End of year this and that

Can't believe Christmas is over. Had a fab time starting new traditions and continuing some of the old. Was GREAT not being responsible for cooking the meal which we had on Christmas Day - a new tradition as we have eaten on Christmas Eve for many years. However, I continued with the old one of giving new pyjamas to everyone - just so we were all smart for Santa!!! Christmas Eve was also my 25th wedding anniversary and we were treated to a meal in Anthony's in Leeds. WHAT A FAB RESTAURANT. Cannot tell you how good it was - would like to make a visit there a tradition as well. It's one of those places that are good to keep for 'special' occasions simple because it is SO good - roll on 26th wedding anniversary! Thoroughly recommend it.

However, thoughts must now turn to the coming year. I had a new couple email me just before Christmas who want to get married this Spring - already have some ideas but keeping them under wraps for now until I have approval. In the meantime, here are some images from our expanded website [should be live mid-January]. There are new locations, new venues, new photographers, new florists - it's all very exciting.

So all that remains for now is to wish you all

a healthy and happy 2011.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Our very best wishes to you all.

Happy Christmas

Stranded

Knowing how I go on about snow, you'd be forgiven for thinking I am in my element! NOT.


I have been in Funchal, Madeira this week to attend my eldest grandson's school christmas concert and my younger grandson's 4th birthday celebrations, complete with a Snake cake. Had great fun at both. BUT .... I needed to be back in the UK today for my baby grand-daughter's 1st birthday. The snow thought differently and right now I am in Porto! The flight took off last night for Gatwick but was turned back and we were brought back to Porto, mainland Portugal. Thanks to modern technology, I have had a skype conversation with my favourite 1-year old this morning which was fab! Thinking back to last year though, she was born during the heavy snowfalls: they started where we were on the Friday and she arrived very early on the Saturday morning. A snow baby and keeping to it this year!


Hoping to leave this evening but not TOO hopeful when I see BBC world news pictures of London airports. Next critical date is 23rd when due in Leeds for Christmas followed by 31st when due to depart for Canada!!! 


So shall we re-write a few words?

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass – it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Let's try

"Life is not about waiting for the snow to melt - it's about learning to ski/skate/board/snowshoe while you can!" 

or

"Life is not about waiting for a flight to be arranged - it's about finding new sights in unexplored places!" 

I really hope everyone who's at an airport now waiting to get somewhere for Christmas makes it - especially if they are going home. Good luck to you all!

Just had a photo through on my phone of grand-daughter being wished Happy Birthday on CBBeebies!!

New location

As you are aware, all summer and for a lot of the fall [autumn], I have been looking for new locations and venues to add to the website. My search has taken me all over Ontario and I have seen some beautiful places and still Niagara-on-the-Lake comes out as one of my favourite little towns. It could be that it is steeped in history or that it's surrounded by acres of vineyards and orchards or maybe it's just that there are lots of fab little one-off shops. I can never resist a visit to the christmas shop - Just Christmas. Very appropriate at this time of year but just as much fun in June!

Almost there!

Had a meeting with the web designers this morning and we are almost there. It has taken SO much time but I know it is worth it cos we will have an amazing website.

Here's a peak at the home page images.

Obviously we couldn't loose our signature red wellies or our couple in the snow! 

Hope you find the new ones as inspirational.

[Photography by Sakura; Dave and Charlotte; NightinGail; Isis Photography; Baldini and Vandersluys;

Elizabeth in Love]

The engagement has been announced!

How fabulous! Prince William and Kate Middleton have, finally, announced their engagement. Understand that ITN got the scoop interview but surely all channels will get the actual wedding which will be fabulous for sure. All the merchandise that's been designed and sitting waiting for the announcement can now be released. Wonder when the first advertisement will appear? No prizes but do let me know when you see something. Weddings are such good news! And just LOVE the ring.

How BEAUTIFUL are these?

A little while ago, I bought a 'KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON' poster for a friend's birthday. I now get regular updates from the Keep Calm Gallery and this morning's email contained some beautiful images.

They are by Seb Lester who is a type designer, illustrator & artist. AND, an amazing talent. He's done work for some really big companies but what endeared me to him just that little bit more, was that he designed the typeface used for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics!

I'm sure you'd have guessed that there'd be a little bit of Canada in there somewhere! Anyway, the question I am now left pondering is - which shall I buy? Maybe I should look to another piece of his work

and get this one

What a GREAT idea !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New areas to be added to the website

I have been busy over the Summer and  Autumn looking for fab new venues and suppliers. There were three areas where I looked  - Muskoka, Toronto and the Niagara region.

Muskoka is all about water, wildlife and stunning scenery. The Fall colours are amazing but it's beautiful in the summer and winter as well. Here are some images.

Perceptions of colour

Okay - we're going to do a bit about weddings today. Well, sort of. I want to try and explain how difficult it is when two or three people all attempt to visualise a colour. Shall we say Blue. Hold that in your mind. Blue.

So which one was it? Oh, sorry you were thinking a sort of Tiffany blue?

or maybe navy blue

I could play with my three hearts all night adding different shades of one colour. You only have to think of the range of paint colours to choose from at the local d-i-y shop to get the point.

And yes, I know the advice is always to take a sample of fabric - but did you know that cotton takes colour differently from nylon from wool? Dye a white swatch of all three in the same batch of dye and you will have three different colours resulting. So your satin dresses will never 'match' the table linen or paper dinner napkins.

Also bear in mind, the backgrounds that you will be against and using. Some colours wash out others so if you're determined not to have white or off-white table linen check your colours against each other as you decide.

Same three hearts as above but on a solid colour and below as lime on the three blues.

Whichever way you do it, it changes the perception of the colours.

And finally, do listen to your venue's catering manager/event co-ordinator/restaurant manager or whoever you are dealing with when it comes to which colours will work in which areas. I know a fab room with an amazing rug across most of the floor which has rusts, oranges, tans, amongst other colours in it. BUT, if you take anything 'Barbie' pink into the room it makes the most disgusting combination of colour imaginable. This is not the room but it gives you an idea of what happens if you're not careful. Look at the carpet colours and pattern against what is on the table.

SNOW - again

I've been so busy working on the website updates that the blog has been somewhat ignored. However, a quick entry for tonight.

As you can see, there's a thin covering of snow in The Village at Blue Mountain on the edge of Collingwood. Not enough for ski-ing or boarding yet but there's plenty of time. It's still really early for snow in this region.

Look what I've found!

Sometimes the mood takes me and I go on an economy drive. Particularly this mood takes me as BIG spending approaches ie Christmas - I guess I feel better gathering some resources cos I AM a Christmas kinda girl. [Hmmm, wonder when I can seriously start playing the Christmas tumes on my ipod?]So ... I am sort of on one now. If I'm honest, these economy drives are a bit like diets - one coffee with no milk or sugar and then start properly tomorrow. And that's why I decided to check out ebay for Kindle Cones. Ordinarily, I'd just google to find some . Can only be the economy drive. I found some. In an ebay shop - Sew Dotty . They are quite a bit cheaper than I've paid in the past but if I'm on this economy drive, I'm on it so have ordered some. Will post when they arrive and let you know how good a job they do. Not wishing to insult anyone's intelligence but when I first came across these in Canada I had no idea what they were for. They are fire lighters and now every Autumn the hunt begins for enough to get me through the winter. I light my wood burner with them. Just a few sticks one of these and then small logs and away it goes. And yes, I do know I could make them, but do you have wax, pine cones, wick, time and the magic ingredient? They must have a magic ingredient to make them work so well. Anyway, I do weddings.

'They' do hearts & rounds, wonder if they could make an X then I could do hugs O & kisses X!

I think it needs to be Friday. Oh well!

KNOW Hallowe'en was on Sunday, but ....

I just had to replicate the post from Kiss the Groom on 31.10.10. It's just adorable!

 trick



or sweet?

 and how FAB is that?

Winnie the Pooh

Following on from yesterday's flowers, another of my favourite English things is Winnie-the-Pooh and the books by A A Milne. I still have my childhood copy of When We Were Very Young AND I can still remember the words to quite a few of the poems. From here I moved on to Winnie-the-Pooh, Now We Are Six and the House at Pooh Corner. I have always had a soft spot for Pooh. I remember around 1970 queueing for hours to see an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum with the original toys that the stories were based around. Here they are

Earlier this Fall, I was in Collingwood for Wordstock - a great new literary festival. Fab opening evening and then a day of workshops, book signings and celebrities. I had a photo with one of them.

He was a little modern for my taste but at least not a full blown Disney Winne the Pooh. [Note no hyphens. Disney dispensed with them. Why?] The friend who took this wondered if my husband new about another 'love' in my life. I told her Winnie-the-Pooh and I go back years. We're old friends. Why I've even played poohsticks with my kids. Come on now - be sensible!

Anyway, was in the local Post Office this afternoon and saw a new stamp collection on sale. You're there already aren't you? Yup it was - Winnie-the-Pooh and here are the stamps. Not Disney's Pooh pictures, the original E H Shepard illustrations. I just love them.

I mentioned a few posts ago that we were a hankie collecting family - I have some belonging to my Grandmother, so Ivy will have some that belonged to her Great Great Grandmother! We are also a stamp collecting family. I have some old letters and postcards that were sent back during WW2, my Mum collected special ones for me, I did the same for the kids and it would seem I am about to start collecting again for my Grandkids thanks to my trip today. Oh well, what goes round, comes round.

Promise will get back to weddings and Canada next time.

Fab flowers & my Mum

Let me just start by saying something about my Mum. She died four years ago when she was 93. Hard to describe her really except to say kids adored her, she was somewhat cantankerous and we all miss her like mad. She had this wonderful way of describing things by saying 'It was marvellous. I couldn't complain .....but if I had to' and she would then relate the problems. The service was bad. The train was late. The food was cold. You get the gist. She pops into our lives every now and then in the strangest of ways. Odd things bring her to mind. She popped into my head as I finished looking through The Traditional Flower Company website. Here are some of their images but you really need to check out the entire gallery on the website.

I'll finish about Mum at the end. [She LOVED flowers, by the way]

 

 

 

 

 

Fab! Agreed? So many of my favourites are there - love-in-a-mist, scabious, roses, sweet peas, mint, hyacinth - well all of them really.

As for the site itself, it's marvellous; I couldn't complain BUT IF I HAD TO - no delphiniums!!!! You don't think it's catching, do you? Thanks Mum!

To expand or not to expand - that IS the question

Strech your imagination - get married in Canada. That was one of the phrases we though of using on the website. Now I am faced with stretching my own imagination. Should I expand into a new location? Well, a new town and province to be precise. The town is Canmore in Alberta. The shortest distance from Collingwood is calculated at 3,259 km and it's just over 1½ DAYS drive away. OK I know I can drive to the city and fly into somewhere - probably Calgary - and then drive but hopefully you're with me. This is out of province and isn't a couple of hours down the road. My [comfort?] zone is Ontario but it's a very beautiful location, a very popular one and a really nice guy has suggested using his business as the base. I've checked everything out locally - food, photography and flowers etc - and it all seems pretty good. But I don't KNOW that it is. Can't find any seriously negative reviews.

These are some choices from a personal catering company Bow Valley Gourmet

Just loved the photography on this site - Orangegirlphotographs. There are just too many fab shots to choose from so went with the boots. I am getting the feeling that the decider on photography for me at the moment is hands and footwear! Not sure what that says about me!

And the photos below are from the condos' website.
 

It fits in with the other 'dream' locations - really think I am going to have to take a trip to check it all out for myself ..........
 

What would you do. Suggestions and comments, please. Thank you.

SNOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I shouldn't be up and writing a blog at this time of night but there you are. Goes to show how excited I get about SNOW!! Was just about to go to bed when I saw that there had been snow in Collingwood today? This is just far too early for snow - good gracious, it's not even Halloween. Anyway, did a little more checking and found these photos on Facebook from this morning by the Explore the Bruce team. This is the area around Owen Sound where we do our  fab Winter Weddings at Cobble Beach.

Glow from the early morning sun



Deer having looking around

A back yard

and a not quite so covered back yard

Oh, I want to be there! It's snowing!

[Bet it's all gone by now, though - just saying that quietly before anyone else does]

The Ranunculus Adventures

I stumbled across this blog - it was quite by accident but VERY timely as I am trying to re-organise my office. This is the sort of photograph that gives me inspiration

If only .... The thing that always worries me though is did they buy the books to match the colour gaps? I can't imagine going out shopping for a 'yellow' book because there's a gap to be filled - what if the book you really want to read has a purple cover and that section is full? Or do you cover the books when you get them home and colour code the covers by topic or author?

Anyway, this resourceful florist goes on to explain how to purge your stuff. I am going to follow rules 3 & 4 the Will, When, Where and Cut the Cord although FATS sounds good too - File, Act, Trash & Shred.  It seems she is serious about organising professionally for people who don't know where to start and calling her business Purge - great name, shame she's in the States.

Check out the full purge entry on October 12 2010 but scroll the page slowly to take in the fab wedding photos too. http://ranunculusadventure.blogspot.com/

Here's a preview of some of the pictures. The photography is by Julie Harris