Our Trip To East Coast Canada

So as usual I am late with our trip recaps! It was nice to spend 10 days straight with Mr. Milk and Monday felt kinda lonely! Lame I know. Anyhoo, here are some pics from our trip. Since we are total foodies, most of our pics revolve around that! :) (click on pics to enlarge)

So this is milk in Ontario. It comes in plastic BAGS! I about lost it when I saw this! Never seen this before! Anywhere! Most people have one of those pitchers that you place the carton BAG of milk, snip the corner, and pour in your coffee, cereal, whatever. I think its more environmentally friendly so kudos to them! 

We went to this amazing chocolate store Soma Chocolatemaker in the beautiful Distillery District in Toronto. Well no need to say that this Chocolate Lover felt like she had died and gone to chocolate heaven! We got spicy hot chocolate, almond caramel clister, dark chocolate truffle with aged balsamic vinegar (doesn't sound so great but tastes de-lish!), an espresso truffle, and dark chocolate with caramel and fleur de sel! Yum-O!

The Montreal Biodome was a fun place and great experience for any animal lover like myself. Look at that little monkey in the middle there! So cute! And those in the bottom right corner are King Penguins (a la March of the Penguins). They are huge!

We went to the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal and it is ridiculously stunning! I think its one of the most beautiful churches I have seen!

So this is Mr. Milk and I being pigs! We couldn't just order those yummy chocolate drinks at Juliette & Chocolat. Oh no, not us! We had to order couldn't resist the semi-sweet chocolate fondue! I'm drooling just thinking about it!

So this was a wonderful boulangerie (bakery) a block away from our hotel called Premiere Moisson. I swear if I could have bought one of everything I would have! Their chocolate croissants were divine! Should have brought a bunch of those back here to freeze...

More Blog Love

The lovely Alicia over at Curious Catchall passed on this great award to me. If you haven't visited her blog yet go on over and check it out! She has some awesome recipes on there too!

So I pass it on to:

Patience at A Reason or A Season
Pmerr at Countdown to 8/14
Stacey at All Consumed Bride
Gaynor at Our Day By Design
My Spare Thoughts
Ali at Peach Bellini Bride
The Hick Bride

Looking For A House

So since things are happening so quickly with the move and Mr. Milk starts his new job only a week after we arrive, the task of looking for a place to live falls in my lap. Ideally we would like to rent a place for the first few months, find our footing, and then look for a place to buy. We have been renters for so long and sometimes feel like that was money wasted that could have been going towards a mortgage payment. Either way, the idea of having a place of our own excites me! So I've gone on this wild search looking into properties, decorations, bathrooms, and my most favorite, kitchens! The two rooms in the home that I really really care about and want to make beautiful are the bathroom and the kitchen!

The one thing I have always wanted in a kitchen is an island with the stove on it! Look at some of these beautiful kitchens I am dreaming about. 

I love those counter stools around the island! So comfy and friends and family can hang out while you cook and nibble (source)

This one is funky :)

Not sure about the red but love the feel of this kitchen

I love wood, stainless steal, and glass together (source)

I love to tease Mr. Milk that we will have separate bathrooms! I want my bathroom to be a little spa-like sanctuary! And frankly, if you are sharing with a boy it just can't be!

source

love this tub!

This one needs a little more decor but has lots of potential!

What are your favorite rooms in the house? Any dreams or plans for your kitchens and bathrooms?

Fridays with Mr. Milk - Taking a Break

It has been a hectic two weeks! From a trip to the East coast to preparations for my company's Annual General Meeting, to the immense emotional reaction of everybody around me that now knows our big announcement.... it has certainly been exhausting.

I'm going to Miami.

It's Friday morning and I am writing the post I promised Chocolate Lover, right before I head to Vancouver airport. Myself and eight other friends of mine from all over the world are meeting in Miami for a bachelor party. Not mine(!), yet, but one of the other guys who's also getting married in Cyprus in May. I'm not all that excited yet, as it has been quite the crazy run the past few weeks, but I'm sure I'll be in seventh heaven once I hook up with the rest of the gang. I've promised Chocolate Lover to take photos with a blog post in mind, so now I'm making that promise to you too :)

It feels awkward being away from Chocolate Lover for the weekend, but I am grateful for how pleasant, encouraging and selfless Chocolate Lover has been, knowing that I'll be taking off with the boys to have fun while she's stuck back in Vancouver. Thank you honey!

Until next Friday, this is Mr. Milk signing off.

Introducing Our Monogram

We are finally done with designing our invitations! We've spent a lot of time looking at invitations and stationary online and even went as far as to inquire about designing invitations with a professional. But we finally settled on doing them ourselves since Mr. Milk is pretty talented in this area. 

Mr. Milk is definitely the creative one in this duo. He has a good eye and does a lot of similar things for his work. He also has some connections with a professional printer, which means we can get our paper products printed for much cheaper. So after we got over the technical issues we were having, we got into creative mode, and started with the monogram. We chose the font we liked and off we went.

Here is what we first came up with. 

We both liked this one and it was the contender for a while until we worked on it a little more. Not sure how the color will show up on your screen but they are supposed to be pool/aqua (border, names, date) and sand (initials). Between the different computers we've seen this on we get light blue, very bright blue, and aqua. But you get the idea I guess. The monogram will be backed onto metallic aqua cardstock, hence the border.

We were happy with the color scheme but thought about making it a little more modern. So here is what we finally decided on:

What do you think? How are you doing with invitation/stationary design and/or purchase?

P.S. 6 MONTHS TO GO!

Thank You Ladies...

For all of your great, supportive comments yesterday. As I was reading through them I started to feel a little sad, like I would be losing all these great friends! And the I snapped back into reality and realized that nothing would be different (other than time zone) and all you wonderful peeps would still be in my life! As long as there is an internet connection (which Mr. Milk will make sure there is - he is an internet whore) I am definitely going to keep blogging and reading!

And... even more exciting... if any of you lovelies are in the vicinity (i.e. anywhere in Europe!) Cyprus is just a hop and a skip over! Vacation anyone??

The BIG Announcement

As some of you may remember, I pulled a sneaky move in this post and told you I had a big announcement, but left you hanging a little. Well, its time to reveal all.

Mr. Milk and I are moving! We are so excited about this as it has been a work-in-progress for some time. Where are we moving to you might ask? Right here:

CYPRUS

Yup! Thats right! We are moving back home!

We have been talking about this for many many months and although it was tough coming to the decision, we both feel a lot of relief now that its been made. We will both miss North America greatly (me mostly the US and Mr. Milk Canada) but we are just too far away from our friends and family over here. If you recall the family health issues we had over the Christmas holidays, well those pushed us further towards this decision. 

But lets start from the beginning. Back in September, Mr. Milk was faced with a job opportunity that he wasn't quite expecting. Accepting it would mean that we would be spending the next 3-5 years in Canada for sure. While the job offer was enticing, there were other issues. I for one am a visitor here, hence can't work. It would take at least a year for me to become a permanent resident and be allowed to work. I was already feeling restless at home as it was. And then there was the question, if we stay now, will we ever go back to Cyprus? It's hard enough to leave now, neither of us could imagine how much harder it would be if we had established careers and potentially kids. 

Luckily Mr. Milk had a lot of time to think about this and while we were in Cyprus over Christmas, he started looking into potential job opportunities there. While the economic crisis is starting to improve over here, there it's probably at its worst at the moment. But it seems like we are truly blessed because a few weeks ago he was offered a job at a company he was interested in and he has accepted! All the T's have been crossed and the I's dotted! We are both very grateful that at least one of us will have an income going back. I have applied for a position at a college/university there, so fingers crossed that it goes well!

So when is the big day? May 29th 2010 will be our departure date from Vancouver. Not a lot of time!

In the meantime there is sooooooo much to do! We need to sell off all of our furniture, purchase some things that are cheaper to get from here (hence the upcoming Portland shopping spree), pack the things we are taking, get rid of the things we are not, get quotes from freight companies, and so on and so forth! Aargh! 

I am sure my blog will come to reflect the chaos that will be my life in the next couple of months, so please bare with me ladies!