More.

Well since some of you find the wedding preperations interesting, and since I myself find the wedding preperations interesting, I thought I would share some more of them.

It seems that over the last few days through discussions with katie, that a basic theme has emerged.

A shabby chic style, but with bolder colours. Drawing inspiration from vintage, classic, sort of vibes.

The central decorative piece is indeed still the peacock feathers. Deciding to use the Central rich Royal blue as the major colour.

Pearls will play a large part in the day, seen throughout quite a few of the details. Including the bridesmaids and my jewelly, which are set to be made by my incredibly talented sister Katie.

The bridesmaids will still be in the black cocktail dresses with the Royal blue sash. Bouquet?

Well the bridesmaids are set to carry a simple bunch of Iris's...

As for myself. I will of course be in white, with a simple bunch of Calla Lillies, with a couple of peacock feathers in the mix.

The Key colours are set to be;

I'll fill you in more as I get better pictures and all that jazz...

[aplologies that the whole thing is still very patchy...at the moment the vision is nearly entirely in our heads...it's just getting it out in a visual way thats tricky...we'll get there :P]

Art Spotters

I've had a few questions about the large Painting of the Sunflower, seen in the photo's taken of the flat decorated for Christimas.
In answer to your questions, yes I do think it's lovely, and hopefully I would since I'm the artist :P
Apologies for the quality of the image here, it was taken on a camera phone, and the blue bit in the bottom right corner isn't actually part of the painting, it's a bit of christmas decoration which got in the way.

I am trying to get back into my art, and I just wanted to say thatnkyou to those of you who commented on MSN about how much you liked it, even before you knew you had to brown nose to me :P
Your beautiful

Maths Equation

What does

One guitar


+ One Amp




+ One guitar Stand



+ One guitar case and Strap



= ???

$50 acoording to the guy Timmy bought this kit, for me, off today!
Oh how I love a good bargain!

Already?!!

Christmas already!!








I know it's early, But since I head back to Forster on Saturday, Timmy was gracious and let me decorate his flat early :D
Some of the best fun I've had in a long time.



Laura then came out and we had a whimsical chat under the christmas tree lights. Over the course of the conversation Laura mentioned "Gee I wonder where the whole idea of the Christmas tree came from..."
To which, (due to last years research) I was able to say..."Well actually..."



















This launched into a big discussion about How commercialised Christmas has become and how sad it is that just spending the holidays with Family and friends just isn't enough for some people anymore.
God sent his son to earth, the greatest gift we could ever hope for, that son walks as man, completely man (yet without sin) he lives a life of worship and justice, and then he dies the death of a sinner, all so we don't have to live as the scum we earnt the role of. Instead, we can live in righteousness and walk out in victory...
...And yet, after all of that, after the greatest gift has already been given, knowing that no gift can ever possibly surpass it,... sometimes....just sometimes we still manage to get lost in the chaos of a commercialised christmas, a christmas that tells us we have to get the BEST presents, the BEST decorations, The BEST of everything, or else christmas is crap.
...
Well let me just say, that I think thats crap.
...
It's times like these that I'm reminded why we are enemies with the world, So in my loyalty to J.C. I'm going against the world on this one...

This year, all I want for Christmas are my family and friends...and maybe some photos to remember it by.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder...

I love you guys, enjoy the holiday season, Theres a birthday to celebrate!!
OH!!...




and let yourself get silly once in a while.

$2.95!!!!

Gosh I love a good bargain!
And as I was shuffling through the reduced bucket at Sportsgirl I managed to snaffle a gooden. $2.95 for this little number.

I'm not a huge hat person, but this was just too cute, and too cheap to pass up.

Also, to make me even happier, apparantly it was supposed to be $7.95, but someone must have labelled it incorrectly, and thus they had to give it to me for the advised price :D :D

bargains make me so happy!!

[Had a quick look through my wardrobe today and realised I haven't paid full price for anything in there...Oh yes, I know how to bargain shop, wanna learn the tricks then you should hit the shops with me sometime ;) ]

Race Day

Last Tuesday, as I'm sure we all know, was Melbourne Cup - the race that stops a nation.

I was woken at 12pm by a message from Timmi reading; "So...it's race day, we getting spruced up and going somewhere?"

I quickly chat to my Timmy, followed by a message sent back to Timmi and within an hour we're all decked up and headed down to the Wicklow for Melbourne Cup fever.

The group of us ended up being Timmy, Myself, laura, Timmi, Steve and Annabell.

Can I just say that it was so nice to see the boys in suits. I don't think a guy ever looks as good as when he's scrubbed up and in a suit. My three boys were no exception. Plus add to that the treatment, it was as though the old time suits brought out old-time treatment of the ladies...to which my feminist mind was not at all complaining about. Everywhere we went the boys escourted us around by linking our arm through theirs, they opened doors, pulled out chairs - it's was fabulous!!

As for the race itself...none of us were winners.
I had gone for Number 3: Railings...Timmi had joined me,
My timmy had gone Ice Chariot- which laura whole heartedly agreed with, announcing to us all that it was going to win for sure...No doubt about it.
Annabell and Steve had gone for number 16...whatever that horse was [no idea, they had chosen it for the number and either way...it didn't place ;) ]







The Railings Pickers...Timmi & I*

















The 'Ice Chariot' Barackers...Timmy and laura

















The Number 16 backers, Annabel and Steve








For the record, after all of laura's ravings about ice chariot, it came 22nd, out of 23 horses...it was hilarious!

But what a great day was had...Oh and I even have photo's [Yes, Yes, I am good to you ;) ]

*apologies for my pic...the only one for the day was when Timmy was trying to annoy me :P so it'll do

input is good...

Again I apologise to all the people who have to read this and really don't care.

I was brainstorming some bridesmaids Ideas with the influence of my mum to get some of this done.
Basically I don't want anything to fancy or over the top. The whole mood of the event is suppose to be relaxed.
When I caught a glimpse of this dress I thought it was beautiful and really what I was thinking when it came to the bridesmaids.
Simple, cocktail dress.



















The colours however would be different. The thoughts Tim and I have had is that the groomsmen would be in Black suits, black shirts and royal blue ties. So the concept emerged of having the maids in black cocktail dresses with royal blue sash, complete in a bow at the back.
bringing some Uniformity to the bridal party. Then I would be in my white, Tim in the black shirt, black shirt and White tie.

The thought was to buy the black dresses for the girls and then simply purchase some thick satin ribbon from Spotlight and do the tie ourselves.
Had a quick squiz around and there are black cocktail dresses everywhere!!

Of course we're keeping the Peacock feather theme, with this Blue coming from the very very centre of the feathers.



















So the overall look should be something like;

Bridesmaids

















Groomsmen




















Next time I'll try and keep my posts more interesting.

Arty-Farty-Pets

Man!! as I sit here I feel incredibly light headed. I realised about five minutes ago that I've had something close to 5 glasses of coke today. Plus a friend of Tims visited from Tamworth so we headed over to the "White Bull" for a beer. Beer on an empty belly will have your head spinning pretty quick (especially if your a light weight like me) but a good meal and 6 hours and that was sorted. Right now I think that I might be suffering from a serious sugar overload. :P

But all of that aside, what I really came on here to share was Kate and my shinnanigans last weekend.

I can generally gurantee some sort of laugh a minute entertainment when Kate's nearby...

So, with nothing but our cheeky grins as a clue, take a moment to guess just what we may have gotten up to last wekend gone...

...

..

.

We painted the cat!!

Did you guess it?!!

Kate visited Armie for Tims 21st and Saturday morning, bored and with nothing but a "midnight Blue" permanent hair dye to ammuse us, katie and I spent the morning chasing Dizzy around the flat painting stripes all over him so he ended up looking like a blue and white Tiger.







Took a bit of getting use to. And quite a bit of us saying "Geez I wish we'd used black"
But now, a week after I'm actually glad we used Blue. had we used black I think it would have been easy to think that it was his natural colouring.
Instead he looks like an Arty-farts cat. And I think he looks unreal!

Wedding

I realise that for some of you, you cannot think of anything worse than listening to me ramble about the wedding plans, however since these are the most interesting happenings in my life currently, they my dear reader, will be what I shall share with you.

The date has been booked. 6th of October, 2007.
I'm so grateful to my mum for being on top of everything. Had we not booked this far in advance, there is no way at all, that we would have gotten what we wanted, where we wanted it and when we wanted it.

So far, what we do know is this;

The ceremony will be held at the Green Cathedral. A gorgeous open air church right on the waters of wallace lake. It's always been a little dream of mine to get married there, so it is exciting that it will be happening.







The reception will be held across in Forster, at the Wharf Bar and grill. Which has this glorious sort of verandah which overlooks the lake. From the second I saw it I was pretty smitten. It is a restaurant on the second level of the building and for the night, they would close it off completely to the wedding. The venue is complete with seating for up to 100, as well as a complete dance floor and sound system.



The Plan is for the whole affair to be fairly low key, relaxed. With 80 people total. Buffet, and a Brassery of sorts. No formal seating plan, the tables will be decorated and arranged (as would be expected) however, we've decided that we would prefer for people to decide where and with whom they would like to sit.






Theme?
Peacock feathers. Already idea's are being formulated, with Kate giving me some amazing idea's.
One that we're both pretty keen on is this;


This is all so pink I nearly wanted to puke. But now imagine Peacock feathers instead of the Pink Ostrich feathers. And blue instead of pink (barf) everywhere note: I'm not planning on all the frilly stuff, just talking the feather vase centrpieces here ;)













The bridesmaids;
Katie (maid of Honour)
Rea
Belle
Jess.W. (go the J team)

I'm sure I will update you soon ;)
xoxo

A Long Overdue Update

As I sit here and type this now, I glance to my right a soft chuckle escaping me as I watch the white furry outline of Dizzy chase a march fly across the window sill. His front paws patting the glass, before his nose moves in to nudge the fly lightly before attempting to devour it in one smooth motion. But alas the fly escapes out the open window.







It's been a rather large weekend and I cannot help but feel slightly exhausted now it all being said and done.
Thursday the 12th of October saw Timmy and I heading to Queensland to stay with his Mum and Step-dad for the weekend.
Tim was sharing a 21st party with his cousin Jess on the saturday, thus why we had made the 6 hour car treck to be there. I absolutely adore Tims Parents and therefore felt completely at ease spending the weekend in their company.
By thursday night we were to tired to really do anything and so just pottered around the place. Gere and Richard (The folks) live on this beautiful property where you wake up to the sound of birds, and regularly see koala's napping in the trees. , yet only need to travel about an hour to get to the very heart of Brisbane. It was nice to be able to enjoy the quiet and rest easy for a while.
I knew it was going to be a biggen weekend, I already felt slightly nervous at the prospect of meeting Tims extended family in their entirety.

Friday saw us heading across to the Direct factory Outlet, for some retail therapy. It was just a really nice day of leisurely walking about with Timmy and his mum. In fact can I say it was one of those days when I just felt so relaxed, so comfortable to and happy. The conversation was free and fun - full of playfulness and joy. By the end of the evening, as Tim and I sat in his parents loungeroom - They bid us goodnight and headed to bed while timmy and I sat and chatted and laughed, and there was definitely alot of the long glances into each others eyes as I tried to remember the last time I'd felt that happy!
Tim stood with the words "I'll be right back" and headed into the kitchen. I heard him rustling about in the bags and convinced myself that he was grabbing a couple of Freddo frogs for us. He wandered back into the room, shoving what I thought were the Freddo's into his back pocket. He came and stood just in front of me, and leaned over to give me a soft kiss on the forehead. "How much do you love me?" he asked, to which I responded "Heaps" He then reached into his back pocket, and I expected him to hand me my Freddo, but instead a small Navy blue box comes into view. As he gently opens it, he sinks onto one knew and asks, "Will you marry me?"

...Shock...

For at least the first minute or so all I was able to say was "Oh my goodness...I didn't even see this coming...how could I not have seen this coming?..."
He must have been so nervous and my failure to answer the question must have only added to it :P
running through my head was the question "What would mum and dad think?" their opinion on such things means the world to me.
Knowing me too well Timmy says right at that moment "And don't worry, I asked your parents permission about 2 weeks ago and they're pretty excited about it..."

it's crazy, it's all crazy. All this coming from the guy who I boasted on the fact that he could never surprise me...I've since been forced to eat my words. He surprised me big time, plus add to that, my parents, brother and sister, his parents all knew about it....

So yes, as of 10pm Friday night I am a newly engaged woman. Timmy and I sat and prayed on the friday night, that God would lead us through this transition and as we head into this new stage of our relationship. We're both headed into unchartered territory, so we'll both be learning and growing together, it's all rather exciting and I couldn't be happier. I love Tim so much I trust him completely and we're easily the best of friends.



The ring some of you may be asking...is a Triangle cut blue sapphire with a string of diamonds lining 2 of the 3 edges, in a band of white gold. It's beautiful, and a perfect fit - Timmy did well. :)


Saturday saw us heading to Tims 21st at his Auntie Maureens place. Had an absolute blast, his entire family took me in straight away and were just too adorable and lovable. The engagement was announced at the end of the evening, quickly followed by the men giving timmy a firm handshake and slap on the back while all the woman running to me for a hug and squiz at the ring. This has proven to be a fairly consistant behaviour. :D






Sunday Tim and I headed to Dreamworld, and after months of planning I was able to return the surprise factor by taking Tim on his Tiger Photo session. We got 15 minutes with the opportunity to actually pat a real Tiger, complete with the "Now remember while these tigers are tamed, they ARE still wild animals, so at no point should you touch their face, head or paws, instead give them plenty of firm pats along there back" in later discussions we both chuckled over the fact that they hadn't mentioned anything about the testicles and decided that if there was any way you were going to be booted from the park, then grabbing a tigers testicles was definitely the way to go. Assuming you survived the encounter then it would make for a pretty handy ice-breaker/conversation starter, Of course being mauled was probably the more likely conclusion :P
We ended up getting to spend our time with Mohan, the king of the pack and lets just say it was amazing...Timmy was stoked and I got the warm fuzzies just by looking at the absolute Joy on his face.

The rest of the day was spend wandering about Dreamworld, enjoying each others company and having laugh after laugh as we relaxed in the glorious Gold Coast weather.









And so at the end of the busy weekend, here I am back in Armidale, happy, contented and already receiving excited phonecalls from mum with suggestions for wedding and reception...

Rough date, the 6th of October 2007, pencil it in ;)

Melancholy

I'm back in Armidale.
I'm definitely hitting a low point. I feel so flat, so tired and on the verge of tears so much of the time.

I think my head and heart knows that I have some huge decisions to make within the next couple of months and it scares me.

I know that God has my teaching position already waiting for me, but I still worry.

I'm tired of giving...
Tired of feeling walked on and yet as exhausted as I am I still put myself in a place where I allow it to happen.
It doesn't seem to matter what I say either...the trampling continues.

I had a dream last night...

I was standing in the middle of a crowded shopping centre, the people were moving past me, some of them pumping me lightly as they passed. I started to scream, to scream as loud as I could, till it burnt my throat. And yet no one responded, everyone just kept on with wherever they were going and whatever they were doing...

I woke up feeling as though perhaps that isn't so far from the truth.

I don't want to sound like a whiney victim. Because I'm not.
I'm not a victim, I am redeemed and restored to victory.
But life and emotions still get hard sometimes.
They're hard now.

Angels En Masse

Every so often life decides to add some excitement to my dreary day to day exsistance :P
Nah, who am I kidding, life keeps me on my toes all the time, and life with God should really do nothing less.

Lets just say that on Monday afternoon, there was a small army of angels watching Tim and my Back.

Saturday night Tim headed down from Armidale to once and for all prove that he was capable of something spontaneous while also proving me wrong in the "You could never surprise me" department.
It worked, I was surprised and had no idea at all.

He brought his dad with him, they both rode on seperate bikes and stayed the night at our place. On Sunday Tims Dad, Russel headed back to Sydney, while Tim stayed on another night here in Forster.

Saturday was spend hooning around Forster on Dickies Sportsbike [which Tim had borrowed for the weekend]. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as we screamed down the road at 150ks...was awesome!

Mum and Dad headed off for the weekend, leaving us kids with full run of the house. Grabbed at case of Cruisers and Carlton Blacks and sat around the place having a good yarn and a laugh. Invited Belle around but the woman Piked on us! Shame Belle! SHAME!! :P

Monday, Timmy was set to head back to Armidale, but before he headed off we decided to take one last ride round Forster. Right as we were about to leave Dad and Mum arrived home and in true father Braybrook fashion, out came the camera and captured a couple of these happy snaps.


With that, Tim and I headed out on the bike.
As we headed up towards main Beach, there was this little Mazda sitting in the middle of it's lane, no indicator, no breaklights, no sign of what it was going to do, Tim slowed as we apprached, but it gave no indication at all as to what it was doing, so we headed to pass it, and right as we sat side by side, it started to turn, hitting the bike.

All I can say is that Tim was Amazing. We should have fallen over, but he managed to re-balance and keep us upright. But more than that God was definitely watching over us.

We pulled over and the guy in the other car was adament that he hadn't done anything wrong, he even went so far as to claim that he was indicating...funny that two of us missed it.
And yes...Yes he was a tourist. Anyone who knows me well, knows how I carry on about the tourists who overrun my hometown on a regular holiday basis, they annoy the bejeebers outta me. And now, I'm fairly sure Tim will be joining me in my annoyance. ;)

Can I just say here that I was so proud of the way Tim handled the whole situation, the other bloke was standing over him, doing everything he could to try and intimidate and never for a second admitting that he had done anything even remotely wrong, yet Tim kept his cool, never acted disrespectful just took the needed information and swore to sort it all out and get in contact soon.

Though others may have seen his behaviour as being totally in control, I knew him well enough to know that he wasn't holding it all together as well as he seemed to be. I could tell he was stressed and he was feeling fairly flustered.

I had a good chat to his mum about it later and as it turns out, after he left Forster to head back to Armie, he had to pull over to throw up, coz he's been so worked up about it all.

After talking about it since, Tim says that it was because he couldn't believe he'd put me in so much danger, but as I explained to him, he never forced me to ride with him, that I've always and still always feel safe with him because he's a great rider and if anything it was my fault because I was the one who wanted to go for the ride that day.

The damage to the bike isn't too bad, couple of hundred to have it resprayed, and things are being sorted out with the other bloke.

we've all agreed that God definitely had his angels out watching us on Monday afternoon...
The only injury was my foot.
Tim hasn't seen it yet, because I know he'll feel bad (when it's not his fault)
But to be honest I'm kinda proud of my bruise...afterall, how many people can say that their foot has been hit by a car?!!

Photographic Proof of Classroom Adventures.

I ran the whole day today.
Susie was away sick and being quite adjusted to running the whole shabbang at little to no notice, I managed to handle today well enough. Rather than being annoyed I actually rather enjoy the days when I'm left to my own devices, I can pretend that I'm a real teacher and this little mob of raggamuffins are my very own class.

I'm very quickly approaching the final week of my internship. Since starting my prac I've been running my own dance group during sport time and tomorrow we add the music, being some old school Jars of Clay with 'Liquid'. I enjoy my little dance troupe, and it's been something that I've been able to add to the school during my time there.

I am getting to the point of bittersweet realisation. The finish line is so close that I can see it, not so distant on the horizon. But also close enough to realise just how much these kids have really worked their way into my heart, I'm going to miss them so much!

Currently I'm working on some bracelets for the little tikes. The girls will be getting brightly coloured beads while the boys are getting leather straps with black beading. To complete my little gift each child is going to get a personalised letter which I really want to pour out affirmation for who they are and the incredible person that God has made them to be.

This Prac has been amazing, not just proffessionally and educationally, but it has really penetrated me on a level I can't describe...God has worked within me and challenged & grown me. But above all he has shown his faithfulness and loving, nurturing heart which cares for all aspects of my life, all the little things AND the big things.

He truely is an awesome father.

This pic was taken yesterday, the kids were taking photos of one another for a project. One of them wanted one of me, I tried desperately yo avoid it, and eventually the kids grabbed me and hopped in the photo too. After the pic was taken Zoe turns to me with the sweetest little smile and says " Sucked in...your in the photo" I couldn't help but laugh, They're all gorgeous!!

[from the left] Sarah, Cameron[at back], Zoe, [a tiny snippet of] Jess.H. and Myself.

Loved.

Another Birthday come and gone.

Friday saw me heading to school as per usual. Upon arrival I was bombarded with Happy kids from my class wishing me happy birthday and giving great big beautiful hugs. Aaron had me in hysterics as he serenaded me with his updated version of happy birthday, complete with air guitar solo and high screechy finale.
They are such an incredibly beautiful bunch of kids, who I am going to miss so very much.
They organised a surprise party for me, which I was ever so slightly clued into, due to the fact that they're not quite as sneaky as they like to think they are...either that or I'm just too dang clever ;)

But I acted surprised and we had a great afternoon together grooving and eating. They're a cute bunch of munchikins.

So my day at school ended and I headed home. Tim couldn't make it down as he had to work all day/evening in Armie. Though dad booked us into the Hogs Breath for dinner. Can I hear a "Yummo!"?


















So I enjoyed my 22nd birthday in the company of my favourite people...my family. I can't really remember the last family affair we've had when all five of us have been present. So this was nice...really nice.




We ordered. Mum and dad even bought cocktails for the Birthday girls which was just a golden touch. I couldn't resist a touch of cheekiness and just had to order the "Sex on the Beach"
However I must admit that I was ever so slightly dissapointed when mum made no reaction whatsoever, dad however sat with this slightly ammused, forced concerned look.
"Hows Tim going to feel knowing that you had sex on the beach tonight?"...
yeah he's a funny fellow.





Afterwards we headed home and blew out the candles on a Pavlova and Caramel choc-cream tart.
Hmmmmhmm...
al in all, a fantabulous birthday was had.
Add to that, it was a nice touch to find a heap of messages on my mobile when I jumped back in the car.

Thankyou to all of you who wished me a happy birthday, I appreciate your love so much!

2 weeks left of my internship and then it's all over red rover. Yes I am excited :D