Attention all crafty types:

I am suffering from craft deprivation. After the holidays, I'm jumping back on the crafting wagon. What's more, I have a crafting plan, and it involves millinery. I want to learn how to make birdcage veils and other headpieces.



Ambitious? Probably. Less practical than knitting? Most definitely. Potential for bragging rights? Enormous. Potential for absolute failure? Even greater.

Has anyone ever tried anything like this? Is anyone willing to try this? Am I completely insane for wanting to try this?

I've been emailing back and forth with Padre Mike, the padre at the military college where we'll be getting married, and all of this time I've been thinking that his name sounded awfully familiar. Today it hit me: he's the padre who stood beside when I went to my ex's repatriation ceremony when they brought him back from Afghanistan.

I told R about it as soon as I figured out how I knew the padre, and his immediate response was "are you okay with that?" (my emphasis). I've thought about it, and I am. I remember Padre Mike as being someone who was nice to me when I really needed it, the fact that that memory happens to be tied to an ex-boyfriend's death doesn't, for me, change that fact.

I'm wondering, however, if it's fair to my fiance to have anything that he might remind him of my ex? Even if it's one he never has and never will meet? He says it doesn't bother him, but is it something that I should even be asking of him? As much as I like Padre Mike, this wedding is about both of us.

Speaking of my awesome fiance, exactly two years ago tomorrow, I met the man I'm going to marry. (D'awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!)

Whenever I go for appointments with my personal trainer, we spend a couple of minutes in the trainers' office. On the wall they have a poster of a woman in a bridal dress who looks at you accusingly while standing next to a caption that reads "Will YOU be ready for the Big Day?" Stupid poster, trying to make me all self-conscious, I've got 'til July, and my dress fits just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Yesterday, I got to take a break from the high-pressure high-maintenance Bay Street type-A gym for something that felt just as effective but way more fun: I went to a hula-hooping class with durdaana. It's the most fun I've had at a fitness class in a while, and I was terrible! I remember my hula-hooping skills being awesome in elementary school, but I seem to have regressed. Keeping that hoop up was hard work. (Interesting fact: the larger and heavier the hoop, the easier it is to keep up.) This is a workout that only looks like goofing off; I had already worked up a sweat ten minutes in. This morning my abs feel like ... well, like they've been repeatedly beaten into submission by a large, heavy circular object. It took me until the 45-minute mark to finally get the hang of "basic hooping" again. Unfortunately, by that time, I was so exhausted that the fancy tricks the instructor was teaching us just weren't going to happen. I will definitely be going back.

Guess who's nine months skin cancer—free?

That's right, this girl right here!

I went in for my check up and was told that if the next one (in June) looks good, then I'll only have to go in once a year! Yay!

In kinda-related news, I also found the best sunscreen ever: Clinique City Block SPF 40. It's the only sunscreen that doesn't make me break out in horrible red rashes. In a cruel twist of fate, I appear to be allergic to avobenzone (an active ingredient in the vast majority of sunscreens). This one seemed to be titanium dioxide—based. Wear your sunscreen, folks! Even in the winter. I recommend this one.

I bought a wedding dress! It was a much less painful experience than I expected, thanks to White Toronto, where they give you big ol' private room to try stuff on in and make you feel very princess-y (in a good way).

I tried on a whole bunch of dresses at this salon several months ago and came to the conclusion that I wanted something simple. I fell in love with the Jenny Yoo Alternative Bridal Collection. On the first visit, I just went with my mom. She loved the Kayla, while I really loved the Paige.

This time around, I brought three different people with me for entirely different reasons: my mom, because I knew she'd want to be there; my de facto maid of honour durdaana, because I trust her opinion (my de jure man of honour is my brother, but I'm not going to make him come dress shopping with me); and my fiance, to keep me on budget. Yeah, that's right, he's seen the dress. I'm okay with that.

My mom still loved the Kayla dress, but durdaana was my advocate and deemed it too "traditional bridal dress." However, she also deemed the Paige dress less flattering than a dark horse dress that actually ended up being the one. And she was absolutely right. We did end up with a cocktail/party dress, just not the one I expected.

The best part was that once I decided on a dress, the consultant came in with champagne for all. That was pretty swell.

And the winner is ...

Wedding dress dilemma solved. Rob has spoken to his mother.

In other wedding news, we've picked a venue and set a date: July 10, 2010 at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto!

I guess this actually means we're getting married.

If you are unfamiliar with my current wedding dress/mother-in-law conundrum, please see my previous post.

And now for the update.

At about eleven last night, Rob and I were getting ready for bed when the following conversation took place:

Kate: "So, you emailed your mother and told her I want to pick my own dress, right?"

Rob: "Yeah, about that ... I kind of forgot to email her. Then today she sent me an email saying that, since she hadn't heard from me, she was just going to mail it up to us."

OH GOOD GOD. It's official. My wedding is going to have a plot from a predictable, stereotypical chick flick.

I am now accepting audition tapes for the spunky bridesmaid, the debauched best man and the drunken uncle.

So... apparently Rob's mom went out to a vintage store and bought me a wedding dress.

This whole wedding-planning thing is not going to go down easy, is it?

I'm looking at the WestJet catalogue. For $511 a person the two of us could spend 3 days in a 5-star hotel in Las Vegas. Drive-through wedding ceremony with Elvis impersonator officiating would be a little extra.

Rob and I are engaged!

Okay... blog, Twitter, Facebook. I think it's officially official!

Lately, I've been getting my desktop wallpapers from Kitsune Noir's Desktop Wallpaper Project. Unfortunately, this week's had some (very mild) swearing in on it, and I figured that wouldn't fly at a law firm, so I went back to some old ones.

Work


and home.


Although after seeing untoward's glorious Supernatural-themed wallpaper, I am seriously considering a change. One of my goals in life is totally to marry Sam Winchester. Or Dean Winchester. Or both.

This makes me miss having the budgie in the house. I wish the cat wouldn't try to eat him.



Dreidel does this sort of thing, but only if his imaginary friend (his reflection in the mirror) is watching.

Maybe I'll bring him some organic grapes on Sunday and see if I can get him to "bowl" again.

From ladykutenay and zamp

How many songs total: 1319

How many hours or days of music: 3.5 days

Most recently played: “Oxford Comma” by Vampire Weekend

Most played: "I Get Around" by Dragonette 94 plays

Most recently added: "People Got a Lot of Nerve" by Neko Case

Sort by song title:
First Song: "ABC" The Pipettes
Last Song: "3121" by Prince

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: "They’re Red Hot" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Longest Song: "Jungleland" by Bruce Springsteen

Sort by album:
First album: Accelerate by R.E.M
Last album: 3121 by Prince

First song that comes up on Shuffle: "Jackson" by Johnny Cash

Search the following and state how many songs come up:
Death - 26
Life - 9
Love - 81
Hate – 3
You - 166
Sex – 35

My doctor called just before nine tonight. The "special stains" came back.

Remember where I said I didn't need more surgery? Apparently I lied. It's melanoma, and I do need to have more removed.

They're making me an appointment at the Sunnybrook cancer clinic.

I really don't think they should be allowed to flip-flop like this on these sorts of things.

Thanks to everyone who posted nice things on yesterday's post, but I guess I need to take it down now.

I am moving in September!

Yes, yes, I know, but I can't move for August because I'm going to be in Halifax from the 1st to the 10th, so September it must be.

Don't get me wrong, I love my current apartment, but it is hell of tiny and I do like having stuff and having places to put said stuff.

Now, where should I move? A decent neighbourhood is de rigeur as I do lots of walking about.

So far, the list includes:

- The Beaches (I like beaches!)
- Little Italy (I lived there briefly and it's lovely)
- High Park
- Roncesvalles
- Bloor West Village

EDIT: And the winner is... High Park!

I've booked a ticket to Halifax! I'll be there from August 1st to August 10th, so I'll be there for corporal_pie's reception and mbpowell and cue_dot's wedding. There may be a side trip to Charlottetown, too.

Whoo-hoo!

The cat came back, the very next day!

Okay, after sticking posters all over the neighbourhood last night, it turns out Ash was chilling out on the third floor of the next-door neighbour's house. You'd think the neighbours, having noticed a strange cat wandering about their house for 24 hours, might've knocked on the door and asked us if we were missing a cat? They didn't, but oh well, all's well that ends well. Rob's roommate (who loves Ash almost as much as Rob does) heard her yowling from the third floor window of their half of the house and somehow managed to liberate her. We didn't ask him how he managed to liberate her from a closed window on the third floor of a house he doesn't have keys to. Ken's kind of mysterious. We think he may be a secret ninja-assasin. I think I will bake him miniature cheesecakes for his trouble.

This is a long shot, but desperate times call for desperate measures. This is Rob's cat, Ash. She went missing in the Chinatown area late last night. She needs to go to the vet next week (she needs to be fixed) and we miss her very much! If anyone knows anyone who's heard anything, please let me know. There's a $100 reward (it'd be higher if we could afford more!).

Dear Halifax,

I'll be headed down your way in early August. I'm going to attend weddings and receptions, visit new babies and swim in the Atlantic ocean.

I plan to visit all of your wonderful citizens, whom I miss quite a bit, especially since I've cut out the vast majority of my non-work internet time. (Note to said Wonderful Citizens: if you've got a couch I can crash on for a day or two, that'd be stellar. I'm not sure how long Rob's brother will be willing to put me up.)

Whoo! I'm excited! My Ottawa mini-vacation was far too short. I'm ready for another one.

Okay, my budget can't handle doing too many Holga Fun Days, (I'm not even going to tell you how much I spent on film and processing) but it was still a good time. I enjoy that I can take pictures with complete disregard for composition and when they come back there are always 3 or 4 I really like. I get about the same percentage of satisfaction with digital, but it's more of a surprise when I get a good shot here. I like that my Holga makes me wait. (No, I am not bursting into Carly Simon songs over here... not at all. :P)



The rest of the set is here

So, here are my past few days:

Wednesday: Discovered DSLR sensor is dirty, and since I am too chicken to clean it myself, I sent it to Canon for a cleaning, should get it back next week. (FYI: ninja_b0t, because he is awesome, has offered to give me a sensor cleaning lesson next time this happens, so I don't have to deal with camera repair turn around times.)

Thursday: Went to watch some Battlestar, tried to eject Juno. DVD door wouldn't open. I need to buy a new DVD player and dismantle my old one to get my DVD back.

Sunday: Photo Fun Day with allenec, durdaana, Will and Beta. It was awesome and my Holga shots should be up soonish. But I still managed to muck up the film advance on not one, but two of my Lomo cameras.

Monday: Went to go check the weather online before going to work, the modem for my portable internet is broken and no longer under warrantee and needs to be replaced. (This post is being made with the help of my neighbour's unsecured wireless.)

EDIT: Also on Monday, since I was having a crappy day, Rob suggested we go for smoothies, on the way back, we were waiting to cross Spadina when a minivan blazed through the intersection and straight into the oncoming streetcar. Rob and I narrowly avoided getting showered with shattered windshield glass. Fortunately, only the van itself was injured, all the people were fine.

And now I am sick and need to go to the doctor. Clearly my run of bad luck has evolved from merely mechanical/electrical to partially biological. Like Cylons. (Goddamnit, I need my Battlestar fix!)