stepford

Wedding Wednesday's

2012-02-28T18:55:00.002-08:00

Uni goes back this week! It has certainly been one LONG holiday but I fear with my reduced course load this semester I will be just as bored until I manage to land that elusive full-time job (fingers crossed it will be a position within one of the Big 4's...)

but getting back on topic today I am bringing a little inspiration from Colonial Australia (ok so sue me it's not totally historically accurate, but I tried) at request of my mother who has a friend who spoke about a wedding of this style (oh yeah my Mum talks to EVERYONE).

At first I found it a tad difficult finding dresses that gave off that kind of vibe but thanks to a little show called Downton Abbey Edwardian fashions and all things modest are making a big comeback.

Rachel Thurston via Once Wed

Closet Case Vntg via Winsome Hollow and The Wooing of Eliel dress at Adore Vintage

Eden Studios Ballarat 1912 on Flickr

Edward and Dorothy 1909 on Flickr and The Vintage Wedding Dress Company on Pinterest

A and B: both The Vintage Wedding Dress Company

Kim Vintage via Blooming Leopold

Photography by Chelsea Davis, Styling by A Style Collective found on Cake

On the Table

2012-02-27T14:13:00.001-08:00

While I endlessly crave the peanut butter cakes of last week, Joel has been craving something of the savoury kind and what I am about to show you is about as blokey as food can get.

The Battered Sav (or in this case Frankfurt) Hotdog

My god are they bad for you but by golly they are tasty. The humble battered sav goes by many names and some variations - corn dog, pluto pup etc etc the 'Sav' is short for Saveloy which is a sausage not unlike the Frankfurt which is battered and fried. These bad boys are usually served on a stick dripping with tomato sauce, mustard and what not, the pinnacle of all good circus/carnival food and a mainstay on all Australian fish and chip shop menus.

The boys came home one day and mentioned that we were going to master 'the sav' and so I set about finding the appropriate batter. My search took me to the site aptly named 'batteredsav.com' in which they have experimented with several batter recipes, thus the recipe I have provided below is a little bit of everything learnt and thrown together. It is in fact so good (and simple) that I have decided it will become my mainstay batter.

By the way Joel claims he is the creator of the 'Battered Sav Hotdog' despite my suggestions that someone surely has come up with it and insisted that I note his stake in it's creation ...you know for future generations.

If you have any evidence out-dating his claim please share it with me by commenting below or head on over to my Facebook Page here.

Money Mondays

2012-02-27T03:14:00.000-08:00

Today I am feeling a little ill qualified to talk about managing money, our rent is increased and my credit card is out of control due to a little thing called 'getting married'. I am trying to get together a portion of crafts to sell at market but that payoff will involve lots of hard hard work and will occur sometime in the future. And well, being jobless isn't exactly the best thing in the world

Let's just say meals this fortnight will largely consist of rice.

So what are we to do in times like this to amuse ourselves? Because worrying about money is not fun at all. How do we stave off the depression that comes when every time you open the refrigerator/pantry the contents are ever diminishing? shoes become worn and you envy people who can drop a $2 coin without noticing.

Well there are some things that you can do that don't cost any money *gasp*

For instance if you are lucky enough to live near the beach (or any body of water) like I am then take a walk! Admire the beauty, go for a swim, clear your head and when you return your body at least will thank you.

Another great and free place to find entertainment basically anywhere is your local library. I remember when I first moved out of home I would spend every Saturday there gathering a collection of books I could read during the week, borrowing DVDs and surfing the net for free. Once I even borrowed a book on writing HTML, I barely remember any of it and didn't finish it but they have so many cool books there. It was the best, well not the long walk back home with a ton of books in scorching heat but you get the picture.

Sometimes if you head to your local tourist information centre, you can find info about local attractions and things to do. Many 'locals' have not taken the opportunity to see the things that are offered locally, so it is a good way to see something outside of your daily drive to work/school. In Newcastle there is the Museum, located just behind Civic railway station, it has free entry and many great and interesting things to look at. Another cool place to visit is Blackbutt Reserve, you can picnic there, see Australian wildlife, play boules, take a walk and all for the low low cost of $0 yep ZERO isn't it great? Then of course there are places like the Newcastle Art Gallery which has free general admission but some special exhibitions attract a fee.

Or you can just take a good old fashioned stroll with a friend or a loved one, have a chat, see cool buildings that you wouldn't normally notice, discover new parts of your city, get some exercise!!

The most important aspect of keeping those blues away is exercise! so next time you feel down about your finances take a walk and remind yourself it's not going to last forever - sometimes it just feels that way :)

Anything Can Happen Fridays

2012-02-23T23:54:00.000-08:00

Today I did a lot of stuff.

I read some Jane Eyre (for the millionth time), took a walk to the beach which included what I like to call 'The Devil's Staircase', decided my cardio is really really bad, crafted some eye masks, sewed a silk sleep top, did some washing, ate leftover mashed potato on my homemade bread, vacuumed, read some more Jane Eyre, got a call from the bank (not a good one), started making Pulled Beef and Beer Pie for dinner albeit tweaked a little ...... then got hit by an enormous wave of exhaustion.

Anything can happen on Friday!!

btw really hanging out to watch season 3 of Misfits on ABC

Fashion Thursdays

2012-02-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

So last night it was a little cold, anyone else feel that? maybe it was just because Joel was doing a night shift but I do feel it getting a little colder, a little windier and at the moment a lot more rainier and on looking at the calender I realised why.

We are just a few days away from entering Autumn, not that the seasons here in Australia are really that different. So I thought I would take a little look at what we are supposed to be wearing Autumn/Winter 2012/13 from the latest New York Fashion Week.

Ok so I am not quite ready to leave Summer behind but L'Wren Scott's collection was as close as I am going to get in a sea of drab colours. She is classic as always but I am seeing a distinct 30s feel to her designs and this collection seems to be emphasising one thing in particular, texture. Call me cheap but I love velvet, the purple fur lined coat however it looks amazing but just not for me. Thank-you Monica Feudi for some great pics.

While I am at it the Rodarte show is said to be inspired by the Australian outback, maybe worthwhile checking out? Any fool knows you roast in the desert in dark colours

Wedding Wednesdays

2012-02-21T15:50:00.000-08:00

Remember my post about visiting the Norman Lindsey Gallery in Springwood? Well today I am bringing a little bit of wedding inspiration your way. While perusing the Net-A-Porter website (as you do) I spotted this amazing Lanvin dress which in my mind would be the perfect type of thing to wear to a wedding held at the gallery. And well since I am getting into the whole Polyvore thing a lot lately thought why not create a whole outfit for this imaginary wedding and well why stop there you got to have bridesmaids too.

So with my lack of employment and copious amounts of time I bring you a Norman Lindsey/Grecian Goddess inspired wedding.

visit my Polyvore profile here for details or here for the bride and here for the bridesmaids

If you want to see a whole wedding themed along these lines comment below or on my Facebook page here

wishing you a happy and productive day :)

On the Table...

2012-02-20T17:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday while Joel was sleeping and I was trying to be as quiet as a church mouse I got hit with an intensive craving for sweet stuff. My God it was crippling I just had to have something sugary and delicious. And that's when I remembered the amazing piece of goodness that is the 'One Minute Peanut Butter Cake' on Back to Her Roots.

It's amazing. The first time I made it I found it really rich, heavy and gooey so I decided to tweak it a little bit....

And that is what I came up with. My God is it good, especially with a scoop of icecream right in the centre. You can see there it is still pretty gooey on top but I see it as a peanut buttery type of icing. This one was microwaved first for 30 secs then again for 15, though one 40 second hit is just about perfect for me.

Of course after making this one I was on the lookout for various other cake for one recipes, you must check out this Two Minute Mug Brownie recipe on Babble and I was almost ready to make this Chocolate Fudge S'mores Mug Cake on How Sweet It Is. OMG it looks so amazing plus the mug is pretty cute too.

Lastly, though not an easy microwave recipe, this amazing looking Salted Caramel Lava Cake has been making the rounds on Pinterest lately it's from Vegetarianirvana and my guess is the Oh Joy! interest will have resulted in an enormous amount of traffic, she is the Cool Hunter of all Cool Hunters.

If you would like to share your own emergency sweet treat recipe leave a comment below or head on over to my Facebook page here.

Money Mondays

2012-02-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

While visiting my sisters in the mountains a few weeks ago we fell into a conversation about money and why I don't just fly to Melbourne to visit more often. I told them I live on a meagre $500 (about $US540) per fortnight 'but that's after rent etc has been taken out right?' they asked 'no' I replied my $275 a fortnight rent comes out of that $500 leaving me with a pitiful $225 to pay bills, buy food etc.

As you can imagine even with the best laid plans budgeting even the act of eating out is enough to send me eating rice for the second week in the fortnight (or as is the case this fortnight our first energy bill).

So how do I control my spendings? here are a few tips from my brains trust

DIY Piggy Bank on The Little Red House

1. Budget!!!
I can't even begin to tell you how important budgeting is!! We should all - no matter how much you earn, learn how to follow a decent budget. Budgets help put things in perspective for you, go through your ordinary pay cycle but this time keep receipts, keep track of spendings etc and tabulate it all into a program like Excel. Don't forget to include monthly or quarterly bills and even a little to the side for fun things like coffee/takeout/shopping/movies etc. Then go through systematically all your expenses. Where can you afford to save? Set aside a portion each pay cycle for a specified purpose and try to be strict with yourselves.

Even if you can't stay on budget every time, the very act of creating that budget informs you about the state of your finances

I find this site and it's budget tool really helpful, though if you want to keep things simple just go into templates on Excel and search budget.

2. Make Menus
At the beginning of your pay cycle make a menu. You don't have to stick religiously to the menu, we don't, but try to include things you know everyone likes, that are easy to make, have leftovers and meals that use similar ingredients. That way if you decide you don't want to have spag bol you can still make hamburgers etc.

By writing up a menu you also limit the amount of stuff you don't need that ends up in the trolley

One of my favourite dirt cheap meals is dhal and rice, not the most vegetable filled food but still relatively good for you my favourite recipe is here. The good thing about it is I can make it at the start of the week and be eating it for lunch for the next 5 days

3. Think about the future.....
Ok so thinking within your next pay bracket is all well and good but like any goal you need to have something to strive for! Are you budgeting simply to keep food on the table or are you feeling like you need a whole overhaul of your finances? Do you have a large amount of personal debt amassed? Do you really want to take an overseas holiday? Saving for a new car/house? If you have something on the horizon to drive your budgeting you are much more likely to stick with it. It might seem dull and constraining to know that for the next 5 years all your spare money will be funneled into your mortgage, but take the time to look at how much you will be saving on interest and the free cash flow available when you reach the end of those five years.

Joel and I are saving towards our first home, we have a dedicated account the money goes into, neither of us are allowed to touch it and we made sure it was a high interest/low transaction fee account. We are driven to save because Joel wants a puppy and I want to be able to decorate and because the more we save the less we have to borrow.

4. Capitalize on what you already have
Do you have mad talents creating things? fixing things? Or do you have a lot of stuff just laying around? Turn your unwanted things and your talents into cash. Do you have space for a veggie garden at home? for a small investment you can grow your own food. Does your job have the capacity for overtime? take every opportunity you have to increase your income. Sacrifices now will have big pay-offs in the future. Take a cue from business thinking bring forward income and delay outgoings, if you think paying that big energy bill in one pay bracket is going to hurt big time don't be afraid to ask for an extension. Or better still see point number 1. Budgeting, break your bills up into manageable segments and put aside money for them each pay bracket .

We purchased rather than hired a lot of stuff for the wedding as it was going to work out roughly the same price. Now we are selling chairs etc along with furniture from our downsizing move. Though we are using the proceeds to buy new space saving furniture we are saving ourselves the outlay by 'recycling' the money.

Tiny and Tough

Don't get down about lack of money if you work hard it's not going to last forever and the best thing about it is the creativity it unleashes. Embrace that.

Anything Can Happen Friday's

2012-02-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

We all have those days/weeks/months where we are feeling blue or as Holly Golightly would put it 'you have a bad case of the mean reds' which are much worse than feeling blue and it's days like these that you need a Happy Attack

A Happy Attack: an envelope filled with happiness and love created by me :)

Fashion Thursdays

2012-02-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I dream about having the kind of lifestyle that would enable me head to the shops in a fabulous gown and sky high heels, do you ever feel the same way?

Polyvore

Btw I have just started using my Polyvore account so bear with me while I work out the kinks :)

Wedding Wednesdays

2012-02-14T17:10:00.000-08:00

In the wedding world right now: I am loving the union of Bleubird Vintage and her long time beau

I think you should all definitely check it out here and here oh and also here on 100 Layer Cake

I WANT YOU!

2012-02-13T02:26:00.000-08:00

Dear readers, (cue echo) are there any readers? my stats tell me yes but if there are any out there (if you were doing a rendition of Titanic people searching in the boats thing I mental high five you) you are most certainly not vocal...

Anyho how easily distracted I get, dear readers I want YOU to tell me what you would like to read about so I can make my content more enjoyable to read and look at (i.e. pretty pictures).

Would you like to see more DIY on a budget projects? simple solutions for party problems? my own financial experience (read: how to live on virtually nothing without starving)? weddings? pretty party dresses? great websites? cool houses? city guides?

PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE let me know what you think either by leaving a comment below or heading over to my facebook page and leaving some suggestions there.

I am literally dying to hear from you. Like really.

source

Flying high on your love.....

2012-02-10T17:36:00.000-08:00

Yep here it is. Bet you thought I would never get round to it. But. I. Did.

My own personal ideal way to spend Valentine's Day.... breakfast in bed - however if we are going to be honest it would not be pancakes but chocolate filled croissants on my breakfast tray with mint hot chocolate ...and marshmallows

But what I am about to share is VERY achievable if you are short on time/money/supplies

I have posted more photos on my facebook page here if you would like to take a look :)

Joel showed me how to make the paper planes - there are 20 of them and they don't take very long to make, the little paper flower is simply garden wire with a bit of yellow tissue paper wrapped around the end and a few cupcake wrappers pushed onto the wire (I used more wire to secure but hot glue would have been better). As always I used the Donna Hay pancake recipe (except no buttermilk and an added dash of vanilla essence).

Steak and Brownies

2012-02-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

As promised I will deliver two more simple, sweet, easy Valentine's day set-ups for you to take inspiration from this Valentine's Day! Today's comes from Joel's mind.... well sorta you see he wanted black napkins .... but we only had tons of white ones... and he said he would have real roses but well the budget just couldn't take that right now (btw my dozen flowers cost a grand total of $3.80 to make) so it's him but with a lotta me thrown in there...

be kind...

I apologise for the lack of photos but I was contending with waning natural light and two hungry boys wanting to get their hands on some delicious brownies....

For the food I made, yes from scratch ricotta (thanks to a cheesemaking course I went to with Joel's mum) with fig and honey, one slab of steak (from Joel's parent's farm) and brownies (Betty Crocker mix - I was feeling lazy) topped with peanut butter and marshmallow melted.

For more photos please feel free to head over to my Facebook page here, where I am also running a little fan drive with the poster I made for the other shoot as a prize

my final Valentine's day idea will be posted in the next few days so keep an eye out ;)

One Week Till Valentine's!!

2012-02-06T21:50:00.000-08:00

Alas no I do not have another table for you but I am working on both of them and will endeavor to post them before Valentine's Day itself!! I am oh so terrible but well I have been busy...busier.

Last week I spent a few days again up in the Blue Mountains a few hours from Sydney with my sisters (well 2 of them) we had a great time visiting the Norman Lindsey Gallery in Springwood and getting our nails done as well as taking the customary bushwalk.

If you have not yet been to the Norman Lindsey Gallery I strongly suggest it! It would even be an amazing place to get married (which I am told you are most welcome to do) the gardens like most historic houses up there are beautiful and dotted throughout are concrete sculptures made by Lindsey himself.

In case you were wondering that expanse of lawn that looks sunken is actually an old swimming pool that was built to the rear of the property - the steps lead right down into it. Imagine the stories that could be told about it!

As you aren't allowed to take photographs inside the gallery I can show you the gardens but not the house, but to some that is the best part. Lindsey was strongly influenced by mythology and his work is often quite erotic but he did also do some G-rated work including the Australian children's classic 'The Magic Pudding'.

A wedding there to me would probably look like some kind of Great Gatsby style lawn party or otherwise a bohemian festival with children everywhere and a bride with long flowing hair and a Grecian gown. Like the Everglades it is to me a place that I will never tire of visiting.

Spring Modcloth Wedding

2012-02-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

Last week - or was it the week before.... I had an awesome time putting together a little Pinterest board for the Spring ModCloth Wedding contest. You can see the conditions on the link to the blog post but basically it was find 20 pins (some from ModCloth) to makeup an 'idea' for a wedding. Here is a little idea of how I went....

sources: Mature de Force Earrings from Modcloth, Dance Instead of Walking Heel from Modcloth, Audrey Hepburn photographed by Cecil Beaton via Couture Millinery Atelier, Wedding Calligraphy by Hazel Wonderland, Vogue Australia February 2012 Cover via The Glitter Guide, Antique Opus Dress by Modcloth, Outdoor Oasis via Aged and Gilded, Florals Michael Costa via Ruffled, Florence & Florence Tea Ware via This is Glamorous, Donut French Toast on Dujour, Beau-tea-ful Suprise Mug in Owl from Modcloth, Madeline Mini Bloomers on Coletterie, Men in suits by Blair Getz Mezibov Robb Report via Blood & Co and finally romantic hair via Poppytalk

The winner/s (not sure how many) will receive a $100 Modcloth voucher which would be SO handy because MAMA NEEDS SOME NEW CLOTHES!!!

Valentine's Arrows

2012-01-27T13:15:00.000-08:00

Starting the morning off with a bang I can cross that first thing off my list! Now without further ado this is my first 'inspired shoot' (using that term very lightly I really have no idea what I am doing) you saw the mood board and now this is it... albeit missing a few things like my figs. That's just what happens when you have no money but no worries that means that everything below is potentially something you could do with a little bit of time and some creativity!

You like? please say 'yes', please say 'wow! that's great'

oh and just in case you were wondering it cost me $0 to make, warranted I do have an entire cabinet full of crafting goods but still pretty cheaply done.

The brown paper is all pattern making paper but I hear Woolworths has brown paper rolls for about $3, the 'All You Need Is Love' poster I made using black A4 card from Typo (unfortunately no longer available), my Cricut and a roll of white wrapping paper I had laying around. The hanging arrows were cut out of the little curly cardboard end of the wrapping paper roll hence why they won't lay flat and you can hardly tell they are arrows. I made the 'flowers' out of some Georgette type fabric from my stash and the runner was painted with watercolours (I took it up to my sister's after and we used it in the pass the parcel for my nephew's 6th birthday).

So there you have it my first attempt, hold out for next week's which will be delayed as I am off visiting again tomorrow!

black and beech

2012-01-26T19:59:00.000-08:00

I am completely without motivation lately. No idea why. I should be applying for jobs. Lots of them. But I am wandering through our little home cleaning and doing random bits and pieces. And looking for bar stools. And other bits of furniture....yes I am anal I wrote a list about it.

and since I was on a roll I wrote another list....

Just in case you were wondering 'off-peak' is in reference to our internet :)

And I found some stools I like... problem is they are a little on the $$$ side

The Catenary Bar Stool from Token via Contemporist

Replica Jean Prouve Bar Stool from Life Interiors

I am also loving these interiors and think I might paint the top of my Ikea stool black too...

The lamp I mentioned in my list is fingers crossed going to be a little like this....

Better Living Through Design

Except a floor lamp instead... Joel said he hates it so we shall see.

I also entered this Modcloth-Pinterest contest, you can see my entry here

So until tomorrow ciao!!

my apologies

2012-01-24T01:32:00.000-08:00

yes today WAS the day that I was supposed to be posting my Valentines day idea #1 but I have just returned from my nephews 6th birthday party and though I have compiled and 'shot' it all alas I have been using our internet just a little too much and we have reached our cap. But it does refresh in just a few days and I have been instructed by the hubby that uploading images of considerable size definitely has an impact and I must convert them to a lower res.... how else do we learn but through experience

so today I will share but one image that of my favourite sight from the train a beautiful house perched in the trees, solitary......

Monsters

2012-01-18T23:38:00.000-08:00

I'm still on the seemingly never-ending job hunt. Gosh it's fun. Not. But I guess it does give me time to do things like this..

it's a library bag for my nephew, still not sure if ribbon is too girly for a 6-year old boy but monsters are supposed to be pretty cool right? especially when they are white and furry and only have one eye.

Manes

2012-01-18T00:04:00.000-08:00

With a beautiful black ribbon tying my hair back in a pony tail, my thoughts turn to romantic hair.... for any old day or of course for Valentines Day.


source: Sanderson Images via Style Me Pretty via Lonely Afternoon

source: VS Photography via PrettyCityLife and Live Fast, Dress Pretty

Basically tousled waves, timeless and oh so pretty...

If you want to find some more ideas I suggest taking a look over at The Beauty Department or She Let's Her Hair Down

Or if you are looking for a new place to get your lovely locks done and you happen to live in Newcastle try out the newly opened Dollhouse Hair in King St just near the movie theatre

projects

2012-01-17T17:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a list and I accomplished things. It felt great. Today I have the things that I didn't get to do yesterday.... and I have accomplished nothing.

Well I did empty all my fabric onto my bed in effort to identify some new projects.

So I got white fur, a ton of tulle, lots of gingham, SO much blue upholstery fabric, black lace, odds and ends of patterned fabric, bright yellow silk, white jersey, white flannelette and a pile of failed or unfinished projects.

Now what should I do with it all? Because we really need the room...

Party in a Box

2012-01-16T16:55:00.000-08:00

Not really a New Year's resolution but more a thing that I want to do/follow through with this year is to try and make a big deal out of family birthdays.... as this little idea didn't pop in to my head until maybe a week ago unfortunately I have already missed a few so for you guys (you know who you are)....


Steph Loves Ben via Hip Hip Hooray

But I did start with my hilarious cousin who shall be known as 'the peanut-butter monster' on account of the awesome stories he used to tell us, he turned 40 and I made him a 'party in an envelope' complete with confetti etc. And as I had SO much fun making it (and I hope he had equal in opening it) I decided to take the idea a bit further after receiving a whole lot of empty Natio gift boxes.... so here goes

pity about that hideous power point in that last picture on my 'not New Year's resolutions list' is to become a better photographer... maybe also it should be to find a way to 'cover' power points. I also have been doing a little bit of paper flower making in attempt to find my favourite paper flower. The ones below come from Twigg Studios and Handmade by Sara Kim via Utterly Engaged, I ran out of glue half-way through the rose so it doesn't look as full as it should and the larger one I think would look better if you went from outside to in and using more 'petals' more tightly 'scrunched'.

The next one I would love to tackle has been making its way around Pinterest is this giant crepe paper rose featured on Green Wedding Shoes. Do you have a favourite paper flower tutorial you would love to share?

But today I have a list to follow and unfortunately that is not on it... soon my pretty

Bon Voyage

2012-01-15T00:38:00.000-08:00

today we said goodbye to our two great friends who are moving 6 hours away to that distant corner of NSW. We will miss them both SO much!!

so in effort to fill the rest of the day I have been crafting.... as there is no light like natural light you will just have to wait till tomorrow to find out what. I will however say that it involves my new Cricut machine which I got for Christmas.

In the meantime I think that you should take a look at Issue Number #17 of Utterly Engaged, it is filled with immeasurable beauty

Mexican Fiesta and Christmas Feast

2012-01-13T22:54:00.000-08:00

so I have been a little hesitant about posting these pictures we took over Christmas on account of them being so terrible.... I am not a good photographer nor it seems is Joel and the fact that we were using tarps as sun-shades has resulted in a 'delightful' blue tinge being cast over everything. One thing I can say though is that you learn from experience, or at least I will endeavor to.

We wanted to keep things simple as it was Christmas Eve and none of us wanted to spend Christmas Day taking decorations down. Joel's mother made the table runner from fabric bought at Spotlight and we just used plastic tablecloths, plates and cutlery (cheap, quick and easy). The food was AMAZING we had cajun drumsticks, mexican grilled corn and burritos (SO GOOD). You can see the mini pinatas I made at the end of the table they were so simple to make, though I always seem to make pinatas that never get smashed. Overall it was a really relaxed simple evening.

we had eggs, bacon and french toast for brekky - total egg overload

you can see the effect of the blue tarp in these pics (yuck) again we went really simple (and cheap) I made the bon bons myself using this tutorial over on Design*Sponge and the tassel garland was another DIY from over on The Sweetest Occasion, we got the deer from Spotlight and the white lanterns are Ikea of course leftover from the wedding, the giant red one was actually Joel's Christmas present to his mother but we thought it would look good on the table anyway. We used random plants including ivy and something unknown that happened to have red berry like things to nestle in with the napkins they looked pretty cute and lunch you will see above was yes cooked on the BBQ too. Joel was the master of the BBQ on both occasions and did an amazing job.

breakfast in bed

2012-01-10T17:02:00.000-08:00

I apologise for my sporadic posting of late... no excuses this is 2012 people!! so in effort to keep it up (even if I feel like I have nothing to say) I will share with you my thoughts on the next Valentines idea I have in mind.

lack colour

oh yes it is the lovely Marilyn again. Breakfast in bed surely that is what everybody wants this Valentines Day not roses, not chocolate, nor fancy dinners, lingerie etc etc (well unless of course these gifts come with breakfast and served in bed) I just want to be served my favourite meal of the day in bed without having to lift a finger.

and what might that be....

maybe these delicious looking chocolate croissants from Dishing the Divine
i personally LOVE the Donna Hay pancake recipe with a dash of vanilla but this one looks pretty rad too
or could this version of heart attack inducing eggs benedict be your heaven

I think even a simple slice of jam toast and mug of strong coffee would take the cake this year

what would be your ideal breakfast in bed? post a comment below

welcome to our humble abode

2012-01-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

we had pancakes for breakfast this morning

Joel's mum gave him a pancake/crepe pan with heart shape moulds, cute and tasty

As he walked out the door to go and work on his car he asked me what I was up to today... he joked that I would probably just spend the whole day on the computer. So in effort to quash that theory I have spent the day cleaning our little home. It is not yet picture ready though. Joel still has a pile of boxes in a corner that will eventually go on/in his desk and we desperately need another bookshelf. So just in case you were wondering this is my pathetic attempt at drawing a floorplan (I took a Computer Aided Drafting course in high school, computers make everything easy-peasy)

yeah so it's pretty small right? but the kitchen is amazing and it is perfect for just the two of us (a bit more storage wouldn't go astray - and we would stay for years if it had a balcony). You might notice that there actually isn't a door of any kind separating the bedroom, this isn't really a problem with just us but I am looking into a few different ways I might be able to string some sheer curtains across the divide (we still have plenty left from the wedding).

We both also need bedsides, in the other houses we just used two antique huon pine chairs that were too fragile to sit on but now we will need furniture that does heaps - like store things AND hold lamps etc. The problem is my side of the bed has a measly gap of 14inches and nothing (from Ikea at least) will fit there. The rear lounge wall has been meticulously plotted out to fit a desk (custom-built by Joel) along with our existing white Expedit bookcase and another smaller Expedit bookcase like this one!

source

we might even do something like this to cover all the ugly games/cords etc

source: Ikea Hackers

Add two bar stools at the island bench - we can't decide on any yet but don't have the funds anyway so will stick to using my Bekvam step stool (ok I LOVE ikea I can't help it I'm a uni student) and maybe a hat/scarf/umbrella rack and we will be done, well there is the small matter of the bathroom but that's another story....

from one holiday to the next

2012-01-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

while shopping the other day we noticed that the supermarket had started making hot cross buns again.... yep they just keep pushing from one thing to the next, so I thought I might do the same....

i am going to attempt to embark on creating and shooting 3 Valentine's Day tables (I was just going to do 2 but then I asked Joel his opinion on them and he came up with his own other idea) as I am pretty bad, nay terrible at completing things I will do my best to not get sidetracked etc and to keep me on the straight and narrow I have given myself dates on which the tables MUST be blogged! as Valentine's falls on a Tuesday this year (in Australia) I will be posting them on the 3 Tuesday's beforehand i.e. the 24th Jan, 31st Jan and 7th Feb.

Feel free to scold me if they aren't.

They will be based on the following (in no particular order); arrows, hearts and Joel's idea

I am feeling pretty good about my 'arrow' concept table and have even done a mood board and drawing to plan it out - here's a bit of a peek

1. Tile Pendant Jewellery on Etsy 2. vol25 on Etsy 3. Sasha Prood via SeaSaw 4. Little House in the Suburbs

It's going to be dark and moody and fun to create - you also might notice that it doesn't look anything like a 'traditional' Valentines table might, I think that's going to be the best thing about it :)

Happy 2012

2012-01-04T18:18:00.000-08:00

ok so it's been a while... i know yep terrible way to start 2012 but better late than never right?

so you might have guessed we didn't quite complete all the activities we had intended but here is a quick recap...

yep we failed though for second Christmas with my family Joel made a sweet one will show pics soon

so 16 out of 25 ain't bad right?? right?? ok so it's not so good but we gave it a shot and that's what matters :)

December 22nd

2011-12-21T22:52:00.000-08:00

we still are without the internet!! crummy i know so here is a quick little update on our Christmas 25 I don't think we will finish it before Christmas but I will give it a damn good try!! and I think that is the important thing so without further ado here are so more lines through my list...

~~1. Make eggnog~~
2. Make a gingerbread house
~~3. Make and send Christmas cards~~
4. Make Christmas presents
~~5. Decorate Tree~~
6. Sew a tree ruffle
~~7. Joel make Emma amazing creative dinner on BBQ (his idea)~~ - no pics :(
~~8. Spend a day in Sydney~~ - to Ikea!!
~~9. Watch a Christmas movie~~
~~10. Brew amazing coffee~~ (well we drank some)
~~11. Brew/make amazing hot chocolate~~
~~12. Go to the farmer's markets~~
13. Go to the beach (this should be easy once we move YAY)
14. Do the Bather's Walk
15. Visit the Hunter Valley region
~~16. Eat seafood~~
~~17. Have a Christmas party~~ - if 5 people count as a party
~~18. Have a waterfight~~ - if walking back from the train station in torrential rain counts
19. Play a sport in the park
20. Fly kites
~~21. Watch the carols~~
22. Be selfless!!
23. Play a board game
24. Make stockings
25. Slow dance to 'Dreaming of a White Christmas' on Christmas Eve

Day 16

2011-12-15T18:59:00.000-08:00

So Christmas is a little over a week away... WHY DOES IT HAVE TO COME UP SO QUICK?? can you tell I am freaking out about my lack of organization etc so thought I would do a quick check of my Christmas 25 list as my Mother-in-law says there is nothing better than ticking items off a list....

~~1. Make eggnog~~
2. Make a gingerbread house
~~3. Make and send Christmas cards~~
4. Make Christmas presents
~~5. Decorate Tree~~
6. Sew a tree ruffle
7. Joel make Emma amazing creative dinner on BBQ (his idea)
8. Spend a day in Sydney
~~9. Watch a Christmas movie~~
10. Brew amazing coffee
~~11. Brew/make amazing hot chocolate~~
12. Go to the farmer's markets
13. Go to the beach (this should be easy once we move YAY)
14. Do the Bather's Walk
15. Visit the Hunter Valley region
~~16. Eat seafood~~
17. Have a Christmas party
18. Have a waterfight
19. Play a sport in the park
20. Fly kites
21. Watch the carols
22. Be selfless!!
23. Play a board game
24. Make stockings
25. Slow dance to 'Dreaming of a White Christmas' on Christmas Eve

so it doesn't really look like much does it.... well it probably isn't but I feel I need to flesh out a few things on here.... you see I don't want it to be an excuse more I just don't want to tick it off until I am COMPLETELY done.

You see we have technically been to the beach, a few times actually but I didn't take any pictures so I don't want to cross it off yet. Also I have half-made several presents including the envelope clutch below....

I am not 100% happy with it... I used a heavy upholstery fabric I had laying around and thought it would maintain the stiffness but alas it is... floppy and short of undoing it all and inserting plastic or card into it there is not much I can do.. it also still needs a button or clasp of some kind. And I also have been spending way too much time on making my tree ruffle. By god it better be worth it when it's done because it is driving a severe wedge between me and my sewing machine. I have also sewn 6 out of 8 of the stockings so getting there...luckily there is an amazing fish and chip shop down the road serving not gourmet but definitely delicious seafood thank-you number 16!

We are going to the carols tonight and perhaps in the morning I can convince Joel to take a walk along the Bather's Way with me (thank-you number 14 and 21)

jackie v marilyn

2011-12-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

I have been hesitating completing this post as it it my 100th and I feel as if I should do something special... I just don't know what.

However lately I have been consumed with the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis v Marilyn Monroe subject. There are many articles on the subject and I first became fixated on the comparison after the episode of Mad Men in which they are tasked with coming up with a new campaign for Playtex read a little about it here. Joan of course is in her own class.

source: Rebecca Horgan and Everything PR

Vanity Fair have shared a quiz taken from Pamela Keogh's book 'Are you a Jackie or a Marilyn', I didn't take the quiz but have always identified myself as the Marilyn type of girl. I am blonde, curvaceous and growing up it was her style that I would seek to mimic, I think all my sisters are 'Marilyn's', two in particular are overtly sexual whether they acknowledge it or not. The second oldest however maybe be a little more Jackie.


Source: Pretty Stuff by Patterson Maker

source: Gabsy:Gabsy

I know a lot of women do not like to be 'labelled' but I feel there is a distinct societal division between these two types of women and the more movies/TV etc I watch the more this belief is intensified. Take for example two of my favourite 'girly' TV shows Gossip Girl and The OC the two strong female leads in these programs can distinctively be categorised as either a 'Marilyn' or a 'Jackie'.


source: Entertainment Blog and Fly and Mighty

Marissa Cooper instantly attracts all kinds of male (and female) attention in the show and in true 'Marilyn' style manages to self-destruct several times before her death at the hands of ex-boyfriend Volchuk, Summer the sweet little brunette starts out as a bit of a b*tch but by the end of the series her efforts to save animals great and small land her squarely in the 'Jackie' corner. In similar style Gossip Girl's Serena with a wave of her beautiful long blonde locks sends men in a craze all the while drinking herself silly and forever searching for her absent father (did the writer's base her character off Marilyn??) but her best friend Blair has visions of becoming a powerful ruler (by royalty or politics) and is always perfectly dressed ready to step in as First Lady (or Princess), sound familiar?

And then I realised it didn't just begin there... remember Dawson's Creek? Michelle Williams (Jen) and Katie Holmes (Joey) started practicing for their respective roles as Marilyn and Jackie on the teen drama


source: Listal

the list could go on forever but what is it about blonde trainwrecks and brunette homemakers that is so attractive in popular culture? any ideas let me know... back to Christmas stuff next time

eggnog and chocolately goodness

2011-12-07T17:53:00.001-08:00

so it's been a few days, we still are yet to have a phone line in our apartment, let alone the internet connected so I have been taking the short walk to the University City Campus to get my internet fix. Still applying for jobs and catching up on my social networking and blogs. But I have actually been productive of sorts....though we have not been doing a Christmas activity every day, however it looks like most of them will be able to be accomplished jointly.

This week I made some bread...

yep still addicted to my Instagram app...the bread was tasty as but I think it either took too long or too short a time to rise as it was a little yeasty (according to the recipe rising time has some part in this). Joel also made some coconut rough 'blobs'

they are tasty especially with the eggnog we made (number one on the list) to share with our lovely friends Yas and Scott

this morning Joel and I then shared in a decadent hot chocolate made with milk and an entire block of 70% dark chocolate... Joel said it was too sweet and seems to have decided to go on a health kick - not the easiest time of year to do so... but that ticks off number 11.

i am still trying to figure out what to do for my 'be selfless' activity but Jessica from The Wedding Designer shared this little gem, now it's just a matter of waiting for something close by to pop up :)

we are still not yet fully moved in with no lounge and no bed as yet but i hope everything will be clean, tidy, organised etc by Monday.... fingers crossed

running a little behind....

2011-12-02T20:11:00.001-08:00

so it is the 3rd of December and we are already running a little behind on our Christmas 25!!!
due to complications involving Christmas decorations (and I guess the fact that we have been moving!) number 5. Decorate the Tree has been completed!

as you might have noticed I have been going a little crazy with the Instagram app on my iPhone (smashed screen and all it still works great!) I also don't know where I stashed the actual camera in the move....

these awesome stars are made from the left over pages of my copy of Wuthering Heights which I took apart for the wedding, the tutorial came from this page here, and despite the instructions being in another language I think we did pretty well - though if you are looking for a simple project this is probably not for you. by the way if any family members happen to be reading and are wondering what to get me for Christmas see below :)

source: Papergrain

We did also have intentions of doing lots of other decorations but so far have had no luck and the stars ended up so huge that you probably don't want too much more on the tree anyway.... but we have been attempting these string balls.....

I guess we didn't 'lube' the balls up enough (c'mon guys be more mature) because when we popped the balloons the balls just kinda collapsed but no matter we are going to give it another try tonight then hopefully they will look like these...


source: Wednesday via Ruffled

and tonight we will just have to tackle two things off the list instead of one! given our current proximity to the beach number 13. should be pretty easy and I plan on sewing the tree ruffle to finish off the tree so that will knock off number 6.

still moving...

2011-12-01T14:39:00.001-08:00

my home count has now bumped up to 12. But we are now living amongst the cool kids. Near the beach, and we are decidedly not yet cool enough to be there but give us time.

Maybe if we bake all our neighbours yummy Devil's Food Cake like this one here we will be slightly cooler... though I think our use of cake mix over organic/free-range etc ingredients might bring us down

I did make the icing though and Joel is proving to be pretty handy at icing cakes and taking photos. There might still be some cool left in us.

1st December

2011-11-28T13:51:00.001-08:00

Unlike all the stores around who believe that Christmas begins immediately after the tax-time sales (which occur directly after Easter, which occurs directly after New Year's, apparently) I believe it begins on the 1st of December. Obviously we all freak out about the money pit that it creates, the family induced stress etc but mainly it's a whole lot of fun and the one time of year that you get to throw party after party and eat delicious food without considering the consequences.

So without further ado I present our 2011 Christmas Tree!

.........but wait there is no tree....because we are moving
but we did put a tree up it just isn't very pretty at the moment so maybe this afternoon I will take a pic. The tree is apart of our Christmas 25.

You see while I was over on Design Sponge a few weeks back I noticed a link to the Anthology Magazine 2011 Winter Gift Guide, if you turn to page 22 you will find a lovely little article from Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day who if you read my blog regularly you might notice I LOVE! well she has a nice little idea to replace traditional chocolates/gifts found in an Advent calender with activities.

One which I intend to steal. So 25 days of Christmas activities in no particular order.

1. Make eggnog
2. Make a gingerbread house
3. Make and send Christmas cards
4. Make Christmas presents
5. Decorate Tree
6. Sew a tree ruffle
7. Joel make Emma amazing creative dinner on BBQ (his idea)
8. Spend a day in Sydney
9. Watch a Christmas movie
10. Brew amazing coffee
11. Brew/make amazing hot chocolate
12. Go to the farmer's markets
13. Go to the beach (this should be easy once we move YAY)
14. Do the Bather's Walk
15. Visit the Hunter Valley region
16. Eat seafood
17. Have a Christmas party
18. Have a waterfight
19. Play a sport in the park
20. Fly kites
21. Watch the carols
22. Be selfless!!
23. Play a board game
24. Make stockings
25. Slow dance to 'Dreaming of a White Christmas' on Christmas Eve

colour palette of my dreams

2011-11-27T17:20:00.001-08:00

To some my tastes are pedestrian, boring etc etc and there are those who will not appreciate this colour palette for that reason. But I LOVE neutrals. That is not to say that I don't like a bright colour every now and then but I think colours become easily dated. Neutrals will always look finished, clean and classy.

And so here it is the colour palette of my dreams.

image from Trine Thorson via The Style Files

Mexican Fiesta

2011-11-26T23:50:00.001-08:00

Along with the epic-ness that is going to be Christmas it is also going to be Joel's brother's 21st birthday. Now I would imagine it would suck to be a young bloke and to have your birthday fall every year on THE biggest holiday of the year. You might want to hang out with friends have a beer etc but you just can't.... so we will be throwing him a 'Mexican Fiesta' style birthday bash. Where did this idea come from? Well we had originally planned just having a dinner in his honor on Christmas Day and I remembered how he always went on about burritos so a fiesta seemed perfect. Now the dinner has escalated to a party and will be held on Christmas Eve

We intend on setting up the tents for Christmas Day early so they will be up and ready to go, we just need a few decorations....


source: Marianne Wilson Photography via Green Wedding Shoes


source: Oh Happy Day


source: Martha Stewart and Aaron Delesie via Style Me Pretty via Always Andri Wedding Design

Source: Joielala Photography by Couture Events on Green Wedding Shoes


Source: Victor C Sizemore Photography by Details, Details via Style Me Pretty

Source: Sutherland Kovach Studio via Style Me Pretty

I think a Mexican theme is great fun, basically just throw in as much colour as you can! and even better you can easily get away with colourful paper plates and cutlery etc. We know someone who runs a Mexican takeaway shop so might look into getting that yummy Mexican food from him or otherwise find as many pre-prepared things as possible to heat etc before serving. Yum, hope he enjoys it!

Christmas Table

2011-11-26T17:04:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I wrote a post about our Christmas menu today I will take it one step further and let you in on what my inspiration is for our table setting...

Now given my current financial state of not being employed and all it will of course be cheap and rely on things we already have. Luckily I got married in September so there is a huge amount of 'stuff' available (benefits of buy over hire kick in).

I wouldn't say I am a lover of traditional Christmas, use see it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me living in Australia where a white Christmas only occurs if you happen to live in far north Queensland or coastal Western Australia and the white you are seeing is not snow but sand. So as always with my 'boring' taste our Christmas will be simple and have a base colour scheme of white. Because others will surely disagree I have decided to add to that wonderful colour of white the following; gold, cream and green. I think it's a wonderfully fresh palette.


source: created by Stuart of What Wilson Wants


source: DIY Oversized Fabric Chandelier by Elsie on A Beautiful Mess and the Martha Stewart Christmas Workshop


source: Kate Harrison via Green Wedding Shoes


source: Scott Andrew Studio via Enjoy Events Co.


Source: Cakes by My Sweet and Saucy, Braedon Flynn via Grey Likes Weddings

source: Jennifer Eileen Photography via Forget Me Knot Weddings and Enjoy Events Co.

Yep so that's pretty much it... we plan on setting up two of our 3x3m tents in the backyard, using some of the Ikea Lill Curtains we purchased for the wedding, with two of the folding trestle tables purchased from Bunnings and the dining chairs that Joel and I recovered. From the top of each of the tents I will string the DIY Fabric Chandeliers (above) but instead of using an old baking tray and twinkle lights i might simplify it, using the lights we created for the wedding. I wish with all my heart I could have the dinner set I have been searching for but both money and local availability are working against me. I plan on using the gold crowns (with name inscribed in bottom corner) as place names and though i haven't got either pictured was thinking about painting a gold edge on some glasses we have and if i can find it 'gold-glittering' some deer (got to have something Christmasey).

Hopefully I can pull it together how I envisage it....

BBQ Christmas Menu

2011-11-26T15:56:00.001-08:00

So it's less than a month till Christmas. Wow this year has certainly flown by super fast. We have moved 3 times, we got married, I learnt French, I lost weight, I put weight back on. Intense.

But back to the good stuff, Christmas Lunch, Joel and I were supposed to be hosting Christmas at our place this year but well I have to tell you now we got a new place. You like my choice of words there right? 'place' note not a house we are moving into 'town' into an apartment/flat/unit (apparently they are all the same thing) which is really like a studio apartment but anyway pictures later. The point is it's incredibly small and we can barely fit our lounge in there let alone dining table and 20 people so we will be hosting it but not at our house. This means that we are forced to use the unsanitary kitchen belonging to Joel's Grandfather. Unspeakable things have gone on in that kitchen so a simple clean would not satisfy even the grubbiest person thus we tried to come up with a menu that uses the kitchen as little as possible.

So we have all courtesy of the Taste website (I downloaded their Taste Summer App and that's how I found these goodies) Barbecued Butterflied Lamb, Honey Parsnips and Carrots and Barbequed Mushrooms and Asparagus. For good measure I will also add the Warm Potato and Chive Salad which we had at our wedding and I had also contemplated making this amazing Caprese Salad from What Katie Ate but decided that it wouldn't go too well with my no-fuss Christmas Lunch.

We will drink these Christmas Caipirinhas and for dessert we will have a simple fruit salad because I am sure there will be plenty of naughty stuff around to snack on.

The best thing about it all is it's also relatively non-fuss, especially if you get someone else to butterfly the lamb for you, the trickiest part will be peeling and chopping carrots and by using the BBQ you tend to get the males more involved in the process, leaving me more time to do things like laying the table. :)

The Best Things in Life....

2011-11-24T04:22:00.001-08:00

....contain sugar

as in dessert isn't it the best thing in the world? my ultimate personal favourite thing is a big warm croissant with melted chocolate jammed in the middle.

However at the wedding I don't know I guess this wasn't appropriate.... so instead we had icecream :)

That was the one big fun splurge we made at the wedding, hiring an ice-cream truck it was Joel's idea and we decided it would be the one thing we wouldn't tell everyone (i am horrible at keeping secrets). It was pretty awesome and a lot cheaper than you might think so I would highly recommend it. However they were pretty hard to find, after a lot of googling I emailed one guy who was booked out but gave me the contact details for other vans in the area, strangely enough though it was on this business for sale listing which I found our van.

Isabella from the Treats Kiosk was so very lovely and helpful and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a van on the mid-north coast, when we had less people than anticipated they even contacted me after the wedding to give us a refund!

All they needed was a power outlet and they were ready to go, though the kids enjoyed it, I think it was the oldies who really loved it. Joel's Uncle in particular saying how great it was reminding him of his childhood.

Of course we did have a few other things for dessert namely our wonderful wedding cake made by Joel's Aunt with a recipe given to me by my friend Jayde. It was a three tier cake of dark-choc mud, white-choc mud and caramel mud cake with Italian meringue buttercream icing, decorated with fresh flowers and perched on a tree round we found left over from the forestry. We had planned to have ganache between all the layers but instead arranged to have bowls of ganache ready to pour on for those who wanted an extra kick of chocolate. OMG it was amazing so rich, so much chocolate and of course it looked so pretty and simple.

The birds that we used as a cake topper Joel and I purchased from Bed, Bath and Table (pretty much our favourite homewares store) it was one of those cute relaxed shopping times before the wedding and they now sit on our dressing table in the bedroom (well not at the moment as we are still homeless). We also had a trifle of sorts made from profiteroles that had been originally intended for a tower but unfortunately didn't quite work out as planned.... though with a ton of cream and ganache they tasted pretty darn amazing. I must say a giant thank-you to Joel's Aunt who put in a mammoth effort for the wedding making my bouquet, the wedding cake, and also numerous other things. She was just one of the many people who helped out immensely in order to make our day what it was :)

source: Moikka Paper via Oh So Beautiful Paper

social media

2011-11-22T00:23:00.001-08:00

Stepford is getting up with the times!

this is just a short post to say I have created a small Facebook page in the name of Stepford you can find it here

in the meantime enjoy this lovely little gem from the mouth of Betty Draper (now Francis) of Mad Men and I will get back to studying for my tax final (which is tomorrow eek!!) and then I will be able to finish my post from the other day about wait for it.... dessert YUM

source: i am not morrissey on tumblr

procrastination 101 - Wedding Catering

2011-11-18T03:10:00.001-08:00

my last exam for the year 'Issues in Taxation' is on Wednesday, we handed the keys on Friday we are moved out! no excuses MUST study... but no instead I think I will write about the catering we did at the wedding....

I remember when we first decided (quite early on in the piece) that we would self-cater I trawled the internet (as you do) for all different types of recipes etc we could use, tips on catering, quantities, waitstaff etc etc. We went from finger food, to brunch, to afternoon tea (my ultimate fave but my mother insisted no more sweet stuff!) and then we thought well maybe a ploughman's lunch would be ideal.

According to the ever 'dependable' Wikipedia a Ploughman's Lunch is described as "a cold snack or meal originating in the United Kingdom...sometimes served in sandwich form, composed of cheese, cooked ham slices, pickle/relish, apples, pickled onion, salad leaves, bread and butter." which was essentially what we served at our garden wedding as afternoon tea.

If you came across this Polka Dot Bride post I apologise I am going to repeat the images which are courtesy of Mike and Amy Photographers because unfortunately I was a little busy smooching my new husband and missed out on seeing all the lovely food properly dished up.

We originally considered having the food bought out in two stages so we would not miss out on seeing it all laid out while we were having our bridal shots done. I am not quite sure how it ended up happening on the day but Joel's mother made sure we had a special basket to nibble from while our photos were being taken and then also when we reached the reception we had our own special tray of goodies. The original plan however was to begin with an assortment of fresh fruits - I can't tell you the exact quantity we bought because we were so worried about not having enough that whenever someone went into town we asked them to grab some more.

I can tell you we had at least two big boxes left over after the wedding (no strawberries left of course) so we must have started with quite a bit.

Also you might have noticed in the above picture the blueberries are in a Christmas cup we still have no idea how this came about. The remainder of the fruit was displayed in the lovely wicker baskets procured by my sister from various op-shops.

We purchased all the bread from an organic sourdough bakery in Bellingen called 'Hearthfire Bakery', we got about 20 baguettes, 10 ciabatta and 10 rustic white loaves (maybe more I lost my spreadsheet) but all for about $150. It was delicious and again we had too much left over.

The cheeses came from the Hunter Valley Growers Market in Charlestown, they were by far the most expensive aspect of the food and therefore probably warranted a bit more investigation in retrospect. Here is a breakdown of what we got:

- 2.4kg Jarlsberg
- 3.4kg Wyke Farms Village Oak
- 2kg King Island Seal Bay Triple Cream Brie
- 2kg Blumello 60%
- 2kg South Cape Camembert

We had some shenanigans with our order and the 'piece de resistance' black beer and goat's milk cheese did not make it to the store in time so we had to substitute what little they had with the ordinary goat's milk (Manchago). I was also worried that we wouldn't have enough and sent a wonderful helper to get some more Camembert and Brie from a local deli (meaning we had a total of 4kg each). Again not really needed many of our guests were sent home with a little cheese package and we only just finished off the Wyke Farms block of Vintage Cheddar (it was SO good)

My lovely mother ensured we had the yummiest butter to spread on our bread and lashed out buying a couple of blocks of Harmonie Organic Butter and in the months leading up to the wedding collected various chutney and relishes (both homemade and shop bought), Caramelised Onion Relish being our favourite I still have a few stray jars left to eat now.

For cold meat we had a selection of roast beef, roast turkey and ham (about 3kgs of each.... until I sent someone out for just a little bit more). The beef came from a cow raised on the property and roasted by Joel's Aunt the week before the wedding, while the turkey and ham came from both Woolworths and a local butcher. Joel and I took a whole lot of this left over meat on our honeymoon making for a pretty yummy table picnic.

Of course we did also have a selection of salads I estimated about 3-4 times for each recipe and had three in total. There were no pictures taken of these but these were the recipes I found - I believe they may have taken liberties with all three for simplicity


Surburban Tomato - Garden Salad

Jo Cooks - Mediterranean Cous Cous Salad


Tastefood - Warm Potato and Chive Salad

From what I gather the Warm Potato and Chive Salad was a crowd pleaser and when I made it at home a couple of weeks later it was pretty tasty and by using small potatoes cooked in their skin it looks lovely too. The Cous Cous Salad however we had mountains left of so probably didn't need to make so much because it was a) filling and b) not the normal fare for the crowd

Ultimately we had pretty good reports off everyone and though it could have been better in terms of organisation (i.e. we had planned to have all bowls etc labelled so our helpers would know what was intended for what but time was pretty tight towards the end) I think we did pretty well for amateur caterers.

I should also mention that we hired an additional two fridges making four in total and also hired 3 waiters from the local TAFE along with 2 friends of Joel's mother to handle things during the reception.

This post is super long and I have Joel in my ear telling me I should be studying so dessert will have to wait :)

DIY Christmas Gifts

2011-11-17T03:20:00.001-08:00

we hand the keys in to our old house tomorrow. thank god.

however fitting the contents of a large house into a single garage is quite challenging and we literally have no room to move. it will be great once we find another house we can make into a home but I am pretty disheartened at the moment about the odds of finding something pretty, in a good location and within our price range.

but enough of that I have finally figured what I will make for my nephews for my DIY Christmas this year (yep everything must be DIY). I cannot take credit for this idea yet again but it is pretty cool and if I was a 10 or 6 year old boy (particularly brothers) I think I would love these....

source: Bryan Ku via Handmade Charlotte

yep pillow fight weapons - super cool, Joel and I both decided that the light saber though awesome would be useless in a pillow fight so I might give either the sword or the axe a go. I had plans to use some old pillows as filler but Joel thinks its gross (they go on our spare bed so I don't know why) the best thing is we have a plethora of fabric out there to use all for $0 ..... now just have to figure out where we put my sewing machine amongst all the cr*p

the words escape me..

2011-11-15T21:01:00.001-08:00

I had a job interview yesterday at Wittner. It did not go well. You know those ones were they say 'I'll call you' but you both know that the chances of you working there are as good as a cat becoming an opera singer. Well that was it.

I had come from an exam, moving house and a badly timed argument with the hubby so I guess my frame of mind would have contributed to my less than stellar performance. I wore my white Wittner tack peep toe shoes (the ones I wore on my wedding day) and a grey Sportscraft shift dress my hair was 'perfectly coiffed' and I had just the right amount of make-up and perfume on. Yet I failed to impress.

Why is it that the words that would be perfect only come to you in the moments after they are needed. She asked 'why shoes not apparel' I made up some bogus long-winded blah before I said 'I always plan my outfit around my shoes' I probably should have lead with that adding 'I am an excellent sewer, I can make my own clothes but shoes are beyond my capability'.

After looking at my previous work experience she asked why I would like retail over hospitality.... wow this one should have been easy - you don't have to deal with chefs, late nights, sore, aching legs, not so good wages, stability etc etc I said because I thought the people were nicer.... which somehow managed to get us on the tangent that no in fact retail people were horrible, I don't know whether she was baiting me to start some kind of bitching session or not but either way it was to neither of our benefits.

I guess at least it prepared me a little for any future shoe store interviews I might attend and also I guess if there is someone out there Googling 'Wittner Job Interview' as I was doing yesterday it might be helpful

source

Garden Wedding

2011-11-15T03:12:00.001-08:00

Our wedding was finally posted on the Polka Dot Bride website!! you can find a link here...

in the meantime here is a little pic of my nieces and I

again photos courtesy of Amy from Mike and Amy Photographers

we are still moving house at the moment so I will get back to regular posting soon enough. :)

feeling wrecked

2011-11-13T03:08:00.001-08:00

I'm finding it difficult to even string a few words together this evening but I will give it a go. Yesterday I had my first exam, it was French I managed to do a bit of study but as always it is never enough, I am hoping rather than believing I will pass. On Tuesday I will have an exam for Corporate Finance, I am currently listening to the lectures and trying not to fall asleep. Market efficiency, mergers and acquisitions and all that other 'interesting' stuff, Joel is currently in the removal truck delivering a load to the other house. We have been working our butts off all day and we are all beyond exhausted but unfortunately there is still just one more load to go, I was given a break to 'study' but to be honest I think my brain is fried and nothing meaningful will sink in at all.

this is a little how i feel....

source: a well traveled woman via Lindsey Burleson on Pinterest

Remembrance Day

2011-11-10T21:52:00.001-08:00

The 11th of the 11th, today in Australia we observe Remembrance Day, a day to remember fallen soldiers. So in commemoration I decided to bake a batch of ANZAC biscuits.

An ANZAC was a member of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the ANZAC biscuit is a crunchy delicious morsel of food made by Australian women during the war to send to overseas troops.

As my brother-in-law pointed out it is not actually ANZAC Day but none the less I think the ANZAC biscuit is appropriate.

So presenting the humble ANZAC Biscuit....

I used my trusty Donna Hay Classics 2 cook book for the recipe though they are pretty much the same everywhere you go. You will see that they flatten quite a bit and according to the boys are best if only cooked for a short time and eaten straight away - I like them both ways. When I first started using this recipe I read the ingredients but then just threw them all into a bowl disregarding the melting butter and golden syrup part... they were still good and I found that margarine not butter helped them hold their shape.

But.... these ones are the bomb and if flat biscuits are not something you are into you could try refrigerating the mixture for 5 mins or so before putting them in the oven
But you should definitely make 2 batches

cleaning

2011-11-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

yesterday we spent the entire day from sun up to sun down cloistered in the Grandfather's garage cleaning. It was quite horrific, he is one of those older gentlemen who for lack of a better more socially appropriate word 'hoards'. He also has a chicken coop in the back garden, so I bet you can guess what that means.... or if you can't yep one huge disgusting pest problem.

You see when you live on the coast in Australia you have to kind of expect cockroaches, you use all manner of pest control to get rid of them, fumigate the house etc etc but they will never be completely gone, but at his house it's a whole new ballgame. The combination of birds, hoarding and two men who have no real concept of picking up after themselves makes for one massive orgy of pests, they have cockroaches galore, mice/rats, possums and yep we found termites in the garage.... big problem

As Joel and I kinda respect our stuff... alot you can imagine we are a little wary of moving it in there, so before we do we gotta get on top of that pest problem. Luckily we convinced the Grandfather to let us get a skip... a long overdue plan and we are tossing a whole lot of stuff out - he might even let us in the house who knows we have it for 7 days. And then we can tackle that horrendous pest problem.

So when we got home all tired, smelly and feeling like a wash down with a high pressure cleaner was in order it filled me with hope and excitement to see the following Ikea Family catalog in the mail.
Oh how lovely and clean all the interiors look!

christmas hearts

2011-11-08T03:12:00.000-08:00

... they're not finished but today I sewed 10 hearts for our Christmas tree. I used some of the leftover taffeta from my wedding dress (we have SO much left) and some thin white ribbon I found laying around, they still need to be ironed and stuffed and the little hole hand stitched along with attaching the ribbon... but it shouldn't take too long and I still need to buy some hobby fill

I also decided to do a cull of our cheap decorations... this is what I ended up with... i tried to keep it a small pile but it wasn't too hard... not sure what I might do with them yet... I think I might spray all the baubles one colour and then use them all as decorations on gifts... who knows

and finally this is my reasoning behind the scatter brain... yep moving, back into Joel's Grandads house because we are having a lot of trouble finding a new place. it sucks.

and to add crushing rejection to crushing rejection i am looking for a job.

yep really not loving life today

what to do...

2011-11-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

... with my life... I have no idea.... no really I do not.... so today I will do something completely different and random.

talk about music.

not really suprising I guess as I am planning a music-inspired birthday for my father but definitely something that I have not discussed on this blog before.

to begin i have widely varying tastes in music but mainly am into indie rock / alternative. I do not like R & B. Joel does, he also really likes Basshunter (yep so our tastes are not always the same)

at our wedding I walked down the aisle to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus 'Your Guardian Angel', while we were signing the register Arctic Monkeys 'Mardy Bum' played and as we were announced 'Home' by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. We had intended on having 'Unforgettable' by Nat King Cole for our first dance but later had an informal dance to Greenday's 'Good Riddance'

so yep pretty diverse tastes - i also like Bob Dylan, Example, The Rapture, The XX, Angus and Julia Stone, Blondie, My Chemical Romance, Bloc Party, The Presets, Sneaky Sound System, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Billie Holiday, Art vs Science.... just to name a few

now i am not really up on the whole technical stuff of embedding a video but I watched the video for the Black Keys 'Tighten Up' and I would have to say it almost competes with Art Vs Science's 'Parlez Vous Francais?' in terms of awesomeness so I think you should definitely click the link and take a look.... now

because i'm not perfect

2011-11-04T00:21:00.000-07:00

so I don't know about you but I am one of those people who looks at all these creative things on blogs thinking 'wow, such and such is so amazing and talented, I bet they never screw up, they come up with all these great ideas and the construction of their projects always looks so perfect etc etc' well today I will show you that I am definitely NOT one of those people.

If any of my sisters happen to read this please turn away now (especially if your name starts with K)

We are doing homemade Christmas this year and I have already shown you the beautiful little capelets I made for my adorable nieces well this next one is a present for my lovely sister. Apparently she will not be around during the Christmas period and so I needed to come up with a great idea that could be posted easily enter this great deer head....

this image is the successful outcome of the instructions I followed on the Chronicle Books Blog, the book it comes from is Dorm Decor and yes it is super cool, probably very simple but I am terrible at cutting things... we also bought much thicker foam core.

this is my attempt....be kind now

oh thats not so bad... ohh wait what are those giant chunks out of it's nose? and what? isn't there a piece missing?? why yes yes there is a piece missing. You see I do this thing sometimes where I just jump right in and forget to read the instructions. So by the time I realised what an epic failure it was there was no point cutting out that missing piece.... but I will persist next time with the help of my trusty husband who yes can wield a bigger penknife than me and yes with more accuracy. He would have been a good surgeon but he is a huge wimp when it comes to blood and gore (unlike me).

we also think we might enlarge it a tad - and make ourselves one at the same time, luckily I thought it was going to be much bigger and as such have heaps of foam core left :) btw in case you were wondering foam core is super cheap I got a huge piece 10mm thick from Riot for $16 but the thinner pieces were only like $5. After successfully cutting it out I also have plans to cover it will wood veneer contact paper I got from K-Mart fingers crossed 'deer mark II' will be perfect

test oral aujourd'hui!!

2011-11-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

You might have guessed by the title that I have a French oral test today, to be precise in about two hours. I have made notes, read and re-read them - typed them into google translator to try and get the pronunciation correct now it is just up to my memory to recall the words!!!

but just for fun -

Bonjour! Je m'appelle Emma!
J'ai vingt-trois ans
J'ai un demi-frere et trois soeurs
J'ai les cheveux blonds et yeux verts
Je suis etudiante, je ne pas un travail mais je suis cherche un travail

Je me suis mariee le 24 septembre de cette annee
mon mari, il s'appelle Joel, il est etudiante aussi, il a vingt-trois ans
il a cheveux bruns et les yeux bruns
nous n'avons pas d'enfants

nous habitons a Newcastle mais bientot demenager, nous ne savons pas encore ou
nous habitons dans une maison qui n'est pas un appartement
j'aime Newcastle mais prefere la campagne il y a trop de voitures
dans ma vie, j'ai demenage onze fois.
je n'aime pas demenager

je vais a l'universite trois fois par semaine, je marche, il me faut une demi-heure
c'est une belle promenade

je passe beaucoup de temps l'ordinateur, j'ecris un blog tous les jour et j'aime aussi a coudre
je mange beaucoup de legumes, je mange rarement de la viande mais risotto est mon plat prefere

notre dernier vacances nous sommes alles a Dreamworld, notre prochaines vacances nous allons visiter mon famille a la campagne
je n'ai jamais dans un autre pays, je voudrais pour voyager en Europe

il fait beau aujourd'hui!

source: We Heart It via French By Design

wedding update

2011-11-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

you may wonder why it has been all quiet on the wedding front, well I did submit the wedding to a few different places and we are expecting it to feature on Polka Dot Bride soon enough so I will link you when it pops up but in the mean time i will share with you one of my favourites

of course taken by the wonderful Amy of Mike and Amy Photographers

oh and by the way we did not get the house. i am feeling pretty blue about it today :( i really hate renting

nothing to show

2011-11-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

Today was not a day entirely wasted. It was wasted somewhat but not totally. I emailed my grandparents, I did several loads of washing, I made some soap. We had my favourite icecream with peanut butter and ice magic (don't knock it till you try it, it's AMAZING!) But I do not have anything really noteworthy to show.

I did not take any pictures of my soap making endeavours. They do not look very pretty and I think the quality of the soap is not great making overall for something lack lustre but I am on a mission to minimize 'stuff' before we move and that included the soap making kit we bought two years ago to make Christmas presents. These two points deserve updates; we have inspected and applied for a great place just down the road from our old house, I am due to ring the real estate about it tomorrow. I really hope we get it. According to my projected timeline we are due to sign the lease on Monday :) Number 2 update Joel's brother celebrates his 21st birthday on Christmas day as the family will be down here we will celebrate it on Christmas Eve, I am trying to convince all parties to throw a Mexican fiesta style shindig. Wouldn't it be fun?

So obviously I had to think of the possibilities of what I might wear....

source: Walking Around Where the Sidewalk Begins via Crush Cul de Sac and H & M dress on Vanessa Jackman

source: Dolce and Gabbana Summer 2012 and This Modern Lifestyle

source: Dresses both by Aida Coronado found here and here


source: Love Love Love

aren't they sweet especially with crazy blonde hair and maybe even a floral headband

Animal Silhouettes

2011-10-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

After tackling one of my long ago thought up projects yesterday I think today I will try to keep the ball rolling. Yes I should be studying but when I finally learn to master my creative bursts I will put other more important things ahead of it :)

this lovely drawing was done by my two-year old niece, it hung on our fridge for a while but kept falling off due to the size. I don't think it gets its value from the quality, obviously, but more so from watching her do it. It was my mother's 60th birthday and as the little one sat scribbling furiously more and more of her body making it's way onto the table so she was almost laying on it, the cuter it got. That was also the weekend that Joel and I announced our proposal, it was a fun night later on into the evening the little one entertained us further by getting up and dancing in front of everyone, not a shy one at all.

So back to the point this lovely ~~little~~ huge drawing has been sitting tucked away in my file for a long time and after coming across this pin on Pinterest I finally decided what to do with it

There are so many ideas when it comes to children's silhouette art and though it will be displayed in our home rather than in her own room I want to make it as fun as possible. My ever helpful friend (who, tear is moving away soon) suggested I use a silhouette of one of little one's favourite animals. Apparently she loves all animals but dogs are her favourite.


these cute prints can be purchased from Tiny Decor, I found them on Green Your Decor


Hiroshi Sasagawa via Apartment Therapy via Sarah Hearts Design

Source: Scratch and Sniff via Sandy A La Mode

so to make mine I looked for a beagle silhouette (because that would be the dog of choice for us) and then using excel inserted the image into a spreadsheet and with show page lines on, dragged it so it was big enough to fit over 2 pages (in retrospect could have been over 4 and definitely with margins narrowed) and printed.... then voila! using a craft knife cut it out of the scribble and put onto whatever your backing is (I cheated and just flipped the insert over (I know something thicker would look better etc but time and money people!) I happened to have an Ikea frame laying around that I bought in the 'as-is' section it's silver but seriously considering painting it black.... let me know what you think

side note: if you are looking for a image to use just search google images 'silhouette dog (or animal)' and try changing settings to get only black and white results this limits the amount of stuff you have to scroll through to find your perfect pic :)

White Fur Capelets

2011-10-30T04:22:00.000-07:00

I am so amazed at myself!! today I got up and said to myself no! not another wasted day in front of my laptop! and got all my crafty stuff out and started on one of my many many projects I have been pondering. :)

This one is a Christmas present for my cute as buttons nieces (so to my sister if you are reading this look away!)

Like many crafty people I have stashes of things that have been bought but left neglected for extended periods of time - the white fur I used for the capes was one of these things. I bought it when I was still in high school (about 5 years ago now) with the intention of making a blanket (thank-god I didn't) and then after seeing several cute kids capes around decided that little princesses always need luxurious capes and since I had two little princesses, some white fur and copious amounts of charmeuse I needed to make me some.

OMG!! aren't they just so adorable! I can't wait to see their faces when they open them on Christmas day :)
just in case you were wondering I found a tutorial here on how to make them, there are so many out there but this one is really good and the little collar really makes it.

I didn't take any pics as I was making them because a) my work area was a total mess and b) both camera batteries had died so I had to wait until they were charged.

But this is not all I did, the other day I was going to chuck out a whole heap of cereal boxes (the joys of living with men, they NEVER chuck stuff out) when I thought maybe I could make something out of them. So voila! with a little cutting, fabric and spray adhesive they became these cute gift boxes!

I finished packaging the little capes with folded white tissue paper and a ribbon

I also made that little bow you see out of magazine pages it was inspired by this one, but unfortunately the colours didn't really go... no matter I kept it in my stash... never now when it might be useful :)

oh and also while getting these pics off my camera I found a picture I took of our dinner the other night, Scotch Fillet with Mashed Potato, Baked Parmesan Asparagus and Mushroom Gravy it was so tasty

fontalicious menus

2011-10-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

I finished a rough draft of our Christmas Menu and thought I might print up some cute menus/booklets so of course I headed on over to Pinterest to see what I could find....

source: Martha Stewart Weddings and Emily Lincoln on Pinterest

source: Martha Stewart Weddings and Oohlala Photography via Style Me Pretty


source: Martha Stewart Wedding via Happiness Is and Den Gamla Skolan

this of course sent me over to DaFont to get some new typewriter, block and script fonts

you might recognise 'Road Movie' from my page header

Christmas in Australia

2011-10-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

Today I am procrastinating majorly (yep again, I know I really should do something), we are still on the hunt for a new home, I am still on the hunt for a new job (offers welcome) and university has not yet finished for the year (though exams are getting pretty close). However with a few events on the calender; my Dad's 60th, my mother-in-law's 50th and of course Christmas I thought I may as well turn my thoughts to the one closest.

Christmas in Australia is a little bit different to celebrating it in other parts of the world for one thing it's not freezing cold and hardly ever snows over the holidays (being Summer and all), so to us Santa being rugged up to the max with fur and all seems a little out of place. It got me thinking our Christmas tree (if Christmas trees were to have feelings) would also be feeling the heat around this time so this year I might just keep it simple (not that it's really something new) and instead of using the plethora of cheap ugly decorations we have I may just craft up a couple of simple ones. Like these ones.....

source: Karin Lidbeck-Brent for Good Housekeeping and Chrisjob for Curbly

source: reyaveltman on Etsy via Epheriell Designs and Martha Stewart

and because this year (as always) i am all about saving the $$$ these little cherubs are ones that should cost me next to nothing - Candy Canes obviously have to be bought fresh, I am sure I can use book pages to make the next ones, I will raid my fabric stash for the hearts and Joel's Grandads house for the buttons..... now that just leaves a cheap place to buy the stash of ribbon I am going to need.....

also have too put it out there my mother has finally decided to give up smoking again!!! i am SO immensely proud of her and hope that this time round she can be successful it will make the hugest difference to her health and hopefully mean she can be around a bit longer for us all :)

alice in wonderland

2011-10-26T02:32:00.000-07:00

for my mother-in-laws 50th birthday she is (we are) planning an Alice and Wonderland inspired gala.... thing is it isn't due to happen for another 2 or so years so i can't really get excited about it yet or do to much planning etc but needless to say I have and if you are interested here is my Pinterest board Alice.

so with this seemingly long amount of time to the actual event i will take it slow and start off with the paper side of things because well they usually come first anyway.... this is my collection of ideas (my gift to her)

source: MrYen (no longer available) via Design is Mine and Tag Team Tompkins via Paper Crave

source: Kim Le Photography via Style Me Pretty

source: Delphine taken by Joielala Photographie styled by Couture Events

source: Kasey Buick via The Inspired Occasion and Tina Tarnoff

source: a Couple of Cameras via Style Me Pretty

source: Better Homes and Gardens and Loralee Lewis

as i do not have the last say on this one i can't say what kind of direction they will end up going, what i can tell you is that she likes purple, Twilight, Muse, sewing (quilting), bright colours, fairy lights, Christmas .... etc

so far she has told me her plan is to have around 50 people, seated at around 8-seater round tables on the verandah (it's a huge one), she liked the idea of a photobooth, she wants to have a tea-cup at every place setting and we discussed the idea of flower arrangements in tea-pots (I added a whole lot of pictures of these to my Pinterest board), a giant chessboard might happen and trivia in secret boxes (or tea-pots?). I'm probably missing something but no doubt she will shortly let me know :)

items we are on the lookout for include clocks/watches, keys, tea-cups, tea-pots, she is thinking plastic chairs but i'm not so sure...

Christmas 2011

2011-10-25T01:56:00.000-07:00

My belle-mere is visiting so this should be a short post as we will shortly have to go around to dinner with the hubby's Grandfather.

good news is we finally have finished putting together our thank-you cards! I used the freebie on the EatDrinkChic website it's quite cute, called 'Love and Thanks' you can find it here. I printed them on A5 card folded as I'm am not really a fan of square cards (i think it has something to do with being raised in a post office).

but you are probably wondering why this post is entitled 'Christmas 2011' when i have not as yet spoken about anything Christmas related!!

well i have probably mentioned before that i am not really good at the whole Christmas spirit thing, the whole idea just stresses me out and I long for the Christmases when I was still a kid and we had waterfights in the backyard and played with our gifts all day, stress free, not having to choose where to go, not having to visit other people (I know sounds really selfish of me but I am not good at 'making polite conversation' with distant relatives or other in-laws... i love my own though lol).

anyho i am terrible at staying on track today but long story short we are hosting Christmas this year where ever we end up and will visit my family either before or after the rush so as always i got to thinking how i will lay the table :)

ideally we will have a large backyard and i can set up one or two of our little wedding tents (with curtains to keep out those aussie flies) and a long table with all our lovely reupholstered chairs the rest is better explained with pictures....

Sources:

Notes from Polly via Pinterest here

H & M via Brunch with Saks

fijn.handgemacht

Mary Swenson on Project Wedding via Brunch at Saks

but i have to go now so sorry for rushing :/

helpful hints

2011-10-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

so i am a novice at a lot of things. i was a novice when it came to planning our wedding, i am a novice when it comes to money, also blogging etc but i am also most definitely a novice when it comes to both photography and digital editing so when i see articles that look like they might be useful, i sit up and take note.

and sharing is caring so i thought i would let you guys in on what i have found too...

today it comes from Anna of Door Sixteen (a super cool design blog if you haven't checked it out before), titled Go Ahead, Make a Circle it shows you a super simple trick in photoshop to making a photograph circular with a transparent background. sounds easy enough but if you are like me and haven't really ever 'got' photoshop it can be super helpful :) now i just need to buy photoshop to practice in lol

and because it's been a while here is a lovely bedroom colour palette

source: High Gloss via Plush Palate on Pinterest

Petal

2011-10-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

while over on pinterest today i spotted this amazing gown designed by Charles James, I had originally intended on making it the focus of a mood board but like so many pins it was not referenced correctly and I went through 50 pages of the blog Coletterie and became inspired.

source: Charles James 'Petal' on Coletterie

isn't it beautiful?

anyway i think i may have said it before but i find pinterest is a great way to discover new blogs that you wouldn't ordinarily visit.

the Coletterie blog is all about sewing and would be an amazing resource for those wanting to have a bit of a go but who aren't exactly sure where to start. I love sewing and think I might even knock up some Clover pants but then again I am a manic sewer and do my best work with classical music blaring in the middle of the night and often work too fast and get disappointed/frustrated too easily. But if I were going to give it a go again this would be the place for me.

her patterns are amazing retro style dresses/pants/skirts and shirts that remind me of the quote i often see 'your clothes should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to show you're a lady' Edith Head i think

but it's late and my brain is shutting down for the night so here is one final link from the 50 pages i flicked through to find this amazing dress - how to install an invisible zipper here

DIY Christmas Crafts

2011-10-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

as a recently married student with no job i am what you would call i dont know.... broke

so as the thought of Christmas approaching with all it money pit glory i have been trawling pinterest for some ideas on homemade gifts and crafts to make the coming season.... well a little more relaxing than taxing (yep it rhymes BOOYAH!!)

so here is my pick of things i plan to do/make (feel free to hold me to this if you do not see any follow up posts of any kind)

oh yeah and family etc LOOK AWAY

sources:
- faux deer head - rubyslounge on etsy via Oil Wells 2 Cotton Bales
- paper ribbons - this one's tricky found it on Pinterest the link takes you to Baying Hound Howls but the Flickr picture is removed... image is attributed to Spotted Sparrow who also have a tutorial on their blog here
- bobby pins - a homemaker's journal and Little Miss Momma she also has an Etsy shop here
- newspaper rosette wreath - natureaccessories on Etsy here
- solid perfumed pocket watch - Design Sponge posted by Mandy Aftel of Aftelier Perfumes
- white fur cape - Pink Princess and jewellery stand - also on Design Sponge tutorial here

cooking

2011-10-17T05:02:00.000-07:00

filling the void that was wedding planning seems to be pinteresting.... not that i didn't spend a whole mess of time on there when i was 'wedding planning' but now it seems way more and way more misdirected...

so today i share with you kitchen inspiration from my 'cooking' board :)

sources from left to right:
Morten Holtum via My Scandinavian Retreat
Annette Joseph on Pinterest
Small, Cool Kitchens 2011 on Apartment Therapy
Masao Nishikawa via Vineet Kaur via Masika Wa on Tumblr
House Beautiful via Chris Barrett Design via Sacramento Street
High Gloss Magazine via Everything Fabulous
Firlefanz on Tumblr
Masao Nishikawa via Design Boom via fine ting og sjokolade
Amit Geron via Mimdap via Desire to Inspire (which btw i think i might just visit everyday such prettyness!!)
Convoy on Tumblr

also have officially decided to stop re-pinning tumblr images drives me crazy that i can't get proper info for the pictures also will try and remember to check web address for re-pins. trawling sites to find original post is super frustrating

hope you like :)

wood paneling

2011-10-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

so we went and looked at some houses yesterday... oh didn't i tell you yeah we are moving... again.... it sucks but then again it does mean we can get out of suburbia and back to where things happen and it doesn't take a 15 min drive to get to....

well anyway back to the story we looked at two places in the area i know i would LOVE to move back to! the first was definitely a goer it was a decent size, had a sweet ass back deck and a decent sized lockable garage. The second I liked the interior better but unfortunately the garage lacked a door... a definite no no for boys with bikes.

So I know that chances are we won't get too many more reasonably priced houses in right area with car spaces so I am going to pin my hopes on that 1st one.

oh btw did i tell you that the owners seem to be kinda obsessed with wood paneling....

source: Annie Schlecter via Design Crisis

tricked you!!

no it's definitely not the nice kind of wood paneling. it's actually kinda more like this....

source: ugly house photos

the house is 2 bedrooms and a study, advertised as 3 bedrooms as usual. the kitchen is strangely sequestered in the middle of the house and everything is connected by maze-like passages. there is a servery style window in the kitchen onto a room which doesn't look like the right kind of size for anything really. it is this weird extension that houses the wood paneling. so in the weird non-room there is veneer paneling half way up the wall, it's hideous. the kitchen also has a bit of a thing for ugly wood and i guess they thought they would carry it through to the bedroom and put louvered built-ins. the 3rd bedroom/study actually has real wood paneling. as the husband seems to think it was pretty cool i think i will designate him that room as a study IF we get the house.

friday 14th

2011-10-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

so i have seen all our wonderful wedding pictures but am still yet to receive them in the mail, so as i sit on my computer this friday evening (or saturday morning whichever you prefer) waiting for my husband to take his turn on 'words with friends' i thought i might put together a few of my favourite non professional wedding pictures for anyone who might care to take a look :)

these were all taken by various members of the family and uploaded to facebook so i apologise for the bad quality of some, also i only just realised there aren't very many pics where my spunky hubby is facing the camera... this wasn't on purpose i think everyone must have only had eyes for the bride (also i got sunburnt the week before the wedding and the tan lines on my back are horrible)

how to put on weight post wedding

2011-10-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

so now that the wedding has been and gone (3 weeks tomorrow) i am without something decent to procrastinate about. enter cooking. again.

see pre wedding me was all about losing as much weight as i could before the big day... i ended up losing about 12kg (yay for me!!) but since the wedding.... well let's just say eating leftover wedding cheese, meat, chutney and cake hasn't been too good for the figure.

and what i am about to show you isn't really helping either...

while doing the usual procrastinating over on pinterest i spotted this crazy recipe titled 'Coffee and Donut Cupcakes' on a blog called 'Always with Butter'.... yep you know it's definitely not going to be kind to your figure now

but my husband (still a bit strange calling him that) LOVES donuts. so i ....had to try it???

you may notice that mine actually have a pretty pattern going on there... well thats because we don't have a donut tin and i thought why not just use the bundt one... seems to work just the same. also thought i would have a LITTLE consideration for my ass at the gym tomorrow (i will definitely need to go now) and decided to omit the cupcakes with buttercream (oh and we have ran out of coffee too)

now probably should mention you really should listen when they say fill 3/4rs but in my case i think half probably would have been better as i lost the hole in pretty much all of them (i cheated and cut it out later myself). also i found the mixture a little too sticky so added an extra dash of milk

the glazing is super simple, icing sugar and water - i just made a whole lot up and literally dipped them in after waiting only about 2 mins or so for them to cool. this meant that i managed to get some cool drips going on and all with pretty much no effort. my kind of icing. also i suck at sprinkles, i don't know how someone can suck at sprinkles but i do.

and according to the husband they were 'excellent' though he said he wants to try chocolate glazing next time :)

the not very patient wife

2011-10-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

we are scheduled to have our photos back on the 10th Oct, but i am so impatient!! i don't know if any other newlyweds are as obsessed as me constantly checking Facebook/Email etc to see if more pics of their day turn up... or rechecking all the ones they have available I AM OBSESSED.

and this is not a good thing when life continues post-wedding. WHAT?!? there are other things to do that don't involve weddings!! I don't believe it!!

unfortunately yes there are.... including the two assignments i must complete by next week, the job i need to get by November and the perfect house we need to find by Christmas!!!

but in the meantime let's just stay in the dreamworld that is weddings and let me share with you some more pics taken by friends and family and also me :)

this is the tree J drew for the wedding guest book. he is mighty proud of it and this morning even said 'have you taken a picture of our tree for your blog yet?' so in answer why yes i have and here it is :)

these last two florals were taken on the day after the wedding... i had forgotten to put my bouquet in water so it was looking a little sad after being dragged around all day and the other is my favourite vase... i just love how the everlasting daisies turned out! i hadn't really envisaged them in the florals but like everything else (except the roses) they were plucked from the family garden the morning of the wedding and everything just worked :)

a sneaky peek

2011-10-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

the photographers have posted some of the pics on their blog!! YAY!!

you can find them here!

and while i am at it one of the relatives posted a number of pics on facebook showing a few reception details :)

Dad, J and I put the tents up with a little help from my lovely sisters (they were $25 each on clearance from super cheap auto, and totally worth it). J's mum (belle-mere) sewed all the quilts and cushions you see and together with my lovely friend (the romance novel one) and my mum the mosquito nets were set up (my brother lent a hand too)

J made the cute little blackboard table out of pallet wood and a piece of masonite and the stump stools were courtesy of my sister (the MOH)

My sisters all worked like trojans on the morning of the wedding doing all the flower arrangements and bouquets (except mine which was made by J's aunt) while my friends and I set up the tables.

The only thing i was disappointed in were those stupid bistro chairs (the more i saw them the more i hated them) and also by the time we made it back to the reception after taking photos everyone had brought out the plastic chairs.... so in retrospect i should have started earlier and got way more chairs

we also discovered we were one round tablecloth short.... still haven't figured out where it went

the best area of the whole thing 'the lounge tent' i am still yet to find a great picture... we set up two cane lounges with a pallet coffee table in the centre (it looked so good when it was put together and we intend on having a piece of glass cut so we can use it at home)

J's dad took care of all the lighting and we managed to do it relatively cheaply with 4 portable spotlights ($10 each from Bunnings) and a crazy dual spotlight we wired up ($40 from bunnings) to highlight a beautiful plane tree, festoon strings along the wisteria walkway (which we already had) and some simple lights for the tents which we made using stuff from Bunnings (about $20 worth) and these cool reflector globes which i managed to find at the last minute. All the tables also had rose scented tea light candles and some home made candles were set in the garden

it was all so beautiful and i am so happy everything worked together after months of planning on paper :)

pre-wedding week slavery

2011-10-03T00:34:00.000-07:00

continuing from yesterday my sister did eventually arrive with my older sister and her two lovely boys not too far behind we all (except me of course still being on the dreaded shake diet) sat down on the floor (chairs all being up north by now) and ate some lovely Thai food and decided that none of us felt like driving through the night and we would leave super early Wednesday morning.....

so the super early thing didn't really happen we arrived up north by early afternoon and MOH was so scared of the giant list of things we would have to do before Saturday that she got us all to work straight away.

in retrospect kinda glad she did cos in the end we sure as hell didn't get everything we had intended finished.

here are a few projects we undertook during the wedding week....

of course there are a few we didn't take pics of including finishing my wedding dress, the dreaded upholstered stumps (MOH almost lost a finger tensions were running high), the lighting, music and putting up/taking down and putting up again of the tents (the weather forecast for our wedding day was wind and rain, luckily it held off until the next day)

ok im no good at writing today more pics tomorrow (fingers crossed our official pics are ready soon)

one week +

2011-10-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

i meant to write a post yesterday but we were busy finally travelling home. but yes it has been a week yesterday since we were married!

i hope this excuses my absence and total lack of posts, but damn we were busy. You know how you think you are super duper organised and have everything under your total control? well think again.

i started the week of my wedding with my 23rd birthday and an exam. yep one was totally awesome and amazing the other not so bad as i thought it would be.

having done little to no study for the exam i was prepared to go into it and die quietly with my head on the desk but somehow the exam fairies felt like showering me with love and made it almost exactly the same as a previous years one i had looked at. high five to them.

i then had a lovely afternoon with my husband-to-be and all our lovely friends at the beach celebrating with a BBQ and a super duper healthy chocolate cake (no really it had no flour and was choc full of dates, recipe found here). I have never felt more fortunate and loved in all my life.

the rest of the evening was spent constructing wedding projects including these cool as E + J pinatas

oh and did i mention that i got these adorable little shoes for my nieces to wear. SO cute!

so constructed the pinatas out of cardboard, a buttload of tape and glue and yep you guessed it book pages. there are quite a few sites around showing how to DIY pinatas, i used pinterest as a search engine, looked at basics and then just did it my way :)

it's relatively easy to do just cut out giant letters, make them 3D and cover them in something pretty

unfortunately we didn't end up breaking ours and as we drove home yesterday they supplied us with enough sugar to kill a small child/animal each time we dipped our hands in.

Tuesday morning i went shopping with my lovely and always helpful friends for make-up and spent a whopping $300 on make-up. Yep i was kinda shocked. i didn't realise it would all add up so much and have NEVER spent that much on cosmetics in my LIFE. but apparently i was in that pre-wedding glow where 'why not' is a phrase that enters the vocab quite frequently.

after looking over my receipt though i was shocked to learn that a MAC make-up brush cost $70

:o

i nearly took it back. i wish i did. but i didn't. because ultimately it is a shit brush and the $35 SET of brushes i bought from priceline work SO much better.

the rest of the day i spent craning my neck to the curb awaiting the arrival of my dear sister the MOH whilst cleaning the house (we had an inspection the inconsiderate b*strds)

but this post is getting pretty long right maybe i will save some for later (with more pictures too? ok sure)

one week

2011-09-17T04:25:00.000-07:00

this time next week i will be dancing barefoot on the grass with my honey, my baby, my husband!!!

today i sit with my computer in bed while he plays angry birds on his iPhone and we wait for him to go to work :(

we tried out all the cake recipes today :) given to me by my good friend - and i must say she has amazing taste in cake and it felt great to get it right the first time no hassle and no testing of different recipes... yes we are leaving it all a bit too late in typical us style... i also have contemplated remaking the skirt of my wedding dress into something less gathered puffball more flared a-line... however i think my future mother in law would kill me if i did. :/

we also started on making some wedding pinatas for us to smash at the end of the night, sorted out the lighting and began working on the photobooth backdrop and guestbook tree

and in between all of this i have found time to create a quick board about all things white and gold, you could say it was inspired by my wedding corset....

found here on Studio Europe

i found it online and went shopping with my sister to buy it from Myer, though unfortunately we found out the hard way that though Myer is one of the main stockists of Pleasure State very few stores actually stock much of the range and we ended up in the Sydney City Store at peak on a Friday afternoon. Also it looks a lot better in the picture the stitching on the bodice is silver, bronze and gold and it looks good... just not as good as the picture. What i really should have done is to splurge on a Agent Provocateur one like this... oh well maybe for our 5th anniversary or something...

anyway i have gotten majorly off track... how nice is the white and gold thing, pretty right? yes but i am a strong believer that there is a fine line between beautiful and tacky when it comes to gold... i think the all white schemes with just a hint of gold look best....

source: Elle Interior Sweden via Automatism, I Have Life On My Mind (we heart it), Jessica Sutton Graphic Design and Basic Appeal (Tumblr)

also i have an exam on monday it's going to be super hard, i haven't done any study yet, oh and it will be my birthday :) i turn 23. yuck. then tuesday it will be absolutely all wedding :)

mon pere

2011-09-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

today's post is all about my papa.

i am oh so proud to have a super close relationship with my dad and feel even more fortunate to have him around. we seem to have lots in common including the super big nose and bone structure that he in turn gets from his dad. my parents own a small business and for anyone else that does the same they would know how sh*t hard it can be sometimes, hard work, very little play and rewards are few and far between.

he turns 60 next year yet they are still a little way away from retiring so with his permission i am planning on planning a super kick-ass birthday for him as my special way of thanking him for being there for me all the time.

he comes from a musically talented family and one of my favourite things to do when i go home is to listen to him play classical music on his guitar (he is also a pretty good singer) he also comes from the woodstock/vietnam war generation and was a proud 'hippie' (yep long hair and all) and loves all things colourful. I believe he is a pacifist and he is also widely supportive of the controversial 'carbon tax' legislation.

he likes Doctor Who and dark humour (he recently put me onto the BBC show 'Misfits' it's hilarious you should go look it up... NOW). My parents also live virtually in the desert that is central NSW but he thinks we should go up to QLD for his bday.

Last Father's Day I made him this card


source: someecards

and for his birthday this is what i have come up with so far.... excuse the language

source: Dream Factory on Tumblr and something in a language which is completely foreign to me but can be found here

source: Far Out Flora - DIY Succulent Table


source: W.Scott Chester Photography via Green Wedding Shoes

i have also downloaded a couple of fonts from DaFont to play around with including Shagadelic, Keep on Truckin' and Confessions...

for the invitation i was thinking something along the lines of a 60s/70s concert poster in the art nouveau style at the moment i am torn between the muted colours above and the bright garish colours below...

source: DIY Spray Painted Flatware from Creature Comforts and Slightly Inspiration on Tumblr

it's a tricky business :)

oh and 9 days until the wedding :) i woke up screaming with excitement this morning :)

welcome to stress city...

2011-09-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

.... population me.

just hanging around stressing out about all the little details relating to the wedding. we are coming up to 18 months of planning and working towards this one huge day in our lives and as we get closer i find myself wondering if all the work and stress and headaches will be worth it for just one day in our lives.

i think maybe i might have bitten off more than i can chew.

i am thinking maybe we should have just gone for a small intimate wedding with a few special details and organised in great part by someone else. i feel like i want everything to be a certain way and it's simply not going to happen and that frustrates me greatly yet i feel like a cow for wanting people to change certain things

and yep i've started looking at the weather forecasts. next week looks like rain. i just hope it clears up.

and i've just got to keep telling myself the only thing that matters will be me and my baby.

via Tiny White Daisies on Tumblr

more progress!!

2011-09-07T15:32:00.000-07:00

things have been quiet here on the blog front... i guess that means i have been a busy little bee in the real world

and to some extent that's true, it may not look like progress but we have reupholstered all the chairs they just haven't been attached to the actual frames just yet. we thought it would probably be easier for transportation so they wont get dirty etc.

so my future belle-mere is here waiting for me to help her load them on to the trailer ready to head up north

but in the meantime here is a little sneak of how they turned out.... pretty darn awesome i might add

i also have a french oral test at 11

je vais me marier!!

i am in love!

2011-09-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

with my fiancee yes but i also have a new love!

yesterday i went shopping with my big sister in Sydney on the hunt for a wedding corset, a bridesmaids dress and the obligatory trip to Ikea.

and yep this is it my new love isn't she beautiful? its the ikea arod work lamp @ $79

i actually bought it for the boy as he has been using one of our bedside lamps as a work lamp but i think i might have to go back and get another one, i am mesmerized by it's sleek beauty and amazing ability to swivel (yes i am 5 years old but it goes all the way around! without even catching!)

and still havent finished the chairs :( they get picked up Wednesday so better get cracking!!

i've got the bug

2011-08-28T05:03:00.000-07:00

it all started one day while mucking around on Pinterest and now i have another computer related addiction... yep colour palette generating

but with so many pretty colours and pictures out there how could you not...

source: Glen Proebstel via SF Girl by Bay

but whats lovely about pinterest is it introduces you to websites you would otherwise never know about for example the interior stylist Glen Proebstel who is the brains behind this wonderful picture

on another note i was on Rock n Roll Bride earlier today where i saw a feature on a zombie attack engagement shoot SO FUNNY see it here (she also has some interesting articles about blog PR)

on a progress note: after successive trips to Bunnings (long ones i might add it really sucks not being just down the road anymore) we are still struggling to get the varnish out of the corners etc on the chairs and just keep forgetting to get new staples for the staple gun (note to self: MUST WRITE REMINDER ON FOREHEAD)

but did polish the Parker chairs and damn they came up good with totally minimal effort thats what quality gets you

spring is almost here!!

2011-08-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

while those on the other side of the globe prepare for colder months, we of the great island country get our togs (swimmers in Australian), snags (sausages) and golden blonde hair ready for the Aussie spring/summer. For some that means shedding the winter coat off our legs, losing the tubby tummies brought on by rich winter foods and the beginning of camping season.

for me my most vivid memory of spring/summer as a child is getting sent to the pool with my sisters with $20 to pay for rides on the then giant slide and to buy food from the kiosk. They had the best scallops (potato cakes) and Paddlepops only cost something like 80 cents. You would eat your icecream first as the summer heat would quickly turn it to mush, catching the drips with your tongue before the sticky goo got all over your hands, then jump straight back in the water scouring the bottom of the deep-end for money and trinkets lost by other swimmers.

source: What Katie Ate - colours via DeGraeve Colour Palette Generator

self-catering

2011-08-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

we of the tiny budget foolishly choose to self-cater.....

with 29 days to go and a lecture from my mother fresh in my ear i have decided to finally sit down and organise the deadly shopping list!!

I can't remember how much i have previously shared with you on this point but when it came to catering it was pretty much a no-brainer... i had a quick look into some catering companies in the area found almost all too expensive or not really professional looking and decided we head down the ole self catering track....

we quickly decided against a sit-down meal as it would require more chairs/tablecloths/knives/forks etc (though at one point i really wanted to have a wedding brunch - our favourite meal of the day) and went with cocktail style service.... but we would have needed more waitstaff, people preparing etc

so entered the idea of afternoon tea buffet.... we had all these grand plans for pastries and things when we decided lets just take it back as simple as we can get it because when it comes down to it we want our big day to be as stress free as possible!!

so one solution: Ploughman's Lunch

traditionally this consists of a hunk of bread, hunk of meat, hunk of cheese and some sort of pie and relish

ours will probably translate into something more like this....

source: Zucchini Ribbon Salad on Proud Italian Cook and A Summer Cheese Plate on Sprouted Kitchen

as the RSVPs slowly trickle back in we are getting more of an idea of the number of people to expect and right now unless we become really good friends with a lot of people really fast that number should not exceed 75 people.

now comes the tricky part, unless you throw huge catered parties all the time chances are you aren't going to know that much about quantities and as i am not one of those people i am no different. so whats the first thing we all do when we are trying to solve a problem - Google it. so thats what i did (though how many people will a wheel of cheese feed? does come with some interesting sites) and the most helpful sites i found are here, here and here.

but yes still feeling a little unsure about what quantities i might need, i mean 1kg of butter really??

so i guess we did what we thought sounded right:

1 person will probably have 3-4 slices of bread, 2 thin slices each meat (3 types), like a cup of salad each, lots of cheese (no idea how to figure this one out) and probably like 3 boxes of mixed fruit for everyone (apples, pears etc)

yep and here is where you think i will pull the rabbit out of the hat and say 'voila! here is the perfect solution!'

nope, no rabbit still not any closer

on a more positive note though, i have sanded back 8 out of 10 chairs (before doing some kind of damage to my back and neck, i am comically similar now to the hunchback of notre dame).

so close i can almost taste it!!

2011-08-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

with a mere 31 days to go until our big day it all seems really unreal, the vast amounts of time i had are quickly disappearing and i must get on with everything otherwise i am in grave danger of falling behind, both with the wedding and uni.

the drink dispensers i purchased off Sharnel Dollar Designs arrived today very well packaged and definitely worth the money I paid. I took some extremely bad photos on my iphone of them but they have good pics on the site here

i also got off my butt this afternoon and started sanding some of the chairs 4 and a half out of 10 down, i am thinking i should have started earlier though as i am powering through them. hopefully i will get all the sanding done by Friday then we can start oiling and on the wkd the re-upholstering can be done!

then.... i MUST do some study :(

colour palettes

2011-08-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

my share is a little bit different today, while pinteresting this morning i came across this link for the creature comforts blog. Basically its a tutorial on creating colour palettes without the help of photoshop etc using a site called DeGraeve. You simply enter the image URL (this can be done by right clicking the image on a normal PC) and clicking 'Color-Palette-Ify' and voila you are done. Now not sure how a professional would do it but to make the following picture I just clicked print-screen, pasted it into publisher (paint would work too i just like publisher better) and came up with this....

source: whereisthecool via randomitus

handy right? not sure what kind of copyright issues it would bring up but i am sure that if the image used is referenced properly there shouldn't be a problem but if anyone knows any different please let me know

shopping list

2011-08-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

i am home alone this weekend, the boy has gone on his bucks wkd and all housemates have left the building. It's quiet and kinda boring. I started my day at the usual time, had my usual breakfast and completed my usual morning ritual of checking Facebook, Ebay etc.

Then i turned MY music up full bore and did a weights workout, i tried skipping (for the first time in years seriously) but my tights kept falling down - seriously it was kinda funny but a whole lot of irritating - i guess they aren't really 'tight' tights. After this action of getting my blood pumping i thought ok i will hang that washing out that i meant to do yesterday (i'm terrible like that) and guess what i lifted the lid of our el-cheepo washing machine and found it was full of water. yep so my stress that the towels would be all smelly and stuff was unfounded because they were still just sitting in water. our washing machine is broken, again.

the previous day the boy had taken it apart after we heard something rattling around inside - it was a black bobby pin and a few coins (not mine i swear my hair is blonde). so the jury is still out on what is wrong with it.

in the meantime it got me thinking how irritating all our appliances seem to be, we have needed a new fridge for pretty much two years (the freezer first started leaking now just doesn't work at all tried fixing seals etc but to no avail), the mower is a goner (brand spanking new but just stopped working one day), my wizz stick is whirring in a manner it really shouldn't be, the xbox recently starting having some problems and my own poor old laptop is processing things at grandma speed and of course our camera which through no fault of its own is now in less than stellar condition.

so here is my shopping list if money was infinite

The Miele W 4751 - Miele is recommended by Choice and I love front loaders

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 - perfect for widescreen shots we wanted this originally but $$$

The Smeg Fridge - i think everybody secretly wants one of these

The new iMac - aren't they just so pretty and clean and smooth!! - i would also settle for a MacBook

also i don't really need the following but would love them


Arzberg Profi White Dinner Set - they also have them in some lovely soft colours

Mixed Vintage Flatware (Source: Brooke Boling via Style Me Pretty)

both the industrial lights and the lovely wooden table (Source: Le Voyage Creatif)

vision for seating

2011-08-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

in continuation of my wedding 'vision' here is a little idea of what we are doing for the reception seating...

this was an area for some debate, i really wanted the wedding to be cocktail style not only to save money but so that it would encourage everybody to mingle a lot more and hopefully make the night more enjoyable for those who don't know many people. i investigated it all and a lot of the sites i found recommended providing seating for a little above half of the guests. Now initially we were looking at about 100 guests but this number will be significantly less i think due to a serious deficit of people attending from my side... say more like 70.

and that's ok. i was at first a little taken aback by it but as long as all the important people are there thats all that matters.

now the seating....
it will be a combination of picnic rugs, circular tables and a few 'lounge' areas - hopefully this will cater for all types of people

source: Vintage + Chic via That Kind of Woman and Greige via Glamorous Little Side Project

source: Beauty Comma and Simply Bloom Photography via Elizabeth Anne Designs

source: Desire to Inspire and SF Gate via You are the River

picture of the day

2011-08-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

source: Pinterest Vanessa Dunn

today is a day for no motivation, the boy is still in bed we stayed up late last night watching the first season of Prison Break on DVD. We meant to only watch one but found ourselves continually saying 'just one more' luckily neither of us have anything on until 11. yes we are both incredibly lazy.

so while pottering around this morning i re-discovered this wedding on Snippet and Ink. It was one of the first ones that really touched a chord with me and we even talked about doing our own backyard movies to end the reception but alas didn't work out. still i think this is one of the most beautiful weddings around and i will feel lucky to even get close to its beauty for ours.

also was checking out the Bash, Please blog and quite some time ago Rue did a shoot of their workspace. yep i am jealous, check it out here

progress and horrible pictures

2011-08-10T01:44:00.000-07:00

you know how there is at the point you hit when it seems like the wedding is getting really close and things progress really fast? we are there.

went strolling around the shopping centre today while on the phone to my MOH talking about the other bridesmaids dresses.

she has bought hers it looks like this...

Decjuba Bracken Cowl Neck Dress

so now we are trying to find some to match - well coordinate well with, again forever new has some good'uns

like this one...

Forever New Maya Mesh Embellished Dress

the boy and i have also been working on our ring book and i believe it is pretty much finished (still tossing up whether to glue pages together or not) so excuse my horrid pictures i took them in a rush and just to show the family what we have been doing...

still a little worried my paper thin ring will fall out onto the grass and be lost forever but i think we might tie a ribbon around the whole book you know just to be sure. Just in case you were wondering we used spray adhesive to glue the velvet to the book (much like contacting a school book) and a stanley knife to cut the holes out for the rings. You could run craft glue around all the edges of the book to keep the pages together but ours was left as is and still seems secure.

also got a little bit of random shopping done including the super bargain purchase of upholstery fabric for chairs @ $3 a metre and this little collection of things...

all coming together nicely indeed..

wisteria vision

2011-08-05T04:25:00.000-07:00

either i am incredibly dedicated or incredibly bored i can't decide either way to continue my post from this morning on the wedding vision....


source: We Heart It - under the sea bee and Elaine Song Style at Home

source: Sloan Photographers via Style Me Pretty


source: Ferm Living Shop (Berry Black Wall Sticker) and Lyana Votey Photography Blog

btw i remember reading somewhere lately that a lot of blogger brides get overwhelmed by all the inspiration out there and are often tempted to make changes to wedding details - i think i am definitely falling into this trap....

however i have found that this process of systematically going through wedding ideas really helps put things back into perspective when it all comes together you begin to see how some ideas just don't work well together...

ceremony vision

2011-08-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

it is now 49 days till the wedding, WOW. yesterday we went suit shopping with the boys at Roger David it was tres stressful but after the groomsmen disappeared the boy and i shared a look or two of mutual 'wow, it's really happening/how exciting!/i love you so much' funny how a look can kinda mean all those things yeah? we also ended up purchasing our wedding fragrances and i picked up some pink lippy and nail polish

source: Davidoff Cool Water and Dolce and Gabbana Rose the One

ps i really apologise today my grammar/spelling is even worse than usual for some reason

i also purchased our glamping tent off eBay and did a count of the chairs 8 to go!! but if i can collect more pretty ones i wont have to use so many of the ugly bistro ones

in other news its the boys bucks night/wkd next wkd and as he is going away i think i might head up the coast and do my pallet coffee tables (which means i should probably order my castor wheels) and possibly meet with the photographers and in doing so i would like to share my vision for the day so what better way to get that sorted than to share it with all of the world!!

so here goes...

source: Marta Locklear Photography via Style Me Pretty and Marianne Wilson Photography via Style Me Pretty


from my previous post here


source: Gabriel Ryan Photography via Green Wedding Shoes and La Lune Events

source: Katie Day

source: Josh Merideth of Bella Grace Studios via Ruffled and Paperbird via Pinterest

source: Jose Villa via Once Wed 'Flowers in her Hair'

and thats all for now folks thanks for watching

gifting

2011-08-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

i love gift wrapping, sometimes even more than actually buying the gift. that's the difficult part, the buying, especially in my family where tastes can be pretty particular.

so today i FINALLY organised a present for my friend the one who likes romance novels oh and animal print hence the wrapping. it's a scrapbook/photo album which i put some pictures in hopefully she likes it but she is the lovely kind of person who will pretend even if she doesn't.

pin-up birthday cards are kind of my thing - not sure how whole copyright thing works but i found the image here via Google and as it is not for profit i think that's ok.... let me know if anyone knows otherwise

i found the different way to tie ribbon from here and i think it might look better with a thicker stiffer ribbon but i like it anyway :)

Census Day

2011-08-02T01:10:00.000-07:00

yep i am a dill, i accidentally thought that yesterday was census today when it is in fact next week OOPS!! anyho read my amended post for details :)

days like ~~today~~ next tuesday only happen once every five years, ~~today~~ next tuesday is census day, the day when everyone in Australia sits down and fills in a long ass form telling the ABS who we are and what we are up to. i think there are generally only two groups when it comes to filling in the Census forms - those who love it and those who hate it.

I am one of those freaks in the love it category, well love is a strong word but i definitely don't have any negative feelings towards it. I think there is something cool about documenting where we all are at certain points in time especially when it could be used later on to provide a information to our relatives 10's of years into the future.

So ~~as it is~~ next Tuesday is Census night and because we have been meaning to have lobster for dinner for several nights now I decided to make a bit of a thing of it (hey I had a free afternoon). so i set a lovely table with all that i had within my grasp and made a little questionnaire of our own to fill in. I plan to put them in a little homemade envelope and seal not to be opened until the next Census in 5 years time.

by the way you should definitely check out this inspiration shoot, love love love it!!

sunday shopping

2011-07-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

two posts in one day WOW!! not really just thought i would share our latest acquisition with y'all

three in the picture but we actually have 4, pretty neat yeah? quite the score, we got them from eBay for $15.50 from a shop called Teralba Second-Hand and Antiques. I would advise checking the place out it's massive and quite reasonably priced and though they don't stock much by the way of mid-century stuff (apparently they used to but it just doesn't sell) they do have a large range of books, china, tools and other furniture. The people are also really nice and offered to keep an eye out for some things for us.

Now it's just the daunting task of reupholstering them all.......hmmm

word of the day 'wonderful'

2011-07-30T17:21:00.000-07:00

a few random thoughts to get the wonderful day started;
1. last night i had a dream where a dinosaur tried to eat me, what does that mean???
2. when describing a style why do people use the term 'shabby chic' if it's shabby it certainly isn't going to be chic, can't you use the word 'vintage' or 'French Provencal' or something other than 'shabby'
3. i entered this competition this morning, what is your wonderful advice for not FREAKING OUT on your wedding day
4. also love this wonderful whimsical wedding from The Lane
5. how many times do you think i can fit wonderful into this post?

with all that out of the way, direct from my pinterest boards i bring you all things white and wonderful...

source: Ian Stevenson 'Something Great'

Source: Habitat via Poppytalk and Short Rib Ragu on Minimally Invasive


Source: Banana, Nutella and Cream Cheese Cake by Always with Butter


Source: photo by Jimmy Backus via Garden of Dreams

have a wonderful Sunday!

wonderful.

stepford

Wedding Wednesday's

On the Table

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On the Table...

Money Mondays

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I WANT YOU!

Flying high on your love.....

Steak and Brownies

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black and beech

my apologies

Trending

Monsters

Manes

projects

Party in a Box

Bon Voyage

Mexican Fiesta and Christmas Feast

breakfast in bed

welcome to our humble abode

from one holiday to the next

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Day 16

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still moving...

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Mexican Fiesta

Christmas Table

BBQ Christmas Menu

The Best Things in Life....

social media

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DIY Christmas Gifts

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Remembrance Day

cleaning

christmas hearts

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wedding update

nothing to show

Animal Silhouettes

White Fur Capelets

fontalicious menus

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Christmas 2011

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Petal

DIY Christmas Crafts

cooking

wood paneling

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one week

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i am in love!

i've got the bug