Living Life Lately

So, it looks like I didn't post anything in June. I guess that's what happens when you're busy living life!

I have been up to a lot in the past month, and this last week especially!

We had our engagement party, which turned out to be a great evening, complete with some DIY projects like this tassel garland.

I did makeup for a couple weddings, and attended a few as well.

 Chelsey Dawn Photography

Chelsey Dawn Photography

Laura-Anne Photographer

I bought many succulents for our wedding centrepieces, I repotted a couple succulents and cacti, and I prepped the small terracotta pots for our centrepieces.

In this last week, I did graduation makeup and hair for one of my dance students and attended her graduation in Hepburn, SK.

On Wednesday, Dan I attended the free screening of The Wizard of Oz at the Bessborough Gardens to celebrate 30 years of the Sasktel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had a fantastic time!

Then, on Thursday morning, I was off to Gravelbourg, SK to get ready to celebrate my best friend's wedding. The weekend went by so fast, but it was absolutely beautiful. Friday was Canada Day, but we were so focused on the prep for the wedding that we didn't do much celebrating with the red and white. The rehearsal dinner was a tasty barbecue, though, which is very Canada Day-esque.

Tann put so much thought and work into every little moment and detail, and not bit of that was lost in the total effect of the day. She was the most beautiful bride I have ever seen, and I definitely had trouble keeping my eyes dry. I cannot wait to have her stand beside me in December as my matron of honour.

We even started the wedding day with a mimosa bar courtesy of yours truly while we got ready.

After a fantasticly fun night of celebrating and dancing, we all pitched in to take down the decorations at the town rink, and then Dan and I were off to head home.

How was your weekend? What have you been up to lately? Did you do anything for Canada Day/are you doing anything for the Fourth of July?

13th Ave Coffee House

My boyfriend and I made a quick trip to Regina this past weekend to see some of my friends for the holidays. We met up with Jessica and Jessica at Malt City for lunch on Saturday and it was great! I was so happy to be catching up with them that I didn't even think to get photos, but I'm sure I will be back.

On Sunday morning we met up with Jessica and Leah at Holy Rosary Cathedral for Mass and it happened to be when they were blessing the Holy Doors for the Year of Mercy, which was a nice surprise!

After Mass we went across the street to 13th Ave Coffee House for some coffee and to catch up. I had just said to my boyfriend as we were walking to the cathedral for Mass that I wanted to try it soon, so I was more than happy to oblige when Leah suggested it.

The coffee house is located in a refurbished house in the Cathedral Village area of Regina, which is probably my favourite area in all of Regina. If you're ever in Regina I highly recommend checking out 13th Ave Coffee House and the surrounding area - there are some great stores and sights, especially on 13th Avenue.

Have you ever visited Regina? Where is your favourite place in Regina? Have you tried 13th Ave Coffee House?

My Dream Trip

For a few years now the top trip that I have wanted to take has been a North American Roadtrip. A slow roadtrip - not one where I drive for 19 hours just to get somewhere, stay for a few days, then drive right back. I want to experience each province and state, rather than simply pass through. I'm thinking about three months would be a good time. The only problem is, I kind of have to have three months free to do that. I used to always tell myself that if my contract wasn't extended at work I would go on my roadtrip, but I just signed on with no end date - a wonderful, wonderful thing, but it doesn't quite help me make this dream a reality.

I'm sure I'll figure out a way to make it happen though, but in the meantime I'm really enjoying dreaming up an itinerary and researching all the places I could visit. I don't have anything that is an absolute, other than the general route. I would start in Saskatchewan (home), make my way west through Alberta to British Columbia and then head down the West Coast, then across the southern states, making a sort of zig-zag pattern to visit more places as I make my way east, and then head up the East Coast, dip under the Great Lakes, then head back into Canada at either Manitoba or Saskatchewan. Specific stops have obviously yet to be determined - I would actually love to tap into my network and try to visit friends and family of my friends and family while traveling through their areas.

This trip is still a long way off (possibly years!), but if you have any experience please share! I'm slowly making a list of places to visit, so if there is anywhere that you think I must see please let me know :)

Summertime Weekend Adventuring

Last weekend found me with an abundance of time that I had not originally planned for. What's a girl to do? Make use of that time, of course! I got in touch with old friends and was surprised to find many of them available pretty last minute (always a novel concept for my over-planner mind).

I failed to get photos of this, but on Friday night Jackie and I met up at the Saskatoon Fringe Festival to head to Loon by WonderHeads. The performance was really sweet, but made my heart feel a little heavy. The character loved the moon so much that it started shrinking... He loved it so much that it became less of itself. I really, really liked how the entire performance did not involve speaking, though; it was emotions shared purely through movement and music. If you ever have the chance to see a WonderHeads production I absolutely recommend that you take advantage!

On Saturday morning Jackie actually came over to my place for a mid-morning coffee so that we could catch up. It was so nice to see each other two times so close together! She is one of my closest friends, but we both have very full schedules and very diverse groups of friends, so sometimes we go awhile between seeing each other. I truly appreciate every moment we get to spend together.

On Sunday afternoon my friend Aaron and I ended up heading to the Saskatoon Zoo. The weather was absolutely beautiful and Jackie had mentioned that I should go see the baby goats. They weren't so "baby" anymore, but they were nice to see.

Aaron and I enjoyed wandering the grounds and catching up while enjoying the sun and clear Saskatchewan skies. Aaron is another friend that I don't get to see too much, especially now that she goes to school in a different city, but we always pick up right where we left off.

We especially liked this lookout point that we stumbled upon. We were a little sad there were no passers-by to take a photo of us together, but look at that view! It's hard to believe that this is in the middle of Saskatoon!

Then on Sunday evening I headed out to Wakaw Lake to a friend's cabin where a bunch of people were getting together. I ended up missing the Aberdeen turn-off because the highway I was on was the same highway towards St. Pete's where I spent my first year of university and I was feeling all nostalgic. I barely missed it, so I totally could have turned back, but I figured I would take a dirt road to connect to the other highway but when I turned off there was a sign stating that the road did not connect to the exact highway I was looking to get to, so it had probably been washed out in previous years of flooding. I decided to keep heading the way I had been going, and meet up with where I needed to be via two perpendicular highways instead of a diagonal one (sort of a triangle situation)... Google Maps said that route added only 12 minutes on anyway. I am SO glad I stuck with my original route, because I came across a beautiful Ukrainian Catholic Church right on the side of the highway. The sun was starting to set, giving the prairies a beautiful glow and I just couldn't resist pulling over to take a photo.

I had a great time at the lake and left to head home around 12:45. It's about an hourish to get back to Saskatoon, but I love solo road trips, as I'm sure I've shared before. Minutes in to hitting the highway, I saw a falling star and then a shooting star. I don't know if there's actually a difference, but one was sort of passively falling downwards, whereas the second one moved upwards and then almost accelerated by leaving some light behind as if it were a cloud of dust behind a fast vehicle. I don't know if that makes sense, but either way, it was a welcome sight and brought a smile to my face as well as my heart.

What started off looking like a very slow weekend ended up being wonderfully full! Have you had any summertime adventures lately?

Road Trip Recap: Edmonton, AB - October 3 - 5, 2014

A little while back I spent the weekend in Edmonton for a weekend-long bachelorette party. The bride had originally wanted a trip to Vegas, but since she went with Edmonton instead more of us were able to make it for the weekend. We rented a 15-seater van and made our way to Edmonton, where we had rented a little house not far from the West Edmonton Mall.

We planned a pretty chill first night, after 5+ hours of driving. We had about an hour to get ready after arriving and then we headed to the Red Piano at the West Edmonton Mall for dinner and an evening of entertainment. The Red Piano is a duelling piano bar where there are 5 hours straight of live musical entertainment, fuelled by song requests from the audience. While we were being thoroughly entertained by the musicians, whose pianos were located right in front of our table, the bride decided she wanted to ride the roller coaster at the mall in the morning - something she had never done before, because she is terrified of roller coasters.

The next day we got up and went straight to the West Edmonton Mall. Before splitting up to shop the day away, our whole group headed to the Galaxyland Amusement Park to ride the rollercoaster, complete with three loop-the-loops. We had a blast and after almost backing out, the bride did too.

To be honest, the timing of this trip wasn't the greatest for me in terms of finances, so I didn't get to go as crazy with the shopping as I would have hoped. I found a few things at H&M as well as Dynamite, but I didn't really let myself wander into too many other stores because I needed to practice restraint and I knew it would be about 100 times more difficult if I were to actually go into the stores. So, instead of wandering around this huge mall with no purpose, I went to the Cinzeo stand and got myself a delicious cinnamon bun and sat by the pirate ship to enjoy it while reading some of my current book, Beautiful Ruins, before joining one of my girlfriends while she continued to shop.

After shopping we all piled back into the van and headed to a group fitness class and then went back to the house to get ready for our night out. We did some of the very typical bachelorette party games and shared stories about the bride before our limo showed up to take us for a drive around Edmonton and then drop us off at the club for the night. We had a good group of girls and the entire night (and weekend) was a blast!

The next day we got up and ready to leave and were on the road again by 11:00. We stopped off in Lloydminster for lunch and then we were home. This was by far one of the best bachelorette parties that I have participated in, even though they're always fun in their own way. What kinds of bachelorette/stagette parties have you been a part of that you really enjoyed?

Road Trip Recap: Minot, North Dakota - November 8-10, 2013

Last weekend my best friend, Santana, and I drove down to Minot for some shopping and to celebrate her recent birthday.

I'm going to stop myself right here, because it feels so strange to refer to her as 'Santana.' Yes, it is her real name, but I call her Tann, which is short for Tanner, which is what I thought her name was until I was somewhere in the range of 8-10 years old. Yep. I have known her since I was born (literally - our moms were pregnant together and Tann came out exactly 6 weeks before me) but I did not know her real name until then. EVERYONE called her Tanner, so that's what I thought her name truly was. You learn something new everyday.

Anyway, Tann and I have known each other since we were born, but other than the year and a bit that we lived in the same small Saskatchewan town when we were first born we have never lived in the same city. Even the year that Tann spent going to school in Saskatoon. I spent that year living in Muenster. Some sort of cruel trick, if you ask me.

So, Tann and I wanted to go on a shopping trip. Partially because Tann never shops (and I always do) and partially because we realized that we have never been on a road trip together! We have always had to make road trips to see each other over the years, so I guess a road trip together just never really happened. Even this time, I drove down to Regina to pick Tann up before we headed off across the border south of Regina.

We had a blast, and did a lot of shopping. Tann more so, but we both left with excessive bags and large dents in our bank accounts. We had originally thought we would want to go out both nights, but on the Friday night we realized that we just wanted to get some dinner and go to bed after driving the whole way there. The drive was about 4 hours from Regina, so I had another 2.5ish before that from Saskatoon. We were just tired and wanted to get rested up for our big day of shopping on Saturday.

And what a big day of shopping it was. We got to the mall bright and early and stayed there until almost 5 pm. Even though I'm a major shopper, I never do that. We pooped ourselves out so much that Tann told me "I wouldn't be upset if we decided not to go out," and I nearly grabbed her and hugged her because I had been thinking the exact same thing, but didn't want to be the boring one. After dinner and a bit of relaxing we hit some of the nearby box stores before calling it a night.

Shopping, Round One

Shopping, Round Two

On Sunday I got up bright and early to head to Mass at Our Lady of Grace parish which was a short drive from the hotel. After Mass Tann and I checked out of our hotel and went for a drive around Minot while we waited for stores to open at noon for some last minute purchases and returns. We finished up around 3:30 pm and then hit the highway back to Saskatchewan.

It was a really quick trip but I had a lot of fun spending some much needed time with Tann. The long drives allowed us to catch up on our lives and to reminisce about times we've had together. Since we don't often spend time together I really appreciate the moments that we do.

What sort of trips do you take with your best friend?

P.S. It's strange that I call Santana 'Tann' because I usually refer to people in their full name. Daniel instead of Dan, Benjamin instead of Ben, Elizabeth instead of Liz… It's just what I do. What about you, do you use full or shortened names?

Road Trip Recap: Muenster, Saskatchewan - September 20-21, 2013

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to head out to the town that I lived in for my first year of university. Muenster, Saskatchewan is home to St. Peter's Abbey and St. Peter's College, where I was a student right after high school.  The abbey is a wonderful place to visit, especially in the fall. The grounds are expansive with beautiful trees, fields, lanes, and little buildings spotting the property.

The reason for my visit this time was a youth ministry planning retreat, I am part of a team at my parish that plans and runs the youth group for the high school students at our parish. We've had a planning retreat at St. Pete's before and I'm glad we decided to go back.

On my down time I decided to take a walk through the trees. The weather was so beautiful and I realized that I had actually never taken a walk on the paths that wind through the grounds. Never. I lived there for a solid eight months and have been back to visit numerous times in all of the different seasons and I had never walked the trails. Once I made this realization I had to rectify the situation immediately.

I put on my sweater and grabbed some seeds and nuts for the chickadees (there is one lane that the birds will come and eat right out of your hand - they have been doing this ever since the monks from the abbey came to the property). I had actually never fed the birds before a visit this past winter, so I was excited to try again. Unfortunately, the birds never came to me... I think it had something to do with the fact that right around now they still have access to pretty much whatever food they want, whereas the last time I was there was in the dead of winter, with extremely cold temperatures and, therefore, very little food for them. Anyway, once I realized I wasn't going to see the birds I continued on into the trees. The leaves had just started to change, making my path a colourful one.

This actually leads down to the cellar that can also be accessed through the kitchen

 Stunning flowers in the abbey garden

 Breaking in my new oxfords while exploring the trails at St. Pete's

I have been extremely fortunate to be able to head back to visit St. Pete's in the years that have passed since my days as a student at the college. Sometimes I feel as though I really didn't make the most of my surroundings. I rarely stayed the weekend, with the city being only a little over an hour away, but I so wish I had.  I don't have regrets about my time there, but not really experiencing the school and the abbey and the atmosphere that they offer is something that I would say comes pretty close. I guess I've grown a lot in the past few years since my time there, so I'm just able to appreciate what St. Pete's has to offer more than I was able to at the time.

Do you have a "St. Pete's?"



P.S. I was super excited to be able to stop by the town of Bruno, SK on my way home from St. Pete's to pay a visit to Amanda. I always love seeing her!

Road Trip Recap: Okotoks, Alberta - July 26-28, 2013

Another road trip for me! This time I went off to Alberta to spend some time with my good friend Amanda.  Amanda and I have been friends for almost two years now, she was actually roommates with my friend Alana (that I went to visit a few weekends ago) when we first began getting to know each other.  Amanda is one of my closest friends and I really value her friendship so I was excited to be able to head out to her home and spend time with some of her family for the first time.

Okotoks is about a 6 hour drive from Saskatoon, but I don't mind at all - I really enjoy road trips on my own, that's why I tend to take so many! The drive is quite flat, which is to be expected on the prairies, but it's extremely beautiful.

Abandoned prairie house near Hanna, AB

On the Friday night Amanda and I drove in to Calgary and went to Ranchman's with a couple of our friends who are also from Saskatoon, but were in Alberta for a Catholic event for the weekend. We two-stepped the night away and had a great time!

Amanda and I before we went out on Friday night

On Saturday Amanda and I drove out to Cochrane, Alberta for One Rock, the Catholic event that our friends were in Alberta for. It was a "World Youth Day At Home" to help unify those who were able to make it to Rio and those that stayed home. There were talks and music all day long and we ended the day with an amazing evening of Eucharistic Adoration. There were lots of people and I was fortunate enough to see a bunch of friends from the summer I spent living in Halifax. I rarely get to see them and I hadn't told them ahead of time, so it was a little bit of a surprise for them :).

The crowd in front of the stage at One Rock

Sunday morning I joined Amanda and her parents at Mass at their parish, St. James, on the Feast of St. James - talk about timing! We had a quick brunch and then went in to Calgary to shop. I had wanted to leave Saskatoon early on Friday and shop before I made my way to Okotoks, but I let myself sleep in and got on the highway much later than expected. By the time Sunday came around, though, I wasn't in the shopping mood (odd, I know!). It's a good thing though, I really don't need to shop, so only spending a bit of time in the mall was beneficial to my finances.

I had a fantastic time visiting Amanda and her family and I cannot wait until I can visit Okotoks again!

Road Trip Recap: Regina, Saskatchewan - July 19-21, 2013

I often find myself in Regina, SK. I actually lived there until I was about 8, and almost all of my family, both on my father's side and my mother's side, still live there.  I have friends that live in Regina, my goddaughter lives in Regina, and I've even dated people that live in Regina. Simply put, I have spent a lot of time in Regina.

This weekend my uncle (the only one who does not live in Regina) and his family (except for one of my cousins) flew in from Ontario for their usual yearly summer visit. I had just seen all four of them when I was in Europe, but I was super excited to see them again so I drove down to spend the weekend there.

Other than visiting with some of my other family that I was staying with, I mainly spent most of my time with my cousin Kathleen. She and I are only a bit over a year apart in age and are really close, so it was such a treat to see her so much - we usually only get to see each other two times a year, but we're up to three now (with an entire three weeks in Europe together) and the year isn't even done yet!  We tend to fight like sisters a little bit though - there are three of us girl cousins on my mom's side and none of us have sisters, so we kind of get to take that place for each other (for better or for worse, haha!).

The weekend was pretty short to fit much in, but Kathleen and I managed to play some Clue, go shopping, visit the Cathedral Bakery for some cupcakes, play some more Clue, have a girls night with our other cousin Chelsey, and go for brunch after church on Sunday before Kathleen had to get packed up and I got ready to go to my first ever Saskatchewan Roughriders game.

The wonderful treats we chose from at Cathedral Bakery.

I know, I've been living in Saskatchewan for nearly my entire life and I had never been to a Rider game before this weekend.  It's not that I didn't want to go! It just never worked out - I always planned or talked about it with different people but it never actually happened. Well, Jessica's family (that I had met while in La Ronge a couple weeks before) had an extra ticket so I joined them at the game! We had a blast hanging out with her little siblings before the game and running into our friend Steven who is on the Roughrider cheerleading team.  We even made it on to TSN before the game started... taking a selfie! Well I guess it wouldn't have quite been a selfie, because we were together - but it was a picture we were taking of ourselves nonetheless. We didn't even realize until my phone started going off like crazy with text messages and Facebook messages asking if I was at the game or telling me they had seen me FLUFF MY HAIR and take a picture. At least I looked pretty? Haha. The photo below isn't our golden moment photo - that was on Jessica's phone... we took this one on mine a little later in the game once the sun wasn't shining directly on us.

I hope you had a great weekend as well!

Road Trip Recap: Unity, Saskatchewan - July 11 - 12, 2013

It's been a little bittersweet for me to have my friends heading to their hometowns for the summer.  On the one hand, they're not in the city with me to be able to meet up for coffee or go for a walk and chat. On the other hand, however, they're in their hometowns, some of which I have never visited. This speaks volumes to my perpetual wanderlust and I've been doing my best to take advantage.

This past weekend I went out to Unity, SK to visit my friend Alana while she spends the summer hanging out with her parents on their farm just outside of town.  Alana and I haven't been friends for very long, so it was really nice for us to have some time together, just the two of us, to get to know each other even better.  Alana happened to be in the city the day that I was heading out, so she and I left after I was done work on Thursday. We spent the evening eating snacks, giving each other pedicures, watching Friends, craving sandwiches because of Joey, and making and eating sandwiches right before bed because of Joey. The next day we slept in, ate more sandwiches for breakfast (Alana's mom had bought these FANTASTIC buns that had a whole bunch of different seeds baked in them and stuck to the outside - so delicious!), went into town for the "grand tour," went for ice cream, walked around the ball diamonds, and swung in the park before I hit the highway to get back home.  It was a wonderful weekend.

Road Trip Recap: La Ronge, Saskatchewan - July 5-7, 2013

A fire brought to you by Jessica and Sarah

Last weekend I took a little trip up to La Ronge, SK with my good friend Jessica.  Jessica and I met in grade 10 when she moved to Saskatoon from her hometown of La Ronge and in all the years of our friendship I still hadn't visited her hometown - we figured it was long overdue.

Jessica's family owns a cabin on the lake that you can only get to by water in the summer. After our drive up on Friday night we waited on the dock at the edge of town and got a ride on a boat out to the cabin where we were dropped off on the dock. Thank goodness I don't watch many horror movies, but Jessica later told me that she couldn't get the thought of someone rising out of the water beside the dock just like the scene in Cabin in the Woods.

Saturday morning it was just Jessica and I at the cabin and when it came time for us to eat we realized we needed to start a fire. Starting a fire wasn't what appeared to be the difficult part to us, though, it was cutting the wood to get it started. Neither Jessica nor I had ever had to use an axe, and there we were, with only open toed flip flops for our feet (a terrifying fact all on its own), about to get to work chopping up the logs piled by the shed. 

As you can tell from the photo above, we were successful! You have no idea how proud we were of ourselves to have chopped enough wood to start the fire and keep it going long into the evening when Jessica's family came out to have dinner with us and bring us back into town. We were definitely not "roughing it" while at the cabin, but this feat made us feel as though we could if we ever wanted or needed to.

This trip was almost two in one because I got to spend some time at her family cabin but we also spent some time in town as well. There was a birthday party for one of the girls home for summer so I was able to meet a bunch of Jessica's friends and some of her cousins too. I actually ran in to a couple people that I know from Saskatoon that also grew up in the area as well.

All in all, I had a fantastic time! I really enjoy road trips, visiting new places, seeing friends, meeting new people, and especially trying new things. Thanks so much to Jessica for sharing her hometown with me!