A Sunday to Remember

Recently, I decided to try out PiYo at BeachYoga (a studio close to my house). I love the place I currently go to (the teacher is AWESOME) but I just crave more and more PiYo each week and it is only offered twice a week at my current studio... so I decided to branch out.

PiYo at Beach Yoga was okay - I sweat A LOT. The teacher said the room was not heated, but it was so hot in the room! The only thing I didn't like was the music - all the tracks were quite slow... so it didn't even get you pumped up. Kim (the instructor from the other studio) uses fun, fast tracks like this one (Side note - "Be Okay" by Oh Honey is my new happy song).

Anyway, so PiYo was at 9:30am so I was home by 10:40 ish or so... I chilled for a bit.. then showered so we could go out for lunch. After lunch, Bobby dropped me off at home because he was on the hunt for a tool chest... I had a lot of things I wanted to get done at home... and shopping for tool chests just didn't sound fun.. so off he went. He came back a couple of hours later with half of the tool chest because it obviously wouldn't all fit in the car (even though he took my car, the hatchback).

So Bobby came back with the lower half of the tool chest (this is the bigger piece of the two pieces). We managed to get it into the apartment just fine. Then Bobby went back to Costco to pick up the top half.

Now, allegedly 4 Costco employees helped Bobby load the car for the bottom part of the tool chest. The bottom piece is probably about 350 pounds (boxed). The top piece is 150 lbs (boxed). After both pieces were in the apartment, Bobby unboxes them... and then looks at me and say he needs help putting the top half on top. Hahahahaha is all I can say. I mean I am very short. I am only 5'3" and the bottom part is 3 and a half feet tall... and Bobby expects me to lift almost 150 lbs over 3.5 feet in the air?!?!?!?!? It was insanity. And the whole time I am panicking that we will drop this and someone will get injured!!

But.. since I am the only other person in the apartment, there was no one else Bobby got tag into this situation. So I put my big girl panties on and brainstormed the plan of how we could get this damn thing where it was supposed to go.

The first step was lifting it about a foot and a half onto our coffee table. Our coffee table is old and metal and I hate it... But its super durable (it used to be Bobby's "workbench" in our old apartment)... so I knew it would hold up. The next problem was getting another 2 feet in the air... At this point, my stress level was at 110. I mean, like wtf. Bobby kept saying, just lift it with your legs. But my legs are tired from PiYo and I didn't trust that they wouldn't buckle from all that pressure and weight!! I mean seriously... 150lb is clearly heavier than me!! Haha... So, I regrouped and devised another plan. We used our couch arm chair as leverage/a spotting location. We pushed the top half of the tool chest completely on the arm of the couch. Then Bobby, lifted one side all the way to the top of the bottom half, while I held the other side down (with lots and lots of spotting from my couch by the way). Then we traded spots. I then held the top of the tool chest in place while Bobby lifted the other side up... insert lots of fixing here... et voila:

All I can say is, I deserve some sort of medal for this.

Has anyone seen my treat??!

The cake tasting and the wedding registry (part 2)

So we were a little unhappy with the Crate and Barrel gift registry process (you cannot manage/change your wedding registry online, nor can your guests purchase gifts online) so we decided to switch over to The Bay (Canada's Gift Registry!!).

As previously mentioned, I used to work for The Bay, so I've seen first hand how awesome their wedding registry process is. Firstly, you have to make an appointment to scan items on your registry... and they give you this really awesome box which includes a catalog where you can scan items into your registry using their new app!! In the box, there is also a guideline list of things you "might need" (eg, a list of linens, a list of kitchen gadgets, etc) And you can manage your registry online. Crate and Barrel was a lot less formal - you can walk in at anytime to register. They don't give you a list of "guidelines" that can help you during your registry process... One last difference, The Bay gives you a year to complete your registry; Crate and Barrel only gives you 6 months. 

The box

However, Crate and Barrel has a few items that The Bay does not carry (eg: Bobby's beer/bar glasses) so we are going to keep both registries. To be honest, I am sure most of the items on both registries we will end up purchasing ourselves because who buys gifts for weddings anyway??! People usually just give cash these days!!

We spent a good hour and a half on the 5th floor of The Bay in downtown. I thought that registering would be a lot more fun, but its actually overwhelming. Its hard to decide which plates, or which glasses to register for... and it doesn't help that Bobby and I have polar opposite taste in everything!!

After scanning a million plates into our registry, we headed for the 2nd floor (my favorite floor!!!) to check out the shoes I want to get for the wedding. Originally, I wanted the red Valentino rock stud pumps, but 

1) they don't match my wedding dress 

2) they aren't leather so they aren't worth the 995$ plus tax

I really want shoes that are not classic wedding shoes - shoes that are different, yet match my style and shoes that I can wear again. These Alice and Olivia pair are amazing. They are a little high so I would need to practice wearing them (I wear flats all the time)... but they aren't pricey. 335$ before tax... I am waiting for The Bay VIP sale (25% off anything in the store - anything that is not licensed or in The Room at least). Also keeping my options open in case I find another pair of shoes I like :)

So after The Bay, we headed to Ganache Patisserie for a wedding cake consult and cake tasting. When we lived in downtown, we bought a lot of cakes at Ganache Patisserie. Their cake is AMAZING. So when it came time to consider where we should buy our wedding cake, there was no other option!! Peter from Ganache sat with us and helped us design our cake. We also tasted some cakes before going for a custom option. Can't wait to serve this to our guests ;)

We tasted 5 cakes and these were the leftovers we got to bring home

So after paying for the cake deposit.. and the cake consult.. we decided we did not spend enough money on cake today so we bought another cake for our friend Janice's birthday! It was her birthday a few days ago and we didn't know what to get her... so why not an awesome cake from our favorite bakery! We got her the mango chocolate mousse cake (or whatever it is called) and we dropped it off just after dinner. Luca got all hyped up on sugar. Mental note to not give him any sugar when we babysit next week ;)

And that was Saturday. I am honestly impressed that we are getting lots done for our wedding. I am constantly crossing things off my list!! Woo hoo!!

Kiwi the hedgehog eater

My mom gave us hedgehog chocolates a couple weeks ago and we finally busted the box open yesterday. I wanted to take a picture of Kiwi and the chocolate hedgehog together.... But I couldn't put the chocolate down without Kiwi wanting to eat it.

Kiwi does this really cute thing where she will reach a paw out for something she really wants (eg cat treats) and she was really reaching for the chocolate last night. So cute!!! Side note: normally, I let Kiwi have treats (even human treats) but chocolate is something she can't eat because it's really bad for her. Sorry, Kiwi!!

So to sum up: Kiwi will not eat kiwi (her fruit namesake) but she will eat hedgehogs. What a weirdo ;)

The wedding registry

So today yesterday, we did our wedding registry. I made a list of things we needed/wanted, headed to Crate and Barrel… and wandered somewhat aimlessly for over an hour.

Before I get into the amazingness of shopping for things “for free”, I wanted to share a funny story about my experience with wedding registries from my days working as a Sales Associate at The Bay J

Back in… 2004-2007 (ish), I worked at The Bay Coquitlam as a cashier. The job in itself was kind of boring.. but as a student, I actually worked with lots of fellow UBC Science students, so it was kind of fun hanging out with people you knew.. outside of school… while making money. Anyway, so one Saturday morning in the summer, I checked in for work and before I could even get behind the cash desk, this gentleman came up to me asking where he could print a wedding registry list. So I walked with him to the wedding registry printer and helped him print his niece’s wedding registry out… and told him to have a look at the list to see what he wanted to purchase… and to find one of us Sales Associates if he needed help locating something. The lovely man looked at me and says “Okay, well I need help buying everything left on this list”. Immediately, I assume he is JOKING.. I mean, who the heck buys out the rest of someone’s registry??!?! Well, the man was NOT joking… His niece was getting married that morning and he wanted to complete her wedding registry. Now this is actually an extremely sweet gesture since no one usually ever completes their wedding registry… and its always the small things that get left behind (picture frames, oven mitts, etc) since people usually end up buying the “more expensive items” (blenders, toasters, bed sheets, etc).. However… since the man’s niece was getting married that morning, the man actually did not have time to do the shopping himself. Not only was he attending the wedding (duh), but he was also emcee for the reception, which meant that he had to leave the store ASAP to get ready for the wedding… and he couldn’t be back until right before the store closed… Which meant that I had the pleasure of running around the store looking for items left on his niece’s registry. I recruited a co-worker to help out and we even found some boxes to put the presents in so we could wrap everything up. We rang everything up on a cash register so that the total would be ready for when the man returned to pay for everything. He didn’t want to leave his credit card number – he only promised to return around 4pm (we were closing at 6pm). Well, 4pm rolls by and no man… 430… no man… I start to panic and think we got punked.. and that not only did I spend all morning looking for all of this crap.. I was also going to have to spend all afternoon putting it back!! We called the man and he kept saying he would be there soon … I think we were all starting to lose hope before the man walked back into the store (in his tux!) to pay for everything. I think the total was only a few hundred dollars but I’m sure his niece was touched at his extremely kind gesture J

Note: this is note a story shared with anticipation that we will also have a fairy god-uncle come and buy everything off of our list! I just had to share this story because it’s so random J

Anyway, back to our registry story:

I think we did okay. We didn't go TOO crazy - we did register for a LOT of glasses (Bobby had to have every single beer glass, and some moscow mule mugs... and then we also had some regular drinking glasses and wine glasses). I was going to go online to remove some glasses but we can't access our registry online (even though the Sales Associate at Crate and Barrel said that we could :( ). I also need to change the sheets we requested... and add some fancy dinner plates.

My most FAVORITE item we requested was this doormat. Okay seriously, I only requested one, but I think I should have requested every one they had in stock!!! ;) We can have a hedgehog door mat at every door in the apartment!!! The only downside is having a hedgehog mat means "stepping on Kiwi"... But the mat is so cute so I am okay with that!

I am strong

Okay so I've been working out since 2015 started. Mainly to get in shape for my wedding/get in shape overall. I go to PiYo twice a week (Monday's and Saturdays) and I go to another class (Abs, butt and thighs) at the community centre near my house on Wednesday's... And I bought some weights for some light weight training at home for the days in between. Now I know I've been getting stronger... But I didn't know I was THIS strong now:

I went to get hot water for my tea today and I broke the dispenser button right off. 

Buuut, unfortunately (fortunately?) I am no she-hulk. I went to tell my manager about the mishap and he informed me that the button actually broke a few weeks ago and so whoever replaced it must've done a shoddy job... So it broke easily :)

In other news since I haven't blogged in a while:

- We have a wedding venue and a wedding date!! So excited

- Kiwi's been a bit of a drama queen and she's been extra pissed off lately. Hopefully she's back to normal tonight!

- Lots of new and exciting things coming up at work :):)

Went a little nutso at Superstore today...

All of the Christmas decorations and wrapping stuff, etc at Superstore is 70% off... so I went a little crazy.

I got:
- 3 large gift bags
- 4 alcohol gift bags
- 2 small gift bags
- 6 packs of tissue paper
- Christmas cards

all for less than 10$ (it was 9.78$ or something)

INSANE!!

/shopaholic moment

In other news, we watched Gone Girl last night. Such a good movie. Rosamund Pike played such a great character. I am a little freaked out about the craziness/creepiness of it all though.

A little 2015 DIY project

Happy 2015!! I hope everyone had a great time celebrating the new year with friends, family and loved ones :)

January 1st started off with a Christmas decoration DIY project (a tip that I picked up from work). 

Basically, what this is is a large "decorative" box you can use to store your Christmas ornaments and decorations when its NOT Christmas... but during the holidays, you can put this lovely box under your tree (giving it the illusion that its one giant present). Maybe its because we don't have kids, but Bobby and I don't normally have a lot of presents under our tree anyway... and lets face it, presents get wrapped the night before or the morning of our family Christmas party, so there really isn't very much going on under our tree. In fact, since we currently don't have side tables (Bobby is working on these right now), our board games are the boxes that are hanging out under the tree ;)

Materials needed:

- One large box that has a lid that's separate from the bottom part of the box... size up to you, depending on how many decorations you own and/or how much space you want to take up under your tree (I used a printer paper box I got from work)

- Pretty but durable wrapping paper... I suggest buying craft paper because it's thicker than regular wrapping paper (I bought this red craft wrapping paper from Michael's. If you do end up going to Michael's, don't forget to use your coupons - 40% off every week or 50% off certain weeks)

- Fancy ribbon

- Scotch tape

- Glue gun or double sided tape (optional)

Okay, first thing's first - wrap the lid of the box and the actual box SEPARATELY with wrapping paper. This is actually easier said than done, especially if you are like me and you are not a present wrapping guru. Be sure to wrap both pieces separately so that you can open and close the box as you need (DUH, sorry for having to be Captain Obvious). Be extra careful around the corners because once you wrap the box with wrapping paper, it's more difficult to put the lid back on (since the box is "fatter"). I used scotch tape to reinforce the outside corners of the bottom part of the box and the inside corners of the lid (since these are the parts of the box that will be rubbing against each other when you start trying to shove the lid on)

Once you have the box wrapped up, use fancy ribbon to accent the box. My plan was to do the regular "criss/cross" ribbon design with a pretty bow on top... but I ran out of ribbon and very fortunately had exactly enough to just wrap around the box. As above, make sure you put the ribbon separately on the lid and the bottom part of the box. I suggest using tape to hold the ribbon in place while you line up the ribbon on the lid and bottom part of the box (I taped the ribbon on the inside of the box so that it doesn't ruin the wrapping paper when I have to adjust and readjust the wrapping paper while lining up the ribbon). Once you are satisfied with the positioning of the ribbon you can use double sided tape or hot glue to more permanently hold the ribbon in place). I have not done this part yet. I am planning on using hot glue because I don't have double sided tape. Will update you all to let you know if this is a good idea (I'm worried it might ruin the wrapping paper)....

Another optional step is to make a fancy bow to put on top of the box. As mentioned above, I ran out of ribbon so I didn't get this far. Also, I have absolutely now idea how to make a fancy bow with ribbon so I guess you can say I lucked out ;)

The final product should look something like this:

And this:

I finally had some time to work on this project... just in time for the time of the year when decorations need to be put back in the storage :)