At the risk of turning this into a wedding blog (I already have one of those here), I’ve been doing a lot of research re dresses and DIY invitations and the like, and I’ve found some great sites:

Dress of Your Dreams

Yay, LOW prices – and, judging by the “testimonials”, the quality seems pretty good.   I seem to be a “standard” size so I’ll probably end up ordering something from here.  You can opt for a corset back as well, to allow for the inevitable weight loss.

Truly Madly Deeply

I’ve resolved to make all of the invitations and table decorations myself, and I found this site for pre-cut cards and envelopes.  Also cheap!

Pink Frosting

I’m wanting little silver photo-frames as wedding favours.  These aren’t so cheap, but this site has loads of neat wedding favours.  I’m going to cross-stitch the guests’ names, so the wedding favours double as place-cards.

In other craft news, my granny square blanket is coming along – I’ve got one last strip of 14 squares to stitch together, then begins the long process of joining all the strips.  I’m going to use it on our spare bed.

(yet)

Last weekend I had a rush of blood to the head (possibly due to mourning the loss of my 20’s) and finally got around to planning our wedding.  I have to remember to say “our”, and not “my”.

DW is doing his best to be interested – last Sunday we went out and purchased rings, for a very reasonable price too.  Mine had to be sent away to be made, but DW’s is on layby.    Over the last week, we’ve managed to organise a date, venue, and a few other bits and pieces with the help of my mum in Auckland.   Since we are inviting a number of out-of-town folk who will need advance notice and directions (and because I am now addicted to Wordpress), I made us a wedding blog:

Christine & Darren’s Wedding

…and I found the cutest little ticker ever:

Once the wedding is over and done with, I think I will display the photos on that blog.  That is, if they’re fit for public viewing.

We’re back from our weekend in the Lavender Cottage at Michel Chalets.    As you can see, it was pretty woody (DW called it “deliverance country”) but it was extremely peaceful and relaxing.  City folk tend to have short tempers with the birds though, who get up very, very early and tap on your windows.  If I ever write a book, I will go here to work on it.  The host was lovely and the large property of the chalets had a miniature horse.  DW got to pat him – I did not

While up there, we toured around the tiny towns of Maleny, Montville, Mapleton and the slightly larger town of Gympie, taking in the Gold Mining Museum and the Eumundi markets.  We missed out on the famed Big Pineapple, primarily because we couldn’t find it.

The temperature up in the ranges was a good deal lower than we’re used to in Brisbane, and we were rather unprepared (having taken only summer clothes).  I had to stop at Big W in Gympie to pick up tracksuit pants to prevent freezing at night, although our lovely log cabin had a fireplace (city folk trying to light a fire = comedic: after burning several metres of toilet paper, we discovered newspapers in the bottom of the woodpile.  Duh.)

The town of Maleny had an excellent secondhand bookshop called PS: Books, where I bought these two lovely hardcover cross stitch books.  I’m collecting anything with Peter Rabbit in it, for future use.  I’d go back to Maleny just for the bookshop.

I spent a little more money than I’d intended (curse those markets - did I really need another rug?) so I didn’t buy the sewing machine I’d planned to buy as my “birthday present to self” on the Monday.  I’m going to wait until Spotlight has a 20%-off sale. 

So now I’m officially 30 (30 and two days, actually), and I feel much the same as I did when I was, well, 16, but with a practising certificate and a car.   That’s pretty good.

Soon we’re off to Montville (and surrounds) for a few days.  We’ve been to Noosa before, but this time we’re going a bit further, then doubling back to the Eumundi markets (these are terrific) and hopefully on to Gympie, time allowing.   We’re staying in Reesville at this lovely B&B type place .   I’m just happy to be going on a road trip (I love to drive places, DW does not).   This part of the Sunshine Coast is overrun with B&B type accommodations.  This was one of the more reasonably-priced.  

We still have inclement weather, but I don’t plan on doing a whole lot of moving around outside, unless it’s from shop to shop, and if the weather is bad, the markets may not be as crowded as they were last time.

Unless you’re an Australian living in a cave with no telly or internet, you’ll have heard about schoolboy Elliot Fletcher, who was stabbed to death by a classmate at a “posh” school in Queensland.   The alleged killer (I say “alleged” only out of scholarly habit, and not because I believe the accused child didn’t do it)

Since this incident, there have been a number of other school knife incidents reported in Brisbane and beyond, all involving young teenagers.   I made a comment in my LiveJournal a few weeks ago that the whole despicable business was probably going to spur on a lot of parents with even the slightest inclination towards home schooling – seems I was not far wrong, according to the Courier Mail.

The Home Schooling Association of Queensland President, Robert Osmak, opines in this article that parents are “rejecting school” out of “desperation” and their general dissatisfaction with this apparent failure of the school system.

While obviously the bullying and the knife incidents are terrible things, I think it’s great that the idea of teaching your children at home (as it was in days gone by) is getting some attention.  If home schooling becomes more mainstream, my relations-in-law may not shout and flail about when informed that I prefer it (at least in theory) to the traditional educational model (which, interestingly, I recently heard referred to as “day-prison”). 

There’s now a campaign here called Say No to Bullying.  I fear it’s come a bit too late.

The State Government in Queensland has announced its new child car seat laws.  I’m confused.  So are the hundred or so people commenting on the Courier Mail site. 

See if you can get your head around these (from the above article by Daniel Knowles):

• Babies up to six months old, and weighing less than 8kg, should be in backward-facing baby capsules or infant restraints.
• Babies aged six months to one year, weighing 8kg-12kg, should be in infant restraints.
• Children aged six months to four years, weighing 8kg-18kg, should be in a forward facing child restraint with a built-in harness.
• Children aged four to seven years, weighing 14kg-26kg, should be in booster seats.

I can understand why there is some confusion here.     I hope that the manufacturers of car seats intend to put some kind of guideline on their products.  Also, supposing the rules are different from state to state, will people from New South Wales or South Australia be up for a fine if they are caught in Queensland with a non-compliant seat?

Hopefully by the time we have a child, someone will have invented an all-in-one, adaptable seat.

I made these at mum’s place last Christmas; they’re really easy and there is no baking involved.

What you need:

• 2 packets of Mallowpuffs or local equivalent (“Royales”, in Australia)
• 1 family-size block of white chocolate, or buttons
• 1 bag spearmint leaves or other small green jellies
• 1 bag Jaffas (or similar)

What to do with it:

• Cover a surface with a paper towel or two, and get a plate ready to put your mini puddings on.
• Melt the chocolate, either in the microwave (one minute, stir, then another minute), or using the bowl-over-boiling water method
• Using a large spoon, drip chocolate over the biscuits.  Do a few at a time and wait for the chocolate to become tacky. 
• Apply your Jaffas and spearmint leaves as per the picture.  Allow to set. 

In hot climates (such as Australia), I’d recommend putting them in the fridge.

I’ve been exploring Blogs by Women Bloggers and my favourites so far are:

Maternal Dementia
With Eyes Wide Open
One Girl Trucking

I haven’t linked ‘em as I’m a bit iffy about just randomly adding people to my blog roll, being new as I am to public blogging etiquette (in the LiveJournal world, your indiscretions are limited to your friends-list).

I wonder if there’s a blog somewhere about blogging etiquette. I only just learned yesterday what a “splog” was. I’ll do my best not to be one of those.

DW and I had a lot of grand plans this weekend to weed the garden, mow the lawn and do some planting, but it looks like the rain we’ve had all week is going to continue. I’m not averse to planting in the rain though, and I would really, really like some parsley.

Today one of my firm’s longest-running battles ended. I’ve spent 11 months working towards this little victory, however small – I’m not a litigator, so my victories don’t come in courtrooms, in the style of Bobby Donnell (who, I admit, I wanted to be when I was a law student, until I had to do mooting, and realised that court was not for me). Anyway, my client got what it wanted, which is victory enough for me.

My boss is always chuffed at these victories, because we get to send out a bill; even the pompous colleagues are congratulatory and nice, and there’s a celebratory morning tea. Winning makes me feel good, and for the rest of the afternoon you tolerate your choice to do this job.

That is, until the next day, when the pompousness and the one-upmanship begins again, and I’ll be back to wondering why I’m wasting my precious reproductive window in this manner. It’s a vicious cycle, until the next little victory and a little bit of satisfaction and self-esteem boost.

I’m optimistic that motherhood will bring other opportunities. For example, if I was able to successfully home-school a child, I’d be pretty satisfied. I already know I’d have to hire a maths tutor though – my maths is terrible (which is the reason I do what I do – I couldn’t pass the statistics paper required for psychology). Or, perhaps team up with another mother who had mathematical skills.

As it is, I have to keep doing this until we buy a house in late 2010, and probably for a wee while after that too, while we adjust to paying a mortgage. So many plans, so little time, and so many bills to pay in the interim.

On a completely unrelated note, my spouse (DW) and I are starting the Bodytrim program tomorrow. We’ve been out tonight and purchased the required foods. The main purpose of this endeavour is to give DW’s mother one less thing to complain about when she sees us at Christmas this year. Also, if I’m preparing for eventual motherhood, it wouldn’t hurt to lose some weight. I’ve heard that it makes the aftermath easier to deal with.

Monday 8 March 2010 is International Women’s Day.  This year’s theme is “women leading the way”. There are loads of events happening in Brisbane (and I imagine the rest of Australia), most notably the IWD Rally and March, which is happening on Saturday 6 March at 10.30am at King George Square. The themes of the Brisbane rally are “freedom to choose” and “freedom from discrimination”.  As a female in a traditionally male-dominated occupation, discrimination is something I’ve experienced a wee bit of (case in point: a male law graduate said to me recently with regard to my first job out of law school: “gee, being a woman and a Kiwi, that must have been tough”).  Well, I never!  While we may not all share the same views on the anti-abortion laws or the same sex marriage laws, discrimination is something I’m sure most of us are well over.

For more details, try searching “International Women’s Day (Brisbane)” on Facebook, or the link above for the email address.