I've told a lot of lies to the one I love

.... that totally sounds like a Country Song...  Lucky for you, we are not about to get twangy in here, but rather, I want to talk about my Love's Coming of Old Age Party!  My wonderful husband Ben turned 30 on Jan 21st, and I took it upon myself to throw him a celebration that he will remember for years to come!  Shortly after he turned 29, he asked me "what can I do for my 30th that will pay homage to the last 30 years?"  And I told him "you can let me plan it".  I had already been working on ideas for him (yes a year in advance), and I really wanted to do something really special for him! 

Ben signed over the planning to me, with his only knowledge being that there would be a party, and with his birthday conveniently falling on a Saturday, that that would be the day.  Everything else, I quite successfully kept him in the dark on.

Now here's the tricky part - Ben and I not only live together (as married people often do) but we work together too.  That means we see each other 24/7.  Planning surprises for someone when you are never apart is difficult to say the least - luckily, I got by with a little help from my friends. 

Ben is hard to surprise.  He asks a lot of questions, and he's very inquisitive.  He's also very logical, and picks up on things quite quickly.  If there was an award for putting two and two together, Ben may not win, but he would be a close second.  Which is why it's quite difficult to pull one over on him, and I spent the last 10 or so months, worrying that he would figure out what I was up to, and his surprise would be ruined.  It was a stressful 10 months to say the least! 

I told a lot of lies.  Lots of them.  It was the only way.  I avoided saying "I'm doing birthday stuff"  or "you'll ruin your surprise" as much as possible, because something like that would just set the wheels in motion a little faster, and I'm sure he would figure out what I was trying to do. 

For Ben's birthday, I had 2 big surprises planned for him.  The first, was his Birthday Gift.  You see Ben has a 1972 Duster named Gold Member that he loves more than anything else he owns.  And for years he has been offering his car up to photographers that I've worked with to try to get someone to use it in a shoot so he could get some photos of it.  I knew I wanted to do something in regards to his car, but I didn't know if I just wanted a car photoshoot - I wanted to go for something a little more personal.  Enter Melissa. 

As I mentioned in other posts, I had met Melissa in and around May, and we became friends, and as with any new friendship, you spend some time facebook stalking them just to get a little insite on what they are about.  What I found with Melissa is sheer talent.  Not only is she an awesome Photographer, but through some sleuthing, I discovered she's also a phenomenal artist as well! 

Suddenly it all clicked - I could hire Melissa to paint a picture of Ben's car to go up in our new house!  After talking to Melissa about it, she was thrilled to oblige, and we got to work planning the logistics  (this is now July).  See the problem is, I can't drive Ben's car.  Ever.  I'm not allowed to.  Ben had to sign a paper with our insurance company stating that he is the only one who will be driving Gold Member.  Which poses a problem, because as delightful as our new garage is, it doesn't exactly create a sparkling canvas to capture the beauty of Ben's car in.  Enter Ben's Parents. 

Dad is co-owner of Gold Member, and thus, the only other person in Edmonton authorized to drive her.  So naturally I needed to enlist his help in pulling off this surprise!  In talking to dad, he agreed to help me out but we now needed to figure out when, and how, and where.  The Plan was to get Gold Member, and drive out to a farm somewhere and have Melissa take pictures of her in the grain, as Gold Member has the most beautiful gold shimmer, and I knew she would just sparkle in contrast.  However Edmonton decided it needed to rain all summer, so our window of opportunity was greatly diminishing with each storm cloud that rolled up, especially since we can't drive Gold Member in the rain, and Ben takes the Insurance off of her in the Fall to store her for winter. So we were down to only 2 months and 8 Saturdays and Sundays to pull this off.

There was also the little matter of Gold Member living in our garage, and Ben might notice if she is missing one day.  I was initially thinking that we could all get up really early and take the car when Ben was out hunting one morning, and have it back before he comes back home at 12, but that didn't seem like a very fun plan, and we were dealing with a very limited window, and if Ben ends up filling all of his quota in the first hour, he might be home a lot sooner than expected, so we couldn't count on that window of time. 

Then I remembered that now and then Dad will keep Gold Member for a couple of weeks in the summer, so he can take her out and go for drives and such, so I asked Dad to request to bring Gold Member home for a week at the end of August.  Perfect.

I was originally thinking that I could say I had a shoot to do with Melissa, but then I would need to botch my company records to account for the non existent photo shoot, but Melissa came up with a better plan, and suggested I tell Ben I was helping her re-paint her studio!  Awesome!  He bought it!

We decided that on my birthday, August 27th, Dad would take Gold Member home at the end of the night, and I would "help Melissa paint" on the 28th, and we could do the shoot, and he would never know!   And then Ben threw a wrench in the plans. 

On the day of my Birthday, Ben decided that he wasn't ready to give Gold Member up that night, and decided that he would tell his parents that we would just drive the car out to them on Wednesday instead of them taking it that night.  Crap.  "Yeah, sure, we could do that" Crap Crap Crap. 

When Mom and Dad arrive, I pull Mom into the bedroom to frantically explain that no matter what Ben says, they HAVE to take the car that night.  So Mom, being the quick thinker that she is came up with a story about how they had a date planned the next day, and she was excited to go for a drive in Gold Member and get an ice cream.  Meanwhile Dad opted for guilt and exclaimed "Look, you've had the car all summer, I don't think I'm being unrealistic in asking for it for a week!"  Eventually they won out, and Ben gave in.  (YES!!)

Then the other wrench.  Ben turns to me and says:  "Oh, well then can I just drive you to Melissa's so I can have the car?"  The very car that I was going to use to pick up Melissa, and drive to Fort Sask in?  "Sure that will work, it's not like I need the car to paint, if you want to drop me off and pick me up, that's no problem"  And if that was what I was doing, it wouldn't have been a problem.  Crap in a Hat!  You are a difficult one Mr. Thieson.

Luckily, Ben had his own surprise for my Birthday, and my Mom walked through the door - a surprise guest from Calgary! 

After a very hush hush conversation with my mom, we figure out, that I will tell Ben, that since Mom is heading back to Calgary that morning anyway I would get her to drop me off on her way out of the city, and Ben could just pick me up to take me home later!  Beauty!!  In actually my very gracious Mom did drive me to Melissa's, and then drove us both to Mom and Dad's place in Fort Sask before heading out on the Highway.  (Bless her!  I honestly have no idea what I would have done otherwise!!) 

After finding the most perfect place for a photo shoot, and Melissa's shutter snapping hundreds of shots, Mom T drove Melissa and I back to Melissa's house, where we dipped into her studio paints and properly drizzled and smudged the right colors on the paint clothes I was sporting.  Then I messaged Ben to let him know that Melissa and I were finished painting, and he could come get me.  Ahhhh - so far, we pulled it off - but this is only August 28th, I still need to keep this secret for another 5 months!

Which is really hard to do... 

Especially when Melissa sent me a couple edited photos so I could choose one!  I tell Ben everything, and it was really really really really REALLY Hard not to show him this:

Melissa is Amazing. 

So while Melissa got to work painting this amazing photo onto a canvas, I got to work on Ben's second surprise. 

Remember when he had asked me what he could do to pay homage to the last 30 years?  I came up with just the thing - I asked all of Ben's friends and family to record a little video clip re-telling a favorite memory of Ben that I would put together on a DVD for him.  I thought he would love this, because he has a horrible memory, and this way, he could re-live those events that made the people in his life smile (that he's probably forgotten), and he could also look back at the DVD for years to come too and reminisce.

What I got, however, was more than I had expected, as nearly EVERYONE I had invited sent me some sort of clip or birthday greeting, and watching them all put a smile on my face a mile wide.  My theatre friends back in Calgary even put together a documentary called "Edmonton Needs Women"!!  At one point after receiving countless emails with video files one night, I gave Ben a big hug and said "you are a lucky man, you are very loved".  He agreed with me without knowing why I said it - but in watching the video - he gets it.

As well, to kick off the video, I discovered the wonders of iMovie's "Movie Trailer" templates, and created this for Ben:

For his party, I wanted to incorporate as much of "Ben" into the theme as I could, so myself, and Ben's awesome parents went on a quest for posters that we could decorate the walls with.  We wanted a NIN poster, an Arnold Schwarzenegger (thank God my spell check knows how to spell his damn name), Aliens, or any sort of Sigourney Weaver poster, COD, movies - really anything.  We ended up with Arnie, COD, Batman Characters, and Captian America posters.  Clearly Ben isn't the only one who likes Nine Inch Nails, as we went to several different stores, and everyone was sold out.  As well I had the Italian Center cater, and ordered several trays of some of his favorite foods.  Sister Darrel-Lynne helped me out huge by picking up the food on the day of, and I enlisted the help of Erik to get Ben out of the house so I could edit the video, and film my own "memory" clip.

Finally, the day arrived!

We kicked off the Birthday celebrations by hitting up T&T for some Dim Sum, followed by a period of nothingness (I think I watched TV while he played video games??!)  Then once my mom, and his parents arrived, I got Ben to open his gift, and filmed his reaction.  (Ben doesn't like to be the center of attention, so I didn't want to make him open the gift in front of 50 of his closest friends and family).  He was shocked!  And clearly very very surprised!!  He said it wasn't what he was expecting at all!  (Huge sigh of relief!!) He also said he couldn't figure out how I had managed to pull that off either!  Whew!!  Here's the happy man with his amazing new art work:

Unfortunately my cell phone pictures just don't do it justice, it really is something you have to see first hand.  Melissa is amazing.  I can't say it enough. 

Later on, once everyone had arrived, and the party was in full swing, I called everyone down stairs to watch the videos, making sure Ben had a seat front and center.  Thankfully, he had no idea what was going to happen either, and he loved every second of it - he even got a little choked up at some points!  The next morning, he watched it again.  

All in all I couldn't have asked for the day to have gone better, and Ben repeatedly thanked me for days after.  And I'm so glad I was able to make his 30th Birthday a happy memorable one.  He deserves it.  I know that there is no way I could have done all that without the help of my friends and family who stepped up and either distracted him with shiny things, or helped me run around town to pull this off!!  So HUGE Props to all of the amazing people in my life who stepped up to help me out, just to show Ben how important he is to us, and let him know, that we wholeheartedly celebrate the day of his birth. <3 <3 <3

Happy 30th Birthday Ben!!    xxoo

Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to me..

So earlier today a friend posted an article on a mutual friends facebook page, it was about The Right way to Talk to Young Girls about Beauty.  In it the author talks about visiting friends with his young daughter, and a discussion ensued as a result of the host paying the 5 year old a compliment about her beauty.  There had been an article circulating the internet about avoiding the topic of beauty or body looks with young girls, and talk about everything but.  According to the article you are suppose to comment on their intellect, or what they are doing, but avoid topics about looks at all costs.  The author of the above article is a professor who lectures on topics such as body issues in his classes, and as a result of one such class discovered that as a result of people avoiding the topic of beauty, we ended up on the other end of the spectrum and actually ended up dismissing beauty, fashion and looks in such a way that they dismissed the girls who were interested in such things.  As one of his students explained:

"The message I got — from teachers even more than other students — was that smart girls don't care about clothes, and girls who care about clothes aren't smart. I said ‘fuck that.'"

This article really got me thinking.  I'm all for beauty, and I'm all for strong willed, intelligent well rounded women, and I strongly believe that they can easily be mutually exclusive, and I feel I'm a pretty good example of such a thing.  But I know that I have also kept my two worlds seperate for fear of lack of respect in regards to my "Trade"

I'm a makeup artist and hairstylist, that's no secret, but what some people may not know, is that I am also Research Director for a Market Research company.  I manage a call center of about 40 employees.  Only 2 of my employees know that I'm a makeup artist, or that I have my own company.  And I guess the reason for that is because so many people have diminished makeup and hair as such trivial "ditzy" things, that I feared that if my staff knew that that was who I was, I would lose their respect as their boss.  

I'm smart, logical, witty, and a great problem solver.  I'm also excellent at blending eyeshadow colors, and I can use a curling iron like no-one's business, but I know that "Makeup Artist" doesn't' get the same Ooos and Awwws that "Computer Programer" gets when you start talking trades.  Which bothers me.

When I in grade 5, I wanted to be an Artist, or a Hairstylist, and I distinctly remember my father asking me "are you going to live in a cardboard box too?"  That stuck with me for years, and as much as I loved what I could do, I had resolved that in order to be successful I needed a more structured, socially accepted job.  My parents even insisted that I take computers in junior high and high school because "that's the way of the future".  Which is true, but I think they were hoping I would go into more of a computer related career.

Years later I enrolled in Theatre at U of C and my father questioned my High School Drama Teacher, asking him "so what, is she good enough to be successful at this?"  (My father was sometimes a little more blunt than eloquent).  I grew up with the knowledge that at least in our house, Computers were respected (my Programmer Brother could do no wrong) and Art and Beauty was trivial.

Unfortunately, that was something that I believed. I loved it, and nothing made me happier, but I knew that "makeup artist" didn't get the same respect that "office admin" did on a resume, so I put it on the back burner.  I could spend hours watching hairstyling videos online, or offer to do my friends makeup to go out everytime I saw them, but come Monday morning, I would put my brushes aside, and put on dress pants to go sit in an office.  Ben actually changed that for me.  Ben is a child of cheerleader parents.  His parents are some of the most supportive people I've ever met, and they've raised their son to reflect some of those same qualities, so rather than Ben pushing me into a socially respected office job, he instead encouraged me to start my own company, and work toward doing my dream job full time.  Ben, and his parents, his sister, my mom and countless other's have been nothing but supportive of me as a makeup artist, and have accepted my career as a professional skill that needed to be developed and honed like any other. 

A world without art, design, beauty and fashion would be boring and quite devoid of culture.  To have a well rounded world there needs to be people in every line of work, every trade, every career.  And as much as I'm all for not giving little girls body issues, I think completely avoiding some topics can create just as much self esteem damage in the long run.  Which is worse?  Telling a little girl they look pretty?  Or making them believe there is something wrong with them if they want to look pretty?  Telling the chubby girl that it's better to be chubby than thin just alienates the naturally thin girls who cannot gain weight.  Anytime you suggest that one "thing" is better than another, you run the risk of dismissing those that are on the opposite end of the spectrum.  I know a woman who had two sisters but was always regarded by friends of the family as "the pretty one" so to avoid her thinking that she was "special" her mother took it upon herself to never compliment this woman, and to instead constantly shower her sisters with compliments.  All this did was was create a little girl with horrible self esteem. 
 
So what's the answer?  In my opinion?  Communication and open discussion.  Talk about beauty as much as you talk about construction or event planning, or graphic design.  When they have questions, answer them.   Introduce your kids to all sorts of jobs, people, and experiences.  Finding something that you are good at, and that makes you happy is one of the most amazing experiences you can ever have in your life, and I don't believe that anyone is entitled to belittle anything you choose to do.  Boys dance, Men cut hair, girls weld, Women fight fires.  If it makes you happy, then it's the most important thing in the world, and I support you 110%.

I don't have a little girl, but when I do - she will grow up in a world where there will be beauty.  There will be curling irons and makeup, and hairspray and bobby pins because it makes me happy.  Am I going to raise her with the opinion that you are nothing if you are not wearing makeup?  Hell no.  I don't even wear it every day myself.  But I am going to raise her to be proud of who she is, to revel in her accomplishments, and to find something that makes her happy, and jump in with both feet no matter what anyone else has to say about it.

The last 12 months

So I have been planning to do a recap of 2011 for a while now - but the last time I thought about it, it was mid December, and I figured I would have plenty of time for a recap during our break from work between Christmas and New Years, but that was before 3 seasons of Battle Star Galactica happened.  Truth be told we didn't do much of anything during that break time, and it was glorious.  But that now leaves me already into the first week of the new year still without a 2011 recap.  So lets do one now shall we?

Now I must say, this re-cap is a hell of a lot easier this year now thanks to Facebook's Timeline feature (Facebook did something people like?!?  The world IS coming to an end!!) All I have to do to access my "memories" of 2011, is just click 2011 and whatever month I want, and there infront of me are all of my status updates, pictures and links from that month!  Easy Peasy!   Now normally I would love to fill this list with lots of awesome photos - but for the first half of the year I didn't really have a camera I could use (since Mine was involved in a tragic super glue in the bottom of my purse incident) and for the last half of the year my lap top wasn't up to uploading photos to facebook since it was slowly dieing on me - so there are very few photos posted of events this time around, which saddens me, perhaps that will be a resolution of sort for this new year - more photos. 

So here we go! 

January -

This is how January started:  "Yeah, that was a decent movie.... oh hey, what time is it?" "12:05 - oh crap!"  "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!"  Earlier that night, we had gone for a Sushi date, saw "Tangled" in theatres, and then rented the last movies we would ever rent from Blockbuster - "Salt", and "Twilight: Breaking Dawn" (don't judge us, there were slim pickings - and the decent movie comment was in regards to Salt - don't get me started on Breaking Dawn).

Later this month, I celebrate the 29th anniversary of the birth of my Love - and to mark such an age, we got a group of 20-somethings together and spent the day at the water park!  Awesome! 

As well Ben and I helped Graham and Ashton move into their first home!!  And my mom was forced into early retirement when she was let go from the company she and my dad created. 

February:

I was dancing up a storm at J'Adore Dance, in both a Fit Hop Class, and a Naughty Hottie class, and Ben and I decided to sell our Condo, and move into a house.

February was filled with packing and painting:

Ben's mom and Dad were amazing and helped paint while we were at work!

The couch and table were packed!

 and we visited good friends in Rosetown Sask.

March:

I went back to being a red head! 

Condo was ready, cleaned and listed.  And we started the fun of trying to live in a house that looks like you don't live there (completely spotless without a thing out of place), and lots of "killing time" events out while people look around your home and decide if it's worth the price you are asking. 

We attended the first birthday of our adopted Niece, Claire!!

I also did a photo shoot for a friend's post-wedding photo's and was told all about an amazing photographer that I "just HAVE to meet!!!"  ...but more on that later :)


April:

Sold the Condo!  And had our offer accepted on a House!!

Took a trip to Banff to celebrate our first year of marriage a month early - had amazing food, a kick ass massage, and a great relaxing weekend! 

Celebrated the Birthdays of several dear friends with Dinner and Dancing!


May:

I took this with the snazzy skills I learned!

Took a Photography Class with A&D Photography, and Celebrated my mom's 65th Birthday all on the same day!

Moved everything in our lives out of our Condo in one week, and packed it all into a small office at work (trip by trip with the car and the use of Mom and Dad's truck. 

Lived for a week at Mom and Dad's house

Moved into our very own house - complete with a yard, a deck and a hot tub - it was awesome!

Our House - In the middle of the street!

This is a very important event - King Sized Bed Purchase, worth every penny

Our first Meal in our new house!

May also brought me a new friend, and an amazing Business partner in Melissa.  Melissa had worked on the same shoot I did back in March, and when she was looking for a makeup artist and hair stylist, she thought of me.  Candy and Cream Boudoir and Smudge Makeup teamed up, and it's been nothing but Pretty ever since!

June:

It rained, and rained and rained.  It's a good thing we had lots to do inside - this month was filled with unpacking, painting, and putting together Ikea Furniture. 

We saw our first and Only Eskimo's game of the year - the players were pulled off the field because of the storm.  That's only happened twice that Mom, Dad and Ben can ever remember in all the games they have been to (Mom and Dad have been season ticket holders for 30 years!), Both times - I was at those games.  And I've only been to 4 games!  I'm not good luck.

July:  

July brought us my dear sister's birthday:

 Camping Trips:

and Mosquitos!!

...and unflattering pictures

It was also a Month of running - whether it rained or not, I fell in love with running this summer, and I can't wait until the ice melts and I can lace up my runners again!

August: 

My Spartan Sprinted:

Friends Got married:

A-Spot with her Man in Uniform

Evie and Kyle

The Sun came out to play, and I turned 27:

September:

We looked after Mom's puppy:

Who collected our shoes when we were out:

We also celebrated Erik's birthday, in true Erik Style - a photo shoot with him, and all his favorite hot female friends all around him:

My Ben also took me to see my favorite Band Maroon 5 as a belated Birthday Present! 

October:

So... Busy!  Every weekend was filled with shoots, Boudoir Marathons, and work of some sort!  And every week day was crazy busy at the Day Job too! 

Luckily it ended with a fun Halloween night with good friends - Poison Ivy (me), Mr. Freeze, (Ben), a Mermaid (Lisa), Nerd (Lee), a Jedi Night (Graham) and a Pin up Girl (Ashton)

November:

More Makeup work - two marathons, and 7 shoots all crammed into 4 weekends!

I tried and failed NaNoWriMo, falling just short of 50,000 words by 30,000 - Mostly in part to the sentence immediately above this one.  It's hard to write a novel in a month when you are only home in time to sleep most nights.  

The Thieson family also celebrated a belated Thanksgiving dinner haveing a feast that kept me full for days afterward!

We have a lot in common :)

December:

Ben and I were looking forward to December mainly because we got to have Christmas in our own house this year, which meant we could get a real tree!!  I haven't had a real tree since I was 5 or 6, so I was very excited!!  We managed to pick out the most perfect tree on the lot (it's currently still standing in our living room dark green with all it's needles still, and we stopped watering it days ago, I'm actually a little sad to take it down!)

My company bought me a new computer so I could make and edit videos for my Youtube Chanel!! It's so nice to have a system that doesn't crash after 20 minutes of use!!

As well Ben and I hosted 23 people in our house for Christmas Dinner!! It all went off smoothly, and we just had the best time!

2011 ended with a quiet games night with Erik and Athena, and a "cheers" at midnight.  All in all - Great year.  I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!