annual summer picnic...

Each Summer Rick's family and a few friends get together for an all-day picnic in the park. They've been doing it since Rick was a child, and it's a tradition his cousins and us hope to continue. There's always an abundance of food, with a pasta lunch (boiled in the park with a propane-powered pot), a bbq dinner, fruit, desserts, espresso, and homemade wine. There's something about gathering in the park under a shady tree, pulling the picnic tables together and unpacking coolers that just screams Summer. I like the tradition, and the exhausted, relaxed feeling, after heading home from being outside all day. It's a great way to spend a Sunday...

Does your family have any Summer traditions?

wedding wednesday {no.20}...

I know. It's been ages since the last "Wedding Wednesday" post. Oops. So I made a point to take some photos of one very important piece of our wedding – the invites! I never thought i'd get to check off all my wishes when it came to our wedding invitations, but somehow, it all came together. I owe a lot of that to my good friend Amanda of Silverplate Press, who made my letterpress dreams come true. I designed each piece, and it was then printed with custom plates and perfectly mixed inks, with a blind "logo" emboss, on the softest Crane paper. I could not be happier with the results! I know a lot of time and effort went into it on Amanda's behalf, but there you have it, my dream invitations... classic, elegant, and letterpress printed. 

To top it all off, I went back and forth with the decision to have the outer envelopes hand-addressed. Also a part of the invitation pipedream, I knew it was going to be pricey, but the results are gorgeous. After looking around on various sites and wedding blogs, I came across Grace Edmands – a calligrapher out of North Carolina, who is truly talented. So professional and so sweet, I was thrilled to work with her.

Last week I stamped, stuffed and sealed (while narrowly avoiding glue-poisoning) almost 130 invites, hand-cancelled them at the post office, and mailed them off to our guests to be arriving any day now. I can't wait for everyone to receive them, and to start getting replies back. I've never been so excited to check the mail.

our house...

As promised, a few photos I snapped last week of our house, that we're slowly but surely turning into a home. I love the light grey brick, our big backyard, and the quiet, friendly neighbourhood. Inside, rooms are still a little empty-looking as we search for furniture and make plans for painting, tiling, and plenty of other little fixes. I have so many ideas, and tons of inspiration ready to use for decorating, but all good things in time I suppose. I can't wait for it to be more "us" though. There's so much potential!

*Note: I find it funny that my last post was about eggo waffles, and we live on Waffler street. Much to my dismay Rick is not down for a "waffle" house warming party.

rain dance...

I now know why people want it to rain in the Summer time. Our grass is burnt to a crisp. There's straw-coloured tuffs of what's left, all spotty around the yard, and the rest is mostly dirt. At first I was pretty disappointed, but as I looked around I realized almost everyone else's grass is in the same shape. It hasn't rained since this last photo I took at the loft, where a few little drops of rain were glistening on the balcony. Turns out there's a water ban too - we can only water once-a-week. Sigh. I supposed that lush green backyard where you can feel the cool grass underfoot will have to wait till next year. 

Tomorrow we're headed to an annual Summer picnic with Rick's family. I'm planning on bringing my Yashica along and, hopefully, taking a few nice shots. I'm pretty excited, I love these picnics.

summer...

Summer is in full swing around here, with super hot weather and weekend adventures. We've slowly been moving things into the house, getting ourselves setup and a little more organized as each day comes. (This post comes courtesy of the neighbour's free wifi and one of two camping chairs Rick set up in the livingroom area.) Eventually it'll all come together.

The rest of July is jam-packed with wedding-related events and get togethers with friends, a family picnic and hopefully lots of great Summer food!

What are you most looking forward to this Summer?

from father's day...

One of the downsides to shooting film is that "holiday" type photos are often blogged about late. Ah well. Even though Father's Day was a few weeks ago, I had to post a couple of shots I took that day.

When I asked my Dad what he'd like for Father's Day, he replied with "R/C helicopter". I thought he was joking, but it turns out he was serious. Better than another cliché tie, right? He only sticks to the backyard for now, as "he's not good enough yet" for the neighbours to see him flying it, lol. I also love that I finally found a soccer-themed card. Letterpress printed with a worn-in look in all the right places, I immediately scooped it up back in May, when every other card was all about golf, golf, golf (yawn...). I like that the illustration has a very "Flinstone" feel to it, know what I mean?

moving on...

Hello everyone... Sorry for the lack of post, it's amazing how busy moving can get! Friday went well with everything moved into our new house, along with lots of cleaning, a little unpacking, and fixing things up over the long weekend. I am beyond excited that we finally have our house! I can't wait to start making it our home and sprucing things up. It feels like a wonderful step forward and a new adventure for Rick and I to share. At the moment i'm at my parents house (pictured above) until Rick and I finish up a few last minute things at the house and officially move in at the end of the week. I of course snapped a few pics of the new place and can't wait to share them here once the film is developed.

I hope you all had a wonderful Canada Day over the long weekend and a Happy July 4th for those celebrating tomorrow! It's officially Summer!