14 Favourite Romantic Comedies (Chick Flicks)

Happy Friday!! I'm back with another list of 14 things! This time I'm sharing 14 romantic comedies I enjoy. Many of these I have seen over and over again - they are not all high quality films and to be honest I haven't seen a lot of good NEW romantic comedies. I think the 2000-2010 era produced too many movies in the genre and now there's not much left to do...BUT I still love it. I think I've seen most good OR bad romantic comedies out there. Everyone has their own favourites, but these are some that I personally really like :) Maybe you will find one you haven't seen before or one you haven't seen in awhile for something to do this weekend :)

By the way, writing this post made me feel SUPER nostalgic...watching these kinds of movies brings me right back to spending a few Fridays a month at the movie theater with friends or watching movies in someone's basement on the weekend...ahh, the good old days. :)

1) Definitely Maybe (2008) - I love Ryan Reynolds and this was a unique and cute story. The ending credits also include this song that I LOVE.

2) Crazy Stupid Love (2011) - I love Emma Stone and I thought this movie was HILARIOUS at times. I like the marriage components...I like the unexpected "twist"...it is cute and funny. Plus, Ryan Gosling...

3) Love Actually (2003) - the best Christmas movie ever :) I watch this almost every year. There are definitely a few story lines that I didn't love and if you are ever curious about all the types of love shown in the movie, I found this site a few years ago that explains it well but I can't find it again. The Wikipedia site is a wealth of knowledge though and apparently BBC One broadcast a short film about what everyone was up to 14 years later, so now I need to get my hands on that. Lol. (I know I need to get a life).

4) 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) - RIP Heath Ledger. This movie is so great. I loved The Secret World of Alex Mack as a pre-teen so I really liked seeing Larisa Oleynik in this. I want to rewatch Alex Mack now...sigh. Also, this movie helped me understand The Taming of the Shrew a bit in my Shakespeare class in University, so there's that! haha. Off topic: I loved Julia Stiles in a bunch of movies, including Save the Last Dance!

5) My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) - Watched this one probably 10 times as a teenager.

6) Notting Hill (1999) - does it get any better than Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant?

7) He's Just Not that Into You (2009) - this is another funny movie that I rewatched recently and discovered that I still really like. I love the Jennifer Aniston/Ben Affleck storyline. The Scarlett Johannson one - not so much.

8) Wedding Crashers (2005) - Rachel McAdams is awesome in this movie. It's not THE best, but it made me laugh and I haven't seen it in years. Of course, the Notebook would be the preferred Rachel McAdams choice and I like that one too.

9) The Holiday (2006) I loved this when I first saw it, and then didn't watch it again for YEARS but I watched it over Christmas this past year and yes, it is still so good. :)

10) A Walk to Remember (2002) - brings me back to my teenage years. Heartbreaking but cute.

11) PS I Love You (2007) - I saw this in theatres with a friend and my make up was a mess by the end of it. I still loved it though - especially the Irish setting.

12) Knocked Up (2007) We re-watched this both times I was pregnant and it was fun :)

13) The Big Sick (2017) I laughed SO hard when we saw this movie in theatres. It is absolutely hilarious and so well done. This photo is from my favourite scene (I laughed so hard I cried):

14) Pride & Prejudice (2005) - I would argue that this isn't a chick flick but it definitely falls a bit into that category and I LOVE this version of it. I also love the BBC mini-series and watched it all in one sitting once but the Kiera Knightly version is easier to watch time-wise and so beautiful.

Are any of your favourites on this list? Also...a PSA: Don't ever, ever watch the movie ABOUT TIME when you're pregnant. I'm not kidding when I say I cried for about 5 hours straight. lol.

A couple of honourable mentions: She's all That, She's the Man (lo
l), Hitch...I could go on forever and ever here.

Hope you all have a great weekend! We have a busy-ish day tomorrow including a huge used book sale (YAY!) and a birthday party for an adorable one year old. May the 4th be with you all!!

 

A wonderful weekend

We've definitely had a lot of busy weekends this summer, especially because I transitioned from 4-day weekends (working part time) to the usual 2 day weekend around the end of June. However, I said before that our kids are at great ages to just get out and go, so we're absolutely enjoying that. I was REALLY looking forward to this weekend last Thursday and Friday, and it didn't disappoint!!

Started off with some delicious sushi for lunch on Friday afternoon with two co-workers. It was amazing and it had been too long since I'd had sushi.

On Friday night, Brian had softball so I played outside with the kiddos, did some yoga, and read my book. It was relaxing and wonderful.

Saturday felt like a go-go-go day, especially since it started at 5 am (thank you toddler :D)...did a LOT of cleaning, a lot of purging and organizing, and a lot of stickers with the kids. We played outside again and then headed out to my parents' house in the afternoon to visit with them and my sister, brother-in-law and niece.

We had a GREAT time with my adorable baby niece. We hadn't seen them in a month (they live about an hour away) and she has grown sooo much. My mom had some extended family over in the evening and we played board games, watched a bit of the Olympics and then watched the final Tragically Hip concert, which was amazing and emotional.

If you haven't heard of The Tragically Hip, they are a Canadian band from Kingston, Ontario (where my sister and her husband did their Med & law degrees!) They have 14 albums out and have been a band since 1983. I love a lot of their music and have been privileged enough to see them live twice here in Halifax. In May, the band announced that their lead singer, Gord Downie, had been diagnosed with incurable terminal brain cancer. So they did this final tour and it is expected that it might be their last. Many Canadians have been pretty emotional about this news, and the final concert was broadcast live commercial-free on Saturday night. I couldn't' believe the energy of the group at this concert (which we watched on TV). It was incredible. And they played one of my favourite songs:


There is also a great article about The Tragically Hip here. 

Sunday, we hung out at my parent's house for a little bit before coming home and visiting with one of Brian's friends. It was amazing and relaxing to come home to such a clean house. I am loving all of the purging and reorganizing because I truly feel that less stuff in the house means less cleaning and a happier Heather. I now have a dedicated work-out area set up in the basement (a whole corner to myself! haha!) and a yoga space set up in our bedroom with no distractions and I feel wonderful about this. Yesterday afternoon, I just embraced spending time with the kids. We have all had a bit of a stomach bug (but not TOO sick) for a week, so went to bed early and woke up feeling pretty refreshed this morning and ready to take on the week.

What a great weekend - some relaxing, some socializing, some nice weather, some sleep, and back at it today.

I also mentioned on Instagram last night that my aunt wrote and published a novel this year. You can check it out here on Amazon (kindle edition) for free today!!!

Quick weekend recap with some pics :)

Our weekend was pretty good, but a little bit all-over-the place!! In some ways, I feel like we crammed a lot in...but looking back on it this morning, not so much! Oh well!!! It was a good one with lots of good friends!!

36 weeks!

On Friday night, we had a good friend of mine and her boyfriend over for a visit and some board games after Molly went to bed. We played this one again (can't get enough of it!) and enjoyed some delicious homemade popcorn (we have this maker which is awesome!) Everyone enjoyed some beers, and I enjoyed some Italian soda! It was good, if not quite the same as a beer ;)

On Saturday, we were all up around 7 am and Brian let me sleep in/rest until 8! He made us a delicious omelet for breakfast and then he was gone around 9 am to help some friends of ours move into their new house. Molly and I had a fantastic day together and she was the happiest little 2 year old all morning. We sorted and organized a bunch of her toys, and she re-discovered some favourites that she hadn't played with in awhile. We also made a small block castle, painted a card for my grandmother's birthday on Sat night and sorted through some baby clothes. I so enjoyed this time with her, and I told Brian later that day that I felt great after a quality sleep on Friday night and didn't even feel "super pregnant" all day - which was nice!!

My mother in law stopped by for a visit because she is going to sew us some new black-out curtains for our bedroom (since the baby will be sleeping in a bassinet there for a month or two) and a long-lost friend stopped by for a visit too! I was so excited to see her and catch up with her. Sometimes it can be hard to make time to see friends that aren't in the city all the time, but I love it when it works out and you can just chat and catch up on life. We went over to my aunt's house for supper on Saturday night to celebrate my beloved grandmother's 80th birthday!! Molly wore a new dress that Brian's mom bought her at Costco for Easter (I think it's the cutest dress ever!):

We left around 8pm and drove out of town about 45 minutes to our friends' house to visit with another visiting friend and his wife. Brian was overjoyed to be reunited with his 2 best friends (and groomsmen) and they stayed up late playing video games (not me, I went to bed around 12!). It was brutal losing that extra hour on Saturday night, and we all felt overtired after not sleeping well...so when we came back home on Sunday at noon, all 3 of us took a 3 hour nap - there goes our Sunday! haha. We BBQed some homemade lean ground chicken burgers and got our munchkin to bed...then watched a couple ofepisodes of House of Cards and turned in early. The spring time change always leaves me out of whack a bit, especially with the poor sleep on Saturday night and the long nap yesterday...I think I'll be a bit more caught up tomorrow ;)

I have lofty plans for this week, including organizing the baby's room, packing a hospital bag a bit more thoroughly, and doing our income tax return!! If I really get on a roll, I'll make some meals to freeze for the baby's arrival and we want to do a few DIY maternity photos. Here are a few I've seen for inspiration:

(Source)

(Source)

(Source)

We took some great pictures with Brian's cousin when I was pregnant with Molly, but the timing just didn't work out this time around and now we're getting down to the wire. I want to have a few good pictures to commemorate this pregnancy and share with this second child sometime in his/her life and time is running out!!

Any other inspiration for me? :) Hope you all had a great "daylight filled" weekend! :)

March 3 is a special day :)

Hellooo world :)

Back to the grind...I only have 4 weeks left of work until I'm off with two kiddos for a year (assuming that I don't have the baby before 4 weeks - in which case, less time at work). See how I made that sound like a total piece of cake? That's what I'm trying to believe!! :)

We had a pretty good weekend in which we got a lot of little things done as well as some nice family time and some laughs with our silly little toddler. I would have loved to watch the Oscars, but just wasn't able to stay up late enough. I am looking forward to browsing the red carpet looks today online though and reading about the acceptance speeches!!

Yesterday, Molly was overjoyed when I used a beer box to attach a "trailer" to her little car so she could drive around with her doll and animals behind her. Cute, right?

We also took her swimming yesterday and she was soooo excited. We don't take her often enough and I'd like to start taking her more because she loves it SO much and it's a pretty inexpensive activity. She is going to be taking swimming lessons and soccer this summer, so I know she will get a lot out of that.

March 3, 2010 is the day that Brian and I had our very first date. AKA the first time we ever met in person. (We had talked online/on the phone for about a month prior to this). We drove to the restaurant separately, met there, and ate delicious Greek food. We had a great conversation over dinner. He told me (months later) that I was awkwardly fidgeting a bit and adjusting my shirt. I don't even remember feeling nervous. He seemed more laid back, which is funny because he is definitely more shy than I am. He told me a lot of stories about his family and his childhood, and we felt pretty comfortable.

When we were done eating, I drove with him across the street and we played glow-in-the-dark mini golf. It was great, and a nice way to extend the evening. I had also brought him a cupcake with a happy face on it ( I had made a big batch for my cousin's birthday), and I felt weird about it at the time, but he loved it, haha. Overall, there was very minimal awkwardness, and I remember thinking that I was SO happy about that. He "let me win" at mini-golf (I won fair and square) and he texted me as soon as I got home saying how much he enjoyed himself and wanted to get together again. So we did, a week later, and then a couple of days after that, and the rest is history :).

Here's where we sat at dinner (under the tree!)

(Via)

I remember a friend of mine wanted me to check in with her once or twice on the date & definitely when I left/got home because it can be a bit nerve-wracking meeting someone from the internet. That was a very smart idea, but I was lucky to have nothing to worry about. I have been asked many times since we met how I feel about the fact that we met online, and truthfully, I mostly feel lucky. I didn't have the typical "online dating" experience because I was very, very picky about talking to guys on MSN or meeting in person or anything like that. I only met one person before Brian, and he was nice enough but just wasn't my type. I think it is extremely important to be picky in online dating. If you don't even like talking to someone over the internet when they can edit everything they are saying, why would you like them in person? (this is a personal opinion - obviously some people might be better in person than online.)

I also consider myself lucky because Brian and I likely would never have met if we hadn't connected online. When I first sent him a message, his profile had a few questions for people to answer so he could get to know them better (which I really liked because it gave us something to talk about and we instantly learned that we had a few things in common). It helped that both of us were open to being in a relationship, but not desperately seeking one at the time. We are both relatively serious people who weren't looking for a fling online. It's just the way that it worked out for us at the time.

I will never forget March 3, 2010 and the way it made me feel. It was a special first date, and I've mentioned to Brian that we should re-create it sometime. :) We actually had our wedding rehearsal dinner at the same restaurant, and we've been back there a few times, but not lately! I am so grateful for the "fate" that brought us together four years ago and brought us to where we are today.

At a friend's wedding December 2012

It is also my beloved grandmother's 80th birthday today! She is an amazing woman who I had the privilege of living with for 2 years when I was studying at St. FX. She is one of the most active women I know, and participates in a lot of different community activities. She also travels frequently and spends a lot of time with all of our family. She is like a second mother to me, and I am thinking of her today!

Hope you all have a great Monday!!

7 weeks to go! Crazy hormones!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day (if you celebrate it!!) and weekend! Here in Nova Scotia, we do not have a holiday today...bummer! I think almost everywhere else in Canada has one. It's actually a pretty long stretch to go, too - New Year's until Easter without a stat holiday! We're getting one starting in 2015 so that will be something to look forward to!

We had a lovely Valentine's Day...my Valentine actually surprised me by picking me up at work (usually I take the bus and meet him halfway home) with chocolates, red roses, a homemade card AND a haircut!!! haha. It was really nice! We picked up Molly and had a nice supper at home, then watched About Time when Molly went to sleep. It was a pretty cute movie, and I liked it...but it made me cry towards the end and then I couldn't stop. As in, even after the movie was over (and it really wasn't even THAT sad), I was still crying. So I celebrated Valentine's Day with the colour red...eyes. haha. Silly hormones at it again!!

Via IMDB - loved Rachel McAdams in the movie

So true! haha

Saturday we took it pretty easy, ran a few errands, did some cleaning, and had friends over with
kids in the afternoon. Molly (and our friends' kids) had sleepovers at their grandparents' house and we all went out for supper on Saturday night at a local Irish pub...it was yummy!! SO much food though since we all split an appetizer and had meals too. I was full until yesterday at lunch, basically.

We played this fun board game:

Via Amazon

I'd highly recommend it as a party game - super easy and pretty fun...it can be played in teams and doesn't take very long to play (for those with short attention spans!)

And my friend and I watched Take This Waltz on Netflix while the boys played video games in the night. Overall, probably not a movie I would recommend...it has a bit of a weird ending and the whole movie is a bit pointless and whiny in my mind, but the acting was OK, and it takes place in Toronto, which was kind of cool.

On Sunday, we picked Molly up, and I worked on some blog stuff while Brian watched Elysium with Matt Damon and Molly napped. Then we watched Team Canada play Finland in the Olympics (close game and great win, but not SUPER exciting to watch compared to others). Here's our little Team Canada fan:

Sometime mid-afternoon yesterday, I was playing with Molly on the floor and started crying completely out of the blue...silly hormones again. I think I was just overtired from Saturday night, and I was thinking about how big my "baby girl" is getting (2 and a half!) and how we'll be bringing a new baby into the world soon, etc. etc. I couldn't stop crying and I wasn't even sure why, or if I was sad, or happy, or what was going on...anyway, Brian just asked what was wrong and I had no idea really, so he said “Ok, well, I’m going to go to Canadian Tire for a bit…and I’ll even bring Molly. So good luck with the crying”. I mostly got it under control and whipped up a pretty yummy supper that even the 2 year old enjoyed (meatballs and rice).

All in all, a pretty good weekend and I am feeling much more caught up on sleep this morning after a decent 9 hour stint last night. :)

Yesterday in the evening, I took some time to clean all my make up brushes (they were SO GROSS) using this tutorial here, which was awesome!! I highly recommend it, and your face recommends it too...I'm sure :)

I even took a few minutes to update our chalkboard for Valentine's Day:

A fun Tuesday's tots talk is up tomorrow on the blog and I have a fun recipe to share later this week too!! 

Happy Monday!!

Weekend recap and countdown to Valentine's Day

Happy Monday! Mine was most certainly a "manic Monday morning" because my alarm didn't go off and Brian is working from home today, so he didn't have his set either! Fortunately, I was driving instead of busing to work today, so I still got here on time but I was a bit rushed getting out the door!

We had a pretty relaxing weekend, but I am still feeling tired this morning after sleeping for 9-10 hours last night. We spent some time with my sister, time with my in-laws and had some friends over for board games on Saturday night. We played the Settlers of Catan which is Brian's favourite game in the entire world (I have a whole post on that coming soon), and I won! I don't usually win when we play Settlers, so that was fun! The game requires at least 3 players, so Brian and I don't get to play it too often and he is always really excited when someone comes over for a board game and actually wants to play Settlers (it's definitely not a game for everyone, even though it's pretty straightforward and really fun).

We also had a lot of rain and above zero temps,so a fair amount of our snow from the blizzard last week has melted and the roads are all clear today.

Today I want to share a few fun ideas for Valentine's Day for your boyfriend/husband/significant other. My husband and I don't really celebrate it, to be honest, and I definitely don't expect a lot from the holiday, but we like to do a few small things and maybe get some take out or something or have a date night around the 14th. I took a picture of the kind of flowers that I would like this year for the holiday, haha:

Yum, chocolate roses :)

This year, I am thinking of making something like this for Brian:

(Via The Dating Divas)

I think it would be a fun thing for him to have. The only problem I'm having is that he is on a health kick these days (which is GREAT), so I don't want to deter him by buying a bunch of chocolate. I was thinking of maybe getting just a couple of chocolate bars, maybe some other healthier snacks (or even a stick of pepperoni or something) and some other fun items that can be rolled up into "flowers" such as small gift cards.

I like this idea too with a 6 pack of beer instead of root beer:

Via Pinching your Pennies

There are tons more ideas for DIY candy bouquets here.

Another idea from one of my favourite blogs last week is to snail-mail your Valentine a card at his office. I am definitely planning to do this because he won't expect it at all, but it's not too over the top either. What a fun idea if you want to surprise your partner a little bit. You can find some cute card ideas here and here or on my favourite inspirational website, Pinterest.

I am also thinking of doing some Valentine's crafts with Molly because she loves hearts (but doesn't really understand Valentine's Day, obviously). Maybe we'll make some heart garland or something like that...I haven't decided yet! We're going to send Valentine's cards to my parents and siblings from Molly too, just to spread a little bit of cheer and share her crafty side. ;) I'm thinking of a card like this one:

(Via)

Here's the card tutorial I followed to make Brian's card last year, if you're interested. 

I think that's enough lovey-dovey talk for one day...but it is kind of a fun holiday!! We don't get a February stat holiday from work in Nova Scotia (until 2015), so it's nice to find something to celebrate in the middle of the cold winter. 

I have an entertaining (haha) Tuesday Tot Talk all about #1s and #2s planned for tomorrow so check that out if you're thinking of potty training soon!!

Weekend fun and 2 easy projects

Just making my way through another Monday and reflecting a bit on our weekend, which was a nice one. I am feeling fairly rested and relaxed this morning, so can't complain about that!! :) We took it easy on Friday night and watched a Netflix movie - Drinking Buddies (I probably wouldn't recommend it but it was OK) and went to bed early. On Saturday, we (Molly and I) got haircuts (her first, not mine ;)) and that was exciting for her...then we went to visit our good friends overnight about 45 mins away - so that was fun! They have 2 kids and Molly loves to play with them (both kids are older so she often just watches them). We drove back mid-morning on Sunday and played outside in all the snoooooow in the afternoon, and then had the world's most delicious seafood chowder for supper at my in-laws' house. All in all, a pretty good weekend and both of Brian's picks for football came through yesterday so he was happy about that.

This is the view from our friends' house on Sunday morning:

I started today off with a delicious protein pancake and Molly had one too - she loved it!! :)

I have 2 fun projects that I've been meaning to share on the blog...one is VERY simple and the other is very SPECIFIC haha...but both are easy! 

Brian made Molly a chalkboard easel for Christmas. I'll talk about that more later sometime, but since he had leftover chalkboard paint, I asked him to make me a chalkboard to hang in our living room to write seasonal quotes on, such as this one:

(Via)

I think I still need to put a frame around it or something, but here's how he did mine, and set it up for me to come home to:

He used chalkboard paint from Home Depot which you can buy here and painted it on a sheet of MDF that he had leftover (although if you wanted to frame this, you could use even thinner wood or probably even cardboard). He rounded it using a fancy new tool called a router that he got for Christmas, but again, that probably wouldn't be necessary if you were framing it! Molly coloured the bottom of ours, and I have yet to find an inspirational quote for January so maybe I will just wait until it's closer to Valentine's Day to write something nice on it! :)

The other project I finished recently took me about 10 minutes and I've made 2 of these for myself and now one for a friend who is smaller than me. If you've ever been pregnant, you have probably seen these:

(Via)

They are called maternity belly bands and they rock because you can still wear your old pants, but leave them unbuttoned and wear this over top. I usually secure my pants still with a loop elastic so that they don't fall down.

When I was pregnant with Molly, I made two of these in black for myself and I have used them a lot, so I decided to make one for a pregnant friend. I used fabric which is similar to yoga pants, (bought at Fabricville) measured it around myself, cut, and literally hemmed it and it was done. You have to make sure that the stretchier part of the fabric is the wide part and not the length. You can make it any length you want,  I used the stretch fabric setting on my sewing machine:

And this is the final product for my friend, who loved it!

Here are two other more detailed tutorials if you're ever interested in making one of these :)

A Beautiful Mess

DIY Maternity

Monday nostalgia

Happy Monday!!

Back to the grind after the weekend...hope everyone had a good one though!! Ours was really good, mostly because my sister spent the weekend with us and we don't see her very often. It was great to spend time with her and I hope she is able to move to NS later this year when she finishes med school. We also took Molly swimming for the first time in awhile and I haven't seen her so excited in months. She had the time of her life, so I think we'll have to take her more often!! It definitely tired all of us out too :)

Here she is, sleeping on the floor (her preference lately - we always move her to her bed an hour later) with her doll and puppy.

During pregnancy, it's pretty normal to have weird dreams, but I seem to have weird dreams about people that I haven't seen or talked to in years. It always weirds me out a bit the next day because I am thinking about the person/people and wondering what they are up to now, but at the same time, it's not usually a person that I'd feel comfortable "catching up with". Does this ever happen to anyone else? It's funny to me too because in a dream, I am always just remarkably close friends with said person/people and we are all caught up and in each others' lives like 10-15 years hasn't even passed. It is a bit of a mind game, but it's still nice to be remembering people. I have also had dreams about people that I've never even met but that Brian knows (so I have heard about them or something). These dreams are more imaginative, but also kind of strange to experience!

via Some e-cards

As I've mentioned before, my parents are hoping to pack up their home in Calgary and move to NS this year. My dad e-mailed me this weekend about selling his 1980s MacIntosh Plus and was wondering if I wanted it. He was mostly joking, because he could get some money for it on Ebay for sure, but it reminded me of being 7-10 years old and playing this awesome game called GLIDER on this computer. I'd love to play that again but probably won't ever get the chance. In the game, you basically just build and fly paper airplanes through various levels and there are obstacles to avoid, such as light switches which will catch the plane on fire and ceiling fans that will suck the plane up. It was pretty fun as a child, and I'm not the only one who was a big fan of it. I just found out that you can get the game as an App in iTunes, so maybe I'll spend some time catching up with it when I download it later on our old iPod touch. If only there was a similar game for Android...hmm...

The first computer in my life :)

Image via AppStorm

Sometimes I like to take a walk down memory lane, and other times it can be sad too. I have many, many wonderful childhood memories and I try to write them down or at least think about them or talk to my siblings about them often so that we can share these stories with our own children one day.

Do you have any unique childhood memories that you like to think about? Anyone else having weird dreams lately? We had a crazy storm here on Saturday night, so I think that contributed to my weird dreams too.