one picture that represents my week in vancouver

and, boy, are my arms tired!

I'll be flying into the big city of Vancouver tomorrow for a week of blue skies and daisies working in the same room, as a team, which hasn't happened in a long long time. I tried to find a funny picture of the two of us at work...and all I could find was this picture pre Deanna and Jimmy's wedding where I was lovingly holding Teenie's hand. Ben doesn't seem to mind.

Hope you had a lovely weekend! Rod and I ended up playing outside (my mom would be happy to hear that) for many hours and wrapped up Sunday with the purchase of a 1971 tent trailer. We are so excited for summer. I'll keep you posted on the bs&d fun times.

show and tell #23

Lindsay and Harry decided on our Bunny Love design for their summer 2009 wedding. I believe it was a toss up between Bunny Love and Arts and Crafts. They wanted something unique, playful yet romantic to set the tone for a west coast style Cecil Green celebration. What's unique about Bunny Love is the freedom to choose your own bunny love photo combo. There are 8 in total and, I assume, fairly difficult to choose just 2.

show and tell #14

Marilee and Doug chose a Ready2Wear wedding invitation designs called It's Not A Thistle. They loved this design and didn't change a thing, only added a map to match on the Extra Insert. Erin Norman, of Fuego Events, recommended us to the couple and it's been a delightful warm summer breeze.

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!

Got Craft?

Just a little reminder that Got Craft? is on Sunday at the Royal Canadian Legion @ 2205 Commercial Drive (at E. 6th Avenue) in Vancouver, BC

Got Craft? will be alive from 11am - 6pm.

For more information, go to gotcraft.ca

The Pretty Boutique and Pamper Me Pretty

Jinesa McCaw, the makeup queen, started a bridal makeup service from her home in 2001 and now she's got her own boutique just off of the booming Cambie and West 8th. Her success was inevitable. I wanted to tell you about her today, as her 2 businesses are fantastic and everyone should know about them.

First, Miss McCaw created the mobile hair and makeup company, Pamper Me Pretty, that specializes in pampering brides, wherever they might be located. Second, Jinesa owns and operates a boutique & salon, The Pretty Boutique, for brides, friends and family to have a place to be pampered. She continues to build a talented and educated team of professionals to help her out on the road and in her salon.


Since contacting us in 2007, to design and produce her corporate identity and websites, we have kept our friendship alive and kicking. When you meet good people in your life, you want to help them out as much as you can.

If you're looking to be pampered, you now know where to go...or not go since they will come to you...

The Pretty Boutique
call 778-737-3287 or
email info@theprettyboutique.com
blog http://theprettyboutiquesalon.blogspot.com

Pamper Me Pretty
call 604-377-1482 or
email info@pampermepretty.com

Indie I Do • Vancouver's Alternative Wedding Show

A few good friends of ours in the wedding industry have come together to create this cool little wedding show for those couples who aren't interested in the traditional. All exhibitors are local independent companies with something different to offer and WE are one of them. Of course!

Albertine will be representing the two of us on January 17th, so come on out and see what we all have to offer. Tickets are only $15.00 or 4 for $50.00.

For more information regarding who is going to be at Indie I Do, how to purchase tickets and for update-to-date information, visit their website at www.indieido.com.

CH-CH-Changes

As the seasons change, so do the Days of our Lives at General Hospital...and by "change" I mean BIG changes. I, Brina L Schenk, am at this moment spending my last residential work day in Vancouver, BC. Starting Monday I will be working from my home in Fernie, BC. What impact does this have on you? Well, other than the fact that I won't be physically attending meetings (we're hoping for video conferencing though! FUN,) not much. I'll still be working full time on Blue Skies and Daisies and continuously creating cool and creative wedding stationery for those who want it. Blue Skies and Daisies will be the Blue Skies and Daisies we've always been; loving our jobs and moving full steam ahead.

What this means for Albertine and I is: less coffee dates, less hugging and more phone calls. Awe, that's sad. I'll be visiting Vancouver often to help out with production and give Albertine the support a co-owner needs, plus, I might need to get out of Fernie every so often to postpone my insanity.

What does this mean for Brina? This means I'll be living with my manfriend, Mr. Rodney Brink, who has been enduring a long distance relationship with me from it's inception (almost 2 years), I'll be living in a small mountain town (population 5000,) and getting used to snow again. It's gonna be great!

The Drift is on

I didn't even know this was happening until last night!
There is a 2 day art festivifunity going on this weekend along main street.

It's called The Drift
www.thedrift.ca

"Drift along Main Street and see an eclectic variety of fine art and original handcrafts from established and emerging local artists including ceramics, painting, sculpture, photography, woodcarvings, collage, mixed media, glass works, jewelry, film, clothing design, textiles & multi-media compositions."

I don't know about you but I'm going!

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

featured bsd wedding : sept : rebecca and brad

The Details
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Venue: Vancouver Rowing CLub
Photographer: Helene Cyr
Planner: Fuego Events
Our involvement: save-the-date card, custom wedding invitations, place cards

Rebecca and Brad were first introduced to us (and vice versa) by our friend and fantastic wedding planner, Erin, of Fuego Events. She was hired by them to plan their wedding and with her love of all things blue skies & daisies, she found it only fitting to tell Rebecca and Brad about our work.

We sat with Rebecca and Brad and immediately fell in love with the both of them, perfectly matched and witty to boot, we found the four of us laughing through the whole ordering process...

Read more here

The Lion's Den

A little Jamaican/Japanese restaurant I have been frequenting lately is The Lion's Den on East 15th and Fraser. It's a place that doesn't stand out, the huge trees in front don't help, and it's about the size of my tiny attic apartment...except a little more colourful.

It's run by Ken and his partner Junko who are not shy and will warmly welcome you into their home. Their home: Ken keeps the reggae on repeat, a tabletop pac-man game system in mint condition (dana has held the high score at one point) sits by the window and a wall to wall sunset mural transports you to a sandy beach in the Caribbean.

The food is great, made from scratch, following old secret recipes...and if you're not sure what you want, Junko will get you something good - "trust me" she says.

I recommend everyone to go there, and I hear they have cheap yummy breakfasts too, and experience The Lion's Den. They will probably ask you to sign their calendar, if it's your first time, and tell you...oh wait, I'll leave some extra details for you to find out for yourself.

Have fun! and Merry Christmas!

The Lion's Den
651 15th Avenue East
map

A Brief So Long

Fernie, British Columbia

Tomorrow I head out for Ontario for 7 days, where, hopefully - cross - my - fingers - hooray, I'll meet up with Albertine who is visiting her family for a couple weeks. I'll be saying "so long" to Fernie for a little while and "so long" to the blog for a week. I have been enjoying my morning blog these past few months but once I'm back in Vancouver, it will all be back to normal...as normal as normal can be.

My brother Trevor is getting married Friday night (I'm so excited,) and my good friends Layla, Linda, Lisa and Laura are all turning 30 on the 11th (I'm so excited,) plus, I'll have family and old friends to catch up with and some good home cooked meals to devour. I hope you enjoy the next week. If you need us, just email info@blueskiesanddaisies.com and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

To sign off, Ill leave you with this daily quote:

"Wherever you live is your temple if you treat it like one."

Creative Window Displays On Display

Whenever I walk around my neighbourhood I find myself always checking out certain window displays because either they're really interesting or they are constantly changing. I find the art of window displays really intriguing and if we ever went retail I think I'd take on the challenge with pride. You can do anything!! And some companies do.

I will be walking by Baker's Dozen Antiques (on Main Street) and always find myself standing in front of their window just amazed by all the pieces they've included...and the arrangement is so pleasing to my blue eyes.

Very sunny day photo of the antique shop.

And then there's Mountain Equipment Co-op (aka MEC) who always has a very unique window display idea...for an outdoor store. I guess the outdoor theme isn't a hard one to figure out, but I believe the people at MEC really get their hands dirty with it. This month they have painted scenes with minimal product displays. I think it's such a simple idea that works really well. Yep. That's what I think.


Last we have Bello Wedding World. Now I'm not getting married and if I was getting married I'd probably not go to BWW (oh that's not fair...cuz you never know) but what I love about their display is the frequency at which it changes. Every day I see new dresses in the window and not once have I seen the elves that do the ol' switcherooo. They're like display ninjas.


So there you have it. My top 3 window displays in my neighbourhood by Brina Schenk.

Robson Park Block Arty

Yesterday afternoon my friend Derrick dragged me to this horrible block party with games, more games and then even more games. As you must know, I'm not one for games...WHAT?!! No seriously, it was lots and lots of game fun. A group of girls on E 13th street got a grant from the city to put this block party together for the community and everyone was welcome. All sorts of people and dogs were there to keep the day going from morning to night. Derrick documented the day with his fancy cam and gave me a few good ones to post.

Our day started with Square Ball. This was the first time I had played this game and I LIKED it. Except Mr Curious Kid cheated me out of the King position.

After a quick hotdog...

we were taught the game FrizKnock. I first heard stories of this game in Fernie in May, so i guess it's really catching on. You basically just try and knock your opponent's cups off their poles with the frizbee. Easier said than done, my friend.

Soon after Frizknock we were on the street drawing pretty chalk pictures

Precious moment of the day goes to this little girl who came up to me and said "chalk"... so I gave her my chalk...and then she walked away. Precious!

The kids were entertained with bubble making, tye dying and water guns. I miss the days of water fights.

And then Dana showed up and we played more games...
like bocce ball and then badminton and then more frizknock.


And there you have it. Robson Street Block Party by Brina, Derrick and Dana.

Thanks, Derrick Belcham, for the fantastic pictures. You're fantastic. And a thanks to the hosts of the block party. Thanks for making me feel like a 12 year old again!!

everyone for themselves on the bike path

Just a warning to anyone considering a nice relaxing ride along a bike trail in Vancouver, especially at around 8:15 in the A.M., be very careful.

I decided to leave early for a breakfast date and cruise down Ontario Street to the Seawall because I had heard the new section by the Olympic village is really beautiful. So I get on Ontario, the bike route, and slowly more and more bikers catch up with me at each stoplight. Those morning bikers aren't on cruise ship time, like myself, they're on get to work at the speed of light time, PLUS, they're completely trying to get ahead of the other bikers. This morning I got all caught up in the race to the next light, so much that I fumbled with my flip flops and lost one of them but had to keep biking for fear of causing a major train wreck.

My heart was pumping so fast and after the mob left I was able to slow it down to a pace I had meant for all along.

So be it a lesson for you: If you are going to take a bike route and don't want to lose the race, don't wear flip flops. Easy.

jazz festival with dana oikawa

My good friend Dana Oikawa accompanied me to the free Gastown Jazz this Saturday for a day of overcast skies and good music. I have to say there was nothing that blew us away this year, but it's always good to just hang out and be entertained by musicians you might not have heard of or generally wouldn't go out to see on their own.

Dana and myself probably wouldn't be the friends we are today without the Jazz Festival. Is that a bold statement? I'll let you be the judge. When we were working together at the Lululemon warehouse, Dana put it out there to everyone that she wanted to leave work early for a Gastown show and we (Dana and I) were the only ones that went...two strangers living in a dangerous time.

So the Jazz Festival will always be special in our hearts. Hey Dana? Special? OH YOU KNOW IT'S SPECIAL.


***
Speaking of Dana, the other day we were enjoying a nice mid day break on the Heritage Hall steps when a man with a camera came up to Dana and asked to take a picture of her and her funny t-shirt. It was for a series he's working on. HM! A bit random wouldn't you say?

As he took a picture of her, I quickly snapped a picture of them. I'm going to say it's part of my series on people taking pictures of Dana's t-shirts. This is picture number one.

Welcome to Vancouver, Summer!

What a fantastic weekend!! The weather is fantastic, the people are happy and it's car free day so there are fun festivals everywhere I look. HEY WHAT'S THAT? Just kidding. There's no festival in my apartment. Silly.

I started my car free day with a fun bike ride to Commercial Drive where the streets are packed and I mean PACKED with people, dogs and whatever else you could fit in there. Spirits were high and the music at the park just made you want to drop everything and move your body around. I caught most of the set for Zimbamoto in Grandview Park and it was awesome. Afterwards a popsicle cooled me down a bit and then I carried on with my day.


On my way home I came across a Portuguese Father's Day Parade. I was invited to the big fun party by one of the congregation but I decided to enjoy what I saw on the street, which included seeing the older men all parading down the street together laughing and having a good time celebrating our Heavenly Father. Good to see!

As soon as I got home I ate a quick peanut butter and banana sandwich and then walked over to Main Street. It was another big party, and I was surprised how noticeably different it was compared to Commercial Drive...not that it's a competition. ha!

There was some cool stuff to see like a small half pipe for people to jump in and skate on, a few stages and lots of sidewalk chalk drawings. One thing I noticed and really appreciated was how easily little kids, and i'm talking 1-2 year olds, will get up in front of a band and just start tearing it up. It was so great.

So that sums up main street. I didn't take pictures of Main Street because I forgot my camera at home. Although the show is still on. I could easily walk over and take a few shots to complete this post. That would definitely make it complete. We'll see. OK I went. I went. I had to put a long sleeve shirt over my deep pink/red shoulders though. ouch.


So I didn't make it out to mini golf. I promise this week I will. It's for Bill!

The Way Home - documentary on homelessness in BC

For quite some time now I've known my friend Louvens Remy was working on a really big film project, one that he got really passionate about and cares for deeply. This documentary had them traveling all over BC to interview people and see personally an issue we tend to ignore and brush aside in this country.

The film is called The Way Home and it's about homelessness in BC. The first screening of this film is completely free at Woodlands Park, Vancouver (700 Woodland Drive, at Adanac) on June 20th at 8pm. They wanted this special event to be free so everyone can come out to see it.

It's a sneak preview, so hopefully lots of people will come out and see it and get interested and maybe learn a thing or two. Along with the movie, there will be live music and more.

Come on out!!!