A new commitment

Okay, this is really getting ridiculous.  It's been almost 3 months since my last entry?! COME ON!
I really can't seem to wrap my head around this whole thing -- why can't I commit to updating this thing?  Am I just making excuses when I say that "I have no time"?  
There are thousands of busy women (and moms) out there that find time to blog between their jobs and their home life - so why is this such a struggle for me?


*inhale*exhale*  Alright, I'm good.


So over the past few months, I've been extremely pleased with the increase of Terlie business.  Since the Wonderful Wedding Show, I've secured numerous clients.  I've also had a fair number of miscellaneous projects (i.e. birthday invites, wedding social signage / tickets, save the dates, labels, etc.)  It's these little jobs that add up and help me get by, while waiting for the bigger projects to get going.


Recent News:
I went to Chicago to visit Brian's family - we were gone for a little over a week and had an amazing time, as expected.

At the end of February, I had an awesome opportunity to work with Events by Emma on a High Style photo shoot, which will be featured in the Wedding in Winnipeg magazine, as well as on Stylemepretty.com
Other vendors included Fache Forward Designs, Floral Elements, Chocolate Zen Bakery, Elite Lighting, Hair by Karen, Makeup Expressions & Chair-ish Your Moments.  Photography was by Curtis Moore and Rebecca Croft and videography was done by A Moving Picture Studios. 

Some teaser photos:

Can't wait to see the final photos and video :)

In other news, I finally came around to opening up an Etsy shop -- I've only put 5 of my cards online, just to test it out.  So far, not a single bite :(  When I have more time to dedicate to it, I'll beef it up a bit and do a bit of advertising through Facebook and Twitter.  For now, it's just there... waiting for someone to stumble upon it: Terlie Etsy shop

Well that's as good as this update is gonna get!  Have a great week, and stay tuned for more posts, by yours truly.

Cinco days in Mayo

A blanket of blog-laziness came over me these past few days...actually, to be completely honest -- because I know that nobody is following my blog, I kinda' felt a little discouraged to update.  I really didn't want this to get me down though, because the reason why I'm here isn't to build a following.  I have to remind myself of that.  I started blogging because I needed an outlet -- so here I am, with an overdue post:

CINCO DE MAYO

Brian and I have made it a tradition to go to Don Pedro's every year to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (even though NOBODY celebrates it here in Canada).  Thursday night was the Bulls game, and we  weren't going to miss it for dinner out.  Instead, I got dressed up and met him for lunch -- just the two of us...and it was nice :)

A warm summer-y day called for a light-coloured outfit.

Offwhite cardigan and flowered tunic from Forever 21, white (pre-prego size FOUR) capris from Zara and my silver sequin flats from Target: 

Mmmmm...those are some goooood cheeeeeeeps.

With time to kill after lunch, I popped into Mike's General Store on St. Anne's.  The place is pretty tiny, but I've always wanted to check out what kind of antiques they had -- perfect day to do it.

FRIDAY: 6am yoga class...The rest of the day was lazy, at home with Commander Xander. I did some client work during the day when X napped, and I crafted at night (more to come about this project).  It was a fairly nice day, so I took Xander for a walk to the store to pick up a few things, and timed it with daddy coming off the bus.  We walked home together - Xander kept us amused, the entire way...

old-man-sucky-face

DAAAAATE NIIIIIGHT.
Saturday was chill during the day -- it consisted of cutting Bri's hair and cleaning the house.  This was the night that we were having a sitter come over to watch Xander, while we went out ON A DATE :D
Since both of us completely dropped the ball on making dinner reservations (we're amateurs - who knew EVERY good restaurant would be completely booked on a Saturday night?!) we wound up at Earl's St. Vital -- which was completely fine, no complaints here.
After dinner, we caught a show at the Theatre (we both say that with our poor English accents, so as not to be confused with a 'movie theatre'...we're FANCY!)
We watched The 39 Steps @ MTC, which was hysterical at some points, and enjoyable all around.  

MAMA'S DAY

The day started off great, with this fantastic breakfast:

Look at my husband's culinary skillz: EGGS IN A BASKET!

After breakfast, Xander took his first REAL steps!! What a fantastic Mother's Day gift :D xoxo...
Unfortunately, Mr. Brave bonked his face on the coffee table and gave himself a shiner :(  He's a tough cookie though, and didn't cry for very long.  I think I was more devastated than he was.  But to make light of the situation, the black eye made him look pretty bad ass...


Later in the afternoon, we were off to my cousin's house for Mother's Day with the family...

Papa Bear and Baby Bear

Mama Bear and Baby Bear

Mama Bear, Baby Bear and Sister Bear

We all did our part and helped prepare a few dishes -- great food, good company...made for a pretty enjoyable day.


Here's Xander with Great-Lola (grandma):

MONDAY: 6am yoga class that completely wiped me and induced a 3-hour-long nap with Xander in the afternoon.  It's alright though, cuz it was gloomy outside anyway.  The weather made staying in, a little more bearable.  

Spent the rest of the day doing chores and hangin' with the kids.  Cooked dinner, ran out to Michael's to pick up some supplies, crafted the rest of the night and went to bed....and now it's Tuesday.

Am I boring or what?!

• A bit of client work this afternoon
• Pick daddy up from work
• Soccer game at 6:10pm, which means dinner at The Thirsty Penguin

Oh no! B.O.!!

I'm on the elliptical at the gym, as I write this blog. I always used to hate on people that would be on their phones while exercising -- and look at me now.
I started journalling from the gym about 2 months ago, as I was tracking my workout progress. I fell in love with doing it because it gave me something to focus on, rather than the excruciating burn in my muscles, and it totally helped my 30 minutes of cardio fly by.


So back to that stinky title...
I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing, but a few weeks ago I figured out who the B.O. (body odour, for those of you who aren't immature teenage girls that would USE that term) culprit. Back in January, I was running on the treadmill and an overwhelming cloud of stink came over the entire gym -- so bad, I could literally taste it. Gross.
At the time, every single elliptical machine was occupied and at least 3 of the 6 treadmills were also in use. This made it extra hard to pinpoint who was sporting the odor cologne.
There was one guy that stuck out, probably only because he was a man and had facial hair :P
..shame on me for judging people.


A couple weeks ago, I was surprised to discover that the smell, in fact, came from ...wait for it... A WOMAN! *insert horror film shriek*
Ew. Gross.
So I pulled up the gym today, and who do I see through the window -- none other than Miss Bonnie O'Stinky herself. As soon as I swung the door open to the gym, the odor cologne hit me like a ton of bricks. So now I have a choice -- do I skip the cardio and just go straight to weights? Or do I suck it up (quite literally) and just do cardio on a machine as far away from her as possible? Ugh, I hate having to make choices this early in the morning...


--
I ended up doing my cardio because I knew I'd beat myself up if I didn't.  Yay me.




IN OTHER NEWS:


I'm proud to announce that I signed up for a 30 day membership at Moksha Yoga yesterday.  My cousin, aunt and nieces invited me to join the 430pm class, which has a kids drop-in class at the same time.   I surprised Xierra by bringing her to the studio.  This quite possibly could be our weekly 'mama/yaya' activity - assuming my wallet can handle it.

Excited much?

After our class, we booted it back to Royalwood to pick Mr. Xanderman up from daycare, and headed home to prepare our healthy dinner:

 Fruit smoothies, packed with vitamins for a icky-sicky family

 Chicken parmesan baked with light provolone cheese, and a caesar salad with a light vinaigrette

Oh yeah, and by the way:

GO BLACKHAWKS!  - Finally won a game in the series against Vancouver *sigh*

• Hubby stayed home sick from work for the second day in a row -- quality time with the wife, perhaps?  Doubtful.  Been trying to nurse him back to health, one meal at a time
• went to the gym: did cardio and worked triceps *ouch*
• Pre-registered for a noon yoga class
• Another healthy and hearty dinner for the fam tonight

Perfect timing -- gotta leave for yoga now :)  

Cook-a-doodle-doo

Brrr...it's a chilly Monday morning. I am beginning to recognize that this 'weekend flying by too quickly' business is becoming a trend (and not a good one, I'll add).


My weekend was sports filled -- starting with Friday: Soccer Schmid had an early game, which meant he got off of work a bit early, in order to make it to Canlan for his 'pre-game Caesar' ritual (have I ever mentioned that my hubby is a superstition extraordinaire?)


The game didn't start till 610pm but we were there as early as 5pm.
This was a really important (playoff) game, as they, the lowest ranked team, were scheduled to play the #1 team in the division. Plus, there was some worked up animosity between their teams from previous interactions, so the game promised to be chippy.  
We (Xander and I) sat and watched from upstairs:

The game was frustrating to watch.  My hubby's team ended up losing 0-5. *womp womp* With not-so-good spirits, the team gathered upstairs in the restaurant for some last hurrah pitchers and called it a season.


That night, we came home, chilled and tried to put the day behind us. Unfortunately, we caught game 2 of the NHL playoffs, and watched our beloved Blackhawks get their butts kicked by the Canucks :( a terrible night for sports -- went to bed super early - like 10pm early. Hoped Saturday would be a better day.


SATURDAY
In anticipation of the Bulls first playoff game, we got up super early.
*Please, please, PLEASE let todays game have a better outcome*

Thank the basketball gods for an amazing come-from-behind win in the last few minutes of the game!  This called for a celebration! Grilled cheese sandwiches! Go Derrick Rose!!


After much procrastinating and ass-dragging, I mustered up the energy to go grocery shopping. Our fridge and pantry were practically bare and we had NOTHING to eat for dinner *sigh*
Made my looong list based on my weekly meal plan, and was on my way.
Got a load of food for exactly 200 bucks on the nose (how weird, huh?).  The rest of the weekend would be filled with cooking and eating.  Two of my favourite things.


SUNDAY
Sunday morning differed immensely from my usual Sundays.  "Oh? in what way?" you ask?
Two words: Moksha Yoga.
Yes - I finally made it out for my first ever, hot yoga class.  With heavy recommendation from my cousin Cathy, I met her and my other family members at the Waverley location for an 1130am class.


Since I'm probably the only person on Earth that hasn't tried Yoga, I'll save myself from sounding like a complete fool by attempting to describe it's greatness...all I can say is WOW> I loved it.  

The sixty minutes flew by, and I can honestly say that I was sad when the class came to an end.
I will definitely be signing up for their intro 30-day pass!


So after stretching out all of the stress and sweatin' out all of the toxins, I was motivated to come home and prepare some healthy meals for the week.  


Keeping with my promise to implement "Meatless Monday's" into our lifestyle, I prepped a tortilla lasagna - packed full of veggies, light cheese, whole wheat tortillas, salsa and black beans:

Baked it and threw it in the refrigerator for Monday night.

While the lasagna baked, I prepared Sunday nights dinner -- felt like something warm and hearty, since 2 out of 4 of us were seemingly catching colds.  

Cooked up a pot of soup -- with veggies galore, ham sausage, whole wheat macaroni and low sodium beef stock.  Yum! 

Xierra's quote of the night: "I'm not even holding my breath when I eat the soup!  I LIKE IT!"

Umm...okay.  And I thought she liked my cooking all the time.

So while the Blackhawks sucked the bag for the third straight playoff game (losing 2-3 to the Canucks), I spent more time in the kitchen preparing a couple variations of quinoa salads, which I'll share 'finished' photos of throughout this week.  Here are a couple teasers:

So that was the weekend.  Nothing overly-interesting to report.  Oh, but just for some giggles, check out this photo of Xander being an ass :P *har har*

• went to the gym bright and early and got in some fair cardio.  My body is sore from yoga 
• this was breakfast today

• 

• going to stay home and maybe attempt to organize my closet 
• gotta try and nurse Xander back to good health.  Not diggin' the snot-face
• gonna try to take a walk and pick Xierra up from the bus stop