The Wedding Quilt

One of my Mum's oldest friends is quite an accomplished quilter. She has been my inspiration...my quilting skills are NOWHERE near hers but I do hope one day to be able to sew some pieces are gorgeous as hers.  She made Garret and I beautiful quilt for our wedding gift and it was finished just before Christmas and we picked it up.  She has everyone pose with the quilts she makes them before she sends them to their new home--we had a lot of fun posing with ours

[caption id="attachment_1240" align="aligncenter" width="388"] With this quilt and our love we will stay warm![/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1241" align="aligncenter" width="388"] our fancy quilt pose[/caption]

It is so beautiful that we currently have it on our couch because G thought that not enough people would see if it we put it on our bed. We obviously have way more visitors to our living room than our bedroom ha ha.  It is hard to see in the pictures but the quilting was actually done with a variegated thread and it looks so amazing.  We received many truly special gifts for our wedding that we will cherish forever.  We are l so blessed to have so many people in our lives that love us and spoil us so much.

 

3 months down

3 months down and we are:

• Watching Sons of Anarchy and still loving in!


• Anticipating going to see The Hobbit


• Organizing our basement..I now have a craft nook...pics to follow


• Wrapping Christmas presents...finished shopping on Monday yay


• Loving receiving Christmas cards addressed to 'The Walsh Family'


• Training Brooklyn to stop peeing in the house


• Learning how to be good puppy parents


• Planning for some family style naps over Christmas


• Thinking about New Year Resolutions (I love the promise of a new year and a new start!)


• Counting down the sleeps til Christmas


• Listing the crafting I plan to get done over the break


• Slowing down to enjoy this time, right now, that we have together

Contest #6-Sears Celebrate and Win

go here

Contest #5- Finish Canada Bosch Dishwasher

Like Finish Canada on Facebook or check out here to enter (closes midnight tonight)

final countdown for Christmas

This is one of my favourite weeks each year.  So much anticipation, and now that we are done our Christmas shopping no stress (well let's just leave it at minimal stress)  Work is quiet since many people have taken the last half of the week off so we are doing a lot of housekeeping/paperwork stuff so that we can start off 2013 with clean desks and organized files.  We were discussing favourite Christmas movies over coffee this morning and some of the top ones included:

Miracle on 34th st., It's A Wonderful Life, Prancer, One Magic Christmas (one of my personal faves), Christmas Vacation (which my family watches together every year), Elf, Muppet's Christmas Carol, Rudolph, Santa Claus the movie, It's Christmas Charlie Brown...

Update:  I just realized that I forgot my two favourite movies that take place around Christmas but aren't specifically Christmas movies. Love Actually and Serendipity.  Can quote both extensively..."Nancy"

And for an amazing write up regarding the Turtleneck addiction in Love Actually go here

Now I just want to go home and watch Christmas movies. This is the downside of our virtuous "we have no cable" stance.  I do enjoy just turning on the TV this time of year and catching the random Christmas movies that are on.  We own quite the selection on VHS and DVD at my Mum's house, but only have Elf at our place. For shame.  I am babysitting my sweet baby nephew tonight for a few hours so I think I might take advantage of their super cable and watch something festive.

Contest #5-Plunged in Debt

 

The lovely Catherine from Plunged in Debt is offering a contest to win $100.  Enter here and also have a read through the rest of her blog.  Since G and I are also a Canadian couple who are "plunged into debt" I appreciate reading about other young couples who are working their way out of it!

 

Contest #4-for those on Twitter

If you have a twitter account follow @sexwithemily she is offering 12 days of giveaways of some naughtyish things...you just retweet each day for the chance to win.

Attempted family photo and one non Brooklyn pic

We were having a snuggle last night watching TV and tried about 35 times to get a pic of the three of us.  Puppies are fickle creatures when it comes to taking photos.  This is the best we could come up with and she isn't even looking.  Most of the other ones highlight our double chins or have us talking to B trying to get her to look. Turd.

[caption id="attachment_1187" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Actually this one still is a bit goofy, but whatever...here you go blogasphere...my lil fam[/caption]

As we kept taking pictures she became extremely interested in my iPhone. So here is a creepy closeup :

[caption id="attachment_1188" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Wayne's World extreme close up. Sometimes B has droopy sad clown eyes. I think its just her smushy face[/caption]

We finished working on the spare room and decided to move the family love fest down to the mega couch. The original plan was to watch a movie, but Garret and Brooklyn barely made it through opening credits and were both snoring.  So I just cuddled up and enjoyed our little tree as I tried to tune out my loves.

[caption id="attachment_1189" align="aligncenter" width="388"] I'm 32 and  can still find magic when the lights go on[/caption]

Contest #3 Roots Canada

I went Christmas shopping the other day and got my youngest brother some Roots Track pants (what can I say the guy has good taste in his lounge wear) There was a contest to win a $10,000 trip to BC.  So I entered.  And so can you. Here

Contest #2- virtual piggy

Contest #2- virtual piggy

I came across this contest through twitter.  The company behind it is actually quite awesome as well!  Good luck to anyone who enters!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

My Mum is a lucky duck. Whenever we are somewhere that has a door prize, she will win it.  We have gone on a few scrapbooking retreats in the past few years and she has won something at every. single. one. It is quite a talent.  I think she has made out pretty well with various contests and raffle draws  over the years as well.  One time we were discussing this phenomena and we talked about how it would be really cool to enter as many contests possible in a year.  I loved this idea and have thought about it off and on for the past while. Last month I entered a draw in St Jacobs for various Black Friday prizes...and I got a phone call that I won a gift card to the Levis outlet!  Not the $500 shopping spree I was hoping for, but a prize is a prize!  Then today this came through my inbox and I thought that now is a good time to start. I could definitely do with some free groceries!  So, starting today, I shall be entering every contest that comes across my path.  Good chance nothing other than junk email will come of it, but then again you never know until you try.  Anyone else interested in joining me on a 2013 contest entering binge?

Merry Christmas from us Walsheses

 

Last weekend we went to the dollar store to find some cheapy decoratish types of things and may or may not have come home with a Santa jacket for Brooklyn. We are 100% turning into those people who put clothes on their dogs. It was beyond adorable to see her running around in it.  She may or may not look like a disgruntled old man in the above pic, but believe me in real life? Beyond cute.  G's mom was visiting so we had a wee bit of a festive photoshoot. Please note our amazing $12 tree and disregard the corner of our mega TV.  Since we are just finishing up our wedding Thank you notes, I don't really have it in me to also write 70 Christmas cards (or pay to mail them holy smokes stamps are pricey!) So in frugal Julia mode I am emailing people the above pic.  I feel like our "What we have been up to this year" note is known by everyone now. "got married, got a puppy still workin' on the house. Love, us"  Although part of me just SO wants to send out more mail so I can sign things 'The Walsh's'. #nerdalert

3 months old today

Happy 3 month birthday to our sweet Brooklyn/Turd Ferguson.  Even when you are peeing on the floor or trying to eat our shoes we still love you and wouldn't trade you in..  Thanks for becoming part of the Walsh family and for teaching us (mostly your Dad) patience, floor cleanliness and the general joy of snorty grunty snuggles. Love you fuzz bum!

And now photos of our sweet fur baby

[caption id="attachment_1165" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Being Ghetto fabulous in your winter jacket[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1168" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Navigating through the streets of Meaford[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1167" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Helping me write wedding thank yous. Signing her approval with a nose print[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1169" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Napping...this is when we can relax[/caption]

Neither of us have really had a dog before so this is a wee bit of a learning curve, but we are really enjoying it.  We have turned into those people who take 5000 iPhone photos of her doing cute things, laugh at her when she snores and makes funny noises and fight over who gets to snuggle with her when she is calm and wanting to cuddle up.  We are loving that she always wants to be near one of us, but we are wondering how cute it will be when she is double her size and still insisting on eating her toys in our lap.

 

 

A Christmas Tree in Review

One of our family traditions since before I can remember is getting a new Christmas tree ornament each Christmas. My brothers and I each had a series that we collected and we would always get that one and often others each year.  My Mum would diligently pack each ornament away at the end of December into 3 separate tubs one for each kid.  This year as we set up our first tree my Mum came over with my tub of ornaments.  Garret was completely shocked that the entire tub was mine.  (personally I just think he is jealous that he doesn't have a pile of his own ornaments...maybe I should get him some this year?)

Since I have 32 years of collecting ornaments under my belt I have to say that I have amassed quite the collection. I didn't want to overwhelm our tree so I just picked a few to see the light of day this year. (also part of the decision making process is we only had a few ornament hangers and I couldn't be bothered buying more. I am becoming a cheapskate in my old age I guess)

[caption id="attachment_1153" align="aligncenter" width="388"] My maid of honour got me this as a Christmas present this year. I bought ornaments for her two girls so she bought us one for our fur baby[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1154" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This has been my favourite ornament forever. It says 1980 on the door so that is a fave for quite a while. You can see a little chipmunk inside setting up his own tree. LOVE IT![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1155" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This is an ornament that my Nana Shaw(who died before I was born) made for my Dad. I thought it was so super special when I was a kid and I loved that my Mum gave it to me. It says "Love Mom 1977" on the back.[/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_1156" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This one is new this year as well! My MIL found it in her travels and it reminded her of Brooklyn. Note the cute little tutu![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1157" align="aligncenter" width="388"] From my Mum last Christmas...first year in our new home![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1158" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This one my friend Lauren made me in 1991! This made it on also by default for coming with it's own ribbon[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1159" align="aligncenter" width="388"] First Christmas together! My friend Erin M got me into the s'mores decorations a few years ago...how cute are they?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1160" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This guy is from a few years ago[/caption]

The series that I collected are called Mary's Angels I adore them but can see why Garret might not want a tree chock full o' angels.  So they will stay in the Christmas tub for this year.

I do love it when I see the gorgeous themed trees that people do each year, but I am not sure if I will ever be able to bring myself to do that.  One of my favourite Christmas memories is when we would set up our tree. My brothers and I would pull out each ornament and reminisce about them and funny other stories of Christmas past.  This is definitely a tradition I would love to keep up with our future Walsh offspring.

 

 

 

 

 

Dance Me to the End of Love

One of the things that I always have loved about Garret is that he will always dance with me.  I had never dated someone who was so willing to hit the dance floor...match made in heaven!  We had discussed doing something special for our first dance but never really got around to planning anything. We were at a wedding this summer where the couple had a special dance and we remarked how special that was...and yet we still did nothing about it.  Cue my mother in law who can be very persuasive--she did some googling and found us an amazing dance instructor who taught lessons just outside of Barrie.  As our wedding gift she gave us the first few lessons to get us started and we had a total blast.  Most of the dancing we had done together involved goofing around and nothing technical. We weren't sure what we had in store for us once we started classes. I thought that learning the Viennese Waltz was really sexy and a lot of fun. It surprised Garret how much he enjoyed it as well.  We didn't tell many people that we had something special planned so it was really great to "wow" some of our guests with our sweet dance moves.

Last night our friend/videographer sent us the link to our first Dance from the wedding.  It was really dark in the room so he did his best getting footage--I love that it looks vintagey.  This was the first time we got to see ourselves in action and I am pretty proud of the progress we made.  We don't have footage of those first few lessons, but let me just say we weren't quite Fred and Ginger.

 

Norman Rockwellesque

I have an annoying/endearing perhaps (?) character flaw.  I love the bejeezus out of holidays and family gatherings.  I love festively decorating, planning, organizing and general merriment associated with them.  Christmas has always been a favourite of mine--I grew up in a home that (thanks to my Mum) was FULL of holiday spirit, themed crafts and gorgeous decorations.  Some of the ones handmade by my brothers and myself aren't gorgeous per say....however we would all get an A for effort.

For reasons unknown to myself, G and I have not really decorated in the 5 Christmas seasons we have spent together.  I think our first apartment was a little bit depressing and then thanks to a decadent amount of time off work/school we would spend the holidays at my Mum's place. I think my thought process was why bother since we were going to be at her place anyway.  But this year, we really wanted to make our house feel more festive so we could enjoy the whole holiday season.  So we planned to get down to business and get things decorated this year.  Our original plan of heading to Drysdale's tree farm and Bradford Greehouses was quashed this weekend when we had the dreaded money talk.  Did it really make sense for us to go drop a bunch of cash on a tree that we then have to throw out.  Probably not. As we were getting organized for the ugly Christmas sweater party we were attending on Saturday night we noticed that Value Village was selling used fake trees. $12 a pop! We conferred and then brought one home.

[caption id="attachment_1144" align="aligncenter" width="388"] This was not really the photo I was envisioning of us getting our first tree...but I will take what I can get[/caption]

My Mum brought over all of my old ornaments from when I was a kid so tonight G and I are going to hang some up. And it may not be a perfect tree but it is our tree and that is what matters.

We have our tree, a good start on the planters out front of the house, and my MIL assembled a wreath for us so I'm feeling more festive.  I cant wait to get home tonight and finish decorating the tree...maybe I can also convince G to hang some lights outside in the dark...?