Category Archives: Life

FebFast is Actually Killing Me!

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Thanks to Dave I have averted a fundraising disaster… well kind of… At work this month we are getting behind Feb Fast, a fundraiser in which you fast something (see what they did there with the name? clever ey?), it started with alcohol, but now you can choose from alcohol, caffeine, digital or sugar… and for the month of February, as a way to not only raising money for supporting and working with young people with drug and alcohol addiction, but also get back to some better habits that may have lapsed over the Christmas/new year period, you go without.

So… last week I was all geared up to do a digital detox and say goodbye to screen time at 8pm each night in Feb, I had signed up, locked Davo in and while a little nervous about my ability to follow through, was prepared to give it a crack! In fact I had almost convinced myself that I would enjoy it… that it would actually be really good for me… I had even already planned to pay for a pass out on dayone so that I could Instagram Kirsten’s wedding guilt free. I was pretty much ready to go. Well… when I got home last Thursday night, Dave informed me we had made a terrible mistake… A digital fast, no TV, no iPad, no laptop after 8pm… During the Winter Olympics… He was right! We had made a terrible mistake. The Olympics are pretty much sacred TV time, two weeks of minimal sleep, watching sports you’ve never heard of. But sports that if you don’t watch now, you won’t see again for four years… and lets face it, life is not complete with out a four yearly top up of curling… No the Olympics were not negotiable. So seeing as though we had already signed up we needed to think of something else to fast. Being salvos, an alcohol felt like cheating, seeing as we don’t drink anyway… that left sugar and caffeine… both things I am quite attached to.

FebFast-Caffeine-profile-picSo now we have decided to give up caffeine instead… which now that I am a week into, think might actually be harder than a digital detox. I love tea, it is my go to for everything, for relaxing, before bed, in the afternoon, when I am sad, when I am cold, when I am hot (iced tea is also the bomb!) at all times life is better with tea… and if for some strange reason there is no tea, I’ll have diet coke, because I love that too. But now for the rest of the month they are gone… and I think it might be slowly killing me.. there are a few other things off the list also, but I think tea and diet coke are the ones that are hurting. And just like the digital option we have already had to buy a pass out for the wedding… but that’s it… we are in now… a month without a cuppa… but it’s for a good cause… does anyone know where I can buy decaf tea?

Oh and P.S – if you want to sponsor me and donate to the FebFast cause you can do so by clicking this link…

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Posted in Life, Love by

This is not a blog about the movie just in case you were wondering… or mislead, in fact i’ve never seen the movie… maybe I should, it kinda feels like a classic… I’ll get on that.

This is in fact a blog true to its name, it’s about my best friend’s wedding, which incidentally was yesterday.

It feels a little unreal if I am honest, like I am not really sure it happened, the day was quite a blur, but the 669 photos I took suggest that it did in fact take place.  There were a number of things that made the day extra special, the first was that it the wedding has been a long time coming, they had been together a long time (almost as long as Dave and I) and you kinda just knew it was just a matter of when, not if.  But the other thing that made it extra special was the fact that I got to be there all day with her as one of her bridesmaids.

To date I had never been a bridesmaid, and this wasn’t something that had made me particularly sad, it was just the way it was.  And if I am really honest, I had convinced myself that I probably never would be, and that was ok.  So being asked to be there for Kirsten, as she said I do, is something that I still feel incredibly blessed by.  Even as I am writing this I am finding myself a little emotional, because I feel so privileged and honoured to have been a part of the day, it is something that is so super special.

I had so much fun hanging out with Kirsten and my fellow bridesmaids.  It could not have been better if we tried… everything about the day was wonderful…

Our early morning walk,

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Our morning of hair, make up and quick bits to eat,

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Their beautiful ceremony,

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Photo fun with bridal party,

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And the incredible celebration that was the reception.

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Everything was just perfect. But the best bit of all is that because of yesterday, my best friend is married to her love and they are starting the next chapter of their lives together.  He has certainly got himself a winner, Kirsten is one of the kindest, most generous, loving, loyal, wise and hilarious people I know.  She is the best of the best, and while I am still not sure how I managed to score her has my person, my life is most certainly better because she has been a part of it.  On the flip side though she is also pretty lucky, Ryan is not only an incredible guy in his own right… he is also my second cousin… which means Kirsten is now part of my larger extended family… which means we are stuck together!  This wedding is win win win!

Kirsten’s wedding also means an end of an era for my little trio of besties.  Kirsten, Pheebs and I have now all entered the realm of married life… we have come a long way from the girls that used to play love percentage games, outline our top 5 guys and dream about love.  We could never have predicted that it would turn out like this… it’s even better then we could have imagined.

The Most Beautiful Garden Party of All Time!

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Now you may think the title for this blog is an exaggeration, but it’s not I assure you, in fact it’s probably an understatement if anything. And while I would like to take credit it for it all, unfortunately I can’t, while I contributed opinions and assisted in the set up the creative genius was not mine.

Last Saturday night my fellow bridesmaids and I put on a Hen’s evening for our bride to be.   The evening was designed to be all of the bride’s favourite things in one place, everything from a Mexican feast to an abundance of chocolate to an outdoor movie.  We spent the night outside and after an initial panic that Melbourne was going to continue to be the hottest place in the world, the cool change meant that the weather was perfect.  But the thing that made the evening even better than Mexican food and chocolate (which lets face it, is already a winning combination), was the detail and decoration in the garden it’s self… it was beautiful, and even a little bit magical.

One of my fellow bridesmaids is part of a new business called Petals and Pompoms (you can check out all the incredible things they do via instagram here).  Oh and just as a little side note… Petals and pPompoms are amazing… they just know what a space needs to make it incredible!  Anyway, this combined with another prep teaching bridesmaid (it appears that primary school teachers also seem to have been whacked with the creative stick), and the not so creative, but super practical and a little bit nerdy me were pretty pleased with our efforts.

It turns out the key is fairy lights, bunting and pompoms… who would have thought…  here are some pictures from the night… everything from our outdoor cinema, to the homemade pinata and the delicious feast setting… and I am pretty sure… no 100% sure that this is the most beautiful garden party I have ever been to.

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Fake Tan and Green Juice

Posted in Life, The List by

It’s been long time since I have been on a girls weekend away, in fact I think the last time I did something similar was for my own bridesmaid get away and I had forgotten how refreshing it is to do something different and how much fun these girls are! We just headed down to the beach for a quick trip before my best friend Kirsten gets married, and while what happens on a girls weekend should probably stay on a girls weekend, there are a few things that need to be made public… mostly because the weekend away also seemed like the perfect opportunity to cross some things off the list… and they can’t really be crossed off in secret. Over the weekend I crossed a whole stack of things off my list, but actually the whole past week has been a list frenzy… let me take you through what’s was crossed off before we went away…

No. 38 Cook Fish
On Tuesday night I cooked fish – I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal but it is. It’s something that I had never done before.  if I was put on the spot I wouldn’t know what fish to get, what to do with it, how to cook it or what to eat with it… cooking fish is a big hole in my cooking knowledge (it’s actually one of many large holes in my cooking skills knowledge but that’s another story). The idea of cooking fish, even just touching fish makes me nervous, even though I know I need to be eating a lot more of it. But now the first one is done… and while it wasn’t the healthiest meal in the world, these little fish burgers from one of my Donna Hay cook books turned out pretty good.

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No. 19 Help someone set up a blog
Thursday morning I helped a friend start a blog and actually later that night I got asked to help someone else as well.  I am really excited about these new blogs because I think they are both going to be winners… but I’ll blog more about the blogs later when they are a little more ready.

No. 51 Get a fake tan
I was super nervous about this… like super super duper nervous, the last fake tan I tried was just before my wedding, I had asked for a super light tan as because I am super pale I didn’t want to look ridiculous… but it was dark… really dark, and awful… just the wrong color and a bad experience all added to the stress of my pending nuptials. So this time round, I was trialing a tan for Kirsten’s wedding, and I wanted to make sure it was right (no one wants an oompa lompa in their bridal party).  So Friday afternoon I went to a friend who has her own beautician business (Donvale Beauty Therapy… check it), and once again asked for a light tan… rather than what I got last time… and it has turned out really nicely… so much better than I could have imagined, and it was perfect to have on the beach! Thanks Hollie.

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So still drying and ‘activating’ my new tan I headed down to the beach where the list fun continued…

No. 69. Walk across Kilcunda bridge
Every time I go down to the beach house I drive past this bridge and for a number of years I have been thinking about stopping and checking it out. It’s an old rail bridge that runs between the beach and the highway and while it doesn’t hold trains any more it does make for a pretty picture…

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No. 6 Try a green juice
If you read my blog regularly you may remember a blog I wrote entitled “The truth about green juice”, in the blog I didn’t rate them very highly. Nothing has really changed in my opinion of the green juice, but I felt a little bit bad as I had never actually tried a green juice… but now I have… and I still don’t rate the. The Green juice I tried had kale, parsley, chia seeds and pear… which was not a winning combination… I can see how with a little more fruit it might be tasty… but I just don’t think they are for me… which is fine, as I also don’t think they are as awesome as they are made out to be…

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No. 70. Go to a cemetery
Morbid I know, but I find them really interesting, I like to read the tombstones and wonder what people were like, work out how old they were and think about who they left behind… I know it’s weird… but it’s true.

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No. 86. See the movie ‘Frozen’
After I got home last night, Dave and I went to the movies to see Frozen and it was nice, not as awesome as I had hoped, but I did have pretty high expectations. It was a nice story, with nice music and it made for a nice night.

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So there you go, we are 13 days into January and I have already crossed 9 things off the list… I feel like I am going to get pretty close to the full 100 this year!

The Date Box

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Last year… Well actually I guess it was the year before as it’s January so last year was pretty much last week… The year before last and last year… It’s true for both, I gave Dave a ‘Date Box’ for Christmas… This was an idea I actually found on Pinterest (it appears that’s where all my best ideas come from)… on someone else’s blog and I just thought it was worth mentioning as it has become super special and something nice that we now have, which you can have too… But not with Dave… He is mine… With your own version of Dave :).

20140106-120043.jpgIt was actually something that come out of the fact that I was broke, a little unorganised and it was Christmas, but it turns out it was actually the best gift there ever was. Dave and I, like everyone else in the world are busy and because we both find it difficult to say no, often we find our time together gets shortened or changed into a task for someone or something else. So the Date Box provided an opportunity to change that, even if it was only for a night or an afternoon. So what is the Date Box… Well it’s just that a box of dates (not the edible type). The last year it was 12 envelopes with a date for each month and this year it was a box filled with 12 smaller boxes, one for each month. Each month’s package contains a letter plus or minus some additional information, the letter explains what the date for the month will be… where we are going… what activity we will be doing… what I have organised… and what Dave will need to bring… The reason I love it so much is because it’s just once a month it can be special, it can be grand or simple or all three… As big or as little as needed, but once the envelope is sealed or box is packed the decisions are made… Which is actually the bit I always find the hardest anyway.

Last year our dates looked like this:
Date Box

And on Saturday night Dave and I went on our first date for the year, which was back to the moonlight cinema (Dave loves the movies and this was winner last year), and it was fantastic, I am sure that the moonlight cinema is always fun, but there is something extra nice about having the night as a date. There is no pressure, no other purpose than just to hang out. Just as a side note we saw ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ which was wonderful… Seriously wonderful and it crossed number 88 off the list, I think Tom Hanks was the perfect choice to play Walt Disney… He was just perfect… But that’s a whole bog in itself.  The best bit about the Date Box is that even though I know what’s in there I can’t wait for Dave to open the next one so that we can go on another date…

Anyway, I just thought that seeing as Dave and I loved the date box so much maybe other might too… Maybe give it a go… You never know, it I’ll probably be awesome!