Words can't express the thrill of watching your daughter pick her Wedding Dress

The birth of a daughter sets the world spinning from the minute the Doctor says "you have a daughter".  Tears of joy, Tears of horror - "oh my goodness what will I do with her hair".  (I was banned from doing hair when she turned 8 - my ponytail was never centred lol).  Having 2 boys first our house was filled with ninja turtles, mini sticks, trucks, these had to make room for barbies, ferbies, barrettes, hair ties, dresses, ruffles.  There were times I'm sure the boys had to try on her headbands, and I'm sure Donatello was dating Barbie at one point in time.  All these stages of their lives moved so fast.  Kindergarten graduation, grade 8 prom, 1st date, 1st kiss (I'm sure she waited for Jay), Captain Morgan made an appearance in her bedroom and then University.  The years flew by.  I thought I was prepared for everything and then came the day they bought a condo and my daughter moved out.  Another few days of tears of happiness and sadness

Life is fairly settled.  Andrew and I are heading off to the Carlson Christmas (without Jim as he is in Buffalo for the Bills game) on Sunday, November 30.  To say we are running a little late would be an understatement.  Just stopping at the LCBO when the phone goes.  It's Rachel.

"Hi Mom, can you pop into the Fyfe's on your way over?

No, sorry honey, we are running way too late.

Well I really think you should!!!

Not going to happen today, we are 30 minutes late already.  What's the big deal?  (oh oh)  Do we have to?

Yes you have to  - JAY PROPOSED TO ME WHEN WE WERE CUTTING DOWN OUR CHRISTMAS TREE"

Yes the trip through the LCBO  was filled with OMG, OMG, tears were flowing and Andrew was staying as far away from me as he could.  Yes Jim already knew, he had had lunch with Jay on the Wednesday and little sneak hadn't told me anything.  We pick up David at the Go Train and off we go.

Anyone who knows Rachel knows that when she has a project to organize, it gets organized and we all follow her lead.  Date was picked, venue was booked all before Christmas.  Cake, flowers, etc all started to fill up her calendar.  January 29 was booked for the DRESS.  So excited.  Rachel booked 2 appointments one for "Sash & Bustle" at 11 am and the famous Kleinfeld at the Bay.  2 totally different experiences.

Jay gladly left to spend the day with his dad.  

I pick up Rachel and Becky and Amy (Jay's mom and sister) and off we head.  Did I mention I was running just a little late :)

Sash and Bustle is a lovely intimate little shop in Leslieville.  Not much bigger than my kitchen and family room with around 100 dresses.  Room for 2 brides and their entourage.  Our consultant was Andrea Dineen one of 2 sisters who own this absolutely charming quaint little boutique filled with lovely little finishing touches.  

Andrea Dineen - absolutely lovely to work with.  She made Rachel's job very easy.  

oh my - tears flowed as I had my first glance at the gown she eventually picked.  

Basically the process works like this, try on 6 to 10 dresses, pick your top 3 or 4, try them on again, pick your top 2.  We then headed to lunch at Joy Bistro on Queen St, a little champagne and then we headed up to Kleinfeld at the Bay.  The New York Kleinfeld is used in the show "Say Yes to the Dress".  

Talk about 2 opposite ends of the spectrum.  Small and intimate to large and bright.  2 brides at a time at Sash and Bustle to what looked like 20 at Kleinfield (with the mirrors making it look like they were everywhere lol).   Dresses ranged from around $1,000 to $15,000++.  Rachel's consultant asked her a few questions before we got started, like her budget, what style she was thinking and then we went out to look through the 700 dresses (only 1/4 of the dresses they have).  

There was a dressing room the size of my family room and then a sitting area with a couch for her cheerleaders :)

Is it an omen, Six is her lucky number.

Klenfield had oodles of accessories to go with all their dresses.  

Drawers and drawers of bling.  Something for everyone.

2 totally different experiences.  Rachel walked out of here with a list of her 3 favourite dresses.  Now to decide.  A long day, exciting, emotional and a little tiring but we had a few hours left in us to go through my 300 pictures.  Yes there was one dress that Rachel kept going back to, zooming in - zooming out.  A quick dinner at Amsterdam Brewery another look at the pictures and she was off to bed by 10.  Did I say earlier how when my daughter has something to do she likes to just do it.  She was on the phone by 8 am trying to get an appointment back at Sash and Bustle to try on her favourite dress.  Even though it is totally the opposite of the dress she had been thinking about for the past year, we knew as soon as we saw her in this one, this was it.  It's first showing will be October 24, 2015 - can't wait.  

One more thing off the list.  Thank you Rachel for letting me share in this wonderful day.  I love you honey.  xoxoxoxo

 

Toronto - Queens Quay - a beautiful day by the lake

"Toronto the Good" was what I knew it as, as I grew up.  I don't have the honour of saying I was "Toronto born", but having come here when I was 1-1/2 from bonny Scotland and living within 30 minutes of it for the rest of my life (notice how I didn't have to give my age with that description :) I do feel a true Toronto native.  My first permanent job was at Yonge and Bloor working for Ontario Hydro until we moved over to the big glass building at 700 University.  So modern, no walls on the floors when we first moved in and then they started adding partitions.  A few years at 60 Murray in their computer building and then marriage and children appeared and off we went to the suburbs, Clarkson and then Aurora.  

Over the last 4 years 2 of my Aurora raised children have settled in the city.  The commute was bad 30 years ago, it hasn't got any better.  "Work in the City, Live in the City" or spend 3 hours commuting every day.  I love where they live.  Rediscovering the city also means rediscovering so many wonderful memories.  I know there is lots of grumbling about the Toronto waterfront, but it is so much better than it was.  Growing up there was lots dirty smelly industry on the waterfront, now there are condos, thankfully a lot of them surrounded by parks and bike and walking paths.  I know, I know it could be better, but I'm still loving it.

Last Friday started off with me picking up Rachel and heading to Sherway Gardens, still my favourite mall in the world.  It has everything but isn't gigantic.  A quick stop at Sobeys and picked up lunch stuff and back to her condo for lunch with Mary Jo and her darling daughter Kathleen.  Lots of laughs and wedding talk and then while the girls cleaned up MJ and I went for a beautiful walk along the Lake at Queen's Quay.  Meanwhile the Carlson and William men were off to the Sweden and Finland hockey game at the ACC.  

Rule Number 1:  Never walk down the city without taking your camera (or at least your camera phone).  

Rule Number 2:  Always take a picture of the CN Tower :)  It is amazing all the different views you can get of it.  It is visible all over the city.  

Today was a beautiful crisp clear winter day with lots of people out walking enjoying the day.  Queen's Quay is a lovely community within the big city.  Grocery Stores, cafes, little shops, pet babysitting stores, skating rinks, the ferry, restaurants and the Lake.  

Rule Number 3:  Remember to look backwards and sideways as well as forwards, but watch where you are walking, lol lots of poles, garbage cans, water to fall over and into.  

This tall ship is called the "Caledonia" how could I resist taking about 20 pictures of it.  You can actually do cruises on this tall ship and the "Empire Sandy" (yes don't worry there is a picture of Sandy as well).

The last thing I expected to see in the Toronto Harbour was 2 swans.  Ducks, seagulls - yes, swans no - they belong on Grenadier Pond in High Park.  Having a closer look at the person feeding them it's no wonder they come here.  The birds are even sitting on her bundle buggy (wonder how many people know them by that name - yes I'm dating myself again).  Hard to live in the city and not own a bundle buggy.  

 There were quite a few tall ships in the harbour along with a few cabin cruisers that actually looked like people were living in them.

This beautiful little skating rink is right on the water.  The City does a great job of keeping these outdoor rinks frozen, even when it is mild and raining, these rinks are kept frozen for most of the winter.  

Definitely my kind of skating 

I love pictures of the old and the new blending together.  Seriously though I chopped off the top of the CN Tower (yes the tower is in another picture).  I will have to go back and redo this one.

 As we continued our walk along the water, the sun was going down in the west and the moon had risen in the east.  

How cool would this picture have been if we had just noticed the moon a little bit earlier, it might have been right on top of the chimney (remember the rule - look forwards and backwards and sideways, let's add up and down to that too).  Do you think there are plans to build more condos or parks over where this chimney is?

This might have been one of the original Queens Quay renovations done back in 1983.  Converted an old Queens Quay Terminal into condos and shops.  

Headed up to the street hoping it would block the wind that had creeped up, no such luck.  Back down to the lake to get one last shot of the sunset with the Caledonia.  

Clean up was all done when we arrived back at the condo.  Next stop Real Sports at Maple Leaf Square to meet up with the boys and celebrate Andrew's birthday and watch the Canada game.  The next best thing to going to Ottawa for July 1st is go to Maple Leaf Square for a Canada Game.  It was a sea of red and everyone was hyped up.  Gold Canada Gold.

Toronto like me is getting even better with age (tee hee).