Snowshoe Adventure to Island Lake Lodge

On Friday afternoon Marie invited me on her planned snowshoe excursion with her friends. For them it's just another day, going to work at Island Lake Lodge, but for me it was an ADVENTURE.

The 2 hour trip from the Mt Fernie Provincial Park parking lot to Island Lake Lodge, approximately 9 km, was fairly easy going for the first kilometer but the 2nd half was straight uphill. I haven't keeled over in pain like that since they forced us to do long distance running in high school. The pain didn't stop me though. It was like a personal goal to be able to make it to the top...and I did. Thank you. Thank you!

The group I went with were all fun and easy going, which made showing up in jeans and no mittens or poles or snow gear a non issue (i'm pretty sure)...as I am not an experienced backcountry girl...or even a winter girl, mind you. Once we got to the lodge we enjoyed a few sips of tea, slice of watermelon and raisin bread and I was soon whisked away in a huge red snowcat back to the parking lot. I left all the girls behind to start their shift, including Chinook, and got a ride home where I went back to work. Like it never happened! But it did and it was fun. Thanks, Marie!

Putting it out there: Prestige Tours

Moving to Fernie has opened a few doors for me, including a few new clients, and one of them is a snowmobile tours company. They promised me a free tour in the spring...so I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

This isn't a typical Brina design but sometimes you gotta do what the client wants...and the client wanted excitement for snowmobiling..so I tried!



If you're in the Fernie area and you're looking for a new adventure on a powerful machine that rips through the rocky mountain backcountry...Prestige Tours can show you a good time.

Picture of the day!

It was a raging success!

My tooth is out, the proof is in the photo, and my recovery is speedy. To tell you the truth, I didn't even know they had taken out the tooth and it seemed within minutes I heard "ok you're done!"

20 minutes! In and out. Thanks, Dr. Amos Kahane!

Sorry if you find this gross...but at the same time it's very beautiful.

A little less wisdom...

But a lot less pain!

Today, in about 35 minutes, I'll demand my dentist to remove one of my wisdom teeth. It has served me well over the past 31 years, sometimes not so well, but it's time to move on.

If you would like to send over any presents and/or get well cards, that would most certainly lift my spirits.

Thanks!

If we don't speak again. It's been fun!

We are in the future!

And the future is all about video conferences!

This past Friday Albertine and I had our first experience of video conferencing (via Skype) for two meetings. I can't tell you how great it was to be able to sit in on meetings again...from Fernie! I felt a little bit like I was a fly on the wall, but at the same time, I was useful fly who could answer questions.

This was my view of our meeting with Lindsay and Harry. What a success!

best photo of the week

Teenie here again! I know, 3 for 3 this week...I think I'm breaking records!

If you don't already know, I moonlight at the Justice Institute of BC (these days more than I am at home) and this week, my director sent us the coolest picture ever.

For those (MY BEANS!) that don't live in metro Vancouver, the past couple of weeks we've been promised sun but everyday see a whole lotta fog instead.

Anyway, the meterologists weren't lying...there is sun above us, you just need to know where to be to see it.

The view of the city, atop Cypress Mountain at 6am.

a little high-flying act to round out the weekend...

Because it wasn't an exciting weekend enough, today, (after I blogged about the show yesterday) I met up with my girlfriend, Nancy, for an afternoon of something different, fun and totally entertaining (for everyone around me).

Ha!

Long story short, Nancy double booked herself today for two separate and totally different events, and since she couldn't cancel out of both, she asked me to sub in on one of the activities today. Her and Laurie, her girlfriend, signed themselves up for an afternoon of CIRCUS! I don't know how to explain it more than that.

on your right: circus professionals, on your left: newbies

Laurie posing for pictures instead of listening to the circus team.

I basically got to go out to this circus gym in North Vancouver and, for two hours, do some really (un)graceful circus activity with a bunch of strangers.

Suffice to say, it was a rip-roaring (more like rip-snorting) good time! Even though Laurie and I didn't even end up being in the same group (they split us up), we still equally had very much lots of fun this afternoon.

streeeetches!

activity #1: hanging on the silk ribbons. check!

activity #2: learn how to juggle.

activity #3: harness yourself in and swing from a really high swing...oh! and do flips :|


activity #4: lay around and chat with your new friends..errr, I mean, trampoline!

Thanks to Nancy for thinking of me and letting me sub in for you!! I did good, right?!

indie we did!

Yesterday was a huge success for everyone participating in the inaugural Indie I Do wedding show! Congratulations to all who came out yesterday, and the biggest congratulations must go out to Lotus Events and Blue Olive Photography for all their hard work and dedication to make this show happen. We's so proud of you!

Although Brina couldn't make it to be with me for yesterday's show, she was definitely spoken of (and praised!) all day for her beautiful work. Erin, of Fuego Events, was nice enough to be my partner in crime for the day, and was even gracious enough to lend her wicked decor skills to our table. Thank you so much Erin for making the day beautiful and fun!

Erin watching over our table, trying to ignore the camera.

The whole day went pretty darn smooth, with just one major coniption fit that I went through about 10 minutes before the doors opened. We set up our table and it looked AMAZING, and when I went to use our new camera to take pictures of the whole table...it totally DID NOT WORK! :(

Thank goodness for friends! The wonderful duo that is Marliss Productions came to my aid to try some quick troubleshooting...with no success. Reilly (one half of the Olives) also came to my aid to do a quick look, but because we only had minutes before the door opened, did some quick thinking and handed over his camera so I could snap off a few shots of our booth before the crowds came through. A heartfelt thanks to everyone who didn't look at me like a weirdo when I was running around (arms flailing) those few minutes before the show started!!

All's well that ends well. Studio Jeanie came to my rescue with her "magic hands" and some how got my camera going so I was able to snap a few shots off in the middle of the show. Schaweeeet! I'll be posting the shots from Reilly's camera as soon as I get them...that's a promise :)

Teenie capturing Jeanie, capturing a moment.

As far as the show goes, it was amazing! The venue was perfect, the booths and tables, beautiful...the burlesque show (from what I heard from behind my table) wicked fun and the people coming through all day (and I'm talking ALL DAY) were so great! Thanks to Racquel (and family), Melissa (and her girlfriend), Trish (and her also-getting-married-girlfriend), Jinesa, and the random friends (that happened to be coming to the show) for coming out! It was great to see you all there and I hope you had a great time!

random friend: Verena!

sassy burlesque cutie

Unfortunately the shots I got were mostly of our table, our neighbours and anything that I could snap from behind our area. It was really hard to get out and walk around, as we were all pretty busy for the full day.

Our neighbour's table of amazing goods: A Farmer's Daughter

I don't know if these pictures do any justice to how awesome the whole place looked but I'm sooo sure that there will be more then enough pictures floating around the information superhighway that'll definitely show Indie I Do exactly how it was meant to be seen.







A hip hip horray to Indie I Do's success!!! Thanks for coming out!

New As Is Products

Here are look at some products that are new to the As Is Catalogue, but don't bother checking the As Is pages just yet because we're not posting them until after the Indie I Do show. Sneaky!

our stumbled links #9

Today is all about the country I was born in, Canada.

1. Weird Canadian Restaurants - on canpages.ca

How did I miss the Salt Tasting Room when I was in Vancouver?

2. Canadian Quotes - including a few quotes by celebrities and comedians.

My favorite so far is:
"When they said Canada, I thought it was up in the mountains somewhere."
- Marilyn Monroe

3. Large Roadside Attractions - compiled by roadsideattractions.ca

Can't say the website is professionally design...but who knew there were so many roadside attractions across Canada?! And how do you pick what your town or city is going to put at the side of their road? How do you narrow down and finally decide on a giant rooster?

Offline for a bit, Online again.

If you're trying to look our website right now, you may have noticed it's not working. We're pretty sure our hosting service is on top of it, but for now we have a blog full of our work and information that may be useful.

We'll be up again soon! We're hoping.

Update: We're up again. Hooray!

Now that I'm here, I could share an article I read in The Globe and Mail today. It's about brides cutting costs of their wedding. The most interesting part, for us, is about how stationery is the first thing to go when cutting down. How sad...but I understand.

Cost of a stamp goes up

I just read this article and I know this affects you, me and all couples mailing out invitations in Canada. Domestic stamps are going up two cents this year from 52 to 54 cents, starting Monday. To read the complete Vancouver Sun Article, click here.

For even more information, the Canada Post website.

You might want to go out and get yourself some stamps before Monday. Lots and lots of 52 cent stamps.

What I have learned in Fernie...

7. How to be "bear aware":
• when out for a nice deep in the forest walk, make noise so you don't startle a bear, bring bear mace and bring a big and strong friend.
• when you approach a bear, talk calmly to it, do not turn and run (you will be chased,) do not climb a tree (they love climbing trees too,) try very hard not to hug and cuddle one of those adorable little cubs, puff up and make it look like you're bigger than you are, and in the unlikely chance that they attack, fight back with all your might.
• don't leave your food lying around to attract unwanted attention, try not to put on lotions that smell like berries or snacks
• it's good to remember bears are not to be feared, especially since they sense fear, but are to be respected as a survivor and an important part of our environment. Respect the bear.


8. Working ALL day at a desk isn't cool.
Now this may seem like common sense to most, but I really do enjoy my job and working at a computer is what I've been doing for many years...but since moving to Fernie, I have been surrounded by people doing jobs that involve no computer at all. WEIRD.Such as: carpenters, tilers, rafting guides, snowmobile guides, ski patrol, ski instructors, servers, landscapers, mr plows and so on and so on.

I still think I'm pretty cool.

9. The Fernie Mogul Smoker
A tradition held annually at the beginning of each winter to appease the snow gods and Griz (Griz is the legendary mountain man responsible for Fernie's incredible powder), the Mogul Smoker kicks off the ski season, Fernie-style.

A fire is lit and fueled by sacrificed skis and snowboards. People dress up, dance and proceed to party all night long.

http://www.mogulsmoker.ca/

Here are the listed Rules on their website:

• Bring 2 pieces of ID, You're in North America Eh!
• Shuttle service only to grounds.
• No BYO Alcohol
• No Glass
• No Fighting
• Bring good vibes. With each negative complaint stated out loud, you will receive one less powder day this season (the Griz hears all.)
• Dress Warm, it can be cold
• The fire can get pretty hot, watch your clothes
  

Look what I found!

I was going through my overflowing desk drawer of old samples the other day and found a few delicious memories. Here are a few pieces we did; one of them over 7 years ago. It's pretty interesting to see my work years later. We are our own worst critic but saying that, I still to this day love the Nokturnal flyer.

Music to listen to

Dead Confederate - myspace



Tigers Can Bite You - myspace



Glasvegas - myspace

YouTube Video of Geraldine

As Is Stationery is putting makeup on...

We're getting ready for the big Indie I Do show on the 17th at Heritage Hall. I have been mentioning it quite a bit lately because I think the show is going to be really fun and different than your average wedding show. Plus, Blue Skies and Daisies is going to be there. That's a huge plus!

On top of displaying our custom wedding stationery we are also going to provide you with the first big opportunity of purchasing our products "off the shelf." We're trying it out with just a few pieces but if you're interested in getting our work at a very good price, come on by...or just say hello. hello! We'll have table cards, place/escort cards, guestbook/note cards and thank you tags at our booth.

Have a wonderful weekend!
And we'll talk on Monday.

featured bsd wedding : january : shawna and don

Location: Tofino, B.C., Canada
Venue: Long Beach Lodge
Photographer: Helene Cyr Photography
Our involvement: R2W invitations, website, thank you cards and a custom water bottle labels and guest's welcome package sticker.

Shawna and Don were married back in 2007 but we will never forget them. Shawna played a large part in making sure all her wedding stationery matched and created excitement for their classy Tofino wedding.

Shawna chose Bunny Love for all her wedding stationery, except for a few extra custom pieces that weren't included in our Ready2Wear packages. From website to invitations, she picked out exactly what Bunny Love photo she wanted where she wanted them and I loved her for it. Bunny Love will always be one of my favorite designs.

Read more about Shawna and Don's wedding here.