all I want for Christmas...

aside from the obvious, like a puppy, an end to all global suffering, disease and hunger, and the ability to wear heels all day every day without excruciating pain. Here are a few things I would be very excited to find in my stocking.

Comeback Sweater from Tobi, $38
Raise the Bar Wedge Sneakers from Skechers, $89
The Amaranthine Headband from Anthropologie, $32
Calvin Klein Euphoria for Women Perfume, $57
Michael Kors Chronograph Watch in Rose Gold, $250
Nikon D40 Camera, $399

home sweet home

Thanks to all of the Amerrrrcans and their celebrations, I got to go home for a few days last week. It was amazing to be at home, and I've lost two toes to frostbite, so right on schedule, then.

That one guy came with me, and I got to show him around my hometown and introduce him to some of my friends from high school. The whole weekend was filled with hockey, food, family and fun, we got to watch the Grey Cup, and also spent some time stuck with the truck in a snowbank so it was really the full Saskatchewan experience.

This stuff will kill you, stay away

Pasty Mcpaste

My girlfriend

Taken by my 4 year old nephew

This one too

My boyfriend Bristol, he will eat your face if you aren't careful

 hockey game

Best friend's from high school, we used to be very bad kids

wedgie

I am dying over these shoes. I'm not really much of a sneakers girl, I tend to wear ballet flats or flip flops, and most of the time I would rather go barefoot.

I fell in love with a similar pair on Ashley Madekwe's blog, whom I've adored since she was in The Secret Diary of a Call Girl, but I knew I couldn't afford them, and also, they were sold out (I checked).

At the airport the other day, I saw a woman wearing these shoes and I literally stalked her through the bookstore. By the time I finished paying for my magazines and chocolate, she was already gone, and just as I was about to write her off, she reappeared 10 feet away. I knew it was meant to be.

She told me her shoes were Skechers, but she had taken all of the Skechers labels off, leaving her with super adorable kicks that were virtually indistinguishable from the pricey version I originally lusted after. Sometimes, things just work out.

green thumb

In Saskatchewan, you can't really own tropical fruit trees. Ever since I was little I wanted to have my own exotic fruit tree, so I was very excited when we came to look at the house that is now our home, and saw that there was an orange tree, and a lime tree in the back.

Now if I could just get a pomegranate tree, I would be set for life.

Margaritas, anyone?

back to the '50's...

I was out Christmas shopping for my lovely little Sailor Moon the other day, when I saw something that kind of surpised me. I haven't spent time in the little girls toy section for years, I've mostly been buying toys for my nephew, so I was excited to see all the new and exciting toys that have come out since my days of pogs and ninja turtles.

There were still tons of dolls, but I was kind of surprised and happy to see that the Barbie doll had gotten a makeover in recent years. They are bigger now, still pretty skinny but they have more curves now, their hips are much more realistic, and their heads are bigger and more life-like. There were also a lot more "techie" toys especially some great learning toys that might be good for her when she is a bit older. 

 

I was kind of surprised to see this however:

 

 

Still, in this day and age where women can be anything they want to be, they are selling little vacuums, broom sets and ironing boards for little girls toys. I don't think there is anything wrong with "playing house" I did that a lot when I was younger, but something about the way these toys were bright pink and covered in Minnie Mouse and obviously geared towards little girls shocked me a little bit.

 

It would be one thing if it was like a house-section and there were more gender neutral versions or ones with more masculine design and decoration, but they weren't selling anything like this in the boys section, I checked.

 

The argument could absolutely be made that little girls gravitate more towards these kinds of toys because they are born nurturers, and they like to take care of things, and keep things neat and clean, but that brings us back to the Nature vs. Nurture debate.

 

 First of all, all little girls are not like that, many of them would rather be out playing baseball or soccer or doing science experiments than playing with dolls, just as there are little boys who would rather bake cookies and read than be outside playing in the mud. 

 

And also, you have to wonder again if even the little girls that do like to play with dolls, and the little boys that do idolize cowboys and fast cars do so because they really like them, or if that is how we socialize them and teach them about gender in our society. 

 

Maybe if little girls were given the opportunity to do more of the traditionally masculine activities, instead of being given a baby doll to take care of from the moment they are old enough to open their eyes, they might gravitate towards different activities.

 

It also reminded me of this video I saw a few weeks ago:

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deliciousness

There are very few things that I love as much as I love cheesecake. It is one of the most solid and lasting relationships of my life. A friend once said to me "If you ever meet a guy that you like as much as you like the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory, you better marry him immediately".

Well I actually was lucky enough to meet someone I like just as much as that cheesecake, and I did marry him immediately. You can't force somebody to love you, but you can stalk them until they panic and give in.

With the recent addition of a spring-form pan into my life, I've been planning to spend a great deal of my time baking and consuming different kinds of cheesecake, although I've demonstrated amazing self control thus far, when the time came to make something for our Thanksgiving potluck it took me about .3 seconds to decide to make chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

I found this recipe online and decided to give it a try. Unfortunately I do not have a double boiler, and decided that melting the chocolate chip in the microwave would work just as well.

It didn't. I burnt the chocolate chips, and when I took them out of the microwave and set them on the counter, the bowl basically exploded, oozing burnt chocolate all over my counter top and leaving a bowl shaped scorch mark on the counter-top. Luckily my husband has not noticed it yet.

Having been myself for 25 years now, and knowing the kinds of things that tend to happen to me, I had anticipated just such an occurrence, and bought double the chocolate chips I would need, so the cake did make it in the oven after all.

Once the cake was cooled, I topped it with chocolate ganache and raspberries, and it was really delicious. As one of my co-workers said "I've never been to Heaven, but I have had Jasmine's chocolate raspberry cheesecake."

a little sparkle and Specialty's...

I am hopefully snuggled up in the snowy wilderness of the GWN right now, but Happy Thanksgiving to all my Amerrrrrrrcan friends.

A Specialty's chocolate chip cookie and some sparkle to brighten your day. Perfection.

bay life

Last weekend we headed into the city for Red Bull Flugtag. I've been seeing commercials for it forever, and I was so excited to finally be there to see it. Sadly, we didn't show up the night before and camp out so we couldn't get anywhere near close enough to see all of the action. 

Luckily, it was a gorgeous day, so we found a waterfront cafe and had brunch and mimosas instead.

"The Golden Gate Bridge is red? WTF!"- My lovely sister Courtney

Luckily you can't see it in the picture but this was about 5 minutes after I dropped a chicken kebob on my skirt

canadia

In honour (with a u) of my upcoming trip back to the Great White North, I have amassed some of my favourite Youtube videos that remind me of home.



The first time I watched this video during the 2010 Winter Olympics I sobbed. Hysterically.

And this video is just amazing.



True story.

Also, this:

i'm leafing..

I found this leaf while I was out for my run this morning and it filled me with a burst of patriotism as I sweated and wheezed my way up the big hill by my house. I am so excited for this week, on Wednesday I leave for home, I get to go back to Canada for 5 days to see my friends and family, and hopefully do some frolicking in the snow.

I don't get to go home very often and when I do there are always so many people I want to see and so many things that I want to do that it never seems long enough. Even though it can be a little rushed and frantic, and I constantly feel like I am disappointing someone because I have to pick and choose and I can't do everything and see everyone, I always have so much fun, and I always leave feeling happier, and more like myself than I do anywhere else.

oasis

One of the great things about being in this city, is there is something different around every corner. We are always looking for new places to eat lunch, it's nice to get out of the office and spend time outside especially when the weather is nice.

 
Last week we were walking to get food, and we turned a corner and found this beautiful park beside the Yerba Buena Center. It has waterfalls, flowers and tons of beautiful green grass, and it is very peaceful, even when there are a lot of people around. It's the kind of place that makes you wish you had a frisbee, or a book to plop down and read under a tree.

It's a perfect little oasis in the middle of all of the brick and concrete.

gno

I love my husband to death, and I have so much fun hanging out with him, but because of the way we moved here, and how we had been living for the past year, we have spent a ton of time together. Whenever one of us wasn't at work, it was basically always the two of us together.

I think it has really brought us closer together, but at the same time, I think it's really unhealthy for a relationship for the two people in it to only have each other, and not have outside friendships, relationships and hobbies.

In the last few months since I've started working and getting more comfortable with the area, I've definitely opened up more and really gotten to know some great people, especially some really great women. Women have always been a bit tough for me, the good girl friends I have are amazing, I would do anything for them, and they would do anything for me, but it definitely takes time to build those relationships, and it doesn't happen with just anyone you meet.

As much as I miss my ladies being so far away from them here, I have met some really fun, friendly, ambitious girls in the last few months, and I'm having a blast getting to know them, and spending time with them, yes, usually over a glass of wine. We have a lot in common, being young and female and just getting started in the work force, and also not from this area, so it's been really great.

I just got back from having a drink after work with one of my new favourite girls, and it was exactly what I needed after such a crazy week at work. I missed my bus stop and had to run almost 2 miles in the dark down rapist alley, but it was worth it. Sometimes all you need is a glass of wine and some girl talk to change your whole perspective.

favourites...

Things that are making me happy right now:

This recipe for chocolate cheesecake that I am going to make for our company Thanksgiving potluck. I bought a spring-form pan to make Pumpkin Cheesecake for Canadian Thanksgiving this year, and ever since then I've been wanting to make a new cheesecake recipe every week, and then eat the whole thing myself. I feel very accomplished when I pull out my spring-form pan, they only let you buy one if you are a professional chef. Probably. All I need now is a set of ramekins and I can basically open my own restaurant.

This Rose Gold Michael Kors watch I've been wanting for a few months now. It is soooo gorgeous but I always feel guilty spending so much money on an item for myself, because there are starving children in the world, still a girl can dream. Maybe if I am a good Santa will put it in my stocking?

The fact that there are only 9 more days until I get to go back to Canada to see all of my family and friends. So far on the agenda: perogies, a Grey Cup party, hockey games,  a bachelorette party for one of my oldest friends, and massive amounts of cuddling with my niece and nephew.

The best part is, that one guy is finally going to get to see where I'm from, which is probably slightly overdue given that we've been together 3 years and are already married. He is from California, and had 1200 people in his graduating class alone, but I'm from a very tiny place, I only had 36 people in my grad class and that was considered a lot. It's going to be lots of fun to show him my lovely little town.

And this picture, that I found on Pinterest with no link and no attribution. It looks like it was just painted on a wall somewhere, but I'd love to have it on canvas for my house.

Love Sick

dream dress

I've never really been that girl that spent a lot of time daydreaming about what her wedding would be like. I like flowers, but to me, for the most part, flowers are flowers. I don't care about napkins, or place settings. I didn't go crazy buying bridal magazines the minute I got engaged, in fact I never bought any at all. I knew at some point that I would need to get a wedding dress, and had even tried on a few, but to be honest, they were all kind of the same to me. All of them were white, and beautiful, any of them could have been my wedding dress and any of them would have worked just fine. I guess that's how I knew I hadn't found the right dress yet.

I did use Pinterest to keep ideas I liked for the wedding together, and one day I was looking around on the site, and I found this picture:

 

 
It was over for me at that point, I knew that this was going to be my dress. I don't even know what it was exactly about it, it is obviously a gorgeous dress, but the woman wearing it in this picture is so stunning that she could have been wearing a brown paper bag and looked amazing. There was no link on the picture, no description, nothing, but I knew I had to find out who made this dress.
 

Thus began my exhaustive search. I tried google, tried writing to bridal magazine editors and woman's magazine editors, tried twitter and facebook, I commented on the picture on Pinterest and tried to get more information from other pinners. A couple of months went by and I didn't have any leads. I had been to another bridal salon and tried to find something similar, but there was nothing even remotely close to the amazingness that was that dress.

Then one day, I got a Pinterest notification that someone had commented on my photo. The commenter told me that the dress I was seeking was Romona Keveza (who is a Canadian designer, whooo). After more research, I realized that the dress was a few seasons old, and even if I happened to find it, it was thousands of dollars. I've always been the girl that watched an episode of "Say Yes to the Dress" and couldn't believe that the wedding dresses STARTED at $2,000, and even though I loved this dress, I knew I wouldn't be able to pay that kind of money for a dress I would only wear once, especially with all of the other expenses of the wedding, and the house that we were in the process of buying.
 

Soon after, I happened to come across the website Recycled Bride, where women sell their used wedding dresses and other wedding accessories. I was so excited to see that not only was there a woman selling the dress I wanted for only $1,300 (which I realize is still a lot more than some people could afford to spend on a dress, but it was only a fraction of the original cost) in my size. I was so excited, but also very nervous because I wouldn't be able to try the dress on before I bought it, and even though it SHOULD have fit according to the size, all designers are different.
 

Also, the woman was selling it from Virginia, and I had no way of knowing whether I would actually get the dress, or if it was some scheme designed to rip off girls who had fallen in love with this same Pinterest picture.
 

I mulled it over for a few days, and exchanged a few emails with Lindsey, the seller. A few people told me not to do it, that it was too risky, but for some reason I just KNEW that this was my dress, and that if I went ahead and got it, it would all work out fine. I also knew that no other dress would be able to live up to this one after all of the work I had put into finding it, and that I would always wonder about it if I decided not to get it.
 

I wired Lindsey the money, and a week later, the dress was mine. It was a little bit big in the hips, but I was able to get it taken in, and it really was my dream dress, I would have it on every single day if I could pee without help and fit into a bus seat while wearing it. So I guess the moral of that story is, if you absolutely refuse to give up on something, and you have a little faith in people, you can sometimes get exactly what you want.

free fallin'

This weekend was perfect. I thought about buying a lottery ticket on Sunday because I felt so lucky, and I felt sure that anything I might endeavor to try this weekend was destined to succeed. I got home from work early on Friday and cleaned the whole house, made quesadillas for supper, and watched The Five Year Engagement, which was actually really funny, and has re-awakened my hunger for hunting down every food truck in San Francisco.

I woke up Saturday morning to a spotless house, and instead of opting for my usual by-myself "healthy" Saturday morning breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast, I made myself two decadent slices of french toast with syrup and powdered sugar, and ate them with a big bowl of raspberries and tons of coffee, it was heaven. Even though it was the first weekend in November, it was a balmy 80 degrees outside.

After breakfast I sorted though some of our wedding photos, then ventured out to the East Bay Free Book Exchange (yes, all of the books are really free!) and spent about an hour browsing the shelves.

I found some classics, (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Sun Also Rises), and some trashy beach novels, and also a book about digital photography, which I'm very interested in, and one about learning Spanish, which has been a goal of mine for years. I took classes in university, but not enough to be fluent. I bought the book as a refresher course for our trip to Ixtapa next month, even though I have a sneaking suspicion that "tequila" is the same in every language.

On the way home I stopped in at Michael's to stock up in supplies and creativity, and I'm very excited about some of my upcoming projects (also known as "covering things in glitter") probably due to my recent success in the Halloween costume department.

I was supposed to meet that one guy in the city for the Ski and Snowboard expo, so I went in a few hours early, and roamed around in the sunshine on Haight street, popping in to check out all of the neat vintage clothing stores. I bought my sister a birthday present, and myself some cookies from the Haight St Market, I don't know what they put in them, but as I've been compelled on more than one occasion to walk from my office on 2nd all the way to Haight-Ashbury just to get one, so it's definitely laced with something.

On the way to the expo we stopped by the Full House house, as a true '90's kid I had no choice but to document the experience.

The Painted Ladies, you can see these houses in the opening credits of Full House

After the expo we went out for Mexican and margaritas. Perfect Saturday.

Sunday was equally as idyllic, I even got started on my Christmas shopping. I was driving down the highway on the way to the mall with the windows down, wind blowing in my hair on the most beautiful day of the year, and then "Free Fallin' by Tom Petty came on the radio. I was basically Tom Cruise, but taller and with less Scientology.

I got a pretty decent start on presents for my nearest and dearest, and as a reward for being so selfless, I bought myself this lovely t-shirt.

Sonnet XVII

Me and that one guy are not a very lovey-dovey or sentimental couple, at least not when there are other people around. We talked about writing our own vows for the big day, but we decided that we would rather do traditional vows, as neither of us really wanted to try to remember or recite our own vows.

We also didn't to keep our guests sitting there sweltering in the July heat any longer than was strictly necessary, but we did want to include something personal and unique. We both love Pablo Neruda's Sonnet XVII and decided to have it read during the ceremony:


I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

The last paragraph, especially, makes me happy every time I read it.

We did end up writing our own vows to each other, and exchanged them a few days before the wedding. It was a very personal and special night for us. Our vows are now sitting in frames on each of our night stand's, to remind us first thing in the morning, and last thing before bed that even if I am being grouchy, or he is leaving his clothes all over the house, at the end of the day, we'd rather be together than apart.

honey put on your party dress...

Our wedding photos came in the other day, and I'm having so much fun going through them. On the day of the wedding, it felt like we were taking pictures forever, but I am sooo happy with how they turned out. There are tons of pictures to go through, but here are a few of my favourites so far:

Love the bold colours against the rustic wood doors

He is ok, I guess...

Such a beautiful day for our wedding

The best group of girls I could have asked for

Our photos were taken by Awna Irish, at Inspiring Bliss Photography. She is extremely talented, and did a wonderful job of not only capturing all of the most important moments, but adding in her own unique creativeness to make the pictures extra special. You can check out her other work at http://www.inspiringblissphotography.com/.