High Five For Friday

Here's another edition of H54F. This week was a slow one in regards to exciting things going on so I only have four things, but it was also extremely busy in the sense that I felt I didn't get anything done. As always I'm linking up with Lauren.

1. Last Friday I got the amazing surprise of being promoted at my job. I've been wanting to move within the company for over a year now. I'd had enough of being a receptionist and wanted to show off my skills in another position in my company. So starting the first week of August I will be a coordinator for MicroAge.

2. Sunday Richard and I went for some sushi dinner followed by Man of Steel with our friends Heather and Kevin. I loved the movie, and you can read all about Richard's thoughts on the movie here.

3.Tuesday night we got to see my niece Valerie graduate elementary school. She looked beautiful and I'm so glad I got to be a part of her big day.

4. I baked a red velvet cake this week with butter cream icing. I use to bake cakes and cupcakes all the time, something I know Richard misses. The mix came from Bulk Barn. I had no idea they did cake mix there. I call this a WIN!

Hope your week was a good one too. This weekend is a long one because of Canada Day on Monday. I am so looking forward to a 3 day weekend. Will you be celebrating Canada Day?

This week on the Blog:
Man of Steel Movie Review by Richard Vaughan
Introducing Chris McPhee
Graduation Time
MicroAge Breakfast: 50's Diner

MicroAge Breakfast- 50's Diner

Last week I posted about the social committee breakfast I helped plan at my work. Well it was a complete success and we got a lot of compliments on the event. As I mentioned before this is our third event with all these member on the committee; and to have 3 events with only a couple of negative comments (because you really can't please everyone) is a big deal. So as you can guess, every member of the social committee is really happy. In the past the social committee has done BBQ's and bagel breakfasts but this was the first time where we had a breakfast with waffles, pancakes, and french toast.

MicroAge Social Committee

Katerina, Bianca, Me, and Angela

When we were coming up with ideas for the event one member (Angela) mentioned she has a brother who owns a restaurant called the Sunset Grill. From there we decided to go the breakfast route, and then I suggested 50's Diner as a theme. Well once a theme is introduced Kat and I pretty much go crazy. Both of us love 'themes' and are both pretty nuts for 1950's anything.

MicroAge Partners in Crime

As with any event, whether its one you're planning with your own budget or with a predetermined budget, you're going to run into some restrictions. When it comes to food events and our work we all know that the food has to be our main priority, so our restrictions for the most part with this event came with decorations. Some things we brought from home and used as decorations and other things we purchased to add to the overall atmosphere.

In order to keep the lunch room from getting cramped and to avoid huge lineups we decided to give each department a time slot for the event. We gave the departments twenty minute intervals to get the meals, converse and then leave before the next department came in. We grouped some departments together in order to get everyone through in 2 hours.

   

 

 
We also try to bring in some homemade items to our events but with this being a breakfast we couldn't really do that. However Kat did find this picture on Pinterest and wanted to recreate it herself. She made them using pretzels (for the bacon) melted white chocolate (for the eggs) and a M&M (for the yellow yolk).

 I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the ones she made, but you can see them a little in this picture below.

All of our decoration were purchased at the Dollar Store, Shoppers Drug Mart, Amazon, and eBay. Here is a breakdown of what we bought and where we bought it from.

Decorations:
Dollar Store: Table Cloths, Cups, Plates, Cutlery, Chalkboard Frames (tutorial here)
Shoppers Drug Mart: Baskets and Checkered Liners 
Amazon: Wall Mural (we searched under Soda Pop Decorations)
eBay: Neon Clock 

Food:
Sunset Grill: Pancakes, Waffles, French Toast
Costco: Maple Syrup, Milk
Metro Grocery Store: Maple Syrup, Coffee Cake, Chocolate Cake, Juice, Fruit Trays
Bulk Barn: Chocolate, Pretzels, M&M's

We are now going to concentrate on the Holiday Party as that does take a long time to plan and organize. I am so looking forward to that as we have also chosen a theme, and its one that I've always wanted to do, but that won't be revealed for a while yet.

Graduation Time

Last night was my niece's eighth grade graduation. Next year she will be attending an art's high school for a drama program, which my eldest nephew is a member of as well. The graduation was actually held at the High School she will be attending next year as the elementary school did not have the auditorium space available.

The downside to all this was that the school forgot to put the air conditioning on so we all slowly boiled to death. It was ridiculous how hot it got in the school, so hot that it got to the point where I actually left and went outside to where it was 32º. Remember this post and how I described how I hated heat. NOT COOL. Pun intended. However all that sweating was worth it to see this one looking beautiful and moving on with the next stage in her life.

Side Note: I apologize for the poor quality in photos. 

I have to get a photo editing program so I can fix my photos. 

    

Valerie and her very proud parents. 

The Kalverda kids messing around. 

Simon, Valerie and Caleb.

The two Kalverda drama kids. 

Congratulations Valerie! I hope the next four years are exciting, fun, and oh ya I hope you learn a few things. Love you Valley Girl.

Introducing Chris McPhee

I am very lucky to come from a family that has so many talented artistic people in it. One of those people is my uncle Chris McPhee, whose talent comes through in his photography. I have been a big fan of his photography for...well as long as he's been showing it off really. Richard and I were also lucky enough that he offered to take our wedding photos for us. Here are a few shots of his amazing work as well as a couple from our wedding. You can find more from our wedding here in this post.

I am so happy for Chris as he has taken the risk and decided to share his talent by selling some of his prints online. One of the many prints he has decided to sell just so happens to be my favourite (Station 6am) which I intend to buy for our hallway.

He is currently selling his work on the website Fine Art America. The beauty of this site is that it allows the user to sell their prints in so many different formats such as prints, canvas or painting and so on.

If you would like to see some more of his work and would like to purchase some of it you can see it all here.

Congratulations again Uncle Chris.

About the Artist- Christopher McPhee:
My love of photography began many years ago when cameras still used film and digital referred to something you did with a finger. But the advent of digital cameras gave me the time and means to shoot, experiment and learn at the same time as raising a family. Now this is my creative outlet. 

Much of my work hangs on my walls. Art is still meant to be seen on walls and in galleries, not just on the computer screen. I hope you like it.