They went that-a-way...

The Wedding Dress post. Just one, I promise.

Okay. I am going to write this now and then not mention it again. I myself am OVER hearing myself talk about it, let alone think and stress about it, so this blog is the place to vent and tell all, then leave it be.

On the Friday I arrived in Perth, Ani and I went straight to Legends Bridal in Joondalup for me to try on wedding dresses. I was stressing about this due to having a limited time frame in which to buy a dress and also because I didn't want to have to come back the next day to keep going.

Ani and I were so excited, especially considering Ani already had her bridal gown and was only helping me! We got chatting to the lady who offered us help, Lisa, who was magnificent and she said to start choosing what we were interested in and she'd put them in a changeroom.

I'll admit I was a little disappointed that there were other people in the shop with noisy kids running around that didn't give this special occasion for me any of the respect it deserves; however, I shall move on. Without saying anything about fat wog girls trying on dresses that were way too small. Ahem.

I had to wear a thin piece of cotton over my face when putting the dresses on so I didn't get any makeup on them, which was funny. The first dress was a champagne coloured strapless number that laced up in back. Ani and Lisa immediately liked it but I was very unsure. I didn't particularly want a strapless dress but decided to try it for the fit and colour. I pretty much was saying no while they were saying yes as I felt I was all bust and that I was going to fall out of the top of it. So on with the next few and some I didn't even bother coming out to show Ani as they just weren't what I wanted or didn't fit properly. I started getting a bit nervous internally as I was running out of dresses already in my size, even though Lisa had gone off to grab some others in the meantime.

Then, suddenly, I tried on the princess dress and knew as soon as Lisa started doing it up that it was perfect. I'd grabbed it to try on even though it was $1440 as it was just the style I liked. (My budget was for $500 although Shane had set it at $1000.) Lisa did it up and said it was a size too big and I needed the next one down but I came out to show Ani and we all immediately agreed it was a great dress, and likely to be 'The One'. I was very pleasantly surprised that white looked so nice on me as I thought I was too pale. (Now here I mention that getting some Hedland sun has NOT worked for me as yesterday I got a mole cut off and it fucking hurts, so a spray tan will be the go, if at all.)

What do you think? Nice huh? Now for the killer. I know I set a budget and that it shouldn't matter if you just LOVE a dress but the problem with this little number is that it was about 4 inches too long. And I knew I would not be wearing massively high heels at my own wedding because I wanted to enjoy the day and not be in pain. And because the lace overlay (the doily part) was so intricate and hemmed about the bottom, it would have needed a professional dressmaker to alter it and would have cost over $500. Debbie was the dressmaker/tailor at the shop and she would have done this for me, increasing the cost of the dress to $1950. Added to that is the fact that I would have had to return to Perth to get the dress fitted again before the wedding once the alterations had been done. Now on the day I thought that this might have been impossible, although Shane has since assured me it would have been okay, and workable. It had cost me $360 to fly down this time and I was lucky to get that so cheap; I would have been unlikely to pay less than $500 to fly down again in the future, let alone the trouble of getting Mum to have a day off to watch the girls during the week and Shane managing them over the weekend, which involved a lot of prepping beforehand by me!

So I started to sweat, thinking that my beautiful dress was going to cost me in the realm of about $2500. And beautiful as it was, I knew deep down inside that although I would look great and love it on the day, come the next day I would be stuck with an extremely expensive dress that I might be lucky to get $200 bucks for. The common-sense part of my brain started to take over the dress-loving part of my brain... And the winner? Try on more dresses.

I continued with a couple and then referred to an electric blue bridesmaids gown we'd picked out. I'd seen this on the website and loved it, especially as it only cost $330 and in my still-in-hedland, not-yet-seen-any-white-dresses frame of mind, it was perfectly what I wanted. So I put this gown on and Wow! We had another freakout; it looked so nice on me. I needed to have some of the cleavage stitched over as I showed a bit too much, but you could see this would be easily done and the colour looked amazing on me. But not bridal enough. The next decision was, white? Or gold? I tried on both and Lisa and Ani decided gold was the one. I wasn't convinced either way but apparently the gold looked better with my colouring.

As you can see in the background of the photo, there is a cupboard of tiaras, feathers, combs, hats and whatnots to choose from and next to that a big array of veils. We immediately found an elbow-length veil that was gold with a silver wave along the bottom (matching my beach theme) and Lisa attached it with a little tiara. I hated this immediately as I was looking for something different, like a flower or little hat. Ani and I sussed it out and found in a box a bamboo and ribbon fascinator coloured gold and black. We put this to one side of where the veil was attached at my crown and VOILA! The look was complete.

The dress had to be ordered in my size and colour so I won't get that til Xmas and I brought the veil, $190 and fascinator, $60, home with me on the plane. And the next day I was lucky enough to find the most gorgeous black long-sleeved Alannah Hill cardigan with embroidered flowers on it that would be perfect to give me the warmth I would need over the dress during the after-ceremony, before-reception travels and whatnot. Let alone the fact that this cardigan is so gorgeous I would live in it otherwise, $200 bucks or not.

Now all I need it a black pair of shoes (and I have heaps of them) and my outfit is done. So far I am at $799 for my 4 purchases and am really happy with them. Well I was until I got home and suffered an agonising few days of indecision and whether I'd done the right thing. I was torn up inside, had a good cry and decided to forget about it til tomorrow. The next day, I rang Legends and was told, changing my mind or not, the gold dress was mine and I could order the other but my deposit could not be changed over. And that made my mind up for me. There. Enough.

My sister is excited about my decision as this means her bridesmaids dress can be black. Then all we need is a black waistcoat for the best man and a gold one for Shane and the wedding party is done. Black and gold doesn't really go with my beach theme but my colours are gold (sand) and blue (sea) so at least the golds will match. Plus I think the room would POP a bit more with blue accents throughout the white tablecloths and gold sashes and whatnot, rather than black which could look a bit dank. Hmm, not sure. It's hard as I can't organise centrepieces and things from afar, this is something I'll need to do in Geraldton at a later date.

Anyway, this is my dress journey. I am glad to share it. I have been told by a few people that I will only get married once and I need to get the dress I love, but I know myself too well and I think I would regret spending so much money on one thing, when that much would go towards so many other items that would make our wedding day so special. TTFN.

A Testimony to my Fantastic Photography Skills!

Another picture of my most gorgeous girls. We were on our way out to meet Mum for lunch and the girls were dressed up nice and had their faces wiped clean for a change. I decided on the spur of the moment to get a picture of them and had to take about four to get this half smile from Devon. Usually, she sees the shiney light of the focus and just stares. I took it that day to the shops and got a few 8 x 6's developed and gave one straight to Mum to show the girls at work, and one of the ladies asked when PixiFoto had come to town! Mum said no, Tracey took that at home and they were most impressed. See. I can take a good photo. It just takes four tries that's all. TTFN.

Peekaboo!

Lights, Camera - Supermodel!

Now. I'm a mum and a housewife. This involves not showering every day, which then follows with not using my toner and moisturiser every day. This involves not washing my hair every day. Unless it's Thursday and I'm meeting mum for lunch, then doing my food shopping, I usually tie my hair back, rinse my face with water and off I go, washing, folding, wiping and mopping. Or typing!


So as you can tell, I'm very slack with my skincare routine. Especially at night, I hate having to wash my face at night before I go to bed, I'd rather shower and freshen up all over, especially with the back pain I've been dealing with; the hot water helps. And I never really thought my skin suffered too much for it, apart from being a bit oily. But on the weekend, in Perth shopping for my wedding dress, Ani took me to the Bobbi Brown counter at Myers in the city for a makeup trial. And the wonderful woman Casey who served us, informed me of my yellow undertones (who knew, I thought I was pink girl) and the dehydration around my eyes causing the blue bags. FYI: I am now moisturising my eyes and corners twice a day.


Ani has seen Casey before and was impressed with her knowledge, so we were glad to get her to help us. And help us she did! She spent over an hour with me, knowing that Ani was helping me with my wedding makeup on the day. She discussed my makeup habits, my dress colour, hair style and all sorts, finding out all about me and as she applied everything step by step, she explained what she was doing and why. She even gave us a little booklet showing the steps and let Ani make notes, so we could refer back to it later.

The main lifesaver was the Bobbi Brown corrector in bisque. It went on over my dark circles and blended perfectly. It didn't look like I was wearing anything and didn't sink into the lines under my eyes either, really nice stuff! I don't even know how much it cost, but Ani and I both bought some! Then concealer, then a light dusting of powder all over. This set my face with a base to work on, so Casey could add the colour.

Next came liquid foundation, powder, bronzer (which I've never been brave enough to wear, I always thought I was too pale) and blush (again, something I never bothered with). This gave me really nice colouring, subtle but enough to show up in the wedding photos.

I wanted dramatic eyes, so next came darkening my eyebrows to frame my face and beautiful eye makeup with lashings of mascara. She used shades of gold and stone and a chocalatey brown fine eyeliner on the upper and lower lid. Was very fiddly but wow, what a great effect. Surprising the whole look tied together with a light pinky lip colour and I looked stunning. All day walking around I kept catching sight of myself in a mirror in a shop and doing double takes - check me out!

Casey wrote down all the details, prices and colours for me so Ani and I will investigate cheaper options or online shopping to buy most of the products. I had to leave Ani some dosh to get the products I'd ordered once they arrive and when I get them, I'm putting them away in the wedding crate! Nothing is getting used between now and then, except the fantastic bisque corrector! Oh well. Back to normal life. I'm off to bring in the washing... it's a housewife's life, but somebody beautiful's got to do it! TTFN.

VRRP!!

And hello to all my fans out there!

I know I haven't written for a while but I honestly have been eyeing off my blog and thinking... well, what can I write about? I've taken a break from wedding stuff and have been spending a lot of time sorting junk for our garage sale last weekend, so you can understand why there hasn't been much to inform you of.

On Friday I head to Perth to shop for my wedding dress. I'm staying with Ani and can't wait! We usually only get to catch up once a year and even then it's only for a couple of hours, so this time I get a whole 2 days with her. She's gonna be sick of me by the end of it, yay! We haven't fine tuned our plans yet; so far on Friday we're wedding dress shopping and Saturday we have a make up trial booked at Bobbi Browns in Myer City. No doubt we'll manage to fit in movie and dinner one night or both and I'm looking forward to doing a bit of shopping too if I get the chance.

On the book front, I had to order the books for the bookclub online and only got them on Thursday. I ended up finding a very reasonably priced website online where the book The Reader only cost $11.99, much better than the $20 it had been everywhere else. So I also ordered Madame Bovary and The Buccaneers. Great idea as I got free postage, but the trouble is that I've started reading all of them at once! I need to concentrate on The Reader and get that done first, shouldn't be too hard as I'm halfway through it already.

One thing I have been doing to pass the time is to update my Family Tree. I started a tree last year sometime on a great website ancestry.com.au and because so many other people use it worldwide, it links up with their trees and I have expanded out many generations! I'm back to the early 1800's on my Dads Mums side and have found some fantastic things out. Until next Wednesday I have access to historical records such as Census records, War Registration cards, Electoral records and even Convict Transportation Registers! And yes, one of my distant rellies was shipped to Van Diemans Land for life on 28 July 1842. Naughty girl!

I've been printing copies of everything I can find, as the next time I get this access it'll cost me $250 a year. It's such a shame that I don't have any details of Shane's family. I only have as much as Cheryl can remember and I need to contact a couple of rellies about the details they have. Another thing to do on the long term list.

Probably the biggest news and taker of my time in the last 2 weeks is that we found out yesterday that our offer on a house in Geraldton was accepted! We are now on the property market! Well, we already were due to my unit in Balcatta, and we are still pending the finance approval, but you know what I mean. It's a 4 x 2 house with a tenant in it and is costing us a pretty $386,000. Nice! But it gets us into the local area and will hopefully help us to buy our dream house when we eventually move down there.

Well I guess that's enough of the ramblings for now. Here's a nice photo to end the rambling with. Good night, and if you can't be good, be careful. TTFN x

Cassidy and Devon showcasing the new pj's Grandma got them in Phuket. Devon's got the leg lock happening so she can stand up no problems! She'll be driving a car next, geez!

The First Fastest Report for The Time Travellers Wife.

I am writing this late. Shamefully late. I only just remembered the other day that I'd been to a book club meeting and not informed my nearest and dearest (all 2 of you that read this) of the outcome.

This time we were meeting at Britt's place and I decided to take Devon with me. That way Shane could muck around outside and not have to duck inside and check on her every 6 minutes, as Cassidy will stay outside with him. I knew she'd sleep and look cute and not be a problem, so I thought, why not? She actually ended up staying awake and playing with her toys most of the time and only fell asleep in my arms towards the end while I was chatting with Britt and Alice.

So I was the first to rock up, then Bec and her mum Robyn who was staying with her from out of town. Jo managed to make it for the first time and we get along well, so I was glad she was there. Lisa was up in Broome for the weekend and Alice later arrived with some nibblies, yum!

After we'd been chatting for a while, I asked about the girls reading the book and everyone had read it. Except Bec. Now I'll be honest and say I wasn't impressed with this. We've had 3 books and she's only managed to read 1 of them and that was the crap one she'd recommended. After she admitted she only read it coz it was the only English book she could find while on her honeymoon and even then she didn't finish it! When asked why, she said she's been real busy with meetings and there's been lots of stuff on like the Hedland Cup and blah blah blah.

So you can see why I wasn't over the top about it. It feels awkward going on and talking about the major things that happened in this awesome book, nutting out the whys and wherefors, knowing that you're totally ruining the story for someone! She says she doesn't care as she'll read it anyway, but it still doesn't feel right. Maybe because I know I wouldn't read a book if someone ruined what happened like we do, we really dissect it down to the ground.

I just don't really know why she's in the book club and I won't be surprised if she ends up not coming at one time or another. I sound really mean don't I? I don't mean to be, I'm only letting go as I know only certain people read this. She's a nice girl, I don't know why she just rubs me the wrong way.

Anyway, we talked a lot about the Time Travellers Wife and dissected Henry and Clare and his time travelling gene. As I've previously said, I love love LOVED this book and was really hoping the other girls did too, which they did. Jo and I in particular went on to discuss heaps of other things we'd read and want to read; she seems to go through books as fast as I do!

I took the role of the next hostess and suggested the next book 'The Reader'. I'm really intrigued by this book, which largely involves German War crimes. The only other book I've read that even comes close to this is The Diary of Anne Frank, which was fantastic, but the fact that this book has been made into a movie is a good sign to me.

Jo was heading off to Karratha the next weekend and said she'd look in Angus and Robertson for the book for us both. Unfortunately they didn't have any copies there, so I just ordered 3 copies online. I was lucky and found a website where they would combine postage and the book only cost $11.99 each which was fantastic. Some I found were over $20 so I was pleased about that.

Once I got looking I also found The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, so I ordered them too which gave me free postage, yay!

Some history about me. Years and years ago there was a BBC series about The Buccaneers starring Carla Gugino and Mira Sorvino and heaps of English actors that I love from my Classic Dramas. I taped it and have watched it at least 100 times since then, the video tape is getting pretty trashed. I'm keeping an eye out for a DVD copy and now I've finally found the book. Even on Ebay, I've had a hard time finding it, well, in decent condition anyway.

Madame Bovary is an Classic Drama movie that I saw years ago on the ABC and stars the amazing Aussie actress Frances O'Connor. Love it, love it, but never read it.

I have a, well I won't say bad, but I have a habit of watching and re-watching movies or show I love. Bored? Only Days of Our Lives on the telly? Put on Gimme Gimme Gimme or Buccaneers or Red Dwarf on the DVD for something funny or interesting to listen to while I do housework or scrapbook. Jodie's the same I've noticed; she'll watch her favourite movies over and over. I just get so much enjoyment out of seeing the jilting scene from Sex and The City or watching Elizabeth being crowned Queen.

So now I've got more on the way to read. And you know what? I can't wait! TTFN.

LOL cat breaks the sound barrier.

I have lots to write about wedding updates, but it's late and a game of breaking bricks on Facebook has caught my interest. So I'll write more later... meanwhile, enjoy a cat. Running. Nice. TTFN.

Campervan - Experiment Number One!

As mentioned previously, we went camping last weekend in our new poptop campervan and sadly I've just realised I haven't even taken a photo of it all popped up and sassy! Not even un-popped up either, so you'll just have to picture the glorious thing yourself. We've owned it for 2 months but the guy we bought it off was shocked when Shane told him we'd taken it out already!

It's a campervan which is towed behind the Luxey (Shane's other pride and joy) and you wind up the roof, then pop the beds out either end. It quite comfortably sleeps 2 in either bed and has 2 tables inside that flatten to become beds as well. It's so big inside it has an oven under the stove and an aircon too. Noice.

So we decided to take the thing up to Pardoo Station and give it a tryout. Pardoo is about 100 km's north up the coast on the way to Broome. We didn't go to go fishing at all though, as the tides were way out, like Indonesia out, so we'd be paddling and living and that's about it. We've been to Pardoo before, actually it was the Hedland cup weekend last year we went so we knew what we were in for. I like it as it is basically a caravan park, so it has toilet blocks, a campers kitchen, a pool and a tiny shop, so you aren't totally in the wilderness and most importantly for me, I can have a shower at night and use a proper toilet instead of a hole in the sand, ugh.

My beautiful Devon. Her first venture out as she naps so much we'd left her in the car when we walked the 50 odd metres to the water, but Shane went back and got her when we heard she'd woken up. She looked a bit shocked at first but loved being outside. It'll be better for her when she can sit up so for now we just had turns standing her in the mud so she could feel it between her toes. (Notice my tattoo, will put up a better pic later. I tried SMS'ing a pic to my friends but it wouldn't work on my stupid phone, darn).

Mummy, Cassidy and Devon. You can't tell too well but we're standing in mud; awful grey suck-your-shoes off mud. I was surprised when I got home that I still had my toe ring, I was sure it would've been gone. Was yucky to walk in as you were trying not to lose your balance or tread on a crab or something worse under the surface.

Daddy and Devon, awww.

Cassidy posing near the rocks. We walked for ages up the end and back looking for crabs to show Cassidy and found a couple too.

The girls on our first night. It was SO cold and I was up checking on them all night. It wasn't until the next morning that we realised our aircon was reverse cycle and had heating. Sigh...

I'd decided at the last minute to take along Cassidy's old high chair and use it for Devon to sit in and good I did too, it was so much easier feeding her sitting in that. As you can see she has a rusk and devoured it, she loves them!

Cassidy relaxing a'la, "I wonder what the poor people are doing today?"

Devon relaxing a'la, "Geez Mum, I hope I don't fall off this chair, I can't sit yet you know!"

My beautiful, beautiful girl. Sitting on my lap reaching for the camera.

Cassidy dressed up ready for our walk out to the islands off Mt Blaze.

We walked all the way out to the nearest island (above) only to find the water was still out further behind it! We had to thread our way across sharp coral (luckily we'd taken our thongs) and Shane sometimes had to carry Cassidy over it. We saw heaps of purple poisonous sea slugs and a couple of octopus too. We headed back soon after, a total walk of over 2 km's we figured.

Heading back to the car, we actually found a puddle of water decent enough for Cassidy to stroll in. Being August it wasn't at all hot while we were away and quite cold at night. But I must say it was good to get some sun and be out in the sunshine and wilderness. It was so quiet when we weren't making noise coz the waves were so far out. Very nice. Although hardly relaxing as you still have showers, meals, sunscreen, shoes, sand and bugs to worry about! TTFN x