The quest for the perfect manicure begins

I've never been for a professional manicure before, mainly because I prefer to do it myself but also because I'll probably find fault in the end result. So I decided to just go for one to see how it is and if I like it I'll get one for the wedding.

This afternoon I went to Perfect 10 to get a simple french. It looks nice but not as nice as I thought, there's a few imperfections like little bubbles and things. I do like the sleek, clean look it gives though. I think I'll try another place to see if they do it a bit more perfect.

Which smelly?

Today I smelt just about every perfume that's available (well almost I'm sure). There's such a variety out there but I managed to narrow it down to three lovely scents. There's a few more that I liked but not wedding-worthy.

Daisy by Marc Jacobs

Soft, floral and feminine. A pretty fragrance but more of an everyday scent, not a special occasion perfume I don't think.













Essence by Narciso Rodriguez
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A powdery, fresh, floral but musky fragrance. I'm not one for musk at all but it works well. At first its very overpowering but after at least 30 min it settles in beautifully. One drawback is that its an expensive perfume, the starting price being R1150











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Infusion D'Iris by Prada

Fresh, clean, pure, crisp and simply gorgeous! I love this and would go with it in a heart beat but two things hold me back - it doesn't stay well at all (if I could figure out how to make the fragrance last all day I'd get it) and in my mind its not really a fragrance for a wedding.








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Am I wrong in thinking that you should wear something floral or a scent that evokes romanticism for a wedding?? I think I probably am.

Beauty time

With the two month mark just passing us I thought it was about time to get serious about skin care and hair care.

Me being in my late twenties and N in her early thirties we're both concerned about the odd wrinkle or two showing its face. I read review in a magazine on a new Roc product that worked very well for a reader. I was set on getting it until I saw that the Neutrogena products had exactly the same ingredients but for half the price, so we got the day and night moisturisers and the serum. So far so good, it makes my skin feel silky and soft.

The day moisturiser

The night moisturiser

The serum

Every six months I get the Schwarzkopf Strait Styling straightening treatment done at Pasquale, and although the treatment doesn't damage your hair, it does weaken it. At the end of August I'm due for another 5 hour session of straightening which means I have to get my hair as healthy and strong as possible before then to lessen the chance of my hair breaking during the treatment. Today I popped into the salon quick and asked my stylist for the best at home treatment available and she suggested Redken Real Control Intense Renewal. I love Redken products and have used them for a few years now so I'm hoping that this product will help, otherwise my hair might not look so good for the wedding.

Lets hope this is the miracle product I'm looking for.

Today I bought the August Marie Claire and just to muddle up my already mixed up mind, they included a sample of an exquisite fragrance with the mag - Prada Infusion D'Iris. It is clean, crisp and very similar to Thierry Mugler's Mugler Cologne. I'm most definitely thinking of changing my wedding day fragrance to this one.

Exactly 2 months today!

For a while there time was flying but now it doesn't seem that it is. In my mind I'm constantly thinking that once August comes things are going to be crazy and also seem so real, so I'm hoping that will be so.

I can't wait for this day in September, I can't wait to put my dress on and walk down the aisle toward N. I can't wait to be her wife! It's been a long road but after 15 years our time has come.....finally!

As promised

... a clearer picture... sort of.

It must be love!

We were up bright and early this morning to go get N's tattoo. She was so nervous, thinking that it would be sore, but to her surprise it wasn't. She said it was just a bit uncomfortable but not painful. Her final choice was the a K in the Dearest font on her wrist. I love it! It looks really good and was done well, a bit more expensive than we had expected but none the less it was worth it.

It's full of ointment at the moment so its shinny in some places. I'll post a clearer picture tomorrow.

Guess what I got today.....

... my wedding band! Well one of them, my lovely already paid the deposit for the second one, isn't she just amazing!! I'll probably get it the middle of August.

I cannot say enough good things about Browns. The service we received was brilliant, they were so professional and friendly. We got cappuccino while we waited for the evaluation certificate and even a gift (see below).

Fragrance for the day

After much um'ing and ah'ing I've settled on Elizabeth Arden's 5th Avenue. This is most definitely not the usual fragrance that I would wear. I usually prefer light, fresh and clean fragrances. But I do love this for the wedding, when I catch a whiff of it it makes me think of romance, elegance, flowers and happiness. It's also long lasting too!

When I bought it they had a sale on so I got one of those gift packs which consisted of the body wash, body lotion, full size perfume and a little handbag size perfume.

A gift for my one and only love

Our wedding day is N's birthday too, so she deserves a good few special things. I got her things that I know she needs and things that I know she'll love, so in a big black box tied with red ribbon I put in:

• A Ralph Lauren, Polo Wallet
• Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue
• A Boudoir photo book
• A Quicksilver t-shirt
• A scented letter sealed with gold wax

No branding for me!

Just as N suspected I opted out of getting the tattoo. It's not at all that I don't love her enough to do it, I just really don't like the idea of something stuck on my body for the rest of my life. She was a bit disappointed but she's decided that she's still going to be getting a tattoo this weekend. I'll post pic's once its done.

Budget honeymoon shopping

Lately I've been so impressed with the great variety of items available for limited budgets. The last couple of days I've being running errands and have been in and out of malls and to my amazement I've come across a bunch of good deals. Since I'm concentrating on our honeymoon at the moment, I'm trying to get together all the things that we may need for the exciting road trip.

I've bought two really cute (really retro looking) bags. One to use as a beach bag and one for all the snacks we'll be taking with in the car.

I also found the sweetest picnic blanket on sale (it's actually a throw but will work just as well), not sure if we'll use it but it's always good to have one around.

And since we'll be staying at the coast I got some summer clothes too. We're in mid winter here in South Africa so it's strange that they already have the summer clothes out, but with these prices I'm definitely not complaining. Just a couple more summery dresses and I'll be set.

Back to baking - Part 3

I've been wanting to make this cake for some time now. I remember when I was young, my grandmother used to make it for us and it was heavenly. I've searched for her original recipe but couldn't find it, I did find one that was quite good but didn't have that crisp sweet orange flavour that I remember so well.

Orange Cake

(Source: Flop Proof Baking)

1 cup Sugar

160ml Butter

Zest of 1 Orange

2 Eggs, separated

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

2 cups Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

Pinch Salt

175ml Orange Juice

75ml Water

Cream the sugar and butter. Add the orange zest, egg yolks and vanilla essence.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the orange juice and water. Blend gently.

Whisk egg whites till soft peaks are formed and fold into mixture.

Pour into a large rectangular baking dish.

Bake for 20 - 30min on 170°C.

Glaze

60ml Orange Juice

1/2 cup Water

Zest of 1 Orange

75ml Sugar

2 Tbs Corn Flour

2 Tbs Butter

Add all the above ingredients to a sauce pan and whisk whilst bringing to the boil.

Remove from heat and poke holes in cake with toothpick.

Pour glaze over the cake while still warm.

A deeper level of commitment?

I've never really been much of a tattoo person, although I have one I prefer piercings, mainly because they're not permanent. I've had my fair share of piercings - the back of my neck, my nose, belly button, tongue, labret (bottom lip), tragus (part of your ear) and even my nipple, the only one I've kept over the years is the tragus.

N on the other hand is very much into tattoo's, although she only has one. She has also had her fair share of piercings and now sports a sexy nipple piercing. That being said when I mentioned the idea of getting similar tattoo's she jumped at the chance. After going through a couple of idea's we settled on getting each others first name initial on our wrists. A "N" on my left and a "K" on her right.

We found a tattoo site where they had beautifully elaborate fonts and we fell in love with this one called Medieval Scroll. After visiting the tattoo studio they advised us against it, saying that although it would look great now in 5 or so years it would look like an ink blob (especially since I don't want it to be too big - +/- 3 - 4cm). So we went through all their fonts (I suspect all downloaded from dafont.com) and found one that we're really happy with. Here it is:


We're booked for Saturday, 25 July at 09:00.

But now being the indecisive person that I am I'm having doubts about getting it done but feel really guilty as I persuaded N to get it. I'm not sure if I'll be happy about branding myself in a few years time but I do love the look of the proposed tattoo!

Personal service

That's just what we received today - personal service. Our officiant came to our house to talk about the ceremony and to gather all the information needed for him to register us as a married couple after the wedding. We had to tell him who's taking who's surname, give him passport photo's, copy's of identity documents and then he also took our fingerprints. It feels so official now!

We're so happy with our choice of officiant, not only does he have the same name as my father but he's also very friendly, gentle and will do whatever we ask (as far as the ceremony is concerned). The ceremony with be light-hearted with a touch of religion. We're both Christian and although we don't want a seriously religious ceremony we think its only fitting that we do have a bit of religion in there. We've also asked that he be clear on each stage of the ceremony, so that the guests know what to expect and that sort of thing. Like when we have to sign the register, he'll make it clear that the guests remain seated and then when its all done to shower us with petals as we make our way back up the aisle.

Although we're not writing our own vows (we would have liked to but our nerves would get the better of us) N has said that she'd like to read a poem after we've exchanged rings, so I'm very much looking forward to that.

This is the order of our ceremony:

• Processional
• Words of welcome
• Prayer
• Exchange of vows
• Exchange of rings
• Unity candle ceremony (very short and simple)
• Pronouncement of marriage
• Signing of register
• Recessional

In honeymoon mode

The majority of the wedding planning has been done for some time now, so I thought it best to give my attention to other planning that needs a bit of tweaking - the honeymoon.

We're going on a two week honeymoon from the Monday after the wedding. As I mentioned before we originally wanted to go to Thailand but decided to stick to a local holiday as we'd get a longer holiday for a better price, plus our country is full of beauty so we may as well take advantage of that.

We went to Mauritius last year which was the best holiday ever, our room was right by the beach and we could watch the sunset from there every night, it was heavenly. Anyway when we got back to South Africa the wonderful luggage people at the airport ripped our brand new (and damn expensive!) suit case. So almost a year later I finally got it fixed so that we can use it for our honeymoon.

I also got a map of the coastal area where we're going and made a huge list of all the things that we need to take with. Now, once again, I'm more excited about the honeymoon than the wedding.

Weddingmares

Lately I've had the strangest dreams about our upcoming wedding. I've dreamt about having our reception in a field in the middle of nowhere, with long steel tables and confused guests. I've also dreamt about being totally drunk, stumbling through our vows, knocking our cake over and picking it up off the floor whilst guests were leaving at 10 o'clock. The worst one was arriving at our venue in the pouring rain, me soaking wet with no dress, no make-up, no hair done and realising that the officiant, DJ and photographer had forgotten about our wedding. But the most recent one is where N and I are totally frustrated for some reason and arrive at the venue only to realise that I had no underwear and jewellery to wear, I had forgotten it at home. So I rushed back home (45 min away) got what I needed, arrived back at the venue to see that N's shoes, socks and pants didn't match, only after being totally confused for a while did we realise that we had had a suit made for her but forgot it at home.

Dreams are so strange sometimes, two nights ago I dreamt that I was sleeping with Richard Gere - seriously!!

Back to baking - Part 2

I haven't tasted these yet but N says they're really good. They're fast and easy to make too.

Pastry Wrapped Sausages

1 pack Cheese Grillers (6 per pack)

1 pack Ready Rolled Puff Pastry (I used Cheese & Herb)

1 Egg, beaten

Sesame Seeds

Brown the sausages. Cut the pastry into six equale squares. Roll each sausage in a square of pastry and "glue" the edge with beaten egg. Arrange on a baking tray, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake on 180°C till golden brown. Serve hot with a honey and mustard dipping sauce.

Finally!

I'm so excited, we ordered my ring this morning! Finally! They said it should take about 5 days to make up so hopefully next week I'll have my wedding band. We're still not sure if we'll be getting the second one but I have high hopes that we will.

I went for an interview yesterday at a very nice company. I think it went well but you can never tell. They did ask me to do a PPA (Personality Profile Analysis) which I wasn't too comfortable with but I was shocked at how accurate this test turned out to be. How it works is that they give you four descriptive words/phrases per line (20 lines are provided) like 1) Easily led, 2) Brave, 3) Trustworthy, 4) Like people . You then have to select which word/phrase describes you mostly in a working environment, which word/phrase describes you the least, and two words/phrases left blank. My results came back fairly positive, saying that I'm a perfectionist and that I'd rather do things correctly and finish the task before starting something new. They also said that I'm accurate, precise, detailed, sceptical, inquisitive, probing, non-aggressive, analytical, logical and so on. N thought it was funny that they said that I take rejection personally because she's always telling me that I'm too sensitive.

Back to baking - Part 1

It feels like forever since I lasted baked something tastey. Since I've been at home a lot more I've been trying to make interesting meals and snacks for N to take to work but unfortunately my intentions were better than my actions. Last night I gathered up my remaining energy from the lazy day and made muffins. Half way through the recipe I realised that I didn't have some ingredients and ended up changing the whole recipe, and much to my surprise it was a success!

Peanut Butter and Oats Muffins

1 cup Flour
4ml Baking Powder
4ml Baking Soda
2ml Salt
1ml Cinnamon
3/4 cup Oats
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1 Egg
1/3 - 1/2 cup Milk


Combine the dry ingredients, add the wet, mix well to form a stiff batter. Alow to stand for 5 min (I always do this when baking with oats, it allows time for them to soften a bit). Spoon into muffin tins. Bake for approx. 15 min on 180°C. Makes approx. 10 depending on size.

Its in the bag!

I most definitely think that an emergency kit is an essential for the wedding day. Over the last couple of months I've been adding odds and ends that I think might be necessary (rather safe than sorry).
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So far I've got:

• Band-aid
• Panado (pain killer)
• Rennie (antacid)
• Valoid (for nausea)
• Rescue Drops (anxiousness)
• Baby powder
• Chalk (for marks on my dress)
• Instant Hem
• Extra beads
• Safety pins
• Extra earring backs
• Gum
• Tissues
• Needle and thread (one of those little kits that you get at hotels_
• Eye drops
• Ear buds
• Nail file
• Perfume
• Lip ice
• Translucent powder
• Lint roller

Everlasting love??

When planning your wedding you're so in love that you don't really stop to think that either of you might fall out of love with each other one day or even worse might meet someone else and fall in love with them. Obviously we all believe that the love that we share with our partners is strong and can withstand anything, but unfortunately this isn't always true.

I bring this up because last night we came to hear of something very disturbing. N's sister's husband of 13 years had met someone else and is no longer in love with N's sister. They have two children aged 13 and 3. He claims that he had fallen out of love with N's sister over a year ago. Obviously she is devastated and didn't see it coming, but the worst thing is is that he didn't even confront her face to face, he told her over the phone! He works out of town and comes home on weekends so he didn't even bother to come home this weekend to tell her. He's not even willing to work on it, to try somehow to get that love back.

The whole family is shocked by this and we all think that there must be more to the story. Does this new woman know that he's married and has kids? Is he really in love with her or is he just looking for a change in his life? N and I can't understand how, after 13 years of marriage, a person can simply not love their partner any longer. How do you just lose those feelings after so long??

Underneath her clothes...

A couple of years ago as we were strolling through the stalls at the Joburg Pride we came across a stall for Tomboi. Tomboi is a local brand that consists of underwear and sleepwear for the not-so-feminine gay woman. Being the tomboy that N is she was immediately attracted to the style of the products. For some reason we had totally forgotten about it until yesterday when we were discussing what underwear she was going to wear for the wedding (having a white suit requires a bit of prep in that department). We jumped onto their site and found the perfect bottoms called Alice (they're all named after characters of The L Word). Luckily they had stock and off I went to get them this morning.

I was so excited whilst flipping through TV channels last night - finally The L Word season 6 had started. I know it came out in the US ages ago but being in a third world country we tend to get all the good stuff last. Since Grey's Anatomy finished I've been craving something decent to watch again (although Desperate Housewives is still on its getting a bit dull) and that just filled the spot!

Revamped Card Box

I had previously made a card box but it was one of my first DIY projects and definitely not one of my nicest. The only reason we decided to have one was because I read about two cases where cards containing money that were placed on gift tables at venue's were stolen. I didn't want to make one of those huge stack of boxes covered in all sorts of fabric and bows like you see on so many DIY sites. All we wanted was something plain and simple.

Cocktail menu's complete

The cocktail menu's are finally complete. I attached them to the backing so that they can now stand on their own. We're doing one per table as the waiters will be taking the drinks orders, the guests won't be getting up to go to the bar to get their own.

RSVP's already!

Much to my surprise we received our first RSVP yesterday and with much enthusiasm I might add. I didn't expect the invitations to arrive at their destinations so soon, I thought our postal service was a bit slow but I've been proven wrong.

I have a new job title now - House wife! Except the wife part only comes into play in a couple of months. I thought I would enjoy being home more, but its not much fun knowing that when you wake up there's nothing that you have to do, no place you have to go. I have been sick since Tuesday so maybe that's the real reason, maybe I'll enjoy it more when I'm well.

In case you didn't notice or I didn't mention, I obviously can't wear a bra with my wedding dress and no padding has been put in the cup area either so I've been a bit worried that if I get cold it will clearly be visible, BUT there's no more need for panic since apparently some clever people out there have already thought of this and invented silicone nipple pads. These are two round flat silicone disks that are sticky on one side and available at pharmacies. Although they're really soft and flexible I'm pretty sure there's going to be no evidence of a chill in the air.

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I got my dress back!

Finally I got it back. I am happier with it although I would have liked more changes (like to the back etc.). The top looks a hundred times better I think, its more open and much more flattering than it was.