new york, new york =)

It's been three days since we came back from our impromptu New York trip and I still don't think I'm truly, fully recovered. I think the fact that I have work the rest of the week has something to do with it. And yes, I am one of those who secretly hope there would come a time when I could just go on trips, spend ridiculous amount of money without ever having to work. Hehe. I'm either extremely optimistic, hopeful or just wishful thinking =P

We ventured and walked around Times Square and had our share of this delicious treat from an upscale frozen dessert franchise called Pinkberry. I wonder if we will ever get this in Toronto.

Anyway, back to our home, I have decided a few additions to our "Thank You" cards. I finally got some envelopes and hope to send these babies out by next week's end.

Don't you love the Martha Stewart-inspired bows?? Yay for new projects! =)

words unspoken...

It's been two weeks since we received our "thank you" postcards and now we're still just starting to write thank you notes. Our goal is to send them all out even before we celebrate our third month anniversary but seeing that it is already the middle of August, it may not be possible given the amount of thank you's we have to write.

We could be lazy and just pre-print standard thank you messages on the back of each card but we love the idea of handwritten notes. They seem much more sincere and personal and every bit appreciative which is appropriate for the kind of emotion we were hoping to express.

Here is a glimpse of our Thank You postcards:

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention. ~ Oscar Wilde

something new...

Life is like an ice cream cone. You have to lick it one day at a time.

-Charles M. Schulz

I've been working evenings for six straight days and on my final night, I'm rewarding myself by eating this:

I'm getting cross-trained to a new area and though it is still related to what I was doing before, it is unfamiliar to what I have gotten so used to. And just like everybody, I tend to resist change which makes the transition all the more confusing and frustrating. I feel like a fish out of water and most days, I feel my heart pulsating faster than its normal rhythm. It took me a year to get comfortable on my old unit and now, I'm back to the same situation of always doubting and second-guessing myself (which I hate).

I know eventually I'll get used to this new place, too and most likely even love it as much as the other place, but it's still taking me awhile to be able to just relax and breathe.

Speaking of something new, A's got new body art...

there's always room for cake =)

I love wedding cakes! And although we didn't really get to enjoy our wedding cake, I was so thrilled with the way it turned out. We provided Just Temptations with this picture:

the inspiration

and here is our wedding cake!

We found the cake topper on a random stroll at Michael's. It was so cute and different and although the bride was blonde and nowhere near my natural hair colour, we thought this was perfect for our cake.

wish tree

One of my favourite details at our wedding was the Wish Tree. We searched for a long time to find the perfect tree for people to hang their wishes on and it also took us awhile to decide and create the perfect wish cards to go with it. In the end, we decided on these three types: A regular wish card, a "Predict our Future" card and a "Give us your best advice" card.

I also enjoyed making flower pens for people to use to sign the wish cards.

Materials:

silk flower

scissors

gel pen (or any other pen you prefer)

green floral tape

regular clear tape

1. Cut about two inches of the stem.

2. With clear tape, tape your flower to the bottom edge of your pen.

3. Start winding the green floral tape beginning at the top and pressing hard to secure the tape in place.

4. Continue wrapping the pen with green floral tape at least twice before cutting the floral tape and pinching the edge where the tape ended.

It was really easy to make and we had the most fun reading the responses while on our flight to Florida. It's interesting to read what people had to write when given topics to talk about. Some interesting responses include:

lost and found

So, I'm uploading a video that was shown during the reception of our June 8 wedding. It was created in collaboration with Whereisthelaser? Productions presented as part of the wedding program. The funny thing is, we never actually saw the final edit before the big day and we didn't get to watch it the day of either because we had to take pictures for the opening of the sweet table buffet. Anyway, it was really well made and it represented just how much fun we had during the planning phase of our wedding.

Hanging out at M Studio the last couple of days reminded me of just how small the world really is and that eventually, we were bound to run into people from the past. I can't help but still feel guilty about deciding not to invite certain people even when the truth is, we haven't seen these people in years and to invite them would be more awkward than uninviting them. Anyway, I'm not about to hold grudges even when the cause of miscommunication was something that was essentially and potentially a cause of distress in the past. Can bridges that were broken ever be rebuilt or reconnected? I'm not sure. All I know is that, in the end, we have chosen to take paths thinking that we have made the best decisions possible and that even after all that, we stand by the decisions we made no matter what the consequences.

I still think about friends that I've "lost" along the way although, instead of wallowing in grief, I console myself by saying that I had made it though without them, just as their lives have gone on without me.

In hopes that I might end this post on a good note, I'm posting an old journal entry I came across about A, written on September 26 last year; tucked in the pages of my old and ratty 2007 journal:

I met him at a time in my life when I have given up all hope. Hope of finding the right one. Hope that I’ll make the right decisions when I do find the one. Hope that in spite of everything I’ve been through, I still deserve to find my happiness. Of course, at first, I wasn’t easily convinced. I had all these preconceptions of how it was all going to turn out. We’ll meet. He’ll pursue me for quite some time. I’ll circumvent and try to find a way out of it, but then, I’ll realize how lonely I’ve become and give in. I imagine myself slowly letting down my defences and finally admitting I’m ready to give it my all, all over again-- love like I’ve never been hurt.

I wanted to say to him, “If you knew what I went through, you’d understand why I hesitate.” But I didn’t need to because he, just like I, have been through it all. I guess that would always be one thing we have in common. We both have been in relationships that had left us dejected. We were broken souls trying to find meaning in the midst of our pains. We both knew what it felt to be defeated. We were the walking wounded. And as sad as it sounds, we found commonality in our hurts and pains. It was the common denominator that brought us together and made us hope for better things.

It didn’t take me long to see that I could possibly love him. He was after all, a mirrored image of myself. A broken man, as if he had been denied of the happiness he so deserved. I guess in a way, I felt he needed to be saved just as I needed someone to save me. He saw right through me, the way no one else had.

I wanted so much to believe that even after all that I’ve been through, I still deserve to be happy. I deserve to find that one love that God had intended for me to find. I’ve paid my dues. And indeed, I was continually rewarded even when I didn't think I deserved it. I was found.

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake andthen subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. "

"Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two".- Captain Corelli's Mandolin