My Mom is Insane

But that’s why I love her.  I owe so much of my quirkiness to her.  

Need proof that she’s a bit weird?  Last time she visited, she couldn’t resist doing this to my feet:

Right Big Toe and Left Big Toe are getting married.  Right Big Toe is wearing a couture gown by Kleenex.  This was long before I got engaged and she had weddings on the brain then.   She also has grandbabies on the brain, but that’s another post entirely.

Wedding Colours

Our wedding theme is “Sydney Harbour.”  Fitting, seeing as our reception will overlook the harbour.  I want to capture the beauty of the harbour in our wedding colours.  Therefore, I have chosen the colours blue (the colour of the water in the harbour), green (the colour of the foliage in the botanic gardens), and white (the colour of the sails of the Opera House and of course, the sailboats).   Here is an inspiration board I created to try and capture the theme.

Thanks to Snippet + Ink, Brooklyn Bride and The Knot for these inspirational images.

Cab driver or master chef?

Despite its reputation as a homogenous white country, Australia is incredibly diverse.  It has certainly become more diverse since the white Australia policy is thankfully no longer in force.  Apparently white people like diversity and I suppose we’re no exception.

The immigration rate is greater than the natural population growth, meaning that the number of people relocating from overseas is more than the number of births minus the number of deaths.  Rarely will you find Australians whose family has been here for more than 150 years.  The exception, of course, being the Australian Aborigines who have been here for hundreds of generations.  My great-great grandfather arrived from Glasgow, Scotland in the 1800’s aboard the Loch Marie.  That makes my sister and me 5th generation Australian.

My workplace is amazingly diverse.  I work with people who moved here from India, England, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, South Africa, Iraq, Croatia, Scotland, Hungary, Thailand, Lebanon, Burma, Ecuador and more.  And that’s just a sample from one floor! 

Fortunately, the Howard government’s insistence on assimilation hasn’t led people to abandon their culture.  Opportunities to learn about other cultures are plentiful.  You can go to a festival, try new food at a restaurant, watch a show on SBS,  or chat with a friend.

Or, just grab a taxi.  The fiance took a cab home from the airport earlier this week and his cab driver was Indian. [Side note: Another unique thing about Australia is that passengers usually sit in the front of the cab with the driver.  The fiance tried getting in the front of a cab while we were visiting Boston and the cab driver nearly had a panic attack.]  They got to chatting about cooking and throughout the course of the ride, the driver shared some of his Indian cooking secrets.  The fiance jotted down a recipe and vowed to give it a try.

Last night he followed the cab driver’s instructions precisely.  He made the most delicious authentic Indian curry ever!  Thanks for your cooking wisdom random cab driver!  I think we found our new favourite meal.

THE dress!

Last week I decided to get my ass in gear and start running again…after a two month hiatus.  Christmas break left my waist a little larger, my clothes a bit tighter, and my liver in tatters. 

On my way to Centennial Park I happened upon a bridal store that was going out of business.  Baccini and Hill in Woollahra.  The sign on the window said that they were only open on Saturday from 9-5 so I made a mental note to stop by and continued my run.

Saturday while the fiance was playing cricket, I wandered over to the shop to have a look.  When I walked in the door, there were two girls in gorgeous dresses taking photos of each other with their phones.  One girl had on a sleek silver backless number with buttons down the lower back and a jeweled strap across her back from the right shoulder to the left hip.  Her ass looked amazing.  I would have bought it for that fact alone.   The other girl was shorter and curvey.  She looked stunning in a more traditional style dress with a very full skirt.

While the shop girl helped the other ladies I perused the merchandise and picked out two wedding dresses that I thought were pretty.  One was not my style at all, but I’ve been experimenting with different wedding dress styles because I never know what might look good.  Experiment failed, it looked awful.  Lesson learned.

The second dress looked similar to the dress I had picked out at another shop, but hadn’t bought yet.  The dress I picked out earlier from Karen Willis Holmes was stunning, but pricey.  I was prepared to drop $1,500 on a dress but was looking for less costly alternatives. 

The second dress was it.  The dress.  It needed slight modifications, but it was 90% of the way there.  I looked at the price and thought the price tag must have been missing a zero somewhere.  It was unbelievable, too good to be true!  I ventured out of the dressing room to get the opinion of the other girls.  We all agreed that the dress looked amazing, but that I either needed to tone up my tummy a bit or wear some sort of chub-wrangling undergarment.  I mentioned the price tag and they said, “I know, isn’t it amazing?!?  We didn’t believe it either!”  So it was true.  This beautiful silk blend dress had been marked down from $2,800 to just $100!!!!  No, you didn’t read that wrong.  One hundred dollars!  Sold!

The silver dress the other girl was wearing had been marked down from nearly $3,000 to just $100, and the princess dress was originally $6,000 but was marked down to $200!  Needless to say, they bought the dresses. 

All the dresses in the shop are sample size 10’s and are marked down to ridiculously low prices.  Some may need beading fixed or dry cleaning.  They also have a limited selection of beautiful bridesmaid dresses from $30 to $200.  I picked up a blue engagement party dress for $100.

If anybody in Sydney who is looking to buy a wedding dress reads this blog this week, make sure to go to Baccini and Hill this Saturday, February 23rd.  That is the last day they’re open before they close their doors forever.

Local Girlfriend Always Wants To Do Stuff

From an Onion Article:

Though he and Maas have dated for almost two years, Bertram reportedly did not recognize the severity of his girlfriend’s near-chronic dependence on getting out of the house and doing stuff until six months ago, when she insisted the two attend a free outdoor concert in their neighborhood. Since that time, Maas has asked an estimated 11 times to be taken to dinner, 17 times to go grocery shopping, and, on 20 separate occasions, has expressed a desire to go on a meandering walk without a fixed destination, purpose, or time limit.

I emailed it to the fiance with the subject “sounds like me.”

He wrote back:

Does the next paragraph say:

“If not properly babysit, she will sit around in her underwear drinking soda water until 3pm when she has a nap for 1 hour and 45 minutes, wakes up, declares she’s hungry, eats a frozen burrito and then asks ‘what are we doing tonight”?

Yep, that’s me in a nutshell.  He knows me so well.

Celebrity Love Match

Who is your celebrity love match?

Mine is Hugh Jackman ::swoon::

Followed closely by Al Gore (Democrats are sexy) and Brad Pitt.

The fact Hugh Jackman has been known to hang out in my neighbourhood makes him the most geographically attainable celebrity who would potentially earn a spot on my list. Is this test a sign that the fiance and I should agree on a celebrity list and get that puppy laminated ASAP?

Perhaps in another lifetime. Even if I had the opportunity to hook up with Wolverine (like that would ever happen), I would decline. I love my man too much to ever jeopardize our relationship for a fling with the sexiest celebrity alive. However, my love for him wouldn’t prevent me from smacking Hugh’s ass. His wife is a lucky lucky woman.

If we did agree on a list, my fiance would probably put the entire Red Sox roster on his. His love of the sports (the Red Sox in particular) transcends his heterosexuality. He has stated that he would gladly have Curt Schilling’s babies. What kind of crazy am I marrying?

Watermelon*

Yet another rainy day in Sydney. Will it ever stop? Nope. Not for another two months apparently. I know we need the rain, but come on! It’s Summer!

The fiance was on call this weekend so he spent all day Saturday and most of Sunday on the phone in the office (aka the living room). I moped around the house hoping that his phone would stop ringing so we could actually do something, but alas the calls kept coming. We had planned on finishing painting the kitchen, a job I started months ago, but I couldn’t muster the motivation. Instead, I decided to do something creative.

The framing shop called on Saturday to let me know that the Boston print was ready, so I popped over to the mall to pick it up. I also visited the arts and craft store to pick up a canvas, some brushes, and a set of acrylics in primary colours (cost: $31). We can’t afford proper artwork and the kitchen needed a bit of colour, so I created my own!

I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. I must admit though, I didn’t come up with the design myself. I copied a painting that has been in my inspiration folder for a while. I should post that image here for comparison, but it makes my crappy copy look, well…like a crappy copy.

Now the white and brown kitchen has an injection of some much needed colour. It’s pretty big (28″ x 28″) and will look nice on the big blank wall above the table.

*Not only is watermelon a tasty colourful fruit, it is also the name of a book by one of my favourite authors, Marian Keyes. She’s a funny Irish author who creates brilliant characters. Her books are not what you’d call serious literature, but they make for very entertaining and heartwarming reading. Do yourself a favour and pick up one her books for the next time you’re home sick in bed. A good book beats watching Judge Judy reruns any day of the week.

JFK is in my living room

A few months ago I put together a few ideas for the living room. This was my first attempt at using paint.net so it’s not very pretty.

Since I did this I’ve completely changed my mind about what I want in the living room. The items that actually exist in the room are the ugly green/brown sofa, the TV, an entertainment centre that looks similar to the one above, and a silver lamp.

A few things have changed since I did this. We got a new glass coffee table and hung two prints that my fiance had framed. How do I design a colour scheme around these things?

I’m thinking we keep Kennedy in the living room but move Whitlam elsewhere. These posters make it pretty obvious for visitors to determine which way we lean politically.

Designing by compromise is so difficult. When I lived by myself everything was just the way I liked it. When my fiance moved in he brought with him a few hundred (or thousand) books and big posters that he insists on displaying. I think I got off fairly easy considering what some girlfriends have to put up with. Thank goodness his love of Star Wars hasn’t translated into a collection of dork-related paraphernalia !

Project Hallway

In my introductory post, I mentioned that I’d post on projects we’re doing around the house. We don’t have much time in our busy lives to take on large projects at the moment, so I’m starting small until that time magically materializes.

The latest project on the agenda is the hallway. I’ve been slowly gathering bits and pieces for the past few months and will hopefully be able to put them all together as soon as a poster is finished at the framing place. Here’s a poorly put together paint.net mock up of the items to be included.

List of items (clockwise from upper left)

• Dog Butt hooks for the dog’s leashes from IKEA (pink for Girl Dog, green for Boy Dog).
• F*CK print of a little girl from Loft in Tokyo. We bought it in a white frame with a light pink background. This is quite possibly my favourite poster ever.
• San Francisco and Boston posters from Ork Design. My fiance grew up in Massachusetts so I got him the Boston one for Christmas. It’s currently at the framing shop. The San Francisco one just became available again and is hopefully on its way across the Pacific.
• Glass console. At the furniture store near my work, they cost $400. I got mine on eBay for $60!!
• Storage boxes for sorting mail from Kikki-K.

So, what do you think? Too much? Not enough? I’ll try to take a photo when the posters are framed and hung.

Does anybody stay married anymore?

My Aunt is visiting Mom and Dad in the US. While chatting on Skype with Dad about what they’ve been doing during her visit and the Super Bowl commercials, this message came through from Mom:

“Yesterday Uncle Roy called to talk for the first time since she’s been away. Just to tell her he’s leaving her. He still loves her, will always take care of her, but needs to spend his life finding himself again. Very devastating news.”

What?!?

They’ve been married for 25 years, raised three amazing kids together, built their house together with their own hands (they even made the bricks by hand!), and worked side by side as business partners through their whole marriage. If they can’t make it, what hope does anybody else’s marriage have of surviving? Let’s hope that this is a phase; a mid-life crisis, or whatever. Please don’t let this be the end of their relationship.

Here I am planning a wedding to the love of my life, and two people whom I believed had a happy, strong relationship may split. That doesn’t leave me feeling very confident.

In my age group everybody places so much importance on the wedding, but they don’t plan for life after the honeymoon. To me, the wedding is just a formality. We’re already fully committed to each other. The wedding is just a chance for us to celebrate our love and life together with those that we love.

We promise each other daily that we’ll be partners forever. That whatever challenges we face, we will survive them together.

Surely our marriage will last…right?

I get that people fall out of love, but I couldn’t imagine a time or circumstance where I wouldn’t love my partner, where he wouldn’t be part of my life. What I fear most is that one day we’ll fall out of love…stop trying…give up.

We’re going into this marriage with the best of intentions and the willingness to work at our relationship. I know we can make it, but I’d be lying if I said that this news doesn’t make me worry.