Links I Love

I always love it when a blogging friend posts a good list of links, so I wanted to share some today.

ALSO: I got approved to test the beta version of Litsy for Android! My username is heathershurrah so if you have Litsy, please add me and teach me about it!! It seems really fun so far!! 

I was reminded of this post this week. The comments really blow me away and I could spend hours reading. If you love words, this one is for you.

Brian just started drinking coffee regularly this year and he had his first pumpkin spice latte last weekend. I'm going to try one of these recipes out on him this weekend.

This season is a great one for starting anew, and I really feel that way this year with the school year starting off. Here are some fun fall challenges.

Janssen originally mentioned this productivity method and I have been implementing it with GREAT success at home and at work.

If you have curly hair, you should try out this method. It worked SO well for my hair and was comfy, too!

We have more zucchinis than we know what to do with these days, so I'm going to try this recipe ASAP.

This post really made me want to strive to avoid looking at my phone in the morning and start the day with a bit more introspection and peace.

I have been using a loose version of a bullet journal for a few months now and I love it. This post is a great one if you're thinking about getting started with one.

I'm not sure yet how I feel about Instagram stories, and honestly, I have cut back on social media a lot lately, but this post on Instagram stories was still very informative.

A fun Harry Potter activity.

Happy weekend!!!

Canada Day and recent fun :)

I may have mentioned this before, but I'll say it again: I *LOVE* Canada Day. I am so proud to be Canadian, and I love celebrating our country. There are usually a lot of fun, free, festive events going on for Canada Day and while I love partaking in them, this year we had a bit of a more low-key day. Since it didn't end up being a "long weekend" for us as Brian worked on Monday June 30 and had July 1 off, we took it easy and got some things done around the house. We are having a bit of a heat wave right now (30+ degrees and SO humid) so it has been a bit hard on the girls. Lucy particularly minds the heat and it is a bit hard to cool her off and feed her successfully, but she has been OK. They're forecasting a hurricane this weekend so that might cool things off a bit ;)

For Canada Day, friends of ours hosted a big BBQ and there were lots of fun people there, including some nice little girls for Molly to play with as well as a kitty AND a puppy and many people to hold our precious little baby too ;) Before the BBQ, Molly just played outside in her new pool all morning ($20 at Target, amazing deal) ;)

So this week I'd like to share some of my favourite Canadian "things".

First of all, here are some of my favourite Canadian bloggers:

Haley at Truth be Told
Alex at She's his Co-Pilot
Tracey at Just a Trace (she has a few amazing series on her blog)
Melissa at Making Melissa
Renee at So Fill your Heart
Laura at Mommy Miracles (a real-life friend ;))

Some of my favourite Canadian songs/musicians:

1) Cape Breton musicians (I am grouping this because I have many favourites including Natalie MacMaster, The Rankins, The Barra MacNeils, Ashley MacIsaac, Beolach, Coig, Slainte Mhath, etc etc) but here are two of my favourite songs: Clumsy Lover Set and Feel the Same way too
2) Joel Plaskett (favourite song Face of the Earth, close second Nowhere with You and best Canadian song True Patriot Love)
3) Blue Rodeo (Head over Heels)
4) The Tragically Hip (Fireworks)
5) Great Big Sea (Ordinary Day)
6) Arcade Fire (Wake Up)
7) Barenaked Ladies (Falling for the First Time)
8) Sarah McLachlan (World on Fire)
9) For Molly - Raffi (Baby Beluga)
10) The Arkells :)

Some of my recommended Canadian tourist destinations (that I've checked out before):
1) Banff National Park (less than an hour from my hometown of Calgary)
2) Calgary (particulary during Stampede which starts today!)
3) Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
4) Niagara Falls (might be a bit obvious but SO amazing)

5) Vancouver Island (right Haley?) - SO beautiful
6) Quebec City / Old Quebec / Montreal
7)  Halifax (because I am here, of course) haha
8) St. John's - visited once for 5 days and fell in love with Newfoundland
9) PEI - a small but beautiful province
10) Interior BC - love this area around the Okanagan
and 11) Ottawa - I almost moved here before I met Brian and I love the city

Some great links I saw around the web this week for Canada Day:

1) Chris Hadfield and his brother's Canadian music video
2)  100 Great Canadian songs
3) Canada Day 2014 in Photos
4) Things you can only buy in Canada

And this video of a puppy trying to see a new baby is also hilarious :)

I'll be back soon to share some of our fun recent toddler activities - I thought about including it here but I think a full post is in order for that :)

Happy belated Canada Day, everyone!! XO

Random 5 on Friday

ONE.

My baby girl is doing much better today after a bit of a rough week. Sick toddlers are NO fun, let me tell you. The only good thing is that I get a few more cuddles ;) I was also very grateful that I have *one* sick kid, and not two, yet.

TWO.

VERONICA MARS movie tonight!! I can't wait! I really thought more people knew about this show and were excited for the movie, but it turns out that it is a bit of an anomaly. Haha. I don't care...I am super excited! Team Logan! This also counts as one of my last "girl's nights out"s until after the baby comes - which will be great! I'm going with a good friend and her sister and we're doing supper first! The only tiny downside is that I won't get to see Molly until tomorrow since she'll be asleep when I get home...but I'm sure Daddy can handle supper and bedtime on his own ;).

(Via)

THREE.

Three fun links to check out if you're browsing around this week:

16 Things you need to do to live life without regrets (relates a bit to my Wednesday post)

Disney Princesses on Tinder (Tinder isn't really a big thing around here, that I know of, but this still made me LOL)

26 Ingenious Ideas for your Home - love some of these - especially the hanging plants because we have a LOT of plants!!

FOUR.

Yesterday, since Brian was home with sick Molly, he made supper (yum)! I stopped by the grocery store before coming home from work and picked up a little bag of Mini Eggs as a treat for him since he had a long day (lol)...he finished them all in less than 5 minutes after Molly went to bed. We also finished House of Cards and reviewed our taxes and found out we are getting WAY more back than we originally thought - bonus!!!

FIVE.

Molly says "I love you too" now when we say "love you!" to her. She has said this in the past when coached to do so (haha), but when she says it back without prompting, it totally warms my heart (and simultaneously makes me want to cry - again, with the hormones! haha). I love the age that she is at now...she has also started asking me why the baby isn't coming yet, and when it is coming. I can't wait to watch her as a big sister. :)

(Via)

In honour of it being Veronica Mars day, my song today to link up with Whitney is from the "Epic Love" scene in Season 2 (seen below). I'll be talking about the movie a bit on Monday, and also sharing all of my favourite Irish music in honour of St. Patrick's Day (since I can't celebrate it with a green beer this year!).



Linking up here and here today.
Happy weekend, friends :)

Thoughts and fun web moments this week

I originally had a recipe post planned for today, but I also feel like doing a little bit of a brain dump, so I think I'll get that out of my system instead. Here are some thoughts going through my head this week:

1) Today I saw a (mid-50's?) lady on the bus this morning wearing a hat that looked like this one: 

Let's just say it looks WAY cuter on this little kid (source)

The turtle head was flopping onto her nose and all I could think about is how irritating that must be. But, I guess, anything for fashion? It made me smile a little bit. 

2) I've really enjoyed reading about the Oscars this week, even though I didn't watch the majority of the movies nominated and I didn't watch the Awards show. Here are a few funny things I have come across though that I just had to share:

Jennifer Lawrence's best moments at the Oscars

Liza Minelli was trying to get in on Ellen's famous Twitter-breaking selfie, but she fell a bit short:

(source)

Anna Kendrick's Oscars weekend diary

I love this story about the pizza delivery guy at the Oscars.

3) We found out yesterday that my sister, who is finishing her 4th year of med school, matched to Nova Scotia for her residency for the next 2 years!! They will be living about an hour away from us. It is fantastic news for them because her husband has an articling position with a law firm in NS and we are so excited to have them close by again. When I found out yesterday (at work), I started tearing up and couldn't stop...hellooooo hormones! ;) I just can't wait to live close to them again.

4) Tonight we are finally going to watch Monday night's episode of HIMYM and I am SUPER curious as to what happens on it after reading Alex's post yesterday. I really hope the show still has a happy ending, because I cry too much these days over little things!!

5) My doctor prescribed a cream that is supposed to help with my itchy baby belly...so far, it's OK. I am hoping for significant improvement by the weekend or I am going to scratch all of my skin off.

6) We are looking into new phones and I'm deciding between the Nexus 5 and the HTC One (Kathy recommended the HTC One earlier this week, but I'm still not sure).

7) A friend posted this on Facebook this week and it made me laugh:

(Source)

8) I can't wait for Friday, but we have a super busy weekend planned. It will be fun though!

Tomorrow I'll be back with 5 on Friday...I know, two lists in two days, but I'll follow an actual theme this week!! Can't wait!! Hope you guys enjoyed some of these links as much as I did this week :)

Five on *Finally* Friday :)

Happy Friday!! Is it just me, or has this week taken forever to get to Friday? Some weeks are like that, I guess. I can't wait for the weekend to get some housework done and catch up on sleep. We don't have many plans besides GETTING haircuts (me and Molly), going to see some friends out of town overnight, and taking it eaaaaaaasy. Can't wait.

Linking up for 5 on Friday again today :)

If you want to read other's posts, you can check out the link-up with Darci, April, Natasha and Christina.

Here are my 5 things for this week to share with you all:

ONE
We've had unseasonably warm weather this week in Halifax, but also a lot of rain. All this little munchkin wants is for it to snow again so she can wear her new scarf that my aunt knit for her:

TWO
I started The Book Thief this week...so far it is really intriguing! I'll share all my thoughts on it when I'm done, but I heard the movie wasn't really great - has anyone seen it? So far, I find it really interesting that Death narrates the book. I don't usually go for war-era books, but this one comes soooo highly recommended that I'm going to give it a shot :)

THREE
A few helpful links I've come across lately (I realize this makes this post more than 5!):
A) Apps to check out in 2014
B) Web-writing tips to improve your blog posts
C) A blog-planning template

FOUR
A fun Twitter account to follow if you are a fan of Harry Potter, and another one if you like the Hangover. And, a funny tweet that I saw on Pinterest this week:

Man, just think how crazy Gollum goes on the 5th day of Christmas.
— Smarcashole (@Sarcasticsapien) September 5, 2013

FIVE

29 weeks and feeling pretty good! The time is flying by until we welcome a new baby into the world!! Can't wait. (Please excuse the bathroom picture!!)

Shirt is from H&M maternity, link no longer available online

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend!!!

Friday's 5 - my first of 2014!

I love this link-up because it gives me a chance to a) make a list, which I love to do and b) share random things that might not fill out a whole blog post but are still interesting and worth sharing!

If you want to read other's posts, you can check out the link-up with Darci, April, Natasha and Christina. I always find some interesting new blogs to follow and I love reading other blogger's 5 things!!

This week, I wanted to share some interesting links that I came across in the past couple of weeks.

ONE

I came across this health manifesto from Greatist.com on Amber's blog last week and I think it is a cool thing to print off and remind yourself about where you're going this year!


TWO

Over the holidays, I did some yoga videos and Molly "did yoga" with me (AKA she jumped around and pulled the mat out from under me even though she had her own mat! ;) haha). I came across a toddler yoga video HERE that I'm going to try with her sometime!

THREE

I enjoyed THIS set of tips for being healthier this year. Quite a few good tips. Thanks, Buzzfeed. :)

FOUR

Helene over at Helene in Between polled her readers about the best blogger of 2013 HERE and I found a few new blogs to check out from the comments section! The winners were announced on her blog on Wednesday...you can see the winners HERE.

FIVE

This is a cool approach to New Year's resolutions that you can fill out, print off and glance at throughout the year.

via LaurenConrad.com

What are your 5 for this Friday??

Mellow Monday and some links from around the web

Happy Monday!! We had a wonderful and relaxing weekend, which I absolutely needed. I had a massage on Friday after work, and it was painful. I am not one of those people who has ever really experienced a relaxing massage because my neck and back/shoulder muscles are always tight, so for me it is more like the muscle therapy type of massage. Anyway, I will be going back this week and next until I am in less pain – so glad massage therapy is covered under our insurance!!!

We took it easy and watched a movie on Netflix on Friday night (The Double – it kept my interest but it wasn’t Oscar-worthy or anything), and then I went to bed early. Saturday, we got a lot of cleaning done and had some good friends over for supper, and Sunday, even more cleaning and organizing and meal prep!! It was good! We had dinner at my in-law’s house last night, which was delicious, and we went to bed shortly after Molly at about 8:15 (Really, it was 9:15 body-time! Haha!). The thing about the time change is that toddlers don’t understand it, so Molly was up at 5:30 am yesterday, which is really 6:30 on her body time…5:30 again today…so hopefully things improve soon and she starts sleeping until at least 6 again!

Via Some-Ecards

Here are some fun links and interesting articles I found for you to check out this week :

A kid who dressed up as Cmdr. Chris Hadfield (too cute!) 

In the spirit of this post, a DIY massage technique from Prevention magazine!

A cute story on Dooce's blog that made me smile as a mother. 

10 cool instagrammers to follow 

A fun 4 minute tabata workout 

What’s your secret language name? 

Improving your career skills 

5 tips for newish bloggers (GREAT tips!) Side note: if you have any other questions about blogging (like I always do, check out Erin's post here. She is going to do a vlog answering newbie blogger questions!)

How to find your perfect weight (I think measuring by inches and sizes and feelings of wellbeing can be more accurate, but this is still interesting!)

Hope some of those links are of interest! I love to share fun things that I come across while browsing. :)

Hope no one out there has a case of the Mondays! ;)

A bit of a break

This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, so I took a few days off from blogging. I won't get into too many details at the moment, but I am trying to remember that all things happen for a reason and that the reason is not yet known to me.

However, on a happier note, my parents arrived on Tuesday and my daughter has LOVED spending all of her time with them!! It has been wonderful for all of them to get to know each other again after 6 months apart (6 months in which Molly grew and changed a lot!!). We have also had beautiful weather here. This afternoon, we're going to check out the beach and play in the sand...and tomorrow afternoon we're headed away on vacation for almost a week. Can't wait!!

Since I don't have a lot of happy/interesting/useful things to share today, I wanted to share some fun links and news from around the web.

• How to add more greens to your breakfast
• I can't wait for the Veronica Mars movie!!
• A fun DIY for your laptop
• How to check on your steak while cooking it
• A yummy tomato basil salad and a salad recipe swap link up!
• Tips to get better at holding a plank (I needed this!)
• A kind of cute but also kind of weird story about a tiger
• 32 ways to have fun outdoors

I'll be back soon with more fun blog posts...but it might not be until I get back from vacation. Happy days, everyone!!