Personal Touch

Last week I posted about attending the lovely wedding of Ariana and Jared. By request of the bride and groom I held off posting photos of the actual event until the newlyweds were back from their honeymoon.    

When Ariana first started planning her wedding she told me she was going to ask Tami to be the "stylist" of the event. Between Ariana's amazing administrative skills and Tami's insane creativity the decor of the event was a vision turned reality: Earthy but pretty, detailed but not over done. 

So much of the decor was handmade! Go here for a DIY coffee filter lantern tutorial.

The perfect back drop!

I Remember

I remember when I used to wake up in the morning with a a thrill of excitement that the day was going to be full of new adventures. As a little girl I was usually excited about a new book (The Baby Sitter's Club), or tree to hide out in. Somewhere along the journey of "growing up" excitement about life became replaced with days riddled with anxiety, stress and disappointment. When I look at my boys I see that zest for life which I once possessed. And I long for it. Every day they are discovering new things in this gigantic world around them. When we visited the Ocean Cement Factory on Granville Island, Levi and Jethro were in awe of the life-sized versions of their favorite toys. And then yesterday we walked down to the beach and sat in the sand and I told Levi, "This is Jethro's first time ever touching sand. Isn't that amazing!" I relished that moment of discovery, imagining, what it must have felt like for Jethro to experience the texture (and taste) of sand.

I had a crummy afternoon a while back. I went outside to practice taking pictures and I looked grumpy in all of them. I was burdened with life. And then I remembered my boys' bright eyes as they took in the world. God created us be in perpetual awe of the earth he created because it gives us a glimpse into His majesty. That will never grow old or fade. It's thoughts like these that make my worries insignificant in the grand scheme of things. 

The burden is lifting...

Go

Event: Spring Got Craft?

Spring Got Craft? Vancouver is happening on Sunday, May 6th and if you're living in the Vancouver area you do not want to miss this shopping event! Got Craft? is Vancouver's largest indie craft fair and the vendors this year have me swooning over their goods. Here are a few of my favourites, whose wares have emptied out my mental piggy bank! 

The Rice Babies creates gorgeous handmade dolls, felt crowns and wooden hand painted dolls. Little bow-tie boy warms my heart with his resemblance to Levi. 

If you follow me on Pinterest you know I have a board titled Geo Jewelry because I love earthy accessories. Camp and Quarry creates stunning natural raw gemstone necklaces. 

What is it? Abeego Designs creates natural, reusable food storage with hemp/cotton fabric infused with a blend of beeswax and honey. The coating is fluid-resistant, keeping food fresh and making it easy to clean. Say good-bye to plastic, and wrap your sandwich in material that is not only eco-friendly, but super cute!

 We have a wonderful private yard surrounded by tall bushes, making it an oasis in the midst of city-living. Growing our own produce has me envisioning warm, summer nights, shooting the breeze with friends, glass of wine in hand and food from the garden on our plates. This dreamy light strand of thread balls by My Little Lights is the perfect ornament for an outdoor meal. 

Spring Got Craft? runs from 10 AM to 5 PM. Admission is $3.00 (kids under 10 are free). The location is The Royal Canadian Legion at 2205 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. For more information and a complete list of vendors visit the Got Craft? Vancouver site. 

For Your Grand Kids

My shelves are stocked with natural shampoos, deodorant, face wash, cleaning products, organic this and organic that. Now that my family uses mostly natural products when I'm around big brand cleaners or highly perfumed items I sneeze and wheeze and suffer from nausea.

 It was almost a matter of preaching to the choir when I was invited to attend Shop and Learn with Gill Deacon, author of the national bestseller, There's Lead In Your Lipstick. Although I'm already on the same bandwagon as Gill, there's always more to learn about healthy living! The event was hosted at Whole Foods by Seventh Generation and not only did I come away with a great swag bag of Seventh Generation products, but also some interesting tidbits of information from Gill.

For example, how did all these nasty chemicals get into our every day products in the first place? Apparently after the second world war as a result of government subsidies for the petroleum and chemical industries, petrochemicals began making their way into our cleaning and household products. Now that's freaky deaky stuff.

A while back my family and I switched to a natural, non-scented laundry detergent. It seemed like a good idea but Gill reinforced this belief when she told the audience that most liquid laundry detergents contain an additive called optical brighteners. The brighteners give our clothing an 'artificial' glow that has nothing to do with our clothing being clean and the chemical can actually rub off on our skin creating a reaction to sunlight that looks like sunburn. Um, no thanks.

Finally, when it  comes to our babies, God's given them plenty of built in natural oils so their skin needs a lot less moisturizing, baby powder, and scrubbing then we might realize. It's a good idea to avoid chlorine, fragrance and other unnecessary ingredients in baby products.
 

 Gill's book is now on the top of my reading list. What mother doesn't want the knowledge to help their family live the healthiest lifestyle possible!? Thank-you Seventh Generation for hosting this event, Gill for your knowledge, and Cambie Whole Foods for providing child care!

It Was Nifty

 I stopped in at the Nifty for Fifty annual event on Sunday and browsed through the discounted eye candy of local Vancouver designers. 

I came away with these lovely ladies on my arm. 

Bracelet by Irit Sorokin

This broach from Buenostyle would jazz up a simple blazer.

It's not a Vancouver fashion event without cute hipsters in attendance. 

I have such a thing for neon right now. It's meant to be worn with a tan. Sunshine, I welcome you with open arms!

Earrings by Bianca Barr Designs

I didn't bring a lot of cash to the event (on purpose), otherwise I would have walked away with this dress by Adhesif Clothing. 

I'd get my ears re-pierced for these darlings.

No More Kissing Frogs

What a wedding! My dear friend and faithful blog commenter Ariana is now married to Jared! The venue was the Fraser River Lodge, the perfect setting for love, love, love! Sarah and I were very excited for the newly weds. 

Very excited.

This is what I wore. 

But who cares what I'm wearing when nature is clothed in so much beauty?!

We were child-free for the day! Weddings are one of my favourite dates: beautiful setting, happy people, great food and romance in the air. 

Ariana, Cheers....

Currently

1. Beyond excited about Ariana's wedding today! There will be beautiful people, gorgeous decor (Tami's been at work), and at the end of the day, a wonderful newly married couple. 

2. I still haven't posted the dress I was planning to wear to the wedding because while being dry-cleaned, the buttons on the dress disintegrated. All of them. Isn't that the weirdest thing? They're putting on new buttons for me but in the mean time I found an alternative dress which I'm equally excited to post after the wedding.

3. The greens in my garden are already coming up! I'm so glad that I'm taking the time to plant seeds as per instruction on the packages, in the Complete Idiot's Guide to Small-Space Gardening and through the very useful West Coast Seed's website (They have directions on when and how to plant every West Coast-friendly seed imaginable!)

4. Did I mention Jethro's sleeping through the night? Ironically when there are cat fights at night they sound a lot like Jethro's cries. Last night I hopped out of bed twice thinking I had heard him only to realize it was the feral beasts that prowl our neighbourhood (I'm not exactly a cat person, sorry).

5. Levi is tremendously skilled at art (in moi opinion!) He has excellent fine motor skills and his favourite artistic endeavour right now is painting rainbows. He'll do line after line of these pain-staking strokes. He's not even three (Mom's are allowed to brag)!

Have a great weekend and come back to see a wedding outfit post this week!