costume inspiration

Halloween is rapidly approaching and as usual I am scrambling to put together a costume.

Luckily I came across some easy DIY inspiration!

I cut out the wings today, and tomorrow will start working on the feathers made from random scraps of left over fabric.  Crossing my fingers it will all work out, as this will be one of few attempts for some basic sewing on my part.

These bird wings are pretty adorable aren’t they?

weddings galore

The month of September has been a wedding extravaganza.

Our first wedding of the month was Steve’s sister’s wedding, and I loved that my duties for this wedding included flower arranging and making boutonnieres!  Such a fun responsibility to be given.  The bride’s mother and multiple friends of hers planned ahead and grew an assortment of flowers, greenery, and wild grasses that would still be in bloom for early fall.

Making boutonnieres wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be.  It requires the following materials: flowers, greenery, scissors, floral tape, ribbon, pins, a glue gun, a water spritzer and some ziplock plastic bags.  First pick a small grouping of flowers for your boutonniere.  Wrap the stems with the floral tape (you can wrap all the way down the stems or leave some stems with a straight cut hanging out to be seen), then wrap ribbon, and add a dab of hot glue to make the ribbon stay, secure it with a pin, spritz the flowers with water, place it in the ziplock bag, blow in some air, seal the bag, and keep in a cooler or fridge until ready to use.  Voila!

This was the bridal bouquet. I love the lavender and the fact that all the flowers were local and homegrown (a request specifically made by the bride -nice one).

Table centre pieces housed in a collection of family and friend's mason jars.

A super cute touch to the table setting. The bride's collections of vintage postcards were used to indicate table numbers.

The second wedding was in upstate New York in the Catskill mountains.  The trip started off wonderfully with a scenic drive through the most dairy farms I’ve ever seen on one winding stretch of road, gorgeous old manner homes with wrap-around verandas, antiques galore, and delicious stops for ice-cream.  We were so stoked for the rest of the drive, until we hit the end of a stretch of highway, that was closed due to extreme flooding.  We ended up having to reroute nearly 3/4′s of the rest of the way to avoid washed out bridges and overflowing rivers.  Three days of torrential downpour had devastated many of the small towns in the area.  Luckily we made it to the wedding ceremony (just barely on time) unscathed, dry and ready to soak in the beautiful Catskill mountain views.

I really want to head back to this area to enjoy more small town road stops, antiquing and local food sampling.  If I have the time one fall, I may just make another trip down when the dangers of flooding will not be an issue.

We’ve still got 1 more wedding to go before the end of September!

wave pool nostalgia

When I was little we’d go to Confederation Park to the “wave pool” to swim and hit the water slides all day long.  I hadn’t enjoyed any swimming at all this summer (which I usually LOVE to do), so we biked down to Wild Water Works for a day of relaxation, sun and waves.

A bit of a nostalgic afternoon.  I remember from when I was a kid at the end of a day of swimming I would close my eyes as I went to bed still feeling the movement of the waves sending me off to sleep.

*Wild Water Works, 585 Van Wagner’s Rd, Hamilton, 905.547.6141

friday night lights

After the daily renovating Steve and I have been retiring to our backyard, safely away from drywall dust and the smell of paint, home to warm breezes and true summer night feelin’.  Unfortunately we do not have a light in the backyard so hanging out in the dark-yard after dusk can get a little difficult.

On one particularly grueling day of renovating I was shocked to see Steve sill having the energy to drag out the ladder and proceed to hang up lights outside (hammer and all).

The lights created a beautiful warm orange post sunset glow a la Christmas in July.

We can now hang out in the backyard after the sun sets to play cards and have our own patio beers to our hearts content!

out on the line

The days are so hot and dry.  It’s perfect for hanging laundry out on the line.  This load dried in no time flat, and looked so colourful and beautiful blowing in the summer breeze that I just had to take a picture.

flowers

I love coming home to random acts of sweetness.

cut

Haircut!  Long hair is definitely the lazy man’s way to go.  I’ve been guilty of being a total ponytailer, and have been known for taking year long breaks between visits to the hairdresser.  I’m definitely not someone who “does” their hair (this is mostly because I don’t know how) so a short haircut for me always has the risk of being high maintenance.  But when a change gonna come, it’s gonna come.  I am a last minute decision maker when it comes to haircuts, and when I want a cut I want it right now!  Luckily when I called up Strut Hair Salon, which is uberly close to my home, I was able to get a cut that very day.

It was a first time cut with stylist Mairead, and she did a great job of making some cutting decisions for me.  I like a stylist that can be decisive because I had about 25 million ideas for how I wanted to cut my hair.  It was a good cut, and satisfied my need for a fresh look for summer.  In all I lobbed about 4-5 inches off my head.  All my black locks on the salon floor looked like a small long-haired dog.

*Strut Hair Salon, 84 Walnut St. south, Hamilton, 905.540.4960