renovating

Chicky and I are moving back into the condo. We got possession of it on the weekend and began thinking about what kind of renos to do. The weekend was busy with work and materials shopping. I worked on Saturday so it didn't leave much time to go out and buy paint, etc after work. Luckily we've had the help of Chicky's dad and my dad. In the past 3 days we've moved furniture around, dismantled, spackled, primed and painted a couple of rooms. Tonight we cut out some of the carpet and removed the baseboards. So for the next 2 weeks or so we'll be spending all our free time over there painting or fixing something. To spare myself some complaints - I wrote some of the neighbors a card thanking them for their patience and understanding while we bang our way to harmony. During this DIY project we've learned that picking out a color scheme before seeing your place is a bad idea. Yup - grey looks cool in books but just didn't go with the condo. So midnight on Saturday we had to go through our paint samples and figure out a new color scheme. I ended up choosing more "earthy" tones to go with the hunk of wood that we call the mantle. So the condo will have 3 primary colors and 2 types of flooring. There are so many things we want to upgrade but due to a lack of funds - we can't do it all. Plus we don't know how long we'll live in the condo so there's no point in upgrading the kitchen cabinets/counters or tiling the bathroom floors. We'll just stick to the basics of painting, new carpets and hardwood floors. The lights in the kitchen are way too hot so I'm going to change out the light fixtures in whole place as well. I enjoy looking at the home renovation books as there are so many nice fixtures to splurge on. :-) I want Santa to bring me a restaurant grade sink faucet! I like the look of the "industrial" kitchen. Larger sinks, counters, etc. Oh well - maybe some day when we get a house....

trial and error

On Saturday I had my hair and makeup trial for the wedding. Chicky was fabulously patient and waited while I had myself beautified. :-) Knowing in advance that this would be a great opportunity to test out some picture poses. I asked one of my cowoker photography friends to come out and do some prewedding pictures for us. I managed to squish myself into Kim Anh's gorgeous wedding dress. This was quite the feat and if it wasn't for Chicky's excellent wedding-dress-lace-up skills, I don't think we would have been so successful.

After a couple of hours primping and prepping at the salon, everything was done and it was time to meet Mikie. He was coming across on the Seabus so we had 1/2 hour to kill. I was wearing the wedding dress top (as Kim Anh's dress is a 2 piece) with my bright lime green yoga pants. It was quite the site to see. Chicky and I sat downtown in our outifts and gobbled down some Macdonalds. On lookers were curious about us and some even said "congratulations".

We met up with Mikie and walked down an alley in Gastown. Both Mikie and I thought about utilizing Gastown's unique textures and buildings. Plus it's a fun location for "urban" types of photos. I was starting to feel self conscious with having to lug some of wedding stuff through Gastown. The streets were busy with 2 cruise ships docked at Canada Place, a bike race and some kind of prep for a motorcycle show. I don't think my bright lime green pants were helping the cause. :-)

We found an old alley that was deserted and a building with windows. Mikie and I looked at each other and said - "this is perfect". So we dropped our gear. Mikie prepped the camera equipment and I got into the rest of my outfit (the skirt). I kept my pants on underneath as I didn't feel like undressing on the streets. The location that we found was the back alley under the seabus terminal. The skytrain tracks were there and the reflection on the windows were wonderful. At a certain angle you can even see the Canada Place sails in the window reflection. So Mikie had us climb onto the window ledges. This was quite the feat as my outfit made climbing anything challenging. The good thing was that I know Mikie's style and wore flats yesterday. Poor Mikie had to boost Chicky up onto window sill as well. Now - I have to explain that Mikie is built like our Toshiki, but shorter. Ah - these Japanese guys...all so petite! Once onto the window sill - I looked through the pane and said "oh crap!...it's a restaurant!!!". Fully expecting the restaurant manager to come out and give us crap about climbing all over his building - we shot some pics and ran off. A funny moment when there was a bum in the back alley who wished us all the best while we clutched to columns and he ran over to steal an aluminum can near our stuff. We were more worried about him taking off with our purse and gear while we were stuck on the ledge.

The photoshoot was really fun. Mikie's creativity and our willingness to climb all over things made the time go by quickly. The weather was SUPER hot and I think both Mikie and Chicky were sweating through their clothes. I commend the brides that have super hot wedding days. I could barely breathe in that outfit let alone look "natural" in the pics. After 2 hours we called it a day as we had to attend Billy & Kim's wedding and had missed the ceremony part already. I hugged Mikie and thanked him for coming downtown to do this for us. Got out of my big skirt, picked up our gear and ran back to the car in hopes that it wasn't towed (the parking meter had also run out). Mikie sent over one picture by email today - I'll post the rest when he gives me the disk.

another beautiful wedding

Congratuations to Billy & Kim!
The happy couple was wed yesterday. Chicky and I had a great time at the reception, which was held at Meadow Gardens golf club in Pitt Meadow. I especially enjoyed the "photo booth". The photographers that she hired had an area where you could put on some props and take some pictures. The pictures were printed right away for you to take home. What a great idea for the guests! Kim looked wonderful in her one-of-the-kind-hand-made-dress. The girl has talent. :-) Being a fashion designer, Kim not only sewed her own wedding dress but also the bridesmaid dresses. Lol...makes me look like a lazy bride!

To see some other pics from the wedding - go here.

Respondez S'il Vous Plait

The wedding is fast approaching and we'd like to remind everyone that if you have not had a chance to RSVP yet, please do so. Thank you!

Ever wonder what "RSVP" stands for?

• Respondez S'il Vous Plait (French for "reply if it pleases you")
• also an Internet transport protocol (yes - I had to throw something geeky into this mix)

Our website has been redesigned. I built the first one but this week Chicky decided that it was too plain so he built one to replace it. I'm quite impressed with his creativity. Yah Chicky! If you haven't seen it yet - go to http://www.kkyee.com/.