12 December 2010

Mornings on Mt T

In preparation for our honeymoon hike in Tassie, we've been waking at ungodly hours (5:30), putting on our packs, complete with weights stashed in the bottom and walking up the hill/mountain down the road. I have to say, I've been surprised by how many other people are up and walking/jogging at that time of the morning there's even been a couple of boot camps running the hill!

Mt T Local

After doing it for a few mornings we've started to recognize people, nod 'hello' and this morning stop to talk with some of them. To be fair, mostly we recognise people by their dogs at this point. There's the ladies who walk 'Sirius' (our nickname as the dog looks like the one from the Harry Potter movies), a Maltese Jack Russell cross that has the fluff of a Maltese but the colour and temperament of a Jack Russell (so much to smell, so little time to do it in - and no, I won't come when you want me to because this smell right here is just tooooooooo good) and a Mini Schnauzer that is well and truly doing it's bit for Movember.

It has such a nice community feel to it. Not to mention that the view is stunningly beautiful with all the rain we're having lately. Someone brings up a big container of water each day so that dogs who walk their people up (or people who walk their dogs up) can get a drink. At the moment there's a laminated sign tied to the bench at the top advertising the Mt T walkers' christmas party - 6 am, BYO champagne and strawberries! I'm sorry we'll miss it as we'll already be honeymooning.

Even once our big hike is over, I think you'll still find me stumbling out of bed just because of that shared sense of community.

10 December 2010

What to do first??

We decided to do the boutonniere and corsages first.

They were little, they were simple, they did not have ribbon tied around them as planned as I left it in Canberra.  Not a big problem though, saved some time and I was happy with them anyway.  Actually, that's not quite right - I was really happy and very proud of them!

These shots before the stems were cut to the right length.



So bright and happy. They still make me smile. And after getting them done, we had the confidence to tackle the bouquets.

08 December 2010

The recaps begin...

Friday morning we woke up at 6. We'd left the blinds up in our room the night before. This is all very well in our own secluded north facing bedroom but not so great in the 2nd floor, east facing apartment we were staying in. I was not in the least bit impressed as I was still feeling really sick and told A there was no way I was getting up yet! We lazed around for a while, I popped a zillion vitamins and some cold and flu tablets and we went out to get some breakfast.

We wandered down the road in the sunshine (amazing in Melbourne given the weather over the previous couple of weeks) to a cafe and ate delicious ricotta, honey and banana on sourdough - my mood improved significantly! I figured if I was going to be sick there was no point dwelling on it as it wasn't going to make any difference. Plus, I had my voice back so chances were I'd be able to croak out some vows the next day and that was the main thing!

We headed back to the apartment and decided that it really was time to work out out dance.  We moved all the furniture out of the way, worked out the stereo and tried to choreograph a dance using the few merengue moves we could remember to some not-so-merengue music. We got to a point that we felt satisfied that we wouldn't embarrass ourselves too much then went out to relax on the sunny balcony.

Soon after, my parents and sister arrived and the real fun began. We lugged buckets of flowers and boxes of vases upstairs and feeling a little overwhelmed, tried to work out where on earth to start...

04 December 2010

7 things

So, Sammie from Marriage, Renovations and... was kind enough to give me a versatile blogger award - thanks! Though I'm not sure I really deserve it! Perhaps an 'unreliable blogger' award would be more apt? For us, November held two weddings, two funerals and the writing of 150 or so school reports. I'm glad it's over and in an effort to get back on the blogging horse I'm writing down my 7 things.

1. In four days I'll be on holidays for 8 weeks! 8 weeks people, that's two whole months! 2 weeks honeymooning, 1 week with family for christmas and then 5 more weeks to do things around home that were totally neglected for most of the year due to Operation Wedding. Oh, the things I could do!

2. If I were stuck on a remote island and could only have 2 types of fruit and vegies I would choose sweet potato, corn, golden queen peaches and pomegranate.

3. I've climbed the highest mountain in South East Asia - Mt Kinabalu in Borneo. It was awesome. I should write about it some time!

4. I love lists - particularly crossing things off them! I love this to the point that sometimes, if I do something that I didn't put on the list, I'll write it on afterwards just so I can cross it off!

5. I wish I was able to make wonderful arty/crafty things. There's so much beautiful stuff out there.  I'm more of a starter and less of a finisher so until I deal with that it's not going to happen!

6. I love to read and I have many favourites but the top 3 are... The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham and I love To Kill a Mockingbird too. Ok, let's make that 4 favorites.


7. I'm excited to start a family (or start trying to). Thanks to a comment in the wedding speech, the in-laws have a pool going that there'll be a little A by next Christmas. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!


As I don't have 7 people to pass this on to, I'm going to leave it open. If you stumble across this and want to introduce yourself and tell me 7 things go ahead, I'll come and read it and leave you a message!


And finally, just because, here's another wedding photo taken by a wonderful guest (who was also kind enough and cluey enough to video our bridal dance - thank you, thank you, thank you)!



13 November 2010

Mrs A!

I've been Mrs A for a whole week now and I like it! 

We had a brilliant day. The weather was fantastic, we were surrounded by our favourite people, things mostly happened as they needed to. I still had my cold (and I still have it now - I actually pulled a muscle in my back coughing today - ouch) but a couple of cold and flu tablets later I was fine, if a bit sniffly.

So, my first weekend as a married woman and I'm actually home alone! A is in Melbourne for his best mate's bucks. I'm looking forward to it really. I haven't been home for 5 out of the last 6 weekends! I've just watched Harry Potter, have another movie for tomorrow night (one A wouldn't want to see) and plan on mowing the lawn, gardening and keeping Axel company. He's been a bit neglected of late, poor boy!

Will leave you with a couple of photos and will think about doing some recaps soon.


04 November 2010

2 days

Off to Melbourne tonight. Still have lots of little things to do but if they don't get done, well, tough.

I have the cold from hell again but am hoping that having today and tomorrow off work will get it sorted out so I can at least croak out my vows on Saturday (with the help of some cold and flu tablets perhaps).

The weather is looking promising. Fingers crossed we might get one of Melbourne's only sunny days in the last two weeks! We were there last weekend as well and boy did I feel bad for any brides out there - it pelted most of the day (no doubt searching Lygon St without an umbrella contributed pretty significantly to this cold)!

My brain won't let me write any more. Have a lovely weekend!

27 October 2010

9 days

So, I bit the bullet and bought the hydrangeas.



Flowers - tick, so happy. Also ordered roses, lisianthus, alstroemeria, blue gum, billy buttons and everlasting daisies.

Discovered my first not-so-good purchase. Earrings. They are beautiful and shiny and gorgeous but I have worked out why I don't wear dangly earrings. One of my ears is slightly lower than the other. Weird. The earrings make it really obvious - ok - maybe just to me. Anyway, I had earrings and a necklace that belonged to my Nana as a back up. They've just been cleaned up and have come up nicely so I'll wear them instead.

Procrastinating on the last job of the night - putting place cards into envelopes for each table. Best get on with it.

You never know, if I keep this up I might get more than 5 minutes to relax next week!

26 October 2010

10 days!

BM gifts - tick
Seating - tick

My beautiful BM and sister found hydrangea plants with flowers at a nursery, now, even though everyone says they don't flower until December - ok so we'd have to buy a couple of whole plants... is it worth it? Then I could really have these beauties....

25 October 2010

11 days - 279 hours

Gah! It just keeps getting closer and there's nothing like a countdown timer to reinforce the feeling! That is a good thing, I'm looking forward to it. I just wish everything else would stop and wait for two weeks!

Had a lovely hens weekend. Nothing too wild, just some good food, good drinks and good friends. Heard all about A's bucks (or what he could remember) - I think there's meant to be rules about not sharing stories but they've never applied in this household so no reason they should start now!

Possibly even more excitingly A came home without a suit/shirt/tie but with one being altered in Melbourne and all the other bits and pieces being held ready to pick up this coming weekend! It's grey with a bluey pinstrip I think, from the dodgy mobile phone photo. Whatever, it looked great on him and his two groomsmen so ....woo hoo! Who said you needed to be organised about these things?

So, the list looks a bit better after the weekend. I still haven't done that marking though!

  • Finalize seating
  • Work out what flowers and how many to order - tick (sort of, the lady I need to order from is on hols for a couple of days but I have worked out what I need to order). Three minds are definately better than one when doing these things!
  • Get A a suit. Yes, you read that right. He still does not have a suit! - tick!
  • Buy bridesmaid gifts - any ideas people? - half tick, sale at the jewelers tomorrow. I will be there!
  • Finalize music
  • Finalize ceremony
  • Get A to organise transport for beer - tick!
  • Email a trillion people
  • Pay photographer + venue
  • Hire umbrellas (just in case)
  • Work out what is going on top of the cake - tick!
  • Do something about a guest book - half tick - have worked it out, just have to do it
  • Buy parents presents - again, any ideas?

22 October 2010

Little packages of goodness

Over the last week I've been getting mail.

Exciting, beautiful, Etsy mail! Oh, if I had a larger bank balance.

My hair flowers arrived...

And a bracelet...


Just waiting on some earrings now!

Still on the to do list...
  • Finalize seating
  • Work out what flowers to order (and how many - erm, if you are getting married and have this grand idea of doing your own flowers, listen to your mother when she tells you you are crazy. She's more than likely right. She has been before and, no doubt, will be again)!
  • Get A a suit. Yes, you read that right. He still does not have a suit!
  • Buy bridesmaid gifts - any ideas people?
  • Finalize music
  • Finalize ceremony
  • Get A to organise transport for beer
  • Email a trillion people
  • Pay photographer + venue
  • Hire umbrellas (just in case)
  • Work out what is going on top of the cake
  • Do something about a guest book
  • Buy parents presents - again, any ideas?
That's nearly as many jobs as there are days left and I'm sure I've forgotten something!

21 October 2010

15 days?????

Surely not? Where the hell did the last 15 go?

Can I just say that I am absolutely amazed by people who managed to blog regularly all the way up to their wedding day. Absolutely amazed!

A lot has happened in the last 15 days. It's been a bit of a roller coaster. I've had the low of saying goodbye to my beautiful grandmother next to the high of A having a pretty darn good win at poker. Although, I'd swap the money for having grandma at the wedding any day of the week. She held on long enough for me to visit and talk to her after I got home from Japan and for that I'm eternally grateful.

In the midst of that sadness we got this fantatsic RSVP from a relative (on the other side of the family) which nearly had us crying with laughter and because I have tests to mark, phone calls to make and a house to clean I'll leave you with that for today.


Roses are red
Violets are blue
On November the 6th
We wanna party with you

P has new moccies
B, a new tatt
L has new thongs
Can’t go wrong with all that

But oh woe is us
We have to confess
We forgot to reply
Oh gosh what a mess

Please can we come
Please find us a table
To celebrate with
The new couple named ?*

Please send us a message
A “Yes” we do pray
To ensure the C family
Can share your great day

So this is the end
Of our little ditty
We certainly hope
That you’re not really shitty



* I guess you can tell that my new name is going to rhyme with 'table'!

13 October 2010

RSVPs

RSVPs are slowly but surely coming in. It's so lovely, especially the people who have gone to the effort to post an acceptance card (we didn't include them in the invite). We've been so wrapped up in just getting things done that it's really nice to hear that other people are excited about the wedding too! Lots of warm fuzzies!

And now for some Japan happy snaps...


Part of my favourite place in Kyoto - Kiyomizu-dera. 
Even in the rain with squelching wet shoes, I love it!



Watching our Maiko perform. Hard to believe she's just 16!


Getting excited about the Baseball - Go the Hiroshima Carp!

07 October 2010

One month to go!

This time this month I'll be Mrs A! Right now, sitting in a hotel foyer in Tokyo I feel like everything is under control. The nearly two weeks away from planning has been great. It's easy for me, being the indecisive type, to spend hours considering options for cakes, placecards, don't even get me started on flowers that being out of the country and away from the planning has been really effective in getting things done! My beautiful BMs have dresses, my sister has organized most of the flower vases and bits and pieces and I even think that A has got through most of the jobs I left him!

On another topic I love Japan! Have done so much this trip that I haven't on others. Met a real live Maiko, went to the Ghibli Museum, my first ever baseball game - go the Carps! Who would have though baseball would be so exciting! Two days to go. Lots of shopping to do. Lots of photos to show when I'm home and not blogging from an iPod!

22 September 2010

Cure for the common cold?

I had gone 9 weeks at a new school without getting sick. I was going for a record - no cold in term 3. But 3 days out from holidays I've choked! So I'm home today grumpy because I'm off overseas on Friday evening and I really don't want to be sick! 21 super excited kids and an overnight plane ride with a cold does not sound all that appealing. Grrr.

On the plus side. Thanks to Photoshop and green-eyed-butterfly's lace brush set I've managed to make up the files for the placecards. I'm pretty sure there's some sort of wedding karma that says you shouldn't do that before you get RSVPs but tough. Sending them off to my lovely mum who is going to print, cut and fold until her heart is content and have have them all done by the time I get back from Japan!!! Got to love excited mums.


I've sent A off to the health food shop this afternoon to search for Oil of Oregano which is apparently good for colds. Any other quick fixes out there?

21 September 2010

3 Very Important People

There are 3 very important people who just because that's-the-way-life-goes wont be at our wedding in November.

Nana and Pop have both passed away in the last 3 years. Has it really been that long? It doesn't feel like it. Pop was a farmer until the end and as a friend put it at his funeral was "one of life's true gentlemen".  Nana was a great gardener, tennis player, cook, seamstress, florist - you name it and she could do it.  I have no doubt that if she were around she'd be doing our flowers, cooking our cake and they'd probably be teaching us how to dance. They loved their old-time dances and would light up when they showed us something new they had learnt. My sister and I always said we should go with them one night to see them in action but of course we never did. The definition of regret.

For them, after our first dance, the rest of the family will be getting up to do an Evening Three Step. Possibly to 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts' unless anyone else out there knows another evening three step song??? 


And, my other important person? Grandpa. Another avid green thumb with a garden to rival Nana's and a great sense of competition in a game of scattegories. Seriously, the debates over answers were fierce. Filled with laughter, but fierce. It is for both of them that I'm giving the bouquets a go myself. I'd like to claim to be half as talented, or even a quarter! 


So while they won't be there in person, they'll be there in our hearts and our actions in some way. And that will be enough.

17 September 2010

Music dilemma and a solution

FMIL very kindly bought us a CD of wedding music last weekend. We put it on for a bit. After about 5 songs I was ready to snap it in half. I just don't see us walking down or back up the aisle to the Bridal Chorus or Wedding March. I certainly can't see the bridesmaids entering to Trumpet Voluntary either. To me, they are big majestic cathedral like songs. We are getting married in a small, inner city church. I'm fairly sure it will take no more than 30 seconds to get up the very short aisle.

So when A mentioned to his mum that we would probably go for something more modern the response was "you have chosen to have the service in a church and so the music must be appropriate" and some more traditional song suggestions along with the name of an organist. Yikes! How do we get around this without offending?

Vogue wedding forums to the rescue! There was a mention a while back about the Vitamin String Quartet having covered just about every song you can imagine and boy were they right about that! From Lady Gaga to Radiohead and Kanye West to the Pixies. After ruling out Bad Romance and Gold Digger we got quite a good list going. And it was one of the most relaxing, fun wedding jobs we've done together in recent times!

Now to decide which one to walk up the aisle to! At the moment it's a toss up between Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol) because it's a sweet song and Mr Brightside (The Killers) just becuase it sounds good!

The older crowd will appreciate the appropriateness of the music (no words, no drums) and we'll appreciate not having the primary school adapted version of "here comes the bride" running through out minds!

Thanks Vogue Forums!

12 September 2010

Tell me what you really think!

I love my Grandma to bits. And I love that now she's nearly 90 she says exactly what she thinks without being too concerned about tact!

When I saw her last weekend she asked a lot about the wedding. But the comment that took the cake was this....keeping in mind that I had just come from a hair trial.....

"And Christie how are you going to have your hair?"
"Like this Grandma. But with a veil and a flower," I reply and spin around so she can see the back too.
"Like THAT??? It's very messy. I hope it will be neater than that!"

Thanks Grandma! You're a cracker!




After hours of trawling Etsy (oh how I wish I was a more decisive person) I'll have a flower like this from percyhandmade hopefully made with some lace from my dress if there's enough after hemming this weekend.  Yep, another trip to Melbourne. The cat won't be home alone this time though!



07 September 2010

While we were away...

Last weekend we left Axel in the care of the neighbours. They were happy to pop over and feed him so we left two packets of food on top of the washing machine. When we got home on Sunday night there was only one box there. A and I were wondering what on earth had happened to the other bag. It was just about full so surely the cat sitters hadn't fed him ALL of it??? He didn't look much fatter. It was a mystery.

Later that night A stepped on a couple of pieces of cat food in the hallway. We swept it up and thought nothing of it.

Monday morning I go into one of our spare rooms and stand on something. Cat food. What the...??? One more step, more cat food. Axel comes in slinks behind the futon and starts crunching away. I look around at him and see the once full bag of cat food in shreds. The floor is covered in cat food. Clearly the thought of his favourite food was just too much! Did he really have to destroy it in the only carpeted room in the house though?!


Axel the Destroyer - He may look innocent but it's all part of his cunning plan!

05 September 2010

Getting closer

2 months to go!

After a 2.5 hour delay (thanks cheap airline with striped animal mascot) we flew to Melbourne to get some things sorted.

I got to pick up my dress. Very exciting. No crazy pre-wedding diet required, it fits perfectly.

Went to the reception venue, met the bloke in charge (and he is a bit of a bloke) but knows what he's doing. Had an early Father's Day lunch there. Good food, how do you pick a menu when you want to pick every option, particularly the desserts???

Met the pastor and had a chat about the ceremony (interesting, not entirely sure if he's going to marry us after all as he was not very approving of the fact that there will be alcohol at the reception.....it's ok though, we have a back up plan).

Went to A's 10 year high school reunion and stayed with good friends who are getting hitched just a couple of weeks after us.

Had a hair trial (but not makeup - the girl who was going to do it for me can't get off work on the wedding day so back to square one with that).

Had lunch with Grandma, who we're not sure will make it to November as she's been diagnosed with cancer in her spine, breast and possibly stomach. Really hoping she'll be there as she's my only remaining grandparent. She really wants to be there too and seemed to be well today so here's hoping!

Flew home. Flights are NOT relaxing when the pilot takes two goes to take off (thanks again, cheap airline with striped animal mascot). Really hoping we booked a different airline for the real wedding weekend!

23 August 2010

Week 6 already?

Time flies when you're having fun!

I'm slowly digging myself free of an avalanche of marking and getting excited not just about wedding things but the fact that in 5 weeks I'll be back here!!


Let the countdown begin!

10 August 2010

Making Progress

Very pleased that I am out of the wedding planning rut of the last month and things are getting done!

Apart from the excitement of the dress arriving we've made a time to meet the Pastor, the venue coordinator, we've written the invitations and almost decided on rings.

Also came up with an idea for our guestbook inspired by this post on Young House Love.

We've started to learn how to dance - erm, perhaps we should just stick to the Nutbush - and I have a hair trial set up too.

I love getting things done!

So, awesome headband or flowers plus veil?


Photo via here
Photographer's website here


07 August 2010

Happy Anniversary House

This time last year we were busily lowering furniture off our 3rd floor balcony* and excitedly showing off our new place to the parents.

About a week after we moved in we decided to put together a list of things we wanted to do short term, medium term, long term.

I have to say, looking back at that list, we've done very little of what we originally planned!

So, here's the wishlist for the next year!
  • New fence
  • Painted lounge room + kitchen
  • Floating sideboard on lounge entrance wall
  • Paint the rest of the doors
  • Floorboards sand and polish
  • Finish the spa area
  • Bathroom/laundry reno
  • Deck out the front
  • Vegie garden 
  • Chook shed
And some inspiration pictures...






*Yes, we really did. I was dubious. I'm sure OHS would have had a fit. It worked, saved us going up and down 60 stairs about 60 times and we provided a lot of entertainment for passers by.


04 August 2010

The dress has landed!

Finally!

I rang up today to see what was going on as I ordered it in January. It was meant to take 4 months so I was starting to wonder (plus mum was stressing out).

The lady on the phone was like "we tried to ring you in July but didn't get an answer". Ah, hello? That's what message bank is for, no???

Anyway, IT'S HERE which I'm super excited about. Now just need to find a weekend to head to Melbourne and pick it up!


Now to work out the hair and veil!

21 July 2010

Less of a Backyard Blitz...

and more of a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race transformation. 

The plan is to transform this...


...into something more like this, care of our good friend D who has moved to Queensland and couldn't take his spa with him!



Job 1: Remove well established (but very ugly) vines from pergola. Tick!



Job 2: Knock down old brick BBQ, keeping the back so we can render and paint and have something to sit the spa against. Tick!





I really should have done this job during term time when I needed to blow off some steam as it turns out whacking stuff with a sledge hammer provides great stress relief!

Alas, I wasn't as productive as last break so that's all I really have to show for two weeks holidays! 

14 July 2010

Reasons why everyone should have a cat


1. Curiosity is incredibly cute. When Axel first arrived, we could measure his growth in where he could jump to. Week 1, the dining chairs and then onto the table. Week 3, into the bath (but not back out). Week 4, out of the bath and onto the bathroom sink. Week 6, the kitchen bench. 

2. Give a cat a toy to play with and it's more entertaining than the TV. In fact, don't worry about the toy, just leave a pencil or pen lying around apparently they're far more exciting!


3. They can help you write your blog. Axel, not wanting to be left out of the blog world is awfully fond of walking across the keyboard and trying to contribute. Usually his contributions are limited to 'zzzzzzzzzzzzzz' or 'bbbbbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaa' but today he managed to choose this picture with a timely foot on the enter key! I think he thinks it makes him look tough. He's totally beating up the blind cords.



4. If you're the first person home, as I almost always am, there is someone to come home to. Axel runs up to greet us when we get home and is excited when we get up in the morning. This may well be food related but it's still nice!

5. They keep you company when you're on holidays and everyone else is at work.

6. On a cold Canberra winter night there is nothing better than a cat curled up on your lap.

Oh, and see those bricks he is sitting on? They are all out of the old BBQ that I demolished to make way for the spa. 

Oh yeah. Christie + sledgehammer = unstoppable! 

Erm, well, maybe not unstoppable, I stopped quite often. Sledgehammers, even mini ones, are quite heavy! More on that later!

09 July 2010

Centrepieces

Apparently we need them. A and I don't really like the ones the venue has on offer but are a bit ambivalent about what we should have instead. A tells me people only want centerpieces if they can flog them at the end of the night! Classy!

This is the inside of our venue.


Here are a collection of pictures that I like.










Or, shall we just put some of our own flowers on the tables?

05 July 2010

Flower Fun

A little while back I mentioned that I was planning on buying our flowers from a local farm and putting them together ourselves.  Well, this weekend my sister was visiting so we decided to see if we had any skills whatsoever in the floristry area and this is what we came up with...



We'll have slightly different flowers for the real deal and we need a bit more practice tying the ribbons but overall are pretty confident we can create something that we'll be happy to carry down the aisle. 

Yay! 

02 July 2010

It's that time again!

Yep, it's the school holidays. The last few weeks have been crazy so I'm looking forward to some time kick back, relax, collect my thoughts and get ready for the next adventure....the new job!

I'd like to do some more painting but think it may be too cold for it to dry properly. Seriously cold this last week. The poor fish pond has frozen over twice. It's really quite bizarre watching goldfish swim under a layer of ice! So rather than frost, tomorrow I'm hoping to wake up to this....


Hey, a girl can dream! I'd settle for just a sprinkling, c'mon, please?!

If painting is a no-go then I may take on the scarily overgrown BBQ area and get the sledge hammer onto the old brick BBQ. Or maybe continue A's good work removing vines from the back fence so we can get a new one! Now there's a couple of challenges!

Here are some befores...




Wish me luck!