Country Living

I have driven by this sign several times and each time I have thought to myself "You know you live in the country when..." I love our town and all the the quirks that come with it. Horses need clean blankets after all:)

Happy Friday

We're home this weekend, and it is awesome to have a full weekend with no plans! Sometimes you just need to recharge your batteries. 

I might spend some time in my garden with these lovelies:

Or in my craft room with this guy!

Whatever you're up to, I hope you have a great weekend!

Wedding Wednesday: Groupon Guestbook

We're officially one month away today, so lots of excitement and last minute details underway!

As I mentioned in this post, Groupon is a great source for saving money on wedding items. One of the very common items regularly posted on Groupons is for photo books. So far I have purchased two of these vouchers. I used the first voucher to create a leather bounded guest book for people to sign at the wedding using some of our engagement photos. I simply downloaded the software, designed the book and sent in my order. Overall I saved about 70% on the cost, which is great and I loved the way it turned out. 

One of my favourites from the engagement session

Cottage Weekend

We had a girls weekend this past weekend at my friend DA's cottage. It was a wonderful escape, and just what the doctor ordered with one month to go before the big day! We ate, drank, sunned, swam and laughed the whole weekend, it was truly wonderful!

On Saturday morning, Megan and I hit up a garage sale (of course), and I found a few great items including the sweetest little half pint Ball jar! I am planning to stain the crate and turn it into a side table!

The highlight of our weekend was definitely discovering, adopting and feeding this sweet stray kitten. We named her Mrs. Fuzz Tail. We all really wanted to take her home, but we thought she probably belonged to someone at the beach, as she wasn't afraid to come close and she was up for a few pets. She left with a fully belly, so we're hoping she made it home.

It was a great weekend, and definitely a little sad to be leaving this great view behind!

We've decided we need to make this trip an annual tradition because it was just so much fun. Sometimes you just need a girls weekend away!

Confessions of a Crazy Cat Lady

I have more photos on my iPhone of cats than I do of humans. I think it might be a problem. I don't like having too many cat posts on the blog just because it might smell of crazy cat lady, but here is a collection of some of my recent favourites. They are my babies after all.

Speaking of babies, huge congrats go out to my friend Jess and her husband Jon. Their sweet baby boy arrived a few weeks early yesterday. Jess is the reason this blog got off the ground, she is one of my forever friends, and she is going to be a great mom!

Wedding Wednesday: The Great Shoe Debate

It is no secret to anyone that I love shoes. So as you can imagine, choosing my wedding shoes has proven to be difficult. To be honest, I thought about splurging on a fancy designer pair of laboutins, jimmy choos or valentinos, but decided that's really not me at all.  As always the trade off for fashion and comfort is top of mind. I know I can't have both, so I've decided for fashion as long as my poor little feet can handle it, and then I have a back up comfort pair to turn to.

 The pair I landed on are very special and have a great story only my dad can attest to.

Here are some of the runners up:

Small Town Love: Library Stamps

Since moving to our small town, I have found myself romantically admiring all that it has to offer. For example, our town has not one but two movie stores. In the city, movie stores don't really exist any more, but in small towns- they're booming. In fact, when I went to find a movie on Saturday night, there were three other people browsing the racks!

One of my favourite small town finds so far is that our local library still stamps the due date on the inside of the books! Although they've moved to an electronic catalogue, they don't give you receipts like most libraries...and that just makes me happy!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Bathroom Progress

You'll recall from this post that I have plenty to keep me busy in our bathroom. One of my first priorities was to add some storage to our upstairs bathroom. The previous owners were willing to leave their existing linen cupboard, and when we moved in I regretted not taking them up on the offer, but I really wanted to make the space our own.

I found this old cupboard at the Aberfoyle Spring Show for $65. The inside was completely grey, so I gave the back of the cupboard a fresh coat of teal blue and then painted the shelves and outside of the cupboard white. One tip to keep in mind when you buy a cupboard that you're going to put on the floor is to prop it up with a few thin pieces of wood, otherwise the doors will not open if they're flush against the floor.

The cupboard really is the perfect size for the space, and adds a ton of storage for all of my extra toiletries and cleaning supplies.  I am looking forward to adding a towel rack to balance out the height.



Speaking of bathroom fixes, my dad cleaned and fixed the bathroom vent when he was in town. Turns out it was just installed wrong. I'll be back next week with a recap of everything my dear dad took care of when he came to visit!

Happy Friday everyone- wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Wedding Wednesday: Shower Recap

It has been over a month now since my whirlwind shower weekend, but I wanted to make sure I shared some of the details and photos from the day.

My soon to be Mother-in-Law planned and organized the entire shower and then asked my lovely friends and bridal party Caitlin and Tricia to play hosts for the day!

The shower was held at the beautiful Ancaster Mill. We had the solarium complete with amazing waterfall views. It was the perfect setting for a group our size (about 30).

Caitlin and I had to wait outside while Tricia and Louanne were finishing the set-up- we managed to take the best ever selfie- clearly enormous sunglasses are the key to a picture perfection!

I was literally showered with gifts, which was a bit overwhelming given once you pass childhood birthdays, you typically aren't in a situation where you're the center of attention opening a ton of gifts (some from people you just met that day)! We are so lucky to have such great family and friends.

One of the traditions I love about Ontario wedding showers (or at least the ones I've experienced here) is that the groom shows up at the end with a bouquet of flowers for the bride to say hello and thank you to all of the guests (and to help me transport everything home). Chris was doubly sweet by bringing not only a bouquet for me, but one for his mom. She was over the moon, and it was really sweet! Here are the beautiful flowers I brought home:

Overall it was a great day. We played some fun games (my favourite was the newlywed game where I had to guess how Chris answered questions). Chris' mom did a great job pulling it together, my favourite touch was the flower arrangements in teacups, and everyone that attended had a great time. I've found since the shower everything wedding related has moved into high gear. My dress is done, we  picked up our wedding bands last week, and we have almost all of the RSVPs to build our seating chart. What once was over a year away is quickly approaching- definitely have a few last minute DIYs I need to do!

Things I Left Behind

I stopped in at a few Antique shops this weekend, once on the way home from Stratford in Shakespeare (unfortunately there was only one shop open), then the red barn on the way to the Cookstown Antique Market and then in Cookstown. I can't always bring home everything I love, so here is a glimpse at the things that didn't come home.

Clockwise from top: Cute vintage stools, great tall chimney cupbard, a beautiful iron crib converted to a daybed and ornate ladder back chairs.

I loved this chalkboard and thought it would look sweet in a child's room one day!

Hope you all had a great Canada Day long weekend!