30 Before 30.. the adventure begins

So I have decided since I am clearly rubbish at blogging I am going to run a 6 month long weekly blog... 30 things to do before I am 30:)


Its been quite a trend in the last few years - people creating bucket lists.

I am turning 30 on May 11, 2012, which gives me a little more than 5 months to complete the list. Some are easy-ish (buying a new wardrobe), some require a lot of work (losing 8 kilos), but I'm going to give it my best shot in the short amount of time I have… and document it along the way!

Stay posted for the list!! I think its going to a fun 5 months...

Wise words:)

I love finding new blogs, especially inspiring ones. The blogs I usually see, make me want to draw more, or start reading my camera manual so I can take better pictures. a friend of mine sent me a blog recently that she was starting to write to inspire her more.. with God. Its taken me a while to read it (even more ashamably because I am not working at the mo) but I FINALLY read some of it today and I just loved it. Abs your wise words are very inspiring, when they are prayers, quotes, or letters. Looking forward to more to get my thoughts ticking again!

Always remember the point of it all

Its hard planning a wedding. Nobody ever tells you that even small weddings are stressful, and hard work, and full of big decisions that you never really though you would care about! But I saw a post earlier today on my favourite blog that was talking about remembering what's important, and that after your one, incredibly special day - you have hundreds of equally specially days with your hubby to remember and relish.

I love that thought, firstly because, (I could make holes in my socks I'm jumping up and down so much) I cannot wait to mary my best friend& love of my life:) and secondly, I think its so easy to get swept up in the whole emotional (not to mention prettiness) of everything wedding, that even as a not so wedding person pre-may, I fin myself increasingly wedding obsessed. So its good to have a little kick-in-the-butt reminder of what's important, what matters, and why we are doing this in the first place...

Love is in the air

With the wedding fast approaching I get asked on a daily basis if I am getting excited/nervous/loved up... and to answer all of those questions, the answer is yes! Nervous that i am going to be a Mrs, scared that it will rain, loved up cause i get to spend the rest of my life with the man of my dreams, and excited cause well, its a wedding that we have spent 6 months planning, prepping, smoothing over the hick-ups and soon Thailand will be here, and I get to have an incredible holiday with those closest to us, and an amazing wedding on a private beach:) Yay me!!

So it turns out... I'm quite organized!

Who would have thought...

I know at times I can come across as a bit floopy (?? is that a word??) but it takes a month of Ramadan, where we aren't allowed to go clubbing and suddenly drinking is well, not as much fun. Work is much quieter, and I have long, loooooong hot empty, sweaty days to fill.

Everything seems to be plodding along rather smoothly, we're into month 4 already (how did that happen??) of our engagement and everything seems to be set. Venue, done. Accommodation, done. Save the Dates, Website, Colours, Guests, Food, Dress, songs, honeymoon...done, done done! And now I have 6 months 2 kill... and find a way to occupy my time without thinking about weddings 24/7:) Fantastic!

I’m all joyed up to the brim... I'm so excited I really wish it was next month! Since we are saying our vows in Thailand, there seems to be many people who are sadly unable to make it... This was inevitable, we knew this when we decided on our exotic location, but it was what we both wanted, so the sacrifice was worth it. We really did want a small wedding and 30 guests for me sounds a lot sweeter than 100 guests. I like the idea thats its a casual affair, and that I can have a good time with my closest friends and family, but there are people who aren't able to make it, that we really wish were there! Very close friends and family who, whether for financial, work, or personal reasons aren't able to come!!

Since many of these people are family we have decided to have a small party in South africa, with immediate family for a meet and greet. This way those who are unable to come can, in some small way, celebrate with us! We are also doing ou civil ceremony on this day, no vows, nothing special, just a few legal paper signings. We dont want it to be a big deal, we wont be saying any vows, we'll just sign, and have a party (probably get a little drunk) and then 3 weeks later say our vows and begin our lives as Husband and wife. We just need to figure out one small little detail, which I am not so certain it will be easy to resolve without offending some. How do you legally get married, without having all our family there... especially family who wont be there for the wedding??

In the mean time, while I fret about whether my nan will be upset if she misses me signing some paperwork, I'll pre-occupy myself with cute and happy things like shoes, and invites and hopefully these other things will sort themselves out!

Yum Yum

This is exactly how I feel today, so when i saw this pic, I just thought i had to share it!!

282 days to go....

Well, not even a month into the engagement and we are definitely on the ball with all our planning. We have the wedding date set, the venue and planner booked.

I figured I had with a couple months spare to chill out before planning the rest of the exciting things for our big day! naïvety is a bitch! Just to be safe, today i drew up a check list to make sure I was on top of things and realized how much there still is to do before entering chill-out mode.

With the wedding set on the gorgeous island of Ko Samui, Thailand, we need to give all our gorgeous guests some time to plan, not to mention reserve accommodation, send out invites and well plan some sort of theme to get my planner started! So after a few days of google-ing, I have have finally got ideas for our invites, and well truth be told... it didn't stop there. I went a little BrideZilla crazy... I know what dress I want, what the colour scheme will be, and where I would absolutely LOVE us all to stay! So much for taking things slow:)

But I suppose that just wouldn't be Toby and I! I'm so excited that this is all coming together so nicely, and the best part of it is, I get to have a 10 day holiday with the people I love most in the world! Best wedding present ever!!

Thought I would share a little of my excitement... I took advantage of an empty house tonight and did a little colour montage:)

A touch of France...

My future hubby and I are going on a date tonight... there's this little French bistro here that I absolutely love! The thought was to go, and get out the house, and to talk about things other than work.

With the whole economic climate the way it currently is, and not knowing what on earth is going on at work we seem to have let an entire week go by spending night after night sending off CV's and perusing job websites, both uncertain of where we stand with our jobs...

So I am a little excited, I get to put on a dress, get prettied up and go talk about life...and well anything else except for work!

J xx

Hi From Dubai:)

Being my first Dubai post (17 months in)I thought I would just start with a simple HI!!!

and post a pic of my goregous Fiance and I in the Maldives...
Whooo Hooooo



Well I decided to start blogging again - when I get the time. So hopefully in the near future, and not at 11.30pm when I cant think... I can come up with some interesting posts (not all moaning and groaning) and some fun things that I may stumble across

(oh and spell checking too)