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2014 year end reflection
2014 was a complete game-changer on so many levels. Starting off the year, my husband and I had been married for a little less than 48 hours, and were planning our move across North America from little ol’ university town of Waterloo Ontario, to smack dab into Silicon Valley, Amurica.
Never in my wildest dreams, had I ever thought about, or even imagined that I would be living in the United States, let alone breathtaking Northern California. Nevertheless, I must say 2014 was the best year yet — although it went by in such a blur I cannot believe we moved down here 11 months ago. We’re no longer newly weds, and we’re no longer new to being in California! Crazy!
My main goals when moving to the USA was to push my introverted self out of my comfort zone and say yes to more things, speak up to strangers and meet new friends (check, and check!), and overall embrace the change. It wasn’t scary to move down to California if we’re going to be honest. Especially easy since we moved during a Canadian winter. I wasn’t overly fond of living in Ontario, because I was stuck in a rut. I didn’t have many friends, and I certainty didn’t like the place we lived. We were already a 4 hour flight away from family, what’s another 6 added on top of that?
Okay okay, before I get all mushy let me walk you through all last year had to offer, shall we?
January was full of panic and packing. It was when we came back to work, told our bosses we would be leaving our amazing wonderful jobs to pick up and move to the USA. I still miss my co-workers so much. I continue to e-mail all 30 of the staff on a weekly basis (every Thursday as a matter of fact), to keep them updated. I’m not sure if everyone is on board with my random ramblings, but for the most part a lot of them seem to be enjoying the updates. We skype, we BBM video, and we chat as though I am still part of their team. I loved that I was completely caught off guard by my going away/wedding/surprise party thrown by some of my co-workers, while I was at the mall with Aimster (who just so happened to be my bosses daughter and my co-worker).
February was the time we took the swift 3 day drive from Canada to California in our 17 foot u-haul with my little Mazda on top of a trailer attached to the u-haul. I’m surprised we weren’t pulled over and asked for a truckers drivers license. That thing was a beast to drive, and so scary — I definitely white knuckled driving that monster. I looked back on my archives and it looks as though I blogged just the once. Guess that goes to show how busy we were driving across the continent, looking for places to live, and having our internet hooked up. Luckily we found a spot in no time, thanks to Jessica a hundred times over for helping us out from driving me to all kinds of apartments to me leeching off her internet to find apartments to look at. Couldn’t have done it without her help. By the way, can you not get over how amazing California looks in February?!
March was another fun month. I got the chance to have a complete makeover at the Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara at MAKE UP FOR EVER which was pretty sweet. I walked around Santa Row a lot, checking out all the stores readily available just waiting for me to whip out my pocket book. Man, the shopping is excellent here. We drove out to Lake Tahoe for a day trip so The Guy could get in some last minute cross country skiing done before the season ended. I had enough of the snow at this point, I wasn’t about to get on a set of ski’s especially after leaving the wretched cold winter up north. I was ready for some sun! So I got some at Capitola Beach when our friends from Ontario came down to visit their in-laws. My old co-op student from my previous job in Ontario was in San Francisco on a work term, so I visited him for a day and we were treated like celebrities, it was fantastic.
April I stepped out of my comfort zone as Ellen, a blog reader e-mailed me out of the blue one day mentioning she had been reading my blog for some time, but has never left a comment. She is also a climber, and suggested we meet up some time for a climb at the local rock gym. Of course I’m going to say YES. It was awesome, and I hope to continue to climb with her again this year! Our first Easter in California was a success, and pret-tee delicious if you ask me, gotta say… I’m a great cook ;) This was also the month my blog received a complete overhaul and re-branding, I love how it turned out. April was pretty memorable because Jessica took me out to see the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time in my life!
May ah my birth month, where even my local pizza place delivered me a heart-shaped pizza for my birthday, sweet. I got a membership to the local rock climbing gym and climbed more with Ellen. On Mother’s Day The Guy and I went to the Golden Gate Bridge to take some photos so I could make some Thank You cards to send out to our wedding guests. Not only that, I got to eat breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay!
June I bought a pretty sweet gym bag and bouldered a V4 for the first time in years, pretty happy about that. I visited Google for the first time, that place is so fun! I swore during yoga class. My husbands younger sister came by (and the older one came in July as their trips overlapped). The Guy and I finally have a grown-up bedroom, with a headboard and all. Now we just need to upgrade our bed from a double to a king.
July is when I went to my first BlogParty in San Francisco and met so many awesome Bay Area blogging buddies. I also attended the BlogHer conference where I spotted Khloe Kardashian in person, kinda fun. My two sister-in-law’s (husband’s sisters) came down for a visit and we totally bonded, froze are buns off in San Francisco on the Fourth of July, and had a laugh, it was amazing having them both here. I cannot wait until they both come down again, hopefully SOON!
August was a slow month in the blogging world. Jessica and I teamed up and hosted a giveaway together, and I posted the outfit photos (here too)that she took of me at the blogging conference. Total fav. Then there was a whole whack of talkin’ and reviewing of some Dior products. Nothing much to report in August, really!
September The Guy made his featured appearance on the blog and starting reviewing running shoes. I was back to Newfoundland for most of August and a little bit of September. I still haven’t recapped our non-wedding wedding reception that we flew back for, in August. I didn’t take many photos from the day, so there isn’t much to look at really. But I did take you around to the little fishing place called Petty Harbour, and then showed you the most easterly point in North America, Cape Spear. I blogged about going to the annual Flatrock Festival (climbing fest) too. The Guy was going for his 6th Ironman in September, out in Lake Tahoe but it ended up being cancelled due to smoke from forest fires, and we came face-to-face with a bear at our hotel. Scary stuff.
October onto my husband’s birth month. For his birthday I surprised him with a two day honeymoon to the romantic village of Carmel, an hour or so south of us. The views from Point Lobos had to be my favourite spot of our trip. October is when I introduced Pomeranian Friday’s to the blog, which seems to be a huge hit with the readers. Glad you’re enjoying Alfie as much as we are!
November was a fun month because not only did I received a ton of lip glosses to play with courtesy of bareMinerals, I attended a pretty fun event for the grand opening of Uniqlo in the Milpitas mall. I also started exploring coffee shops, which I’ll continue to do as a feature throughout 2015. The Guy, Alfie and I hit the trails one afternoon, and then I showed you what my “uniform” looks like on weekends. Then I did a flashback to the summer where IÂ talked you through beautiful Conception Harbour, Newfoundland.
December is my favourite month of the year! For our first American thanksgiving (although in November but blogged about in December) we hosted our first dinner guests, ever ever! We invited our Canadian friends to join us as I cooked us a feast! I attended a really cool event in San Francisco and received the utmost royal treatment getting there. I ended up taking my hair dye woes into my own hands and doing an at-home dye-job, how did it go? In December we hosted some more family and friends, and after they left I showed you how I like to unwind after a long day. I visited another great coffee shop! December was pretty awesome, we got to fly home again to be with our family. Although arriving later than expected with many airline troubles, we still enjoyed our time in Newfoundland.
If you’ve read this far, thank you! That’s the end of my 2014 recap. I’m feelin’ good about you, year 2015. I sure am.
An ice cream cake tradition
I love celebrating other people’s birthdays, and making them feel extra special on their day. Over the course of a few days I spent some time thinking of what I could do, to make The Guy’s birthday a little different.
I ended up decorating our house with inexpensive ideas: Beer, snacks, tissue paper, balloons and confetti. What more could a guy ask for?
It may not be pinterest-worthy but I thought it was cute. It took a lot of work to individually cut that tissue paper garland and put it together, man. You know I love you when I blow up balloons for you. It’s a little fear of mine, because I don’t want to blow them up too much and have them bursting in my face. It’s a scary thing.
I had two surprises for him, one I will reveal and share with you next week. The other gift I wanted him to look away while I got it ready. Our town house is an open concept so he probably knew what he was getting as his second surprise once I opened the freezer. Singing the Happy Birthday song to him, he made his wish and blew out the candles. He had questions about where the cake came from because we usually go for the Dairy Queen cakes.
It’s been a tradition in my family for years to give the birthday-person an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. But this year when I went to BlogHer, I interacted with the Baskin Robbins folks and asked if I could potentially work with them in the future. I received a $30 gift card to go online to place my customized order on Baskin Robbins website.
Since I was given a gift card to purchase the cake I didn’t want to go online to do it because I wanted a bigger cake for him that ended up costing $49.98. I placed the order over the phone and picked it up the next day. Except when I went to pick it up, the woman charged me a $5 cake decoration fee, which wasn’t mentioned on the website nor did I ask for anything different on the cake. So I was a little muff’ed at that.
How does Baskin Robbins and Dairy Queen differ?
It’s clearly obvious the Baskin Robbins cakes are far more expensive than Dairy Queen, and I suppose that’s all due to the fact that you can do so much more with a BK cake than DQ, all the custom options, the shapes, and different flavours you can put into your personalized cake. Then again, I’m not sure how often we’ll be giving each other Baskin Robbins 9″ cakes for that price. It may have stung a little.
Did you know Baskin Robbins cakes are made differently than Dairy Queen? Clearly I didn’t because I was confused when the sales associates were telling me their cakes are half regular cake, and half ice cream cake. Luckily I was informed they had a fudge crunch cake (much like a Dairy Queen cake with chocolate on the bottom, fudgey gooy centre and vanilla on top). I went with their basic 9″ round cake that serves way more people than the two of us in the house. Perfectly okay with us :)
Baskin Robbins is more customizable with their orders. Their go-to cakes are mostly half ice cream cake, and half regular cake, but I went the full nine yards and asked for ALL the ice cream in his. Isn’t that the best? Then again, I never did have the other option so I wouldn’t know. I assume it would be good, who doesn’t like cake? I wasn’t daring enough to go for a customized option, even though cookies ‘n cream top would be incredible. There were so many options to choose from, but I went with ol’ faithful.
Now the most important part, the fudge crunch in the middle, absolutely divine. Best part of the entire cake, so fudgey and crunchy. The Guy and I agreed this was incredible. The vanilla ice cream on the cake tasted more like vanilla bean rather than a regular ol’ vanilla — it was a nice change. As for the frosting on top, it was pure sugar, and hard. As a candy and sweets lover, it was far too sweet for me, even. I prefer Dairy Queen’s creamy and soft icing.
I can’t wait to show you the second part of his birthday! For those of you who are interested in Baskin Robbins icecream and cakes, here’s a bit more information regarding up and coming cakes this season.
Some of their fun seasonal cakes include:
- Pumpkin Patch Cake – This is one jack-o-lantern you will not want to leave on your doorstep. This creative dessert, decorated as a smiling pumpkin, will trick your guests and make a fun sweet treat at the same time with your choice of ice cream and cake flavors.
- Fall Harvest Roll Cake – Delight in the season with a fudge frosted roll cake, finished with a festive decoration of leaves and pumpkins.
They’ll also be announcing two new mini-cakes available for $12.99. These serve 2-4 people — perfect for small gatherings — and cakes include:
- Celebration Mini Roll Cake – This streamer and confetti-topped cake is the perfect sweet and colorful addition to any birthday celebration!
- Rosette Mini Roll Cake – This trendy ombre cake design features rosettes in vibrant shades of purple.
Additionally, Baskin-Robbins is celebrating with guests across the globe on Twitter with its “31 Cakes in 31 Days Sweepstakes.†The brand will be giving away 31 Baskin-Robbins gift cards for valued at $31 throughout the month. and Anyone can participate in the giveaway simply by following @BaskinRobbins on Twitter and sharing how they celebrate life’s occasions with ice cream cakes using #BRCakeSweeps.
Do you have any birthday traditions?
Do you prefer icecream cake, regular cake, or something else?
When is YOUR birthday?
Thinking Out Loud Thursday #7
I apologize in the amount of reviews that went up this week. I don’t like doing that on the regular, so I hope you guys didn’t mind. It doesn’t always happen. It’s been a while since I sat down and discussed what’s going on in my life. So let’s have a chat, shall we?
I’m thinking of incorporating those weekly workouts into blog posts again, many people seemed to like those — do you? I’d insert a poll, but I don’t know how.
Speaking of working out. I had one of the two bouldering areas at the climbing gym, all to myself one afternoon. It was pretty cool for a few climbs, but then I got lonely and walked over to the front of the gym to have a bit of social interaction even though no one really talks to one another. I swear it’s like a fun house at that climbing gym. SO many “rooms” to choose from to climb and boulder in.
I’ve been giving the chalk called Unicorn Dust by Friction Labs a go since I got back to pulling on plastic after my finger healed. It’s not 100% healed, I do have to tape up my ring finger like a poser, but it really does help. I want someone to take snazzy cool bouldering pictures of me outside. I mean I guess I could go to the crag myself and set up a tripod after I’ve done some boulder problems but I think that might be a little much. Side note, I bought the athletic tape at the dollar store I recently discovered in Campbell. Biggest dollar tree I have seen in my life. I love browsing through the dollar store for hidden gems. I swear I’m like a little old lady nodding my head to the seniors, strollin’ through the store looking for the best deals.
My friend and I hung out earlier in the week – I mentioned we went to eat at University Cafe in Palo Alto. But I didn’t mention that I stopped to take endless photos of ALL THE PALM TREES.
My new friend was wondering if I liked all trees. I never really thought about it in that sense, and no — I have never stopped to look and admire a tree before, until my husband and I moved to California. It’s that Palm Trees have some secret special place in my heart that makes me so unbelievably happy. So when I spotted Palm Drive in Palo Alto, I had a skip in my step – take that literally, because I actually skipped ran and jumped when I saw it.
I think it’s a good thing to be excited over possibly mundane things. I hope that I never get used to Palm Trees and drive past them like they are a regular occurrence. Which, I mean – they are in California. But you know what I mean.
My husband’s birthday is coming up so yesterday morning after he went to work, I got busy putting things together for his special day. I don’t want to reveal too much, because I know he reads my site from time to time. But fret not (I’m sure you’re so EAGER to hear about it all…right?) I’ll blog about the whole thing. I think this will be his most memorable birthday yet.
I popped into West Elm a few days ago and swooned over the gold place settings. Something I’ve had my eye on for a long time. I looked at the back and noticed it was gold plated, and not gold filled. I find gold plated will get scratched with time, and gold filled will stand up with time. Not that gold filled would be any more expensive either, because my Etsy necklace is gold filled and was twenty bucks on Etsy, and I haven’t taken it off since I bought it over 4 months ago. 
A few nights ago The Guy and I finally set up the Nintendo Wii U that I won at BlogHer. Of course, since it’s mine I got the first go at it. Setting up our Mii’s had me in tears laughing. The things you can do to make them not look human had me in stitches. When that was finalized, we played Mario World and took turns. I forgot how fun Nintendo games are, and how much they cramp up my thumbs because I’m one of those game players who tenses up if I can’t jump out of the way in time. I was made fun of by The Guy because when I’m going to get eaten or fall off the cliff in the game, I mash the console in my hands, subconsciously praying that I’m hitting some correct button to save my life. He had a good kick out of that. He’s more logical, of course and is always telling me which buttons to hit when I’m playing. Kinda like a back seat driver ;) I’m used to it, so I tone him out. Hah!
Give SONGZA a listen. Pick a mood. Pick a playlist. I love oldies. I love blasting music and cleaning house. Or not cleaning the house and sitting down scrolling through Facebook, IG, and Twitter. You know how it is.
Wow. This post was all over the place, a lot longer than expected. But isn’t that the fun of it?
Tell me something random.
What made you happy this week?
Have you ever had a Nintendo system? I had a GameBoy that my Dad and I used to play together, trying to beat one another’s scores on Tetris, and Mario World.