santorini.

Flights are booked!  Honeymooning in Greece in July!


photo: Fira

nutella brownie bites.

You know those delicious two-bite brownies?  These are made with Nutella!  I made a few for a Valentine's Day treat - they were delicious!  To be honest, I didn't feel like buying a whole thing of chocolate syrup just for a few tablespoons, so I left it out.  I also don't yet have a mini muffin tin, so I used the big one and they turned out totally fine.


I got the recipe from onehungrymama.com  She also has a recipe for nutella hot chocolate!

Making the Dress: Part 1

As promised, here is the first of several posts over the next few months - my adventures in wedding dress making!  Before I begin, I must mention that I am NOT doing this alone...oh my goodness no.  I'm definitely not a professional (or even close).  I've been blessed with an amazingly talented aunt who is guiding me through this whole process (she's the pro!)  Thanks Aunt Donna!  


The first step is really gathering ideas/inspiration and sketching my design, but that would reveal too much at this point.  Maybe I'll do a prequel sometime!  For this post, I'm jumping in at buying the fabric.  I gathered the girls together on a Saturday afternoon, and even though a blizzard threatened us to stay home, we braved the 401 for a day in Toronto's fashion district.  I didn't pick a specific store, but I knew that heading to the corner of Queen and Spadina was where we should start.  We went into the first store we saw, and that's where we found it!       

 Leo's Textiles was wall to wall bolts of bridal fabric with lots of sweet Asian ladies bustling around (their fluffy dog was sleeping on the floor near the front door!)  You won't believe this, but the first bolt of fabric I pulled out was EXACTLY what I was looking for.  Then a lovely lady named Suzy led us directly to the right fabric for the bridesmaids dresses*!  Really!  So in 20 minutes we picked it, paid for it, and packed it up!

We even asked Suzy if she would take a picture with us - she was so cute and excited to help "such beautiful girls"!

That's me in front of the store holding my bag full of fabric!

I really couldn't have planned a better experience - it was lovely.  I was soooo happy!

Mmmmmm, plus we had my favourite fast food - Chipotle Mexican Grill - for dinner. And to top it all off, I got the cutest text from Bryce asking if he could rent us a movie and have some snacks ready when we got back.  Of course we would!  Here's his handiwork - complete with 27 Dresses ready to play in the background!

That's all for part 1!  Next up, making the bodice pattern!

*Did I mention we're also doing the bridesmaids dresses?  The fabric is the same for all, but each girl got to choose their own design - they will look fabulous!  (oh, and did I mention they've only paid $30 so far?  yep.  Might be $10 more for the lining...)

have a (romantic) weekend.

(martha stewart)



Also, stay tuned for a new blog series to come!  I'm on a journey right now of making my own wedding dress - so excited!  I'm going to post a few of the steps to making my dress over the next few months (without giving it away!  I can't debut it here until it makes its debut on the aisle!)  

Kate Spade

Check out these adorable Kate Spade iPhone4 cases!  I absolutely love the red retro phone - classy but fun.

this watch.

I'm so not into watches.  I've had them before and lost them because I would never wear them.  I didn't wear them because I thought they looked weird on me.  Although I'm still a bit wary about whether or not I can be trusted with a watch (a super expensive one would be wasted on me for sure), I've totally fallen for this one.  Yep, love it.  

Fossil - Stella Watch

you know how I love headboards.

How cute is this??  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it on House*Tweaking.  Brilliant.  Plus, you can find the DIY tutorial here.  

just my style.

Has anyone heard of Boden before? I had no idea this store existed until a few minutes ago. It's in the US, and it's not exactly cheap (think Gap or Banana Republic) - but I love the style! The perfect mix of relaxed, put together, and still fun. Love the colours/shapes of these looks...

happy february!

you know what that means! Valentine's Day is just around the corner - time to bring out the cinnamon hearts and pink bows. And perhaps some of these cute things I found around the blogosphere...

1. Imeondesign - Etsy.

2. Petit Plat - Etsy. (so these are in France - but still!)

3. Wildfox.

4. I am Baker. - see the Tutorial for the cake!! So clever!

5. Shopdirtsa - Etsy.