A Weekend On Vancouver Island

On Friday Teenie accompanied me to the Helijet launch pad to see me off to the island (a free standby ticket from Alice) and stayed with me up until Kepmen arrived on the Seaplane. I had to wait 6 hours to get on a flight, but in the end I understand that it was a lesson on patience, which is something I've been lacking lately.

Practice makes perfect!!

Once I finally got to Victoria, I did some walking around and met up with Alice at our designated spot. Whenever Alice and I get together we end up doing an insane amount of talking. It's wonderful. We talk about anything and everything and I feel open enough with her to talk about anything that's on my mind. The big topics of this weekend were finances and the wall street bail out package going on right now.

On top of talking, we took her dog for walks, drank coffee in her backyard, met up with a few friends and talked some more. It was lovely.

Introducing to you: 5 new Ready2Wear Designs!!

In alphabetical order::::

1. Cartesian Life

I drew this cityscape one night just after I took a few moments to look at the view from my Vancouver attic apartment. A city can be so beautiful and romantic. Cartesian Life is a mixture of type A and type B behavior; they do say that opposites attract.

See the Cartesian Life stationery suite.



2. Guiding Lights

Guiding Lights is the name of a small choir Bill and Helen (my parents) used to be a part of. As little toddlers we would go to their rehearsals in our PJs and tour around with them from church to church. It has nothing to do with this design...other than the lanterns which give off light.

See the Guiding Lights stationery suite.



3. Natural Benefits

Sometimes you find the most beautiful part of the world in the scariest part of the world. I like to find beauty in the unusual. Natural Benefits isn't typically classic or romantic but it holds mystery and growth inside it...which reminds me of love.

See the entire Natural Benefits stationery suite.



4. Plants, Wow

This design, as the colours are now, reminds me of fall. The leaves are changing colours, life is changing, rebirth, renewal...what other words come to mind...crisp air. I love fall.

See the entire Plants, Wow stationery suite.



5. Speechless

Made up of my hand-writing and a clever colour scheme, this fun and friendly invitation is not to be taken lightly. It's full of passion, understanding and adoration.

See the entire Speechless stationery suite.

Mandy and Trevor • 080808

I got my first glance at Trevor's wedding pictures last night. They look fantastic!!! Since this is the first wedding of the siblings, and because I love my family so much, I'm going to post a gazillion photos. Oh you love it!

Before the ceremony

Mandy (sister-in-law) and Adia (niece)

Mandy and Trevor (older brother)

Mandy and her wedding docs

At a park in Oshawa, Ontario

Mandy and Trevor

The Wedding Party

The Schenks (l-r: Max, Mandy, Adia, Brody, Trevor)

Mandy's not scared of you.

The Schenks (l-r: me, brody, dwight, max, bill, helen, mandy, adia, trevor)

The Mcewen Family

A fight broke out at the photo shoot

My brothers

The boys

Little Princess Adia

Ceremony

Max, Brody and Adia walking down the aisle

The ceremony

The vows

Reception

My parents giving a speech of embarrassing moments in Trevor's life. EERRR.
I hear they have a list for me too.

Speech response

Of course, Dwight had to have the funniest speech.

Bridesmaids

l-r: Auntie Gerda, shooooot what's his name, Uncle Tom

Me!

I love the guys in the background.

He'll understand when he's older.

My mom took care of the chocolate fondue. It was a hit.

My bad-ass sister-in-law. She'll come after you if you bug me.

Max The Entertainer

I love this kid.

He made all the girls cry that night.

My mom didn't cry until Bon Jovi came on at the very end.
Oh and this is a very sweet picture of my mom and brother.

wowzers

Baby Announcements Galore

See you later!

When we tell our couples "you'll be back!" we don't necessarily mean you'll be back for your next wedding invitation design...but you'll be back for Christmas cards, birthday party invitations, anniversary invitations AND BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS!!


Cute, little, precious, baby birth announcements are such a pleasure to design. The most memorable birth announcement was for Rio and her parents Tracey and Jordan. Jordan wanted to just let us go wild and see what we came up with and what I came up with - two adult penguins and a little baby penguin - was exactly what they wanted. Unbeknownst to me, Tracey and Jordan had some strange connection with penguins. Weird, right?

Very cool.

The Olive Tree

Elizabeth Lavallee, a life long friend of mine, has given birth to 3 spunky kids and I've had the pleasure of making all of their birth announcements. Little Olivia, the only girl, got a special birth announcement as she is the princess of the family and had an adorable name for me to work with. I looked up the origins of Olivia (Olive Tree) and decided to make a child's book illustration of an olive tree. I thought it came out perfectly.


If you're interested in birth announcements for your new family addition, contact us for more information. Let's spread the word!

Australia • Baz Luhrmann

I'm a big fan of Baz Luhrmann's films.
Last night I saw a trailer for his new film Australia.
It stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
I'd see it.



The official website.

sale! sale! sale!

As I walked by Bello Wedding World (3207 Main Street) this morning I couldn't help but notice all the red streamers and bold red signs saying "sale sale sale sale sale;" It's the Helen (my mom) in me that notices this type of window display.

So there's a 20 - 50% sale at Bello Wedding World.

Go now!

I guess most bridal shops are nearing the end of the summer wedding season and want to make room for next years gowns. Good to know.

Original. New. Passion.

Looking For Options

For the past week I decided I would put some time into creating a few new Ready2Wear wedding designs. I chuckle to myself (on the inside) when I look at the new wedding designs, mostly due to the fact that they're not typical wedding ideas but also because I have a pretty fun job. The fact is, we don't want all of our stationery to have flowers on them, although we are big fans of flora, but sometimes you need a break; another option.

A large percent of the couples who come to us are looking for something different, original and reflective of their uniqueness. Not every couple wants two entwined gold hearts on hand-made petal paper and wrapped in raffia (which I know can look quite charming).

Sweet Nothings In Your Ear

The difficult goal I put on myself this week was to create wedding stationery that softly whispers love in your ear but also stimulates your brain...caresses your eyeballs...we want to push the envelope in the wedding stationery world. Our catalogue already demonstrates our bona fide passion for the unconventional but I want to continue with new ways to promote love, happiness and everything in between.

And that's my rant for this weekend.

Below is sneak peek into our plans on mentioned caressing and stimulation...

Introducing to you: First Snowfall

With summer coming to an end and the forecast predicting lower and lower temperatures, we must prepare ourselves for the inevitable. I mean, not those in Vancouver, but millions of others around the world need to come to terms with it...including me as I will moving to Fernie in the next month.

I digress, we're excited to promote a new Ready2Wear design called First Snowfall. It's designed with unconventional snowflakes and pizzazz. I love how the combined snowflakes turn into a paparazzi party.


Check out all 16 wedding stationery pieces for First Snowfall. Enjoy!

Les Faux Bourgeois

It's just fun to say outloud! "Les Faux Boooourgeoooooois"

PLUS, it's a fantastic new french restaurant that just opened up on East 15th (Kensington area) in Vancouver.

Now I wish I had taken a picture of it because it's a beautiful restaurant that a few people in the area put large amounts of work into in order to offer us, the lucky ones, delicious "unpretentious" french cuisine at a great price, while breathing friendly neighbourly air. It works!

One of the partners of Les Faux Bourgeois introduced himself to us at the door and immediately seated us at the bar. He shook our hands and then we met our bartender Nico. I believe this is the kind of place I would stumble into alone to discuss my problems with Nico over a cold beer. If I had problems! ha.

And then Dana would come in and carry me home, tuck me into my bed and place a muffin on my bedside table for the morning.

Les Faux Bourgeois
663 15th Avenue East, Vancouver, BC
map

our stumbled links #6

1. 50 Amazing Gig Posters Sure to Inspire
And all 50 ARE amazing!


2. Twelve Canoes
A beautiful layout of short stories about the Yolngu people of Ramingining in Australia. Beautiful photography, paintings and amazing audio shorts of their lives and history.


3. The Big Picture
The Boston Global includes a section on their website called The Big Picture which tells news via amazing photography. It's like the BBC's Most Striking Photos of the week.

(taken from boston.com) A horse grazes beside a house, surrounded by floodwater, near Winnie, Texas after Hurricane Ike, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008. Ike was the first major storm to directly hit a major U.S. metro area since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. (AP Photo/Pool, Smiley N. Pool)

Cool Cherry Blossom Cake

Sarah and Erik just sent us photos of their May 31st wedding at Furry Creek and Albertine and I took note of a really cool detail at their wedding (for us.) Their cake was decorated to look like their blue skies & daisies cherry blossom wedding invitation or at least that's what we think happened.


Whoever created the cake did an amazing job.

We want to show you all their wedding photos but you'll have to wait for that special month when we feature them on our website. So sorry. But here's the cool cherry blossom cake...

Photo by Jane Photo

Robo's Fantastic Weekend

It's been over 4 weeks since I've seen Robo. This weekend visit was highly anticipated and needed. The visit isn't over just yet, in fact, he's behind me right now cooking me breakfast. AWESOME!

Here's a couple shots from our sunny happy weekend.

On our way to Spanish Banks to meet up with Albertine, Ben and their crew, we stopped by the Arbutus Cafe where Dana Oikawa works and works very hard.



Spanish Banks was great but since the buses took so long (has anyone else noticed their inconsistencies lately?) and our visit with Dana ended up being longer than we expected, by the time we arrived at the beach Albertine and Ben were on their way out. Rod and I stayed and laid on the beach for a few hours anyways. I taught him how to play Sudoku, we drew quick house plans for my move to Fernie and tossed Ben's frizbee around a bit until my neck couldn't take it anymore.


Sunday included a movie (Burn After Reading,) scrabble in the park and fish and chips at Go Fish. Best weekend ever!