What we wore

Friday was Ian's birthday, so I asked his best friend Maarty to snap a photo of us to send off to his parents. (Hi Kathi and Mike!) But, of course, Ian being the creative type he is, he couldn't let it be just any photo. So, we ran outside and lied down in the grass while Maarty attempted to articulate Ian's vision by leaning over the balcony to take photos.

As you saw yesterday, we spent Friday night at the Straight to Diva event. The above outfits are what we wore. I bought my dress at Value Village in Kelowna two years ago. Ian actually picked it out. I don't wear it often, but when I do I feel fabulous in it. I love the colour blocking. I love the mod look and I adore pair it with fun cardigans and tights. The cardigan is also a Value Village find, although I found it in Edmonton. And the tights are from the Value Village Halloween collection. The shoes and necklace are the only part of the outfit that aren't thrifted. I bought the necklace from Etsy and the shoes from Walmart.

Ian's wearing a thrifted shirt, pants from Winners and birthday socks from me (aren't they rad?). Ian has just recently entered into the world of coloured pants. Before last weekend, he owned the same pair of jeans in three or four different shades of denim and black, so this is a big change.

I really love how our outfits play off each other. We're such a colourful duo. And I also love how this photo turned out. We don't have too many together, as either one of us is usually behind the camera, so it's exciting to have a nice one—especially one where we're both smiling.

Straight to Diva

Have you ever wondered what a straight man would look like in drag? Well, wonder no longer. I have photos and stories to fill those wondering minds. On Friday night, Out Jasper held an event called Straight to Diva, where four men were transformed from the scruffy, manly men they are into feminine drag queens. The transformations were done by four hair salons, who were competing to have the most believable and talented queen. Let me tell you, the competition was FIERCE. These guys and their stylists took the task to heart and gave it their all. Each of them was sporting ridiculous high heels—heels I wouldn't even attempt to walk in. They danced. They wore layers upon layers of concealer. (ICK!) They lip synced and made all around fools of themselves. It was literally the best thing ever!



This is Corey. He lip synced to Queen's bicycle, among other songs, and his wife came out dressed as Eminem and lip synced alongside him. It was a sight to see! I was laughing so hard that I had tears running down my face... and with all that water in my eyes, I couldn't tell if any of my photos were even remotely in focus. (I attribute the out of focus photos to the moments where my whole body was shaking with laughter.)

This is Danny. He's the frontman in an Irish punk band called Some Irish Pirates. He sang Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It." It was out of this world. He had the showmanship aspect of the competition down pat. Plus, who doesn't love a bright blue wig?!

This is Paul. I think he was the most believable woman. I mean, look at that bod and that makeup. Hubba hubba. He also had some killer dance moves. He could twist right down to the floor, even in huge heels. Huge props for that!



And finally, this is Jeff, or as he's more commonly known, Smitty. He was the big winner of the night. His dance moves weren't quite as graceful as the Paul's or Danny's, but he had a certain je ne sais quoi about him that ultimately saw him take the title as the best diva.

I bet you wouldn't be surprised to hear the bar was SLAMMED with people for this event. It was so busy that I was literally stuck sitting on the floor right in front of the stage area, just so I could get some photos. I cannot wait for next year. I see this event becoming a staple in the year. It was so incredibly fun and hilarious. My expectations were blown out of the water. The guys were such good sports. Not only did they allow themselves to be made up, they took on their roles with a ton of enthusiasm. (Or, at least they drank enough to get themselves there!!)

Does your LGBT community do any cool events where you are?

Where glaciers fall

Last year, 70 per cent of Ghost Glacier fell from the side of Mount Edith Cavell. They estimate 70 per cent equates to between 100,000 cubic metres and 200,000 cubic metres of ice. That ice, which fell in a number of large chunks, landed in a glacial tarn (lake) at the foot of the mountain. The ice fall happened in August when the tarn was at its highest water levels, so the impact of the ice hitting the water created a huge air blast, wave and flood. Luckily, the event happened around 5 a.m. because had it been a few hours later, hundreds of people could have died, as Edith Cavell is one of the most popular areas of the park.

Because of the fall, the damage done and the unknown risk of further incidents, the area was closed to visitors, while Parks Canada had a geotechnical study completed. That study is now complete and Cavell is again open to the public.  So, I went up with a representative from Parks Canada Friday morning, before it opened, to see how the ice fall had changed the landscape. But the weather wasn't ideal, so my friends and I went back on Saturday to take a better look around and to get some better photos. Here for you are just a few of the shots I took during our adventure.

I just love how raw the landscape looks. The chunks of ice. The moraines. The remaining glaciers. The tarn. The mountain. As we wandered around, weaving between pieces of ice taller than me, I started to feel like I was walking on Krypton. It was pretty surreal and completely amazing.

From dumpster to patio perfect

Ian brought a rickety, peeling, piece of junk table home from the dumpster the other day, in hopes I'd clean it up for our patio. And how could I say no? I mean, who doesn't want an excuse to pull out the ol' palm sander and get covered in sawdust? If you ask me, any excuse to bust out a power tool is one worth taking.


So I spent a Saturday morning and early afternoon sanding, priming and painting in the sunshine, with some 90s alternative rock blasting through the window. Bliss? I think so! The weather was warm. The view was great. The music was perfectly awful and I had the time to spare.

My favourite part of refinishing furniture is when you get to move from primer to COLOUR. And wait until you see the RAD colour I chose. It's seriously out of this world amazeballs. In fact, it's my favourite colour of all time. I even have a parka in the same shade. No joke!

So there you have it, our new patio table. I'm so happy with how it turned out. Although, I will admit, I've been debating painting a frog face on the top, or something ridiculous and fun to fa-bam it up a little more. If I take the plunge, I'll keep you posted.

Have you ever refinished a piece of furniture? How'd it work out for you?

What to Wear: on an ice cream date

It's What to Wear time and this week we're dressing for an ice cream date. I had every intention of going on a real date with Ian for this photoshoot, but the cards didn't fall into place, so I quickly took a few photos last night. I realized after the fact that had I worn a white tank top, I could have been neapolitan ice cream. Yum! (I'm definitely doing that next time I throw this outfit on.)

I just bought this top while we were in Edmonton. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I'm actually really loving it now. I've decided a tied top is pretty darn cute. As are polka dots!

From top to bottom:

Sweater: Army and Navy

Shirt: Winners

Tank top: Bluenotes

Pants: American Eagle

I picked this outfit for an ice cream date because it's cute and put together (in my humble opinion), but it's also casual. I can definitely see myself wearing this while walking around town with a delicious ice cream cone filled with mint chocolate chip ice cream. (Oh man! I might need to fulfill the craving today. That just sounds far too good.)

What would you wear for an ice cream date?

Big gay parade

On Friday night, Ian, myself and two pals drove to Edmonton for the annual pride festival, where we represented Jasper in the parade. Now, this was my first pride parade, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew there would be rainbows. I knew there would be gay people and I knew there would be drag queens, but let me tell you what I didn't know. I didn't know there would be SEXY men in their underwear just prancing around the streets, letting their sweaty muscly chests hang out for all to see.

And, what was a girl to do, but look until her little heart was pounding out of her chest? I guess I could have touched, but that might  have sent me into convulsions. Like when I saw Mr. Gay Canada!

We made friends. In fact, he even gave me his card with his personal phone number on it! Baller status right here.


Oh yeah, did I mention Ian was there? Ha! He's pretty cute too, right? Although I think he was wearing far too many clothes for the occasion!

And this is us with all of our bros at the Jasper Pride Weekend booth. I spent a good amount of time there chatting up the city folk, telling them to come visit us in Jasper for our annual pride event in April. All in all, it was a pretty successful weekend. Half naked men, Mr. Gay Canada, drag queens in AMAZING costumes, bears in leather, a whole lot of love and excitement, and a random astronaut guy, who could ask for a better combination?

Have you ever been to a pride parade?

A week away

For the first time in my blogging life, I took a week off. You may have noticed. You may not have. But, either way it's true. It's been an entire week since my last post. I didn't do it intentionally. Last Tuesday I didn't have anything lined up for this space and I had a super busy day at work, so before I knew it, the day had passed and I hadn't visited the Blogger website a single time. When I realized it, I had a pang of guilt, knowing that those of you who pop by on a daily basis wouldn't have anything to read. Then the next day it happened again, and the rest of the week carried on that way.

I know I've said this what seems like a million times in the last two months, but I'm worn out. I'm working hard from 8:30 to 5:30 every day. Actually, that's an understatement. Half the week I'm working from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 or 8:30 p.m. And with a life like that, I don't have much time to do fun things, which means I have less to talk about here and I have even less photos to show all of you. To be honest, because of my lack of free time, it's been a bittersweet transition back into office life. I'm excited to be at the helm of a really rad paper that I'm super proud of, and I love that each week I end up with a tangible product that I can hold and admire. But, I really miss having energy to do things in the evening. I miss checking in with all of you to see what's happening in your worlds and I miss the dialogue I used to have in this space. The truth is, though, with my schedule, I can't commit to blogging five days a week anymore. In fact, I can't even commit to reading my favourite blogs anymore. I don't have the brainpower or the will to do it. I tried keeping up and then I found myself feeling guilty because the content I was producing wasn't the same quality as it was before, nor were my comments on your blogs—when I was still making them. My heart isn't in it.

Now although this might sound like a goodbye, I don't intend it to be that way. I think it's more of an opportunity to explain where I'm coming from as I embark on a new posting schedule. Right now I need to blog when the time is right for me. Maybe that means committing to What to Wear and Ladies of the Mountains and a few posts in between when I have the content, the time and the enthusiasm to write them. I just don't want to waste this space on filler and I don't want to waste your time on filler either. I appreciate all of you too much for that, and I ask that you bare with me as I figure out how to make this space work with my crazy, hectic schedule.

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus last week. Please know that it left me feeling ever-so-slightly refreshed and even more excited to use this space for what I intended it: content that's true to who I am.

On that note, see you all tomorrow when I share some photos from my first-ever pride parade! Let me just say it was amazing and leave it at that.

Has life ever gotten so crazy that you had to take a step back from your blog?