hot off the press: my first wedding invitation ideas.

So far I've been doing a lot of scribbling of ideas and designs for our wedding invites, but the other day I sat down and actually took the idea from a scribble to a reality. It's quite a simple design based in warm and natural colours. I bought a stamp kit with a letter set, and a beige ink pad (as the inside of the invite is brown!), a gold pen to write what I don't stamp, and some cardboard that had been recycled from beer labels! (cool huh?). What I don't use out of the materials I've bought I'll definitely be using again later for other projects so nothings going to waste.

I was going for the homemade look (hopefully without going as far as cheap and tacky). It looks like a lot of writing (since I'm going to be making these myself!), but we're having a relatively small guest list of our closest friends, so it's not so much work.

 

For a first draft I think they're pretty cute. Also, I'm not all that caught up in having hugely detailed and perfect invitations as they only get thrown away after the wedding anyway (hopefully recycled!).

x

life, love, and everything inbetween!

oh it has been some time since i have posted! apologies for my absence, but life happened, and consequently, blog did not. but i have returned, and with such huge news that all my indiscretions will be forgotten!

I AM NOW ENGAGED!!
my man and i were headed for a quick (supposed) business trip to queensland, when we made a wrong turn off the highway, towards the Hunter Valley (for those of you not local, that's a beautiful, scenic winery/holiday getaway location about an hour north of me- soon to be us!!). me, being super intelligent and cluey, said "babe, you're going the wrong way!", to which there was a reply of a pair of furrowed eyebrows, a cheeky smirk and a "happy birthday baby" (my birthday was a few days beforehand, and my birthday present was supposed to be a surprise in QLD on the saturday night).

"oh"

*insert sound of penny dropping*

yeah, i'm clever.

anyhow, we drove into the BEAUTIFUL hunter valley with me smiling and exclaiming at all the scenery and how i was totally surprised and what a beautiful birthday present and don't i have such a wonderful boyfriend. i asked "where are we staying?" and he'd booked an entire villa for the weekend for us! "but before we go there, there's somewhere else i want to take you".
at this point, i'll be honest, some little flags went up in the back of my head, but i was still overwhelmed by the initial surprise. we drove to the hunter valley gardens, and wandering around the beautiful gardens he took both my hands and my heart froze!
then my wonderful man went on bended knee and asked with quiet confidence "will you do me the honour of being my wife?"
i squeaked (in a cute but dignified manner) and stood there grinning like an idiot and mentally frozen, just taking in the moment, before putting him out of his patient misery with a nearly inaudible "yes".

and so, without further ado, i present,

(please excuse the not so pretty hand)

and this is where he proposed

but back to the ring! 

the main diamond is an australian diamond that was repurposed from an antique ring. the gold is also sourced from recycled jewelery as are the rest of the diamonds on the ring. as my man knows that being enviromentally friendly is key for me, it played a huge role in his ring choice, as well as juggling all my other not so obvious hints about what i wanted in an engagement ring (haha).
but he did a perfect job. i love it. it is elegent, beautiful, unique and massive (which i will shamelessly admit, is what i asked for!)

and now for the eco wedding planning to begin!

winter warmer... keeping my brain cosy!

i hate the cold. i hate being cold.
on a cold day, i saw a majorly cute beanie in a clothes store and consequently started craving a beanie really badly.
however, said beanie was far from ethically produced.
but thanks to the beauty of synchronicity, a week after my first beanie craving, i found one in a wonderful little local shop called Gnostic Hemporium, which sells a bounty of natural, sustainably produced goodies from skin care to clothes, to hemp goodies to drums and fire twirling accessories, to shoes and locally made jewelry (it's like wonderland in there for me). there is also has a spot where you can shop online.
i have found that local products can be comparatively expensive to imported goods, however, this shop has got some brilliant things at an awesome price for quality.
my beanie was only $20!

 

the beanie is made by Eco Wear (check out their online store). Their slogan is 'clothing with a conscience' (this tickles me pink!), and they have a really brilliant range of basic styles. 

i love my beanie oh so much! i went for a neutral colour because i can add details (a brooch, or a patch) to it or details in my outfit to make it more interesting. animal print jumpers and faux leather jackets, oh the winter fashion fun!

not to mention a toasty noggin! (or head...)

x

a little bit more of my wedding crazy...

while indulging myself in some wedding site browsing, i came across a link to Weston Fine Jewelry, and my poor little heart had such a flutter (and continued to do so for so long, that i had to take a few breaths to calm down!). my eyes glazed over with that dewy look that only a girl with the wedding bug can accomplish. but have a look at what i found! i think my excitement is more than justified!

(plus, they are all antique and vintage. so that's an eco choice right there! reduce, reuse, recycle anyone?)

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

   image from Weston Fine Jewelry

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

image from Weston Fine Jewelry

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

   image from Weston Fine Jewelry

image from Weston Fine Jewelry

and my absolute personal favourite...

  image from Weston Fine Jewelry

oh so beautiful!

x

drink to your health!

some quick facts about water bottles (the ones we all think are recyclable): 80% of plastic bottles are recyclable but only 20% are actually recycled.

plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting.

24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles.
also, some research suggests that common plastic water bottles start leaking chemicals into your water as soon as they are filled, depending on their manufacturing process. Yummo!
interesting huh?

if that makes you stop and think to yourself “oh!” (in a negative way), here’s another fact that will make you think “oh!” (in a positive way!): the original polycarb pop-top can be reused up to 1000 times without leaking any chemicals into your precious h2oh! (hehe)

now there are more than one kind of reusable water bottle (check SIGG out for starters!), but I’m personally using a polycarb, because it is light and just like a regular pop top, and it doesn’t make your water taste funny like all the stupid plastic water bottles you get off businesses and sports teams as marketing promos (yay!)
i bought a litre bottle for $6.95 from my local organic store. for over 1000 safe uses and recyclable afterwards, bargain.

x