Daylight Robbery at the Makeup Counter - 8th May 2010

So - I've got a Myer card. a gift card.
I never ever shop at Myer - mainly due to the exorbitant prices and the overwhelming stench of pretention I smell when going near the store.
But I have a gift card so it's like free money and I'm pretty good at spending free money, and I do have a wedding coming up.. and I am doing my own makeup so I thought I might buy some new stuff.

I was browsing - as one does, and was set upon by a sales person disguised as a helpful lady.
I stupidly mentioned the word wedding and could almost hear the *kaching* sound in her head.
She sat me down and we started choosing colours.

She applied concealer, foundation, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascarra, blush and lipstick. I was impressed with the outcome.. the eyeliner was a bit dodgy but I'm sure it's hard to put eyliner on another person.

I thought to myself - I might just buy the lot and a couple of brushes and recreate this look - with better eyeliner work - at home on the big day.

Price was never mentioned..... until she rang it up at the register....
now, I'm not completely stupid - I wasn't expecting AVON prices so I was prepared to pay about $180.

So, maybe I AM completely stupid because she said... "ok, that comes to $401"

Look - it may be free money but I'm pretty sure that she was daylight burglarising my free money.

"um, no way" said I. "I'm sorry, but I had NO idea it would cost that much"
"I can pay someone to come to my house and do my hair and makeup for $120, so I didn't want to spend much more than that, I apologise, we should have discussed prices while you were piling it on my face"

As you can imagine, I was pretty embarrassed.

I asked to be told how much each item was so I could decide what to buy - somehow that didn't happen and I left with the foundation and the lipstick for $110.

I have NEVER spent $42 on a lippy.

Where do you buy your makeup? Are there items you pay more for and items you will only buy from a brand name?

personally - I'll keep my avon lady thanks.

DIY wedding Invitations - 5th March 2010

We finally finished our wedding invitations and posted them off today.

Because we are only inviting family to the ceremony, there were only eight of these to send.
The bows were painful - I wish I could tie the perfect bow, but alas, Martha Stewart I am not.

Here are some pics for those that wanted to see them.

This is the outside of the invite - it is a black CD gift box






Then on the inside, the box is lined with black and white stripey paper.
The invitation folded and the stripes repeated - the ribbon adds ribbony goodness -
regardless of the fact it looks like an awareness week ribbon.






And the actual invitation once opened, looks a lot like this - without my details whited out of course.
the observant among you will notice that it is Millar who is inviting people to our wedding. cute? I think so.

So we are pretty happy with how they turned out and after postage charges came to $68 (my dress was only $40) we are glad we did the invites ourself and didn't get them professionally done - but on the other hand I sometimes wish we had have sent an E-vite instead and saved the money and time.... but it's just not the same.

Superwoman Where Are You? - 4 March 2010

I am finding it really hard to stay motivated.

I am so busy at the moment that I end up in this vicious circle of exhaustion.

Too tired to go to the gym, too tired to make a salad, so I have cheese on toast which makes me even more tired.

This is what I am doing this month:

I have a baby shower to co-host

Millar's birthday party

Friends coming over for a bbq next weekend

full day of mystery shopping this weekend

assignment due on 22^nd March which I still have incomplete data for.

Other studying

A dress to start making

a cake to start baking – actually two cakes, wedding and millar's birthday cake.

Celebrant to pay and tell her what vows we have decided on etc etc.

wedding invitations to post – at least they are finally finished!

a billion other things to arrange for the wedding.

this is on top of the usual:

continual gymbaroo, playdates, feeding, nappies, entertaining, putting back to bed 17 times a night.

Dinners to cook

biscuits to bake

shirts to iron

clothes to wash, hang, fold and put away

beds to make

floors to vacuum

floors to mop

toilets to clean

bathrooms to clean

ovens and windows to clean

garden to weed.

So somehow in between all this I have to fit in the gym.

And frankly I just want to go to bed.

I know I'm not the only one with a billion things to do while trying to look gorgeous.

How do you all do it?

I tried to read while on an exercycle – this didn't work too well so I can't imagine that baking a cake or making a dress will go too well while exercising either.

Today I will make a better effort at eating well so that I have more energy.

The good thing about weight watchers is that a couple of bad days isn't going to kill anyone and it's so easy to get back on track.

Today will be a salad day. Fish and salad for dinner.

Housework can be a workout if you make it one –

I'll vacuum faster and dance. Pulling weeds will be a workout and a half! If you've seen my garden you'll know what I mean.

I'll take Millar to the park today too. Hopefully he'll be exhausted and sleep better tonight.

My weightloss goal for my wedding is slipping away,

but still, I have lost 5 kilos which is better than nothing and I still have 3 months to go, and any loss is better than how I looked last year right?

So I can't give up and sit on the couch and eat chips – that is pure failure and I don't even want to do that anymore.

I just want enough energy to go hard at the gym as well as doing everything else and getting an A on my assignment, throwing the best birthday party for Millar and being perfect at everything.... is that too much to ask?

Probably.

Why do we try to be superwomen?

15 weeks till my wedding - 21 February 2010

Ok so I just counted and there is only 15 weeks till my wedding.

I haven't organised my dress yet because I plan on being much thinner. I am pretty sure I'll never be as thin as I want to be but I'm also not going to be one of those brides that insists on wearing a stapless dress with flabby arms and back fat.

So I need to find a dress that suits me... but I don't quite know what I'll look like then.

I've lost 5.5 kilos since starting weight watchers which is GREAT. and I can see a lot of it has come off my face and I'm feeling great.

I would like to lose at least another 10 kilos before the wedding and I don't think that is unreasonable or unrealistic. It's less than a kilo a week.

but at what stage should I be looking for a dress? should I make one? what am I thinking?
I have a few ideas in my head and I wish I could just find the exact thing I want in a shop and buy it right now.

Any seamstresses in Melbourne that want to make my dress for me?

Do I sound stressed? how many bonus points is stress worth?

Wedding Plans - 20th November 2009

My wedding plans are coming together nicely. I have purchased my shoes. I am pretty confident that my feet wont change size in the next 6 months but am hoping the rest of me shrinks somewhat. I lost 800grams this week so it's moving in the right direction. I tried the shoes on again to make sure the 800grams didn't come off my feet.

The shoes are blue. I hate white shoes - I think only nurses and tennis players can wear white shoes, so I'm wearing electric blue satin shoes... and they are quite high - it makes me almost as tall as Darren, which will be nice for the photos and the kissing the bride stuff.

We are making the invitations this week.... I have purchased most of the stuff needed and now just need some nice white paper and someone with a laser printer (my inkjet is s h i t).

I will post pics as soon as I can be arsed because I know there are wedding junkies out there that will want to see them.
I've become a wedding junkie myself and love watching all the wedding shows on foxtel!

Tell me about your wedding, any tips? any regrets?

Wedding Dress - 7th November 2009

In my search for the perfect low cost wedding gown, I have come across this amazing creation      

It is made entirely of Toilet Paper, tape and glue.
Check out the detail in this hat...

WOW!!!

The style isn't exactly me but the toilet paper thing will surely save me HEAPS of money. So I gave Millar the materials and he started working on it straight away!

 

hmmm. progress seems a bit slow - especially if he plans on pretending to blow his nose on each piece.....
I may have to rethink the idea of getting my toddler to make my gown....

back to the drawing board.

I'm finally getting married!! - 2nd November 2009

Darren and I have been engaged for almost 5 years.....

On saturday we were at the mall and I spotted a ring that looked good. I have been half searching for the perfect wedding ring for 5 years. It has to match my engagement ring of course - a simple band just wont do darlings.
The first one I saw wasn't as perfect as it could be but it got us thinking... It is about bloody time we just got this wedding thing done so we went to the next store and I DID find the perfect ring - it matches perfectly. So we put the ring on layby and got home and started planning...
All of our family live in New Zealand. So our options are: get married in new zealand  - This means we would have to invite EVERYONE which is about 200 people - the costs would skyrocket and it would be stressful planning it and I would get all bridezilla .... NO. not an option.

option two - get married in a registry office in melbourne and then announce it when we go home for christmas.. "merry christmas, btw we are now married" This would by far be the cheapest and least stressful option. But apparently it's rude to exclude your family (so sayeth the husband to be)

option three - Have a celebrant come to our house to do the ceremony and invite our immediate family members (and their partners and kids) and advise them they are under no obligation to attend considering it is a 3 hour plane trip away and accommodation costs etc etc.

we decided on option 3 and the date is set for June 5th - this coinsides with Queens Birthday long weekend in NZ and also it's winter so the flights are cheaper. so we have considered the financial strain on the family and tried to accommodate as best we can. We send off an email to tell people to save the date.

However, the first thing my mum says when she calls?  "You realise your wedding is 6 weeks after Latham's???" (Latham is her husband's son - his wedding is not even on my radar) "sorry" is all I could say about that.

You can't please everyone.

But anyway - the planning is so far going nicely. It is going to be a relaxed family day (total of 21 people if all invited attend). Nice and intimate and cheap yet elegant.
I will keep you all posted on the plans as I go.

It's all very exciting really