:: Fitness Inspiration ::

Inside my fridge

I need a lifestyle change. I'm not talking about a fad diet, I'm talking about a real change. For the good. I have spent far too long wishing to be fit and healthy, and have not spent any real time trying to reach that goal. I have spent far too long death staring the fit girls with their bouncy ponytails at my gym (lol).

I have some great excuses. My ankle hurts, I don't feel too good, my asthma's acting up, I'm too tired ... blah, blah, blah. If it's to do with diet or exercise, I will give you some of the most well-justified excuses you've ever heard. But here's the thing - I have more energy after I exercise, my asthma gets better the more I swim ... but I always forget these things.

Inside my pantry

I'm not aiming to be skinny. I don't have a skinny frame - I have legs a rugby player would be happy to have, and shoulders that can press almost as much as most boys I know. I am slowly understanding that being strong is not a bad thing. But now I want to be fit and strong. I may be strong, but I'm not fit. If I had to run for my life, I'm pretty sure I'd die (Let's hope there isn't a zombie invasion any time soon, because I'm so not ready).

I currently listen to Fall Out Boy when I'm at the gym, but I'd like a bit of diversity. I need your help, ladies! Do you have any workout song suggestions? Songs that make you want to get up and move, and make you want to push yourself just that little bit harder. Fun, upbeat and peppy is what I'm after! I figure if I can get around an hour's worth of music, I'll know that I've done enough exercise by the time the playlist is up.

Check out what I found while I was looking for music inspiration:

Ridiculously cute, right?

:: Wedding Details - The Boys ::

Hello!

I'm back with more wedding photos. After my last wedding post Mr LG asked where the pictures of him were, so I thought I would show you the boys today. I let Mr LG make his own decisions on the boys attire, and I think he chose amazing outfits for his side of the bridal party. My favourite part (apart from their adorable bow ties!) was the pocket squares - Mr LG had white to match my dress and the boys had green to match the girls. The pops of green on their black suits looked amazing!

My brother-in-law was the driver of the boys for the day, so I gave him my camera and told him to take some shots. This one is of Mr LG posing in our front door way.

I love these photos of the boys helping each other get ready!

Here he is at the church, posing for our photographer. This shot was taken by one of my friends.

The boys waiting in the church for everyone to arrive - and on a side note, how cute are the pew decorations? They're a tie-in to my Kitchen Tea decorations.

I hope you all had a fabulous Monday to start your week off!

:: Wedding Details - My Dress ::

Thank you all so much for your comments on my last post! Being a Mrs has been fantastic! I'm enjoying living with Mr LG and making a life for ourselves in our little house. I thought I would show you some more phoos of my wedding gown, our drivers for the day were each armed with a camera and I have a few photos from their cameras to show you.

This photo was taken by my sister-in-law in my parents living room. I love the floaty lines of my dress and the flower embellishments. Working with my dress maker was a dream, every time I went to see her she had a new idea or concept that had randomly come to her and I loved every single one. The dress evolved so much during the months - from singlet straps to off-the-shoulder straps, from no flowers to lots of flowers, and my favourite - from all white to hints of a colour called ice which shone purple in some lights, green in some, and grey in others (three of my favourite colours - perfect!). The ice fabric was initially going to be an under layer and at the very last minute my dress maker had a brilliant creative moment and placed some of the fabric on the top. I also love that my Mum kept her Christmas tree up so I could have it in the background of some of my photos.

The back of my dress (please ignore my swimmers tan!). I never thought I'd go for such a low back, but I love the way it looks.

This photo was taken near the end of our photography session. My hair is all bedraggled because it rained so much throughout the day. In fact, some of you may have seen it on the news, but Brisbane flooded two days after our wedding. Our photo venue went under water as well as part of our reception venue, so we were very lucky. By the time the photos were done my dress had soaked up water to my waist line! I rang my Mum on the way to the reception venue and begged for someone to bring me a hair dryer! We ran inside the reception venue and into the toilets and began to blow dry my dress layer by layer (and then my hair)!

I have so many photos I'd love to show you, but I will leave them for another day. This afternoon Mr LG and I are going to our photographers to view our professional photos, we are so excited!

Much love!

:: Happy New Year! ::

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a fabulous New Year! Christmas was a huge day for Mr LG and I. We started the day by opening our presents from each other (he gave me a box filled with crafty things - stamps, ribbons, pens, stickers ... I was in Heaven!) and then headed to his brother's place to spend time with him before going to my parents place for the rest of the day (and night!). We were truly spoilt by our family and friends and our day was filled with love and laughter - what more could we have asked for?

We spent New Years playing Nintendo monopoly with my sister and her boyfriend. I lost ... big time! But, I still had a tonne of fun! I have officially started my holidays and yet, I still feel so busy! My days are filled with wedding crafts and errands while trying to move out of my room. Have any of you tried to move after 17 years of accumulating stuff? Wow, it's a huge task! I'm not generally a hoarder, I'm actually quite good at throwing away/donating things I don't need or use anymore. And yet, I still have SO much stuff! My room currently looks like a bomb has hit it!

It is my 28th birthday in a few days (the 6th) and I can't even begin to think about a way to celebrate it while my wedding 'to do' list still has so many items on it. None of them are huge tasks, but some do take time. My latest project has been stamping cute little brown paper bags for guests to put lollies from our lolly table in.

Can you believe I get married next weekend?! Everything is starting to feel more and more real as we do things like final dress fittings and finalising menus. I can't wait to share the actual day with you all via what will probably be multitudes of photos!

I hope you are all having a fanastic break over the new year!

:: Wedding Inspiration - Vintage Books ::

I love books. The love the smell of them. I love the feel of them. One day I hope to have a library in our house with floor to ceiling books. Luckily, I am marrying someone who also loves book - old books in particular.

So, what do old books and our wedding have in common? I've been so excited to share this with you, but I had to wait! Now I can finally show you our vintage book invitations!

Time was running out on our invitations and we still hadn't settled on a style we liked. We both love simple, clean looking things and we both love old books. It was actually my younger sister who came up with the idea to join the two together and create a fantastic book themed wedding invitation!

They have been a hit with our guests and we couldn't be happier with them!

Who doesn't love a brown paper package tied up with string?

The countdown is officially on now - 24 days 'til we get married!

PS. Don't forget to enter my Christmas giveaway!

:: Wedding Inspiration - Engagement Photos ::

Just in case you're not totally over me talking about wedding information, I can finally share with you some of our engagement photos! Mr LG and I woke up early and headed to the Storey Bridge, which is across from Brisbane City. We bought Mr LG's vintage bike with us, as well as my vintage inspired bike. Our photographer was the incredibly talented Troy Hansen.

This shot was taken while we were on our way under the bridge, so some action shots could be taken of us riding along it.

While I don't like having my photo taken, I do like this photo. My dress is dark blue with tiny white love heart polka 'dots' on it. Seriously cute dress.

In the end, this is the photo we decided on. I love Mr LG's old bike in the corner. The only touch ups I insisted on were to remove my underwear lines! I love the slightly vintage feel of this photo.

If you could have a photo shoot, what kind of feel/look would you go for?

It is my Hens weekend this weekend. We are planning on enjoying pedicures/massages, dessert for dinner, Harry Potter and a photo-based scavenger hunt! I can't wait to share it with you.

I hope your weekend is fabulous!

:: Wedding Inspiration - Kitchen Tea ::

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my Kitchen Tea invitations. That chandelier stamp was the best $16 I've spent in a while! I think a lot of things will be stamped with it in the next few months - pen pals, you have been warned.

I have finally uploaded my Kitchen Tea photos, so you can see a few snippets of the day. I had so much fun and I'm so glad I decided to do something different and went with a Parisian theme.

I am in love with the pink and white 'poufs' my sister created out of tissue paper. Thank you Martha Stewart for providing such adorable (and simple) decoration ideas!

The pink coconut macaroons were to die for. I gave myself a sugar headache because I ate so many! They were such a vibrant pink colour inside, I wish I'd taken a picture to show you!

Note the Earl Grey Lavender tea my Mum put in the box as a little joke.

Our toilet paper brides and flowergirl!

The gorgeous toilet paper flower girl. This is my next-door-neighbour's second daughter. She is adorable.

One of the very few photos taken of me on the day. I don't like having my photo taken.

I'm still working on my thank you notes. I'm not working any more than I usually do, and yet somehow I don't have enough hours in the day to do what I need to do! Christmas, New Years, my birthday and the wedding are only a few weeks away!

Speaking of Christmas, check back soon for a Christmas giveaway!

:: Wedding Inspiration - Kitchen Tea Invitations ::

Well, my Kitchen Tea was a success! We ate far too much delicious food, played some fun and slightly ridiculous games, and had an overall good time.

A few months ago I was perusing wedding blogs when I came across a Parisian themed Kitchen Tea. I sent the link to my sisters/bridesmaids and said, "Wouldn't this be fun?" And within about 5 minutes from sending out the link we had decided that I should have a Parisian themed Kitchen Tea! Ideas came thick and fast - generally in the form of pictures sneakily Googled while we were meant to be working - have I mentioned that at the time I worked on the same floor as my sister and sister-in-law? I also work in the same team as my brother. We work for a large company, so it's kind of funny we all ended up working there!

I digress ...

Anyway! We decided on a black, white and pale pink theme complete with chandelier-themed invitations. I decided to have my Kitchen Tea at my Dad's art gallery (tres chic!) and purchased the most adorable pale pink dress with black velvet polka dots and a black ribbon belt.

It was fun to do something slightly different for my Kitchen Tea. I am normally surrounded by green (by my own choosing, of course) so it was fun to buy pink items for a change. I am about to start the Thank You cards because you can bet that if I leave it too long I'll find every reason under the sun to procrastinate!

Stay tuned for more photos to come!

:: Wedding Inspiration - Envelope Seals ::

I have always loved the elegance of wax seals. When I was 8 my cousin was given one for Christmas and ever since then I've wanted one for myself. Our wedding invitations are going out next week and what better way to add a touch of class to the invitations than with a wax seal?

We decided to cheat and save a little time by purchasing some amazing 'peel seals' online. All the hard work is done for you and all you need to do is peel the sticking backing off and stick them like a sticker! I will definitely get more made for my everyday snail mail adventures.

I can't believe it's 7 weeks until I get married! Time is really flying now! We're getting down to the last minute details. I'm trying to take time to enjoy it all and am refusing to let myself get stressed.

I find drinking tea helps calm me down, do you have any other tricks? I'd like to try yoga, but all the times at places near me are either during work or ridiculously late at night!

My Kitchen Tea is tomorrow and I can't wait to share some fantastic photos with you!

:: Wedding Inspiration - Wedding Rings ::

I don't know if I'm one of a few, or if every girl is just like me - but I have had my perfect engagement ring pictured in my head for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, I knew what I wanted and didn't know it was part of a particular style or period (I just knew it was pretty!). I now know the style I love is from the art deco period. I am so in love with almost everything art deco-ish.

For a while I toyed with the idea that I may want a coloured engagement ring, or maybe three stones in a row, or even perhaps a larger stone with baguettes down the band ... and yes, I toyed with these ideas while I was still single. Hey, a girl can dream!

When Mr LG and I went to look at engagement rings I didn't even bother to try on the art deco style I loved, because I was so sure it wouldn't suit me. But, Mr LG picked a ring out that he loved and asked me to please try it on. It was exactly the style I had always wanted!

That ring became my engagement ring a few months later.

This is my amazing engagement ring! I am currently without it as it is at the ring makers having a wedding band matched to it. I am having a half-band of small diamonds to match the shoulders of my engagement ring and I can't wait 'til January when I can wear both and proudly let all my family and friends know how much I love and adore Mr LG.

Do you have a favourite style of jewellery you love to wear ... or dream to one day wear? Another jewellery item I love is necklaces. I own so many of them and if I am out, you will rarely see me without one.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

:: Wedding Inspiration – Invitations ::

As you have all probably realised by now, I am a huge stationery nerd. I am so excited to be at the invitation planning stage of our wedding. I want to make the most perfect invitations, so that when our guests receive them they think, “Oh, that is so them.” A lot of people have said they are looking forward to our invitations because they know how much I love stationery … way to add serious pressure, guys!

I have been scouring the Internet for ideas and inspiration. There are so many lovely invitations out there, it’s hard to figure out what to do! I have also been scouring lovely paper stores and have bought home some delicious papers to make mock invitations with.

The green material is the base colour for my bridesmaids. Their dresses will have an overlay of a much lighter green to tie in with the floaty feel of the wedding.



Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? All you married ladies out there, what did your invitations look like?
In other news, my younger sister has had her baby! She had a little boy called Hugo and he is the most darling thing I have ever seen. He has a full head of dark brown hair, dark brown eyes and olive skin. He was 7 pounds 12, and 50cm long. He is seriously adorable. My sister's not into photos being put on the Internet, otherwise I'd spam my blog with photos of him!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

:: House Inspiration ::

About six months ago Mr LG and I bought a house together. Our house is an adorable two-bedroom "Queenslander". This means that it is made completely from wood, has VJ (vertical join) walls (I think some places call this beadboard walls?), polished wooden floorboards, and is raised on stilts. It was built around 1910 but the current wall colours, kitchen and bathroom all scream of a dodgy 90s home reno job :/

We have been scouring realestate.com.au, home renovation magazines and blogs for inspiration on the best way to slowly mould our house into our home. Right from the word go, we have found the best inspiration has come from my parents house. In my opinion, my parents have amazing taste.

Below are some pictures of my parents place. This is the first room you see as you walk in the front door. I would love a chandelier one day. They can brighten even the dullest of rooms! You can just see my darling earless cat sitting in her bed on the couch.

This is the same room, looking back towards the front door.

My absolute favourite room in my parents house is their main bathroom. My love for this bathroom makes me a little sad every time I enter our little bathroom.

I also love their kitchen. I love the random stained-glass windows that dot the walls and act as art as well as a source of light.
As you can see, I am a huge fan of antiques and anything "old fashioned" and "quaint". I appreciate that this style is not for everyone, I'm lucky to have found someone who likes the same things I do!

Where/who do you look to for decorating inspiration?