Monica & Tuan

In this incredibly snowy and cold winter we've been having in Ottawa, I have been cursed with never ending dry, chapped, and cracked lips. And while I've tried almost every lip balm out there on the market (Burt's Bees, Body Shop, Blistex, Bonne Bell, Neutrogena, etc.) there is only one that has worked for me. So introducing my miracle lip balm ... Kiehl's Lip Balm #1. Any cracked lips Ive got will heal overnight simply by applying it before bedtime.

In the past, I would have to buy these babies in bulk whenever I was in Montreal or Toronto, as sadly Ottawa didn't have its own Kielhl's store. But now Holt Renfrew in Ottawa has it's very own Kielh's counter and my lips (and I) are rejoicing. And to keep my lips in perfect pucker condition for the wedding, you can be sure I'll be stocking up.

Well I recently ran out of my miracle balm and my honey, being the sweet and wonderful guy that he is, went to Holt's and bought me a little present ...


Thanks honey. You're the best :)

Labels: Kiehl's, lip balm

Happy New Year!

And what better way to start the New Year than to dedicate the first blog of 2008 to sparkly, oh-so-pretty bling. More specifically my wedding bling -- I mean band :)

The story of my wedding band is actually a bit of an ordeal (for my sweetie that is!). In the beginning, I had no idea what kind of wedding band I wanted. Should it match his? Should it be plain so as not to detract from my engagement ring? I think we went to almost every jeweler in the city. And from those visits I decided that a plain band was not for me. I wanted sparkle ... and I wanted lots of it! What I really really wanted was an eternity diamond wedding band. But I just couldn't find one in my price range. Especially since my band had to be platinum to match my engagement ring. And platinum adds about $1000 to the price of the ring. Additionally, the colour of my engagement diamond is quite white and so the diamonds in my wedding band needed to be of comparable colour which also meant more $. Sigh.

That is when I took my search to the internet. And through many message boards and Knot bios, I came across SignedPieces.com. They're an online jeweler located in New York. And they offer a huge variety of diamond wedding wands. The best part is their prices. They offer superior quality diamond bands for significantly less than what I was seeing at my local stores. So from the positive reviews on the web, I decided that this was where I would buy my band.

I decided to have Signed Pieces make me a custom wedding band. Why custom? Instead of a full eternity band I got a 3/4 eternity band, meaning that there's a small gap in the band with no diamonds. I decided to do this in case I ever needed to resize the ring in the future. 

It took one month to make the ring and when I received it by mail I was so excited. I tried it on and while it was beautiful, much to my dismay I felt that the ring was incredible thin. When put next to Tuan's wedding band, it looked like nothing. I didn't know what to do. Tuan insisted that if I wasn't happy with it, I should just buy another band (Have I mentioned what a sweetie he is?). But I just couldn't justify that. I decided to take the chance and ask Signed Pieces if they would exchange the ring for a bigger one (and pay the difference of course!), despite the fact that it was custom made. So Tuan spoke to the owner and the agreed! I could not believe it! Best news ev-ah!

So one month later, she's (yes I refer to her as a she!) finally here and I absolutely adore her. I didn't want to take her off. But apparently that's not very good luck, so now she sits pretty in her box until June.

Here she is, along with my equally as loved engagement ring (please excuse the blurriness, I have not mastered the art of bling photography):

Labels: Ring