Sunday 30 June 2013

26/52

"A portrait of my husband and our marriage, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Richard: Protector from all things that go bump in the night.


We: Lazy mornings where you end up sitting on the kitchen bench in your pj's, drinking chai and drawing pictures of the night sky. School holidays!

Check out these two gorgeous kids portraits from last week; exploring dewy meadows and a little queen at play

Participating in the 52 Portraits series led by Jodi at Che & Fidel. You can view all of my weekly portraits by clicking on the button in the sidebar.

Belinda x

Sunday 23 June 2013

25/52

"A portrait of my husband and our marriage, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Richard: Virgo dreamer. Your hungry mind constantly needs something to obsess about and explore. You are more introvert than many realise.


We: thrive on our differences and bring out the best in each other. For the most part, there is balance in my Water, his Earth.

Participating in the 52 Portraits series led by Jodi at Che & Fidel. You can view all of my weekly portraits by clicking on the button in the sidebar.

Belinda x

Sunday 16 June 2013

Love Notes


I sent him this fun little love note during the week, via Instagram. I made it myself, messing around with the new A Beautiful Mess app.

I've been feeling miserable and poorly with a cold over the last few days.  He just sent me this, via email.


Modern day romance huh ;-)

Hope you have a wonderful week.

Belinda x

24/52

 "A portrait of my husband and our marriage, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Richard: tinkering and training for an epic adventure race*.


We: are slowly working our way towards family bike rides. Despite spills and tears, she keeps trying and her confidence is growing.

Last week, this portrait warmed my heart. Almost a centenary between this pair, so precious!

Participating in the 52 Portraits series led by Jodi at Che & Fidel. You can view all of my weekly portraits by clicking on the button in the sidebar.

Belinda x


*incorporates mountain biking, kayaking, trail running and navigation on a secret course for up to six hours.

Saturday 15 June 2013

Community



Reflecting on the past year or so, it's become quite clear that I've been in the midst of my own creative renaissance. It all started, funnily enough with a class called The Nursery. It sparked something. I remember being really quite nervous to attend but I'll never forget the feeling afterwards having spent a day with like-minded people, learning and creating. I sat across the dinner table from Richard that night, eyes alight and talking at pace, euphoric. 


Since then, it's been a fairly steady stream of creative classes, crafternoons and workshops. It's been a really organic, almost sub-conscious process. I've felt compelled down this path, more and more it feels like I'm listening to my heart. Having a creative outlet balances out EVERYTHING else.


Rich always teases me about being shy in social situations. He is the one who can get into a deep discussion with a stranger about the merits of compression pants or some such. I'm much more comfortable once a connection has been established. Meeting new people can be awkward, daunting. Just the term 'networking' makes me shudder. But I tell you what, each time I've gone to a class or workshop, I've met at least one person that I really like chatting to and oftentimes, stay in touch with. And it's such a nice thing!


I'm realising that the connections with people, being a part of a community, this is inspiring me as much as the learning of things. This blog and the community of incredible people that I connect with in the blogosphere was the initial catalyst for this renaissance. 


Rachel Botsman gave a fantastic TED talk about how technology is enabling us to get back to the community philosophies that are intrinsically human. Moving away from the culture of Me, hyper-consumerism and greed that has dominated the last few decades, and back to a culture of We, of community, sustainability, sharing, connecting. If it weren't for social media platforms, I might never have come across all of these creative people and opportunities to learn and share. The internet is making it easier for us to connect to our global village. 


Thanks to Facebook and Instagram, I now have a beautiful hand made wall tapestry created by Maryanne Moodie, dream weaver extraordinaire. And, when weaving classes taught by Maryanne opened up at The School last month, I took a deep breath, ignored those usual first thoughts of apprehension and registered. Maryanne is as great a teacher as she is a weaver. And Megan Morton is the ultimate host. We delighted in the make your own pavlova trolley that was organised for afternoon tea - SO. Flipping. Good. Weaving is such a rewarding and addictive craft, you can achieve the most amazing creations if you know a few simple basics.

If you're in Brisbane or Hobart, I think there are still spots in Maryanne's final classes before she moves to NYC. The most beautiful, fun, inspiring few hours you could hope for, with a bunch of nice folks. Cannot recommend it enough. You can book here.


I'd love to hear about any great classes or creative communities out there, online or in real life. If you know of any please do share in the comments below.


Belinda x

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Vivid Festival 2013


A few shots from last weekend, taken as we explored Sydney's annual festival of light.  With loads of creative and interactive light installations to be discovered around the harbour foreshore, it's a pretty special time to be in Sydney. It's particularly special to Rich and I as he proposed during Vivid four years ago, you can read the story here.

We loved the extra day off thanks to the Queen's Birthday public holiday. We spent it de-cluttering and getting a stack of odd jobs done 
around the house. It feels great, I feel SO refreshed! De-clutter your house and de-clutter your mind, so they say...

How was your weekend?

Belinda x

Sunday 9 June 2013

23/52

"A portrait of my husband and our marriage, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Richard: Four years ago this weekend, he sat across from me in this same restaurant, with a diamond ring hidden in his pocket. 
 (More here)

We: recalled this milestone with dinner at "our" place, then arm in arm we wandered through the harbour city streets soaking up the lights of the Vivid Festival. My heart is full.

Participating in the 52 Portraits series led by Jodi at Che & Fidel. You can view all of my weekly portraits by clicking on the button in the sidebar.

Belinda x

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Our wedding story


On 19th September 2010, Richard and I were married. To the incredible sounds of a local Fijian village choir, we met each other under a white cabana thoughtfully laden with palms and birds of paradise. We stood hand in hand, on a traditional Tapa cloth laid delicately down on the white sand.

It was just him and me. We made our vows to one another, in the presence of the ocean, the earth, the sun and the wind. It was powerful, simple, beautiful and I've never felt so completely at peace and happy.


We made the decision to elope. It was personal and perfect but we also made a promise to share the celebration with our family and friends. Almost two and a half years later, we delivered on that promise and held a laid back party filled with pure joy and our loved ones.

Waiting this long, meant amongst other things, that we were in a better position financially to put on the party we wanted. And, The Little One would be old enough to play an integral part and always remember the special day we made our promises to her as parents.


We wanted a relaxed picnic style event, in a rustic setting, with great music, amazing food and lots of fun. It was not a wedding do-over, it was to be a continuation of our perfect day in Fiji.


We had a very clear vision of what we wanted, but lacked the time to execute. So we hired planners and shared our brief: a natural, home-style, old-fashioned, informal family gathering. They earned their stripes right away by finding our perfect venue. The gorgeous, rustic, truly special Sunnybrook Barn located on an incredible property owned by the Sydney Polo Club . Nestled beside the Hawkesbury River and the foot of the Blue Mountains. We envisaged everyone kicking off their shoes and sprawling out on picnic blankets, hay bales and chairs on the grassy lawn beside the barn, sipping cider and eating cake in the warm Autumn sun.


Of course, we planned every last detail, but the one thing we couldn't plan for was the weather. It rained and rained and rained for the whole week prior to the party, so by the time the weekend rolled by the Barn was practically floating on a sodden lawn.


The team at Sydney Polo Club were very accommodating and offered us the use of another barn that they had on the property - who else has a spare barn, I mean really?!! The Polo Barn was larger, incredibly grand, less rustic than our beloved Sunnybrook barn. It didn't quite 'fit the brief' but it meant our guests would stay dry. After a last minute call with our event planners the night before (!) we made a flurry of changes to our styling plan in order to move our picnic style event indoors. We fit everything into the new floor plan and set the few tables we had with picnic blankets as the tablecloths, picnic baskets as table centrepieces, we set up cosy corners with cushions and hay bales. It all came together beautifully. I was amazed and SO relieved. Crisis averted!


On the day, we arrived before our guests to ensure all of our changes were on track and to snap a few quiet photos. When it was time to wander over and greet our guests the first thing that struck me were all the kids running around. A third of the guests were children and they really made it the joyous, family oriented day we were hoping for.


Under a garden pavilion, guided by our dear friend and talented celebrant Kirsten Carter, Rich and I looked at each other and shared words of love and gratitude. As we made our promises to The Little One, we hung the most beautiful keepsake locket around her neck. Family photos inside and engraved on the back a favourite quote from A. A. Milne; 


"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think". 


I will never forget the look of pride on her face in that moment, it makes me teary even now.


The party was so much fun! Incredible food, a kids tee-pee / games zone, an old school photo booth and an ah-mazing New Orleans style band all made for a perfect afternoon.


I am SO excited to share the photos of the day. It surpassed all of our expectations and was so wonderfully special. Plus! We were blessed to have the amazingly talented Claire Connell to capture the day for us. I'm sure most of you reading will know of Claire and her blog, One Claire Day. I've long been in awe of the images Claire can create, they are always so beautiful and have such an effortless and natural feeling to them. After chatting on email and skype before the day, I knew she was a perfect match for us and I trusted her completely.


It took me a LONG time to choose photos for this post. I think perhaps there's still too many for a single blog post, but I hope you'll understand my indulgence!


Special thanks to my brother Brett who beautifully interpreted for my parents, aunt and uncle.




We were lucky to have the most incredible team of people that helped make the day so unforgettable. Every single element was perfect.

Photography by Claire Connell Photography

Civil celebrant Kirsten Carter
Cakes by Simple Ingredients, plus my Mum's famous chilled Lemon cheesecake.

Catering by CM Catering
Photobooth by The Original Photo Co
Flowers by Alex Davy Flowers
Music by Geoff Bull and the Finer Cuts
Event planners Fusion Weddings
Flower girl dress handmade by Olive & Fern 

Belinda x

PS. If you are receiving my posts via email, I'm so sorry about the formatting. It's only just come to my attention that my posts and particularly the formatting of pictures via email don't look the way they do on the blog or on mobile readers. This post via email would have been a nightmare. This bothers me, alot! I'm currently looking into it. Don't forget you can follow Elsie and Joan via Blogger or Bloglovin or find me on Facebook to receive updates.
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