2011 Year in Review :: Part 2

- Honeymooned in NYC (1, 2, 3)

- Visited Scranton, PA (I love the Office)

- Shared the story of my rings.

- Finally got tattooed!

- Visited Kaylah and Kevin in Ohio!

- Added some cute ruffles to one of my skirts.

- Visited the house my Dad grew up in.

- Scored some good Pyrex and finally got some nesting dolls.

- Celebrated Ivan's birthday with a super yummy and cute cake.

- Shared some details on the accessories from our wedding.

- Went camping with Kaylah and Kevin.

- Went to TIFF to see a movie that Ivan helped record a song for.

- Shared the special music from our wedding.

- Gave myself bangs.

- Got some totally fantastic new glasses.

- Started making a little doppelganger.

- Perfected my homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte

- I was drawn by the ever so lovely and talented Kat Cameron.

- Figured out an easy way to give myself chevron nails.

- Moved into our new home.

- I was drawn by Klo-ver! I think she made me look so cute!

- Started decorating our living room!

- Showed everyone how to make my favourite Halloween party snack.

- Decorated our new home (and our kitties) for Halloween.

- Received the most adorable little kitty charms of my favourite little guys from Dapper Toad.

- Visited Kaylah and Kevin and had an absolute blast!

- Quit my day job.

- Started decorating our kitchen.

- Let our kitties explore around the outside of our new home.

- Figured out how to stack and display my pretty pyrex.

- Got to meet some lovely blog friends in Peterborough. What a fun day!

- I was stitched by Jen for her project 365 Lucky Days.

- I did a week of vlogs which was so fun!

- We spent out first Christmas in our new home and decorated a pretty tree.

- Had a fun weekend cabin getaway with Kaylah and Kevin.
- Made a Pom-Pom card holder.
- Gave myself a haircut!
- Shared a recipe for vegan candy cane ice cream.
- Shared some Christmas peeks around our home.

Like I said, 2011 was a great year. My favourite part of blogging this year was finally making some really great blog friendships. It really does make blogging more fun!

What was your favourite part about 2011? (blogging or otherwise)

♥elycia

2011 in Review

This was a very exciting year for me and my blog. I thought I would do a little recap about each month and the things that made it extra special. Here is the first half of the year!

- Set some goals for the year. Some got completed...some, not so much. 

- Filmed a video on how to roll sushi!

- Gave my blog a makeover. Holy smokes, I didn't realize it was so long ago that I did that! I really need to get serious about the redesign that has been in the works forever.

- Made some cute heart elbow patches for my sweater.

- Found my wedding dress!

- Met Astrid and her mom for the first time. I totally thought this happened December of last year, I guess not!

- Played with colour swatches.

- Played a few shows with the band Ivan and I were playing in.

- 'Temporarily' closed my etsy shop. It is still closed, haha!

- Had a little meet and greet for our wedding party.

- Picked up my wedding dress!

- Changed our wedding colours.

- Told people how to say my name and told a silly story.

- Shared 30 things you may or may not want to know about me.

- Found an amazing chair!

- Started painting again.

- Discovered a great quote.

- Went to a cat show!

- Recited a whole bunch of digits of Pi.

- Showed you how I make green smoothies.

- Told the story of how we got Farva.

- Shared some tips on how to take fashion risks.

- Did my first (and only so far) what's in my bag post.

- Shared some of my funny 'major fail' moments.

- Designed and printed our wedding invites!

- Posted a video of a 'Big Hair' how-to.

- Turned some tights with a run into socks.

- Gave Ivan a handsome haircut.

- Had a craft party to make pretty things for the wedding.

- Got a Diana F+ and have been trying to take pretty photos with it ever since.

- Got myself an Instax Mini. One of my favourite purchases!

- Went up to Art Crawl. I really need to go to more of these.

- Had two lovely bridal showers.

- Started a fun little series of posts called '28 Things' where for 28 days leading up to my 28th birthday I shared one fact about myself. It was so fun!

- Turned 28!

- Ivan and I were drawn by my lovely friend Tera.

- Met Kaylah and Kevin for the first time! A great start to a great friendship :)

- Discovered an antique market full of cameras and scored myself a pretty little mint one.

- Did an about me A-Z post.

- Finally thrifted some pretty floral brooches. My collection has been growing ever since.

- Felt very loved by my seriously thoughtful friends when they threw me the perfect bachelorette.

- Had a whole bunch of awesome guest posts before and just after our wedding.

- Got married! (Most exciting thing to happen all year for sure!)

- After keeping my hair white for our wedding, I finally dyed it light pink!

I will be posting the second half later today. I hope you guys are having a good day so far!

♥elycia

5 fave friday

5. I love the style of this dress!

ModCloth

4. Kaylah's new(ish) vintage shop Circus Bear Vintage.

I love these pretty mugs! If you haven't already popped by the shop I highly recommend that you do. There are a bunch of super cute items :)

3. I have wanted one of these forever! I have no idea why I still don't own one.

via

Should have put one on my Christmas list.

2. Love this 'make your own' salt scrub that Lexy shared!

1. Having Ivan home all week! That is seriously my favourite thing about this week. We have been having so much fun hanging out, buying a new bed (!!), getting some house projects done and generally just enjoying each other's company. I feel so lucky to have someone who I love spending time with!

I will be back a bit later with the first half of my year in review! It was a pretty intense year :)

♥elycia

giveaway winner!

Hello everyone!

Just popping in quickly to announce the giveaway winner...it is Sandy!

Thanks so much to Angel for hosting!!

♥elycia

wish i wore :: new years eve

hat :: dress :: necklace:: earrings :: tights :: shoes

I'm not sure yet what I will be wearing for New Year's Eve but I would feel pretty fancy wearing this outfit! I recently got a few pairs of oxfords and they just make me feel super fancy...especially glittery ones. This would be a lovely pair to add to my collection.

What are your New Year's plans? Do you have any traditions or is every year something different?

♥elycia

Photos :: a year of Photobooth

I got my MacBook Pro last November and that means that all during 2011 I went a little crazy with Photobooth. The end of the year always puts me in the mood to look back at everything that happened throughout the year so here is at least one photobooth picture of me being silly for each month of the year! It is fun for me to watch my hair change.

I am in the process of putting together a real recap of 2011 and it is so much fun! I will share it later this week :)

♥elycia

what i wore :: golden

head to toe:

glasses - Warby Parker

dress - Gourd Garden Dress from ModCloth
cardigan - target
belt - thrifted
tights - gift from my mom
shoes - ModCloth

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and that you are now enjoying a relaxing Boxing Day! I am not big on Boxing Day shopping so we will probably just be chilling out today. Is Boxing Day just a Canadian thing? On my calendar it says "Boxing Day (Canada)".

I am so crazy about the colour and neckline of this dress. Last time I wore it I paired it with really bright pink tights. This time I went for a more neutral colour scheme which I also love.

So, when I take these outfit photos I open up our big window that faces the street to let a lot of light in. While I was taking the following photo, I saw one of my neighbours walking up our driveway (to put something in our mailbox) which caused the following face.

That is me seeing my neighbour and hoping that they can't see me! You can't really see in during the day because of the glare on the window and I am crossing my fingers that I wasn't caught taking photos of myself by a neighbour I have yet to meet!

Do you worry about being "caught" snapping photos of yourself?

♥elycia

PS. Isn't that little ceramic kitty adorable?

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone out there has a great day! Happy Holidays from our little family to yours!

♥elycia

photos :: peeks around our home (well, the living room)

I hope everyone is feeling sparkly and Christmas-y! That's how these photos make me feel anyways :)

♥elycia

5 fave friday

5. This art by Emily McDowell.

I found this through Megan's blog. Megan is super sweet by the way. I like the way this looks as well as the message. It's perfect.

4. Dreamcats calendar from Fieldguided

So adorable! I snagged a peach one for our living room.

3. Rhymes with Orange the Oh So Lovely ladies' pretty shop!

source

So, so pretty! I want to go visit as soon as possible. It looks like a dream come true. You can see photos from the shop tour here and here.

2. These awesome earrings!

My friend Carly told me about them and oh my goodness, they are adorable!

1. Is this dress for real?!

Cats the Ticket Dress

Why do I not already have a dress with cats on it? Then the cat hair that is usually all over my clothes anyways would look like it belongs there ;)

Tonight we are having Christmas dinner with Ivan's mom's family and I am excited! Usually his mom's and my mom's are both on Christmas so we split up and go to our own family's dinners. I am really excited to be able to enjoy both together this year!

♥elycia

Sponsor?

I seriously can't believe that it is already almost 2012! Yikes! 2011 was a really great year for me and I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be even more amazing. I have tons of plans for my little blog this year as well as some other super exciting things that I can't quite mention yet! (Don't you hate that?) Not to mention the fact that 12 is my favourite number...so really, how could this year get any better?

If you are interested in sponsoring for January I would love to chat! Email me at loveelycia[at]gmail[dot]com to reserve a spot (small, medium and large available) or visit my sponsor page for more info.

Can you feel my excitement about this year!? I sure hope so!

♥elycia