A Little Tête-à-Tête

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting Mary, the girl behind weddinggirl.ca. As I've mentioned on my blog before I am an aspiring wedding and event planner (my dream job), so I just had to jump at the chance to meet her and attend an event she put on called WeddingGirl Multiplied (WGx). You can read all about it on her website.

She welcomed everyone at the elegant Faculty Club with open arms (literally hugging everyone she met), while offering champaign and h'orderves. It was such an awesome atmosphere to walk into.

After I had the chance to meet most people in attendance (there was about 30 of us), things got started and Mary opened up about her journey as a wedding planner; where she started, little tidbits about things that happened along the way, and of course where she is today. I've never had the chance to meet a wedding planner before so it was very encouraging to hear her story first-hand. The challenges of sometimes not being able to please a bride no matter what you do, to the endless possibilities of travel was both scary and exciting to hear about at the same time!

After telling us about her journey the floor was open for Q&A, and what great questions we all had. From how to start a business to having a business plan to working with vendors. We simply gained some powerful insight and it was amazing.

Mary is looking to grow her business, which is there the 'Multiplied' comes from. She has her sights set on travel and taking over the world. While I still need to learn more about where this can lead, I hope I can be a big part of it. There is nothing better than the chance to have a mentor that is kind, generous and truly genuine, and I can't wait to start my journey.

And if I could end with a simple, yet very truthful saying that was attached to the delicious cupcake we got to take home, it would be this:

Cheers to taking over the world.

- Lisa

Inspire Me 2014: The side of me nobody knows

It's that time again, time to link up with Showered With Design and Happiness is a Mood Not a Destination, for their Inspire Me Blog Challenge! 

Today's prompt is: The side of me nobody knows.
This question can be a loaded one depending on how you spin it, but I am definitely going to gear it towards the blogosphere, and since there isn't much about me on this blog yet this is a perfect way to start! So let's get to it!

1. I am hearing impaired and wear a hearing aid in each ear. 
   
   I was born with poor hearing and it has gotten progressively worse over time. I got my first hearing aid in grade 9 and my second in December 2012. I've had multiple ear surgeries to reconstruct my ear but they have all been unsuccessful. If I don't have them in, I barely hear anything at all.
   
2. By day, I am an HR Specialist in Training & Development.
   
   However, I am also an aspiring Wedding and Event Planner (my dream job!). I am currently taking the Wedding & Event Planning course through the New York Institute of Art and Design.
   
3. I am an introvert (mostly, lol).
   
   I am often shy and awkward when meeting new people and I am terrible at small talk. I plan to work on these two things in 2014.
   
4. I absolutely love country music.
   
   Dallas Smith, Luke Bryan, and Taylor Swift are some of my faves. Though, I like to throw in Lorde, Ed Sheeren and several other pop artists into the mix.
   
5. Family is the most important thing to me.
   
   Need I say more for this one?

I hope you enjoyed these little tidbits into my life. I would love to learn more about you, so please join in on the challenge or comment below.

Happy Friday!

Leftover Turkey Soup

This winter has been the first 'real' winter we've had in several years. We've been spoiled with higher than normal temps in the past so I think Mother Nature came back with a vengeance! We have more snow this year than I can ever remember. Lucky for us though, it has led me to try my hand at making homemade soups, which I have been doing a lot of lately. I'm a true believer that one of the best things about the cold weather is having a nice hot bowl of something (chili, soup, etc.). Don't you agree?

So, since we hosted Christmas dinner this year I had a boat load of turkey left and decided to come up with my own leftover turkey soup recipe. I'm happy to say that it turned out delicious so I thought I'd share.

Prep time: 20 mins I Cook Time: 1.5 hours I Servings: 10 - 12 

2          tbsp. of butter
1          onion, diced
1          cup of chopped carrots
1          cup of chopped celery
1          tsp. of garlic powder
2          cans (398 mL) of diced tomatoes
2          cartons (900 mL) of chicken broth
4          tbsp. of dried parsley
2          tsp. of salt
4 – 5   cups of chopped leftover turkey
1          cup of elbow macaroni

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, celery, carrots, and garlic powder; saute for a few minutes.

2. Add diced tomatoes, chicken broth, parsley, salt, and turkey to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer for approximately 1 hour until vegetables are barely tender.

3. Add the elbow macaroni and simmer for 30 minutes more. Serve or freeze for later consumption.

This soup pairs nicely with warm bread and butter. Enjoy!

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I'm combining this post with the Inspire Me Blog Challenge 2014 hosted by Showered With Design and Happiness is a Mood Not a Destination. Today's prompt is: When is your birthday?

My birthday is July 1st. I celebrate my birthday with Canada, and as a proud Canadian, I think that is really awesome. Not to mention that it's also a long weekend :)

Organizing Under Your Kitchen Sink

It's the beginning of the New Year and it's the season for resolutions. I don't typically say I'll do this or that this year, but one of my major goals for 2014 is to organize my house from top to bottom. I started on this journey in 2013 and have had some good successes with it, and it looks like I am starting 2014 off on the right foot.

This past weekend I spent some time organizing under my kitchen sink. There is really no way to make the space under the kitchen sink look pretty, but you can get it organized. 

All I needed for this project was the same bins I used to organize under my bathroom sink (click here to read that post), shelf liner, and my trusty label maker. I went back to the dollar store for the bins so this costs me less than $10 to do!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It's so easy now that I don't have any boxes or bags to go through to get to a garbage bag or to find a sponge. Now that everything has it's place, even my toddler can help put things away where they belong or find things easily enough when he helps us tidy up.

It's still not that pretty, but the shelf liner really added a nice touch, along with the pop of yellow. However, if you have a way for me to hide the pipes, please share! 

If you need help organizing or have a space you need help with, please comment below as I'd love to help find a solution and post it on my blog.

Happy organizing!

Five for Friday

Time for the top five of the week. It's actually been pretty quiet around here so this week I decided it was all about the little things.

1. The holiday's have caught up with Eric this week. With all the hustle and bustle Christmas had to offer, Eric has been one tired boy (not to mention he's fighting a minor cold). The other day he fell asleep on me; so after a while when I tried to put him upstairs, it was a no-go on his part, so I put him back on the couch and this happened.

Is that cure or what?!

2. Eric shaving. Yes folks, my three year old likes to shave! We put a little kid shaving kit in his stocking, complete with shaving cream and a fake plastic razor. He literally wants to shave everyday.

3. I've been off work the past week and a half and have been finally able to get caught up on some freezer meals. I've made spaghetti sauce, chili, and minestrone soup this week.

4. My sister has asked me to make party decorations for my nephew's fourth birthday in April, so I've been busy designing and putting together Dinosaur Train themed cupcake toppers, water bottle labels, food tents, and a birthday banner. Here's a sneak peek at his birthday banner.

5. We celebrated New Year's with our friends and family. You can read about our festivities here.

How has your week been?

Linking up with Lauren and Carolina Charm today!

Ringing in the New Year!

Today I decided to take the 2014 Inspire Me Blog Challenge hosted by (Showered With Design) and (Happiness Blog). Each day I will try to post their suggested topics in an effort to provide my readers with more content and so they can get to know me a bit more.

Today's prompt is: What did you do for New Years?

We actually kept it pretty simple for New Year's. We had about 10 friends over for food, poker and movies. I made some chili and we had everyone bring a snack; there was absolutely no shortage of food. The guys then played poker and the remaining three ladies watched Pitch Perfect (which is one of my favourite movies). Seriously, if you haven't seen it yet I would highly recommend it.

The one thing we all did though was watch the ball drop in New York City during the live broadcast. Everyone then gave kisses and hugs before going back to playing poker or watching the movie. However, I did attempt to get a 'selfie' of my husband and I right after midnight and as you may have seen in my 2013 recap post, we were hilariously photobombed by our friend Chris.

On New Year's day, our family went over to my parents house for some Chinese Food. My sister and her family were there, as well as my grandparents. We had a really nice time and the kids had a great time playing with each other. There is really nothing like ringing in the New Year with your friends and family.

How did you celebrate?

December Ipsy Glam Bag

December's Glam Bag came a couple of weeks ago and this was a pretty good bag! Firstly, it came in a cute little black make-up bag, which will be perfect for light travel trips.

I will be trying the Julie nail colour on the weekend when I have a chance to give myself a manicure. The colour looks amazing.

I also can't wait to try out the pop eye shadow trio. It will a allow me to create a nice smoky eye for my next night out.

The blender brush by Mirabella is also great. It's a blender brush that actually works pretty well.

I haven't tried The One Stick by be a bombshell yet. It's an all-in-one multiple stick with a smooth texture that you can apply to eyelids, cheeks or lips. I'll likely need to use a brush to put it in my eyelids, but I'm actually not a fan of cream eye shadow so I'll probably only use it on my lip and cheek. It's a nice tint of pink called so it will probably look good on my cheeks.

The bag also came with a CoverGirl lip crayon. I'm not a fan of lip crayons so I likely wont even try it. Other than this product, I am super excited about the other ones!

If you want to know more about ipsy, click here.