Flashback Friday - 1994

I recently stumbled upon a box of old photos...among these photos were a bunch of photo's that I had taken out at my dads farm with my best friends Krista and Kevin (now my hubby). The photo above is me... this was during my DocMartin wearin', NIN listening, my parents just don't understand me phase.

These photos were taken with my very first SLR... a Pentax KM It was my best friend for many many years. It went everywhere with me... to school, to parties , hiking, traveling..you name it, it was with me. I worked at a photolab from 1994-1996 so I basically got all my photo's developed for free or discounted. The pictures below were taken the same day as the above picture. They were also not altered digitally. The sepia was done in the photolab when I was printing the pictures. Oh.. the fun times. Working at the photolab was my most fun job, if the pay was better I'd probably get another job at one.

This last photo is especially embarrassing to look at... Oh god ... it hurts and makes me laugh hysterically all at the same time. What was I thinking? Is she supposed to be a girl that is hurting? I have no clue... but I obviously thought it was cool at the time.

And there you have it... a small gimpse into my teen years.

You can see more Flashback friday's and participate yourself at Christopher and Tia

I ♥ Faces - "Autumn Beauty" Photo Challenge

This is my submission for the Autumn Beauty weekly contest on I ♥ Faces. This is my friend Rebecca... she is both beautiful on the outside as well as the inside. Check out more beauties here or submit your own.

Flashback Friday - Our last big holiday!

Traveling... I lOVE it! This weeks Flashback Friday is from our honeymoon in 2005, and our last big holiday. In May of 2005, 8 months after Kevin and I got married (that will be another post) we decided to go on our honeymoon. We went to England, Ireland & Greece. It was awesome. We did go traveling with my uncle and aunt when we met up with them at their home in England. We started our vacation in England and spent a week there. After that we went off to the Greek island of Kefalonia to spend a week there and then we went to Ireland for a week. It was 3 weeks of relaxing, sight seeing and visiting with family. Having grown up with family in England and Ireland my whole life, I have visited there many many times, but my husband had never. So it was fun to introduce him to my family and for him to explore his Irish heritage while in Ireland (not to mention the pints and pints of Guinness). I think my husband and I enjoyed Ireland the best... the landscape is so beautiful and the people are great. Kefalonia was really pretty but Kevin and I aren't really sun people. In fact we usually try and stay out of the sun as much as possible in the summer. Kevin is a ginger... so the sun is his enemy. We really enjoyed the heat and the scenery in Kefalonia, but a week was enough for us.

This was a wonderful holiday and we made the most out of it because we were planning on trying for children after this holiday and we knew it would be the last one for a while. Not only is it too expensive to travel with children for us right now (having been off work for 2 out of 3 years) but we don't want to go through the hassle of traveling with children until they are a bit older and will remember some of it. I have a bunch of places that I would like to visit on my bucket list . These are some of the places I'd like to get to...A lot of the places are warm places, so we'll have to visit on their "winter" season.




Oh...sometimes I wish I was kid free again so that I could spend all my money on travels.. of course this wish only lasts about 5 minutes and then my 3yo gives me a running hug and Lottie smiles at me... my heart melts and I would trade all the stamps in my passport to be with them.

Want to read more Flashback Friday's... check out more here.

Flashback Friday - S is for snake.

S is for snake... that my father killed. First off, if you know my dad.. you know that he is like me and tends to panic a little under emergency situations. This picture was taken sometime around the 7 or 8 year old mark. We lived in a old stone house on the edge of the city that my parents purchased when my brother was born (he was born at 24 wks gestation... and blessed us for 1.5yrs...but that is another post). They didn't want to be in the suburbs where there were tons of kids and loads of germs that would be killer for his tiny sensitive immune system. Anyhoo.. we lived in a old house with a dirt basement. While my dad was in the basement one day he spotted a milk snake. We didn't know at the time that milk snakes were harmless, so when my dad spotted it in the basement he freaked out. Grabbed the ice pick and strategically placed himself so that he could cut the head off. It wasn't a clean cut, but it did do the trick. I remember the adrenalin pumping through my body when I found out a SNAKE was in our house.. WOW. My dad and I thought that it would be hilarious if we took a picture of me holding the snake to show my mum and to send to my grandmother (a proper old British lady)...I guess it was pretty exciting and funny to an 7/8 year old... my mum just thought it was gross with a touch of cuteness. Anyhoo, this is the most dangerous reptile I have ever encountered here in the Great White North... and that's ok with me!

Head over to Christoper & Tia for more flashback Fridays.

Flashback Friday.... Halloween 1984 (I think?)
Since tomorrow is Halloween, I thought it was appropriate that I dig up an old Halloween picture. Here I am somewhere in the mid eighties... I think it was '84. This year I was a My Little Pony... the only thing I remember about this Halloween was that my mom thought I was too old to be a My Little Pony, but I didn't care...she bought me the costume anyways. It was one of those scratchy plastic suits and cheap masks that were everywhere back in the day. The other girls were Ragedy Ann, Princess and I'm not sure what Becca was in the front but I think she might have been a cheerleader. I'll have to ask her when I see her next.

These were the good times... the times of running around the streets with your friends filling your bag with candies, and if you lived at my house and never got chips or pop you prayed for the houses that gave you those items at Halloween time. With my dad being Swiss we always had a sufficient amount of great quality Swiss chocolate floating around, so those were still great but not as exciting.

And... I was one of those kids that LOVED getting raisins!!!

Friends are the best gifts.

On October 8th this year I turned 33 years old. With each and every passing year I find myself not wanting or needing presents and find myself cherishing my moments with my friends and family more. Last year was the first year in what I hope to be a new birthday tradition. I have decided that in lieu of gifts I asked my friends to spend the day with me for a birthday hike. I also stated that I wanted it to be without children and without husbands so that we could all have a break and relax without having to deal with feedings, diapers or filling sippy cups. Fall has always been my favorite time of year, and the colours that the Canadian forests produce is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

This year we had a pretty good turnout. At 1pm 13 ladies met at my place and all 14 of us car pooled off to a near by trail where we walked and talked for just over an hour (next year will be longer)...we then headed back to my place and all crammed in my tiny little house for a cozy pot luck dinner and drinks all around. There are few things that money can't buy...one of those things are good friends and family...I have been blessed to have both of those.

I love traditions, and hope to pass these on to my children. What kind of traditions do you have?

Flashback Friday... 1982

Traditions are big in our family....and the biggest of all is the Smartie birthday breakfasts. Mmmm what more can you ask for then waking up to a breakfast of presents and smarties. As a child it was almost better then Christmas. Each and every year on my birthday (October 8th) I would wake up with the anticipation of eating smarties for breakfast... no other day could I eat chocolate for breakfast, so I usually ate them all up in a hurry :) This tradition was passed down by my dad who grew up with the same tradition. The picture above was a picture of my "special" birthday... it was special because I was turning 8.. the number of my birthday day October 8th. Because this was my special day we invited my family from overseas. Grandma and Grandpa from Switzerland and my Aunt/Uncle and cousin from Japan. Having grown up with two immigrant parents I wasn't fortunate like most of my friends to visit grandparents every weekend. Although it did mean I visited Switzerland and Ireland quite a bit...so I was very fortunate in that way.

Yesterday was my 33rd birthday and I woke up to smarties on the table just as usual... I still love it as much today as I did back in 1982. I have passed this tradition down to my girls now...I hope they continue it with their children.