Homemade Almond Milk

I just tried my hand at homemade almond milk thanks to the tutorial over at Progressive Pioneer. I had been waiting until I got a blender that could handle chopping up the almonds, and my parents just got me one for my birthday, so I was finally ready to go! Thanks to the awesome blender, the almond milk turned out great!! I might experiment with different flavours instead of the vanilla though. I think I have some maple extract somewhere...

Cake Party

A wonderful thing happened in the process of creating our wedding - we created an opportunity for women from all parts of Adam's family to come together and bake our wedding cakes. Not only is it super special that our wedding cake was made by the women of Adam's family, but it was also a family recipe (and a darn good one!).

This is a photo of the cake we used as our official cutting-of-the-cake wedding cake. It's actually carrot cake. The best carrot cake in the world to be precise.

It doesn't get much better than that! Well, actually it does. You see, we had leftovers. So I proceeded to have wedding cake for breakfast and dessert the two days after our wedding as well. Mmmm gluttony!

African Children's Choir

I'm very excited about this summer! I have made a point to plan lots of little day trips and events to make sure we take full advantage of the summer. One such event - going to see the African Children's Choir! They will be in our area next month and I can hardly wait!


Introduction to the African Children's Choir from Max Clements on Vimeo.

On a totally unrelated note...

I want to go back to school. Not the kind of school where you get a degree or a master's and then end up unemployed forever - I've already done that. I want to go back to school to get a certification that can get me employment straight out of school. I've narrowed it down to 3 different options:

1. Hospital Unit Clerk - takes 5 months to complete - salary is approx. $20/hr
2. Licensed Practical Nurse - takes 12 months to complete - salary is approx. $23/hr
3. Montessori Lower Elementary Teacher - takes 9 months to complete - salary varies, may be approx. $15/hr

They all cost the same amount in terms of course fees and materials. The Unit Clerk option is 5 months of part time study in the evenings and on weekends. The Nurse option is full time for 12 months including a few segments of practicals that might require me living in another community for 3-6 weeks at a time. The Teacher option is all on my own time, so could potentially take less than 9 months to complete.

I would do them all if I could (and I might over the course of the next 30 years - who knows!). But for now, I need to choose one and I need help!

Any thoughts?

Bridesmaid Gifts

Well we're on the theme of gifts I can now tell you what we got my bridesmaids! I love the elegance of pearls, but didn't think a plain white pearl necklace really suited too many of my bridesmaids and I wanted them each to get a gift that was unique to them as well. So, a few evenings spent browsing on Etsy and I discovered the perfect jewels for my ladies!

I ended up wearing the double stranded bracelet myself, and the necklace was a gift for the groom's mom. Then three of my bridesmaid's got earrings while one got a bracelet. Hopefully they will find another occasion to wear their pearls!

Groomsmen Gifts

As you might remember, I was having trouble deciding what to get our groomsmen as gifts. Well, we ended up buying each of them a funky new tie. At first I was planning on getting some fun Amy Butler fabrics and making them myself. That plan didn't last long. Next I delegated the task to my mom, who is much better with a sewing machine than I am! However, it wasn't long before I realized I could buy them for a better price than all the fabric and save my mom some grief. So, we went shopping and found each groomsmen (and the groom) a unique tie!

Now, if someone had told me how much work all the groomsmen (and bridesmaids, and family members) were going to do to make our wedding happen perfectly, I would have multiplied our budget a million times to get them gifts that would truly show how grateful we are for their efforts. Well, it's too late for that, but somehow I will figure out a way to thank them (probably over and over again) for all their work!