Day 21/30 - Our Honeymoon...

We decided on going to Niagara Falls for our honeymoon. I really wanted to go on a cruise/someplace warm or a cross Canada trip via train but my fear of flying and the crazy expense to travel cross Canada on a train was so not in our budget that it didn't really leave us with too many options. I had never been to Niagara Falls before so it was definitely exciting for me. It also seems to be a popular honeymoon destination so why the heck not :) The drive up there was pretty boring but that is to be expected when all you see is long stretches of highway.

We finally got there, got our room keys and took a ride up to our floor on the elevator. I am normally not scared of elevators but when they zoom up about 60 some odd floors I tend to get a bit nervous. We were soooo HIGH up. I really was afraid that that would be the week that the building decides to snap in two, with us still in it. The hotel we stayed at had just built the new tower that we were staying in so yeah it snapping in two in my mind really wasn't that impossible. (LOL)

We had a pretty good view of both the American and Canadian falls. It was actually beautiful and after the initial look out the window wall (the outside wall was in fact just a window from floor to ceiling and wall to wall) I stayed the heck as far away from it as possible. We were HIGH and I couldn't help but envision myself hurdling to the ground each time I looked out and down. ~shudder. But we did have some amazing views! At night it was breath taking as well. We also had prime seats for the light show on the American Falls AND for the firework displays that happened once or twice that week.

The Horse Shoe Falls.

You can see that we are right across from one of the casinos. We did go in there one night and spent an hour or so blowing $20 bucks total on the penny and 5 cent machine and that was enough for me. I have never been to a casino before so it was fun in that aspect but meh. It was all electronic so it's not like you pull a lever (well you still could) and you would have your winnings come rushing out the bottom. It was a piece of paper that you fed into the next machine you wanted to play. WOOOOO fun....not.

American Falls

The Sky Wheel at night.

The Casino at night.

American Falls at night

We decided to take a trip behind the falls first. I literally couldn't stop snapping photos of the falls. They just kept turning out so beautiful. It was super loud to and really misty but it was so worth it. We got to wear these nifty garbage bag like rain coat things they give you. You can see how thrilled I am by this picture.

So awesomely amazing!

This I believe is directly behind the falls, so the water is rushing down in front of the opening.

We then trekked down along the river snapping photos because how could you not resist take a million pictures of the same falls over and over again. It really is amazing to see in person. You see that tiny teeny boat in the picture? Yep we went on that too (Maid of the Mist). That was a little scary and since we just made the boat we got stuck on the bottom level but I think that was a good thing since it sheltered us a bit from getting soaked. It was a pretty bumpy ride.

We eventually made it to the White Water Walk, where we took more photos of the water. It was soo loud here and had some interesting photo opportunities including this gem that I couldn't resist snapping. No we didn't add to it because that is sort of gross, but it was interesting none the less.

Lots of bits of gum stuck to the rocks.

The whole week went by pretty fast and I don't think I have ever done so much walking in my life. There were some pretty steep hills going to and from the hotel which got to be tiring after awhile. By the end of the week we were pretty dead on our feet. Other random things we did that week were:

We went to one of the wax museums where we saw all sorts of stars and scenes from movies. We even saw the Simpsons and unfortunately for me ET. Seriously TAM he is CREEPY!!! There is nothing cute about him (especially here depicted in wax). You can see by my face how thrilled I am that Chris made me stand in front of him for a picture. I had nightmares after my sister brought me to see ET at the movies as a child. I still can picture ET standing at the bottom of my bed when my mom turned the lights out point at me with his glowy finger. I haven't watched that movie since, well that isn't true. Over Christmas Space had ET on and I sort of half watched it. The only part where ET is even remotely "cute" is when Drew Barrymore comes in and sees him for the first time and screams, which makes him scream and everyone else scream. That is the only cute part!

We also went to Ripley's Believe It or Not where we rubbed the belly of the 'good luck statue' which according to the sign " is a statue made out of 3 million macerated US dollars. Gamblers in China believe that rubbing the belly of  symbol of good fortune, will bring them good luck." How could you not rub it's belly! Who doesn't need good luck! 

seriously I don't know why my eyes are always red in photos ;)

We also had fun running through the spinning tunnel at the end which wow made you feel completely hammered since there was no possible way to walk to the end without almost falling on your bum! Then as we were leaving the building we decided to hold hands and get a hot wax molding of them. We added our wedding date and little tiny rings to the hands and voila we had a super neat token of our wedding and honeymoon.

At some point we also went on the giant Sky Wheel. In theory I was excited to go on this since I thought it would be fun. That is until we got closer to it and I saw just how high it would go. I still managed to gather enough courage to go on it and was relieved when we got our own compartment. I was fearing we would get stuck with people that would think it was super fun to rock the compartment back and forth. If you haven't guess already I don't do well with heights. It was alright until we got near the top and then I started to freak. Chris not only took a few photos of me but also took a video of me freaking out!! I didn't know he was taking a video either until after. When I was safely on the ground and back home and watched said video it was actually pretty hilarious, but then again I am braver on the ground and was very far away from it by then.

Me trying to wear a brave face.

I also must be a sucker for punishment because I convinced myself that we needed to also go back on it when it was dark out to see everything all lit up at night. Now that I think about it I really don't know why since we could see the same views but higher from our hotel room window. None the less we went on it again, and again I freaked out when we got to the top. Although after we got off we took what is probably my most favorite picture of our whole trip! The wheel looked so cool at night all lit up.

Near the end of the week we went to visit the floral clock which was pretty impressive and also took a tour of the power plant that was near by. Then it was off to the butterfly conservatory. I doubt I will ever go back in there if we ever go to Niagara falls again because while I love the beautiful patterns and colours on butterfly's I.DO.NOT.WANT.THEM to touch me EVER. Seriously they creep me out! There were hundreds of these things flying around. No where was safe. Thankfully none actually landed on me or I don't know what I would have done. I seriously probably would have ran out of there screaming (well maybe I am being a bit dramatic here, more like I probably would have freaked out, swatted at it and squashed the poor thing). In all seriousness though, I was actually really scared that I would do just that and I am sure that sort of thing is frowned upon. They had these plates of oranges with a bunch of them feeding off of it and that was enough to creep me out. We left pretty quickly lol. Chris thought it was funny as well. Nice eh!

These are just the highlights from our trip since we did a lot more that I mentioned. There is so much to do there that we didn't really feel like we scratched the surface. By the end of the week we were so exhausted from all the walking around we got lazy and stayed as close to the hotel as we could. Then it was the long drive back to reality. I'm glad that we got a week away from everything though! Hopefully sometime we will go back again and see more then what we were able to the last time. I actually think it would be neat to see it in the winter time, just to see how different it is.

What did you do for your honeymoon? Or what is your dream honeymoon?

Day 20/30 - My medieval inspired Wedding

When I was younger I always thought weddings were always fun to go to. Especially when it was a close family members wedding, since I was around when they were preparing for it. My mother almost always made the faux wedding cakes, (just think the three teared intricately decorated cakes with lots of scroll detail and even hanging strands of icing) and always helped with making and wrapping fruit cake favours that were cut in long skinny pieces and wrapped in saran wrap and doilies and tied off with the wedding parties colours. I also remember making tissue paper flowers to decorate the cars the that bridal party would be traveling in.

So when it was time to plan my wedding I was excited. I did none of those things above but starting to plan made me nostalgic for those times again. Chris and I got married two years ago in July of '09. We had a medieval inspired wedding. We got married in our home town with family and friends helping to celebrate our union. I made a lot of the decorations and hand made our invitations. The bridal parties attire was also made with the help of my mom, my sister and Chris's mom. I had debated on making my own dress as well, but at the same time I didn't want to miss out on being able to go around and trying on dresses. I happened to find the perfect dress at the very first store we went to. It was exactly what I had imagined it would be. It had the split in the front with a splash of colour, it came in ivory and it had intricate embroidery along the edges and was just beautiful. I wish that it fit better then it did and I still think to this day the ordered it in a size that was WAY bigger then it needed to be ordered in since even after they "took it in" it did not fit me properly, but that is a rant for another time. (sorry that is one of two things that really still grinds my gears).

Being a crafty person that I am I made a lot of the decorations myself and tried to keep with the theme as much as possible. Our card box was a castle, our center pieces were castles, even our fake cake was a three tiered castle. Our invitations where sealed with hot wax, and were hand coloured by me and a few family members, (who I love for helping me do that since there was a lot of invites) and then finally highlighted with metallic gel pens in red and gold, our wedding colours. I even made a wedding program with lots of interesting facts about medieval times and medieval wedding traditions so my guests would have something to read while waiting for me to arrive. 

I loved our wedding, it went by so fast that I honest can't remember half of the day. I can't believe that it has already been 2 plus years since the day we got married! There were some things that I wished were different or better but I am thankful for the pictures I have (another rant for another time) and for the great memories that were made that night and am thankful that so many of our friends and family were able to come out and help us celebrate. There were some photos that we missed out on since when we went to our picture location it was sooo windy out that I was stressing that the photos wouldn't turn out and honestly now seeing the ones that we took outside you can barely tell that the wind was whipping our hair every which way.  We moved to the basement of the hall which had a really nice decorated room so the rest didn't turn out as bad.

This is my invitation assembly space. You can see in the folder the invites. They had a woven vined border that had flowers on it. The vines were coloured with green pencil crayon and the flowers were coloured with gold and red metallic gel pens. They took a lot of work but they turned out so beautiful! The return cards were made to match with a small segment of vines and flowers. You can also see the stamp I used for the impression on the hot wax on that ice block as well. This was the tedious part of it since I could only impress about three or four before the stamp got to hot and I had to wait for it to cool down again other wise the wax stuck to it and was really hard to get off. I had found a place online that sold coloured wax sticks that you could put in a glue gun. With the amount I had to do I doubt that I would have sat there and dripped wax on that many invites :).

Here are some of the envelopes newly sealed and waiting to cool down enough to stack. Sadly I just wax sealed the ones that were being hand delivered since I didn't think the post office would appreciate wax going through their systems.

This is our marriage program that was given to everyone at the church. The font you see is the font that we used on the invites and everything else with text. It was quite big having about 4-5 full sized sheets of paper. So they were pretty thick once they were folded and assembled but I love how they turned out!

Our guest book was a photo mat with our engagement photo in it which is now hanging on our great room wall. I loved this idea so now we can see everyone that attended 365 days of the year. There was even some gold treasure in the treasure box to the left.

Our faux cake and the cake to eat with jousting knights on them! We actually totally forgot about eating the cake later and since we had the food catered we had no plates! We did have napkins though but no plates or utensils. So there was lots of cake left over.

My center pieces with little medieval army guys. They took awhile to make. I cut cardboard pieces, taped them together then used paper mache and then painted them.

Our card box that was totally secure and there was no way anyone would get into that thing without cutting open the bottom. I love how it turned out. Also a knight guard with my brothers chain mail armor, helmet and sword. I kept forgetting that it really wasn't a person standing over there.

Our head table. Part of the wedding parties gift from us was medieval tankards and goblets that you can see here in the picture. We had a slideshow being projected on the back of this wall throughout the night with pictures of Chris and I through out our lives.

These are the wedding favours. Since I make chain mail inspired jewelry and other things I made everyone chain mail key chains in our wedding colours. This is the flower version but I also made a diamond shape. Chris came up with the little rhyme on the tag which said "come celebrate our rein with this finely wrought chain".

The beautiful church that we got married in. This is the Catholic church I have attended since I was born.

I did not carry down the traditional bouquet of flowers. Instead I carried down the same bible that my sister carried down when she got married. Mom just changed the flowers and the ribbon that hung down from the bottom (and we even changed the few tissues that were still in between the pages from my sisters wedding). This was my something borrowed. I also added a picture off my father on the flowers since he passed away when I was four years old. This symbolized to me that if he couldn't be here at least he was with us in spirit.

One of my favorite shots. The one before was beautiful as well since it captured the stain glass window above the door.

 My beautiful ladies in waiting. I really wish that we could have had pictures like this outside.

The knights and one of our little squires. I love our wedding colours! The pictures picked up the material so well. The gold crosses were hand painted on by me a few days before the big day and I have to say I was SCARED TO DEATH of screwing them up! I had to take like two hour breaks between each one because I was afraid of not getting it centered properly or getting paint somewhere where it shouldn't be.

We even surprised our MC aka the court jester (my brother in law) with his own medieval inspired court jester outfit. He literally found out about it minutes before he was going to introduce the wedding party after pictures were done. You should have heard the roar of the crowd and the applause he got when entering the hall. :) The jester hat also played a part of our kissing game since anyone that wanted us to kiss had to go and get it from him and do something to entertain the "court", like juggling or hula hooping while juggling.

I think this is my favorite picture of the two of us! Love it! I really wish that we had all went back outside to take photos but I can't change the past. I am definitely thankful for the photos that we did get! I have heard horror stories of photographers never given brides their photos!

I love this one as well. It was a awesome day and it really is crazy just how fast the day goes by! It felt like it was never going to get there then it's two years later! It was a lot of work but it was worth it!  There are so many other things that I made for the wedding but these are just the highlights. I hope you enjoyed seeing our medieval inspired wedding!

Did you do anything special or unique for your wedding?

Day 18 & 19/30: Plans for the future and Nicknames

Day 18 - Plans/dreams/goals you have

I am happy with where my life is at the moment, so I don't have a lot of long term goals or plans for the future. At least nothing that interesting. They are mostly just the normal things like, paying off student loans, paying off the house, making upgrades to the house, saving for our future. Pretty standard things.

Eventually some time in the future, hopefully not to far though, we want to have at least another child. I would love to eventually be able to just sell my jewelry and crafts for a living and be able to stay home with the kids. For right now my plan for work is basically going back when my mat leave is over and working until we have another baby. After that who knows. 

I would love to be able to stay home with them after the second one comes but it all depends on finances. I don't know if I want to work where I am for the rest of my life but for now it's a job and it pays better then the last few that I have had. I honestly wouldn't even know what I would want to do if I did want to find other work. I just basically want to be happy and I don't really need much to do that. I have my family and Chris's family, Chris, Monkey and my friends, that's all I really need. :) Not really the most exciting but we have already accomplished some of the goals we had set for ourselves a few years back like getting married, buying a house and starting a family.

Day 19 - Nicknames you have; why do you have them

I don't really have to many nicknames, but I do have a few.

Krissy or Kris - That has to be the most obvious ones really since my name is Kristina and they are the typical short forms of my name. I actually prefer to go by either one of those then my full name though.

Mouse - This is a nickname I got from the family. I have been called that ever since I could remember. I guess it's because I was so quiet and I liked cheese.

Brat - I used to get this a lot when I was younger by my oldest brother. I guess I was a brat? He hasn't called me that in a long time though so that is good. LOL.
 
Steen - I've been called Steen for a number of years when I used to hang out with a particular friend regularly. He liked to call people by the middle part of their names. (kris-steen-a)

To be honest those are really the only ones that I can think of. Not really a whole lot. I'm sure there have been some random ones along the way but nothing that really stayed around for a while. I think I elementary school someone started calling me giggles or something like that at one point because I was alway laughing, but that memory is pretty foggy lol.

Day 16 & 17/30 - Mainstream music and favorite websites

Day 16 - Your views on mainstream music

To be honest I really don't pay too much attention to what is mainstream music or not. I basically have two categories for music. Stuff I like and stuff I don't like. I'm sure that most of the artists or bands that I begin listening to is because they are popular at that time but I don't really pay attention if they are or not. If I hear something that I like I seek more songs out by that band/artist and add it to my collection. I pretty much still love the music I used to listen to when I was younger and haven't really branched out from that to much over the years but it is always nice to find new music to fall in love with.

Day 17 - Some of Your Favorite Websites

There are a few websites that I like to check out daily. Here are a few of my favorites:

[1] www.craftster.org - I think this is my all time favorite website ever! They have a forum for just about every type of craft imaginable. Being a craftster myself I am in heaven when I surf their forums looking at the amazing talent of others and having so much inspiration to go out and create my own beautiful things. If your a craftster go check it out! You won't be disappointed.

[2] www.etsy.com - Another site I could just browse forever. There are tons of crafty people out there who come up with very unique ideas to fill niches that you never think were possible until you come across their store and go 'why didn't I think of that!' I love that you can search by place - so if you want to support people in your immediate area you can. There are so many things on there that I would love to buy for myself. Sometimes it's really hard to resist! (I would be broke if I indulged all the time lol)

[3]www.goodreads.com - This site is a neat way to organize books by what you have read, what you are currently reading, what you want to read and is a way to leave and read reviews. I love reading :) My username on there steen if anyone wants to check out my bookshelf.

[4] www.smartcanucks.ca - Since I am Canadian I check out this because it is a good site to find deals, coupons and even to read up on reviews on things you may be thinking of purchasing. There are tons of forums and I have found the people there to be helpful.

[5] http://triberr.com - I live on this site pretty much daily as well. I found that it is a good place to find other like minded bloggers, gain exposure to my own blog and in turn expose other tribemate's blogs to others as well. It's a great community. :)

I might be doubling up days about me together. It is taking me longer to get through these 30 posts then I intended. I don't like posting more then one post per day to often and I find that when I have something else monkey related or life related this gets a push back. :)

15/30 - first 10 random songs with my iPod on shuffle

Day 15 - Put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs that play

1- It's not the things you say by Tiesto
2- For the ocean  by Finger Eleven
3- So alone by The Offspring
4- Cold day in hell by Tracy Bonham
5- Pain for pleasure by Sum 41
6- Walking in Circles by Our lady peace
7- Your star by  Evanescence
8- Pulling Teeth by Green Day
9- Mascara by the Deftones
10- Pardon Me by Incubus

Got to love music. I kept hitting shuffle after listing the first 10 and I have a lot of Canadian Bands on my ipod (Mudmen, Three Days Grace, Our Lady Peace, Tegan and Sara to name a few). I don't think I have ever listened to any of my music on shuffle. I always just listen to whole albums. I might have to try it sometime :)

What are the top ten on your ipod?

14/30 - Favorite Quote

Day 14 - What is your favorite quote.

This has been my favorite quote ever since I came across it online a long time ago. I have no idea where I seen it but it has stuck with me. I thought that it was by an anonymous person but double checking I found it is actually by Robert Fulghum. I think the quote speaks true. The world is full of different types of people and we have to learn to live with each other (hopefully peacefully). I know as a person I try to be nice to everyone I meet (ie the whole golden rule about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you). In general though if I meet/know someone I don't really like I just don't talk to them/stay away from them. I'm pretty easy going and surround myself with people I do like so that is never really a problem.


Here is the original quote by Robert Fulghum:

"We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box.” - Robert Fulghum (author/pastor)


The one below here is basically the same but this is the version that I had originally found all those years ago. I guess it's like that game telephone. Where the words get passed down but they get changed somewhat. Still the same thing though.


"We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names. All are different colours, but they all have to learn to live in the same box."

13/30 - 10 years ago and now.

Day 13 - A photo taken over 10 years ago and a  current one, how have you changed since then?

I don't really think I have changed all that much. I am still the same old me, maybe a bit wiser then I was ten years ago and definitely well on my way to the life I want to live. You know all the things you grow up hoping that you will have someday - a nice house, a car, married, and a family. I am happy with how my life is going and still think that any future to come is looking pretty bright :)

So this first picture below is roughly ten years ago and it's the only one that is scanned into my computer so sorry that it is not the greatest. (I have to say I think I am the only person I know that actually sprained her arm getting off a ski lift. Not only was it the first time ever being on one, it was the first time getting off of it that day and the first time we ever went snowboarding. So embarrassing! :( LOL although that was nothing to the contraption they out on my arm as a splint - after of course getting to the bottom and falling at least a half a dozen more times onto my arm. Good times, good times. Seriously though why was I so afraid of falling getting off the ski lift but falling a million times on the way down the hill didn't phase me at all? I don't understand my brain sometimes). Also that is my hubby's photo 'thumb in the way' skillz. LOL The five pictures he took that day all have thumbs or fingers in them.

This picture here is from the last week or so and I hate it. LOL I'm sans normal clothing and sans makeup so yeah. But of course I look at myself and see me still with the baby weight that I gained from my pregnancy and am having a hard time losing. So yeah that is probably why :) This is me with my hair also finally starting to grow out again (Cindy if your reading this don't let me cut my hair that short again! It's finally starting to grow out though and I still have the same problem I did since the beginning of my life which is how to style it so that I don't hate it. The only thing I like about it is the colour! lol.) 

:)

12/30 - Mouse Ink Jewelry

Day 12- A talent/hobby of yours

I love making jewelry, especially chain mail inspired jewelry. I try and do at least one show a year at a local festival back home, and hope that next year I can add a few shows to my roster as well as getting my etsy store up and running again. I am sure anyone that gets a kick out of my blog name might be interested to know that my business name is Mouse Ink. The story behind that name is pretty simple. My nickname in my family is mouse since I am so quiet. When I was younger anything I made I used to do this logo on the back of it and sign it with Mouse Inc. underneath. When I registered my business name I changed the inc to ink since incorporating a business costs mega bucks. Thus Mouse Ink was born.

I haven't been creating anything since Monkey has been born though but now that things have started to fall into place I am hoping to start up again and start to get creative again. I could spend hours on the internet deciding what rings to buy, what colours and what sizes. I mostly work with anodized aluminum, because there are lots of colours and it's a pretty light metal. I also have done some things with heavier metals like steel but I have discovered that I am a weakling so it takes longer for me to get anything done. The last few years though, I have started to use sterling silver and adding a dash of Swarovski beads to the mix. I heart Swarovski beads! That's another thing I can spend hours on the internet doing - picking out beads! ( I mean how can you not love Swarovski beads? They are so shiny! ) Below are some pictures of the things I have created. I have even branched out into making chain mail ornaments and wind danglies with bells.

Jewelry isn't my only hobby though. I like to think of myself as a Jill of all trades (craft wise anyways). I also really like crocheting, painting, scrap booking and probably just about every other craft out there. I really hope that my daughter has some interest in art so we can have mommy daughter art time together.

Sterling Silver Box Chain with Swarovski donut

Sterling Silver with Swarovski heart.

Sterling Silver with Niobium.

Sterling Silver and Niobium.

Aluminum diamond earrings.

4-in-1 Anodized Aluminum bracelet

Anodized Aluminum box chain bracelet.

Triple Byzantine Bracelet.

Butterfly chain mail bracelet.

Stainless Steel Wallet Chain

Diamond key chains.

Flower key chains.

Whirly Bird key chains.

Star Pendant.

Triple byzantine necklace (I wear one similar to this all the time but blue and silver)

My ornaments

Sorry about the bad pictures of my ornaments. I was completing them last year for some Christmas presents and for some reason I only took a few pictures. They were a success though so I have plans to make more!