Anyone for a coffee at my place?

Okay so I admit April was a little busier than usual therefore very little blogging was done. I managed to keep reading all of my favourite blogs and am feeling the month of May will be a little more successful. Note: busy doesn't really mean that busy for me, I still manage to watch plenty of TV! Priorities priorities! 

I have committed to Fat Mum Slim's May photo a day challenge. Follow me on Instagram to keep up-to-date with my photos, I am fairly obsessed with Instagram. Profile name is simmoneclifford. It's my first photo a day challenge and I can see myself getting very addicted.

As you may remember my wedding photos took longer than expected due to the delay in getting our long awaited wedding coffee table book. Well it finally arrived, a few weeks ago now and here are some amazing pics of all its awesomeness. 

Now I want a new coffee table to place it on and want to have anyone and everyone over for coffee to peruse my 'coffee table book'!! I absolutely love it and am so happy with the quality and the photos chosen by our photographer Alastair Bett. He was such an excellent photographer and I believe his work speaks for itself. Thank you Al for taking such wonderful photos of our wedding and helping to make the day easy and organised. You are amazing.

I apologise for the very terrible quality of these photos, I am still waiting for a damn new camera although it is my own fault as I haven't sat down and done the research to determine what I would like. So these iPhone pics will just have to do for now.

Talk soon, 
 

A New Direction

With my new blog header and layout (what do you think? I am pretty proud of it) comes a new focus for my blog.  I want it to be more refined with definition and direction.  I want it to be themed with clear interest and passion.  I want it to inspire and awaken the enthusiasm in others.

I am tired of my little blog being left behind, the last thing on my list, it excites me, I find it both therapeutic and enjoyable as well as challenging.  It helps me to develop my thoughts, overcome my obstacles and to grow as a person, so for this reason I not only want to but MUST devote more time to it.

I want to create more posts on and about weddings and love stories, I love weddings, I love planning and I love LOVE.  I want to talk more about my travels and share the experiences I have had in places other than home. I want to help others to make travel decisions or get more out of their experiences.  I want to share tips and tricks on achievements that I have already accomplished, not that I am an expert but experience speaks for itself.  I want to post enough that I am not just always updating on my life but actually sharing something of value to others.  I want to create more photo posts, to take more photos.  I want to create so many more photo posts it's not funny, photos speak for themselves.

So there you have it, I am planning and setting goals, I am feeling inspired and I hope I can hold onto this inspiration.  I am feeling like I am able to achieve something that I really want to do and I refuse to let anything get in the way.  I promise you that you can expect positive change here at Hakuna Matata.  With a wedding post to come this weekend, stay tuned.

Talk soon,

P.S. some of my old posts might look a little wrong in the way of formatting until I re-edit them to my new blog size, be patient :) 

Collateral Damage

I haven't really felt like blogging lately. My mind hasn't been in the best place. I found out from the GP a fortnight ago that I had more than sprained my knee. I had torn something in my knee and needed to be referred to a specialist. A week later I saw the specialist who confirmed that I have torn my Medial Collateral Ligament and strained my Posterior Cruciate Ligament  The GP had been a little wrong in his diagnosis of a torn meniscus but not as incorrect as the GP who told me it was just a sprain and sent me on my merry way.

Thankfully after five days of little improvement I took myself back to the doctor to get a second opinion. Who knows how long I could have been walking around thinking my knee was sprained. Unfortunately for me this kind of tear must be operated on, it tore where it joined my bone and has rolled down on itself, I have to have surgery to unroll the ligament and reattach it to the bone. This all has to be done within around four weeks of the tear before the ligament starts healing to itself (another reason I was lucky I went back to the doctor). So this Wednesday I go under the knife. Unfortunately this ligament cannot be repaired via arthroscopic surgery (key hole) as the ligament is wide and not located in the knee joint, I will have to have a little square cut in my leg. I have to stay overnight in hospital, take at least a week off work and spend 6-8 weeks in a knee brace. 

meet Buddy, my companion for the next few months :(
we don't always get along

Along with the usual life pressures this has challenged my mood and I have been a little grumpy and sad. I am scared about surgery, about the pain and about waking up from antiseptic but I know it needs to be done. I just want Wednesday to hurry up and be over already. Wednesday will be four weeks since my crash and I want to start seeing an improvement. I have only been wearing my brace for six days and I am already so sick of it and I haven't had to wear it to bed yet which I expect to after surgery. I am tired of the pains in my back, hips and calves and I just want to stretch. I am not looking forward to arriving at the hospital at 7.30am and not being able to have even a sip of water. I drink a lot of water, this is going to kill me! But it may do a nice job of distracting me from thinking about surgery. 

I have the best surgeon, he is just awesome and I am confident everything will be just fine. After all he does this stuff three days a week. My knee is to him what Microsoft Word is to me, second nature. Every man and his dog seems to have had surgery done on one of the four ligaments in their knee and have been telling me it takes forever to heal and a lot of physiotherapy, damn it I just want to bend my darn leg already. I am yet to find someone else who has torn their MCL and the surgeon said he has only seen one other tear to this ligament before. Great, I seriously am the most uncoordinated weirdo ever born!

So if my coming posts have a slightly negative style, this is probably why. But hey, I am only human and everyone feels crappy once in a while. Getting my wedding photos would surely lift my mood but nope still no photos :( Maybe if the husband makes me pancakes and buys me a camera I will feel better! Anyway thank you for joining my pity party I look forward to talking soon...hopefully I will be in a better mood! I will endeavour to use my time away from work to read all of the books I have started and have been meaning to read, that sounds nice and positive, look at me I am setting goals!

Anyone for some concrete?

You may have noticed after a long weekend of blogging I was a little quiet the weekend just gone. Well my mind (and body) were not in the best place. I injured myself in a bike crash last week (more on that to come) and was limping around in pain for three days at work, add an extra stressful working week and I wasn't the nicest girl to be around. I figured I wouldn't force my nasty mood onto anyone who didn't have to listen to me, hence I refrained from blogging. Sitting at the computer desk was also not the most comfortable either. 

me grumpy after a very wet ride home a few months back!

Is my mind much better a week later? No, not really. To be honest, I need to swallow a cup of concrete and harden up. Limping around for week is really nothing to be upset about compared to what others have to deal with. Alex told me yesterday that I need to stop feeling sorry for myself. But in my defence, I am getting extremely frustrated with the amount of time it takes to do the most simple things and my muscles are aching and begging for a stretch because I am walking differently and carrying my weight differently. If I could just sink into some amazing yoga stretches for the hamstrings and hips I would feel so much better but with a knee that barely bends or straightens this is kind of impossible, sometimes I am so agitated I just want to chop my leg off. 

a very fat and ugly knee of mine

I am off to the doctor tomorrow to get the final verdict on this knee of mine, is it just a simple sprain or have I done something more serious? After throwing a heap of money at the doctor and a machine I might just find out it is merely a sprain in which case I will feel rather silly and embarrassed, and all sympathy from Alex will be out the window from that point forward. But of course that would be the best outcome. Having never had a sprained knee before I am not sure how long it should take to recover and regain the movement of my leg. Having sprained my ankles numerous times they usually heel up to normal walking point within 3-4 days with pain continuing for specific movements for a few weeks depending on the severity of the sprain. Well I currently cannot straighten my leg or bend it at more than a right angle and twisting is out of the question. I have been limping for a week and my calf muscle is pinching and aching, I think from walking differently. 

Anyway I will find out tomorrow and maybe then my mood might get better, at least then I will know what I am dealing with. 

Talk soon,

P.S. we should get our wedding photos very soon, plus our printed coffee table book which I am really excited about! It is the book that is holding it everything up but I am sure it will be worth the wait.

Where did the time go...

The 12th of January 2013 has been and gone, that's right my wedding has happened!! My honeymoon has happened! Where did the time go? Life is slowly getting back to 'normal'. In theory now that the wedding is over I should have plenty of time to blog but lets not make any promises just yet!

My wedding day was truly brilliant, the best day of my life so far. Once I receive my professional photos (which should be soon) I will post more about the day but, in short, it really was a perfect day which couldn't have been any better. Plenty of guests left saying it was the best wedding they had ever been too. There were tears and laughter, dancing and singing and plenty of love. 

The honeymoon in Thailand was also very awesome, I am in love with Thailand and can't wait to go back there someday. Thai people are so giving and their food is amazing plus they live in a very beautiful country.

Lately I find myself wasting hours re-reading our wedding cards, re-reading our guest book and going over the same photos on facebook. I just want to relive our wedding day, I am sad it's over and that I never get to do it again but it's also very awesome being married and being able to call Alex my husband.

We both went back to work this week which was a bit of a challenge and our body clocks are taking sometime to get used to the working hours after five weeks away. My body is also begging me to eat a little healthier and get moving a little more. Back riding the bike to work was also a little challenging after not riding for a month but that should get easier and quicker over the coming weeks. 

So now the weddings over what do I plan on doing with all my free time?? Well lots of blogging of course, I think now I will post more about the wedding then I did leading up to it. A little backward I know. Some travel posts are also in the works. I would also like to focus on doing some more exercise and riding on the weekends, spending time with family and getting my house organised. I really need to clean out cupboards, de-clutter and spring clean (in summer?). 

Talk soon,

Our Wedding - so far

I thought it was about time that I did a wedding post. I realised I still haven't outlined everything that has been planned so far and what I imagine our special day to be like, so here goes.

We are getting married on Saturday 12 January 2013 (a little under 2 months away!!!). 

The gorgeous staircase - Villa Howden

Venue: Our venue is the beautiful Villa Howden which is a luxurious boutique hotel located on Tassie's North West Bay. I am very confident in the venue and know that I can rely on the natural beauty of this place to make our day perfect and our photos amazing. The ceremony and reception will both be held at the hotel, I will be staying there the night before with my mum and Alex and I along with 19 of our guests will be staying there the night of our wedding. I love that there will be no mucking around with travelling or checking into hotels and that I can spend my entire weekend at the venue. They also have a conference room that will be our back up ceremony room in case of rain. The make-up artist and hairdresser will travel to the hotel to prettify us girls in one of the lovely suites, awesome!! Brian from Villa is brilliant and so accommodating and the food is something pretty special as well. The entrée and main will be served alternate drop, with the cake served as dessert. Canapes will be enjoyed in the grounds of the hotel prior to dinner. 

Bridal Gown: Obviously I can't say much at all about the gown! It is from Rayanne Bridal, who since I purchased has relocated to Launceston. I have heard mixed reports about Anne from Rayanne but I have to say she was a great help and gave sound honest advice. She even threw in my veil for free! She is the kind of person who is straight up and honest but so am I, so maybe that's why we hit it off. There was no hassle with her moving to Launceston, the dress came in around August, I paid for it and picked it up and spoke to the alterations person she employs who is located in Brighton. Around December I will give her a call and she will come to mum and dad's house (also in Brighton) to fit the dress! Easy peasy. I also got my bracelet (which I love to bits) from Rayanne Bridal.
Bridesmaid Dresses: The girls dresses are from Bridal Boutique in Hobart. The colour is a gorgeous champagne/latte colour. I love their dresses, they look beautiful in them. 
Groom and Groomsmen Suits: The boys suits are from Les Lees, which was perfect as some have decided to hire whilst others have purchased theirs.

One of Robyn's buttercream cakes

Cake: The cake is being made by Robyn from Heavenly Cakes of Indulgence. The cake took some thought as we are rather picky. We wanted a great tasting cake more than we wanted a traditional looking gorgeous wedding cakes. As our cake is getting served as dessert we really wanted it to be a tasty dessert cake. We did consider cupcakes but it seems silly when our cake is getting individually served on plates anyway. We both aren't fans of fondant icing (the traditional white icing) whilst it looks great, it doesn't taste very nice. It could have just been cut off before serving but I don't want to pay for something I am not going to eat. So instead we are having delicious buttercream which will be as smooth as Robyn can do. Under the buttercream will be chocolate ganache encasing a three tier raspberry and chocolate mud cake Mmm yum. There will be no flowers or ribbons as I like the idea of the entire thing being edible but there are some yummy edible decorations that Robyn is making! I can't wait to see it.
Music: We are having a string quartet for the ceremony only, Strings on Fire. A band will start after dinner around 8.30pm, the band, Ebeneza Good, took forever to find. I think we watched every band in Hobart and I am so happy with our final pick. The lead singer is confident and charismatic. I know now that everyone will be up on that dance floor dancing to a mixture of old and new tunes, just the way we want it. I have linked to a video of them their song list excites me I can't wait to dance the night away will my husband and family and friends!! 
Flowers: The gorgeous Ange from Harmony Flowers in Lauderdale will be doing our bouquets. We are having white lilies with baby's breath. I know at least two other brides who had their flowers done by Ange so I am really confident in her plus she is just so damn lovely and helpful. We are doing the boys bouttonneirs, the ceremony arch and isle and table centrepieces ourselves! 
Photographer: Our photographer is Al of Alastair Bett Photography. Again he was recommended to us by three different people and he is easy going and fun plus his photos are amazing! He will photograph us girls getting ready plus the boys (we will all be getting ready at the hotel) and he will stay well after dinner - perfect!

Celebrant: Our celebrant is Tom Payne. I really wanted a male celebrant (it just seemed more fitting to me) and Tom was celebrant to my brother's wedding so we have seen him first hand. This was a no brainer for me!

Hair: Jo from Shear Delite Hair & Beauty will be doing my hair, the bridesmaid's and mum's hair. 
Make-up: Karla from Sharkra Medispa will be doing our make-up as well as mum's. Karla has done my make-up already on two other occasions and I have been seeing her for 5 years for my facials every 8 weeks so she is just like a friend. She will doing our spray tans as well. Plus any other maintenance I may need *wink wink*. Karla and Sharkra were another no brainer for me.

Rings: Our rings are from Michael Hill which is where my engagement ring was purchased. We have these already and I just need to get my engagement ring rhodium plated in a few weeks.

Invitations: We made the invitations ourselves with cases and card purchased from Christina Re. 

The Prime Pool Villa at The Vijitt Resort!

Honeymoon: Sarah from Flight Centre, Liverpool Street organised our honeymoon with plenty of input from us. This was another plan that took us forever to reach a decision, we procrastinated for months. We really wanted somewhere tropical and relaxing but not too expensive. Sarah was really helpful and had plenty of experience and advice. We are spending five nights on Phuket at The Vijitt Resort in a prime pool villa with our own private pool and five nights on Phi Phi Island at the Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort and Spa. I cannot wait for this but we did totally go over budget...oh well I am positive it will be worth it!! 

So I am pretty organised. I am so glad I documented this, it makes me realise how much I have done. Now we just have the final crafty stuff and embellishments to organise! 

Happy Birthday

OMG what an incredibly busy few weeks I have had.  I measure my life by my weekends (sad I know) and the last three weekends have been jam packed with my own birthday celebrations, my bridal shower and a hens night plus lots more! 

Me on the Pancake Train!  

My birthday is on 4 November and this year I turned 25.  My celebrations started with dinner with Alex and my parents-in-law at Dede Indonesian and Thai Restaurant in North Hobart.  I love Thai food mmm yum. The following day both Alex and I took the day off work and when to the pancake place at the Margate Train, we sat for a few hours eating pancakes and reading the paper, it was really nice and relaxing. Alex had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup whilst I had chicken with pancakes, we then shared the scrumptious chocolate and banana pancakes for dessert! We spent the rest of the day shopping and he bought me three beautiful dresses for my birthday, he says one is sexy, one is cute and the other is beautiful, I think they are all great!

Amazing Chocolate and Banana Pancakes

Out to lunch with friends

The following day we had lunch with our friends at Barcelona in Salamanca and then wandered through the Salamanca Market absorbing all of the wonderful stalls but I was a good girl and didn't buy anything.  I must go to the Market more, they have some great stuff especially for unique gifts and the atmosphere is infectious.

Birthday cake!

Presents!

My man making me pancakes xx

I told you he is gorgeous!

On Sunday (my actual birthday) I had to beg Alex to get up out of bed and make me breakfast, pancakes (again).  I love pancakes. Then we visited mum and dad for a relaxing afternoon in the sun.  My brother, sister-in-law and nephew joined us all for a lovely dinner.  Mum made me an amazing half white chocolate, half dark chocolate mud cake, it was delicious.  Well done mum.  My gorgeous nephew kindly decorated it for me.  It really was the best cake ever. 

As far as presents go,  I was utterly spoilt.  Mum gave me an awesome shellac nail polish kit and light, I love being able to do my shellac nails myself!  I received flowers from my boss, dessert plates from my parents-in-law, dresses and nick-nacks from Alex plus lots more from friends.  I was a lucky girl!  

Thanks to everyone for my birthday well wishes and for helping my have a fantastic birthday! 

Blogging

Argh I am so sorry I haven't blogged since April :(  I seriously considered no longer having my blog as I obviously can't commit the time I would like to but I do love it so I will continue to blog when I can.  I will try to move it up a little on my priority list though!

The reasons I haven't blogged over the winter break?  Well I have been seriously immersing myself in wedding planning like mad.  I have so many wedding updates to do it just isn't funny, invitations, centrepieces, dress shopping, accessories shopping, cake tasting, music listening, the list goes on!!!!  And with only three months until our wedding date I still have so much I would like to do.
I have also been completing Certificate IV in Business Administration, which I am 2.5 modules away from finishing!  Thank god!  Work is flat chat acting in a different position and being short staffed most of the time, I barely have time to go to the loo!  Not really we have plenty of fun but there is heaps of work to get through.  

My mind is now in an awesome place and I feel content with myself, this is awesome.  More on that to come.
I am sad to say I haven't lost any weight :(  I really am hopelessly reliant on food and comfort eating.  But I have bought a bike and ride 7.2km to and from work every work day, 4-5 days a week.  So I am content knowing that I am being active and am reasonably fit.  I will continue to try and gain control over my comfort eating.  

Today I am off to a Tupperware Party at my mum's house, my sister-in-law has recently became a demonstrator and today is her first party.  Good luck Annalese.
Talk soon.

Welcome Back Sim

Okay so I have been unbelievably neglecting my blog and therefore neglecting myself, but I am back! And I am back with plenty more to report on.  Last week I was lucky enough to be part of my best friend's wedding and will give you all the details about that soon.  I hosted a hens party the weekend before and have attended a couple of psychologist appointments learning a lot about the mind that I can't wait to share.  


As far as my weight loss mission has been going...well it hasn't really at all.  I have been going to the gym about twice a week on average but I really need to eat healthier.  Unfortunately it didn't take long before I couldn't be bothered taking salads to work any more and now I buy my lunch everyday but I am not worried about that as I usually buy a salad sandwich, a wrap or sushi which is all pretty healthy.  It's my chippies addiction and need for food when stressed that is my downfall.  I seem to always feel stretched to the limit with too much to do. My weekends fly by with a Sunday evening to do list as long as the previous Friday's to do list.  I often feel like I am not getting anywhere hence always feeling overwhelmed and eating like I am going to run out of food.  It just makes me feel better and more in control.  I even schedule relaxation which begins to feel like a chore and everything is all about the clock and time.  I wish I could just forget about the time and do what I want when I want but there aren't many days like that.  I am beginning to think my comfort level for stress and busyness is pretty low, I look at others and feel I have nothing on my plate compared to them but I still feel the busyness and pressures of life.  Even fun things like meeting up with family and friends sometimes annoys me because all I want is time on my own.  I just have to come to terms with the fact that this is my comfort level and learn to say no without worrying about it.  So my goal is to say no more, even to lovely sounding things like dinner with family, unfortunately for me I just need plenty of time to myself! I am going to continue with at least two gym sessions a week at the least and try to cut out some of that mindless stressful eating.  


Today marks one year since my lovely man proposed to me, which leaves 10 months until our big day and boy do I have a lot to do.  I will update soon on where I am with my wedding plans.  With plenty more to share, talk soon. I will do my best to update more regularly!