New Addition to the Family

Her name is Peerless Gem and she's new around these here parts. It took 18 hours to get this paper cutter settled in from Calgary to Fernie and lots of hours discussing how we're going to take this 1000 lb, 100 year old paper cutter off the back of Rod's truck.

We woke up Sunday morning to this outside our window and kinda wanted to cry...


Rod and I looked at each other absolutely baffled and confused.

"HUN!"

Finally, we called a few strong bulls over to work with us as a team. It worked flawlessly, other than the 30 minutes where we couldn't find one of the wheels that Rod had mysteriously put down somewhere. We found it though, sneaky Rod!

And that's when the real excitement began. I've never seen twenty-something year olds SO excited about a paper cutter. It was like Christmas for them and all they were doing was cutting a phone book into many many pieces and then cheering...like a dog with newspaper.

OHHH I did loved their excitement! It made all the stress worth it. It's a fairly rusty machine at the moment but I'll be putting in some elbow grease time to transform it from a 1910 to a 2010 model. People will see it and be like "ohhh is that a new Peerless Gem? I didn't think they were making them anymore"

And I will smile inside.

We're the B-Team

What I love, almost more than peanut butter, is building something with someone else. In school I wasn't much of a team player but now that I'm so much more mature and wise, I see the advantages of teaming up with someone that can offer what you cannot.

Derrick and I created The Little Things back in January, Albertine and I started the prototype for a super secret product this summer and this November, just yesterday in fact, Rodney Brink and I have come together to make beautiful art.



I completed this painting a couple months ago and Rod designed a unique frame for it out of cedar wood he found around the garage. We are very proud of the final outcome and display it in our home proudly.



I encourage you to team up with someone and discover how great it can be to create something new and original. Go Team!!

A Little Adventure

I'm back!!

Ya, I know you missed me, although you didn't know it. Well, I was off on a bit of an adventure filled with snowy mountains, games and a moose. Oh the stories I will tell when I'm a Grandma!

This is just a quick note to tell you that life is back to normal and we'll continue entertaining you with loads of cool BSD wedding stationery, stories, photography and other things we find interesting.

My photo for today....

pack, drive, unpack

We did it! I am now settled in Fernie, B.C, or as settled as you can be in 2 days, and I'm just starting to breathe a little and look around me. It's so beautiful here. Today I'll tell my moving story in pictures...

1. Packing. Thanks, Dana and Rod!! We're a good team.


2. The loading. For the first 6 hours, of the 15 hour road trip, we were terrified that the truck will tip over. After 6 stops at the side of the highway in the first 7 km, we decided to get the plastic wrap out and secure the tarp like real shippers would. Rod is so smart.


3. Driving across British Columbia. No problems at all, other than a terrible accident that happened just outside of Invermere, which had us sitting at the side of the road for almost an hour. That's not so much a problem for us as for the people involved in the accident. In the picture to the right you can see the shadow of our questionably loaded truck.


4. Unpacking. I basically unpacked the whole trailer and truck on my own. I am a MACHINE!


5. Living in Fernie. Chopping wood, gorgeous sun sets, photographing Fernie and working in my new fabulous office...

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!

I just had to share these photos...

These 2 photos are from my trip to Fernie that I just had to post. They are A. hilarious and B. hilarious.

The first is Rod and I (my bathing suit is not the most flattering) and the second is Rod's brother Steve and Mrs Jen Brink. Good times. These photos bring a smile to my face.

bowling is fun

I'm not the biggest fan of bowling. I generally don't go bowling. However, on Thursday we all had a free night, so I said to the biggest bowling fans "Let's go bowling!"

And of course they dropped what they were doing and got their butts in the car immediately.

Let me introduce to you our bowlers for the evening:

Ben

Teeniebear

Robowler

and Beans

When I was 10 or so I was photographed in Oshawa while bowling and it landed on the front page of the Oshawa Times newspaper. The photo above brings back those memories, memories of slight embarrassment because they had caught me in a moment of pure mid bowling toss splendor and possibly my eyes were half closed and my tongue was hanging out. One day I'll find it, scan it and post it. You'll laugh and I'll laugh and it will be a fun good time.

So back to Thursday...

It was a night of eating and drinking (as you can see by Teenie's face, she was giddy like a school girl)

and picking the ball that whispers in your ear "hey, can i talk to you for a second?"

everyone was competing for the title of champion and would swoop to the lowest levels to break your flow...by making faces, taking pictures with a flash at just the right moment...and so on.

by the end of the night our eyes were glossy and everything seemed a little bit fuzzy

Ben pretty much ruled the evening, mostly because we were all stunned by his wicked spinning technique, that is until Beans blew him out of the water in the last game with her new found my-thumb-hurts ball toss, while Teeniebear and Robowler proved to everyone that they don't need to win to have fun.

I'd go again.

wildlife, birthdays and videotape

My time in Fernie is coming to an end. I'm sure you're all wondering "what's it like for brina all the way in Fernie?" and "How does she do it?" and maybe even "what the hell is she doing?"

well here is the answer...

1. I'm taking care of my healing buddy. As an update, he's driving, walking, running, biking and doing all the activities he was doing before the surgery, but at the speed of a snail. STILL! Improvements galore. I also gave him a hair cut. Say hello to his new hair cut!

2. I'm always on the look out for wildlife. I don't always have a camera with me, like the time I saw the field full of elk or all the bald eagles and hawks I see in the sky, or even the curious hummingbirds. But this is proof of all the other wild buddies I did see...

3. I celebrated my 31st birthday. Best birthday ever...unless we're counting last year cuz last year was PRETTY awesome.

4. The coolest part of my trip was being surprised by a little bear cub outside our bedroom window. Here's a small clip of him eating grass. You don't know how hard it was to NOT go out and give him/her a big hug.

a quick trip up the sunshine coast

Scene: Somewhere in Vancouver on Saturday night.

Rod: "so what do you want to do this weekend?"
Brina: "mmm I don't know"
Rod: "That's cool. I like that we don't have plans."
Brina: "How about renting a car and going somewhere?"
Rod: "You're so smart and awesome and beautiful. I'm so glad I'm dating such a cool person with such unique ideas"
Brina: "I just thought of it now."

And so we rented a car and drove up the sunshine coast. Destination: Powell River.

End scene.

The dialogue wasn't exactly that, but it was similiar ish.

We drove the rented Accent on 4 ferries in 2 days, played lots of cribbage, saw a few seals and I took lots of pictures. It was the best weekend ever. This brings our Flight Pass time to an end. We're a bit sad, but then we think about summer and how it's riiiiight around the corner. More good times will be had.

It was my first time up the coast and now I understand why people go there and love it and say "it's so beautiful". I get it. I have now been to one of the most beautiful places in Canada. I also met 2 wonderful people who put us up for a night, thanks for their B&B, and I encourage anyone to look up Adventure B&B next time you're in Powell River.

Here are some of my favorite shots.

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

dancing calgary to sleep

This weekend Rod and I enjoyed an evening at the Hyatt, in Calgary, where we attended the FritoLay year end/christmas party for west coast employees and their mates. There are some quality people working for this company and we all took the chance to drink and dance like it was 1892! Such fun!! Letting lose with your co-workers is such a good bonding exercise. Albertine and I should really go out and dance and have some fun together to get rid of the work tension that's building up between us (JUST KIDDING!)

Because we were in the city, we called up our friend Miriam, an old high school pal, to squeeze in some quality time with her and her family before heading home. Boy, do I miss that girl!

I haven't spent too much time in Calgary, but I did notice that the downtown core is really a nice place to be. I'm not sure why, but I was pleasantly surprised by how nice people were and how pretty the streets are....and the fake animals!! So strange! At the airport, in hotels, along the streets, you see these big life sized animals as if they were in a museum. HM! I liked it.

like little children

My weekend was SO MUCH FUN! I love the snow. Over the past 7 months I have forgotten about this amazing thing called winter...atleast the first few days of a good snowy winter. I'm sure in a few weeks or less I'll be like I MISS SUMMER. We'll see. We'll see. Over the weekend I enjoyed all the things that snow brings, like hot chocolate, a good walk through the snow, snow balls, fireplaces, blankets and christmas carols.

Maybe I'm going too far with this.

What we were enjoying, on our winter wonderland walk, was kicking (gently) the snow from the tree and watching it fall on us like a tiny avalanche of funness.

two weeks in nicaragua

What to say. HM. There's just too much. I will try and point out a few highlights of the trip because to write everything would be really time consuming and possibly boring for you.

I like numbering my points...

1. Managua - Greg's home

Arriving in Managua without knowing Spanish or having the Nicaraguan currency or any advanced planning, made our initial landing very very interesting. We made it though! We were tested and passed with flying colours. Greg picked us up with his friend Victor and from that moment on we began our two weeks of drinking, learning and resting. All 3 were necessary and inevitable.

We stayed in Managua for the first week, where we drank as much as we possibly could and spent the rest of our time listening to stories of the revolution, war and an ongoing time of crisis...from the comforts of a hammock. It was more than eye opening. We met wonderful people who devote their lives to bettering the lives of the people of this amazing country and not once did we feel like outsiders. We were invited with open arms everywhere we went, AND THE FOOD! We were fed constantly. We loved it. ha ha. It's true.

Thanks to Greg, Victor, Robert, Karen, Hubert, the Canada House, Trudy, Kai, Kent and so many more people for our fabulous first week. It was intense but unforgettable.

2. Granada and the bus ride to the Pacific Ocean beach.

A few day trips took place during the first week. The first was to Granada, a colonial town just an hour away from Managua, with stunning architecture and beautiful views of Lake Nicaragua (the only fresh water lake in the world where sharks live). We took a tour of the Cathedral of Granada, an art gallery and took a walk along the lake. In between our mini tours we would hide in Dario Hotel (owned by Greg's brother) to escape from the heat. It's just too hot for our Canadian acclimatized bodies.

The second trip was by bus to the Pacific Coast. Victor took us on the public bus for almost 2 hours to see the beach and all the small villages along the way. It was a crazy ride up and down a mountain with cars passing us on a narrow winding road. To me it's completely chaotic but to everyone else on that bus this was normal. I love it! The beach was beautiful. We were there for only a few hours because we left late and the bus ride was fairly long. Still we had a great time and felt like we experienced something real.

3. Corn Island

After a crazy first week we reserved a couple seats on a flight to Big Corn Island, which is fifty miles northeast of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. For 4 days we stayed at Greg's parents house, which was right on the water on the south end of the Island. The word "big" is used lightly here too since it has a 14 km circumference. The house was big and beautiful and our friendly neighbours kept an eye on us and helped us any time they could. They were amazing to have around. Elizabeth, a new best friend of mine, cooked us yellow tail and plantains one evening and it was DELICIOUS. You have no idea. Rod and I visited 3 different beaches during our stay and relaxed, drank flor de cana, rested, watched tv in an air conditioned room, swam, ate and played with the neighbourhood kids. It was our only "vacation" during our vacation. We felt quite privileged to have spent any time on this little piece of heaven and with the angels that live there.

Thanks to Greg's parents, Elizabeth, Lester, Lubit (not sure on the spelling), Lubit Sr (still not sure on the spelling), Victor and Karla and anyone else that made our stay so great.

My notes here seem really brief but if you want to know any more about our trip, then just give me a call and we'll chat over a coffee. I can talk about it all day long! Right now, on this blog, I just wanted to share my overall experience with you because it is a story that needs to be told.