All on our lonesome

f friends 13
Originally uploaded by Katie in NZ

The last of our guests left this morning on her way back to the UK (bye Sarah!) and the house feels so empty.
Don't get me wrong - it's lovely to finally have some alone time with my new husband (still smile everytime I say or type that) but we miss everyone so much.
For the last 3 weeks we have had at least one person staying with us and most of the time it's been much more than one.
The three of us (me, G and Rhett) are rattling around not quite sure what to do with ourselves.

So between weepy missing everyone moments I am trying to keep busy. Today I baked rolls and fairy cakes ans we watched Elf (best Christmas movie ever!)
We had some amazing fresh fish fried in breadcrumbs for our tea. This morning was the first of the Palmy Farmers Market which will hopefully become a permanent Sunday morning fixture in town. We also bought cheese. Next week I'm hoping to get some local and fresh eggs and veggies - yummy.

Will get mosaicing with some other wedding photos soon and get them posted.
On Friday we also had the excitement of access to our online album containing 397 photos by the official photographers - way too many to choose from! They are all lovely.

This is turning out to be quite random now so I am off for a bubble bath and early night.

This photo is us with all of our friends that came to the wedding.

Wedding : : The Boys

: : Top to bottom, left to right : :
1. At the hotel, 2. Posing at the heliport, 3. Same
4. Arriving at Boomrock, 5. Same, 6. Waiting for the bride
7. Groom shooting, 8. Bestman shooting, 9. Posing
10. Extreme golf, 11. No garters, 12. What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?

Wedding : : Food

: : Top to bottom, left to right : :

1. Title, 2. Starter - Beef fillet with horseradish filled Yorkshire pudding & rocket salad, 3. Starter - Buffalo Mozzarella Vine Tomato basic & proscuitto
4. Main - Snapper fillet, pan roasted with pepper provolone tapenade, warm snow pea, scallion, pear tomato & bell pepper salad, 5. Main - Lamb rump with roasted kumara, pumpkin, potato & parsnip with mint jelly, 6. Dessert - Traditional New Zealand Pavlova with Kiwifruit Strawberries & Cream

I had the buffalo mozzarella, lamb and pavlova. Graeme had the beef, lamb and pavlova. It was divine.

*

We also had canapes after the ceremony which were amazing. Unfortunately, we were all busy with activities and photographs when they were served so there are no photos but they were beautiful. The pakorah was my favourite :-) Here's what we had:

Lemon chicken skewers with lemon pickle
Boomrock venison sausage rolls with Maharaja chutney
Carrot & pistachio ‘pakorah’ with yoghurt & poppy seed dressing

Wedding : : Details

: : Top to bottom, left to right : :

1. Bride's bouquet, 2. Mother of Bride buttonhole, 3. Wedding cakes

4. Bride's hair, 5. Bouquet's and dresses, 6. Mother of Groom buttonhole

7. Place setting, 8. the Table, 9. Table decoration

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Just some of the details I want to share here. If you have an aversion to weddings you may want to avoid the blog for a couple of weeks. If you love weddings, come back every few days and I'll try to make regular posts.

mr & mrs

i us 17
Originally uploaded by Katie in NZ

On Monday (2nd November 2009) we became Mr and Mrs.
It was an amazingly beautiful day and we are currently over-awed by the amazing photos our guests have taken.
This is just one of them.
We will try and get more posted over the coming days but if you want to dive straight in and see them all - go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katieinnz/sets/72157622606789289/

27 things at 27

Well I didn't go too badly with the list as a whole.

There are some things I just didn't do but that's okay. If they're still important to me I've added them to my 28 list (yes I am doing this all over again!) perhaps with different wording or making them more measurable. If they're not important for me for my 28th year then c'est la vie - life changes and so do I.

There are also some of the mammoth tasks (i.e. requiring weekly or daily actions) where I was one or two off the total but that's alright - if I got more than 95% I'm calling it done and drawing a line under it! These last 5 weeks have been pretty different to how I had planned and I have to accept that some of these things just weren't a priority.

So out of the 27 things on the list - I completed (or will complete once I've got past the end of today!) 22 (hey - my lucky number) of the items.

Out of the 5 I didn't d0 - 2 have been ditched as they are not a priority for this next year and 3 have been reshaped and added to the 28 list.

The 28 list is only handwritten at this stage but I'll get it on here some time soon.

And I would recommend something like this - so much more fun than new years resolutions :-)

Wedding Favours

I've been busy this week organising the favours for the wedding. I decided to make origami boxes for the favours. Anything involving paper and my hands is always good!

So here they are above - the pink bases and the start of the name tags.

And below - I've now folded the blue lids as well and even made a set of tags and boxes for me and Graeme - although we will only be getting part favours...trying to keep it a surprise so can't spill too much just yet!

I've also found pink ribbon to match the flowers and ordered some black and white tartan (which I hope will be here in time!) that's the closest match I can get to Graeme's kilt. I will tie the ribbon round the boxes and then tie on the name tags. These will then be the place name settings at the table.
Gorgeous huh?!

Birthday Blog

Today is my 28th birthday. I must say it's been quite a strange birthday. Not bad by any means, just strange with everything else we've got going on at the moment!

I finished work yesterday so I could take my birthday off but Graeme was still at work today. He was also out for pre-wedding drinks with the football lot last night so was perhaps a little worse for wear this morning (!) but still managed to wish me a happy birthday and show plenty of enthusiasm for me opening my presents and cards before he went off to work.

I did well with presents and got some books, a CD, some British chocolate, a Kate pen, a gorgeous tiny plate to keep my rings on when I'm not wearing them, some British pounds and some cute heart window stickers. Lucky girl :-)

As it was Graeme's last day at work - they held a morning tea for him and had decorated his desk 'wedding style'. I went in to see everyone and must say Graeme looked very fetching in the veil they made him wear :-) I didn't have the camera with me...and even if I did I'm not sure he'd let me publish the photos!

After leaving Graeme to do some work I took a stroll back to the car via George Street which is a lovely little boutique-y type shopping street. I decided I may as well spoil myself just a little and had a stroll round the shops.

I bought a few 'nick-nacks' including this tiny K & G - sorry for the bad quality photo. I collect K & G's and have them scattered about the house! The little symbols on the G are 'Buzzy Bees' - a true kiwi icon.

I also couldn't resist this sign as soon as I saw it! And I didn't know Rhett could read but he obviously can because he has been in and out of the back door all day long. And it was raining so I had to dry him off everytime he came in! He really does have ants in his pants at the moment. I think he is picking up on my slight anxious/stress/worry-ness that's in the air....it's all getting a bit close now and I am feeling a little restless myself.

And finally - here's the freshly dusted and reorganised mantle piece with my birthday cards. They're not all here yet - apparently there's a couple more on their way over with my Mum.

And that was my 28th birthday :-)