As part of my new found commitment to blogging in 2015, I thought I would try to do a regular weekly post that called me out if I reverted to my slack ways and missed it. So today i’m bringing you the inaugural ‘Friday Favourites’ post where I have a chat about something i’m loving each week. This first one is a little bit exciting and close to my heart so I hope you enjoy it! P.S. all the photos on this post were taken by the wonderful Len from I Love Wednesdays. If you need a photographer, she is definitely the one to go with!
I remember meeting up with a friend after going on one of my first dates with my (now) hubs and saying to them “i’m going to marry that man”. I remember my friend looked incredulous and replied “now???” Well, maybe almost ten years later. I knew very early on in our relationship that this was the man that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. He was unlike any other man in my life. He was gentle and thoughtful, fun to talk with and our conversations were often characterised by long discussions about the merits of different methods of bacon preparation. We often spoke long into the night about our dream house with a full time bacon chef and enough garages to house all the vintage cars he wanted to own. Fast forward nine years and, while there was not a ten car garage or bacon chef in sight, all was well with the world when he proposed at sunrise on a quiet little beach that had a special significance to us both.
I really love my life. When it comes to the crunch, despite all the whinging I do, there is very very little I would ever change. Each year I try to make things a little bit better and try to sort out my emerging life as a proper adult. Along the way I have had to have some realisations about my inherent nature. These are things that will probably not change but probably should…
Realisation #1
I’m a total homebody
I’ll never be a glamazon-too-cool-for-school-party-animal. I really just like wearing pyjamas, drinking tea and generally lounging around the apartment in various states of undress. And I love masseur sandals. When my fiance confessed that he really wanted some for christmas, I heaved a sigh of relief because i’ve always wanted some too! Possibly less attractive than crocs, these shoes are the comfiest shoes i’ve ever had and they’re the best thing to slip into after a long long day.
So this year has started off pretty crazy for me. Could you tell? Did the six months without peep on this blog give you a little clue? Actually… if you’ve been reading this for a while it probably didn’t seem like that big a deal to you seeing as frequent unexplained absences are becoming my calling card in the blogosphere. But really, can you blame me this time? Yes? Maybe you won’t be so harsh after I tell you a little story? It all started in January, when Mr Love and I went on a mega road trip up and down the NSW/QLD coastline. And a little bit inland.
We began by driving down the South Coast, with our first stop being Ulladulla. After a few days there drinking all the chocolate milkshakes and visiting all the beaches, we drove down through Batemans Bay, stopping in Canberra for the night. If you cast your mind back to January you will remember that it was ridiculously hot. So when we kept driving up inland through Parkes, Coonabarrabran, Tamworth etc, we found ourselves outrunning the awful fires that were happening. At times it was a little bit like this…
But don’t worry, they were mostly little fires that were springing up in our wake. That we had NOTHING to do with!
After about a week of driving and motel hopping, we ended up spending a few nights in an apartment in Coffs Harbour. We had driven through there the previous year and Mr Love remembered the beautiful secluded beaches that he had visited as a child, so we decided that this year we would try to visit them all. We had been quite spontaneous throughout the trip, choosing our route on the fly and booking accommodation as we went so it wasn’t really a surprise to me when he said “hey, lets go to Red Rock tomorrow to watch the sun rise”. As the Mr is less of a morning person than even I am, this should have been my first clue that something was up.
I LOVE the beach so I was very excited and made a picnic so that we could spend the day there and just chill out in the sun. We looked up the time that the sun was supposed to rise and set our alarms accordingly. Now, I don’t know if you already knew this, but I was quite surprised to see that the sky is pretty much light BEFORE the sun actually rises. So, driving to the beach in the half light, we thought that we must have read the time wrong and were going to arrive after sunrise. “Don’t worry” I said “We can try again tomorrow.”
“NO!”
Was the resounding answer. “We will make it!” Ok. Clue #2. (That I only saw in hindsight by the way). His faith was rewarded and we arrived at sleepy Red Rock minutes before the sun peeked up over the horizon to bring us this special sunrise.
As the sun rose, we walked down to the waves, wondered at the lovely colours, took a few photos then went to sit back down in the sand. At which point the Mr held out this little baby…
and asked me to marry him!
Say whaaaat? To say that I was totally blindsided is an understatement. It was absolutely the LAST thing that I was expecting to happen. But the most special things seem to happen when they are least expected. Particularly impressive is the time and effort that he went to in designing a ring that I will wear and love forever. He spent a full year selecting the perfect pink sapphire and must have visited every jeweller in sydney until he found the lovely people at Drakakis Mosman who made Pinky.
He spent ages trying to find an un-heat-treated sapphire which are a naturally lighter pink than heat-treated ones. As you can see, Pinky has quite the personality and changes shades depending on the light. In this picture she is almost lilac in colour, while in other lights she becomes a delicious frosty pink.
Everything about this ring is special, from the part where he agonised over the width of the band and the size of the diamonds to make sure that it would be perfect on my stumpy little fingers, to the part where he had the two little love hearts incorporated into the ring below the sapphire 1. because its cute and special and 2. so that the wedding band will fit beneath it. Can you also believe that he told absolutely NO ONE during that year what he was doing? Not a soul, other than he and the jeweller had any inkling. And to think that only weeks earlier I had been berating my friends for asking me when I was going to be getting married. Oops!
It was the trip of chocolate milkshakes and amazing proposals. Now i’m engaged and trying to plan a wedding. Yikes!
As clearly i’m the least organised person ever, if you know anything about planning a wedding could you please send a little love my way? And if you see Mr Love, give him a handshake and a pat on the back for being spectacularly amazing. <3<3
So Christmas is over. Boo. I know its been over for a few days now but I think its only just sunk in that there will be no more christmas gingerbread, no more carols, no more Christmas movies. Until next year…
I thought I would cheer myself up by bringing you some of my favourite christmas things that make me excited for Christmas 2013. I know this is pretty lame, but indulge me. And apologies to those who follow me on instagram who have probably seen these pics many many times by now!
Lets start with reindeers!
Well, reindeer antlers. That jingle.
Apparently if I were a reindeer I would be Prancer. Who knew?
Delicious pressies from students.
These are chocolate crackle christmas puddings. Cute hey?
the most amazing rum balls i’ve ever tasted.
So good that I actually can’t wait for school to go back so that I can get the recipe from this student!
The David Jones Staff Choir singing Christmas carols.
This is a yearly ritual with me and my mum.
Every year they sound amazing.
These little babies that I only found out about this year.
Lindt Christmas Scorched Almonds.
I can’t believe they’re only available at Christmas.
Breaking my heart lindt… breaking my heart.
this little guy
Mr Christmas Tree
and Love Actually. Of course.
Disney Princess Christmas Crackers.
Seriously. Best move ever.
What are your favourite things about Christmas my dears? What can’t you wait til next year for?
