Be my Valentine...

The Warr and I spent our very first Valentine's Day as "husband-and-wife" together on Friday. It was all kinds of awesome. The "severed jar of fingers" that he had been hiding from me in the fridge - turned out to be a delicious bottle of French Champagne - which was destined to be enjoyed in a bubble bath complete with a heart shaped    After a hot soak, and getting our fancy on - we headed down the road to an incredible Thai Restaurant Suk Saran -

The food was INCREDIBLE - so fragrant and delish. Warr had the grilled calamari with a chili and lime dipping sauce for starters and I had the scallops with the most amazing cabbage rose for garnish. 
I went traditional for mains and ordered a Thai Green Curry and was blown away with NOMaliciousness! Warr had some kind of fishy dish and we shared pad thai noodles between us instead of rice. (because we are piggies. And because pad thai reminds us of that time we went to Thailand.)
 Husband of course spoilt me rotten - (HOW GORGEOUS IS MY RING!!?!) And even gave me one of my very own indieBerries cards which he purchased through my Etsy shop. lol. It did make me think how strange it was that all over the world on Friday, people were opening cards that I had made! I remarked on this to Warren to which he replied,

"And you know what?! THEY ARE LOVING THEM! In fact. YOU are the reason people are COMING RIGHT tonight!"

Me: Dear card-buyers, you're welcome.
 
So, husband spoilt me rotten... and I... well I gave him a list of excuses. But, at least they were wrapped well. hey?

{Add washi tape to ANYTHING and it makes it ok.}

To be fair, (and my list of excuses is as follows:)
1. The First thing I wanted to get needs to be organised via an international blogger. And I haven't done that yet. WOMP.

2. The second attempt at a gift was off eBay. I bid on 3 different items and was OUTBID THREE times.
a) the first time, because I had no idea what I was doing.
b) the second time, because the price went too high. Then...
c) the third time because... FEKKENLASTSECONDBASTARD.
I have no idea where else to get this specific item from. But I will get it. I WILL win at eBay. Someday soon. (edit: I was outbid on a similar item last night as well. Double edit: eBay have given me a £5 off voucher - because I think they feel sorry for me.)

3. The third thing I wanted to get you for Valentine's Day, I have decided to rather save for our first year wedding anniversary in April - because I won't be able to do my original anniversary plan - because I will be in South Africa the week before and I won't have the time to pull it off.

I did get husband a stash of records for his new record playa and some DVDs for our Music Monday nights. And obviously... ALL MY LOVE, bundled in a pocket box (which he can TOTALLY put in his pocket and take to work with him - or indeed where ever he may wander). With a matching LOVE poem. Because WHAT else is Valentine's Day about other than LOVE.

Marshmellow hearts - thanks husband - they were delish!

It was such an awesome weekend together!

And then we spent the whole of Sunday evening in matching full-body TIGERSUITS.

because, THAT
is how you do Sunday.

{Wedding} DIY: A Trashbook of Memories, Sneak Peak!

So we got married. We had the most EPIC time. And then we had "the-incident-where-the-wedding-photographer's-dog-knocked-over-his-hard-drive-and-we-lost-all-our-wedding-photos" - which to sum up - pretty much SUCKS-DONKEY-BALLS. Anywhoo.

In lieu of a proper wedding album - The Husband and I have started making a little wedding "memory trash book" - using the few pictures and snaps that we do have and collecting together the pictures from all our friends that were there on our awesome day.

Let it be known, that husband's "DIY skills" leave much to be desired. But I totally roped him into this project because... Ahem... I'm not the only one that got married, ya know. His results actually surprised me! (But you can still totally tell which pages are "his" and which are "mine")


The great thing about making a "trash book" as opposed to a proper album is that you can include all the "bits n pieces" from your wedding day. (And if you're anything like me - there will be loads of "bits n pieces"). Above: you can see some wedding card envelopes from friends -  with wedding cards in it, with some photo booth snaps taped onto the front.


Above: Little wedding gift bags that some of our wedding gifts came in, make perfect pouches to slide in wedding cards, speeches, table numbers, name cards etc.



Making your own trash book means that you can include whatever you like in it - the arrows you see above were from the "Photo Booth Signs" that I made for our wedding photo booth.


Above: On the right hand side you can see my dad's placemat. (I will do a proper post on the placemats I made soon!). I had instructed my bridesmaids to collect ALL THE THINGS for me after the big day and they did a fantastic job. You can also see a gift tag from one of my friends Andrea.


Above: Some table numbers that were on our tables. (Collected after the big party by the bridesmaids - high five gurrrls). Right hand side: Gift wrapping for Warren's wedding gift.

My brother gave us some "wedding-themed" scrap-bookish stuff... but how did he know?!

Some of our menus from our food-tacular dinner! "A Taste of Our Love Story" (that post is actually one of my most popular blog posts to date. Right after our engagement post, this post and surprisingly this post.)

This is just a little sneak peak of what we are up to - It's really fun to have a project that we can work on together in the evenings when I force Warren to (just kidding, he loves it). I will post more pictures when we've done a little bit more on it - and I will also post a tutorial on how to make your own Memory Trash Book - So start collecting "memory-trash" now!

Does anyone have any cool ideas for how they store all their memories/treasures 

I'd love to see! Leave a comment below or hit me up on twitter or facebook!

Happy Valentine!

Happy FRIDAY! and Happy Valentine's Day to all! (Our first one as husband and wife and second Valentine's Day together ever!) As a special Valentine edition, I thought I would just go ahead and SPATTER indieBerries with all the things that "us girls" just LOVE to see on this day of cupid-romance.

(side note: do not ever use "da" in a sentence to me - I will cut you.)

Roses! sigh. 

swoon.

*faints*

 

girls. we love our presents.

and we LOVE occasions that get us presents.

(birthdays. christmas. valentines. we don't care)

 

trés romantique.

You can spoil us ALL you want - go ahead.

 

CHOCCIES. GIRLS luuuurve choccies.

(All choccies herewith eaten today are declared "calorie free")

Yes, sigh.

Valentine's Day is most indeed a DAY FOR THE LADIES.

But boys!
I do not want you to feel left out! Oh no! That would not do! 

NOT on this special day of LOVE!!

 

You want a CLOSE UP?

okay:

 

ADDED BONUS!!!  

(Rated: 18+)

FLASHING VALENTINE BOOBS:

Now, WHO can say that I don't look out for EVERYONE'S needs, hey?

HAPPY DAY OF  VALENTINE LOVE TO ALL GIRLS AND BOYS!!

xoxoxoxoxxox

SMOOCHES (etc)
________________________________________

I am not sure of our plans for tonight, husband has assured me he "has a plan". And generally his (epic) plans are pretty trustworthy. But he has also told me "DO NOT LOOK IN THE FRIDGE". Which leads me to believe there must be some kind of jar filled with pickled fingers or something. 

I'll let you know on Monday.

The Progression of a beard

It all began soon after Movember... Once we had waved a FOND farewell to the horrific mouth-eyebrow, I  casually exclaimed, "Wow you look SO much better without a mustache but.... I wonder what you would look like with a beard?" Well. Let me tell you...
Husband took this as a DIRECT CHALLENGE to grow as much face-hair as humanly possible.

Now let me first state that I do in fact really like the rough-man-beard effect. Five o-clock shadow?  Bring it! Unshaven rugged man look - HIGH FIVE. But over the last few weeks, I have come to realise that there are very definitive stages to the progression of a beard - and I felt like with husband's epic beard growth - we accelerated straight to Stage 6.
 

BEHOLD: Taliban Beard Man - 

On a few occasions this month there has only been one word used to describe this massive face-growth beard:

IMPRESSIVE.

There was a stage just before TALIBAN that looked very Ben Affleck. I wish I had snapped a few shots of the sexy-inbetween phase.

I am happy to report that TALIBAN-beard has disappeared since two days ago - (even after I was beginning to worry that The Warr was getting WAY too attached to it). I do have a sneaky feeling that this isn't the last time The Beard makes an appearance. I actually couldn't believe how YOUNG he looked after having his beard for so long and then shaving it all off! In fact I remarked on it so many times that I think The Man now thinks that it would be a fabulous idea to grow an epic beard every single month.

I'll keep you posted.

Words

 

Wake up and be present in your life. Be present in your life. Be present in your life. Do not concern yourself with the happenings of others. Honour them, yes. Love and embrace their well-being, yes. But leave the mouth-wagging, nitty gritty of their lives to them. Live your own fire. Fuel your own drive. Be gentle with the souls of others, be gentle with yourself. Do not concern yourself with cents and pennies. Do not chase rectangle notes of paper. Chase dreams, chase big ideas, chase your ideal spirit. Criticism comes from the hearts of those who were not brave enough to chase their own. Do not pity them, take their hand, guide them, so that they may see the bright kingdom that you are building. Enlighten them, enlighten yourself. Be bolder than you could imagine, be bigger than you thought possible. Grow in self-awareness. Be yourself. Be radiant. 

Be free.


{pic taken at Reading Festival, 2011 on my wide angle camera.}

The Photo Hunt - PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR ALL THE FUN!

Our next event for The Photo Hunt is fast approaching (SAVE THE DATE: 1 MARCH 2014!) and we are so excited for all the fun to come! For those of you who don't know - The Photo Hunt is a awesome new networking event for bloggers, photographers and general creatives who are keen to get together for an afternoon of fast paced fun!

The idea is simple: you and your team mates are given one of The Photo Hunt task lists and you then rush around snapping pics off the list NINJA STYLE before the time runs up!

Once we've hit the "TIME UP!" we all reconvene for some some picture sharing and mingling! It's a great way to socialise with like-minded souls! Who knows - you may even -



Apart from getting to meet a whole bunch of rad creative/fun/fabulous individuals, thinking like a creative ninja, honing your picture snapping, being inspired by the awesomeness of other attendees and getting your adrenal glands pumping - the majority of the attendees at The Photo Hunt are bloggers - which means a whole new stash of blogs to add to your blogroll!

Just like our last event - you have the option to sign up as an individual (where we'll team you up with some happy new faces) - or you can round up three of your mates to make a Team of 4 for an afternoon of epic fun! (You and your team may or may not delve into a sneaky beverage or two! It's up to you!)

The main thing to know is that you will be having so much fun mixing with friends old and new that you will hardly even notice that your brain is EXPLODING WITH CREATIVITY.

And isn't that just the most glorious thing?!

HOOORAY!! Inspiration for all!

This time we have a 

And a brand new mission to make this event UBER FANTASTIC!

* * * * * *

So, to summarise, The Photo Hunt is AWESOME -

• You'll meet a bunch of creative fun people!
• You get to spend your afternoon getting creative and thinking out the box
• You'll meet new bloggers and find new blogs to add to your blogroll!
•  We have a brand new location to explore!
• Epic new task lists waiting for you!
• New prizes, new sponsors and new surprises!
• A whole host of "TEAM SPIRIT huzzahs!"

And... almost no-one dies:

But don't take my word for it - take a peek at what some of our previous attendees had to say.

* * * *

Space is limited so get ready to SNAP them up!

....tickets coming soon....