spring at last!

yesterday's weather here in Toronto was absolutely perfect. we took Rudy to the dog park down by the lake and i snapped a few happy spring photos i thought i'd share with you. welcome spring!!!

there were a whole bunch of english bulldogs at the dog park. perhaps it was a breed club meeting or something. couldn't resist taking pictures o these mugs :)

Rudy was being a bit of a chicken. she barely left my side the entire time. i think i'll take her out there more often now that the weather is turning. baby needs some socializing!

summer daze

you'll have to forgive my fairweather blogging as of late. i've been enjoying the outdoors more than the computer screen, as i'm sure you can all understand. this weekend i'll be heading to a good friends cottage and i couldn't be more excited. nothing beats fresh air, trees, people i love and lots o beer n chuckles. looking forward to nights like this one...


wishing you all a marvelous weekend filled with chuckles of your own. take care of yourselves! see you next week! xo

winter in durham

ok winter, i've had just about enough of you. my weary frame is in dire need of a vitamin D dose. i'm yearning for some colours other than white and grey, as is customary for me this time of year. but alas, there are weeks, perhaps even months to go before spring comes to Toronto, so all we can do is try and make the best of things. sometimes it helps to get out of the big city and see the snow in a cleaner incantation. my friend and i did just that the other day, driving out to Durham county to take some photos on a sunny winter's day. here a a couple of my favourites.

keep dreaming of springtime! maybe it will get here faster :)

new tumblr page!

i've started a tumblr account to display my photographs. i'll be posting new photos there as often as i can (likely four or five times a week), so please head on over and take a look. i'd love to hear your feedback! click here.

niagara

my weekend in Niagara Falls was awesome! i lost 50 bones in the casino, but i got some great pictures! these are some of my favourites. my lady friends and i also went to one o those old timey photo places where you dress up like saloon girls and they take your picture in sepia. the results were fabulous, but i'm not allowed to post them. boooo.  and just for fun, here's some delicious jambalaya and me eatin' it! 

oh, and in case there was ever any doubt, the king is everywhere :)

bienvenue 2010!

...and so the holidays pass and we all return to our regular routines. lucky for me, i've another week off work in which to play with my christmas presents and bring my new years resolutions to fruition. this year my darling husband bestowed upon me the most incredible gift: a Canon EOS xsi! this is extraordinarily meaningful to me as it will allow me to improve my photography skills in hope of someday dabbling in wedding and event photography. plus, i can take pictures for my upcoming etsy shop, and fun photos for this blog, like the one of me above, taken by my husband. i have named my camera Gladys, and below is the first portrait i took with her, of my very handsome husband and our baby, Rudy.

as for my resolutions, the biggest one is the get-healthy-lose-weight-feel-better thing, which i'm sure you're all familiar with. we've cleaned out the fridge of all junk and i'll be playing happy housewife this week, making healthy dinners and packing lunches. more than that, we are committed to eating responsibly, thanks to a recent viewing of the phenomenal documentary Food Inc. (which everyone on earth should watch). for the losing weight part, we've enlisted the help of Wii Fit, which helped my sister-in-law lose 40 pounds. i seem to be allergic to gyms, but i love a good video game, so we'll see how it goes...

right now i'm off to the grocery store to buy fruits and vegetables and all that sort o' stuff. hope you're having a great day!

i left my heart in nova scotia

back to reality in the crowded, money driven, hopelessly land locked city. this past week has been a halcyon dream. Nova Scotia was truly soul stirring. i can hardly wait for the day i set foot on her shores once more, next time perhaps for good.

who let the queen mum in here?

as requested, here are the results of my attempt at setting my hair. bit bigger, rounder, and more queen mum than i was goin' for, but still pretty fun. gotta work on my technique...

married at graceland a year ago today

a year ago today, my husband and i were married at Graceland's Chapel in the Woods, on the grounds of Elvis Presley's home. it was a truly magical experience, for which i am forever grateful to my husband, my family and friends, the city of Memphis and the king himself. i've so many pictures i wouldn't know how to begin posting them, so i'll just post these...

the wall outside Graceland is covered in messages from adoring fans, and after a blissful week in Memphis, we left a message of our own:

and thank you to my wonderful husband for choosing me to be his wife. i am truly blessed.

when life gives you rain, make rain-aid

Bonjour! and happy Canada Day! i'm back in the city and in one piece, though my long anticipated journey into the wild did not turn out exactly as expected. after driving 5 and a half hours due north, we arrived at George Lake in Killarney provincial park (above) and had a marvelous evening of swimming, fire-watching and hot dogs on sticks. the next morning we dined on a delicious campfire breakfast, shortly after which it began to rain. hard.

now, i'm no pantywaist. i've camped in the rain before. not a problem. trouble is, this rain did not let up, even for a moment. after 4 or 5 hours sitting under the tarp, we decided to brave the elements and went out to do some fishing. by the time we returned to our site, there was a moat around our tent and an ever growing puddle on the inside caused by a leak in the fly.

cold and drenched, we huddled beneath the tarp and listened to the man on Moose radio tell us that thunderstorm warnings were in effect for the next two days. this is when we decided to bail.

i can't say i wasn't extremely disappointed, or that i didn't cry just a little, but we made the best of it and drove in to nearby Sudbury to stay in a dry hotel and visit Science North.

and hilarity ensued...

then, on the way home we took whatever turn-off tickled our fancy. a kind of northern Ontario sampler tour.

all in all, i had a wonderful time, though it wasn't what i had envisioned. and next year, we will be better prepared (and will consult a farmer's almanac before we book) :)

i hope you all had magnificent weekends with little or no rain, and if you're Canadian, enjoy your day off! xo

(p.s. those pictures are of slept-in-a-tent-and-lived-in-the-rain-for-days me, dressed in don't-care-if-i-get-mud-all-over-them clothes, so please don't judge:)

pioneer village - a photo essay :)

i hope you all had a restful and luxurious weekend!  my husband and i went to pioneer village on saturday (so i can cross that one off my list).  i took reams and reams of photos, but these ones are my favourites:

and these are the goodies i brought home with me: a sack of flour from the mill, a clothes peg doll kit, and an old copy of poe's tales of mystery and imagination!