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  1. Vegas bound!

    Thursday, August 22, 2013

    Hello all! Just popping in to let you know that I'll be away in Vegas for the next week while the lovely Miss Bee becomes Mrs Bee. 

    Bring on the sunshine, heat, cabanas, booze and Thunder From Down Under.

    I'm so excited, not only to go on vacation, but to see my bestest friend marry her love!


    I will probably cry.

    I'll be back with lots of photos, I'm sure! If you're interested in keeping abreast of my wild vacation, follow along on Instagram and Twitter!

    I've never been to Vegas, so any recommendations for food and vintage shopping are gladly received!

  2. Review: Never Let The Crew See You Cry

    Saturday, August 17, 2013

    Despite Edmonton's Fringe Festival being the second largest in the world (after Edinburgh's), I've never been to the festival before this year, when I got a chance to see Never Let The Crew See You Cry, courtesy of Bottom Line Productions.

    Photo by Edward Allen
    The play, written by Linda Wood Edwards, details the life of the playwright's mother Ethel as a young Flight Line Mechanic for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan at 31 Elementary Flying Training School 31 at RCAF De Winton, south of Calgary, during WWII.

    Never Let The Crew See You Cry made me cry, but it probably wouldn't make everyone cry. I cried because it made me happy to know that there are still people out there interested in preserving Alberta's rich aviation history through storytelling. I also cried because it made me miss my grandparents. They met at RCAF Edmonton at a dance during the war, and I will always regret not asking enough questions about what it was like.

    But I feel like this play would have had more impact if it could have been expanded. There were only three actors, but a plethora of characters, and I found the shifts between characters sometimes jarring, as there were no costume changes. I found it hard to connect with the characters and it left me with several unanswered questions: why was Ethel drawn to the skies? Were there any clashes between her and the   other girls? What about the women and the men? Did she ever get a chance to fly?

    I felt like there was too much girly gossip, not enough of the nitty-gritty of war. The most gripping part was a re-enacment of Ethel being honoured in 2001 with a BCATP Pennant (which you can find hanging at the Alberta Aviation Museum), complete with a poem she wrote, "To A War Ace".

    However, I did feel the the dialogue was wonderfully written, with plenty of laughs and plenty of singing along from the audience.

    I truly hope that this play can be expanded - if not for the Fringe, then for some sort of tribute at the Alberta Aviation Museum - or turned into a memoir (I know a great writer/editor who's always looking for freelance work).

     I don't think that there's enough knowledge, especially in Edmonton, of the vital role this city played in the war. Did you know that Edmonton was the busiest airport in the world during WWII? Why isn't this part of our history celebrated throughout the city?



    I was truly honoured after the play to meet both Linda and Ethel and chat with them some more (this is when the crying happened. I sure know how to make things awkward!) and thank them both for sharing their family history with Fringe goers.

    If you're interested in seeing Never Let The Crew See You Cry, you can see it at the following times:
    Mon Aug 19 - 3:30pm
    Tue Aug 20 - 2:15pm
    Wed Aug 21 - 8:15pm
    Fri Aug 23 - 6:45pm
    Sat Aug 24 - 11:45am
    Sun Aug 25 - 1:00pm

  3. BT Edmonton & Value Village Challenge!

    Thursday, August 15, 2013

    I was incredibly excited/nervous when an email landed in my inbox from the good folks at Breakfast Television Edmonton asking me to participate in a style challenge to mark the grand opening of Value Village in Sherwood Park (Big thanks to Marie for the name drop!).



    I loved getting a sneak peek of the new store. Sherwood Park thrift shops usually have some gems (I can't believe they had gloves!) and this Value Village is no exception. They also had some really great jewellery, shoes and accessories. I wish I had been able to spend more time browsing, but of course, we were being timed!
    I had such a blast with Sandy Joe and Lébassé - it seemed so much more like 6 gals shopping than a competition. Both of them have great style, and I really liked they outfits they came up with too.

    The segment aired today on BT, but of course I have the hookup for you good people who don't live in Edmonton to watch it. I can't embed it (urgh) but here's where you can watch part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

    Photo by my darling friend Funmi. I look like a monkey.
     To tell you the truth, I didn't watch it. I'm very hard on myself and I know that I would just cringe and fret over every little thing that came out of my mouth and every style choice I made (and am anyway - I am good at remember what makes me feel like crap) so I'm just putting it here for other people to "enjoy".

    Best screen grab I could find of the outfit 
    If you like my outfit, please vote for me - voters could win a $50 gift card to Value Village. Sadly, the contest is only open to residents of Alberta :( Sorry non-locals!

    If I win, I will get a $500 gift card to Value Village - can you imagine!?

    I'd also like to thank the folks at Value Village for letting me take the dress home with me! I fell in love with the gorgeous print and was heartbroken to think I'd have to leave it behind.


  4. Wedding Wednesdays: Where to scrimp

    Wednesday, August 14, 2013

    Wedding Budgeting Part 1: Scrimping

    According to my research, the average Canadian wedding costs $22,000+ (not including honeymoon). Ian and I are attempting to have our wedding for more than half that. So far, our projected budget is ~$13,000, including what my parents have pitched in but not including food.

    Obviously, you need to start out with a reasonable budget that you can stick to before you start getting too far into planning.

    So, where are we looking to save?

    Wedding gown
    The part where we will definitely be saving a lot of money is on my dress. As Blog as my witness, I am aiming to keep my whole look - dress, shoes, underthings and accessories - under $500. I'm doing my own hair and makeup, so there'll be no cost there. I have a few dresses - both vintage and reproduction - in mind, all under $300. Everything else I buy I will be buying with a mindset of "will I wear this again" in order to make it worth every penny.

    The flowers

    Did you know that you can get 100 roses at Costco for $115? Or, even on the slightly-more-expensive-but-really-not scale of things, 40 lilies for $150? Ian loooooves Costco, so it will definitely be our pick for flowers, and we'll just make up bouquets and arrangements a few days in advance to the wedding (I find that Costco flowers also last a long time if you take care of them). Red and ivory roses are elegant and vintage without being overbearing.

    Skipping the name change
    I know, I know, it seems like such a little thing to save money on. But, in Alberta, it costs $120 for just the document to legally change your name - it doesn't cover any costs incurred by changing your name on your credit cards, identification, passport, etc etc. That and I am pretty attached to my last name, so I don't want to give it up that easily. I mean, I'll change my name on Facebook, I'll answer to my married name etc. But I might hold off on legally changing it until the expensive things (license, registration, passport) are closer to expering.

    One venue

    Hopefully, we will be able to do our wedding and reception in one venue. This obviously cuts down on rental costs as you only have to pay rent for one venue, only have to decorate one venue, only have to direct people to one venue etc. If your venue has separate spaces for ceremony and reception, then even better!

    Don't have supper
    If the majority of your guests aren't out-of-town, maybe you'll be able to swing it so you don't have to feed them. I know that this is really where bills rack up - especially if you do just finger food! We aren't able to do that, but it is an option - just let your guests know they're not getting food so they don't show up starving! Another option is to have your wedding in the evening (after supper).

    What are your tips for saving money when planning a wedding?

  5. Wedding Wednesdays: Get Organized!

    Wednesday, August 7, 2013

    It's never too soon to start planning for a wedding. Well, OK, maybe starting planning before you're engaged is a bit too soon but once that's all said and done, you can get a jump on it.

    Since I know nothing about planning a wedding, I'm taking a lot of hints from this infographic I found on Pinterest.


    I've created two Pinterest boards: one where I'm pinning general vintage wedding related stuff, and one secret board where I'm pinning stuff directly related to my wedding. Even though I'm going to be blogging about our wedding in the next 15 months leading up to it, most of it I want to keep a surprise! How on earth did people plan weddings before Pinterest anyway? 

    We've already started our planning and organization by creating a shared folder on Google Drive and having all of our wedding stuff in there. If there's something I don't want Ian to see, I can unshare that individual document. This way we have all our stuff in one place and we won't lose it, and we both have access to it, even though most of our planning happens with me taking the notes.



    We also have a physical wedding binder for all the important hard-copy documents, keepsakes etc. The key in all of these thing is that they're accessible to others, and easy to keep up. I share my Pinterest board with my Matron of Honour, and the Google Drive and binder with Ian.

    We also share a Google Calendar to note wedding-related appointments - and, of course, everything is colour coded the same!

    To give you an idea of where we're at: in the 3 weeks we've been engaged, we already have a date (next November), we have appointments booked for venue viewing and commissioner meetings and already have a decent budget laid out. I've also asked my part of the bridal party to be involved.

    What are some things you used to keep organized when planning your wedding?

  6. Whoops, I'm a day late. Let's just hop into the time machine and pretend it's Wednesday for just a moment.

    As I mentioned last week, I got a chance to visit the Weddings Through Time event at Fort Edmonton Park over the weekend.

    Ian and I weren't able to stay for all the weddings and events happening, but we did manage to catch a bachelor party, a fur trader wedding and reception and some pre-wedding prep going on around the park.













    I was bummed that I couldn't catch more weddings, but Fort Edmonton Park has let me snitch some photos from their Facebook page.