Albertine and I tend to get to know our couples pretty well, since putting together wedding invitations can take many months to plan and complete. (not always! hah) Then we get lifer couples who come back to us for baby announcements or birthday parties...woah I'm getting off topic here...so Jude and Marika (married in 2005) keep in touch here and there and this week Jude invited one of us to attend the West Coast LEAF equality breakfast. Since Teenie wasn't available because of other plans, it was an easy decision.
I read up a bit about Shirin Ebadi, the main speaker, before this morning and was pretty excited to hear someone speak about her views on equality of women and religious freedom in Iran. She's a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist in Iran. She is also the 1st Iranian woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (2003). Her story is amazing and almost brought me to tears during the introduction and for her walk up to the stage. We think North America has a long way to go in regarding women as equal to men (and in some ways this is true) but Iran is a completely different story. She stands strong for all women and children. She believes in the power of both men and women and understands that the patriarchal government in place now is missing out on 1/2 of the countries full potential (taken from her words). I'm pretty sure Dr Ebadi is under immense pressure to be quiet about her views of Islam although she clearly says it's not Islam that's the problem, it's having an Islamic government that is the problem...and even further, it's Islamic governments with oppressing interpretations of the Quran. Interesting!
Albertine and I are blessed to be able to be who we are and who we want to be. We have the freedom to go to work for ourselves, make choices and voice our opinions. We are blessed but today is another day to make a difference! I fully believe in our potential to change the world and make it a place of tolerance, understanding and love. Why not?! What else is there?
What a fabulous morning!! Thanks Jude and Marika!
Want to learn more?
Autobiography of Shirin Ebadi
West Coast LEAF
Iran targeting women activists - BBC article Thursday February 28th, 2008
February 29, 2008
February 27, 2008
red square at the roxy
My friend Dana Oikawa, an extremely talented musician, invited me out to see her play last night. She's part of a newish band called red square and they pretty much blew me away. I was so proud to see her on the stage looking very comfortable being a huge rockstar. This was their first show but it kinda looked and felt like they'd been doing it for years.
So I'll keep you posted on when they're playing next because you should check them out...if only to watch Dana play cool "owooooowwwwoowww" and "breewweeeweerrrerererere" sounds while sporting fancy red shades.
Love you Dana!! Thanks for the party!
Sorry about the low quality pics. I'm no Angela Hubbard.
So I'll keep you posted on when they're playing next because you should check them out...if only to watch Dana play cool "owooooowwwwoowww" and "breewweeeweerrrerererere" sounds while sporting fancy red shades.
Love you Dana!! Thanks for the party!
Sorry about the low quality pics. I'm no Angela Hubbard.
February 22, 2008
lotus events and their new website
Since meeting Rob and Andrea, of Lotus Events, as a couple planning their wedding in 2004, we just haven't been able to shake them off our backs. hahaha KIDDING!! They are such a great couple who are easy going and supportive and loving and awesome. Whenever they can, they will send work our way. The best part is they love everything we do, sometimes before we even show them a mockup. So it wasn't a big surprise when they asked us to redesign their company website. But of course!
Over the past few months we've put together a pretty cool website, which represents their fun style and love of all things artistic.
Check it out. We all worked very hard on this.
www.lotusevents.ca - event coordination and wedding management.
Go team!!
Over the past few months we've put together a pretty cool website, which represents their fun style and love of all things artistic.
Check it out. We all worked very hard on this.
www.lotusevents.ca - event coordination and wedding management.
Go team!!
February 21, 2008
show and tell #2
Happy almost Friday, everyone!! It's been a fantastic week in Vancouver. The sun has been out, which means people are outside and feeling good about themselves. This city comes alive in good weather.
So to celebrate the sun, we're posting our show and tell #2! I think we've posted our work before and got away from the show and tell format. I'm sorry about that. I'll try and stay more consistent.
1. Rosa and Elias
Rose and Elias got married in Venezuela in December, 07. Spanish wording was requested for their invitations, which was easy since Rosa provided all the copy and guided us in getting the formatting right. Their wedding invitation design was the only choice they were allowed to make for the wedding, so they wanted it to really represent their more modern side.
2. Sharon and Reid
We worked with Sharon and Reid who are in Japan, so communication was 98% through email, but we made it work and it went smooooth like butter. The design was inspired by our Ready2Wear design Ain't It Funky Now.
3. Mary and Jon
Erin Norman, of Fuego Events, introduced this awesome couple to us last year. Mary and Jon live in the West End of Vancouver and were having a West End wedding. For the design, they wanted to keep it clean and simple and somehow include a sketched floral design.
So to celebrate the sun, we're posting our show and tell #2! I think we've posted our work before and got away from the show and tell format. I'm sorry about that. I'll try and stay more consistent.
1. Rosa and Elias
Rose and Elias got married in Venezuela in December, 07. Spanish wording was requested for their invitations, which was easy since Rosa provided all the copy and guided us in getting the formatting right. Their wedding invitation design was the only choice they were allowed to make for the wedding, so they wanted it to really represent their more modern side.
2. Sharon and Reid
We worked with Sharon and Reid who are in Japan, so communication was 98% through email, but we made it work and it went smooooth like butter. The design was inspired by our Ready2Wear design Ain't It Funky Now.
3. Mary and Jon
Erin Norman, of Fuego Events, introduced this awesome couple to us last year. Mary and Jon live in the West End of Vancouver and were having a West End wedding. For the design, they wanted to keep it clean and simple and somehow include a sketched floral design.
February 14, 2008
the greatest love songs of all time
I was listening to one of my favorite radio stations, The Current, last night and sat through a set of The Greatest Love Songs Of All Time. Seems appropriate for Valentines Day. It was a night I'll never forget. Here are the top 5 love songs, recommended by listeners.
5. The Cure - There is no if
4. Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place Naive Melody
3. Etta James - At Last
2. Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life
1. Ben Folds - The Luckiest
I heard somewhere that writing a love song can be much harder than writing a sad song. Don't know why, but I guess love can be really cheesy if it's not done right. What is "right?" I don't know.
Anyone have their own top love song?
I thoroughly enjoy Your Hand In Mine by Explosions in the Sky. It's so beautiful.
St Valentines Chip
I've been reading up on what Valentines day is all about, you know, it's origins, because you KNOW it's not the focal point of the actual day. Details get lost and time passes...stories are forgotten. Well I found out that no one is 100% on who exactly Saint Valentine really was. There are stories. There are ideas. But no one really knows. Isn't that funny? We have this day that we are all well aware of, all over the world, and we just do it cuz it's on our calendar...or maybe we really love love. Do you really love love? It's the #1 day to get engaged on. It's a fact.
The other day Rod was browsing around EBay and found an item for sale that seemed a little over the top. It was a chip in the form of a heart. But not really!! My 3 year old nephew could snap off a tiny piece of a chip and call it a heart and it might look better than the 4 dollar chip up for bid. Maybe if it was a chip in it's whole that resembled a heart. Maybe then could it be GIVEN FREE to someone you think might appreciate it. hahah. People are funny!! But who am I to say anything about what people sell on EBay. It's a free world.
Valentines Around The World:
In Japan women give chocolate and gifts to men. Valentines Day in Sweden is celebrated with rises, jelly hearts and pastries. In South Africa Valentines is celebrated with good food, exotic wines and exchange of gifts. Love, charity, health and eduction is celebrated in Finland. The UK doesn't give the day too much attention.
Well that's what the internet says. Sometimes I wonder about this internet business.
Enjoy your day and may it be full of love, life, happiness and good health! Eat a donut!
The other day Rod was browsing around EBay and found an item for sale that seemed a little over the top. It was a chip in the form of a heart. But not really!! My 3 year old nephew could snap off a tiny piece of a chip and call it a heart and it might look better than the 4 dollar chip up for bid. Maybe if it was a chip in it's whole that resembled a heart. Maybe then could it be GIVEN FREE to someone you think might appreciate it. hahah. People are funny!! But who am I to say anything about what people sell on EBay. It's a free world.
Valentines Around The World:
In Japan women give chocolate and gifts to men. Valentines Day in Sweden is celebrated with rises, jelly hearts and pastries. In South Africa Valentines is celebrated with good food, exotic wines and exchange of gifts. Love, charity, health and eduction is celebrated in Finland. The UK doesn't give the day too much attention.
Well that's what the internet says. Sometimes I wonder about this internet business.
Enjoy your day and may it be full of love, life, happiness and good health! Eat a donut!
February 9, 2008
how it all began
For many years now we've been telling the blue skies & daisies story to anyone that asks for it. We LOVE telling it because it's OUR story and we play really big parts in it. How Albertine and I met and how we started this company is actually a very interesting story. It all began in 2002 when I (Brina) moved to Vancouver with my friend Nate McAnally...
The move to Vancouver from Victoria was a fairly spontaneous decision for me. The original plan was to move back to Toronto, but that would mean I'd be back in Ontario, where I was born, and I wasn't ready for that. Vancouver was a fresh start for me and my friend Nate. Nate was attending Emily Carr and I was looking for something new and exciting. New and exciting to me ended up being hanging out in the city and doing freelance work until my savings ran out and I would be forced to find a job. The forced to find a job part didn't happen because I ended up meeting this funny girl named Albertine.
Let's go back a bit further.
My friend from highschool, Louvens Remy, moved to Vancouver from Australia in early 2002. His sister (also a friend) stayed with him (sorta) for a month, before her trip to Japan, in late 2002. Louvens was living in a tiny 1 bedroom Vancouver apartment with his friend James. There was no room at the Inn. Layla, the outgoing forward person that she is, introduced herself to Lou's neighbour Albertine. Albertine gave Layla a roof to sleep under, some breathing room and a set of keys. Layla was having such a good time with Teenie she soon after introduced her to me. In my head I was like "Teenie is such a weird name. That's the kind of name you give to a not so brilliant, weightlifting obsessed Archie comic book character."
Albertine was not the Teenie I had in my head. In fact, Teenie ended up being a really smart, cheese loving, real life new best friend. After Layla flew away on her own adventure, Teenie and I continued to get together to played Yahtzee, drink coffee and brew up fun projects we could do together. Not much has changed since then.
OH that's not true.
For Christmas '02, Albertine and I decided to make all our friends trading cards. I did the designing and Teenie distributed the questionnaires and organized all the information. If we were in a movie, this scene would be the foreshadow. The scene looks something like this: us in a small room, hunched over our computers, giggling at eachother and in between our all-for-fun yelling matches we would high five eachother.
That sounds about right.
Bring. Bring. (the phone rings)
It's Teenie's sister Clarisse. She's getting married!! Albertine, well aware of my availability and design talents, offers our services to create wedding invitations for her. Strangely enough, she already had wedding invitations. What was needed was a wedding website. A wedding website? What's a freaking wedding website?!
Exactly!
So we did a little R&D and found out what it was. It's genius really. As a team, we built her sister the coolest wedding website we could think of. There were a lot of guests coming from out of town so it included all sorts of travel and accommodation information, rsvp capabilities and registry information. As this was happening, Teenie was laid off from her corporate IT job (which wasn't making her very happy anyway) and after a day of crying, we thought it would be fun to start our own company.
Our first idea was to start a magazine. The magazine idea was axed quickly as we saw how much work and money it would take. The next idea was to sell trading cards. Trading cards was the best idea in our minds. We thoroughly enjoyed the cards we made for our friends and family and witnessed their excitement and approval as well...but this dream was put on hold when our friend Scott Eastlick said to us "Why don't you sell wedding websites?"
So in the end, we owe everything to Scott. The end.
NO! That's not it!! There's more.
Soon after Scott's fateful words penetrated our brains, we sat down in Teenie's kitchen nook with a couple pads of paper and brainstormed about what to call ourselves and what our plan of attack was. During this brainstorm session we came up with our name, website address and I ran home and designed our logo. Most productive night ever!
Basically, the next day I moved into Teenie's 1 bedroom apartment and we started Blue Skies & Daisies Weddings Inc. Blue Skies & Daisies started off as a wedding website business but the idea was too fresh and new. We decided to include wedding invitations and other wedding stationery. After checking out what other wedding invitations look like, we knew we were in the right business. What we noticed was a lack of non traditional wedding options. Where were couples going for invitations sans lace, ribbon or frill?!
When we were younger we never had dreams of starting our own business or working in the wedding industry. Funny how life happens.
So that's our story. Hope you enjoyed it. Maybe one day we'll tell the after we started our company story. It's just as good.
The move to Vancouver from Victoria was a fairly spontaneous decision for me. The original plan was to move back to Toronto, but that would mean I'd be back in Ontario, where I was born, and I wasn't ready for that. Vancouver was a fresh start for me and my friend Nate. Nate was attending Emily Carr and I was looking for something new and exciting. New and exciting to me ended up being hanging out in the city and doing freelance work until my savings ran out and I would be forced to find a job. The forced to find a job part didn't happen because I ended up meeting this funny girl named Albertine.
Let's go back a bit further.
My friend from highschool, Louvens Remy, moved to Vancouver from Australia in early 2002. His sister (also a friend) stayed with him (sorta) for a month, before her trip to Japan, in late 2002. Louvens was living in a tiny 1 bedroom Vancouver apartment with his friend James. There was no room at the Inn. Layla, the outgoing forward person that she is, introduced herself to Lou's neighbour Albertine. Albertine gave Layla a roof to sleep under, some breathing room and a set of keys. Layla was having such a good time with Teenie she soon after introduced her to me. In my head I was like "Teenie is such a weird name. That's the kind of name you give to a not so brilliant, weightlifting obsessed Archie comic book character."
Albertine was not the Teenie I had in my head. In fact, Teenie ended up being a really smart, cheese loving, real life new best friend. After Layla flew away on her own adventure, Teenie and I continued to get together to played Yahtzee, drink coffee and brew up fun projects we could do together. Not much has changed since then.
OH that's not true.
For Christmas '02, Albertine and I decided to make all our friends trading cards. I did the designing and Teenie distributed the questionnaires and organized all the information. If we were in a movie, this scene would be the foreshadow. The scene looks something like this: us in a small room, hunched over our computers, giggling at eachother and in between our all-for-fun yelling matches we would high five eachother.
That sounds about right.
Bring. Bring. (the phone rings)
It's Teenie's sister Clarisse. She's getting married!! Albertine, well aware of my availability and design talents, offers our services to create wedding invitations for her. Strangely enough, she already had wedding invitations. What was needed was a wedding website. A wedding website? What's a freaking wedding website?!
Exactly!
So we did a little R&D and found out what it was. It's genius really. As a team, we built her sister the coolest wedding website we could think of. There were a lot of guests coming from out of town so it included all sorts of travel and accommodation information, rsvp capabilities and registry information. As this was happening, Teenie was laid off from her corporate IT job (which wasn't making her very happy anyway) and after a day of crying, we thought it would be fun to start our own company.
Our first idea was to start a magazine. The magazine idea was axed quickly as we saw how much work and money it would take. The next idea was to sell trading cards. Trading cards was the best idea in our minds. We thoroughly enjoyed the cards we made for our friends and family and witnessed their excitement and approval as well...but this dream was put on hold when our friend Scott Eastlick said to us "Why don't you sell wedding websites?"
So in the end, we owe everything to Scott. The end.
NO! That's not it!! There's more.
Soon after Scott's fateful words penetrated our brains, we sat down in Teenie's kitchen nook with a couple pads of paper and brainstormed about what to call ourselves and what our plan of attack was. During this brainstorm session we came up with our name, website address and I ran home and designed our logo. Most productive night ever!
Basically, the next day I moved into Teenie's 1 bedroom apartment and we started Blue Skies & Daisies Weddings Inc. Blue Skies & Daisies started off as a wedding website business but the idea was too fresh and new. We decided to include wedding invitations and other wedding stationery. After checking out what other wedding invitations look like, we knew we were in the right business. What we noticed was a lack of non traditional wedding options. Where were couples going for invitations sans lace, ribbon or frill?!
When we were younger we never had dreams of starting our own business or working in the wedding industry. Funny how life happens.
So that's our story. Hope you enjoyed it. Maybe one day we'll tell the after we started our company story. It's just as good.
February 7, 2008
year of the rat
People born in the year of the rat are charming folk. Calm, perceptive but maybe a tad too dependent on mental and physical stimulation. They're too smart for their own good.
To everyone, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! Taking a bus through Chinatown this morning, I could see the beginnings of a really fun day of celebration. Enjoy your day!
February 1, 2008
this girl can sew
I'm just so proud of my little buddy (and pretty excited to come back to work with a little present on my desk) cuz she made this all by herself. My girl is all grown up. One day she's going to finish my scarf she started back in 2003. She has definitely improved from the first attempt. WAY TO GO TEENIE!!
living vertigo
We're back from our San Francisco trip! What I knew of this tucked away city before January 26th was so little, and still very little now, but I have seen that the people are helpful and sincere and the architecture flows across the landscape like a wave of beautiful, colourful and carefully placed boxes. We walked up and down all sorts of streets and felt welcome and a part of everyone's day. It is a wonderful feeling to be in a big city but not feel lost.
Every day was an adventure. There was so much to see and do and experience. We went for this long weekend trip with the plan of just being in the city and hanging out, which is definitely what we ended up doing. Maybe next time we'll rent bikes and do some trails, or make our way onto the Golden Gate Bridge or play disc golf in Golden Gate Park.
Top 5 things we enjoyed:
1. THE EXCITEMENT OF BEING SOMEWHERE NEW
2. TRAVELING BY THE EFFICIENT CABLE CARS AND OTHER PUBLIC TRANSIT
3. CONSUMING YUMMY FOOD
4. HANGING OUT AND DRINKING COFFEE
5. STROLLING THROUGH THE JAPANESE TEA GARDEN
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