Changes

I have not posted in ages as so much in my life is changing right now and it seems pointless to put any of it down in writing as it may change at any moment.

My Beau is about to finish his studies and we have been given our posting.  It is not in Sydney - which is nice as we want to move anyway but we don't know where to move to and we cannot decide on the same place.  We keep on tossing up between the Central Coast and the Hunter Valley.  

I have finished my university studies and so am now certified to teach secondary music.  I will start applying for a full-time job as soon as I know where I will be living.  

I have resigned from all of my current teaching posts as I do feel like I am ready to move on from all those schools and people.  I love them all and will miss them but I do feel like a change.  I am a bit scared as this will be the first time I am unemployed in about 7 years!  On the other hand I am looking forward to setting up a house and garden and being a good wife to be.

I wish that this was more interesting for everyone to read but I just had to write (or type) it out so I can not worry about it so much!

PS.  It is disgustingly hot here.

The Wedding - Part 2

So it was a battle between the Convent (Beau's choice) and Margan wineries (my choice).  We both lobbied hard for our choices but in the end the winner was Margan.

I am so excited to be having our wedding there as I feel it already has memories for us and has an amazing backdrop of the mountains where I would one day like to have a property.

We have decided to have a morning wedding.  We will be married at 11 am and then have a lunch - consisting of canapés and champagne, 2 courses and then our wedding cake for dessert.  We are inviting about 60 guests.  We invited 130 to our engagement party but just can't afford to have that many for our wedding.  Also a lot of those guests were far- flung family that we never see or have any contact with.  I felt bad inviting them to the engagement party knowing that they would not be coming to the wedding - but everyone else seemed to think it was ok.

We are getting away with just having who we want at the wedding because we are paying for it ourselves.  My father has remarried and had children with my step-mother so I don't expect him to offer anything (not that I want him too - I don't even know if I can ask him to walk me

 down the aisle).  Also my Mother wants to pay something toward the wedding but she has already bought my dress.  We want to feel like we don't have to do what other people want or invite them because of this or that.

I can envisage it will be difficult though.  

To make myself feel better here is a picture of my wedding gown.  Not very vintage - and not at all what I thought I would go for but I love that it's not white.  Which is making it hard to select wedding colours for flowers etc and the Beau is refusing to look at it (he is very traditional about things like that).  Any suggestions?

La Sposa, Pronovius "Paradiso" gown in Chardonnay

Holiday Slump

At the moment I am on school hoidays but not for much longer.

Due to my Beau being away with college still I have no one to go away with as everyone else who I would like to go away with (and those that could out up with me) are working.

I feel like I haven't really done anything at all these hols -  although I know I have.  I haven't just been doing "nothing".  So in the interest of making myself feel like they were worthwhile, here is a list of things  have done:

• Booked a wedding venue (more on this later)
• Spring cleaned the kitchen - although you can't tell anymore
• Spent a day driving around an area I may be moving to at the end of the year (depending on the placement that we get) to decide where we might like to buy our first home together (and the first house I will have ever lived in).
• Done my tax return for last year
• Eaten about a million pieces of nougat.
• Cooked some lovely food
•  Done a few days of thrift shopping with my Mum and Grandparents
• Designed a wedding website
• Gotten my car fixed (someone crashed into my while it was parked - in a car park -  and didn't leave a note).
• Done some Christmas shopping and made some present idea lists.
• Caught up with a few friends I haven't seen in ages.
• Had my hair "done"

To make this post a bit more interesting I thought I would do a list of all of things that I am in love with at the moment:

• Nougat as previously mentioned.  My favourite is Massam's honey and almond.

• Sleeping-in while everyone else is getting up.   I love my Tempur mattress.  My bedroom feels very calming in the morning.  This isn't my bed but kind of has the same colours and head board.

• The ocean temperature - it's about 20 which is the same as out.  I know because my brother made me go for a swim.

• Champagne - I'm averaging a bottle every two days!

• CD player in my hire car - my normal car doesn't have one - I can listen to jazz all day!

The Wedding - Part I

Here we go,

The planning has started in earnest.  We have a date: 27th August 2010.

Over this long weekend, the Beau and I went for a drive to the Hunter Valley to look at our short-listed venues for the wedding.

The places we looked at were:

• The Sebel Kirkton Park
  
• Margan Family Winery 
  
• Pepper Convent

The Beau likes the Convent and I like Margan.

The Beau turned into a gushing bride the moment we walked into the convent.  It's very shabby chic/French country.  I do like it - just not as much as Margan.  The convent does have an

 outdoor reception option - where we could sit under a trellis of Wisteria with long tables.  It also has a wet-weather option of a beautiful breakfast room with French doors looking onto gardens and said terrace.  We are going to be married in the morning and have a wedding brunch.

The ceremony can take place next to a lake, which has willows around it.   The Beau also think it could be nice that it may be haunted!

It kind of reminds me of school - where the was a convent - which I did sleep in once!  It smells the same, everyone whispers and you can hear everybody walking around.  I also think that the upkeep is not that wonderful - I saw beer bottles around the house and the verandah hadn't been swept.  Inside all looked ok.  

I forgot to the camera but here are some photos:

Here is one of the rooms - upstairs though - so for some of our guests.

This is the breakfast room which would be the wet-weather option.  I really don't like the chairs and their covers though.  I feel it's too "done". 

Margan winery is in Broke  - which is out of the centre of the commercial area for wineries.

Margan is also a bit unusual - it is quite new so it doesn't have all the history associsated with some of the other places we saw but all inside is modern and clean.  I thought that I would have like to go for something a bit older in style but I like the fact the the modern decoration and design means that it isn't "geared" towards weddings.

We are able to have an outside ceremony at Margan, with the mountain range behind us.  We can also have the reception on the verandah which is great because it is still a possibility when it's raining.  We actually had lunch on the verandah and it was raining but it was so quiet and beautiful.  The verandah overlooks their own chicken run and veggie garden at a distance.  On the lawn in between we could have croquet and boules set-up.  

The wedding planner was a dream and she didn't think that anything was too hard or impossible - she even said I could bring my antique linens to dress the tables!

 Here is view to the mountain ranges through the vineyards.

Here is one of the ceremony options - the courtyard.

  This is a picture of the verandah were we would have our tables for the reception.

This is the area that the verandah looks out onto.  It is not usually this yellow.  It is also an option for the ceremony.

Here is another picture of the courtyard but from the other side - the entrance.

7 Things

I have just finished reading Lobster and Swan blog and she had been forwarded on a 7 thing post.  I think that's how it works - anyway - she has asked everone reading to lost 7 things about themselves too.  I know I enjoy reading what people think about themselves so I thought I would give it a go:

1.  I have a terrible will power.  

No matter how hard I try or want something I am a shocker when it comes to keeping promises to myself.  I have no one else to blame but myself and it disgus

ts me that I cannot stick to things that should be easy like cleaning the kitchen.  Strang

e though - give me 6 years of university study and I'm your gal.

2. I used to be a flight attendant.

I only did it for 6 months while I was in my final year of university and it was a nightmare coordinating flight schedules and classes.  I flew for a Regional Australian airline on the Dash series - where you are sometimes the only flight attendant.  I found it similar to working in a  bar but with heels and and much less sleep.  The most glamourous part was having a pilot offer to put your suitcase in the hold for you or wheeling your suitcase around the terminal (for all of about 3 minutes!)

3.  I love musicals.

I don't know if this is such a surprise.  And it's not just any musical - give me Rodgers and Hammerstein and Gordon McRae any day.  Deep down all I want is a strong man to sort out money and a house and for me to feel looked after and then for him to burst into song and whisk me around the lounge room in some choreographed number.  Disgustingly anti-feminist I know.  It won't happen but I can dream about it.

4.  I have a linen problem.

This has a little to do with my will power but I cannot stop buying linen's.  Not just any linens but beautiful damask and embroidery.  I see them in the shop and think that some lovely person has spent hours working on it and it's so sad that it's now not treasured by anyone. 

5.  I love reading Patrick O'Brien

Naval books really do it for me.  I think I have a huge crush on Jack even though he is almost everything I despise in a man - cheating and ungrateful - he has this strange sense of loyalty and fairness that I find in myself. 

6.  Confrontation

I hat confrontation with anybody - people at the supermarket in my personal space, people who push in the queues, restaurant who mess up my order.  But the flip side is that a have a hot temper so most of the time I just make a horrible face and simmer away for the rest of the day - I have a hard time letting go.

7. Composing

I studied music composition at the Sydney Conservatoiurm for my undergraduate degree and have note so much as written a single note since I left.  I feel like I was a bit of an imposter while I was there, as writing for me was not because I had to but because I was good at it.  I want to write something but maybe I'm just afraid that what will come out is not "right" or "good" but I should get over myself and give it a go.

Now at the end of the post of Lobster and Swan everyone who read the post was asked to post 7 things about them so I will do the same.  Please link to your post in the comments section so I can find about more about you!

To make this post a bit more interesting I have included some random photographs of myself and various people.

A little break

One of the Vintage Cars and Trailers set up at the 50s fair.

While the Beau has been back from College I have been spending every moment I can with him.  It was so lovely to sleep next to him again and to have someone make me cups of tea.

While he was here we had picnics and cocktail parties and went to the football but most importantly we went to the 50s fair at Rose Sidler House.  Unfortunately I did not get a photo of us together and I didn't get to wear the dress that I began making because my lovely machine broke!  It was almost finished but not quite. 

Here is what it is supposed to look like.

This is how far I got (hadn't done the binding or fastenings etc) - but it fit!

Here is my helper. Coco

And again, helping me to cut out the pattern.

Now I did not plan a back-up outfit despite my terrible track record with finishing dresses on time, so this as put together the morning of the Fair.  The jacket is the only Vintage item here.  But the dress was light and had a full skirt and a happy pattern so I think it kind of works.  

There were some really great outfits that would have taken a age to put together and some amazing hair.  I am too shy to ask people to pose for me but my step-father came and he is a photographer so I'm sure he got some great shots that I will post.  There was also bands dancing, stalls, a hairdresser and of course the house.  We got some things that I will post after they have been cleaned.

I have since learnt that you can visit the house any Sunday so I might go again soon.  It was so crowded that it was hard to get a feel for what it would have been like to live there (it is on a large block surrounded by natural bush land).

Cheers.  Our picnic in the National Park.

The Pumpkin

The Pumpkin is my baby.  Her real name is Coco, but due to her colour she gets Pumpkin.

My Mum bought her for me when U was living alone as she said "it's nice to come home to a "live" thing".  I thought it was a funny thing to say at the time

 but since then Coco has become an integral part of my life.  

Every time I open the door she is there to say hello.  She sleeps with me, calms me down, comforts me, drives me insane and follows me around all the time.

I guess it is like having a child in some ways (not that I have one).  

She is at the vet today with Dr Peter and is having an operation.   I cannot go and get her for another 3 hours and 15 minutes.  I know she will be ok but I can't stop thinking of her so I've picked the photos I have of her that  show her personality the best.

Coco in the washing basket - making it impossible for me to finish hanging out the washing.

Here is Coco in a basket that now keeps all her junk.  Whenever there is a box or bag (or basket) she will crawl in and go to sleep.

Here she is on the dining table watching someone in the kitchen, hoping that they will find where her crunchies are kept and feed her.  I had forgotten about those lovely carnations.