summer though, I love when I go to someone's house and they've put effort into table and party decor!

5. A deep post... over on Daisy Girl. I really loved this post, it was very insightful, and eye-opening. I might have to write about something similar. I often feel like my entire life is a competition. Here's the comment I left on this post: "Love this post! It's so hard to stop going through life that way. It seems like there's always a sense of contest, competition, who can wear the best outfit? Who has the best relationship? Who makes more money? Who's winning at life? It's never ending , and I am really hoping to just STOP, and live my life as I want it." Head on over there and check it out!

So there you have it, my favorite blog posts of the week!!

Is anyone finding this useful? Should I keep this as a Friday regular? Would love your feedback!!!!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

The Liebster Award!

I am honoured that Ashley at we loved here has nominated me for the Liebster award!

The Liebster award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. What is a Liebster? The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

Here are the rules for receiving this award:
1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs!

Questions:


1. What is your favorite cereal? Life! We never had super sugary cereal growing up, so I like the plainer varieties :)
2. How old were you before you stopped believing in Santa Claus? I honestly don't remember... and I would ask my parents, but they're on vacation without cell service!! I am thinking maybe 7?
3. Who is your favorite author? Sadly, I don't think I have one! There isn't one author who stands out, I don't own multiple books by the same author, I always try different things! I do have quite a few Sophie Kinsella books, but I wouldn't consider her my "favorite", just some fun reads :)

Via

4. If you could travel anywhere in the world and money was no object, where would you go? Why? Definitely Bora Bora. Always wanted to go there, it just looks so beautiful and relaxing.

Via

5. If there was a zombie apocalypse and you had to choose between staying in your home with ample food, but little protection (meaning you don't have the supplies to board yourself in completely) or hitting the road with a full tank of gas, but very limited supplies, what would your coarse of action be? I laughed at this question because I always hate conversations about what you would do in a zombie attack! Don't hate me but: Zombies aren't real. Haha. Anyway, I suppose I would go with hitting the road. At least then I would feel like I was doing something, rather than sitting at home hoping for the best.
6. Favorite designer brand? I'm loving Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs right now!

My new favorite shoes - Michael Kors

7. If you had to live in a decade other than the current one, which would you choose? The 1950s. Mostly for the fashion!!
8. Any current events capturing your attention as of late? The Olympics, of course! Unfortunately my husband doesn't really like watching them, so I haven't seen much.
9. Sailboat or cruise ship? Cruise ship. I get sea sick, so I am thinking the bigger the boat, the better.
10. If you were Joey Potter, would you have picked Dawson or Pacey? (If you didn't watch Dawson's Creek, you can skip this one!) I didn't watch Dawson's Creek!
11. Share your favorite summer color palette with us: Aqua and red. Just awesome. Bright a cheerful!!!

That was fun! Now it's my turn to come up with 11 questions and tag 11 bloggers. I am so bad at this kind of thing, so if my questions are awful, that's why, and sue me, but I don't care ;)

Here it goes:
1. What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
2. Where was the last place you went on vacation?
3. What's your favorite mixed drink?
4. Favorite childhood memory?
5. Favorite Summer Olympics sport?
6. How long does it take you to fall asleep at night?
7. What time do you get up most mornings?
8. How long is your commute to work/school?
9. What did you eat for supper last night?
10. When was the last time you exercised? What did you do?
11. Why do you blog?

And I'm tagging these 11 bloggers!!
Strawberry Blonde Life, Adventures with Rogue Baby, Bungalow960, Disco & Bows, The Lewis Life, The Osbott Spot, Becoming the Barrs, High Heels City Streets, My {not so} Glamorous Life, I Am Pisces, a moment of wonderful.

All such wonderful blogs, go check them out!!

On Canada's Men's 8+...

I used to be a competitive rower. I started rowing when I was 12 or 13, I can't quite remember now. Anyway, I like to think I was decent, I went to the 2001 Canada Summer Games, and also won a bronze medal at nationals. Then I went on to row in my first year of university. Ultimately, I quit because of the time constraints. I couldn't pursue my engineering education AND row at the same time. Anyway, that's a little background to let you know why I am so unbelievably excited for Canada today!

The Canadian mens 8+ winning a silver medal is not in and of itself a huge surprise, we (by we, I of course mean Canada) are no strangers to this event, having won the gold medal in 2008. However, this particular crew is completely different from 4 years ago, with only 3 members from Beijing returning to compete in London.

After coming last in their heat (I was completely shocked by the way...), they had a noticeably better race in the semi-final to push on through to the final, but still, they didn't come 1st, so I was pretty concerned, and I didn't actually think they would win a medal. I was so incredibly ELATED to watch the race today! What a race! Close right to the very end.

Guys, I actually cried seeing them win silver. I got so emotional!!! I just started thinking about what it would feel like to be them. To have done something so few of us get to experience! It must just be awesome. So proud of them :) Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Friday Blog Favourites...

I wanted to give a shout out to my favourite blogs I have read this week! I am new to the blog world, and I have been reading a lot of blogs lately. I can't believe I never really got into this before, even just as a reader. There is so much incredible talent out there, and there are so many great thoughts and ideas all over! They're everywhere!

Via

Now, without further ado, here are my top 5 favourite blogs this week!

1. The Daily Tay... Taylor is hilarious. Her writing voice is just awesome and funny. She's got that sarcastic kind of humour that I just LOVE. Her post this week about the dog beach really sealed the deal for me! She already has tons of followers, but go check her out, I'm sure she'd love more!!

2. Our Little Balham Life... I like Nicola's blog so much, I've added her button! She's super cute, and talks about her life in England with her boyfriend, and her cat. Check it out!

3. Living Beautifully DIY... I love me some DIY, and some lovely Canadians! Something as seemingly boring as fixing up the pool shed is made interesting somehow. Follow along as they transform their house, one DIY at a time!

4. The Strawberry Blonde Life... Jill is awesome (she is Mrs. Snow Cone on Weddingbee!!). I love her newlywed blog. Her daily outfit posts have inspired me to do something similar! Go on over and say hi, and check out her button on my sidebar :)

5. Love and Renovations... Go say hi to Amanda over at Love and Renovations, she is Mrs. Cardigan on Weddingbee! Her and her hubby are slowly renovating their home, and she's got lots of DIY projects going on. Also, I love her Friday Finds posts! I spend more time looking for deals now :)

So that does it! It was so so so hard to pick 5. I have found so many awesome blogs this week, I definitely have enough to keep doing this post for quite a few weeks, and possibly forever. Tune in next week for 5 more awesome blogs!!!

I have been spending my day off doing laundry and cleaning our house. I did sleep in though, so it hasn't been a totally awful day, lol. Tonight my hubby is taking me out on a date night, we're going out to dinner and heading to see The Dark Knight Rises. I'm pretty pumped! Other than that, our weekend should be pretty relaxing.

What about you? Big plans for the weekend? What blogs are you loving lately?

Buttons, buttons, buttons!

Happy Friday to all!! I am home today, one of the benefits of my job is the option to work a compressed work week. Basically I work and extra 30 mins a day, and have every third Friday off! This is especially awesome because I am paid based on a 37.5 hour work week, but in my last job worked a 40 hour work week. This means that when I started my new job I worked the same number of hours, but had a day off every 3 weeks! Awesome perk, if you ask me.

Anyway, you may have noticed I recently put up some lovely social media buttons above my lovely mug over there on the right sidebar. Please click on them and follow me, I promise I can be entertaining! Although, if you don't want endless photos of my ridicilous dog, I wouldn't suggest following me on Instagram...

Although come to mention it, I do talk a lot about Leroy on twitter too...

Sarah‏@EatBakeSewLove

Oh the joys of dog ownership! Waiting for the bus, reach into my pocket and what do I find? Poop bags of course! #lovemydog

But I swear, I say other funny and awesome things too!!!

Also, Emily has also designed a blog button for me!! I am definitely interested in a button swap, so if you'd like me to display your button here in exchange for you displaying mine over on your blog, contact me!

I'll be back later today with a possible weekly Friday post, my favorite new blogs of the week! Stay tuned!

Weekend recap, Vol. 2

Well, yet another eventful weekend has passed! Sadly, I am a bad newbie blogger and didn't take any pictures. The other reason being I was unsure if our friends would appreciate photos of their house all over the internet! Anyway, the pool was pretty close to as awesome as in my head. It was amazing guys. The landscaping around it was beautiful, it was salt water, and diving depth! We had an amazing time, and only got slightly burnt.

We came back to this:

Leroy spent the weekend with my in-laws, and I think it's safe to say he had a great time! He's so spoiled while he's there, it's insane. I think he gets a lot more attention from them than he gets from us... haha.

We made it back in time to get to our football game, which we WON. Awesome. The heat was sweltering though, and we only had 2 girls. The rule is 2 girls on the field at all times so yeah, I played the whole game. It's two 45 minute halves guys. That's an hour and a half of standing out the sun with a bunch of running around. It wasn't super pleasant, but it's so much fun, so it's worth it! Oh, and we started to get red tomatoes :)

And lastly, another request to hit the facebook button on the right sidebar and go like my page! I have 11 likes and would LIKE a whole lot more!!!!!

What did you guys do this weekend?

Happy Friday (and a favor)!!

Finally, it's the end of the week. It's been a very long week for some reason. Nothing has really happened, but I have just been dragging the whole time! I couldn't be more excited that we're approaching the weekend, and the weather is supposed to be amazing. We have another jam packed couple of days ahead of ourselves, including a mini road-trip to see some friends and check out their new pool.

In my head, this is what their pool will look like... ;)
http://www.elledecor.com/image/tid/4626

While I have you all here, I just created a facebook page for my blog, I would absolutely love you forever if you clicked on the little facebook button over on the right hand sidebar there, and headed on over and "Liked" my page!!!! It would mean the world to me. Plus, they tell me if I get 30 likes they'll give me more information about my page... that's so mean!! They sure know how to make a girl desperate... PLEASE HELP ME UNLOCK THE MAGIC INFORMATION!!!!! :)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, see you Monday!!!

What I like about him...

This post was much easier for me to write than the one I wrote about myself! I could easily come up with 100 things I love about my husband. I feel so blessed to have found the one for me early on in life (I was 22 when we met). The last 5.5 years have been nothing short of awesome, and I have him to thank for a lot of that! He’s my best friend, my world, my everything. How cheesy did that just sound? I don’t care! I want everyone to know just how much I love him and appreciate him. He takes care of me when I am feeling down, or when I am sick. He laughs at all of my bad jokes, and I just want to spend all of my time around him. Ok, so enough gushing, let’s move on to the list (a.k.a. more gushing). Here are the top 10 things I love about my husband.

1. He’s so handsome!
2. He’s hilarious, in the same dry, sarcastic way I am so it’s very convenient. He makes me laugh SO much.
3. He’s incredibly driven. He has career goals laid out for years to come and he works very hard to achieve them. He’s going to be extremely successful and I couldn’t be more proud.
4. He’s physically active! He used to play hockey until a series of concussions forced him to stop. Now, he does a lot of working out at home, and likes to run for cardio. He also pushed me to join the flag football league we’re in. which leads me to my next point…
5. He pushes me. He encourages me to try things I wouldn’t normally try. He clearly thinks I am capable of a lot more than I think I am. It’s so great to have such a supportive partner through all of the ups and downs!
6. His family rocks! This is really important since family is such a huge part of my life. I couldn’t have asked for better in-laws, they are truly awesome!
7. His curly hair. Love love love.
8. His blue eyes. So yummy!!
9. He’s tall. Being a tall gal, I have always looked for and dated guys who are taller than me. My husband is about 3 inches taller than me which is perfect because I never wear heels much taller than 2 inches anyways, and it means I can still feel small in his arms!
10. He is so incredibly smart. He’s intelligent in a lot of ways, he’s great with numbers, words, and life! It’s very attractive in a man :)

I could really go on and on and on, but I’ll stop there.

What’s your favourite thing about your partner? If you’re single, what’s the #1 thing you look for in a partner?

Weekend recap, Vol. 1...

Happy Monday! We had quite a busy, whirlwind weekend. Friday night was spent at Ottawa's biggest music festival, Bluesfest. It runs for 10 days (I think, don't quote me on that!) every year, and there are usually some pretty kick ass bands in the lineup. I have only been one other time, a few years ago. It's great to find a day when more than one band you like is playing, which makes it really worth your money. We paid $40 to see 3 bands we really like... ok... two bands WE really like, and 3 bands I really like! They're all Canadian bands: Hey Rosetta!, Our Lady Peace, and Blue Rodeo. We had an amazing time, but they wouldn't let me bring my DSLR onto the grounds. I was really bummed. I had been hoping to get some great photos to post here! Instead you'll have to settle for iPhone pics.

Then on Saturday we went golfing. We have a membership at a little 9 hole par 3 course about a 5 minute drive from our house. I've just been learning this year, but I'm really enjoying it so far. I like that it's something my husband and I enjoy doing together, and it's active! Plus, it is awesome to be spending so much time outside this summer. Saturday evening I made supper for my in-laws, that was fun too. We used a green pepper and tomatoes from our garden! They brought over a boardgame and as per usual, I kicked everyone's butt. I am unstoppable at super nerdy games!!! Apparently it's my hidden talent? I should have put that on my list of things I like about myself :P. In case anyone is wondering, super nerdy games include Settler's of Catan and Dominion. There may or may not be a couple of expansion packs included...

Finally, on Sunday we went to Calypso! It's a big waterpark near us. It was so much fun. The weather was great, hot, but not too sunny, so we didn't get burnt! We went on as many rides as we could when it first opened, and then we had lunch and spent the rest of the time floating down the lazy river, and hanging out in the wave pool. There was even a candy buffet! I love me some gummy candy and liquorice!!

We also play in a flag football league on Sundays, so we had that too. I didn't take any photos though, but maybe one of these days I will... Oh, and also, I have discovered instagram! I am always so behind the times when it comes to social media stuff, but I am getting caught up! If you want to follow me, I'm mcsarahanne! As a sample of my "work", here's a gem (haha) I took of Leroy.

What did you do this weekend?

A brand new look!

I wasn't planning on posting this weekend, but if you've been to my blog before, you've probably noticed a little something different the last couple of days. I have a whole new look! This is all thanks to Emily, over at oh, hello love!. She did such an amazing job, and I couldn't be happier. Please head over and show her some love on her blog :)

What I like about me...

I have been feeling pretty down lately, lots of things going on that I don’t really want to get in to right now. I’ve been really negative and pessimistic, and I finally decided that I’d really like to snap out of it. I also decided that by deciding to snap out of it, it would just be over and I would automatically become positive. It’s been two days and it’s actually been going pretty well, and I feel a lot better. So, in the spirit of positivity and feeling good about myself, I decided to come up with 10 things I like about myself.

 This was a lot harder than I thought it would be, which, if you really think about it is quite sad. I actually got stuck on the last one. I had nine items on the list for the longest time, trying to rack my brain to find just one more thing I like about myself. This actually had the opposite of the intended effect, it made me feel bad about myself!!! How pathetic am I that I couldn’t come up with 10 nice things to say about myself? It is so awful that I could come up with 25 things I DON’T like about myself in an instant. What an eye-opener this was, honestly.
 
I really need to work on being nicer to myself. This is probably the key to good self-esteem I have been searching for all of these years. It’s not weight loss, or nicer clothes, or a bigger house, or a better job, or a more well behaved dog (haha). The key to great self-esteem is actually liking the person you are. I don’t need to change anything about myself. What I need to do to feel better is start talking to myself with a less critical, less Mean Girls-esque voice. I would never talk to my friends the way I talk to myself. Never. If I did, I certainly wouldn’t have friends anymore. Why is it ok to put myself down? Obviously, the answer is, it’s not. It’s not ok. After this little exercise I made the conscious decision to say 3 nice things to myself every day. Today I told myself I liked my outfit, that my butt looked good, and that I am great at my job.

 I’m hoping in the future it won’t be so hard, and I’ll be able to list off 100 things no problem. Until then, here are the ten I came up with (in no particular order, although I would say #1 is the #1 thing I like about myself!):

1. I am funny. It’s a fact, and I know this because so many laugh with me, although sometimes it’s at me, I’m sure. I credit most of my funniness to my dad. We share the same deadpan, dry, sarcastic sense of humour. Actually, come to think of it, my whole family shares this. We make each other laugh A LOT. It’s one of the things I really miss, living away from them. My husband and I make each other laugh a lot too though, so it’s not so bad.
2. My teeth. Thank you Mom and Dad for the braces!!
3. My figure. There are definitely things about my body that I don’t like, but I do feel very blessed to gain most of my weight in my lower half. I have never had “love-handles”, and I can gain 10-15 pounds with basically no one noticing. This is probably also a function of my height, 10 pounds on 5’ 11” definitely shows less than on shorter people! I am very fortunate!
4. My eyes. I just love my blue eyes! They’ve always been my favourite feature J
5. My hair. I have thick, wavy, dirty blonde hair that I spruce up with highlights! The individual strands are thin, not coarse, I just have a lot of them. It makes my hair pretty easy to style. I can do curly or straight pretty easily, and both will hold all day long. I’ve always liked my hair!
6. I am stylish. Or at least I think I am, and I hope other people think so too or else I am in trouble! I haven’t been as adventurous with fashion since I started a real job, but I do like to try new things, fun trends, and bright colors! I should start sharing some of my outfits on the blog. I’d also include my home décor skills in here. I think I have pretty awesome taste. I’ll also need to post pictures of some of that stuff soon!!!
7. I am an excellent baker. I know this because everyone tells me so, plus I just genuinely think so myself. I make a mean cupcake. I think what makes me good at this is the fact that I LOVE baking, and I am not scared to try new things. A couple of weeks ago I made a pineapple upside down cake for my father-in-law. Not only had I never made one before, I had also never even tasted one! It turned out so well and was so delicious. One day I am going to open my own bakery. That’s the dream!
8. I am very punctual. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have been late for anything. I am punctual almost to a fault, I am usually really early for everything, just because I fear being late so much. People being late is one of my biggest pet peeves!! I like that I can always be counted on to arrive somewhere on time, and I rarely keep anyone waiting.
9. I’m adventurous. I like trying new things. I packed up and moved to a city I didn’t know that well to be with my husband. I didn’t have a job, I just knew we’d make it work. I went away to university in my first year. I’m not particularly scared of change, and that keeps things interesting. We have roots here now, but we’re not opposed to moving somewhere else in the future, and that’s really exciting!!
10. I like being home. I am a homebody. I don’t need a blossoming social life to be happy. I can entertain myself pretty well. Luckily, my husband is the same way, otherwise I doubt we would be married!

 I encourage you to reflect upon your relationship with yourself. Can you list 10 things you like?