wedding bliss...

On Friday just gone, my best friend Melissa married the man of her dreams. it was the loveliest wedding, complete with good music, good food, an abundance of champagne and of course the best company this side of Phuket.

I thought Mel would be more nervous that she was. It absolutely bucketed down with rain and she didnt bat an eyelid. She remained the calm, collected bride she has always been. it was only in the last moments as we fixed her veil and she looked down at her wedding dress, finally on her for the big day, that her voice began to quiver.

me? chief bridesmaid? well i actually got nervous long before mel did. i was worried about having to carry baby emily down the aisle and hoist my dress up at the same time. i was worried about the speech i would have to make and whether i could do it with a belly full of champagne. mostly though, i was worried that my best friend wouldnt have the most wonderful day of her life.

it seems i really had nothing to worry about. mel was amazing - as usual. steve was everything and more. and the day was one of the most special weddings i have ever been too. when my best friend walked down that aisle, her eyes solidly fixed on her future husband i welled up. i was simply over come with pride. that i should know too people so lovely was beyond comprehension. *sigh* Mel, you did wonderfully. I hope you dont mind if i share this photo of you. my favourite. before all the makeup. just pure, clean, beautiful mel.

out of the loop and into the craft.

i will start by apologising for my absence of late. getting engaged has meant many a celebration, followed by surly hangovers, followed by lapse in energy to work, followed by an increased work load, and ending in sheer exhausion.

But i'm back. and that's all that matters!

i managed to feel somewhat inspired by my friend lisa who came over for dinner with her hubbie Joe and their beautiful kids. she explained how she was 'hand-sewing' a quilt after the kiddies went to bed at night. 'by gawd' i thought, 'that's dedication!'.

my wonderfully old sewing machine and sparkling new overlocker has been sitting in the corner of the living room for the past few weeks sharing negative comments about me and my inability to find time for them. i promised myself, and them, that i would give this patch work thing a try and with the use of my sewing machine, i should have a some-what speeder time than Lisa.

and so, using some fabrics sought lovingly on z&s i worked together a baby blanket with matching tote bag. The main fabric on the tote i am going to have to replace. it was an op-shop find and it's starting to fray. but the actual look and completion of this project is really what i wanted to share.

ta da! my baby blanket.



that lovely material. oh so pastelly and soft...



and of course, the tote.



if you have a friend you love ever so dearly. or a sister, or a brother or a mother. someone who is welcoming a new addition to their's and your life, why not give them one of these? I would be happy to make more on request with the same dedication and love, for just a small, material-buying price!

engaged.

there is one part of beautiful tasmania that i know i will remember for the rest of my life. it's a tiny little italian restaurant nestled in salamanca, hobart. it was here after ordering our wonderfully imaginative dinner that ben asked me to be his wife. of course, i said yes.

an amazing thing happens when someone asks you to spend your life with them. its like a warm, cosy calm settles on you. you suddenly feel at ease. you feel content. you feel complete. i always knew that i would spend my life with ben, but i never thought that marriage would be the first of the many wonderful life events on our list. needless to say i am utterly delighted. i feel like we just met again. such a great feeling!

the wedding itself will probably be next summer. (that's only 6 months away mind you) we figure, why wait? we look forward to celebrating this with all our family and friends. there's nothing like a good knees up as far as i'm concerned. i see it being a quaint, colourful wedding, with little structure and even less formalities eg. place names. i want our guests to be able to mingle. to stand and chat at the bar. to dance.

with all that said, we now enter the organisation period. we are looking for a venue first to set the date we will be working towards. oh god. the thoughts of it all sends my mind spinning :) we must also sit down and tentatively discuss how we will fight off all other suggestions from family and friends that don't heavenly correlate with our own vision. and that, my friends, will be the biggest challenge of all...

here he is...my Ben.

from tassie with love.

ok, ok. so it's not paris, but it is my little peice of heaven. tomorrow ben and i leave all behind (including little magstar) to leap water to tasmania. i'm hoping i will have time to read. to sleep. to talk. to walk. i wanna see so much and i am so happy that ben and i will have this week to just 'be' together. we havent had a holiday (just us) since halls gap nearly two years ago. it was right after the fires had raged through that area of victoria and all we saw was soot!

so onto chapter two. tasmania - green trees, small roads, strange locals and good beer. i will be back with itchy blog fingers in about a week. until then. happy surfing...

in melbourne tonight.

in melbourne tonight i will eat great tapas at Hairy Canary and drink from their delightful wine list. i will probably engage in conversation with my sister, liz, too. we've been close ever since she tried to come into this world on the same day i was born.

in melbourne tonight i will see a band called johnny get your gun. liz told me about them a few months ago and we have been eagerly waiting for them to arrange a gig on a night we like. they play at the hi fi bar - good venue - and with any luck will warn the bar and ensure there's enough beer to handle TWO irish people in one night.

in melbourne tonight i will cuddle my kelpie puppy maggie. she got the mange on her head and is feeling poorly from all the medicine. we just thought she might be going a little bald in her early months, but no, apparently she has mites eating at her skin and trying to make their way through the rest of her body. i feel bad for not helping her sooner.

in melbourne tonight i will hold hands with ben. its been awhile (with all the crazy partying with irish jenny) since we had some good old 'us' time. i wanna talk, talk talk and laugh. ben is very good at making me smile. i wanna just hang out and be with him.

in melbourne tonight i will rest soundly. perhaps even like that of a dead person. this has been a massive week. both personally and professionally. a run in with a work colleague did not help matters either. i eagerly await our little trip to tasmania next week. walks. drinks. good food. perhaps it will make the intensity of the last working week dissipate.

in melbourne tongiht i will bid you adieu...

in overlocker love.

well, i turned 30 some weeks ago now. i thought it would hurt. like, my head. i thought my ego would be bruised and battered and find it difficult to recover. i thought ben might trade me in for a younger model. but really, it passed without much drama. what i did find is that in my wiser years, stranger things delight me. there was a time when a short skirt (that once lived a life as a headband) would arouse excitement. or a set of earrings with 46 fake diamonds too many. or even a cocktail that glowed in that dark, was too big too hold and contained a ridiculous amount of straws for one set of lips. nowdays? it's the overlockers that get my vote.

with jenny over from ireland i didnt have much time to set her up and start to play. but this weekend all that changed. we ventured down to the beach house and i managed to find more than enough hours to experiment. it was such fun. can i say that without sounding 60? me? overlocking on the weekend? such a change from 'getting locked' huh?

I promised jen i would make her a bag and i did. i used some fabric i fell upon in an op shop in rye and some that i ordered in the z & s sale. it's very 'blair gowrie' inspired and even has a pocket for jen's mobile phone - her most prized possession. what do you think?








here she is. cute huh? I was making some tea towels when this one was taken. and the result?



needless to say, i am officially back in the sewing game. *sigh* being 30 really aint that bad :)

death of an oobee.

it's offical. maggie has committed her first murder. the victim? a beautiful onegirl creation, oobee. Bought as a gift for a family friend who have welcomed into the world their second son, we left oobee sitting quietly on the window sill of our south caulfield home.

at approximately 11:23pm we walked through the door after being at a bob dylan concert (that's a whole other crime) and noticed maggie acting a little peculiar, well behaved even. i walked up and gave her a big cuddle because i had been feeling bad about leaving her home alone for so long. that's when i saw him. bits of his delicately sewn together body scattered across our hardwood floors. oobee was no more.

official police photos below:





note the slightly angled tear on the onegirl tag. as if torn in a hurry. it's believed she made this final frantic move as we rounded the street corner and drove into the driveway.



in a brutal, heartless move, the likes of which have not been seen since van gogh went 'loco loco', maggie ripped the ear off oobee, giving his once cute half moon eyes, a somewhat morbid feel.

it's probably a good time to mention that oobee woozel was also subjected to maggie's inner rage on friday night. however, as the tag suggests, it takes more than a baby's teeth, or a dog's for that matter, to break the unbreakable oobee woozel. dog has been seriously reprimanded for the aforementioned indiscretions and sentenced to fewer 'good girls!' and a complete eradication of treats.