surfacing

...

Wow, how can it be that 5 days of the holidays have already flown by? It seems like this break is going by much too quickly and my to-do list seems just as long as when the holidays started. My excuse? - I have have been a little distracted with wedding ideas ;)
We had a lovely little getaway down to the South Coast with Morgan's family over the weekend, which was perfectly relaxing. So much so that the camera had a little rest too & I hardly took any photos.
But here are a few happy snaps.

my sister-in-law-to-be (love this term!)
My what BIG feet u have & cute little $6 Target flats :)
dewdrops.
this ring, love M.

the view from the top.
oh dear!
M had the camera so their all shots of me.. this tower was so very high!
family :)
mwa!

Engaged.

"When I get married I want to be very married" - Audery Hepburn

This is the sweet little sparkle that keeps catching my eye and making me smile. I adore it's antique style, the promise of a life together that it holds & the memory of my best friend kneeling before me and asking if I would be his forever.

And a shot of it on my crazy skinny little finger - we had to have it made from scratch as they couldn't resize the original down that small! I had to try each ring on with tissue stuffed at the back to see how they would look. Even now it is still a little bit big, so we will probally have to have it resized but for now I am enjoying the look of it on my hand (and I am sure Morgan is too!)

Well we are off to a mini weekend away down the south coast complete with new stack of bridal magazines, a new book, scarfs, gloves and lovely new (on sale) jacket yay!
Have a great weekend all, whether it is snuggling up by the fire, or lazing by the pool :)

Forever...

So I guess I have a bit of exciting news to share..
Last night my sweet Morgan came and picked me up from the station after college (Which is not really that uncommon) I was under the impression that we were going straight home, until he took a different turn off and took me to 'our' waterfront - the place where he asked me if I would 'officially go out with him' - the place we have visited a dozen times since talking, laughing, sharing, doing bible devotionals, bike riding and just being together. It was dark as we pulled up but I could just make out the silhouette of a picnic table covered in a white tablecloth, candles and the cutest little home-made 'reserved sign'. We rugged up in jackets and blankets and chatted and nibbled away on cheese and bikkies and then as we walked hand in hand to the edge of the waterfront M pulled out a little jewelry box, got down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him!! I don't think the words 'yes' followed by 'yes yes yes oh yes!' could of come out out my mouth any quicker!

The ring is absolutely beautiful - a dainty little antique white gold ring with lots of little sparkles I love it - but even more than the ring itself I love what to me it symbolizes, what I see when I look at it that causes my eyes to fill with the happiest tears.

This ring means me and him forever - in God's perfect design.
learning, growing and loving through life together.
Through the good times and through the bad.
Being each others support, comfort, encouragement and strength.
Our own little family unit.
It's still so surreal!
but yeah girls I am officially GETTING MARRIED to my best friend!! Yeah!!

ooh and the photos are courtesy of M for the memories and because he knew I'd want to blog about it naaww!

i love my family

haha oh how I LOVE this girlie!!

And her momma and her dadda too!
I am so excited that I get to HANG OUT with Keke and my cousin Larissa this coming weekend! They are visiting for a few weeks from Dubai to celebrate my cousin Rachel's engagement. M and I are helping Larissa to put together a secret something for the event. I will fill you in, but for now it's all hush hush :)
We will also throw in some hugs, many laughs, some sewing for little ones and non-stop-talking I am sure (we have SO much to catch up on- msn just dosen't cut it!) I will also get to see the latest Keke addition...

the cutest little pony tail!

I am also excited to spend some quality time with them during my upcoming holidays too :)

and one more photo I couldn't resist putting in.. cause that Keke Monkey?! well she's so stinkin cute!!

Miss Mac #3

My dad's family seem to like even numbers.
There are six children in his family - 3 boys and 3 girls.
Each of these six children have two children.
Which makes 12 grand children - and yeah you guessed it...
there are 6 girls and 6 boys!
Each son had just one daughter.
The McAllan girls...
Miss Mac 1,2 & 3
And we all adore one another (well I know I adore them)
We are also all June babies. I love sharing this special month with them :)

Miss Mac #1 is super easy to buy for.. mostly because we are so similar and share a similar taste in clothes, music, accessories, are not far in age from one another and are both very creative (Sarey is currently studying fashion & costume design). I had a little trouble thinking up what to make for Miss Mac #3 to celebrate her 14th birthday though. I knew I wanted to make her something, because that's just fun and I was hankering to sew something!
Hannie is not super 'girly' and she adores horses, so I wanted to incorporate that in too.
So I made 'Hanna's barn tote'...

(I also realized just how 'girly' my fabric stash is!)

It was very easy I make - it only took a evening. For the horse motif I googled a horse silhouette, enlarged it in word, printed and used it as a stencil to cut the fabric to shape. I used visa fix to adhere it to the tote and then zig zag stitched around the edges. (if you are doing this yourself make sure to iron the visafix to the fabric scrap before you cut the shape out).

I'm so happy that it worked out - I had no idea how that horse motif was going to turn out!
As Hannie & her family live in the States *sniff* I also added in some of her favourite Aussie lollies - like minties.
Oh how I miss this little lady, Can't wait to visit her this coming March in Chicago - yeah!

Hanna at a horse show (isn't she cute!).

And thanks everyone for your sweet comments about my party it really was as fun and as beautiful as it looked :)

twenty1

Sorry for leaving you all hanging there for over a week ;)
It's been busy. Too busy!
But are you ready for a picture heavy post? a long one..

I was lucky enough to have my 21st land on a Saturday and to make the day extra long we celebrated with friends and family with a yummy brunch in the morning and then Morgan and I were to have a hot date in the night time - which we ended up spending in the Emergency Ward at the hospital... But I'll get to that ;)

Morgan's mum and dad were so sweet to open up their beautiful home for me to celebrate my special day. Letting me take over their lounge room, helping organize, rounding up chairs (so they would all match - thanks Craig!) helping to set up on the Friday night and allowing me to go crazy with my decorating ideas - like hanging hooks out of their light fittings! It meant so much and I truly am so blessed to know these wonderful people!

So first let me first set the scene for you - the beautiful Ayling abode. On a gorgeously sunny wintery morning overlooking Morgan's mums rose garden and the fountain which was turned on for the occasion. And yes their house is 'pink' - the colour they brought the house in, not their chosen colour!

We made chalk board signs to direct guests where to park and up the pathway to the lounge room where the party was being held. It was fun to watch the guests following the path and signs up to the party, presents in hand :)

All the furniture was taken out of the lounge room and replaced with prettily decorated trestle tables.

We made the table runners out of some amazing black and white fabric I found on the clearance rack at Spotlight for only $2 a metre! It happened to be exactly wide enough to cute 5 out of and have enough left over to make something else - I love when that happens! When I saw this print I immediately thought of the invites and loved how it tied the whole theme together and matched the serviettes I had already picked out.

Taking inspiration from Martha Stewart I made tissue paper pom poms which dad cleverly hung up with hooks and fishing line, strategically over each table. The Blue and green poms were particularly effective under the lights reflecting pretty colours on the ceiling. If your wondering I used this tutorial - doing a mixture of pointy and curved ends - as Niki pointed out my green mock pom looked like a floating iceberg lettuce - too funny!

I really wanted this lady to make me one of her special banners.. but due to time it just didn't work out. So she said I could copy her idea and I used one of her other banners I own as a template. If you like you can buy one from her etsy shop here. I also made some more circle banners for added bursts of colour.

We used the bar as a self serve coffee and tea buffet and had a pretty glass jug of juice on each table.
And here is the lolly bar looking all pretty. It was such a hit, even my grandparents were frequent visitors to the table and I am pretty sure nobody left without a little goody bag all pegged up. There was an assortment of gummy bears, fizzers, violet crumbles, maltersers, starbust lollies, chuppa chups and huge marshmellows - yummy!

Here is my Aunt filling up her little goody bag.

(had to take another photo - the others were blurry!)

My Dad gave a special speech and Morgan put together a slideshow which I hadn't seen before that day, it was very sweet. He added in a lot of my favourite tunes, like The Weepies :)

Towards the end of the party we headed out onto the lawn and took some family and friend shots - these are some of my favourites!

I got some amazing presents and truly was so blessed. This guy and his family brought me a real pandora braclet! and Luke even picked out the perfect little bird bead :) Another favourite present was a bunch of baking pans and a sweet little cookbook titled 'I Love Sugar'. And this Super Amazing lady and her equally lovely husband really outdid themselves and brought me an overlocker!!! Can you believe it? I was flabbergasted! ooh and apparently the lower looper is self threading too - so exciting! I can't wait to start sewing on it :) Thank you Niki, this is such an amazing gift - so very me and something that I will use for many many years and will be able to think of you guys and our beautiful friendship each time I use it.
thank you thank you thank you!

oh and here is what Morgan was doing when he hurt his arm... Whoever thought that was a genius idea and why?! Boys will be boys (no matter how old!)... He had to have x-rays and took a week of work.. luckily it is healing now (just very bruised!) And that is why i spent the night of my 21st in the hospital! But he did make it up to me with a date last weekend :) I think it's safe to say he won't be doing that again anytime soon!

So overall the best party I think I have ever had!! Now to make the thank you cards ;)

in the morning post

Anyone who knows me well knows that gifts are my primary love language. It's how I feel and show love. I really enjoy searching for the perfect gift for a friend, picking (or making) the perfect card and creatively thinking of a way of wrapping it all up. I also love receiving - no gift is too small or silly to me because it tells me that someone was thinking of me & loves me.
So can you imagine the thrill I got this morning when a package from the lovely Dawna showed up on my doorstep! Even though it was beautifully wrapped (brown paper, string and all) this package didn't stay unwrapped for long, because I knew whatever was inside was going to be good ;)
And I was right! I literally squealed with happiness when I opened it.

Inside was an Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow Pattern which I have been eying for months and some of the most amazingly beautiful fat quarters ever. I can hardly wait to make something out of these! Aren't the colours just gorgeous? and such pretty prints too. And I love the way Dawna has put together little scrap paper holders for each set, details like that totally excite me!
It was definitely the best way to start the morning!

And look at the pretty card (probably my favourite from this birthday) Adore the simplicity, the bird motif (and his little feather) and the blues and greens - my favourite colours at the moment :)
It still awes me these amazing connections I have made over the Internet.
How a friend I have never met in real life and who is SO many kilometres (sorry miles ;) away could just so totally get me - even more than some of my friends and family!
It was just like I was reading on Wendi's blog this week, we share so much of ourselves in these spaces, we read all about each others lives, our likes, our dislikes, our failures and our triumphs (as well as a dozen other things!). We "blog what is in our hearts" , and not in the way we would speak to someone we see regularly and we really get to know one another and we form these beautiful friendships - which 'unbloggers' find hard to understand but which we know is so amazing!
Anyway Wendi, I think you said that so much better than me ;)

And Dawna thank you for my present - it was beautiful & has made my day :)
I love how my birthday can just drag on for weeks ;)
And speaking of birthdays my major assessment is now over (hurrah!) and I just got my memory card back from Morgan (who had it in his computer all week) so stay tuned for a (probally lenghty) b'day post of the best party I have ever had. I can't wait to share!

Thank you

To my boy.. the sweetest one there is in the whole wide world for my beautiful & surprising birthday post & for currently making me a hot chocolate one handed!
To my blogging buddies for all your sweet birthday comments, facebook messages, emails and well wishes!
To my friends and family for my making my day totally awesome & for the BEST presents!
and to God for providing a perfectly blue sky and sunshine :)

I can't wait to share all the photos and details with you all but right now we just got home from a trip to the hospital emergency room because morgan thought he would try to 'fly' off the fountain onto the grass (yeah i STILL love this boy!!). He's ok just some swelling he's wearing a sling, luckily he still has the use of his left hand!
Off for some hot chocolate and a one armed snuggle and then to bed.

kt
x

To my best friend, the birthday girl ...

My love, happy 21st birthday!!!

I just wanted to pop in and say, CONGRATULATIONS!! A little bloggy birthday surprise to start off this wonderful day with a smile:)

You are an incredibly talented young woman and give your best at everything you do.
Your skill and your passion for all things creative still astonishes me!
You are capable of so much and even though your ways do sometimes get on my nerve (sorry!), whatever you're brewing in that gorgeous head of yours always leaves me in awe. Anyone only has to read through this blog you have created to find that out for themselves.
You are so much fun to be with, and I cant wait to spend the rest of my life with you...

Though this year may be full of tough times with college and with finding a career out of it, it will also be filled with fun times and good memories that I promise, we will both share forever.
I know you will make it through this year and finish it with you absolute best.



It's not long now, until your family and friends meet here with us to celebrate your birthday too, I hope you enjoy your party, seeing everyone and getting lotsa prezzies:) ...PS you have done an amazing job with the decorating of my lounge room! haha

I must add, even though out of the two of us, you are the first to reach 21, it is an amazing acheivement and I am so proud of you honey...

Katie, I love you so much
Your M

Truth

Love the cuteness of this print.
The quote is so definitely me.. probably a little too much ;)
print by Made by Girl from here.