While stealing a quiet moment together, I turned to my husband and said,

"Look at all these people, Leigh. Every single one of them really loves us!"

As we stumbled towards the hotel from our wedding reception, back in my sensible boots and armed with treats from the day, the feeling we kept returning to was the overwhelming amount of love that we had experienced. The entire day was spent basking in the joy we felt about each other, and the excitement and support of our community. The people in our lives, both daily and less frequently, are the reason that we got married in the way that we did. As we had our celebrant explain on the day, it will be their presence, their act of wittnessing, and their endorsement of our marriage which will hold us to account for the promises we made. We are not an island. No matter how deeply we stare into eachother, we can not and will not cancel out the world around us, so it is important that our community is on board from the get go. After all, there may come a time when we need them to kick us in the pants and remind us of what we said, why we said it, and they all saw us say it, so we'd better lift our game.

Of Elephants and Gingerbread Construction.

A Merry Christmas to all.

Gingerbread House by Maeve and Me
Photographs by Me
Lighting by Amy
Eating by One and All

The Dream Machine

The knot is tied, the vows said, the rings exchanged, the promises made and sealed with a scorching hot kiss! We are married and for the past two weeks we have been driving around in our beast of a vehicle, camping in quiet spaces, hiking to waterfalls and mountain tops, not getting sunburnt, eating, and loving each other to bits. There are busy times on the cards, but in my limited spare moments I try to will recapture in words and pictures the beautiful experience, which was our wedding day. For now, just love. In this season and all others.

Photo (by me) is of Bertha hiding among the paper daisys at the Grampians.

we're getting closer...

...just 11 sleeps until the we be wed...

...almost there!

I think I'm addicted to Scrabble.

No, really. We've had a friend staying at our place and the two of us have been playing a lot of Scrabble, at least one game a day. It's very enjoyable for us because we are quite evenly matched. We're competitive enough to be motivating (and, I think, both secretly more so than we would admit) but light hearted enough about it that we don't mind helping each other out, especially to get a lovely or rare word on the board. I knew that I had been enjoying the games and had come to expect one with my morning cup of tea (sometimes setting up the board before my friend was even out of bed) but I started to suspect that I may be developing a problem when I found myself sitting up until four in the morning playing Scrabble with myself! Addiction or not, you can't beat the thrill of tallying up 51 points for 'pacifist' at 3.30 am.


In other news, we are three Saturdays from launch and project wedding is coming together very nicely. Most of the big stuff is taken care of, allowing us to focus on details and logistics. We wrote our ceremony the other day, which involved a lot of concioius evalution of the ideas and feelings that have come up for us during the process of planning our wedding. I'm a big believer in the importance of process (by which I mean, the thinking, playing and reflecting involved in making and doing) and I would like, at some point in the near future, to write an essay or two based on the ideas that have come out of it. So I'm trying to write things down while they are fresh, but I'll need some breathing space before I can make anything of it.

Wishing you all cheer with your morning cuppa...

yellow is the colour of my true love's hair

It has been a wildly hetic time on the home front of late. Hospital trips, final uni deadlines and a near approaching wedding have made for much stress and high drama. So, you can imagine the pleasure that I've been taking these past few days in having the time to do some baking, pottering in the garden and reading a book or two.

orange cupcakes, topped with orange marmalade and ganache

I arrived home from skating to find a bowl of skinless oranges on the kitchen bench. My beloved and our friend, Roland, had been brewing a beer with orange peel and corriander in it, but what to do with the oranges? Being the ever ingenious domestic mistress, I made orange pudding cakes. We gobbled them up, hot from the oven with an orange glaze and toasted almonds. These were followed up with the baking of orange cupcakes, half of which I packed up for Roland to trek home with.

a yellow rose, everlasting daisies, thyme and mint

This little arrangement is freshening up our bathroom in a vintage blue glass bottle, wrapped with a yellow string bow (to match the roses, of course). I picked up the bottle from a collectables and antiques store. The flowers are all from our garden which has gone entirely wild with all the rain and sudden sunshine spurts. Speaking of which, it just started raining again! I guess I won't get the front garden weeded and trimmed today afterall.

our wedding invitations and reply cards

(I think) we've finally sent all of our invitations. That is, except for a certain somebody who decided to escape to Hong Kong before we could formally invite them. The reply cards are starting to trickle in. I expect we'll get a rush of them just after the rsvp date.

more flowers and my camera shy love

That is all. xo

I wish..

..that I could have a tea party right now! I know a place with daisy chains, secret corners, mysterious paths and picnic spots. Want to come? There will be pinwheels, tea cups, dancing and cakes. Maybe we could even play hide and go seek...

These are the cakes I made for our niece's birthday party a while back. They were yummy, but I needn't have bothered. There was a ton of food and only a handful of three year olds to eat it.

a wonderful weekend...

An indulgent weekend too, I think. Baking, skating, dancing, drinking, laughing, chasings, singing, driving, children, animals, two birthdays! These are things weekends are made of. It's been a breath of fresh air from the crazy times of the last few weeks. I'm happy, sleepy and ready for bed.

Pictures are, from top to bottom: The two of us driving home from a friend's lovely birthday celebration in the bush, a beautiful pearl necklace that Leigh's mother has generously passed on to me (more on that later), Driving home from Leigh's parents in the late afternoon sunshine, our little man, Bender, glad to have us home at last.

Edit: I don't know why the time spazzed out when posting this, but it's not really early on Thursday morning, it's late on Sunday night. Sweet Dreams (are made of this).

Art Appreciation

This is a photo of the Art Appreciation class from year 12. That's me on the left, with the little mole eyes and not much hair.  

We used to have a great time researching art history, writing essays and debating contemporary art. It was great to be in a class with a group of girls (we did have boys, but they were lazy and dropped out) who were passionate about art and fully willing to get their nerd on and research the hell out topics before coming to the discussion table.  Remembering these times, I can't help but wonder why these ladies didn't go to art school and why many of the people in my current art history class did.  

I am sick to tears of people who don't give two hoots about art history, wasting my time in tutorials.  They are art students, how can they not be excited to learn about art?  Each week I roll up to class hoping that somebody else has something to say, has maybe even done some research, and each week I am disappointed.  On my student feedback form I think I will suggest that they have two art history courses, one for those of us who care about what we are studying, and one for those who do not.  That's my two cents.

Pumpkin and Chocolate Cupcakes (vegan)

If we were getting married in the Autumn, these are the cupcakes I would make. The recipe follows, but I'm a bit ghetto in the kitchen (I don't even own cup measures) so I'm afraid you'll have bear with me on some of my guesstimations.

Ingredients
1 cup (and a little extra) of pumpkin, cooked and pureed
1/3 cup of oil
3/4 ish (almost a cup) of brown sugar
1/4 cup of soy milk
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
almost 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 a cup chocolate chips
chilli and cinnamon icing (recipe follows)
super easy ganache (recipe follows)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line muffin pan with cupcake cases.
2. In a medium sized bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk and vanilla.
3. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt). Stir with a fork or spoon until well combined. (I usually use the same fork that I used to mash the pumpkin).
4. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Fill cases two-thirds full. Bake for around 22 minutes.
6. Transfer to a cooling rack and let fully cool before icing.

Chilli and Cinnamon Icing

1/2 a cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon ground chilli

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons melted margarine or butter

splash of soy milk (about a tablespoon)

dash of vanilla extract

Directions

Place spices and sugar in a small bowl. Add the margarine, soy milk and vanilla and stir until smooth (I find it easiest to use a fork). The mixture should be an opaque tan colour and not too runny. If it is too glossy and liquidy, add more icing sugar. Keep at room temp until ready to ice.

Super Easy Ganache

1/3 cup (dark) chocolate chips (or the equivilent amount chopped chocolate

sploosh of soy milk (2-3 tablespoons)

dash of mayple syrup (optional)

Directions

Heat the soy milk over medium heat until just about to simmer. Remove from heat, add chocolate chips and mayple syrup (if using) and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Keep stiring until milk and chocolate are fully combined. Set aside to cool for a few minutes before scooping it into an icing bag.

To assemble the cupcakes.

Use a knife to spread an even layer of Chilli and Cinnamon Icing over the cupcakes. I tend to spread it a couple of mm thick, but this is purely up to taste. Then embellish with swirls, zig-zags or writing, using the ganache and a number 2 decorating tip (the tiny round one). Allow the icing to set at room temp or in the fridge before serving. Enjoy with company and coffee.

It's raining outside, but it's warm in the library.

So I can help but sit here and daydream about iced tea. At the moment, I'm loving mine with lemon, thyme and a little honey, but there are plenty of other ways to add excitement to your iced beverage.

Start with this base recipe:

3 cups of boiling water
4 tea bags

Steep the tea bags in the boiling water for about 5 minutes. Strain out tea bags (do not squeeze them! ).

To which you might add...

1/3 cup honey

3 cups apple juice

Stir in the honey, mixing until it is completely dissolved. Add the juice and chill in the fridge. Serve over ice and refresh your winter blues away.

..or maybe..

Ginger root (about 4 cms)

1 cup cold water

Sugar or honey, to taste.

Finely slice the ginger root and crush. You'll need to add this at the start and strain it out with the teabags. Stir in the cold water and your sweetener (if desired) and chill in the fridge. Serve over ice for an energy boost.

..or even..

1 can peach juice

juice of half a lemon

Prepare the tea. Stir in peach juice, lemon juice and chill. Serve over ice for a taste of summer.

As I said, there are many more variations for iced tea (the only real limit is your imagination) but these three are particularly appropriate for winter. Make sure you allow the tea to completely chill before serving. If you pour hot, or even warm, tea over ice it will melt the ice and dilute the tea. Happy drinking!

Waiting by the Phone

Well, by the phone line at least. We're waiting for an email about our potential reception venue.

I have really good feeling about it. Fingers crossed that it comes to fruition.

Yes, I am taking 'his' name.

Dear Feminists,

Yes, I am taking my partner's surname in marriage. No, I don't believe this makes me submissive or a disgrace to the female gender.

To me, marriage is about refinforcing that we are taking on life together - as a team! As such I want to share a last name, a team name, and I don't mind being the one to change. I don't have a particularly strong attatchment to my last name (which, I might remind you, came from my father's side anyway) and would happily swap it. Considering this, it seems crazy and selfish to force him into changing his name just so that we fit a particular feminist criteria. Even more so as it's a stance that I don't see as very progressive.

Another reason for sharing a name is that we do want to have children together. If we don't take on a name together now, we only delay this same decision for them. Do they have my name, his name, or both? My name if it's a boy, his if it's a girl? There are various solutions avaiable, but I'd rather have our children feel like we're all the same than use them to make quasi political statements. Not to mention that, with our surnames being quite simlar (there is in fact only two letters difference), they sound pretty awful hyphenated.

Early on, I suggested that we think of an entirely new last name together, but we haven't thought of one that we like. To be honest, I've really gotten used to the idea of being Mrs R, married to Mr R. I'm not unthinkingly accepting the tradition. We have thought about and talked about it as a couple and made the decision that we see as most fitting to our long term values. This, I think, is the most important point: it is a decision that we made together. So, I'm pretty sick of justifying it to everybody. This wedding is not about me being a woman and him being a man, it's about us being equal parts of a long term and complex organism.

Our decision doesn't have to be the same as your decision as long as it's right for us.

Yours, The Future Mrs R.

Refreshments.

Looks refreshing, yes? Mmmm.. lovely for a summer wedding like ours, but will we really be able to use five or six of these after the wedding? Probably not. These, on the other hand will look just as nice and have many more options for re-use. Perhaps we will get some and pair them with stainless steel ladels for serving iced-tea, lemonade and rum punch.

Today is Tuesday

Listening to: United by Pheonix

Reading: The Doors of Perception By Aldous Huxley

Cooking: Apple Cobbler for breakfast (yummy!)

Leigh took a day off yesterday. We went into town and looked at various rings. It was nice. I love getting to try on all these amazing, sparkly jewels. Even the ones we could never afford. I think it's the fancy dress fan in me, because there are lots that I wouldn't actually like to wear every day either. One woman let me walk right out of the shop to look at this huge stone in the sunlight. Lucky I have an honest face, eh.

We're pretty certain that we want to go with Metal Urges because we really appreciate Chris's approach to his craft. He travels around and collects stones himself and he loves being challenged to create new and different designs. I also love how keen he is to have an ongoing relationship with his clients. The website is: http://www.metalurges.com.au/about/

Absolutely worth checking out if you are local to my area.

The image at the top is some of Ernst Haeckel's beautiful work. He has been very inspiring to me, both as an artist and as a scientist. I'd like to use this kind of imagery in the form for my wedding ring. I'll post more on him later. For now, I have work to do.

Paper Computing

Today I am Excited about...

...Laurie Anderson.

...picking up my tutu and my library books tomorrow.

...this very nice blog: http://thatshappy.blogspot.com/.

...the fact that I have not one, but two costume parties to attend this weekend.

...the idea of calling a celebrant tomorrow. A friend has passed on the phone number of a lady that she thinks we will like.

...getting to try out my new cake decorating tools tonight.

...my latest project. I think I am actually getting somewhere with it.

Signs

I nabbed this video off Bridechka at: http://bridechka.blogspot.com/

It is completely lovely. Her blog is too, so go check that out when you're done watching this:

Venue Blues

We always said that we'd like to sort out our wedding venue before planning too many other details because so many of the details depend on the venue. We never realised, however, that finding a relaxed, outdoor setting would be so hard. We didn't want to get married in a winery or at an estate but, if it was possible, we would like some basic form of a kitchen to store and prepare food in. Another thing that we were keen on was being able to do the ceremony and the party in the same place. I know that I said that our wedding is an extravagance, but I really don't see the need to travel between two venues. So, I guess by being relatively specific we did cut down our options a bit, but I still wouldn't have anticipated it being this hard.



I keep having dreams that we go out for a drive and discover the most amazing house with a lovely big garden. We get out of the car to have perve on the flowers and see that it's for sale. In the dream we then realise that this is one of those meant to be kind of moments, so we stroll up to the front door and knock. This little lady in lilac opens up the door and invites us in for cups of tea and a chat. By the end of the dream we're all the best of friends and she's agreed for us to buy the place under the proviso that we have our wedding there. Quite honestly, we assure her that we wouldn't want to have it anywhere else. I love that dream but, since there is a fair chance it isn't coming true, we've continued to search around. No luck so far, but I'm sure we'll find somewhere.

The Marie Antoinette Colour Palette

As I type this I'm watching the Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette. I've fallen in love with the colours! The fashion and the decadance is soaked in these vibrant pastel colours, like an exploded candy store. Everthing in the film is intensly decorated and over the top. It is not a serious historical study, but it is still a very interesting portrait of a young woman thrown way out of her depth.

I've heard people criticise this film for its lack of historical accuracy. People cringe that these american actors don't even put on a french acccent as they frolic around 18th century France. These people need to lighten up a bit. The film is Copolla's personal vision of Marie Antoinette. Yes, it is girly and lavish and over the top, but isn't that fitting for a film that describes a royal shopaholic? It's a romp and it's fun. It's not realism, it's a romantic impression - like an Adam Ant film clip.

By ignoring the usual constraints of period drama, Copolla has brought the 18th century to life. She knows that her audience is modern and sees with a modern eye, therefore she has adjusted various elements to suit. The colours are exciting, the lighting pops, the music is an ecletic combination of pop, punk and alternative rock. At the same time she has paid real attention to other historical details, such as the food and the locations. The resulting film is a beautiful desert and I cannot help but be drawn to it.

For a more indepth and richly written look at the fashion in this film head to: http://www.bandelle.com/blog/page/2/
I poached the image from her blog as well.

In other Copolla news...
Leigh and I watched the new Francis Copolla film, Youth without Youth, the other night. It's brilliant and gorgeous. Tim Roth is fantasic in it and the cinematography is spot on. Worth a watch for sure!

Something Old...

My Nan was a wonderful woman. After my Pop passed away she sold their home and came to live with us, allowing me the privilege being able to really get to know her. She lived in a granny flat downstairs because: a) it was there, and b) my folks didn't want her feel like she'd lost her independence as well as her husband. I spent a lot of time with Nan and got to be really close to her. We would chat and have cups of tea, or some times we would just sit together. I'll never forget how deeply touched I was when she called me her 'little mate'. That was the nickname she'd had for Poppy.

Nan died a four years ago now. Each year I forget how long it's been because she still seems so vivid in my mind. It blows me out to realise how long it's been. I still miss her and I have a bit of a cry about it sometimes. Most of the time I think of her and smile about who she was and how lucky I am to have known her. I wish Leigh could have known her. He appeared in my life just a little too late for Nan, but I know she would have liked him. She would have liked how supportive and loving he is to me. She would have liked his cheekiness and boyish charm. I think also, she could have seen a bit of herself in him. They both have this inherent generousity and sense of moral good. They are both gentle and treat people well, but they get fiercely protective of their loved ones. I love them both dearly and I know they would have loved eachother too.

It's no competition for having Nan around, but I am really lucky to have her engagement ring as my own. It's a beautiful ring, made in the early 1900s.

My Mum had it and was talking for a while about getting it enlarged for her finger, or doing something with the setting. So, when Leigh and I were talking about getting engaged and what kind of ring I would like, I didn't think it would be possible for me to have it. Still, I showed it to him one day when we were visiting my folks and told him that this is the kind of ring I would like to have. This was because I really like that decorative style of ring, and because I wanted to pay homage to my Nan.

I'm sure you can imagine how surprised I was when we finally made it offical and Leigh whipped out this ring. I thought it was so much beyond the realms of possibility that I literally thought to myself 'How did he find a ring that looks exactly like Nan's?!' He had been very brave and asked my folks if he could sneakily take it for my engagement ring. Understanding the sentimental significance, they were thrilled with the idea and gave it to him right away. He foxed it off to a jeweler for buffing and downsizing and then hid it in the cupboard till my birthday last year. On my birthday he presented me with the ring (much to my surprise) and 'The Question' (which was not so surprising).

Everyday since then I have looked at this ring and been reminded of two of the most beautiful people I've known. I really am the luckiest girl.

What Makes a Wedding?

Things I’m keen on:

Paper lanterns, a summer evening, flowers, colours, fairy lights, bubbles, tulle, rings, vows, a song, maybe.

Things that are necessary:

The actual getting hitched part (i.e. signing the certificate and sealing with a kiss), being surrounded by our loved ones, good food, party moods, dancing and fun times.

Ok, so perhaps we can get married without all of those things (except for the certificate) but these are reasons we’re bothering to plan a wedding at all. We did, early on in the game, consider elopement, but by really exploring that option we realised that we wanted a communal experience. I do care about our wedding and I do want it to be special celebration of our love. I want it to be sweet, but with a subtle sexiness. I want it to be memorable for us and for our guests. I want it to be beautiful and photogenic.

The thing about marriage for us is that it isn’t something that we feel is necessary to validate us a couple; therefore the entire process of getting married is a sort of extravagance. The wedding itself should reflect that. It’s about going beyond what we need to do and really treating ourselves to a fun time. With this attitude it is the details: the food, the music, the people, and the tiny moments within the day, which make the wedding. I’m not saying we should throw away all our savings in one day – that’s not the kind of extravagance I mean – but I do feel like we should go the extra mile to create something wonderful.

Lucky for us, we have lots of fabulous and creative friends who all want to be involved. Together I know we can build up layers of loving goodness to make, not just one special day, but also a whole series of special events.

*Image from: http://en.espritcabane.com/handmade-gifts/fairy-lights.php