A sad day for Australia

While I am not necessarily a political person, I am extremely disappointed with what's happening in the Australian government right now. Yes, I was one of those people that voted Kevin Rudd in - I don't think there's a problem with that. However, I'm not necessarily a Labor supporter.

Growing up, my parents always preached about the importance of taking an interest in politics as politicians are the ones who shape our nation. They were stout Democrat supporters but never pushed their beliefs onto my sister and I. While I used to like what the Democrats stood for, I haven't heard much from them lately (hence the vote for Ruddy).

I am extremely disappointed that the Labor Party would out a leader who was so far ahead of the Liberals. While I definitely don't support all the policies the party has implemented, I voted for Ruddy as head of the Labor Party because I thought he would be the better person for the job.

Don't get me wrong - I am extremely happy that we have a female Prime Minister at long last. However, I am not a supporter of Julia Gillard after the MySchools debacle. I do not support transforming our kids into statistics from the NAPLAN test results. I do not support the bullying and intimidation that the party showed towards the Teacher's Union after the lack of consultation with the Education departments over the MySchools website.

However, I am in a tricky position. I dislike Tony Abbott tremendously. I think if he was elected as Prime Minister, our country would be transformed into a nanny state. Workchoices would be back (with an obvious name change) and we would all be forced into individual contracts. With Julia Gillard at the helm of the Labor Party, I think the Liberals will be voted in because the voting public wouldn't have the trust in the Labor Party anymore.

I hate this as a teacher because the Education department will only sign teachers up during the school term. That means we're unemployed during holidays, hence no pay. While many people believe teaching is an easy job because we work 9 - 3 with lots of holidays, it is definitely not like that. Holidays are the times where we have to plan, mark, write assessment items, and generally catch up with stuff we haven't had time to do during the school term. Teachers are required to get to school at 7am, and don't leave the school until well after 5pm most days. There are staff meetings, extra curricular activities, bus duties, departmental meetings, year meetings, plus professional development days. We don't get paid for these things. If individual contracts are brought in, there is the chance that some teachers won't plan during holidays, meaning that kids won't get the best education, and won't meet key standards for life. This is a huge worry for me as a passionate teacher.

How are you all feeling about the change of leadership?

Ulta3 Pink Colada

G always teases me about how many Ulta3 nailpolishes I have. Currently, I have 17.....

Please excuse the glasses in the background. How embarrassing!

Left to right: Flashback Fuchsia, Black Plum, Waterlily, and Black Satin.

Left to right: Pearly Grape, Mulberry, Pink Colada, and Sizzling Red.

Left to right: Dusty Rose, Poppy, Beesting, Sweet Violet.

Left to right: Neutral (the brown version obviously), Spring Blossom, Baby Pink, Natural Spring, Watermelon.

....however, I still can't go past a pharmacy without sussing out their Ulta3 bin. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a lot more than 17 soon. I keep reading the thread on the Vogue forums and hearing about raves for colours (that's how I knew I wanted Neutral, Watermelon, and Pearly Grape - thanks ladies!)

I never used to bother with nailpolish all that often before I discovered Ulta3. I found the formulas usually too runny, or the brushes were too thin and I'd end up with polish all over my hands (although I still do that sometimes). I do love OPI polishes, but at $20 a pop here in Australia, it hardly seems worth it (although I am lemming a beautiful purple colour that my friend R always seems to wear).

I do have some favourites - Mulberry, Pearly Grape, Neutral, Flashback Fuchsia, and this one, Pink Colada.

I love the formula of this one. One coat makes it opaque and it seems to last for 3-4 days without chipping, especially when I use a top coat. Don't let the pink colour in the bottle fool you - this is definitely more a red colour, with a slight tinge of pink. I find it looks quite blue red next to my PPP beige skin. Despite this, it is definitely one of my favourites, as it looks good with everything.

Inside, 2 coats with top coat.

In natural light. I would've gone outside but it's raining here in Brissy. Excuse my funny shaped fingers too - I have broken all of them at one point or another. That's why they're all on funny angles.

I'm going to swatch all of my Ulta3 polishes so you can see what they look like.

Have a great day guys!

xxx

126 days to go.....

According to my wedding website (yes, I know, how wanky), there are 126 days to the wedding. Eek! Where did that come from?!?! There are still soooo many things left to do!

G and I have got the most important things....

- my dress! I've had that one for ages...since last year. Here's a sneaky peak at the dress (but will be coming down quickly so G doesn't see). Link here

- the venue: Surfair Resort on the Sunshine Coast.

Surfair Resort. We're getting married on the dunes, just outside the gates. Source: www.surfairmarcoola.com.au

Guests will stay for the weekend, with quiet drinks at the bar the night before, and breakfast the morning after.

- the cake: cupcakes from Poppy Cakes with a red velvet cutting cake. We're having two kids of cupcakes: Baileys and chocolate cakes with vanilla icing, and vanilla cupcakes with passionfruit icing. Yum!

Source: Poppy Cakes.

They will look like this (but in blue and cream)

Source: not sure. Has anyone else seen this? Want to credit where credit's due!

- bridesmaids dresses.

- G's suit: no photos of that as we've only just got it. We just bought a grey suit from Roger David, as G doesn't need to wear a suit...well ever!

- flowers:

Inspiration for my bouquet. The bridesmaids will have cream roses and peonies, tied with a blue ribbon. G and his best man will have a hydrangea and rose boutonnière.

- photographer and celebrant: friends of ours, giving their expertise to us as wedding presents.

So, you may notice that there are no photos of invitations. Yeah....about that.....we haven't got any yet! G and I aren't the most decisive people on earth, so doing the stationery has taken twice as long as I'm sure it takes most couples. It took us something like 3 months to design our Save the Dates! (See them here).

With just over 4 months to go until the wedding (and RSVPs needing to be in a month before the wedding), we need to get organised. I never thought I would be a matchy-matchy kind of person. Turns out, I am. I want the whole wedding to have a unified theme, with colours of blue, black and cream. Since I'm a very visual person, I need to see what everything looks like altogether. Looks like we'll be waiting to do invites until after we meet with our event decorators on July 3rd. Watch this space.....

Take that NSW!

Ohhhh Queensland. How I love you.

They can count to five! Notice how Alfie is ready to run on again if needed. He's secretly got an Origin jersey under his trainer's yellow. Source: Courier Mail

I knew that the Queensland Origin team was good, but not THAT good. NSW may not have turned up to this match (thank you, Andrew Johns), but QLD played as if they were playing the best in the world.

G and I had a bet to guess who would be man of the match because there were so many awesome players in the squad (for the record, I picked either Dave Shillington or Sam Thaiday; G picked Israel Folau or Greg Inglis). I was amazed at how many line breaks there were (6 for Queensland; 2 for New South Wales) - Queensland made a mockery of New South Wales.

Source: Courier Mail

I think the Greater Western Sydney AFL admins would be rubbing their hands in glee after Israel Folau's performance last night. As if they're not thinking about how many marks he'll make with his awesome jumping ability.

One thing I was incredibly annoyed at was the refereeing. What on earth was happening with that?!?!? No one was onside, there were high tackles galore, and then there was that infamous "attempted" headbutt from Luke O'Donnell. Only 2 people on report....and not for the headbutt! Apparently there are different rules for NSW players - Jarryd Hayne can headbutt Billy Slater, just like Luke O'Donnell can headbutt Dave Taylor whilst Joel Monaghan holds him back. I'll be interested to see if Luke O'Donnell is allowed to play for NSW in Origin 3. It was quite funny though - I'm sure D.T. was taunting him. Luckily Sam Thaiday made him pay in the right way.....by pushing him into the grass in a tackle.

Queensland also made NSW pay for the racist comments made by Andrew Johns (and I suspect by a few other NSW coaches/trainers/players). How better to demonstrate how wrong Joey is.....by Inglis, Folau and Tonga scoring try after try. Did anyone else notice that White seemed to say sorry to Inglis at the end? Good on him if he did. As much as I dislike Timana Tahu, he did the right thing by bringing the racism to light. I don't think he did it in the right way - he let his NSW teammates down by walking out on them, and now he hasn't come back to training for the Eels. I don't blame him though - Andrew Johns works with the Eels. I wouldn't want to work with someone like that, either. However, the NRL is in such disarray that maybe something like this has to happen before David Gallop gets off his cushy leather chair and actually does something.

I'm having one of those weeks. You know the ones - where nothing goes right or takes 3 times as long to get right. I had a few days where it just too much and I wanted to hide under my blanket until I could do things without dropping them/making mistakes/crying/pulling my hair out.

G wanted to cheer me up (since I've had a spate of bad news lately) and suggested we do some wedding planning. Even wedding planning didn't cheer me up! Admittedly we're at the stage where there is still so much to do but we don't know where to start! I've got to decide on our table centrepieces in the next few weeks......without knowing how many tables there will be. Eek! For someone who is extremely visual, choosing something without seeing it exactly how it will be and from 3000 different angles is VERY difficult. Or maybe it's just because I'm a perfectionist. I'm sure G will go with that one.

I am such a perfectionist that I can't leave anything until I think it's perfect. It means EVERYTHING takes me forever to do. It also means I have 3000 lists laying around the house because I do not function without a List. I write things on my Lists that I have already completed, just so I can tick things off. However, I am also a perfectionist when it comes to my Lists. I have to write them neatly and in a certain order. For Lists that will take longer to complete, they have to be on pretty paper. For day-to-day ones, they just have to be written neatly in my List Notebook (yes, I have one). G writes things...sorry, scrawls things all over the page and it REALLY. ANNOYS. ME. I cannot function with these lists. In fact, they are not Lists.

This is going to be part of G's vows for our wedding:

I promise to try to write neatly, and compile usable lists. I understand how you love lists and because I love you, I will love lists.

This is going to be part of my vows:

I promise to accept your lists and try not to correct your spelling.

Compromise? I hope so!

Good idea number 1983

Clearly, I'm having another one of those "productive" days.

I'm procrastinating, obviously, and I just found the PERFECT thing for those lazy days. I. HAVE. TO. HAVE. IT.

So you know those days when it's cold outside (cold is 20 degrees here in Brisbane) and you feel like curling up on the couch with a hearty meal, wine and educational television *cough Gossip Girl, The Hills, The City cough*? I know I get really annoyed, trying to balance my bowl on my lap, reaching long distances for my glass/bottle of wine on the coffee table....getting food all over myself. Doesn't happen to you? Oh. Of course, it doesn't happen to me either.

I found the perfect thing....

source: Holycool.net See it here

Yes, that IS a bowl with a wine holder. It's Alessi. I think we would be very happy together. However, I don't think salad will be seeing the light of day in this puppy. Salad just doesn't go with Gossip Girl.

Ceremony location

I've been AWOL from you my little blog. I apologise! I've been a little stressed about the wedding, which, according to G, is 20 weeks away. Holy moley!

We're having our ceremony and reception at the same place - here

We've had some real issues with our venue co-ordinator. I love the venue on the whole, and everyone else has been incredibly helpful, but feel ambivalent about the customer service skills of the wedding co-ordinator. Previously, we found out (by going there mind you, not because she told us) that our ceremony venue was basically destroyed by the Sunshine Coast Council. She offered to send us some photos of a wedding held there the weekend before, and to call us if anyone enquired about the other option, the beach, for our wedding date.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I still didn't have a response. I emailed her, changing our booking to the beach instead of the dunes as she hadn't sent the photos only to be told that it was booked and had been for a while. I was so angry and have second guessed everything she's done so far (including getting our names wrong!)

She seems a lot better now since she, herself, has gotten married. All mistakes previously made have been corrected and she has apologised, which is fantastic. What makes it better is that we received a phone call from her, letting us know that the beach is now available for our wedding.

I love the look of the beach but G isn't so sure. We went to his cousin's wedding at Broadbeach near the Kurrawa Surf Club and it was really blowy. I spent the entire ceremony holding my dress down (something I don't want to do for our wedding!)

This is the beach, set up like I love:

Source: Surfair Weddings

I also love this:

Source: Splash Events

G prefers the sand dunes, which used to look like this...

Source: Splash Events

...but now looks like this:

Believe me, these photos make it look good.

If we stay with the dunes, we could also move the ceremony under the trees like this:

Check out the grass - how horrible does it look??

ps: the two photos above were sent by my wedding co-ordinator - sorry to the photographers!

This also looks nice:

What do you guys think? I think I've overthinking everything!