Jolly Well!

I'm going to tell you one of my biggest secrets...I love the British Royals - always have!  Yep it's true, me the tom-boy am totally obsessed.  Now if you knew me in elementary school this would come as no surprise.  Here are a few more secrets that I trust you will not hold against me:  In elementary my best friend, Lori, and I would pretend we were Princesses.  We walked around the school yard talking in British accents and practicing our waves (twist from the wrist!)  I'm pretty sure we even demanded people address us as such.  Now I would like to point out that we had friends in school and we've both grown into well-adjusted adults.

I've been thinking about why I love them so and thinking about it has brought back some great memories.  I don't remember Princess Diana's wedding, I was only 4.  However, images of her wedding have always enthralled me.  My Gramma liked Princess Diana too and starting with her first trip to Canada my Gramma and I collected news-paper articles about her and pasted them in an artist's sketch book.  I still have that book!  My Gramma bought me the "official" Prince William book when he was born and I spent a lot of my allowance on "Majesty" magazine. 

When I went wedding dress shopping I wanted a huge puffy ball-gown, I think this was why!

I remember being disappointed when I heard Charles and Diana were divorcing, but I was actually heart-broken when I heard he had never actually loved her, and had only married her for the "look of it all." 

Today I read they were the first couple to kiss publicly.  The only reason it happened is because Diana forced it.  Apparently Charles said something to the effect of "They want us to kiss, I'm not going along with that charade."  She asked, "Why not?" and leaned in.  She was a 19-year old in love, unfortunately with someone who didn't love her back.

I was genuinely sad and angry when she died.  Admittedly nothing worth swooning over has really happened in the British Royal Family over the last 14-ish years so my obsession has taken a bit of a back-seat to growing up, getting married and having baby's of my own...Until today!

THE DRESS

LOVE IT!  Oh wow, so not what I expected at all but so much better than I hoped for.  Designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, it was perfect for a fairy-tale wedding.  I loved the neck-line and sleeves, the skirt was much "puffier" than I thought it would be, which I think is perfect for a princess.

THE TIARA

All that glitters...I think this tiara was a perfect choice for her.  Not too over-whelming and just sparkly enough.  The tiara was created in 1936 by Cartier.  The Queen's father bought it as a gift for the Queen Mum, and it was given to Queen Elizabeth on her 18th birthday.  The earrings were a gift to Kate from her parents. I love them too!  Described as, "stylized oak leaves with a pear shaped diamond set drop and a pave set diamond acorn suspended in the centre."  The earrings were a inspired by the new Middleton coat of arms.

THE MAID OF HONOUR

How to be nice to your maid-of-honour?  Let her wear a dress almost as beautiful as yours!  I actually gasped when Pippa stepped out in her dress.  It was closer to what I envisioned Kate wearing.  The form-fitting column with a cowl neck was also designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen and looked perfect on her!

THE GROOM

Not to be out-done, William looked "dashing" in his uniform.  Although William is an active search and rescue helicopter pilot with the Royal Air Force in Wales his position as Colonel with the Irish Guards is the highest military position he holds (not to mention the best looking uniform) making this uniform the obvious choice.  Plus it has 3-leaf clovers on the collar - how cool is that?!

THE KISS

Congrats!

Deal or No Deal?

So I've been focusing a lot on budgeting lately.  I really really want us to get out of debt - I'm old and need to save for my retirement ya know?!

I've been watching Extreme Couponing lately.  Canada is awesome for all the obvious reasons, but I gotta say the States have us on this!  One woman went to Safeway and bought over $1800.00 worth of groceries, when all her coupons were applied she paid $103.00.  How is this possible?  Well, in the States they have "Double Coupon" days.  If you have a coupon for $2.00 off of something then you get $4.00 off.  Now here's the catch:  if the item only cost $3.00 to begin with you get it for free AND you get to take the leftover $1.00 and put it towards your bill!!  Unfortunately this just doesn't happen in Canada.  I don't know if it's against the law or retailers are just smarter here, either way it kinda sucks for us.

Well instead of being sad about it I decided to at least do what I can.  So I studied all the flyers for all the grocery stores in Airdrie and made columns in a notebook comparing the prices of all our usual staples.  I also checked the cost of items at Costco to see if buying the big bulk items is really worth it.  I ended up going to 3 stores to get our groceries this week, but I have to drive past all these places on a daily basis so the whole "you gotta take your gas into account" argument doesn't apply.

I figured I could share some of the deals I found on my hunt:

DEALS

Kinder Surprise Maxi $8.99 at NoFrills

NO DEAL: $10.00 at Shoppers!!  Don't fall for the convenience of a Shopper's on every corner!

DEAL

4L Purex laundry soap $6.97 at No Frills in this weeks flyer

*We couldn't find any HE bottles of this, so may not be a deal for you front-loaders.

NO DEAL: Sunlight laundry soap 4L on sale at SuperStore for $9.97

6 pack SpongeTowels (yes I know this is a 4 pack in the pic) for $6.97 at No Frills

NO DEAL: No Name brand paper-towels Phil bought last week.  The two-ply towels would come apart into two tiny one-ply towels when you ripped them off the roll.  The wouldn't soak up anything!  Sometimes paying more is worth it people!

Other Deals vs. No Deals

• 1 lb chocolate bunny: Wal-Mart $1.98 vs. No Frills $3.00
• grapes Superstore $1.27/lb vs. Wal-Mart $1.47/lb
• KD Wal-Mart $0.77 vs. No Frills $1.57
• Quaker Instant Oatmeal SuperStore $1.98 vs. Wal-Mart $2.47



AND THIS JUST IN:

Spend $250.00 at SuperStore and get a free turkey

*The above news flash provided by Mr. Cheap AKA Phil....

More Day 4 Fun

Avery just couldn't stay at DL any longer so Phil took her back to the hotel for a nap.  I felt so bad for her, so did mom.  While they went to rest we hung out in California Adventure.

The "Princess Emma" Action Figure now available!

The two best drivers in the family!

After Avery's nap she came back for a bit and tried some rides too.