Monday, August 29, 2011

DIY wedding notebook

Since we are getting married (as of this last weekend. Story here), and since I have recently been kinda obsessed with this make-a-birthday-notebook craft idea, I've been thinking about using this idea to make a wedding-notebook instead.



It's so cute. This inside pages can hold all kinds of goodies:



Photos, notes... the tickets from the show we went to on Saturday after he proposed.



It reminds me of the little books my friends used to make each other back in school, with bits cut out from magazines, glitter and stickers, messages and lyrics from our favourite songs (cue Backstreet Boys).

Even back that they meant much more than a normal gift and it was so fun to look through each page.

I might try to make something similar in this style on notebook above on Pinterest.

:)

- Amyshka



WE'RE GETTIN' HITCHED!

I'm still getting my head around processing this last weekend... you know when everything happens all at once and it's like your brain just couldn't handle any more information if it tried?

My brain is totally saturated!

In a good way I guess.

Yeah, it's in the title: We got engaged on Saturday!

Big C (There is reason in the name. When I say "he hugged me and my feet were blowing in the breeze" I'm not exaggerating. :o ) took me on a bike ride for a picnic up HERE on Saturday.

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From the top it feels like the wide open end of the earth, and is probably our combined favourite place in the world. The best part is almost no-one in our city has ever heard of it.

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 This is the view looking back at the way we came. That bike seat may have been more comfortable than it appears. Maybe.


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 This is nearly at the top. It was so clear you could see the snowy tips of the mountains near Kaikoura on the South Island like 400km away (or something)!

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 Parked our bikes...
 And settled down for our picnic. Hello Pacific Ocean.

There was not a cloud and it was perfectly still and warm. We had t-shirts on - hard to believe it was snowing a few weeks ago. The forecast had been for miserable weather but turned out my *ahem* Fiance had been praying his little heart out for a perfect day. In the windy Wellington winter? Prayer answered!
P.S what do you think about the word 'Fiance'? I think it's weird. Really, really weird. I'm pretty sure it's illegal in several countries. Or at least it should be. How do I get this through Parliament?


Without going into detail, he popped the question, then we headed back down on the bikes...

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See that little white speck on the top? That's our lighthouse.
Yes ours. No-one else is allowed it now.
;)

Oh and that's the Big Man himself using his nifty binoculars because he is obsessed with them. Maybe partly because there was a lot of interesting stuff to see, but mostly just because of the obsession.

........oh and I said YES.



 And then these were waiting for me at the bottom...hand chosen by him. He had instructed the florist that he wanted this colour and he wanted specifically one hot pink rose right in the middle. Hah! I love his random artisticness! Love it! (And when I asked him about it, he made up a story about how I was the pink rose and the other ones were his arms wrapping me up. And I said "Did you just make that up now?" and he said "Yes") 

Inside the envelope were 2 tickets to this show that night which was spectacular, and a nice dinner out, AND we watched the rugby with some friends (because we had to do a "manly thing" too, since the rest was so not manly enough) until 12.30am. Oh and we went to McDonalds drive-thru after dinner, because the dinner was tiny and gourmet and well, did I mention this is a big man we are talking about? You know, my feet dangling in the air etc? 1 Kiwi Burger for the man (with beetroot and egg. Don't ask. New Zealand burgers are special) and 1 Chocolate sundae with extra sauce for me please. 

.....AWESOME!

(Followed by a whirl-wind of telling family, friends, freaking out when someone mentioned the words "ring" "wedding date" "venue" "you'll fit right into our family" and a whole lot of exhaustion and socialising. But now after 2 days I think I am finally clear minded enough to write this post. I hope it makes sense. Hmmmmm)


:)
Looking forward to seeing it come together!

    - Amyshka






Weekend Bloggy Reading

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Fave Friday - daffodils and addictions

Today is Daffodil Day in New Zealand.
It's the day you can donate to the Cancer Society and get given a little yellow (fake) daffodil in return. The little lady who gave me mine was so cute and suddenly the thought of selfless volunteers collecting on the street nearly bought a tear to my eye. Who doesn't know somebody who has/had cancer? Seriously.

Secondly, I actually studied for this whole week. Amazingly. Until 9pm every night, when I would drop the ruler, pencil, and 'Plumbing and Drainage Guide' (which is potentially even more incredible than you are imagining) and pull up Pinterest for some visual stimulation. I know I am really, really, ridiculously visual, but there is something about seeing an entire page of all MY favourite images in one place that bowls me over with unrelenting joy.

Did that sound too dramatic? (And what even is unrelenting joy? Who says that?)

......But are you seeing what I'm seeing?



No?

Ok, as they say Each To Their Own.... (or as Big C would put it: "Every man for him self". Same thing. Right? Hmm)

In spite of my ginormous collection of eye candy pick-n-mix, yesterday was the first time I actually had a purpose on Pinterest. Because it was the first time I've looked at things with the prospect of having some real decorating to do. Real meaning, Big C may or may not have bought his first ever property (a town house/apartment) yesterday. It's still to be finalised, but at 27yrs old, not bad huh?

And I have been given licence to Do Stuff. Because he trusts my design sense. And since there will probably be a budget of zero dollars and twenty cents (Life-savings, meet Mortgage... you two are gonna be great friends), it means I finally get the chance to seek out old bits of junk and paint them up real nice or invent creative solutions.





Here's one of my Pinterest inspirations... how easy would it be to get an old chair and slick it up with some paint and a coloured cushion?

I could barely sleep last night for thinking about ways to make the apartment (a delightful shade of...beige. :s) look nice.

I feel like as a student, I can go a little nuts too. Maybe paint some patterns on the chairs if they are so old and ugly that simple white paint isn't enough to disguise the hideousness.... I could get out my spraycan and tag some gangsta slang all over the backs of them, ya know what I'm sayin?

Options. That's what I'm saying... so many glorious options.

:)

AND it's now Friday and I have miraculously finished the world's largest architecture assignment, meaning I can watch New Zealand's Next Top Model tonight (yes there is such a thing) in peace.

             - Amyshka


(P.S - random update: since writing this post, Big C has popped the question and we are gettin hitched! Turns out he wanted to have the apartment finalised before making a move. I will never understand men and their funny logical brains)

Weekend Bloggy Reading



Thursday, August 18, 2011

Fave Friday - sweetly bohemian

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Deep down there will probably always be a place in my heart for Bohemian, or whatever this eclectic, Germanic/Slavic-craft-looking style is called.
The products above remind me of walking through a marketplace in Latvia, buying shoes, pastries, and Babushka dolls. (And being absolutely, ridiculously freezing and under-prepared for slavic winter, in our "winter jackets" from New Zealand. I actually wrapped my entire scarf around my head and pulled up my hood to stop my cheekbones hurting - bubble-head anyone?)(Note: it didn't work.)

To me there is nothing more energising than colour+white, or colour+wood.

If I had a little snow cabin to decorate - I can guarantee it would be in this quaint, eclectic Germanic style, with mismatched crockery, books, an old wood table and big stripey rag rug. (And if Big C is involved, then probably some antlers on the wall and venison in the freezer).


- Bokja Chair via
- Paper Blom Flowers
- Genesis Tree
- Bowls

    - Amyshka

Monday, August 15, 2011

South American colour inspiration







All images via Amy on Pinterest

There is nothing like the hot, vibrant colours of South America to make you feel cosy and warm on a freezy, snowy day like this in Wellington NZ!

For the record, we don't get snow. Ever. But now there is a layer of it over the ground and schools have been cancelled, with drivers not knowing how to drive on snow, and power cuts plunging each suburb into darkness at some point. It's amazing to see the reaction from people - sheer delight and amazement. There'd be a lot of kids here who have never have seen snow before (and maybe a few adults too) so I'm hearing a lot of hollering coming from outside as people of all ages attempt to scrape together a snowman or slide down a hill.

The downside is that our houses aren't made to handle these temperatures (something to fix when I graduate) but I'm so grateful for sweet sweet electric heaters.

- Amyshka

Grandma's shortbread recipe

This shortbread is the stuff I grew up on - it's the best-tasting shortbread I have ever tried, so it's amazing that it happens to also be the easiest to make!
Some shortbread recipes use cornflour and icing sugar, but this recipe is even more simple than that.

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3 ingredients, 1 bowl, and only a few minutes to cook.



Ingredients:
150gm butter
½ cup castor sugar
1 ½ cups flour.



Method:
- Cream the butter and sugar together
- sift in flour - begin with 1 cup and then slowly add more - stopping when you reach the consistency of putty. It should feel very soft, but not sticky.
- shape as desired. You can flatten it and cut shapes out, or just roll it up into a log in some baking paper, then slice into cookie sized pieces.
- bake at 180degrees celcius until just golden (around 9-14 mins depending on your oven)

You can eat them straight, or dip halves in chocolate, or decorate with icing.


Weekend Bloggy Reading

Sunday, August 14, 2011

How to throw a Bachelorette Party - scavenger style

It took myself and the other bridesmaid a good few weeks of brainstorming, cafe discussions and googling to come up with a Hen's Night party plan that would suit our outdoorsy, competitive, energetic Bride-to-be.

I'm documenting this so that anyone who wants to can copy what we came up with - which resulted in an amazing afternoon and evening that flew by and suited everyone with 2 working legs.

The bride-to-be wanted more than just an evening of fun, so we began our schedule at 2pm. Here's the breakdown:


Part 1: "Tea" Party (1 hour)
We figured that since not everyone knew each other, we would do something to get people in a fun mood and break the ice. How did we accomplish this?
1: Sugar
2: Punch

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There is nothing like a sugar-high and some fancy teapots flowing with punch...

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The chocolate cupcakes were snaffled up pronto - I'd worried about the large size of the cupcakes and thought these girls would all be too figure-conscious to enjoy them all, but luckily we all knew how to splurge. A lot.

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I didn't get time to dip these heart cookies in chocolate on one side, but they got munched away anyhow. This is my grandma's famous (and ridiculously easy - 3 ingredients, 1 bowl) shortbread recipe that I will share soon.


If you are interested, here are our Tame Games. If not, skip this bit.:

 - Tame Game #1: We had each person write an Acrostic "poem" using the letters of the bride's name. Everyone tried hard to think of things specific to the bride...we then passed the pieces of paper to the bride and had her read the comments out loud (including her own, which was funny. None of the papers were named.). It wasn't long before the room was a hive of giggles as words like "bossy" and "busty" sprouted out from amoungst the usual positive adjectives.

- Tame Game #2: To develop a team spirit - ( since the next part of the day would involve team challenges) - we split into teams of 6 and gave each team a different coloured piece of bright sequined fabric. Their job was to come up with a team name and decide how to wear the fabric - ripping it into pieces and having a piece each. Our team opted to make headbands.


Part 2 - the Scavenger Hunt (1 hour)
At this stage it was only 3pm, but fueled with sugar and punch, people were excited about the challenge ahead.
We began by giving each team a canvas bag with
    1) a sheet of paper listing the items on the scavenger hunt and how many points for each thing
    2) a vivid marker, to tick things off.

The meeting point was at the LazerForce centre in exactly one hours time.

Our scavenger hunt included Photos that had to be taken, strange items to collect, and actions that would be proven by photographic evidence. Each task has a certain number of points allocated - the team with the most points wins.

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This guy actually gave us his sock!
It was hilarious to see how daring some people could become when in a group. Everyone loosened up and got involved. Some of our dares which much more risque than others - I won't go into detail.

Part 4 - Lazer Force
 You could do any kind of team activity here - bowling, clay-bird shooting, go-kart racing... since our bride was such an active, non-spa type of person, running around in a dark maze shooting each other with Lazer guns suited us just fine.

Part 5 -  Cocktail Party
Tired and hot, we wandered back to the apartment; the guests took a seat and were happy to sit and look over photos and exchange stories from our bizarre scavenger hunt. (You know - who did you get to kiss your cheek? - did you manage to get someone's sock? - where did you get your cup of sand from?... that sort of thing) while we measured out cocktails into martini glasses.

We were all hungry for some "real food" so we served some savoury hot snacks here - mini spring rolls and samosas with dipping sauce.

- Naughty games: It was now about 7pm and, as the name would suggest, these games were not the "tame games" - I won't mention all of them.

One that we did was the groom-quizz (to see how well the bride knows the groom, by asking things that she couldn't possibly know :).

Another one that we played was:

- Pass the Parcel: Dressups
No bride can go about her Hen's Night without the proper paraphenalia. I decided to get creative and wrap each item (lipstick, a feather boa, stickers, etc) in a layer of paper. We played a song and whoever it stopped on had to open the layer. The rule was that whatever you opened, you were allowed to apply to the bride in any way you liked. That's how she ended up with a lipstick-heart on her chest.

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(the wrapping paper got nicer at each layer)

The final item in the parcel, was a piece of card that folded out to reveal a list of dares for the bride to complete throughout the night ahead. We took full (evil) advantage of her competitive nature...

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Part 6: Dinner
Now that the bride was all dressed up and fancified,  we headed out to our dinner at a restaurant booked about a month earlier. It was nothing fancy, but everyone had a great time at our huge long table, and there was confetti being thrown around like crazy. (I'm pretty sure the restaurant staff hated us, although we had asked permission beforehand to decorate the table).

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To keep the restaurant visit entertaining, every girl had to carry her own balloon from the house. When we were all seated, the instruction was given to pop your balloon.
Did I mention the restaurant staff hated us?
I got several pointed fingers in my direction. I don't even know what I did. Was it jabbing a fork violently into my balloon, squealing when it popped, hollering over the bellow of high-pitched girl's jabbering, or tapping a carafe with my knife to try to get everyone's attention? (which hopelessly failed, by the way. 16 way too excited girls and a truck-load of confetti + balloons = insane.)

Anyway, in each balloon was a little dare for each person. Surprise. And they had all though the bride was the only who had to get involved.


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My personal favourite was when the bride, who had "rap for your dinner" on her list of tasks, scribbled down this "rap" on a napkin.
Does it look familiar?!
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The night went on from there, with much dancing and hilarity for the girls who stayed on later, and the bride completed all her dares/challenges throughout the night and ticked them off her list.



Somehow all that planning paid off, as we got to run a 12-hour party (literally) with no boring bits and without a hitch.

Has anyone had to plan one of these before?

 :)

        - Amyshka


The Week that Was - #2 - Bachelorette complete

This week has been crazy busy and with Uni work and preparing for the Hen's party myself and another girl threw this weekend. My freakish-foodie-perfectionism nearly caused a stress meltdown on Friday night, but by Saturday morning I had pretty goodies for everyone to eat and was ready to enjoy an amazing day and night. It went off without a hitch - all 12 hours of it!

In other news, it started snowing in Wellington today... something I have never experienced in my lifetime! Snow in Wellington... this just doesn't happen here, even in the middle of winter. I had to drive home through snow (45kmph on the motorway!) with little visibility and couldn't help grinning at seeing grown men rushing outside to play in it.

The week that was, in pictures:










And then I came home to this:



I may put more detail about running and organising a bachelorette party later so watch this space.

That was the Week that Was...

How was yours?

:)
- Amyshka

Weekend Bloggy Reading

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Painting wall art - the Creamsicle Tree

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It was my mum's birthday earlier in the week and I had this idea that I would paint a picture for her. But it's been a long time since I've held a paintbrush, and it ended up taking me 2 weeks to get this extremely simple painting to an acceptable level!

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I had fun with the wet paint and wanted to leave it with this texture, and with the tree etched into the thick paint (below)....

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But they were acrylics, not oil paints, so overnight it dried flat and lost all the texture. It ended up looking nothing like how I had envisioned it (frustrating!).

A week later, after a tiring day of rustling my way through a pile of architecture papers (I got to design a concrete slab. Woot go me) I finally got around to finishing this off tonight.

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Yep, I painted it right here at my computer desk.
 And now it's finally presentable.
I don't know what it is with me and trees - it seems when I have a paintbrush in my hand it just draws lines by itself and they end up joining up to make a tree. I never consciously sit down to draw a tree, and I don't have a tree obsession - I guess I just love lines.

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 I had planned to fill the whole thing in as a black silhouette but after a few strokes the lines happened and I decided to leave them like that.

Now just to decide where to put it!

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I named it the creamsiscle tree simply because of the colour palette, and I just like that word. (We don't have creamsicles here! Or at least not by that name).

     - Amyshka


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