Hallowe'en in the New House

It's Hallowe'en!! 

First time giving out candy in the new house. 

It was fairly uneventful. 

The costumes were not that creative... all store bought ketchup bottles and angry birds. 

A couple of really cute little unicorns, princesses, and batmans though :) 

 These are the pumpkins Mr. A and I carved :) Mine is the smiling one! 

These are the puppies being all sad about not being able to greet the trick-or-treaters. 

Look at their little feet! 

Puppies trying to peek under the gate.  

Chocolate I gave away! 

Mr. A couldn't be here so I gave away the candy all by my lonesome. 

Had 76 kids total. 

Lots of leftover chocolate for me to munch on.

This is the weather today from my backyard. 

Snow everywhere and -20 degrees for Hallowe'en in GP! 

Good thing they make costumes to fit over snowsuits.  

Hope you enjoyed your Hallowe'en! 

Autumn in the Winter

Despite the fact that Autumn came and left GP within about two weeks, it still feels like Fall to me. Since I can't have nice leaves and nice weather, I bring fall inside instead. I often burn cinnamon and maple smelling candles, just so it smells like fall. Today I decided to bake too! 

I made Ginger Snaps. Can't go wrong with these. I even got to use our new Kitchen Aid mixer - which I'm now in love with. The cookies were "good" according to Russel. Then he saw that I was writing this and he added "excellent", "thumbs up", lol. I think they're delicious. I had never actually made them before, but they were super easy. 

Then I made Pumpkin Smoothies! Recipe courtesy of my good friend. The smoothies for real tasted like I was drinking pumpkin pie! They were amazing! I topped them with a pecan so they looked pretty too :) This is just about the most autumny-tasting thing you can make at this time of year - delicious!

Anyone else have any delicious fall recipes for me to try??

Post-Wedding Crafts

In the midst of all my wedding planning, I also came up with a few post-wedding craft ideas to hold onto some pieces of my wedding forever. 

Craft #1 - Christmas Ornament

A friend sent me this idea from Pinterest :) I waited until the flowers from my wedding bouquet dried and I added them to an empty ornament. All I have to do is add a nice ribbon (probably one of my extra wedding ribbons). The only problem is that some of the leaves of the most vibrant flowers (e.g. the orange gerberas) didn't dry nicely so I couldn't add them. I think it still will be a nice keepsake though :)


Craft #2 - Wedding Box

I love this one. I can't wait to hang it on my wall somewhere. I collected some of the extra bits after the wedding to keep forever. Instead of keeping them in a closed box somewhere I wanted to display them. I bought a shadow box, lined it with burlap, and glued various items to the burlap. My invitation, letters from the tables, the bags and tag from the favors, the table number, and the flowers that were used for the centrepieces and for decor. I'm not sure where we're going to put it up yet, but I'm sure I'll find a nice spot.

Any other post-wedding craft ideas out there for me?? I'm getting more and more creative these days!

Oct. 6, 2012

It's official. I'm Mrs. Vanderschaaf!!!! I'm MARRIED!!!! Yay :) 

It doesn't matter how many times people say "Enjoy the day, it flies by so fast!", you still can't stop your own wedding day from flying by. Although I feel like I scheduled the day perfectly, giving myself just the right amount of time to enjoy every moment of the day. The ceremony was beautiful. The dogs were adorable. The MC was hilarious. The speeches were amazing. The dance never ending. The day was perfect. Everything I ever imagined. It was amazing to see all of our preparations come together in one amazing event. 

We've been newlyweds for exactly 2 weeks today :) I think we're adjusting quite well to being married. Honestly, not much has changed, except I can make sure that Mr. A eats breakfast now. And I do twice as much laundry. And I have two sleepy puppies in my house instead of just one. Otherwise pretty much the same. 

I think maybe it's a bit more of an adjustment for Mr. A who moved into a new home, and moved further from his parents (and their shop!), and who now has to tell me where he's going all the time and when he'll be home. It's the same as before, just with more rules.... lol. 

Anyway... more information on my beautiful wedding and honeymoon to come! 

Here are a couple of pics that a friend took of the ceremony for you to peek at in the meantime. Enjoy!