Wedding Dress Blog Tour

That's not actually me. It is the picture that inspire my dress though.

Shasher is having a fun Wedding Dress Blog Tour and since I love my dress I'm joining in.

We were married on the 14th of January 2006 in Adelaide South Australia. Being the middle of summer we expected 40degrees. It rained. Bliss! Not so much for photos though. Oh well. Next time we get married (to each other!) we'll do somethings differently. Having a different photographer will be number one.

A friend of mine and I trawled all through the wedding dress shops in Adelaide and couldn't find a single one I wanted. Especially after see the picture at the top there on the internet somewhere. At one of the last stores we went to I was given the name of one of their dressmakers. Armed with the above picture in black and white and no bigger than that either. I approached her about making my dress. Success!

15 metres of tulle, 6 metres of satin, 10 metres of netting and the lining later... perfectly fitting dress made just for me. And I'm so glad I had what I wanted.

Don't know if i'd have the same thing today. But 4 years later it still makes me happy to see it on me for my wedding day.

Did I sell it? No way. Will I ever? Nope. I don't think so. It's a one of a kind. I don't know if I'd even let a daughter wear it if she wanted to... Maybe!

Some special things about this dress:

- While my mum didn't get to see me try on any dresses (she's lives too far away!) dear Adrian came with me for my final fitting -and got all teary. He was my stand in bridesmaid for so many things. To share that moment with him was beyond priceless.

- The dress maker added the ribbon around the bottom to match the veil which had been gifted to me by another friend.

- I settled on this shade of blue based on the colour of a car I was always drawn to. It was going to be pink!

- Joel's one request about the dress was granted - just one easy to undo zipper and a hook!

- The walls of our first house matched the colour of my dress perfectly. We only discovered this after moving into it.

- Oh, and I checked with Joel fist about having a coloured wedding dress. He said he was fine with that. Obviously. And - you may notice this colour is still my very favourite and gets used for everything.

Mostly I think I love it because it was what I wore the day I became Mrs Joel.

Worse than a ticking clock

So, like I said, when Joel is away everything seems to just not work how it should.

I go to bed too late.

I eat at weird times.

I forget things.

Things get broken.

Giant spiders invade my personal space and I need to get rescued.

Dead people get left in my garage.

No. Not really.

But my imagination does go into overdrive when he's gone.

There's always something that goes badly when he goes away. I'm alright if I'm the one who is away. Just not the other way around. And I don't imagine it either.

This time it was a drip. I know. A drip. Terrible right?

I'll back track a little for you.

I have a little ticking clock next to my bed. I've had it since year 9. My dad bought it for me because I could never get myself out of bed on time (I told you I wouldn't grow out of that dad!). It has a very, very soft tick-tock. But sometimes it's too loud. Sometimes that tiny, soft little tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick... drives me mad. joel doesn't know what I'm on about because from his side of the bed, and with less than superman strength hearing, he can't hear it all. I can. It makes me edgy. Then, even with my bamboo sleep mask on to block out all the light, I can't get to sleep because there is a tiny little tick, tick, tick, tick keeping me awake. And I have to sleep people. A lot.

Last week I took the battery out. It's having a little time out. Every few months it we need some time out from each other - me and the clock. And now is that time. It shouldn't get noisier. It probably doesn't. Ok. It really doesn't. my hearing just gets really awesome for a bit there. And it's too much.

And then Joel was away. For 2 nights. And it rained. Lots. Except when I was ready to go to bed. Which was later than I should've gone to bed. What happens when it's been raining and then it stops?

The water on the roof drips into the drainpipe.

Drip

drip

drip

drip.

The drain is right outside my window. Which is right next to my bed. Which is where I like to sleep. With NO NOISE.

And this wasn't a little drip noise like my little tick noise. It was the kind of drip noise you could use as a metronome - for an orchestra. It was LOUD. And I hated it. Viciously. It wasn't even regular.

Night One without Joel: I tossed, turned, fumed, prayed and barely slept.

Night Two without Joel: I tossed, turned, fumed, prayed, put tissues in my ears, a pillow on my head and took action.

At 12:20am after being sure God would hear my plea for sleep and stop the drip I put a jumper on over my pj's, donned my gumboots and stomped outside into the very slight drizzle that was enough to fuel the drip but not enough to stop it dripping and start in pouring.

I kicked the drainpipe. Unfortunately the drainpipe is pretty solid so that didn't help. A bit more of a rattle and an investigation revealed I wouldn't be able to rip the pipe off without serious damage and a few tools. And a lot of trouble from the people who look after the house.

Then I had a brilliant idea. If the drain is blocked up at the top no drips could get in!!

Back inside I found a bundle of rags and a chair. I positioned the chair under the gutter, balled some rags up into something that might block the drain and set about using all the skill I poses getting it into the right place with carefully aimed throws. Not being quite tall enough, and not really possessing many throwing skills I lost one ball rag and took a while to get the other one into the right spot.

Dilema - the ball rag was in the right spot but not jammed into the drain. In my 'planning' I had counted on a super vortex sucking the ball rag into the drain to get it stuck on all sides therefore stopping the water and the drips. A little reality check and a no show of the vortex left me with 2 rag balls stuck in the gutter and a mocking drip, drip, drip.

Solution - an extra long BBQ flippy thing. Well, it would turn out that even with the extra long BBQ flippy thing I still couldn't get the angle right to shove the rags into the drain hole and stop the drip. {Insert bad words here}

30 minutes later I was back in bed with the score being me - 1, vicious, sleep hating drip - 2. I got one point for trying. It gets 2 for actually winning.

More prayer. Some talking to myself to try and drown out the noise. I have no idea what time I actually went to sleep but I do know it was quite some time later. And the drip had stopped. but bizarrely I kept waiting for it to start again. So now I was being kept awake by the silence.

The drip even wins in its absence.

Tonight I will win.

Why? because I bought earplugs. And Joel is back.

Awesome Things for Today

1. Joel is home! I'm such a sook but everything seems to fall apart when he is away. Life is better by a million when he is here.

2. The people at the place I get my photos printed loved the picture I picked up today.

3. There's a new shop in town! Little Nest - 477 Dean St. I love it already.

4. My house is clean. Thank you me.

5. I saw a man in full on cycling gear, lycra pants and all, riding a unicycle!

6. Hudsons Tall Mocha. The end.

Church Mice

Some things are just really, really funny to me. This is one of them. I haven't stopped laughing about it since last night when I Stumbled on it.

What has you giggling at the moment?

The kind of bike...

...I wont be getting.

Found these ones for you Finny! x

Run Baby! Run!

Today I'm working my way through a massive backlog of jobs that I haven't gotten around to for various reasons and I came across these pictures from the Otway Fly walk we wet on in February. Aside from a few broken teeth the dinosaurs were incredible real and even more so for a little person.

If there was movie for a toddlers being chased by dinosaurs I think we would have the poster picture right here! Love you Baby. Even though you're not a baby any more!

Add a basket...

And these are the perfect thing for a trip along the leafy bike paths to the library, a little shopping excursion in town, a mocha at Hudson's or just to get away from this screen. The RPM classes will definitely help me with the hills and the Balance classes... well. I need to do more of them!

I think a little trip to bike store is owed to me after all the motor bike stores I've been to lately so maybe I'll cash in on a trip to one soon and come back with a bike before Joel does.

(Lamberts: I promise to be safe, get one that is the right size for me and wear a helmet. And maybe some other safety gear as well!)

A note to husbands:

Telling your wife she looks like a model in a (good, healthy, excerise) magazine will make her feel like she is walking on air and the prettiest woman in the world.

Thanks! You're pretty cute yourself! x

Five Faves

Loz has been playing along with Pip over at Meet Me at Mikes for a while now and since I have few things that I love this week I thought I'd join the fun...

1. My job! No pictures. I just love it. It's my favourite fave of the week.

2. Fillable Glass Lamp - This one comes from Pottery Barn which makes me a bit cross because I have no access to it from Australia. I just love how organic the shape is and can imagine filling it with all sorts of things. Anyone want to buy me one and ship it to me?

3. Miranda - the funniest TV show I have seen in a long time! Sadly it only has 6 episodes until later this year.

4. Beatles Cupcakes - the greatest idea for cupcakes for my dad's 60th coming up in July.

5. The Nikon D300s - my D60 is giving me some trouble at the moment and instead of going to get it fixed like it should I have decided I WANT/NEED the D300s. Of course.

That was fun - think I'll play along again sometime!