Saturday, June 29, 2013

Two Lies and a Truth: The Reveal

Last week I posted a little game to get everyone active...

... about 3% of viewers commented on that post. Oh well. At least some of you felt compelled to. Here are the results!


1. When I was a child, this line came out of my mouth:
a. "I'm full....but I can have dessert because only my dinner compartment is full... not my dessert compartment" 
b. alarm goes off , "I'm already awake stupid machine!"
c. Mom is on the phone planning a date and I want to talk to him, "Hi. Do you think you wanna marry my mom? .... Because I want you to get my mom a baby. Oh. Okay. Bye."




2. My favourite thing to do as a kid was:

a. play barbies
b. ride my bike
c. play basketball 




3. When I was a kid I wanted to be this when I grew up:

a. an architect - I still would be but I found out in grade 5 that I was horrible at geometry and then in grade 8, it wasn't getting any better so I had to get up that dream
b. a lawyer
c. a doctor




4. In high school, I was on/in:

a. the soccer team
b. vocal jazz - I tried to be on the soccer team but it confliced with this.... 
c. nothing. I was totally lazy



5. In college, the job I had was:

a. tutor
b. I didn't have a job - I did not have a job! I was not lazy haha I was too busy with school and doing practicum while in school. It was like working full time and going to school full time... at the same time
c. worked at Walmart




6. In high school, a classmate once pegged me as:

a. the best dressed
b. the cranky one
c. the one who knows all the gossip - Yep.. I always knew everything 




7. As a child, I thought I could be in a talent show for:

a. singing - like every other child
b. dancing
c. comedy



8. It took me this long to be able to drive on roads that had traffic:

a. 3 weeks
b. 1 day
c. 2 months - Nobody guessed this actually. For the record I was learning standard so yes it took me a while to be able to drive in traffic without stalling. 




9. I originally went to university to do this:

a. be an architect
b. be a lawyer - Love law! I found my law class so interesting! But.. I didn't want the lifestyle of a lawyer (always working and stuff) and I didn't want to go to school for 8 years so I ultimately switched it up. 
c. be a teacher




10. I consistently do this wrong no matter how often I'm corrected:

a. use "half time" for every break period in sports - Soccer is my main thang... 
b. say "I seen" instead of "I saw"
c. set up the computer wires in the back

So anyway the person who guessed the most right with a whopping 9/10 right was...

Jolene!! Congrats Jolene. I have nothing to give you for your efforts except this recognition (maybe when you guys start making me money I can have some cool giveaways ;)) 





Thursday, June 27, 2013

Throwback Thursday

We have now moved into June 2005. My friend Shay used to have a trailer just across the border near Seattle so in these pictures, we were spending the weekend there (and also burning our school work woohoo!) 





We are still BFFs! In fact, she is a bridesmaid in my wedding :) 

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Organizing the Files


Once a year you should be going through your file folder (I sure hope you have one). So of course I went through mine and have decided to show you my process. 

We use just a regular file folder right now, nothing cute because we needed something cheap that works. We got this one from Staples. It is pretty standard.


While the file folder works, over a year, documents will build up that don't need to be there anymore. In other words, we don't need them at all anymore. This is what it looked like before I tackled it.


This file folder has all the tabs I feel are necessary for the basics. If you have your own business and such, you will want to get a separate one. 




As I go through it, I make sure to staple any documents that are together that are not well... together. This makes sure that if you ever need to pull them out, you aren't searching through all the documents in case one got lost.


Brandyn and I are with the same bank but we do not have a joint account (which is a personal decision I will talk about in another post). Because of this, I put the name on the outside of each of our folders that has our banking information in it. This just takes a step out of finding the information we need. Instead of taking out both folders and opening to see which bank account it is, we just see on the outside.


When it comes to paycheck stubs, after the taxes are done for that year, they are shredded. I take the T4s and staple them to the tax form for that year and file it under taxes. For the paystubs and anything needed for taxes for the current year, I paperclip them together (I do not staple because you will constantly be adding paystubs to this) and then I file under employment. Here shown is a T4 from when Brandyn quit his job after we moved. I find it comical that under the reason, they put "following spouse." 


While I am sorting through, I am also laying them out by category and in the order that they will be put in the file folder. Right now, my work space is my bed :)


Here are three piles that will not go back into the file folder. The right is Brandyn's school work, the middle is an instruction manual and that will go into my manuals binder and then the right is all things needing to be shredded. I highly suggest shredding because identity thiefs sift through your trash.


As you can see Brandyn's school work that he needs to keep is a pretty big pile. I needed somewhere to put them but I didn't want a bulky binder taking up space on my bookshelf. 


I found this at staples and basically it had dividers on the inside but I easily just pulled them out and placed the paper in. I needed two for this big pile. You could use a binder if you wanted but I am lacking space and I could easily store this in a box in the closet with my file folder.


 Here it is all cleaned up! Much better and there is no clutter or papers we don't need anymore. For the record, I do not keep credit card statements or bills after they are paid. All that stuff is easily accessible online.





Sunday, June 23, 2013

No more soapbox Sunday

So I'm posting to inform that there will be no more Soapbox Sunday's. I enjoyed doing them and I definitely got some reactions from people but I have started a new adventure (will reveal with time) and that doesn't really fit what I am going to be doing.

If you really like them and want me to keep posting them on my Youtube channel, please let me know by leaving a comment below and I may consider it :)

Also if you saw my blog post yesterday, please participate. I have a few comments there and it is entertaining hearing the answers!

Pwease :) 

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Two Lies and a Truth

Ok! So I've got some quiet readers and that's ok. I don't really make my blogs that interactive but today is different. Today I am playing that little game: Two Truths and a Lie. So I've come up with some questions and then a bunch of answers and well I'm sure you know the rules ... but in case you don't... you have to pick which one you think is the truth! So when you have decided, post it in the comments below and next week I will reveal the answers :) - PS Mom you aren't allowed to do this. You probably know all the answers.

1. When I was a child, this line came out of my mouth:

a. "I'm full....but I can have dessert because only my dinner compartment is full... not my dessert compartment"
 
b. alarm goes off , "I'm already awake stupid machine!"
c. Mom is on the phone planning a date and I want to talk to him, "Hi. Do you think you wanna marry my mom? .... Because I want you to get my mom a baby. Oh. Okay. Bye."


2. My favourite thing to do as a kid was:


a. play barbies

b. ride my bikec. play basketball 


3. When I was a kid I wanted to be this when I grew up:


a. an architect

b. a lawyer
c. a doctor


4. In high school, I was on/in:


a. the soccer team

b. vocal jazz
c. nothing. I was totally lazy

5. In college, the job I had was:


a. tutor

b. I didn't have a job 
c. worked at Walmart


6. In high school, a classmate once pegged me as:


a. the best dressed

b. the cranky one
c. the one who knows all the gossip


7. As a child, I thought I could be in a talent show for:


a. singing

b. dancing
c. comedy

8. It took me this long to be able to drive on roads that had traffic:


a. 3 weeks

b. 1 day
c. 2 months


9. I originally went to university to do this:


a. be an architect

b. be a lawyer
c. be a teacher


10. I consistently do this wrong no matter how often I'm corrected:


a. use "half time" for every break period in sports

b. say "I seen" instead of "I saw"
c. set up the computer wires in the back


Alright dudes and dudettes (although probably mostly dudettes), have atter! 


Friday, June 21, 2013

Throwback Thursday

I grew up in a catholic family. Apparently I used to play around in my pew and my Mom once told me to listen and I yelled, "But I can't understand what he is saying!!!" Gotta love kids hey? 

Well here are pictures from my Confirmation in 2006




It rained that day (when does it not in Vancouver?) so my hair got all foobard. Ah well, the cake was good ;)


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Another Mixbook project

Remember here, where I posted about using Mixbook for my wedding guestbook? Well I loved how it turned out and got amazing customer service when I realized a mistake on it after I got it. As you know, I had done extensive research because there are so many photobook companies around now. Mixbook ended up being the cheapest option. So here I am with another project. 

I am now using Mixbook to do yearly photobooks. Part 1 of the year 2012 arrived the other day and I am just so happy with how it turned out. 



Here are a few of my favourite pages out of it: 



For those using Mixbook, I ordered an 11x12 hardcover book and used the new chalkboard theme!
Using themes are great because they have pre-done pages for people who aren't so creative when it comes to scrap booking (like me) but you can also do all your pages from scratch as well. 

I also suggest signing up for emails and waiting for 50% off. They come around often. 

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Photographer

Well we have shelled out some more $$ .... I mean, we booked the photographer for our wedding!

View her website here.

Believe it or not, I found her through Craigslist last year.  Every photographer I had booked was way over our budget. What was our budget? The calculator thing pooped out a whopping $1500 and that was after we lumped the videographer budget with it because we decided against having one.

In Toronto, most photographers start at $3000 and that is for like 4 hours of service.... no thanks. So I went to craigslist to see if I can find some amateurs. I found Vanessa's website and was actually really impressed with her pictures. She is a creative photographer which is exactly what I wanted. 

Jump ahead to now, we had a meeting and I decided to go with her. The total that we are paying is $2400 and here is what it includes:
  • 8 hours of coverage
  • 50 retouched images
  • One 7x7 book or one 8x10 book (40 pages, premium lustre paper, hard cover image wrap)
  • DVD of all the images (and they aren't watermarked)

Pretty good hey? 

We did go over our budget by almost $1000 but we were willing to for a photographer because there are three things you take away from your wedding: your marriage certificate, your rings, and the pictures. I still think I did good though ;)

You also may be wondering why we made the decision to nix a videographer.... I know it is nice to have but it wasn't necessary to us. We would rather spend our money on other things and it is tight enough as it is with our budget. 

So anyway now for the good stuff, here are some ideas to go on the "must have" photo list:








Thursday, June 13, 2013

Throwback Thursday

March 2006
These pictures represent all my friendships :)

 Every time I look at this picture I burst out laughing... I'm an interesting person lol 

 My kitty, Dodger. We got him when I was 4 and he died March 2009 - When I was 17.
He was such a grumpy old man.





Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Spring Cleaning Part 3

Well, we are rounding up to the third and last week of spring cleaning. Can you see the finish line? Soon you will have a perfectly clean house (if you are keeping up of course) 

Here is part 1 and part 2

  • Deep clean the bathroom 
    • Start with the top and move down to the bottom ending with the floor. I also like to throw away any products I bought and never used or pull forward products that got hidden in the back. 
  • Wash all your windows inside and out. 
    • Vinegar and water again 
  • Scrub all your window tracks
    • Soapy water and an old toothbrush should work but for really tough and nasty messes, try vinegar again
  • Go through your wardrobe and switch out your seasonal clothes
  • Treat all your dingy white clothes to to a soak in a bowl of vinegar or borax. 
  • Polish any wood.
    • I personally use the Pledge Orange stuff but see below for a green alternative



If you are looking for a green way to clean your bathroom, I suggest this:
I've heard out of all the natural ways, this one really does this trick. 

Also, here is a green alternative to the Pledge Orange from care2.com

So there you have it! All done! You are now ready to enjoy your clean house just in time for summer.


Saturday, June 08, 2013

Organizing the Blog

There is one thing that keeps this blog rolling with posts every few days.... and that is organization. I come up with a lot of ideas and if I didn't schedule them or write them down somewhere I would definitely lose them. I didn't always have this system in place, in fact it is quite recent. 

I use microsoft office OneNote. It is seriously my favourite program. You can have all your tabs in one place. I have 2 separate "notebooks." One for work and one for personal. I used the work when I was in school for notes and stuff and the personal one has my blog, wedding, and other things I might find handy like a list of (expensive) shopping items I want to save for but don't want to forget about! 

So here is what my blog tab looks like:


I basically get a picture of the calendar month from the internet, plop it in there and then what is great about the OneNote is that you can click anywhere in the page and start writing so... I just plug in my blog post schedule. Another great thing about doing it this way and not on a real notebook is I can easily make changes without marking everything up. 

Underneath the calendar I put ideas for future posts that don't have a spot in the schedule yet. I also have a list building up for my end of the month favourites. 

So as you can see, it is very easy and I can keep it separate from my actual calendar (which is on my phone)!

Thursday, June 06, 2013

Throwback Thursday

Today's Throwback Thursday  is of my 14th birthday - February 2006. 
Strange, I feel I haven't changed that much since I was 14.




Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Spring Cleaning Part 2


If you read part one here, I started spring cleaning the place. The idea is to do one a day and it will be done in 3 weeks. Click on the link to view what I did the first week. I actually took the weekend off and just piggy backed a couple. Here is the list for week 2:

  • Sprinkle the mattress with baking soda and let sit for at least an hour, then vacuum it all up with the brush attachment. You can also wait till next time you wash the sheets to do this.
  • Vacuum all upholstered furniture and vacuum or launder curtains.
  • Take rugs and mats outside and beat with a broom handle
  • Vacuum the floor really thoroughly before you put the rugs back
  • Spot clean the carpet stains
    • Spray stain with Windex  put a towel over it and iron over it. If it doesn't work fully the first time, do it again.
  • Deep clean the oven, counter tops and clean out all the bottom cabinets
    • To clean grease off your oven burners, put them in a baggy with 1/4 cup ammonia and seal the bag. Let it sit overnight (outside because it will stink) and then wipe it off in the morning with a sponge. 
    • If you have water spots on your faucets, take some wax paper and rub them off with it after your are done cleaning it.
  • Clean out the fridge 

If you are looking for a new vacuum, I highly reccomend any Dyson model. I don't have one myself but it is definitely on my registry. My Mom has the regular model and and a friend has the cordless for his apartment. They both love them and I have been known to borrow my Mom's every now and then to clean my place. They are expensive but well worth it and they give great customer service. Something in my Mom's broke and they sent her a new one right away, no questions asked. Ps. no this is not a paid advertisement for them lol. 




Also another tip, when you are cleaning out the cup boards and fridge you should also be checking all the food or anything that expires and throwing them out if they aren't good. 



Sunday, June 02, 2013

Soapbox Sunday: Open Relationships

Today's Soapbox is on the subject of open relationships. I don't understand them and here is why: