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What I Love About Summer…

May 30, 2009 By 12 Comments

1) Shoulder freckles…actually, any kind of freckles, I just think shoulder freckles are especially cute.  The place I get them most is around my mouth :)

1200025024_bcf79e09611 (flickr)

2) That little wrinkley dip in my shoulder that I rarely see in the winter because my room is so cold! It’s weird, but a girl on my cheerleading team and I bonded over our love of this spot.

3) Tim Hortons Iced Caps.  Mmmmm….

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(nowpublic)

4) Wearing dresses and skirts pretty much whenever I feel like it.

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weheartit

5) Bike rides!

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6) Playing baseball in our town

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7) Moving home, and going back to Ottawa for visits.  I do so much more sightseeing when I’m visiting in the summer, and it makes me love Ottawa so much more!

parliament_hill_ottawa_t1308(hicker photo)
8) Flowers growing in the garden

9) Going to the beach and camping

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10) Driving with the windows down and the music blasting and singing along loudly…although I have been known to do this in the winter also.

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Also, music I’m loving lately…

  • Sugarland
  • Thinking of You -Katy Perry
  • My Town -Montgomery Gentry
  • Supergirl -Suzie McNeil
  • Steve Aoki
  • Team Canada DJs
  • Make Believe -Thornley
  • Exit This Side -One Night Stand
  • Steal My Kisses From You -Ben Harper
  • Ben Kweller
  • Cord Lund Band
  • Zac Brown Band
  • Dierks Bentley
  • When It Was Good -Flipsyde
  • Good Lovelies
  • Justice
  • Kellie Pickler
  • Lmfao
  • Missy Higgins
  • The Lonely Island
  • White Houses -Vanessa Carlton
  • 3oh!3
  • Rascal Flatts
Filed Under: Uncategorized

My foray into fashion blogging

May 27, 2009 By 11 Comments

… not. But I did love my outfit today and my hair was looking good, so I decided to take pictures after work and show y’all. Also, because I live alone most of the time,  I don’t have anyone to appreciate my good outfit days. There is nothing overly exciting about this outfit, but it made me feel awesome, and that is what I believe fashion is all about. Wearing clothes that make you feel amazing, and strong.

May 28

I know it not a “typical” shot of an outfit, but I am home all alone, and although I seriously contemplated asking a complete stranger to take a photo (or ten) of me outside the wicked graffiti wall near my apartment, the two barriers were that the only people that hang out there are usually homeless and smell very strongly of urine and also that my camera is a spazz, and likely would not have worked if someone other than me tried to use it. I know the correct time length to hold the button down for, exactly how many shakes to give it if it is giving me the blue screen of death, and what “access” means and how many times you have to turn it on and off before it will go away. Actually, I don’t really know what “access” means, I think it is synonymous with “time to buy a new camera.”

Jest

The outfit:

Top, Club Monaco (it’s on sale right now, go! Run and get it! If you tell them you are a student they will give you a discount. Apparently. And I don’t think the photos do the top justice. It is definitely more “ruffle” and less “court jester” in real life.)

Denim, Guess (I forget which exact kind, but these specific jeans are good for us long-legged folk. I usually have to look for long sizes, or go up a size so they are longer but these are actually down a size than what I normally wear and are still super long.)

Shoes: Suzy Shier. No kidding. (psst. $25.00)

Necklace that never comes off: A graduation gift.

Not pictured: Gold ring, Le Chateau and cell phone in hand, with Micaela on the line.

What to expect from Leah in the near future: An exercise gear fashion post, a gardening post, and a makeup post. Also, more “Daily Addiction” posts because that last one went over really well. And maybe even a guest post from Tim!

(Also, I feel a little bit narcissistic putting giant pictures of myself up there, but I am terrible at formatting and I don’t know how to centre them therefore making them smaller. Also, Micaela assured me that blogs with pictures are always the best ones. Hopefully I will get better at this in the near future.)

Filed Under: fashion

Coming Clean

May 27, 2009 By 11 Comments

First off, I realize that I owe our readers some details about the wedding and the honeymoon. Of course, I could just fall back on the ol’ “what happens in Vegas…” line, but the stories I have to share are too cool to keep to myself! :)

But what I really need to do today is get something off my chest.

I’ve been keeping this quiet for the last few years because frankly, I’m embarrassed. I’ve avoided or bent the truth when discussing it with friends and family, and it’s finally caught right up with me. I’ve finally been backed into a corner by this and it’s set my life plans (our life plans – including home ownership and starting a family) back about a year. I let myself down and I let my husband down.

So what is it?

I’m not done school. I’ve told some people that I am, or that I’m thisclose! to being done. However, today I found out that I’m no longer even thisclose! to being done. My program requirements changed before I finished all of my coursework, and now I have to pick up three more courses to graduate with my B.A. in Film Studies.

I realize that in the grand scheme of things it’s not a huge deal. Many people who read this might say “so what?” or wonder why I’m getting so worked up about it. Well, in my mind the worst part about this whole situation is that it could have been avoided. I ignored the very good advice that was given to me by Denis and by my mother to see an academic counselor two years ago. I was hard headed and stubborn, thinking that I could figure it out by myself, and now I’m in a bind. I’m not going to be able to start the courses until September and it will take the full academic year to finish them. Do you want to know when I started university? 2001. That is forever ago. Jean Chretien was Prime Minister in 2001. Bill Clinton was president in 2001 (for a few weeks, at least). Bjork wore that ridiculous swan to the Oscars.  The first season of Survivor finished. I don’t think I need to remind you of what happened in September of 2001. I was at school that day.

OK, now I’m being overly dramatic. I know that I’m not the first and will certainly not be the last person to find themself in this situation. It just feels awkward – I’m the oldest, but there is the outside chance that I might be the last to graduate from university (Lauren, feel free to take a year off or fail a class or two, k? ;) ). I can console myself with the fact that I have no debt from school, largely because I worked and studied at the same time for a few years.

What I want to stick in to the end here as well is an I’m Sorry. I’m sorry to those that I misled, I’m sorry to my parents (mom especially), and I’m sorry to Denis. Den, you have been a wonderfully supportive boyfriend and fiance – I know you will be just as supportive as a husband.

Filed Under: life Tagged With: , , ,

Taking one for the team.

May 25, 2009 By 10 Comments

Since I don’t have that exciting of a life right now, I was kind of waiting for my sisters with more exciting to blog… like, I don’t know, maybe the one who just got married and went to Vegas, a trip that we have heard nothing about yet? However, that does not seem to be happening so I’ll post my “weekly” Tuesday blog on a Monday evening. In point form.

1. The Jon & Kate Plus 8 drama. Since I love this family more than life itself, it’s breaking my heart a little bit. I hope that they can get it together. I loved them even more last night when I was watching it with Kent and during a scene with all  kids he said to me, “Babe, let’s have kids.” Not that we were ever thinking of not having kids, but it was sweet that he felt the need to say it. I said that we will have kids when we have a bedroom to keep them in. He told me that that’s just material things and that we have lots of room and that hello, my parents raised 4 kids in a trailer. That’s true… but I bet he’d be singing a different tune if he was the one without a bedroom.

2. Wedding. It’s coming up FAST. It always seemed far away until Denis and Erica’s wedding. That was kind of the point that I started to panic a bit. From now on the weekends will be consumed with weddingy things. This weekend we have to get our Special Occasions Permit for our stag and doe, print off invitations and get them all ready to send, and meet with our priest again. It sucks that Kent is working so beyond ridiculously hard all week and has to spend his weekend driving back home and doing wedding chores with me, but hey, it wasn’t my idea to move two hours away… I’ll try to make it fun.

3. A newly engaged best friend. Congrats Michelle! And congrats to her fiance, who is also my friend (in fact I introduced them, in a sort of roundabout way.)

4. Cooks are crazy. Kent and I are trying to do lots of touristy things while we live in Toronto, so on Saturday we went to the ROM, toured around Yorkville and Kensington Market, and went to a restauraunt that apparently the cooks at his restaurant are all dying to go to – The Black Hoof. I like to think I’m adventerous when it comes to my food but this place was out there! Kent had to translate the menu for me and then find which few did not include any raw meat. I can’t do raw meat. It’s too weird. And wrong. So we got the charcuterie plate (which was excellent) and I got one of the only non-raw meat dishes, “Crispy Pig Ears with Scallops Chevice.” (Seh-vee-chay means cooked – my magic word – in oil, if I remember correctly. So you can feel smart if you ever see this on a menu.) Yes pig ears. They were actually good, if you pretended they were something else. Kent got some sort of veal tongue brioche – veal tongue in a sandwich, really. It was scary. He loved this place and I’m pretty sure he dreams about it now. So if you are an adventerous eater, you should check it out.

Filed Under: life, micaela, Wedding

Love & Stress: A Screenplay

May 22, 2009 By 7 Comments

Scene One: Cooking with the “Culinary Master of Canada”, 5:00pm

Cut to Leah and Tim, romantically preparing an appetizer of coconut shrimp and a delectable-looking shrimp, garlic and white wine cream sauce complete with fresh pasta. Also, he has quartered a chicken and is making home-made chicken stock in the oven for a soup the following day. They are kissing, googly-eyed at each other and at one point Tim even says to her that she is the most wonderful, amazing and thoughtful girlfriend in the whole world. And he compliments her on her Nintendo skills  as he feeds [Read more...]

Filed Under: Calgary, humour, life, love, relationships

Wedding Shoes

May 15, 2009 By 25 Comments

My life has been consumed by all things wedding this year, and the fun didn’t stop with Erica’s wedding – we still have Micaela’s wedding coming up in August. One thing that brides are doing these days is going with funky shoes – not traditional white shoes, but shoes that they love, shoes that make them feel good, shoes that make them want to jump for joy (but they can’t because their ankles might break). The lovely purple examples are our very own Erica, as well as another wonderful blogger, Kasia Fink.

Erica’s shoes:

Erica's Wedding Shoes

And look how amazing Kasia’s purple (Louboutin!) shoes looked, peeking out form under her dress:

Kasia Fink

Source: http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/02/06/dw-in-the-dr-the-reveal-and-portraits/#more-82397

Also we have the amazingly stylish and lovely Tiffany, who wore beautiful silver Gucci’s:

Tiffany

Source: http://www.iamstyle-ish.com/2009/01/wedding-day-morning-of.html

Also, the lovely Budget Savvy Bride wore these hot blue shoes (which I kind of want in every colour) when she got married the same day as our Erica:

beautiful shoes

Image Source: http://budgetsavvybride.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/i-love-my-wedding-shoes/

While I think each of those examples of colourful wedding shoes are adorable and fun, I have been thinking that I want to wear white shoes on my wedding day. I have no idea why, as I am generally not a super traditional person, but to me, there is just something about wearing white shoes at a wedding.

Here is my choice:

whiteweddingshoes

Source (follow to scope out the amazing details on the shoes) :

http://www.heels.com/womens-shoes/carlo-pump-white.html

Likely, I will change my mind about eleventy billion times before my wedding … wait I am talking as if I have a wedding being planned. If and when I choose to get married … my mind will likely have changed eleventy billion times. There.

What do you think? For those of you who are married, did you have funky, awesome colourful shoes? Or maybe some funky, awesome white shoes? Or no shoes?

Also – Please note that I found those white shoes on heels.com, which has amazing shoes for all occassions (and budgets). I was browsing the site after I added them on Twitter today, and then they DM’ed me with a special Twitter discount to use on the site. Add them on Twitter to get your discount – http://twitter.com/highheels. It’s worth it!

Filed Under: fashion, Wedding Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Daily Addiction

May 14, 2009 By 11 Comments

I always think to myself, it’s a damn good thing that Mom gave me (all of us) $500 on our 18th birthday as an incentive for not smoking, because I have a seriously addictive personality, and I know that if I started smoking, I wouldn’t be able to stop (also, smoking is gross). There are some amazing things in this world that I get so easily addicted to. These things range from cereal, to televsion shows, to games, to a pair of jeans, to Pepsi, to writing checks and online banking and so on. Okay, I realize some of  these things aren’t actually addictions (slash all of them) but whatever! I am not talking about addictions in the true definition of the word, but addictions as defined in my reality.

My addiction for today (and my amazingly lovely and wonderful Twitter friends may already know this) is this video. Watch and enjoy, my friends.


 

I e-mailed it to a team member today, and all he had to say is “Leah, where would we be in this world without music.”  I have watched it no less than eight times today, and each time my heart bursts a little bit more.

Filed Under: music

Small update on life.

May 12, 2009 By 7 Comments

Just a few things this Tuesday:

1. Kent and I just moved to Toronto last week! I love our apartment, it’s spacious with a huge kitchen and perfect for us. I still have to get a ton of furniture and organizational things but I am so excited to get it looking really nice. It’s the first time I’ve lived in a place that I’ve actually really liked, that wasn’t a student house or my parents house, and where I knew I’d be living for a while. So this combination of factors has but my nesting instincts into full force, and I have a newfound love for sites like Apartment Therapy.

2. Our neighbourhood is perfect for us as well. The streets around us are all full of gorgeous homes that are so well taken care of. I love walking through the streets and looking at them all. We are close but not too close to the main drag which is full of adorable bakeries, clothing stores, and markets. Kent works in the afternoons so every morning we walk down to a coffee shop and sit outside and drink our coffee and watch the world go by.

3. By ‘the world’, I mostly mean BABIES. There are so many babies in this area that it’s incredible. Everywhere you look there are strollers and (my favourite) baby slings. Oh, and we live within walking distance of a Chapters.

4. We found this little cake at a bakery and got it for Kent’s mom for Mother’s Day. Isn’t it beautiful?

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Filed Under: life, micaela

Saying Forever-Goodbyes

May 12, 2009 By 4 Comments

Yesterday Tim was talking about work, more specifically, his friend Jay. Jay had recently been transferred to a different city for two months, and was at work packing up and saying goodbye. He looked at me really weirded out and told me that another employee was having her final shift the same day. “Jay said goodbye to her forever. They said goodbye to each other knowing that they would never see each other ever again.” This really boggled Tim’s mind. He was amazed, and confused, and kind of sad for Jay and this coworker. I looked at Tim like “so what?” To me, saying goodbye to someone forever doesn’t really mean much, I should say, doesn’t faze me. I thought of the countless times I have met people, gotten close with them and subsequently said goodbye to them, forever. This would have happened when I was living in Quebec for a summer, then when I was working at a fishing lodge in Northern Ontario for a summer, and when I spent a month working and traveling in Costa Rica. This happened when I spent a week volunteering in Calgary a few years ago, and when we had a girl living with us from Russia for four summers. All of the people I met during these experiences impacted my life greatly, and because of these people, I am who I am today. I thank them for it, and owe so much to them for teaching me, for encouraging me, for pushing me to grow and for being in the awesome place I am in today. It occurred to me, that Tim hasn’t done a lot of stuff like this. He likes to stay in his comfort zone and keep his bubble of life as small and tight as possible. That, 99% of the time when he says goodbye to people it is a goodbye for a week, goodbye for a day, goodbye until the next time we run into each other.

I think I’ve gotten really good at goodbye forever, in a positive way. I can say goodbye to somebody, forever, without crying and being sad and still hold them in my heart and think about them often. What about you? Have your life experiences taught you say forever-goodbyes to people you know really well? Are you any good at them? Do you stink at them? Do you do them often? Am I a freak of nature with no heart or maybe just a thick-skinned social worker?

Filed Under: friends, life, relationships

H1N1

May 11, 2009 By 8 Comments

If you’ve been following some of the Fiveblondes on twitter, you will know how sick of the H1N1 virus we are.  If you aren’t familiar with the name H1N1, perhaps you will know the swine flu.  A horrible choice of name for this virus, which you CANNOT receive from eating pork products.  This unfortunate naming choice has been affecting pork farmers everywhere (including us!)

So do us a favour and get some pork on your fork!

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Go here to see a YouTube video about H1N1

What’s your favourite pork dish?

Filed Under: pigs
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