Archive for April 2012

happiness at home

our new iron

Today I spent my first day home in 7 days of craziness that seriously kicked my butt. It was a much needed day of hiding from the world, resting up that ever tantrummy spine of mine, and getting some things done domestically. Oh gosh, that domestic stuf that keeps eluding my natural instincts…

Anyways. Thought I’d share some things that make me very happy when I walk past them in this house we’re slowly moulding into our forever home.

my bust/necklace holder

When I first brought this gorgeous lady home, S was slightly appalled. His raised eyebrow and “that’s not for the public areas of our house is it?” questions led me to the belief that he didn’t like her very much. I LOVE her though, and she has pride of place on my dresser, and helps me keep some of my necklaces handy. Pretty, AND useful!

my elephant!

A few months ago I posted a picture of this elephant statue I coveted. Imagine my joyous surprise when Anita already HAD it in her car as my Christmas present! Sometimes it’s a bit scary how twinsy we are. In fact, IN FACT when I showed her my wedding invite prototypes last week, it turned out she had bought the exact same paper with the exact same floral patterns for hers. From a different paper shop, on a different occasion. Oh, dear.

Anyway.

I love this elephant, and I love that when I kick back on my little arm chair in my reading nook in my office, I now have something cute to rest my drink on.

Hang on.

Did I say kick back on my arm chair in my reading nook?

That has only happened once.

Sigh.

Anyway.

our new iron

Okay, those of you who know me in real life can go and faint right now, or at least express some worry that I may have been abducted and had my personality switched over. Yup, it’s no secret I HATE ironing. Well, hate is a strong word. S prefers to profess that domestic duties are not my forte, and I’m generally a bit of a princess about things that involve assembling an unwieldy piece of equipment such as an ironing board.

The first time I ironed a shirt for S (it took 2.5 years of solid romancing to get to fine I’ll iron ONE shirt for you stage in our relationship), I nearly cried. Wrinkles! They are IMPOSSIBLE to remove! And buttons! And don’t even get me started on sleeves! And how are you meant to iron the REST of the shirt without creasing the bits you’ve already painstakingly completed?! That one shirt took me 22 minutes to iron. Over time, I managed to get it down to 13 minutes per shirt, but that’s still pretty pathetic.

In November, my mum came to visit and bought S a new iron. I say she bought S a new iron, because it’s patently clear to both her and me that I am NOT the ironer in the house. Poor S, he thought it was shoes when he saw the wrapped up box. Ha!

And can I just tell you, there are very few gadgets that have converted me to liking anything domestic like this. I actually offer to iron S’ shirts sometimes, because it is such a kick-butt iron. It laughs in the face of wrinkles and just glides over ANYTHING I want to iron and SO easily! And I was worried about it being heavy but WHO KNEW, it actually is much less tiring to iron now because it glides so gracefully. And I can now smugly boast that I can iron a shirt in just 6 minutes now. Still not great, but a huge improvement considering it’s not like I’ve worked on my TECHNIQUE or anything!

Now, I actually kind of like doing the occasional iron for S. (I don’t buy anything that requires ironing, and the few things that do… well S does them for me because he’s a good ironer who doesn’t wreck things!) It feels like a very loving act because through it, I get to notice what buttons are coming lose, if his clothes need replacing, and threadbare patches and holes that need to be fixed. Mostly, it informs me when I need to go shopping for more clothes for him. HA.

And yes, I can’t believe I just talked about an iron for 3 paragraphs either.

You may leave now.

Happy house things. What do you have in your home that makes you smile?

 

turn on the wireless!

sharon pakir on abc 774 with libbi gorr - tech talk (skype)

Another segment today on ABC 774 with Libbi Gorr! Whee!

Yesterday was the 2nd day, and I felt a LOT more at ease and relaxed – we talked about Skype yesterday and it felt like it went a LOT quicker, and like I wasn’t cringing with every 2nd word that came out of my mouth!

sharon pakir on abc 774 with libbi gorr - tech talk (skype)

that's me on the live webcame chatting to Libbi!

Listening to the transcript has been super helpful. I say the word “absolutely” ALL too much in an effort to be DEE-LIGHTFUL on air – Elysia has threatened to start playing a drinking game if I don’t curb my enthusiasm for it!

sharon pakir on abc 774 with libbi gorr on tech talk (skype)

that's the stream from the ABC website!

Today we’ll be talking about Facebook – what it is, how it’s useful, how to get on it, and why you may want to be on it.

If you’d like to play Elysia’s drinking game OR find out more about Facebook and its ease for those who are less technologically inclined, simply tune in to 774 around 2.10pm, or stream it live from the ABC website (complete with rather confronting webcam!)

Yesterday I wore my Bowerhaus goodies for a bit of good luck. I think it worked – I even got up the courage to make a Brad Pitt joke! Even if the webcam isn’t THAT clear on screen, I like to believe that I should be semi-presentable, even if it IS radio!

sharon pakir wearing bowerhaus

Today I’m wearing more gorgeous gifted Bowerhaus jewellery for more luck, and hopefully I won’t stutter or talk too fast. Wish me luck!

 

ABC’s 774 radio feature

abc 774 studio in southbank

This week I’m rather happily spending a small segment of each afternoon chatting to Libbi Gorr on Melbourne Afternoons (you can listen live by clicking the “Listen Live” link) on behalf of the work I do teaching iPad for Seniors and other technology fun for the Centre for Adult Education and my company The Capability Project.

The first segment was yesterday, where we talked about technology for seniors or people who are not super tech-savvy, and we kicked off the week of features talking about tablets, and their role in our digital lives as we know it today.

If you missed it, I’ll be uploading the segments at the end of the week!

abc 774 studio in southbank

the recording studio!

Today we’ll be covering Skype, tomorrow Facebook, and Twitter on Friday.

It’s been such a cool experience – I’ve only been on radio a handful of times, and Libbi is super easy to chat to. The ABC 774 crew have also made me feel so welcome and at ease!

i was NOT prepared to be web-cammed!!

If you would like to listen, I’m on just after 2pm each day and you can listen a variety of ways!

  • Simply tune your radio in to 774AM
  • If you have a tablet or smartphone, get an app called TuneIn Radio and you can stream it live
  • You can stream using the TuneIn Radio site as well (click link above)
  • You can listen live from the ABC website and even stalk us on the webcam!

The segments are geared towards the older population OR just those of you who are not feeling entirely confident on technology, so if you know anyone who’d be interested, tell them about it!

And for those of you who now want my autograph – GET IN LINE! :)

 

wedding inspiration

The wedding planning frenzy has died down a bit – everything major is pretty much booked or narrowed down – which means I can now focus on some of the more lighthearted elements off the 2 love festivals we are about to embark upon. Yes, festivals. I’ve organized way more complex and larger events than this but somehow, this has felt a bit crazier. Festivals of crazy.

Slowly, as I trawl pinterest and various online sites, a visual pattern of the elements I would like are starting to emerge, and I thought I’d share a few things that have been inspiring me lately.

Bridesmaids in a varying pastel palette:

20120412-170919.jpg

Simple flower decorations in jars:

20120412-170958.jpg

Any kids in the bridal party belong in tutus:

20120412-171053.jpg

A ring pillow that looks like my dream dance costume:

20120412-171128.jpg

Will post again soon, i hope you enjoyed a sneak peek into some of the things occupying my thoughts about the wedding! I can only cross my fingers that it’ll be as pretty as the images in my head!

You can see all the sources for the pics above as well as lots of other inspiration on my pinterest wedding board. :)

single happy moment

20120410-183910.jpg

Last week we all met up for the gorgeous Katerina’s birthday – her last birthday before she has her baby!! It’s probably the last time all of us girls (save for Liz in Sydney) will all be in the same room before Leigh and Kat’s little bundle of joy join us, and it was simply wonderful to see everyone and cackle over stories.

20120410-183910.jpg

I wasn’t in a hugely chatty mood, being all run down and in a bit of back pain, but it was kind of nice to just sit back and chill with this wonderful group of girlfriends we have who have grown together over the last few years to form a strong and close knit mini community, and all through dance. Hearing their babble around me, smiling across the room at everyone and having a chilled out drink whilst celebrating a very special lady’s birthday… Single happy moment indeed.

to do

To Do by Wendy MacNaughton

Well we’ve been engaged for a total of 6 weeks and I can safely say about 70% of the wedding planning is done. Who, me? Organised?

No.

More like, INSANE.

If anyone had told me that organising a wedding was so crazy, I would never have believed it. I guess it’s as bad as you make it (and my goal was to have organised it all within 2 months – which I think I’m pretty on track for). We’ve also made it harder by choosing to have a short engagement, and OH, having 2 weddings in 2 different countries!

And also to be fair, in this same last 6 weeks, we’ve also gotten engaged (in the Barossa), travelled a bit for 2 different weekend dance events (1 interstate), moved and renovated studios, had a massive dinner party for 20 – all whilst training, teaching, working and sourcing about a million wedding vendors in 2 countries. No wonder I had a meltdown last weekend!

Luckily I’m surrounded by amazing family who have been incredibly helpful and supportive, a group of lovely girlfriends who are armed with advice, shoulders to cry on and immense energy to help me through all of it, and an amazing man who is just so involved and wonderful even when he has NO interest in deciding things like the exact shade of pink on our colour palette.

At this point, now that the peak stress period of planning is over (last week when it was crunch time for 5 different venues across 2 countries, time frames, dates and budgets), I can only sit, focus on the fun stuff now like dresses, decorations and invitations, and chuckle to myself at this apt venn diagram:

 To Do by Wendy MacNaughton

"To Do" by Wendy MacNaughton

(if you like it, you can buy the print here

Seriously though, even though we’re sorted for venues, any wedding planning advice, vendors and DIY tips you’ve got, would be SO HELPFUL!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...