We went to the land of the ice and snow

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Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon

“We come from the land of the ice and snow
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow”

-Led Zeppelin, from The Immigrant Song

I realize now this song must be about Iceland.  We did not however, experience the midnight sun – that doesn’t happen until June or July. Being there in the end of April, we also missed our chances to see northern lights. It was a big bummer to be between those two natural wonders but there were plenty others.

After taking a red-eye flight, checking in and eating breakfast buffet in our swank hotel and crashed for an entire day.  Even though it was 2 days after the wedding, the collective exhaustion caught up with us.

We stayed at a hotel downtown called Centerhotel Thingholt. It had leather tiles and cowhide chairs… yes. LEATHER. TILES. (They actually felt nice on the feet).

We spent most of our time exploring downtown Reykjavik (Cute!) napping (necessary) and doing a few day tours. We went whale watching, or as I like to call it “try not to puke on the ocean see-saw for 2.5 hours” (I won that game, but barely).

Here are some random thoughts on Iceland:

  • Where does everyone go after 5pm in Reykjavik?
  • Food is very expensive.
  • Whale watching would have been better in the summer when the humpback whales return; Minke whales don’t travel in groups.
  • Iceland still whales… the whale watching staff did not like this either
  • The hotdogs were touted as being the best – but I still like Toronto Street Meat. (Though they were good).
  • Viking stuff is kinda neat. I bought a viking-helmet type toque.
  • Icelandic wool is itchy!
  • Lot’s of Hamburgers. Fish and Chips were delish!
  • The geysirs, waterfalls and Blue Lagoon were absolutely amazing and totally worth the trip.
  • Icelanders are friendly and speak English – it’s very easy to be a tourist in Iceland.
  • 17 hours of daylight is trippy; I cannot imagine 23!

Here are some select pictures

 

The wedding happened!

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It’s been exactly 2 weeks since the wedding, and I am glad to report that it was an absolute smashing success!

The year and 2 months that I spent planning and saving and stressing has totally paid off.  I read my previous post about my frustrations with weddings and I have definitely changed my tune.

I had no way of expecting how much fun I would have on my wedding day. I was happy throughout and didn’t want it to end.

There are 3 big takeaways from this for me:

1) I am so deeply touched at everyone who came, and showed their love towards us. It was amazing to see that many people celebrate us as a couple. I would have never thought that many people would be so happy for us. It’s amazing to see most of your family and friends dressed up and celebrating and happy. That kind of love is truly contagious.

2) So many people came up to me through the night and told me how much they loved the whole event, the ceremony, the venue, the food, even the wedding website I made. They said how thoughtful everything was… from what I can tell, most everyone had a pretty damn good time and this was priority #1 for me while planning.  I don’t believe a wedding is all about the bride… it’s about the community of people – and I wanted those people to have fun, and be comfortable. At the end of the day, as a guest, you’ll probably remember the food and how long you had to wait during the day. I really tried in every element I planned to think of the guests and I’m damn proud that it seemed to have paid off.

3) I’m a wife now! I didn’t think that getting married would really change anything other than a legal status. By and far, it hasn’t. The great thing is, since our wedding coincides with our 10 year anniversary, it was a wonderful way to kind of re-affirm our love. Remember and reinforce our commitment to each other. It’s still a little weird to refer to him as “husband”, but I think I’ll get used to it.

So now this is my first weekend back in Canada. The month of April was so full and busy and now I’ve got… nothing. I only have thank you cards to write, and a few other small details but nothing compared to the insanity of last month. I find myself a little lost, a little bit missing the day (ok, a lot)… and reviewing what pictures I have in an effort to relive the awesome. The best thing about the unwanted end of the wedding day was that 2 days later we left for our honeymoon to Iceland! I’ll post about that next week.

Aaron testing the photobooth with soon to be wife in bg

Aaron testing the photobooth with soon to be wife in bg

 

 

Weddings are a good excuse to craft things!

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The wedding planning has been going as well as it can. I’m 33 days away and have most things done. Weddings still kind of blow my mind. The planning experience has been a little tough, stressful and frustrating but everything is happening… but I can’t wait til it’s all done and over with – I don’t want to plan stuff anymore!

One of the more enjoyable things for me has been the excuse to get crafty! With the help of a friend I designed and crafted the Save the date cards, and programs. These two things have improved my illustrator skills tenfold. The world of print is so daunting, but I feel like I’m starting to understand it more and now want to create and print more things.

The latest craft project is what I’ve chosen for centerpieces. They are unfinished wooden “Taj Mahal” birdhouses purchased from Michael’s:

Taj Mahal Mosoleum

Taj Mahal Birdhouse

I’m not sure what kind of bird would even fit into that. The actual Taj Mahal is a masoleum, not a palace or house of any sort. So maybe this is more of a “final resting place” for birds, rather than a house. That’s a bit grim. Maybe I’ll put 2 tiny coffins in each one. Tee Hee.

I’ve started work on 2:

Centerpieces... in progress

Centerpieces... in progress

The one on the left was decorated using scrapbook paper and modpodge – much like my “Ikea Fira Chest” project. I painted the pink, purple and gold on the domes. I love the colours.

The one on the right was a more random idea. Using a black sharpie and ruler I drew random diagonal lines all over, and started randomly filling in colours. I’m not sure what type of look I’d call this, but the colours have a sort of  ’70s feel to it. I’m not sure what to do with the top parts – I didn’t want to try drawing straight lines on the curved surfaces for fear of screwing it up but I don’t think they should just be one solid colour either. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

My friends have taken on a few of their own and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. I’m excited that they’ll all be a little different with a dose of individual personality. I have about 3 – 5 more to do and trying to think about types of art and design I am drawn to an how to incorporate it into a design.

I think the next one will use ribbons and string to give more texture. I’ll post more pictures, and hopefully after the event I can post them all.

Christmas Baking

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This past Christmas, I just wasn’t feeling it. Perhaps due to my mind being occupied with wedding planning stuff, or just general fatigue from the season. For whatever reason I didn’t have it in me to try to think of gifts, brave the malls and stress out over that so I decided to make people cookie-boxes.

I made:
Gingerbread
Shortbread with Maple Syrup Icing
Vanila Sugar Cookies with Raspberry Jam Filling
Macaroons

Even now it seems like not that much, but since I was lazy and left it all to the last week it was quite a lot! As you can see in my little slide show above my macaroons look kind of… weird. That is because I can’t seemingly try a new recipe without screwing it up somehow. This time I just put in 2x the amount of shredded coconut that was needed so they didn’t form into balls well.

Though, as suspected – too much coconut is never a bad thing and in the end they turned out fine, and lesson learned.  The odd thing about this whole experience is that I got cookied-out. I didn’t eat any of my own cookies. Sure, I ate the raw dough (especially of the Vanilla Sugar Cookies), but I didn’t actually have any of my own. Whereas normally I can’t stop. I think I just got sick of them.  It was a labour of love and everyone seemed to be pleased with their boxes and no one was poisoned so it was a success!

Next year though, I may hit the malls. ;)