isn't this a great business card?

Precious

Oh lord! I was crying while watching the trailer on a computer with no sound. This movie looks SO GOOD! I can't wait to go see Precious! I'm going to watch the trailer again *sniff*

cool idea I'm stealing

I found this great idea for carving house numbers in pumpkins in this month's edition of This Old House Magazine and I love it! Since pumpkin carving is still relatively novel to me (we don't celebrate Halloween in Australia, although it is catching on) I still enjoy going out and choosing a pumpkins to carve, even though there are no kids in my house. This year should be fun though in our new neighbourhood as there are lots of kids to come trick or treating :)

whip it!

we're off to another free screening tomorrow night of Whip It directed by Drew Barrymore starring Ellen Page which looks like lots of fun! Thanks Hannah! :D

oh and this is the bed I'm thinking... (this week anyway)

from West Elm

wallpaper these walls

after living with our funky retro wallpaper for a few months I must admit I have become slightly attached to the idea of it... and when I saw this one by Graham and Brown, I fell in love... I love it in stark white, for the main back wall of our bedroom, but if I get bored of it we can always paint it :)

Cooper finally gives in to McKenzie's playful antics...

It only took 3 days of her begging him to 'play with me play with me' but it is so nice to see him being playful and rather gentle (well mostly...)

Donna Hay

One of the souvenirs Kate brought back from Australia was this cool magazine Donna Hay. I don't know if Donna Hay is a person sort of like an Australian Martha Stewart (or, to be fair, if Martha Stewart is like an American Donna Hay), but I loved the recipes and am already planning a party so I can serve the amazing looking hors d'oeurves in the issue Kate got me. There are all kinds of tips for making a party special and the photos were gorgeous!

and then there were 4

yesterday we adopted little McKenzie, a 10 week old, 6 pound baby girl dachshund mix puppy from the Humane Society, which if you're in this neck of the woods you should go check out their new place.

I've never adopted a dog from a shelter , but I must say how really impressed we were with the service they provide these animals. their website is real time so if you see an animal you're interested in you can go in and check them out, their facility is brand new and looks better than most hospitals I've been into, and each of the dogs had their own room which is the size of a small conference room and is decked out with all the comforts they need.

we saw McKenzie online and thought she sounded like a good match for Coop and us, so we went in to check her out. She was in foster care so we made an appointment to meet with her.

McKenzie (or Daphne as she was formerly known) was doggy number 61 for the Campi family in the space of about 8 years and they got her when she was only 5 weeks old. they cared for her through her surgery (she came spayed), took her to all the appointments for all her shots she needs as a puppy, socialised her with their 3 other dogs and the family and pretty much potty trained her until she was old enough to be adopted - which luckily enough was this week. I am not sure how they do it, and then at the end let them go... but we're glad they did :)

Anyway she's a spunky little girl who it seems to want to get into everything she sees, and likes to steal socks and anything else she can grab, so we are watching her constantly - as is Cooper... he's not too impressed so far, but I think she's growing on him :)

happy friday!

even though it's autumn already it still feels like summer with a high of 31 degrees here today (87 F)

have a wonderful weekend!

music I like today

I really like this song - her voice is great

Can your face handle the cuteness?

Well, we finally did it (sort of) and are getting a new dog. After months of arguing, debating, and lots of indecision I caved in and agreed to get a puppy from a breeder. I had wanted to adopt any one of many beautiful dogs, but for one reason after another none of the animals I found were suitable. Cody's heart was completly broken when Ezree died this February and he hasn't been able to get past his desire to have another Giant Schnauzer. Making the decison to get a puppy required a lot of compromise on my end, but to be truthful, I have always loved the Giants and never really feel complete at home without my little devils, so I called Skansen Kennel two days ago and found out that there are two litters that will be available by the beginning of December. I actually got to speak to Sylvia, who has been my aunt's breeder for about 20 years and she sent me some pictures of the 5 week old puppies along with picture of the sire. I sent a deposit in and now we just have to suffer through about 3 months of puplessness before we can bring her home.

monkeys make me laugh...

I have to give a presentation at work this week which I am so totally nervous about (deathly afraid of public speaking - would rather fight a fire breathing dragon) but I have decided that maybe if I pretend all the people are monkeys I will just smile...

I don't know what it is about these little monkeys but they make me laugh everytime I see these photos... people actually have monkeys!? for more hilarious very politically incorrect random fun check out this blog for hours of time wasting...

red dawn

my friends and family just started posting all these 'red dawn' photos on facebook and I immediately thought bushfires, but no it's a severe dust storm, along with high winds, hail stones and flash floods...

(you can read all the details here)

falling into autumn

this year has just flown by, I can't believe that tomorrow is autumn already and summer will soon be another memory...

when I turned 21, my dad said to me hold on tight because it's all downhill from here, and when I asked him what he meant he said time flies from here on in... I remember thinking to myself, yeah right dad, as if time could get faster - but somehow he was right...

I took this shot in gravenhurst, ontario a few years back

dinner inspiration?

I think the hardest thing about cooking dinner is deciding what to make... here's what we had last night which is so super easy & deliciously fresh tasting

bbq some chicken tenderloins (or fish tastes great too) covered in a little olive oil & pepper & salt. if you don't feel like cooking at all buy a bbq chicken & pull it to pieces

slice a mango, an avocado & a cucumber (just peel up the side of the cucumber with a potato peeler) & some baby spinach (not shown here as we didn't have any...)

mix 1/4 cup lemon juice & 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce

Stack the plate with baby spinach, then the chicken (or fish), then the mango, avocado & cucumber on top. pour the sauce all over it and enjoy!

take me out to the fair

I wish I could have gone to Utah to take Duston up on this offer of a portrait at the fair last week, his photos are so dreamy...

i really love his use of these great balloons too

see more of his work here

hangover cure

you might say I was a 'little fuzzy' when I woke up on saturday and was delighted when I walked into jamba juice for my berry lime sublime and heard these guys talking about wheatgrass curing a hangover (as long as you can keep it down)... so before I could change my mind I ordered a shot of wheatgrass (which tastes like eating grass actually) with an orange juice chaser and remarkably it really did make a difference...

my version of the story...

I guess by now you've figured out that Melita likes to write stories and I like to take pictures... well here are the photos of our night last night - read her funny version of it here

Thank you Melita for being my tour guide on our 'round the world tour of San Jose'! When she said let's start in Germany, I was game - but had no clue how much fun it would be...

we walked into this darkly decorated restaurant to find this gorgeous guy watching over the crowded room - LOVE! his antlers and he gave me the perfect idea for my halloween costume, but that's a whole other story...

and miraculously were able to score a table outside in the beer garden (or beirgarten) which was hopping with people drinking beer, singing and dancing and having a great time

so we ordered some drinks to kick the night off

and had some Jagertee which apparently you're supposed to sip, but I assumed it would be like Jagermeister and shot it down in one go right after this photo -oops...

the band rocked with their big long horns, their accordion, keyboard, yodeling and of course their lederhosen and feathered hats (Melita had a crush on the guy on the end - I think it was his hat)

they played a song I actually knew (from Dirty Dancing soundtrack no less...)

I had been promised fish'n'chips for dinner so we just got a little snack of potato cakes, which we slathered in apple sauce and sour cream - YUM grease!

mmm beer

this photo didn't come out as well as I had planned, but you must admit this guy is scary looking - it's such a strange concept to me to kill something, stuff it's head and then hang it on your wall... but I really like looking at them...

here's the food we were missing out on at Germania, so we're definitely going back to try it out

here we are in England now, at Trials Pub where Melita thought whiskey was a good idea... she was wrong, but I tried it anyway

and the fish'n'chips which were ok... but I've had better

time to test how many brain cells we've killed thus far with some trivia

and some culture with the Haka

and Melita this is how it's done

awww, look how normal we look...

or not...

this is my favourite photo of the night...

the whiskey bomb

(whiskey shot dropped into beer)

loose on the street now, cool shot of curved bricks

after a short stroll through town we took a short cut through Mexico to Vietnam, which as we entered Melita warned me that if I was asked to dance I had to dance - never turn down a dance here... so I must say I was a little curious just what kind of place she was taking me to???

and here it is - lovely fluro lighting...

I was actually a bit relieved to see this classy plastic bottle of wine after the way we were greeted with 'what you doing here' I was sure the waitress would have spat in our drinks. oh and look, some trivial pursuit cards followed us there...

it was kinda dead in this place - everyone was on the dance floor dancing in a large circle

so on to Mexico, and when in Mexico, drink tequila!

this is the only photo I took here unfortunately, because we were too busy dancing (like old fashioned waltzing style dancing) with some very handsome mexican men who made me feel like a giant...

I wished the diner was open at this point...

LOVE these

obviously...

hahaha, you're so funny... of course the wall is not holding me up...

(more halloween costume inspiration here)

no cops here... luckily

and since I promised no photos after 10pm here is the last of the night

no lavender was harmed in the making of this photo... but it just smelled so good...