Getting hitched…!

They say that planning a wedding is a big thing…lots of time, headaches, worry and dollars spent.

Having 12 months to planning our wedding was plenty of time and I felt none of this pressure I had heard so much about. Although people did try; “Have you got your dress yet?” they would ask, and when I replied that I hadn’t they would remark “Gosh, you don’t have much time!” There were many of these comments and I made a point of brushing them off and doing things in my own time.

With my dad passing away tragically and unexpectedly just the month before my wedding; we were keen to make our wedding upbeat and fun but also have elements of the day reflecting our much missed loved ones.

I love getting my ‘craft’ on and had a ball designing and creating everything myself. I spent time on Pinterest (way too much time, mind you), Instagram and searching the internet for inspiration. I thoroughly enjoyed getting creative and spending afternoons gluing, cutting and perfecting different things…possibly all apart from the invitations. The invitations would have to be something I am most proud of…but they took a bloody long time to cut out! Well worth it though in my book. 🙂

Our day went off without a hitch with the sun shining, everything running to plan and all guests turning up! So many friends told us to take the time to talk, kiss, be alone and enjoy our wedding day…and that’s exactly what we did! I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day with more perfect people.

Honeymoon = AMAZING!

Check this place out, the most amazing place I have ever seen. You know those places you see in magazines and think they possibly can’t be that perfect, they have to be airbrushed and photoshopped? Well let me tell you they do exist, and it is fabulous!

How did that come about so fast?

I am getting married tomorrow!!!! Eeek!
Well in 17 hours to be precise. Cannot wait!

I am empty

My heart is a whole lot emptier these days. One month today my father passed away tragically in an accident and I still cannot believe the reality. I expect him to come walking around the corner or burst through the door or offer advice on something I am needing help with.

It is difficult to explain the feelings of losing a loved one so tragically, so suddenly, so unexpected. The only way I can describe how I feel is empty, a physical emptiness that I can feel inside.

While my whole world seems to be falling apart; the world keeps going on around me, almost making it harder.

One month ago I lost a big part of me that will never come back. Although time will ease the pain and fond memories will remain in my mind and heart, the big piece of me will forever be lost.

I have found comfort in the family, friends and strangers that have reached out and touched my heart in some way or another. Flowers, cards, food, messages, prayers, letters and visits have warmed my heart.

I miss you dad; forever in my thoughts and heart.
xxx

Post-holiday CBFs

During the time I was travelling around some of the most beautiful and intriguing countries in our wide, wide world; I had all these visions as to what I would do with the copious amounts of photos I took, the piles of pamphlets I kept and the purse-full of tickets I preserved. In my visions I saw scrapbooks meticulously set out with musings about my travels accompanied by funny little quotes and their accompanying pictures laid out beside it. In my visions I saw ‘slide’ nights where I would have friends over and an amazing set of photos playing in movie form with carefully matched music. In my visions I saw me editing my photos and selecting the most artistic and memorable ones to carefully place in frames around the house.

Well let me tell you something…my visions came crashing down like a visual tonne of bricks. HA! I naively didn’t realise how tired and busy I would be after returning home from a ridiculously long set of flights home…getting straight back into work with two concerts that week…getting hit with the reality that my wedding didn’t plan itself while I was away…and the ‘necessities’ of everyday life like waxing and hairdresser appointments. First world problems I know.

Life just gets way too busy I have decided…and unless I make a concerted effort to get my holidays into some sort of order I am afraid of those memories slipping into some distant memory that almost feels as though I could have dreamt it all.

In the meantime I will aim to try and jot down some memories on here and attach some meaningful photos…perhaps it may transport me back if I’m lucky enough! 🙂

x

 

I don’t know how they do it…and London!

Well we have arrived! After 24 hours of flights I am in London and surprisingly not jet lagged! (is jet lag actually a real thing or is it something people seem to make up…I have always wondered this).
I must say it was a great flight; very quiet, beautiful food, lots of movies and no upset kids…but I don’t know how people do this flight regularly. I was up and down like I had ants in my pants; I couldn’t sit still, and what felt like 14 hours of flying time was in fact just 2. The kids on the plane were just amazing…they were content with sleeping and watching movies and barely moved…I should take a leaf out of their book!

My first impressions of London are that it is just beautiful! The buildings are amazing and I felt myself being a bit disappointed with all the newer building disrupting the old ornate ones.
The weather is also quite lovely! Sun in the sky and a gentle breeze has made walking around this city comfortable.
We have been busy yesterday touring the city on a bus which was a great way to see what we are interested in going back to see today (we are only in London for 3 days all up so we have to be selective)! We did a tour of Buckingham palace, wow what a beautiful place…lots of things I didn’t know! We also took a ride on the London Eye which was lovely to see the beautiful buildings from a birds eye view.

10 things I have found so far…
1. I love the taxis! The little black ones remind me of Mr Bean. We rode in one yesterday and they were so cute and unique!
2. The phone boxes are gorgeous, we will aim for a photo with them today.
3. Rubbish bags lying in the street. At first I thought this was kinda lazy, but then realised the truck picks them up in the evenings. We don’t have anything like this in Australia so it was quite interesting!
4. The speed at which cars and buses change lanes and jut out in front of others…I was a little scared at first but it just kinda works!
5. There is a store called ‘Pret a Manger’ on almost every other block…we haven’t been in there yet but I can’t believe how many I have seen!
6. The amount of different accents in this city, I thought Australia was multicultural but London even more so! It is nice to see.
7. The street signs…at first we thought none of the streets had signs and we were struggling to find out where we were going, but then realised they were on the fences or buildings, kinda cool!
8. The road has painted which way you have to look for traffic, I like this!
9. Hyde Park we thought was so disappointing (hang on, stay with me), we walked trough it on the way to Buckingham Palace and the grass was long, overgrown bushes and not much to look at. But as we went around on the bus we realised how big it was and that most of it had beautifully manicured lawns. There were wooden lounge chairs with people soaking up the sun, horses riding through the park and others enjoying games of chess.
10. The little squirrels, I have never seen these and they were just so cute! We saw lots of them whilst walking through Hyde Park.

One chapter ends and another one begins

I feel as if it was only yesterday that I wrote my last post SOLD.

Tomorrow is settlement day and it arrives with a mix of sadness, for leaving behind a lot of hard work, and excitement for what lies ahead.
A month has gone by so quickly and we have managed to move all my belongings into Simon’s house…besides the big mound of furniture currently taking up the carport that unfortunately won’t fit into his house. Simon’s (Our) house (I need to get used to saying ‘our’ house now) is finally neat and tidy and the boxes have all been unpacked and put away. Bring on the garage sale in a couple of weeks where hopefully someone out there wants to buy our stuff!

 

And….SOLD!

I sold my house!!! Well I actually sold it two weeks ago but didn’t want to put the mozz on myself prior to having the deposit down. But now that it is all official things are in full swing to get my things packed up and out of there within the next month before settlement on the 18th August.

As much as it is exciting, there is also sadness when I am there packing everything up…that house has my blood, sweat and tears put into it. It was my first bought house and I have so many wonderful memories in it. However I also have so much happiness knowing that Simon and I are going to be making some wonderful memories of our own in his house and hopefully a house we buy together a little way down the track.

Now…back to the packing!

xxx

Parent vs Teacher

Parents often say to me they don’t know how I do it. How do I deal with twenty-something students all day and not be considered clinically insane?

Well let me tell you something parents…I don’t know how you do it!

Simon’s sister has asked me a few times to look after her three girls during school holidays and I always jump at the chance as they are such beautiful, endearing and fun girls to be around. But gosh is it hard work! The girls normally save all of their art and craft projects for me…today consisted of making perfume, slime, handbags, hair clips, necklaces, painting pictures and painting toe-nails. I love art and craft and creating things is something I love…but kids are so quick to tire of one thing and then move onto the next…if there is a slight bit of down time in between then you can guarantee there will be some ‘I’m bored’, or bickering or some sisterly fights.

This Thursday is another day or arts and crafts…bring on next week where we are off to the movies and a trip to Sovereign Hill! Wish me luck!

Hats off to all you parents!

x