Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Wedding Wednesday - Rustic tables

In my trawling of all the great wedding blogs out there in the past year ive come across some amazing table settings. Loving these rustic but glamourous looks. Maybe even some inspiration for your xmas table or next dinner party perhaps?
Jonas Peterson

In Spaces Between

Green Wedding Shoes


Style Me Pretty

Style Me Pretty

Monday, November 28, 2011

P.I.M.P

Ummmmm how A-mazing is this camera!


Envelope Love

Im a sucker for packaging - and that includes mail! Plus i always get excited when i receive something hand addressed in the mail, dont you? On the weekend i addressed our wedding invites! I was inspired by some of these images. I did look into having them done in calligraphy by a pro - but it was approx $5 per envelope!!! Yikes. People tell me i have nice handwriting (even though im not so sure) so i thought id do them myself. I think/hope i got a similar look, that ended up just costing me a few hours of my time! Plus was nice to do them myself.  I have to say americans are spoilt for choice when it comes to beautiful stamps - we aussies have nothing like the gorgeous designs you guys have in the states! 







Oh So Beautiful Paper






Friday, November 25, 2011

Grey & White Love

so so so in love with this colour scheme! serene & elegant
The flowers, the candles, that fabric, the driftwood!!!!!!!
I die!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Meeting Pam from Red Ticking!

So, the day after i got out of hospital i had a great 'bloggy' moment! Last time i was in Seattle 2 years ago, my mother-in-law to be & i went into this great little homewares shop called Red Ticking (think amazing rustic french antiques & piles & piles of amazing fabrics) almost every day on our way for a morning coffee. Then a few months after getting home i started this blog....then a few weeks later someone called Pam commented on a post - i looked at her profile....and what do you know, she was the owner of Red Ticking (& blog of the same name!!) What are the chances! I emailed her to tell her to tell her about the 6 degree's of separation & we became bloggy friends! So of course this time on my visit to Seattle we had to meet! Here are some piccys! Pam is so so gorgeous (as is her DIVINE shop!), how lucky i am to be able to have met such great people through this little blog! Thanks for all the restaurant recommendations too Pam :)






If you are ever in Seattle go check out Red Ticking at 2802 East Madison...and go have a Crepe at La Cote across the road after, thanks for the tip Pam!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Im Back!

Hi! Im back from our surprise trip to America! As i mentioned in a previous post we went to surprise Bens brother who lives in Seattle for his 30th birthday. We spent 10 days in Seattle & then had 3 days in LA. Was a great little break.....apart from the previously mentioned hospital stay! We left sydney along with Bens mum....

 Flew for 15 hrs, 4 hrs in LA, 3hr flight to seattle & executed our surprise! We let bens brother & sister in law pick sue up from the airport while we had something to eat & then got a cab to their place to throw nic off the scent! Then knocked on their front door an hour later! Then that night we headed out to see their ACDC cover band American Thighs! That bens bro on the right & sister in law in the middle! Great fun! Home to bed at 2:30am....40hrs or so with no sleep!............

Woke up the next day feeling like id been hit by a truck...just jet lagged? Then i started to throw up.....all day...my blood sugars went sky high (i have type one diabetes & am on an insulin pump).....by that night we decided we should make the trip to emergency at the hospital which was literally 50m from their house.....turns out it was very lucky we made that decision. I had a condition called DKA which is basically when your blood sugar levels are so high your blood turns acidic, which is extremely dangerous and can quite often result in going into a coma...or much worse. In 20 years of having diabetes it'd never happened to me! The doctors thought maybe i had a stomach bug causing the vomiting & then that had sent my blood high, they then took chest x rays & told me i had pneumonia (which they later changed their minds about!), i was also checked for blood clots. 

I was so dehydrated my veins had shrunk to nothing & there were some very traumatic hours involving 8 different people trying to get drips in & take blood. I was then taken to intensive care at another hospital where i spent 3 days. This was a bit of a shock really, i knew i felt horrible but i dont think i realised i was that sick. The nurses & doctors were amazing, although i was told i was very sick i never felt unsafe & they were wonderful caring people (one night in particular was rough & my nurse was so lovely).  We finally worked out that the canula where my insulin pump is attached to me was bent inside me meaning that i wasn't getting any insulin. As soon as we put a new one in within 3 hours i was back to having normal blood sugars, spent one more night in a normal ward & finally got out of there. I wont freak you out by posting any photos where you can see too may tubes etc (i had 6 canulas in my right arm) but here i am with Ben at the point where i was able to joke around a bit!

I guess there is something to take away from this experiance! 
1. Take your health conditions seriously! I do, but its taught me that i need to keep a more diligent eye on my blood sugars even when life is busy. 
2. Dont take your fully functioning body for granted! Look after yourself - there are plenty of people (some of whom who i saw in intensive care) who's bodys fail them & would do anything to be healthy.
3. TRAVEL INSURANCE. Get it! You never know what will happen to you when you are abroad! Had i not had it i would be in a world of trouble right now! Im guessing the bill from that 3 day stay would be in the 100's of thousands. The $200 or so you pay for travel insurance is well worth it.

The rest of the trip was awesome - we literally ate & shopped our way around - much more fun than this post! Ill be back tomorrow to show you the fun stuff! 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

AWOL

Sorry I haven't posted for a while! Seems my I pad won't let me load images ( anyone know how to do this???) I am currently in LA in the last days of our trip & staying at the uber cool Viceroy Hotel. I am sooooo smitten with this place, I think poor Ben is a little amused at my obsession with it & need to photograph every nook & cranny! Our trip has definitely been eventful that's for sure- in the last 10 days we have surprised bens brother by flying across the world & appearing on his doorstep, eaten ourselves silly, met up with Pam of Red Ticking at her amazing seattle shop, shopped like crazy, partied at one of the coolest bars I've ever been to........and unfortunately I also sampled the American health system after ending up In intensive care for 3 days with serious diabetic complications... No joke. But they were amazing & I'm back on my feet now. I'll fill you all in on all of the above in a series of posts once we get home! Right now I need to go & fall into a food coma. Duck pizza, squid, pork belly & margaritas fo dinner - yummo! Bridal diet? What bridal diet?

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Surprise! We're in Seattle!

Aaaaahhhh I've been so excited about this but haven't been able to say anything! We flew into Seattle this afternoon to surprise bens brother for his 30th! it's been so hard to keep to myself! We are here for 11 days & then heading to LA for 3 days on the way home AND super excited as I booked us into the uber cool Viceroy at Santa Monica (well as far as I can see design wise!). We have been he once before so kinda know our way around but if anyone has any tips, great shops (I'm on the hunt for wedding shoe & accessories etc) etc please let me know!! Whoop, even though we are a tad jet lagged we are off to see my soon to be brother & sister in laws band (they have an acdc cover band her in Seattle called American thighs if your a local Seattle.ite!) can't work out how to get photos to load from my I pad so I'll have to figure that out while I'm here or my posts will be a bit boring!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Feeling Sparkly!

Hoping today is somewhat sparklier than yesterday!


via a minute away from snowing

Thursday, November 3, 2011

s#*t house day!

Via A minute away from snowing

I have had a day thats way up there with one of the most stressful i think ive ever had.....still feeling so tense i might implode. Working for yourself & being responsible for building an entire house & coordinating everyone & everything has been very challenging this week. My (now ex) boss told me this avo (i still work in the office with him - we keep each other company!) that the only way to learn & be really good at your job is to absorb as much as you can (which ive done from him over the last 6 years) & then get chucked in at the deep end. I said "i guess im learning the hard way", and he said "no your learning the real way".....true words.  My one goal is that my clients love their houses & things run smoothly for them - which is sure a challenge sometimes! But i guess you dont get anything without a lot of hard work right? Hopefully tomorrow is a better day!

Book Love

I recently read a great book (easy reading!) called 'An Italian Wedding' which i managed to knock off in one day while down the south coast (& then had insane cravings for piles of italian food!) Apart from that,  I havent really read a good book for ages - any suggestions?

Heart Beat Oz


Love me a colourcoded bookshelf!



actually ill just take this whole room thanks!

This is one rocking space!
The Glow via Table Tonic




Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Modern Calligraphy

Throughout the wedding planning process ive become a little obsessed with modern calligraphy - not the old stuffy kind, but the cool, big, fun & quirky but still elegant kind! Also teaming calligraphy with bold colours gives it that little extra wow factor - Allow me to demonstrate.....

100 Layer Cake



Green Wedding Shoes

Rifle Paper Co

Karolin Schnoor

Rifle Paper Co

Minted

Via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Akimbo