I Choose Me!

In a world where selfishness is confused with self centered and ignorant,  it's little wonder that people are forgetting to put themselves first.

Having a full calender is seen as something to brag about,  but what about scheduling in time for hot dates with yourself to recharge your batteries?

Selfish or selfless?

Selfless because you know that you can't serve other people unless you look after yourself or selfish because how dare you bail from life's crazy momentum to capture a few rejuvenating moments for yourself?

Is it okay to choose me?

Is "I'm puffed" a worthy excuse for bailing?

To hell with societies unrealistic expectations on one's own self worth;  and raise your glasses,  chocolate filed bowls,  candles,  date night with the couch,  manicures,  movie marathons and solitude.

I choose me,  probably not often enough,  but when I do its oh so sweet.

When was the last time that you choose you?

Look after yourself and those around you, 

Kirsty xxx

Ps a sneak peak at the last time I choose me aka pretty new nails! 

#100happydays Challenge

There's something special in every single day,  it's just a matter of opening our eyes and truly seeing and appreciating the beauty in everything that surrounds us.

The #100happydays Challenge is just that;  being mindful and recognizing that happiness is all around us.

I'm a sucker at times for believing that happiness comes from the joy of working towards and achieving the big goals;  like a wedding day,  overseas holiday and renovating,  but the reality is that they are big ticket items that do bring loads of happiness,  but they also take time and money to achieve.

When I open my eyes and look around me I can see that I can find happiness in every single day of my life and simple pleasures that make me smile.

I'm at a point in my life,  where I'm sure many others have found themselves before,  where I feel stuck in abit of a work to earn money,  use money to pay the bills,  work more to try and get ahead type cycle. I feel as though I've achieved many of the big milestones and goals that I have set so far in my life now that i am happily married,  have traveled the world and have purchased property and now I'm content to settle down a little and start to make our life more comfortable.

Now, instead of finding happiness in the pursuit and saving for those big goals,  I'm having to turn my focus to find little pleasures in every single day so that I don't get caught up in feeling like we're not get anywhere past the bills.

That's when I saw that my best friend from The Secret Life of Samara had joined up to the #100happydays Challenge and I thought,  wow, what a great way to make myself stop and appreciate when I see beauty and fleeting moments of pure joy in my life.

So today's my first day of the Challenge and it just so happens to be a Saturday,  so already I'm feeling super relaxed and joyful about life because it's the weekend!

I guess the real challenge will be stopping and appreciating the little things during the work week in between rushing out the door,  hopping in my car for my 45 minute drive, pumping out 9 hours of pure brain straining productiveness,  jumping back into my car,  arriving home at 630, cooking tea and flopping on the couch exhausted!

But,  I am forever mindful that each day is a gift,  and that I truly am so blessed with everything I have in my life,  even if some days happiness comes from reminding yourself that you have your health,  shelter,  food,  love, employment and the opportunity to better your life through your decisions.

If you're keen to learn more about the happiness challenge than jump onto the website and sign up if you think it's something worth taking the time to do to bring more happiness into your life.

I look forward to making my already happy life even happier over the next 100 days.

#100happydays.

Look after yourself and those around you,

Kirsty xxx

Don't Tell the Guests; a Welcomed Reception

The announcement of Mr and Mrs Traeger into the room,  napkins turned into head pieces,  a million photos of photo booth bombing,  a tussle for the bouquet and garter,  a bridal dance with a twist,  a drunken father of the groom speech with snitzchel pack on repeat,   tinking of cups,  kisses, groping on the dance floor,  Nut Bush City Limit and a tower of hands and hugs upon leaving... All in one crazy,  fun,  full of love and laughter night amongst bunting,  candles,  Hessian and all things rustic!

Yup,  that pretty much sums up our reception; it certainly was a night that many won't forget for awhile. ..Oh and did I mention that we forgot to tell guests that the photo booth memories would be uploaded instantly onto Facebook?  I'm sure the photos made a few people laugh as they watched the festivities of the night pan out!

Ohhhh what a night!

So just how did the night unfold?

6pm - ish....

Well we arrived late to our very own party as we were caught up in the moment of capturing photos with our wedding party.

Upon arrival our MC introduced everyone one by one into the venue.

Ohhhh our MC; what a trooper! You know you're in for a good night when the MC tells the guests off for being lazy buggers for not standing and cheering after a speech.  After he proceeded to demand that every one stood up,  cheered, clapped and hoo harred the atmosphere was set for the rest of the night.

6:30pm ish...the speeches were split up between the devouring of the yummy meals!

We kicked off with the father of the bride and groom speeches followed by entrée,  the best man and bridesmaids speeches,  the cutting of the cake and then my husband's beautiful speech.

My father in law proceeded to tell the story of our first date; a shared snitzchel pack from the local deli.  After many digressions and drunken swaying he saved the day with a "well ummmm us blokes aren't very good at this but I um arrr really actually love Michael". It was super cute.

The photo booth proved to be a great hit; with lovely coupley photos at the start of the night to people bending each other over and sneaking in some sexually suggestive shots by the end!  The photos printed off straight away and everyone's table setting name placement doubled as a thank you keep sake for one special photo to slip inside to be taken open and placed on the fridge.

8:30ish....

All was going fantastic until the MC said it was time for the bridal Waltz...  Michael and I looked at each other and thought shit, the bridal dance...  we'd totally forgotten to organize something!!!  After rushing up to our band and giving them an idea of what we wanted, they whipped up a little something and we busted out this...

Needless to say it was probably my best memory of the whole night!!!

9ish...

Then came the garter toss.  My husband pretended to be a raging Spaniard who slid across the floor and came up under my dress with my garter in his mouth!

The girls had abit more of a tussle for my bouquet with some serious contenders up front ready for a fight to the end! 

9:30ish...

As the formalities wound down the dance floor fired up. I remember looking around and smiling because everyone looked like they were having a great time.

12:30ish...

Before we knew it,  it was 1230 and time to go.  After a quick change of  knickers into my sexy lingerie and a reapply of my lippy, a guard of honour was formed and we kissed and hugged goodbye to our beloved guests.

Excited yet exhausted yet buzzing yet happy we drove off to spend our first night as husband and wife.

My Advice For Those Planning Their Receoption

Photo booths are great fun and provide you with many photos and memories of your guests super relaxed and having fun!

Plate drops worked well and saved oodles of money!

Don't underestimate how much alcohol your guests can consume;  by 11 o clock our guests had drunken our $3000 bar tab and $1500 worth of wine!  We ended up putting another $1000 on the bar (that was for 160 people!)

Live music is well and truly worth every cent.  Yes it's cheaper to play an ipod but it doesn't create the same atmosphere as a band. Our band played a real mix of music from jazz to rock to old school new school and everything in between. Some of my best moments from the night are getting up and rocking out with our band, pretending to play the keyboard and seeing them going off! 

Hire your photographer and videographer for the reception too. The night truly went so fast that it has been awesome being able to watch our dvd to re listen to the speeches and to be able to watch the day and night unfold.  The celebrating is just as special as the ceremony and seeing the love,  hugs,  dancing and mingling between your families and different groups of friends is super special.  There's so much that we missed because it's impossible to take everything in but our photos and videos have helped to fill in the blanks. A wedding is one day but photos and videos are forever.

Don't go too overboard with decorations.  Think back to what you loved about a wedding.  Do you remember the centre pieces?  People may notice on the night when they first sit down but what makes the night is the couple,  food, music and atmosphere.  Spend more on these and less on the decorations and every one will leave with full bellies,  sore feet,  big smiles and a buzzing heart!

Don't forget a table and food for your band,  photographer and videographer.

Pick a good MC who knows you well and will create an atmosphere and flow to the night that reflects your relationship.

Break up speeches between meals and then people won't get bored.

Enjoy the night!  Don't stress over the little things just sit back and take it in all.  You won't be able to spend time with everyone so just make sure you're enjoying yourself.

What did we do different?

We decided to sit on the bridal table all by ourselves.  It gave us the opportunity to sit back,  relax and take the night in.  It meant that our bridal party could sit with their partners and enjoy the loved up occasion with them.  It truly was one of the best decisions that we made.  We got to steal little kisses and look around the room with so much love in our hearts seeing everyone mingling.  It felt like going out to dinner on a cute little date but when you look around the room you know everyone.  People approached us for a chat and photo opportunity instead of us having to race around like headless chooks to spend a fleeting moment with everyone.  I'm so glad we broke tradition because I'm so grateful for that time with my husband.

What did you do differently at your reception?

How did your night unfold? 

Look after yourself and those around you,

Kirsty xxx

What's Your Life Dream?

Be it big or small,  everyone has at least one big achievement that they dream of accomplishing in their life.

It could be to write a book,  learn how to cook fresh pasta from an Italian, run a marathon,  create a fundraising event,  have children,  lose weight, fire a missile,  land on the moon or whatever it is that you have an inner drive and desire to become or partake in.

Have you ever thought about the fact that for many, dreams stay dreams because people think that they only happen in their sleep or mind?

Many are too scared of failure or rejection to give their dream a real shot of becoming a reality. Instead, they spend time coming up with every possible reason for why their dream will never see the light of day and they find themselves pulled in different directions away from their dream as their energy is consumed by life's routine.

But what happens if one day,  you start to bring your dream to life,  and you tell someone else about your idea.  Then all of a sudden,  you have someone else in your life who can remind you of your burning desire and passion to make a difference and do what you've always thought impossible?

Sometimes it's easy to make excuses,  and life can become pretty crazy busy from time to time,  but if you truly want your vision to come true then you are the driver for that success.

You can always start small by creating a vision board so that you can see what your dream looks like on paper instead of playing the scenes over and over again in your mind at night time when youre unable to sleep and feeling restless.

Did you know that a Coke can fill of $2AUS coins would you give $500 to start to make your dream come true?

Or how about using social networks like Facebook to share your idea and to see if there are other like minded people out there willing to help you?

One phone call to a TAFE or university could be the difference between you beginning your journey towards that career you've always imagined yourself in and staying in the brain draining,  mundane job you currently find yourself in wishing you'd chosen a different path.

Updating your resume and dropping it into that business that you've always admired from a distance could be your ticket to landing yourself your dream job.

Popping into a travel agent and picking up some brochures to start researching your dream destination could be the difference between you staring at your screen saver on a tropical island and lazing back on that same beach sipping a pina colada.

Signing up for that really funky and fun gym class once a week for $10 could be the difference between fitting into that dream wedding dress or settling for second best.

My dream was always to write and once I found a platform to launch my vision I'm finding myself striving for further personal achievements.

My next big dream is to create a gala dinner fundraising event to raise funds and awareness for local mental health services in my community.

I've been thinking about it for awhile but was a little overwhelmed with the magnitude of organizing such an event and didn't even know where to start let alone who to contact.

It took sharing my idea with one person who gave me the contact details for a lady involved in country arts and mental health for my dream to seem a little more like a possibility.

From a meeting with her I gained insight into a wider community of people and organisation's out there already involved in the field.

I realized that I had to approach people and share my idea if it ever had a chance of becoming a reality so I bit the bullet and sent out an email introducing myself,  my blog,  my idea and my reasons.

I'm now in the process of creating a little committee of can doers who are eager to help my help spring to life.

How exciting is that?

Who knows what will happen from here but I'm sure to keep you posted. I feel great just knowing that I'm taking the steps to give my idea every opportunity to prosper.

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it feels to achieve your own personal goals; it is truly so satisfying to be able to share my stories and experience and to see how many doors it's opening.

Your dreams don't have to be about money and they don't even have to involve other people,  you're dreams are what you make them and come through your life experiences and only you can start the ball rolling to make them come true.

Grab life by the balls and give it a good shake it;  there's so little to lose and so much to gain and a level of happiness,  contentness and satisfaction that you otherwise may have not known existed.

What is your big dream?

If time, money, opinions and your own doubts were put aside,  what is it that you really want to do or achieve for you?

Now go and make our happen.

Look after yourself and those around you,

Kirsty xx

Readers - I need your help!

March 8th is International Women's Day (and also my birthday, what a coincidence!) and I think we should celebrate!

There is so much focus and joking around the fact that women can be catty, nasty and downright b*tchy sometimes, and lets face it, we can! But we can also be strong, supportive and inspiring human beings and it is time that we celebrated that fact and made that the real highlight of conversation.

While there might be a lady in our lives that we truly admire, it is likely that we haven't taken the time to let them know such a thing. Instead we let our appreciation lie silent, either suspecting it as being understood or not realising the power of what our appreciation could mean to that person.

The time to share your admiration is now! Here's your chance to give a shout out to some one who inspires you, someone you think 'wow, she really did well' about, someone who has showed resilient strength in the face of adversity, or even someone who has shown nothing but kindness and unwavering support and deserves to be acknowledged for that.

Send me your International Women's Day shout out via FB message  (attempt to keep it at 50-100 words or less so there is room for everyone!) and I will compile your showing of thanks into a blog post over the weekend, so you can share the link with the soul you admire and show them how appreciated and wonderful they really are. You never know how much someone needs those words of support, or how you will make their day with your showing of gratitude.

I look forward to reading about the inspiring women in your lives - good luck choosing just one!

Beej x

International Women's Day - March 8th - photo www.internationalwomensday.com