Dash of Sparkle August 2019

We had the best August! We kept super busy with a TON of birthdays, we went camping 3 more times, and now it feels like it is time for fall. Time to take a break from the constant traveling and put some more time into developing some killer recipes and fun content! But, August was crazy, and that is putting it lightly. 

Although, the busyness that August brings is nothing new. I have dubbed that the month should be called “Christmas in August” for us. We have a TON of birthdays in August. Mine and Eddies birthdays are only 4 days apart and besides that we have 3 other immediate family members birthdays, and on top of all of that, probably at least another 8 friends birthdays all within the same few weeks.

The Birthdays

The first birthday we celebrated was my dad’s! We packed up the trailer and trekked up to their cabin in British Columbia. The whole gang showed up for his birthday this year. My brother came up, and so did my aunt and uncle. It was a super fun weekend.

The next birthday’s are Eddie’s step mom’s (we celebrated with her in July), then Eddies, and my birthday and Eddie’s mom’s birthday are on the same day. Hopefully not hard to follow lol. Since our birthdays are only 4 days apart we just had one huge birthday bash. We hosted a BBQ in our backyard, invited a ton of people, and we had a great afternoon! 

New on the blog

Amid our constant travelling, I was only able to post two new recipes on the blog. Make sure to check them out if you haven't already, these are good ones!

Bahama Mama Blended Cocktails

These cocktails are SO GOOD. We gifted my dad a margarita maker for his birthday, and I totally took it over 5 minutes after he opened it (he didn't mind ?)

How to Roast Garlic

I use roasted garlic in everything. EVERYTHING. It is one of the single most used techniques that I have learned and it is SO EASY. So if you don't know how to roast garlic, get over to that post!

With this being my first year of blogging, I didn’t really know what to expect once summer started. I totally underestimated how much time I would truly have to put into the blog and content creating. That being said, I was less than un-prepared.

But, I would not change the summer we have had for anything. I don’t regret taking the time off and traveling as much as possible. But next year I know I need to be prepared for it!

Minor House Reno’s

We did a few house reno's in August, squeezed into whatever time we had that we were actually home. 

One of the most exciting reno’s we did was removing the most annoying door in our Ensuite. We had been wanting to replace that door with a barn door since the day we moved in (5 years ago…). It was absolutely terrible when the door was on, it swung open into the bathroom and Eddie would get stuck periodically between the door and the shower. Alas, Costco came through, and as soon as I saw the door with the hardware I knew I wasn't leaving the store without it. So we squeezed into our SUV with this giant door. We literally had the seats as far forward as they would go just so we could get trunk closed. Once we got home we got straight to work, figuring it would only take a few hours. Well 7 hours later, it was on the wall!

I am notoriously bad at taking "before" photos of our projects. I searched high and low for a "before" picture and I could not find one!

Before we had a standard interior door on the right hand side and as I mentioned before opened inwards. It almost connected with the right hand wall of our shower. It was always in the way, and made it almost impossible for two people to get ready in the Ensuite at the same time.

Other Camping Trips

For Eddie’s birthday weekend and Labour Day long weekend we camped in our favourite spots in the Rocky’s. Eddie’s birthday weekend was super low key, just the two of us, no service, and pure relaxation. On the Labour Day long weekend we went camping with a whole crew of friends. It was SO MUCH FUN. 

Book Reccomendations

If you read last months Dash of Sparkle, you will know that I have recently picked up reading again! I really rediscovered how much I truly love it.

I read two books this month, The Mister and Daisy Jones and The Six. Two VERY different books, but I loved them both!

The Mister is a romance novel through and through. If you liked the Fifty Shades of Grey series, you will like this book! It is more down to earth and realistic than Fifty Shades of Grey, but it is every bit as juicy! I couldn't put it down.

Daisy Jones and The Six is a fictional story of a rock band in the 70's. It is narrated in the past tense, and it has a great twist right at the end. Also, a wonderful easy read.

Plans for September

Our summer is starting to wind down now, we still have two more trips planned for September, but we will have service for both of those trips. We have made a rock solid plan to re-connect with the blog and I am all about it!

We would love to know how your month was! To get a hold of us, you can shoot us an email or leave a comment down below! We can also be found on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.