Happy New Year!!

After a frantic day of nervous worrying about whether I would get into LA or not due to massive delays at Toronto's airport stemming from the new security measures, I landed at LAX 10 minutes early this past Monday. After not being allowed to do anything the last hour of the flight (no reading, no listening to my iPod, although we were allowed to watch movies on our entertainment system provided we only used the airline's earphones....???????), I was super excited to see The BF who greeted me with an iced coffee. Love it. An iced coffee in December. See what the cold does to you? Makes you appreciate the small, warm weather things. The BF and I are getting ready for our NYE shindig tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing all our friends and family. This weekend I will be meeting up with Mo from Pink Argyle. I can't wait to meet her! We're hoping to do a little eating in the O.C.

Wherever you are, I wish a very Happy New Year and an amazing blogging year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Our 'condo tree'

Wishing all my blog friends a wonderful and happy holiday season! I'm off to LA next week ---- for 2 whole weeks! So excited.

Hope Santa is good to all of you.

And the Winners Are........

CONGRATULATIONS to......

EbonStarr
"My favourite project so far was the veil,
which I made with pink satin edging to match the dress.

Kim
"We are getting married in June 2010 and the whole wedding is pretty much DIY. Our invitations were all handmade by myself and mother in law to be. Our center pieces are all handmade, right down to the embossed labels wrapped around the candles for the center pieces. We are even having the bridesmaids dresses handmade by my mother in law to be...she's pretty amazing. I tell people that the day I got engaged I gained a fiance, a beautiful ring and a wedding planner LOL"

BEL (And Stanley Makes Three)
"We're going to do a lot of DIY - I hope! Invites, programs, menus, wine labels, purses for my girls, gifts for our parents, etc.!"

If the winners could email me, theprofessionalbridesmaid@gmail.com, then I can put you in touch with JessReads who will mail your prizes. A huge thank you to Jess for sponsoring this contest! Be sure to follow Jess on Twitter.


If you're interested in purchasing The DIY Bride: The Crafty Countdown for yourself or for a friend, you can purchase it from my favourite bookstores/sites:

For those are you heading to Chapters.Indigo, click here for a 25% off coupon!

My Former Bridesmaid Dress.

Are you done your shopping? Did your survive the snowstorm (those of you in NE U.S.)? Regardless of whether you were basking in the west coast sun (I'm jealous) or snowbound, I hope you all had a good and productive weekend! I spent mine turning one of my bridesmaids dresses into this lovely tutu-esque skirt for my friend's daughter. Cute, non? I can't wait to give it to her for Christmas - which is just an only 5 sleeps away! What have you done with your ex-bridesmaid gowns?

I will announce the winners of The Crafty Countdown giveaway later today!

Hurry....Enter The DIY Bride Book Giveaway!!

Just a few more hours.....http://neverabridezilla.blogspot.com/2009/12/crafty-countdown-giveaway.html. Enter now!!!

Frugal Friday

Sorry for being tardy on Frugal Friday (it's more like Frugal Saturday)! Today got away from me. With a lot of people taking next week off from work, I felt like people were putting pedal to the metal today --- my inbox was flooded. I'm looking forward to having some downtime this weekend (in between wrapping presents, baking, cooking etc. etc.). Enjoy your weekend!!

Don't forget to enter my DIY Bride: The Crafty Countdown Book Giveaway!!

What to Wear When Traveling...Chic 'n Cheap Style

One of my favourite bloggers, Chic 'n Cheap Living has a regular feature titled "What I'd Wear....." in which she styles an outfit to an occasion (e.g. What I'd Wear to an Office Party, What I'd Wear to a Retro-Glam Wedding). Trust me when I say that Chic 'n Cheap missed her calling as a stylist (it's not too late!!) because she has an incredible knack for coming up with stylish outfits which don't break the bank and all available for purchase online!! I recently asked Ms. Chic 'n Cheap if she would do "What I'd Wear While Traveling." As you all know, I fly very frequently and while I want be comfy schlepping my luggage and myself to LA, I also want to make sure that the BF doesn't think he's dating a college student in her plaid PJs. To see what Ms. Chic 'n Cheap came up with , click below!


p.s. Don't forget to enter the DIY Bride: The Crafty Countdown Book Giveaway!

For the Yummy Mummy in Your Life.......

Brianna and Ewan, the creative duo behind The Last Forty Percent Photography, recently introduced their latest service, MILph (Moms I’d Like To Photograph) sessions. Similar to boudoir sessions, MILph sessions are for those yummy mummies who want have sexy photos taken without stripping down to their undies - think sexy, sophisticated fashion shoot as opposed to sexy lingerie shoot. The first yummy mummy to participate was LFP photographer Yaira. Doesn't she look amazing?


So for those of you who aren't quite done with your Christmas shopping, consider gifting this fabulous experience! For more details, check out LFP's website.

Some Things Never Change.

I recently asked my friend's 3 year old daughter what she wanted for Christmas and she said, "A purse." My friend C. remarked, "Interesting how what you want at 3 and at 33 isn't all that different." So true. What do you want for Christmas?

(t) Who can resist a Hello Kitty purse? (b) Treesje Soleil Cross-Body Bag

Don't forget to enter the DIY Bride: The Crafty Countdown Book Giveaway!

The Crafty Countdown Giveaway

My good blog/twitter friend JessReads has 3 copies of The DIY Bride Crafty Countdown to give away to my readers. For those of you who already have The DIY Bride's first book, this book provides 40 more DIY projects to make for your big day!


Unfortunately, JessReads can only ship to Canadian mailing addresses. So if you're outside of Canada, you'll have to head to your nearest bookstore or Amazon (I'm partial to Amazon!) to buy a copy. Or borrow a fellow Canuck's address to enter the giveaway! Not a bride? Why not gift it to the bride(s) in your life for Christmas!

Here are the deets:

1) Leave a comment here telling me what you plan on DIYing for you big day. (For those of you not getting married, let me know what your next DIY project is!)

2) For an additional entry, either blog, Tweet or Facebook about this giveaway. Be sure to leave the relevant link to your blog, Tweet or Facebook.

3) Maximum 2 entries per person. Contest ends Sunday, December 20 at 11:59PM EST.

4) I'll announce the 3 winners on the following Monday. Approx. value of each book is CDN $21.95

5) Open to those with a Canadian shipping address only!

If you're not familiar with The DIY Bride, check out her website.

For those of you who love curling up with a good book, I highly recommend following JessReads. She always has the latest and greatest reads! Thanks Jess for making this giveaway possible!

Monday Morning Madness

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? Did you get all your shopping done? I have a couple more gifts to pick up and then I'm done! The BF and I hosted a holiday wine 'n cheese yesterday, so much fun! We discovered that the BF makes an amazing mulled wine.

This BR 40% promo code landed in my inbox this morning. I won't be using it so whomever uses it first....let me know what you bought!

Frugal Friday

Endless.com - Evey day, a new deal!

Banana Republic

La Senza

Amazon $5.00 Magazine Sale

Multitasking....

is not my strong suit. Actually, I'm absolute crap at it. Hence, why I've been a bad blogger. This time of year is probably the busiest time for me at work, not to mention the countless number of holiday get-togethers. Don't you hate it when your paying job gets in the way of your non-paying job?!!

Sigh. Anyway, just wanted to say hi and hope you're all keeping well. I have been reading your blogs and honestly, I am in awe of all you who not only post on a regular basis but managed to participate in NaBlogPoMo! C'mon, what's your secret? How do you find time? (Don't tell me you trade in sleep hours because that's one thing I cannot compromise on - I'm a serial napper.)

Publish Post

Frugal Friday

1) Bath and Body Works (Online and US stores only) - Click to print coupon


2) Club Monaco - Canada only

It's Raining Babies!

As you all know, my cousin D is having a baby and a couple of weeks ago, I helped throw a baby shower for her. We decided to have the shower at the Chado Tea Room in Pasadena, CA. The staff at Chado Tea Room were great. So friendly and helpful. Here are a few pics from the shower.

Chado has over 300 varieties of tea. We were lucky enough to try quite a few flavours including White Champagne Raspberry, Chocolate Mint and Ginger Peach. Some of us even bought some to take home!

Remember the baby graphic the BF's partner whipped up for the invitations? Well, I also incorporated it into the favours and the 'shower game kits.'

I bought the favour circle stickers from Michael's. They came with a printing template which made printing super easy. The ribbon is also from Michael's.


The 'shower game kit' was an envelope that came with three games: 1) Baby Scramble (i.e. Jumble with baby words); 2) Dirty Diaper (more on that later); and 3) TV Kids Trivia.


How cute is this floral centrepiece? Love the glass baby block vase. We had two of these at the table.


The afternoon tea menu at Chado is delicious! Sandwiches included smoked chicken with cranberry sauce, cucumber with cream cheese and green onions, and smoked salmon. Each tea rack came with freshly baked scones with fresh cream, fresh berries and jams. Since we had ordered a cake from Vanilla Bake Shop for D, we decided to skip Chado's usual slice of cake and opted for chocolate dipped strawberries.


After gorging ourselves on the yummy food, we opened up the 'shower game kit' and got started on the games. The 'Baby Scramble' and 'TV Kids Trivia' were pretty straightforward. 'Dirty Diaper' was probably the most disgusting yet fun game. The night before the shower, the BF and I bought a handful of chocolate bars and melted them in diapers. Yep, super gross. At the shower, each diaper were passed around and the guests had to guess what chocolate bar was melted in the diaper.



After the games, the Vanilla Lemon Berry cake from Vanilla Bake Shop was brought out. All I can say is the cake was 9 inches round of pure heaven.



D elected not to open gifts at the shower since we really didn't have the space and D didn't want to subject her guests to an endless barrage of onesies.

However, I had to share a pic of one of the adorable gifts she received. One of D's friend made her this amazing onesies/socks/shoes tiered 'cake' as a gift. Cute non?


D and her guests had such a great time. I highly recommend Chado Tea Room for any type of shower or maybe for a 'ladies' luncheon.' ;)

Do you heart afternoon/high tea as much I do?