Février!

Happy shortest-longest month to all of you! 

This jacket

That lovely dress

Those socks I'm starting this weekend

with this yarn

2013

 Well, well.. as the year is coming to a close, it's hard not to look back and kind of sort out what happened, how you felt, what you accomplished, or did not, how you feel about it, etc. 

 2013 has been ONE HECK OF A HUGE YEAR FOR ME in terms of personal life events. I got married in March. And yes, as cliché as it sounds, it was the happiest day of my life. I still get all teary every time I look back at photographs or hear "our song". And honestly, I hope it stays that way for ever. Those emotions are still so raw and real. 

 I have also been very lucky in terms of work this year. I have started working with Éditions Les Malins and it's been a very fun process to get more into book cover illustrations. Work in general has come pretty steadily and I am sooo grateful for it. I know I am not the best at self-promoting and PR so having faithful clients and also just incoming work means a lot to me. 

 We took on a kitchen reno this summer (seriously the kitchen is basically done, I need to take decent pictures and share! We are so happy with how it looks and feels now!!) We knew we wanted our house to accommodate a family and be just overall more efficient and pretty.. but I did not know I was going to get pregnant the minute we started those renovations. I know people keep saying that no matter how long you wait for something to happen or how hard you want it... it will always happen the moment you stop expecting it.. Well, it proved to be true once again! 

 We are so happy about it and I have sort of held back from talking about this pregnancy for a long while now. I know I'm a jinx paranoid but.. at some point I just didn't know how to bring it up without making a cheesy big announcement out of it. I feel like I have been pregnant for so long now, we are really starting to be a little more ready and anxious to meet our little girl! I am already in my third trimester, and we are looking forward to her arrival in February. Like, a lot.   

 So basically things are all good. I have loved this year. And I'm really giddy for 2014 too. I will slow down work a bit after the holidays, basically finish what is already on the works. I'll take a break from February to May and see how we all feel at that point and where it leads us. I will probably still feel like sharing some things here during those months... 

 In the meantime, meet our little thing.... She does not have a name yet. And that picture is already pretty old. But it's the clearest image we have of her so it's still very precious. :) 

Photos : Wedding Party

 I've been wanting to share some photos from the wedding.. but it's hard. I don't want to share everything since I want to keep some parts of that day private with the people that were there. 

 What I do feel like sharing, is how some of the little details I obsessed with turned out. Things I mentioned here in those posts... I felt like such a bridezilla at times, being so critical, or so an&l about some tiny details, the color of this, the color of that, the shape of this. But the truth is.. everything was so beautiful on the Day. Everything came together so magically. I don't regret any obsessing. I would not have wanted it any other way.

 People around me know this, my nieces are pretty special to me. I grew so so found and close of them, they were my two flower girls, and we were all thrilled about it. The elder was also out ring bearer and she took her job ever so seriously.. it was pretty darling. A close friend was my only bride's maid. She helped me a lot all throughout the wedding planning process, and also spent most of that weekend with me, getting ready and helping out. (even though 7 months along in her pregnancy ;))

The girls wore those amazing Noémiah head pieces. I'm pretty sure they felt like royalty. 

We got the dresses from J.Crew and the shoes at Joe Fresh. I made those flower brooches. 

 I am so happy with how our tiny "wedding party" looked. We wanted to keep it as minimal as possible. Flower girl, ring-bearer, bride's maid, groom's man, which were also our witnesses. They looked so beautiful and handsome.. subdued and wintery. And those flowers.. man, Anaïs really out-did herself. 

It was such a perfect day. So many emotions.. I'm so glad I have those amazing photos to cherish. Thanks tones to Emilie who did a stellar job. 

Flowers from Les Petites Excuses, headpieces from Noémiah. 

Mariage...

We are really exited to get the pictures from Emilie soon, but lets be patient. Here is some instagram sneak peeks. I've borrowed pics of the restaurant from Melanie, and the flowers from Anaïs 's instagram feeds. (oops - and the photo of the two of us is from Edith!) 

Hélène Lajoie-Trudel

Valentine

This is me, buying you virtual flowers ;)

And I drew my Eskimo face just for you, my funny valentine. 

xo

Calendar : February

Click on the image for full size desktop.

Oye.. I realize, I have barely posted here in a month. I'd like to apologize to my 4 readers.. 

I've been juggling a lot of small assignments and organizing myself is always a bit harder after the holidays. Especially when my attention is divided into a lot of different things, instead of one big job. Still.. I'll try to get back into the swing of things on the blog! Hoping february will be good to all of us.Valentines or not, flowers or not, chocolate or not, treat yourself and your loved ones. 

xo

Goodbye 2012

2012 has been really really awesome. One of my favorites for sure. 

I usually start with a picture to pick my colors for illustration, it helps me find the right ambiance. I thought I'd share this palette with you. I cannot share the image it's for yet, but will soon! 

xo

Mercredis Wedding OCD : Faire-Parts

Working on these was so much fun. The boyfriend and I have a lot in common in terms of aesthetics, and visual taste. It was really fun to come up with.. our vision of what we want the people to expect from our wedding.... By now people have received them and I'm not spoiling anything. I'll be sending invitations to confirmed guests early in the new year. I'll need to work on those soon! :) 

In terms of specs, I bought all paper good at L'essence du Papier on St-Denis and the font I used is Lane.  

Moustache

I'm trying myself at Movember this year! You can visit my profile, and donate here. 

Have a great weekend y'all. 

;{D

Mardis Manger : A Guest Post from Boyfriend

 Now, now... What? A guest post!? Youpi-yeah. I am pretty excited, and quite all-over-mushy, to introduce to you.... my boyfriend Guillaume! He has prepared a little post for today, and put all of his TLC into it. For a little introduction, all I'll say is... When He and I met, one of our first dates was to bake cookies together. It was pretty darn cute. It was actually that exact recipe he is sharing today. Later, my friends would always refer to him as Biscuit because of that. And the nickname stuck. (and he stuck around too ;)) But seriously, those cookies are serious stuff, highly-addictive, crack-like cookies. I don't have that much of a sweet tooth, but those ones!? It's the salty thing... I can hardly wait until they're at a decent temperature to start ravaging. 

 So, Paule Thought it would be nice if I did a little something for les Mardis Manger. Since she does most of the cooking around here and is pretty good at it, it was obvious that I had my hands full. I'm no cook compared to Paule but there are two things that I think I'm not to shabby at. One of them is Dessert and the other is Breakfast (I'll keep that for another Mardi Manger maybe?)

So here it is my Recipe for Super Salty Chocolaty Cookies !
it's simple but so good. Also easy is to make it your own if you want to!

All you need is:

- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

- 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

- 1 stick of butter + 3 tablespoons, at room temperature

- 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 2 Tablespoon of Cold Espresso (optional)

- 1/2 cup of "make it your own" also optional ingredient

First, mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, Baking soda, Cocoa Powder Salt), keep aside. 

 In a large bowl beat the butter with a hand mixer until it's creamy, add the brown sugar, the vanilla and the coffee (or not, I just love coffee and think it kicks up the taste of chocolate) and beat again until it's all well mix. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mix and stir with a wooden spoon or with your hands, mix it until the flour is all incorporated. The dough may be a bit crumbly but don't worry it will all be good when you'll make a log out of it.

 Now is the part when you can make it your own, I had some left over caramel chips, so I tossed that in the mix. You can leave it as is, or throw nuts in there, chocolate chips or both or marshmallow and so on and so on ! When your ''make it your own'' ingredient is well mixed, divide your dough in two and make a log out of them (the wider the log the bigger the cookies) wrap them up in plastic and put them in the fridge for at least three hours :S

Now, Time to Bake !

Preheat your oven at 325f

 Take the logs out and cut them in 1/2" slices (use a sharp knife, and don't worry if they break a bit, just squeeze them back in a cookie shape). Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Let them cool off a bit and enjoy. 

Hope you like them, I know Paule did !

Apple Picking 12'

 We went apple picking over the weekend, with our friend Edith and her boyfriend. It is one of my favorite fall-time activities, like ever. It's only the second year I get to do this as an adult, and I definitely intend to never skip a year from now on. We had a good time, even if the weather was not extra-lovely. I'm glad I have those silly photos for memory's sake. (what did we do before Instagram?) The state of unkemptness of my bangs right now.. is killing me. This clever illustration really sums up how I feel when I see those pictures of myself. I'm between stage 6 and 7, in case you had not guessed it. It really is a mystery if I'll have the courage to grow them out for good or not. In the meantime, we have a good 20 pounds of apple to eat... Care to share any recipes? 

Septembre

 This new quilt project + Those adorable tiny moccasins + This wallpaper of my dreams + My favorite Rothko + Those rings + Some more adorable tiny boots + Perfect homemade smoothies + The best dog on earth

 Septembre was pretty great. I found out two of my close friends (no, make it three) are expecting tiny human beings. My boyfriend became my fiancé. The weather got colder. Apples are here. And work picked up a bit! Cheers to one awesome month. You were kinda spot on this time around!

Mercredis Wedding OCD

This new blog post category is pretty catchy, now isn't it? 

A bit of News

I think this tacky-chic image kind of speaks for itself, now does it? ;)

 Needless to say, we're pretty exited about this. And really looking forward to that party with our friends and family. There is obviously a lot of planning involved, even if we are doing something pretty small. I'm definitly going to need to share palette ideas, Save The Date designs, decoration ideas, and, and, and, and.... Just keep breathing. 

:D