The Book of Love

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing
But I
I love it when you read to me
And you
You can read me anything
The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb
But I
I love it when you sing to me
And you
You can sing me anything
The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know
But I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
And I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
And I
I love it when you give me things
And you
You ought to give me wedding rings
You ought to give me wedding rings

-Peter Gabriel


MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

On the road again...

We're more than likely signing off now until first week of September when we will be in Ontario.

So farewell dear readers, my friends and family.

We'll post many photos when we return of our travels.

Love,
Dawn

Cree Knowledge

In Canadian news today a 100-year old woman, Muriel Duckworth of Nova Scotia and later Quebec, has announced she is dying after a serious fall she took. This woman was a serious activist for social justice including woman's rights and anti-poverty initiatives. One reader posted a beautiful Cree saying that I thought I would share.

For those of you not from Canada, Cree are a Canadian First Nation group who live throughout the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Canada. Other names for the same group in America are Chippewa or Blackfoot.

"When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, you rejoice and the world cries."

I think this is something we should all think about.

Inspiration

A few ideas that RB and I have been dabbling with. It's far off, we both know, but we are pretty excited about the planning process. And I'm also a planner so I need to plan to keep me happy. Throughout my planning process I will save photos of ideas and create my inspiration quads so you can see where we're going with things. Here is one above. We both love love love the idea of a cupcake-cake rather than the traditional multi-tiered. We don't want to pay a cake cutting fee and feel that cupcakes represent the two of us more. They are sweet, can look amazing and taste oh-so-yummy. In addition more and more bakeries are specializing in making them. These two photos reflect the colour scheme we're moving toward: greens, browns, blues, and yellows with creams and ivory accents. However, rather than bright colours I'd like to mute them a bit...sage, buttercream, nutmegs, and robin's egg blue.

The bouquet pictured is kind of what I'll go for I think. I'll be wearing a tartan sash of my Clan's and as tartan's (even the best of them) are busy, I don't want to clutter myself with more colour kaleidoscopes over and above it. I think creams and whites and ivories will do best. I'm also leaning more toward a looser, more wild no-so-put-together style of bouquet. Basically not too put-together or formal in arrangement.

Finally for table centerpieces, RB and I both love the concept of tall clear vases with branches and greenery with tea-light candles hanging off. We want a lot of light and for the evening, in particular, plenty of candlelight.

After a tour last Friday, we have both agreed Whonnock Lake Centre is "the" place for our wedding.

As you can see from these photos of the venue, it is gorgeous and very woodsy--just how we Canadians like it! Very timberhome-esque and we want to play on that, not take away from it.

So what do you think?!

Introducing: Wedding Planning 2011

The Date: July 2011 (we hope!)

The Theme: Rustic/Outdoorsy/Woodsy/Lakish/minus the bugs----"Feminine Rustique."

The Location possibility: Whonnock Lake Centre in Ruskin, BC

The Dress: Found it! Can't post photos though as RB reads this blog and he isn't allowed to see anything until the day---he insists as well! Let's just say it's beautiful.

The Photographer: Duncan Turner owner and operator of DLT Photo and you can actually see the front page are photos of my sister JCs wedding. Very vogue, Liv you'd like!!!

I've been busy as a bee since the proposal trying to find venues and tour them for the ceremony and reception. This is because as you well know, RB and I are travelling (moving) to Ontario this summer for 1 year and as venues must be booked at least 1 year in advance (for good venues) we will have to book while in Ontario. However, we don't want to book somewhere we have not seen so with two weeks to go until D-Day, we are booking tours to figure out the best venue.

We did look at one location, however it was far too pricey and while family will pay for it, I simply could not justify the costs.

There is one place though that months upon months ago I had thought about as a wedding venue. Being a girl I always thought of these things in my head...the "When I get married..." self-discussions. Whonnock Lake Centre is located in beautiful Ruskin, British Columbia up in the mountains near Stave Lake between the cities of Maple Ridge (my birth place) and Mission (where I grew up for many years). It is nestled in the trees among other lakes such as Hayward (where we go to swim in the summer) and Rolley Lake, Stave Lake where the Stave Lake Dam is. It's a wonderful wilderness area and Whonnock is just absolutely beautiful.

I always pictured myself having an outdoor wedding in the trees. I was never a groomed gardens type of girl or a golf and country club one either. I always pictured a wedding near water as I practically grew up on the Pacific Ocean. Woodsy was definitely the dream and RB is pretty okay with that, too!

If you check the link you can see photos of the centre though I will take some photos myself on the 14th of this month when we go for our official tour. It may be raining so we'll bring umbrella's. The centre has hardwood flooring with high ceilings and timber beams. On the one wall it's floor to ceiling paned windows that look out onto Whonnock Lake. Often this is where the head table goes. What a sight!

Outdoors there is a dock that goes way out into the lake and is great for photos. There are also many garden areas around and nooks and crannies for great photography.

The unfortunate thing at this point is that I cannot book Whonnock until Jan 2nd 2010 9am when the phone lines open up and you must must must phone right away to get the date you want. It is a popular venue. And as Lily says from the popular show "How I Met Your Mother" (my guilty pleasure), there is always one couple who wants exactly what you want and are always two steps ahead of you. We need to be that couple!

As far as everything else goes, we will start to plan once the venue is secured. However, we're always open to any and all ideas you have regarding anything---anything at all that pops in your mind that you would do if you were me or us or whatever. I will write it down!

Dum Dum, Dum Dum....

I am still in complete shock as I did not see any of this coming. RB totally got me and he is so proud of himself.

You see, yesterday it was my mum's 50th birthday and I had arranged for an outdoor professional photo session for the family as part of her present. My mum's big on the family photos and I thought on a beautiful 29 degree day it would be perfect.

We did a series of shots at a local park in my hometown in the early morning yesterday. I had arranged with the photographer to do "couple" photos along with the group ones--my mum and dad, my sister and her husband and myself and RB. When it came to myself and RB the photographer did a few photos of us and then asked RB to get on his knee for a photo. I laughed because him on his knee looked like he was proposing and I said "You know what that looks like". He laughs and the photographer says "Okay now look at each other". Rob looks up at me on his knee and says "Dawn, I love you so much, will you marry me?".

Did I smile? Did I laugh and shout yes? No. I took my right hand and pushed his face away and covered his mouth because I thought he was kidding and I was embarrassed and mad that he was joking about such a thing. I said "Don't joke about those things! That's not nice or funny!" and with a serious face he says "I'm not joking", and then finally I see the ring that was in his hand the whole time and my mouth drops, followed by a distinct Stacey London-esque "Shut up!" and "nooo" (as in no way!) and you hear my dad in the background saying "wrong answer!" and then I said "I mean yes, yes!" and then hugs, kisses etc etc.


Oh, so pretty! RB did it all on his own and apparently has had the ring for five months. He was waiting for my parents to come down to BC for holidays so he could ask them officially in person. My mum got me a wedding planning book with a built in file folder system for everything. It's awesome. RB's like a kid in a candy shop right now and can't stop talking about us getting married. Love him!

Announcement

O.M.G.

I'm engaged.

I'll elaborate later with pictures.

Now I must take a moment to catch my breath.

Take me home, down country roads...

Ava Lucy the darling 6 month old daughter of Karen and Phil

Baby Bokeh?

Lily Anne their other daughter who is 3

Fun times at the spray park.

Daddy's girl

Auntie loves her niece.

Hey everyone! So I guess I should update you all as to where I am now and what's been going on. I'm home from Yukon, and have been since Tuesday. I've been, reacquainting myself with RB, so to speak, and thus haven't been online much. I did, however, make a point of posting my cherry lemonade adventure as I thought it might be a surefire hit. It's pretty amazing juice let me tell ya.

So I'm home now, back in Beautiful British Columbia (just outside of Vancouver about 45 minutes) and enjoying 104+ degree Fahrenheit temperatures (40+ degrees celsius in Canada) + a great deal of humidity. I can't say I'm not enjoying it as I really truly am. I thrive on heat like a tropical plant.

I have been indulging in slushies, RB's air conditioned car, and new guitar strings. Remind me to post a pic of my lovely guitar for you all. She's a beaut. I've been spending time with my nearest and dearest of friends Debbi, Karen & Phil, and their two kids Ava and Lily. We're all a big happy dysfunctional family and we like it that way. We've been to the lake already and are going again today so it makes me happy. Nothing like laking it in British Columbia amongst the trees and mountains. Absolutely stunning and I'd never change it. If any of you have never been to BC I highly recommend visiting here. It's out of this world and I miss it whenever I'm away.

Monday we'll be celebrating my mum's 50th birthday. Happy Birthday mum! I won't update what we're doing on here until after as she reads this blog and only I would be silly enough to post what we're doing and she'd read it. Then she'd act all coy like she doesn't know. Silly mothers...

Life is grand right now!!!! How are YOUR summers going so far my dearest readers??