Sunday, September 30, 2012

Invitations

A couple of weeks ago, Wedding Paper Divas had a special where you can order 5 samples for free. So naturally I took advantage of that .. even though I really don't need to be buying invitations.


Well one day I wandered into Michael's looking for something completely different.. and I spotted a rack of Wedding Invitations for $9.99 each. Pardon?! Don't mind if I do...

Also conveniently .... I found a set that I liked and while not quite my colors.. it was close enough and there was also only two boxes left. Just the amount I needed!





Great. Then a couple weeks later my package from wedding paper divas came in. Uh-oh


They included a big color swatch of all their invites so I'm definitely keeping it because they have the exact color I want for my bridesmaids dresses on there. That will be helpful when I go into stores.

 1
 2
3

 4
5

The only one that I really don't like is number 2. I like them all but my favourite is 4 and once I saw it, I was kind of torn. So I basically decided to keep all the samples and then when the time comes to actually worry about invitations I will make the decision. I can always sell the ones I got at Michael's anyway - what's 20 bucks right? 

Then again... 20 bucks for invitations is a screaming deal and leaves a ton of space open for other things. Tough decisions haha . It's just paper Lauren... it's just paper... it will end up in people's garbage.... 


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Q & A Interviews

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before.. I think in my very first post but I am currently in my final year of school; studying radio broadcasting. Right now we are rotating through jobs every week to get a feel for everything before we pick our focus in last semester.

For first week I did a feature called Making Contact. I did an interview with someone different everyday of the work week. I've posted them here for your enjoyment :)


Making Contact with Music Heals

Music Heals is a new charity based outside of Vancouver that helps raise awareness and support for Music Therapy.

Making Contact - Vancouver Fringe Festival

The Vancouver Fringe Festival is an annual festival that showcases theater talent.

Making Contact - Burnaby Rotary Club

I'm sure you've heard of Rotary International but if not they are a service club that helps local and international communities.

Making Contact - Danielle Spitters (Mortage Broker)

Making Contact - Investor's Group Consultant Renee Wilkins

I plan to post more of my feature work here in the future. Some features may be more interesting than others but yea... enjoy :)

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Oregon, Day 5 and 6

Last post about the Oregon trip. It was really time to finish this off considering it's been a month since I got back from Oregon and I really have other things to share with you...

Day 5 started with us checking out of the hotel in Newport and getting some breakfast. There was another Pig'n'Pancake in this town so we went. I was not that impressed. While my sour dough pancakes were good... I would have thought there would be a lot more pancake choices to choose from considering the restaurant chain includes such food in the name. Also, the service, while better, was not stellar.

After we were done, we started on towards Portland where we would be spending our last day. We stopped in Albany to see the historic houses that were mentioned in my Mom's travel book but when we finally found it (the gps did not like the address), we were not impressed enough to go in. So we continued on.

On our way into Portland we stopped in this place called Tigard. I wanted to stop at DSW to look at wedding shoes and this was the one on the way. So we went in, I didn't find anything I liked not to mention in a white color because apparently the bridal selection is actually on the website. Well then... that doesn't work for me does it? I did pick up a nice coral colored guess purse which was really nice though so that was nice.

Next door to DSW was a bridal shop so we went in there. Just a note, bridal shoes in Canada are at least $100 and I knew they weren't as much in the USA so that is why we were looking. I found shoes that I loved. They only had one in my size and that was the sample one which was stretched out so they told me if I phoned later they would ship it to me. Score. I still have yet to phone them though...Need to wait for some money first.

We ate lunch at this pizza place in the same complex that all this was in which also had valet parking. That was interesting to me. Then we went back on the highway towards Portland. Our first stop in Portland was Powells City of Books.

I had never heard of this place before but man... if you like books and have never been here before, then you need to go. Lets just say... they had a map to guide you. Intriguing right? I picked up quite a few used wedding books.


 I got this one for $13.95 (orig 20). I picked it over another one because it does an actual budget breakdown and estimate on what each craft should cost


I love being organized and creating lists even if I don't follow them. I picked up this one used for $8.95 (orig would have been $16 if I bought in Canada) The person who owned it before had written in it a bit but I actually found it quite interesting to see what she was and wasn't doing for her wedding and there was a pleasant little note in the cover.

This looks extremely outdated on the cover hey? Published 1997.. I got this one for a whole 4 dollars and 50 cents! This one is full of any possible question you could ever have. I love it and trust me from what I've heard on wedding forums, the answers to the questions aren't out dated.


Now I haven't cracked this one open yet but I am definitely looking forward to it. I actually just noticed the "as seen on oprah" As I was posting this picture on here haha... I got this one for $7.50. 

My Mom also got a good haul too. There was way more in my basket but I had to put some back... After we left the bookstore, we made our way to check into the hotel. We stayed at the Inn at the Convention Center. This one was kind of .. how do I put it... It was on the lower end of the accomodation spectrum. The guy at reception was extremely nice and internet worked good but the room kind of stunk. It was fine though. My Mom and I walked down to the movie theater, watched a movie and then got up the next morning and packed our things. 

Day 6 was basically us making our way back home. We stopped at an outlet store on the way and dinner at the Olive Garden in Burlington, Washington but otherwise it was pretty direct. It was a good trip of sightseeing and now I can cross that off my list :)

Monday, September 17, 2012

Oregon, Day 4

Day four of our Oregon trip was a packed day! We woke up and went to this little breakfast place next door to the inn which was average. I'm pretty sure it was all home made and nothing was really frozen which is a plus.

After that we made our way to our Dunes tour! We used Sandland Adventures. There is a couple of other private ones but my Mom saw that there were better ratings for this one. There are 2 options. A more intense one which is an hour and you go on the beach and a less intense one that is a half hour. Naturally we chose the more intense one and honestly unless you are reallly scared of these type of things which I totally understand, not making fun of you... do the more intense one. It wasn't that bad, we went faster and also got to drive on the beach. It was pretty fun but prepare to have sand like everywhere. I had sand in my pants haha.






















After this we left for Newport. When we got there we went to the Aquarium which was pretty average. I've been to the Vancouver Aquarium many times so this one was kind of the same. The one highlight in this one for me was the bird sanctuary that we could actually walk in and the tanks that we could walk under. That was pretty cool as well.





































I had to take a picture of Princess Peach..... haha

After the aquarium we checked into our hotel. We stayed at Value Inn and Suites at Yaquina Bay. This hotel was pretty standard but the one thing that I was not impressed with was the internet did not work at all! I was away from my hubby to be and I wanted to talk to him at night and when I talked to reception, the girl didn't even know what she was doing in trying to make it work. I wanted to go back there and fix it myself but alas that would be innapropriate. We went to dinner at this more expensive restaurant which was good. I tried to look on the map for the restaurant but I don't even know what the name was sorry. Newport also had a really cute old part of town which I love. After we went back to the hotel and chilled out and that was the end of our day.

Day 5 and 6 don't have any pictures to it so I'm going to do both those entries together next time. I didn't do my weekly Pinterest finds because I am so behind in posts and things keep happening that I want to share but once I am all caught up I will get that going again :)