Happy to be Here

About three years ago I set a reminder in my phone, "Happiness is a Choice", at the time I really needed the bolster, I needed help every morning to point my day in the right direction.  Sometimes that little 'boop' from my iPhone meant, 'hey! take a big breath and face the day with positivity and strength'. It also meant, 'please try not to cry today', and sometimes it meant, 'will you please get your head out of your ass?'.

It is now several years later and I have found happiness again*.  "Complete and total happiness" I recently said to a friend.  But then I thought, can happiness actually be 'complete'?

I still have an iPhone and I've just updated the software to the most recent nine point something point something and the reminders look different now. Some software genius at Apple has changed the look so now when my phone reminds me that happiness is indeed a choice the two options to dismiss them from the screen are, 'Mark as Completed' or 'Later'.  

I don't choose 'Mark as Completed' because I don't want to send the reminder into oblivion.  I still want that smack on my ass every morning.  The 'you go girl!'  I want the reminder of how far I've come and the reminder to cherish what I have found.

To answer my own question above, the answer is a big fat, "No way!  My happiness is not completed!"

So, off I go to recognize my happy.  And find more ways to be happy.  And I'll share it here.  Because that makes me happy.  Could I have said happy one more time?  {eyeroll}

"Later"!

xoxo...

L

*details to follow...

My Weekend

My parents were out camping in Kananaskis Country, and my sister and I went out to meet them.

1. The most adorable puppy ever is Sophie, my sister's dog.  Although, she really is the family dog; we all just love her so much.  In the first photo you can see that she made herself comfortable on the console between the front seats of my sister's car.  What you can't really see is that she is lying right on top of our Starbucks coffees we bought for the road.
2. Entering Kananaskis Country.
3. We went for a walk, this is Lower Kananaskis Lake.
4. An Alberta Wild Rose.
5. Sangria!
6. Playing dominos on the picnic table under a warm afternoon sun.  I won't mention who won.  Yes I will.  I did!  I beat Dad by three little points!
7. My sister.  Love her jammie and socks combo.  I was calling her Pippy Longstockings.
8. Dad cooking sausages on the bbq and bacon on the griddle.
9. Cutest story of my parents.  Every morning my Mom makes my Dad coffee.  And my Dad makes my Mom tea.  Then the share a banana.  This is how Dad leaves the banana for Mom.  The teabag is in the mug and the kettle is on boil.  Adorable.
10-11-12. Dad made us pancakes for breakfast Sunday morning.  He likes to separate the egg whites, whips them and folds them back into the batter so the pancakes are really fluffy.  He does the "water bottle yolk separator trick" he found on the internet.  It works like a damn!  He tells me the tip for success is to wet the mouth of the bottle before you try.
13. Bye!  Mom + Dad beside their rig.  They're staying out for a few more days so they're going to keep Princess Sophie.
14. Jodi and I stopped for ice cream on our way home.  Maple Walnut!  Mmmm....
15. The road for home.

BHLDN Bridesmaids Dresses for Fall 2013

I've been out of the game for a little while so I'm going through all of my bookmarks and visiting my favourite sites. There isn't a wedding favourite list without BHLDN at the top. To my delight and surprise they've just posted their fall 2013 bridesmaids dresses. Behold...

Short + sassy::

Long + luscious::

Short and sweet and white'ish! One could be used for a beach, brunch, or casual wedding. One could be worn to a bridal shower, the rehearsal dinner, or the bride could change into one of these lovelies to dance the night away::

These next photos are just too beautiful not to include::

This collection is really, really pretty. I am absolutely confident in saying that the bridesmaids that have a bride choose a BHLDN dress for them are lucky, lucky girls. The dresses are exquisite, they are quite affordable, and I think it's fair to say that one could actually wear it again!

p.s. speaking of 'affordable' the BHLDN sale shop has some fantastic deals. Some items are half price!

Wedding Cake Toppers

In my post about cake toppers yesterday and I made mention of "birds, bears, and cartooney likenesses" so I thought it would be fun to try and find some. Then I just happened upon the bears when I was creating my next post {stay tuned later today} about BHLDN and then I found the Will + Kate toppers {so cute!!}... This post sort of created itself!

Birds, bears, and cartooney likenesses::


Additional cuteness::


And to top it off::


Sources::
Libby + Sam Lovebirds by Ann Wood Handmade, Bear Hug by BHLDN, Will + Kate {!} by Lil' Cake Toppers; Glitter Hearts by Paper Pony Blog, Candy Necklace Topper by Best Friends for Frosting, Just Married Banner by Detroit Paper Company Etsy shop; Sweet Love, For Like Ever, Kate&Alex by BetterOffWed Etsy shop.

So cute, all of them. I would love to see or hear how you topped your cakes!

Cabin + Cub Cake Topper on Etsy

Super cuteness. Look what just showed up on the front page of Etsy! This is the most adorable cake topper! It isn't your typical little couple, which might be why I like it so much. Not that there is anything wrong with typical little couples; birds, bears, cartooney likenesses. Love them all, but this is just a different flavour.

This bamboo heart trees cake topper set is the creation of Cabin + Cub Etsy shop.

If you would like to see the forest for the trees {see what I did there?} then visit Cabin + Cub to view all the wonderful goods Valerie has created from the wooden medium.

Minnie's Sweet Creations

Mmmm.... cake. Just found this cake company called Minnie's Sweet Creations. If you want to spend a bit of time being inspired by sugary creation then spend some time on her site. It's filled with beautiful cakes, cookies, cake pops, and sweet tables. Absolutely lovely.

Little Ink

I was wandering around the internet, as I'm apt to do, and I stumbled across a website that led me to a blog, which guided my entrance to another blog that I perused around, and it had a posting that featured some really, really sweet products... housed by... Little Ink. The shop is based out of New Zealand and is run by a woman of wonderful, fun and quirky taste. Her name is Suzie.

This lovely web receptacle of goodness has all sorts of pretty little things to enhance your every day.  They carry items for baking, entertaining, packaging, etc.  Stuff like cute little glass jars, paper bakeware, cotton bags, chalkboard labels, pennant stickers {so cute}, and all sorts of straws including stainless steel straws!  I've never seen those before.  Love, love, love it all.

I clicked over to Suzie's blog and found that she had posted the most wonderful photos of the adorable "Doodle Party" she hosted for her daughter.

What a lovely and talented woman! And an extremely lucky little girl!