Wardrobe Wednesday

 

Tiger Growl Tee: Glassons

Green Cardi: Sallie's

Flowery Skirt: Customised second-hand

Tights: New Look

Black Brogues: K-Mart

Handbag: Celia Birtwell

Fox Earrings: Sly Fox

Straw Hat: CHCH A&P show stall

Bracelets: Malaysian pop up shop @ The Colombo

Hello!

Did everyone have a nice day off on Friday for Canterbury day??  I managed to get the afternoon off by splitting my shift with a workmate, wahoo! Mr Bear came to collect me from work at 12.30 and we had lunch and cake at the Cafe before heading along to the A&P show.

I picked up this awesome straw hat from one of the stall-holders there. She had an amazing array of really stylish hats, I spent quite some time picking one! And this type of hat usually doesn't suit me so I was surprised to find so many different styles that looked pretty good! I felt very appropriately dressed for the occasion once I'd doned this baby :)

We returned home afterwards and cracked open a bottle of pink champagne my boss had given us to celebrate our engagement. It was supped on the balcony whilst listening to Bowie and reminiscing. A truly lovely day.

Tune in tomorrow for some pictures from our adventures at the show! 

P.S No, you don't have your rose tinted specs on. I've dyed my hair red. I hated it at first but it's grown on me since lots of people have said they like it (and my friend Gabby said it makes my eye colour stand out, which is a plus!)

Have a gander at Miriam's today; she's talking about how it feels to take outfit pictures in public!

A Rose Convert

Today's post is a bit of a photography special. Believe it or not, I have a repetitive strain injury in my wrist from cutting fabric a lot and I'm not very good at doing what I'm told and resting when injured. So I thought I'd do a post with relatively little writing involved today. I'll let the photographs do most of the talking (yeah right, I hear you say!).

Yesterday, my fiance and I (yes, I'm referring to Mr Bear in that way as often as possible!!) went for a stroll around the Botanical Gardens in the afternoon. On our way home, we passed through the Rose Garden and found everything had suddenly bloomed all at once, after months of nothing but bare thorny stems!

I've never thought of myself as much of a rose-loving kind of girl. In fact, I'm not much of a fan of most flowers that are considered conventionally pretty. My favourite flowers are Hydrangeas - more specifically Mophead Hydrangeas -  and mostly I like flowers that grow from vegetables, like courgettes and artichokes.

So I was slightly perplexed to find myself dashing from bed to bed in the rose garden, discovering the many different varieties and their interesting names. I have to admit, I think I have been converted. I found some of the roses in the garden to be so intriuging in their depth and variety of colour and shapes. I fell in love with the Brown Velvet Roses and I'm besotted with a dusky pink rose called Smokey Joe.

My favourite had to be the Tequilla Sunrise Rose, with its burnt orange-edged peachy petals. As the colour theme for our wedding is peach and grey, I would like to make a whole bouquet of Tequilla Sunrise roses in silk, like these beautiful fabric flowers that have been held over a candle until the edges curl up. I think they look very authentic and would love a bouquet that would never wilt and fade away.

Brown Velvet

Tequilla Sunrise

Serendipity

Ebb Tide

Smokey Joe

Nancy Hayward

I hope you enjoy my catalogue of roses :) Have a great day!

Wardrobe Wednesday

Mandarin collar blouse: Pagani

Pencil Skirt: SaveMart

Geometric handbag: Vintage

Peacock Earrings: A present from my Aunty

Tights: The Warehouse

Black Brogues: KMart

The night before the grand opening at The Make Cafe, we held a launch party with an exclusive guest list for all those who had put in so much hard work and dedication into fitting out the shop and cafe. 

I'd been working all day, helping with the finishing touches before the party: upholstering chairs, framing pictures and decorating the place. I dashed home to get ready and virtually threw this outfit together. I scrub up okay when I don't think too much about it!

We had a lovely evening and it was so nice to meet some of the others who had contributed their time in order to help make this venture a success. Kirsty and Justin, my new employers, made a teary thank-you speech to which we made a toast and celebrated with a slice of Make Cafe Cake, courtesy of the very talented Angie from Bake Me Cakes. Yummmm!

Click on the link below to pop over to Miriam's and read the confessions of a fashionista!

Work Hard, Play Hard

So, a couple of weeks ago I started my new job at The Make Cafe. My first week was very hectic as we were still getting the shop ready, painting, cleaning, bringing stock over and prettying the place up for our grand opening on Saturday 3rd November (yes, the same day Mr Fiance Bear and I got engaged!). Our first week in business last week was just as busy, pricing stock and getting to grips with new systems ect. So far, I'm enjoying the work very much and love the variety of my work day, splitting my time between the shop, cafe and workshop planning. But by the end of Saturday, my brain had gone into system overload and was functioning at snail pace.

So yesterday was spent doing everything slowly and taking it easy. I literally have learnt the meaning of the phrase 'work hard, play hard' this week, but my playtime definitely has a more relaxed feel to it! 

We began our Sunday with a long lie-in followed by a breakfast of coffee, apple juice and eggy bread whilst musing over events of the past few weeks and of course, discussing the wedding. You'll be happy to hear we have narrowed dates down to a two year time span, somewhere between 2014 and 2015! And either May or June. That's about all we could make any firm decisions on at the moment, apart from the colour scheme which had been decided on long before we got engaged!

To celebrate our anniversary, which has now become synonymous with our engagement, we bought our first plant last weekend and vowed to make concerted efforts to keep it alive (something we don't have a very good track record of). After a week in direct sun however, our little leafy friend is looking a bit worse for wear. So we headed out to the garden centre to find things that might help revive him and also picked out a few herby friends to keep him company too: Mr Mint, Mr Parsley and Mr Basil. Oh, and Miss Rosemary who we picked up last weekend too and so far is proving less high maintenance!

After our uncharacteristic bought of gardening (just getting into the married couple swing, you know!), we walked down the road to the local for a pint of our favourite Swedish Cider and some hearty fish and chips. Just before it started to pour it down. Phew.

In other news, Martin bottled our first batch of home brew while I was at work on Saturday. I'm willing myself to forget about the dozens of bottles stacked in my kitchen cupboards for the next six months. The longer it sits there, the less likely it will be to taste foul I think!

Road Trip: Driving Home

We awoke with a dilemma; should we continue with our original ten-night plan or do the drive back to Christchurch all in one go and give ourselves another day in Canterbury. We had initially intended to spend our last evening in a campsite around Lake Tekapo, but after further discussion, we wondered whether there could be a better use of our time as there are so many things to do and see in and around Christchurch and I really wanted Bren to go home with a good feel for what the city and surroundings have to offer.

Decisions are often easier to make when food and drink are present, so after showering and feeding the amassing finches we drove into Wanaka for morning tea and cake. We decided in the end that it would be wisest to drive home early.

We stopped in Tekapo on the way back to have a late lunch in one of my favourite eateries, Run 77. I opted for the scrumptious chilli con carne and was full to bursting by the end of it. After a quick visit to the 'Historic Church' and the McKenzie country sheepdog monument by the lake, we were on the road home.

At our last fuel stop, we totted up our count on the tally of road kill we'd been keeping for the last 10 days (don't ask, it's kind of a habit). Four hundred and twenty five unfortunate victims of the road this time! 

So folks, you've heard pretty much all now. When we arrived home, we made a day trip to Akaroa to see the dolphins again, spent a day driving around the Port Hills dropping in at Diamond Harbour, Lyttelton and Sumner and had a leisurely day around the Gardens and Canterbury Museum. Saying goodbye to Bren at the airport was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I've been left with some wonderful memories of spending time with family in our new home. I now fully appreciate life here and feel more and more at home with each passing week.

Wardrobe Wednesday: A Little Announcement

Peach silk dress: $2 clothing warehouse, Ferrymead

Wedges: Number One Shoes

Handbag: RSPCA charity shop (UK)

Earrings: Christmas present from my Ma

All dressed up this week! It was Mr Bear and I's five year anniversary on Saturday and we went for a very nice three course dinner at the newly re-opened Curator's House in the Botanical Gardens (literally a two minute walk from our flat).

It was the most expensive meal I've ever had but the tastiest too, by a long shot! My taste buds were bombarded by the house speciality chorizo, brandy duck and the classic strawberries and cream. We also indulged in a $52 bottle of Greystone Pinot Grig, which was divine!!

As we left the restaurant, Mr Bear asked if I'd like to go on an evening walk around the gardens, perhaps to my favourite miniature stone bridge by the rock pools..? I declined as the weather was dreary and my legs were turning to stone so we tottered off home.

Upon arriving home, I noticed Mr Bear was acting strangely. He told me there'd been something he really wanted to ask me that evening but the rain had stopped us from going on a walk and spoiled his plan. 'Ask me, ask me', I squealed! Before I knew it, he was down on one knee with my grandma's ring in his hand, saying lots of lovely things including the words 'Marry Me'. That's right, we're engaged!!!

The first thing I could think of after I'd said yes without a moment's hesitation, was that I was so chuffed I'd been wearing my peachy dress which I'd picked out with my friend Gabby as 'the dress I want to be proposed to in'!

Here's a snap of my beautiful ring. It means so much to me. I remember sneaking into my Mum's room as a little girl and looking through her jewellery boxes to find it (she hid it somewhere different every time). 

Martin wanted to choose one himself but we have come to a compromise and decided to have it altered with a leaf set either side of the flower. 

I'm so excited!!! Be prepared for many updates and wedding related posts from now on guys!

 

Make sure you pop over to Miriam's too. This week she's discussing why we dress the way we do and how others perceive us.

Road Trip: Day Nine

Never fear, the road trip posts have returned! Only two more to go! Apologies for the break in transmission, but an explanation is forecoming. Make sure you tune in to tomorrow's Wardrobe Wednesday to find out my big news :)

So, on our second to last day on our trip around the South Island, we paid a visit to the notoriously beautiful Milford Sound. We made an early start to the day, leaving our camp in Te Anau at 8am in order to make it to our scenic cruise on the sound at 11am.

As we entered the gateway valley that would lead us into Milford, we passed a road sign that notified us the risk of avalanche that day was 'low'. Not so reasurring when you weren't aware there was any risk at all! From then on, the three of us became very aware of the spikey mountain range all around us and the delicately balanced cap of snow on the head of each. The 'No Stopping' signs all added to our sense of unease.

Half way through the valley, we came to a break in the no stopping zone and pulled up to take some snaps of the awesome scenery. We also met a couple of Keas who'd just given the travellers in front of us a bit of a shock by flying at their open camper door whilst they tried to take a picture of it.

Fortunately, we passed through unscathed and wondering what on earth we had been worrying about. A few days after we returned to Christchurch, however, we heard there had been a land slide in the area and those driving on the road that day had to be air-lifted to safety. Yikes.

We boarded our boat and set off from the pier into the sound, glaring enviously at our fellow passengers who'd had the foresight to purchase a meal ticket along side their boarding pass. The smells from the buffet drifted upstairs whilst I found myself paying no attention whatsoever to the safety annoucements!

Once up on the top deck, however, my mind found it a lot harder to ponder on anything but the view...and occasionally switch back to the stack of snickers at the snack bar...but mostly my mind was on the view!

 

We sailed past several tumbling waterfalls, only a handful of which were permenant features of the cruise. The others had been created by the heavy rain over the last few days, including a twin stream named 'The Fairy Falls', which had a particularly mystic appearance which would dissolve and return to the realms of mystery in a couple of days.

As we turned back towards the pier, the previously calm journey became distinctly less enjoyable as the ocean wind turned its gusts in our direction, forcing us to pull our hoods up and huddle together like little blue penguins. 

On the way back, we passed a group of seals basking on the rocks, loving the drizzly weather. I envied their jelly warmth!

Heading back through avalanche valley we drove the 2.5 hours back to Te Anau to refuel and grab something to eat before getting back on the road towards Wanaka again. As we approached the town by late afternoon, we saw a large shape in the middle of the road. When we drew closer, we could see the shape was in fact a rather big Austalasian Harrier feasting on a fresh victim of the road. He held his ground until the very last moment, before stretching his enormous wings and rising back into the air, grazing us with his wing tips as he passed. It was all over before we had chance to grab a camera!

We returned to Lake Outlet Holiday Park and began to prepare our hot dog dinner whilst gathering a small hoard of Chaffinches outside the camper. They really are curious, bold little creatures. I even had them eating bread from my hand and attempting to sneak past us into our portable home. Cheeky things.