We've moved...

As you may have noticed, I no longer post to this page. I've moved over to a new address - www.theblondemakoti.wordpress.com

Please visit me there :-)

New Year, New Beginnings

To say that the past 6 months have been a whirlwind is an understatement of note - new job, new team, new house, new husband and two new names! I've been truly blessed in all these areas and couldn't be happier to be starting 2015 off in such a good space. 

I'm not even going to try to squeeze any details about our, not one but two, weddings in this post - these will have to occupy their own space once all the pictures are out! There is just too much to tell :-) 

 

So for now: hello, I'm back...and happy! 

xoxo,

 

 

Mrs Mati ;-)

The 7 Year Itch

I've never quite understood the 7 year itch until recently. Not a 7 year itch in it's normally intended context of a relationship or marriage, but in a career sense. I've been with my current employer for 7 year and while the time in some ways has flown, in other ways, I'm starting to feel like this is all I've ever known. My frame of reference has shrunk to these four walls and my confidence outside of this structure has diminished.

I definitely have a love-hate relationship with my job at the moment. Last week was horrific and this week was great! At what point do you release that the grass isn't always greener on the other side...but then again, isn't life all about moving on up and trying new things?!

So many things to ponder...But for now - HAPPY FRIDAY!

PS - just so you know:

The seven-year itch is a psychological term that suggests that happiness in a relationship declines after around year seven of a marriage.^[1] The phrase originated as a name for irritating and contagious skin complaints of a long duration. Examples of reference may have included STD herpes outbreaks that are known to significantly decrease in frequency after seven years or mites that live under the skin (scabies) and cause severe itching that is hard to get rid of. Later on in the 19th and early 20th centuries it was viewed as an expression of imagined appropriate punishment for antisocial behavior, or as a simile for a situation with little hope in relief.^[2]
The phrase was first used to describe an inclination to become unfaithful after seven years of marriage in the play The Seven Year Itch by George Axelrod, and gained popularity following the 1955 film adaptation starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell.
The phrase has since expanded to indicate cycles of dissatisfaction not only in interpersonal relationships but in any situation such as working a full-time job or buying a house, where a decrease in happiness and satisfaction is often seen over long periods of time.

Happiness is...

Today, happiness is:


- Having listened to an AWESOME Dave Grohl interview this morning on 5. I couldn't get out of the car until it had finished! The coolest part was that after the line cut he called back to finish his story :-)
- Knowing that in 29 sleeps (excited much?!) we'll be moving into our new home!
- After 10 VERY slow days at work, finding random tasks to fill my day. Boredom is a happiness killer of note
- Listening to an awesome mix of tunes on YouTube (and having the internet work for once!) while doing said random tasks. Who can't be happy when listening to Foo Fighters, The Offspring, RHCP, System of a Down, Nirvana, 3 Doors Down, Kings of Leon, Linkin Park and Audioslave!
- Having hot coffee in your belly on a cold and rainy day
- losing weight :-) down 1.5kg in 10 days!
- knowing that tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is sure to be filled with plenty of fun.

Happy Thursday!

Home Sweet HomeS!

 

 

I'm always happy when Friday rolls around, but I'm especially happy this week. After 10 days out of the office (half for a work trip and the other half on leave) this week readjusting to the desk and chair has been horrible! The days have dragged, the coffee is bad (I forgot) and the mood is gloomy...but it's Friday so let's not dwell on all that!

 

Lots has been happening that is happy in the past few weeks:

- I'm now a Godmother to THE most adorable little man in the world

- We are getting married in the most perfect chapel in (almost) the most sentimental spot I could find

- The wedding venue that we booked before even seeing it, is as beautiful in person as it looked on the website...phew!

- We got to spend a week with our families catching up and planning for the big day(s!)

- I got the mock up version of our wedding invites and they are adorb

- There are some exciting possibilities on the horizon at work (which should they pan out would make life a lot more fun)

- Our house is bought and the move in date is set for 1 August...is it too soon for me to start packing?!?!

 

I've always been very homely - perhaps growing up in a farm house that your family has lived in for close to 100 years does that to you!! Home equals security to me and the insecurity of renting has always bothered me (add to that an erratic letting agent and I'm a nervous wreck!) So being able to call our new house home is one of the most exciting things ever for me! We'll both have a set of keys (something previously banned by said erratic letting agent), I can wack nails in the walls without fear of punishment, I can paint the walls in accent colours / stripes ('cause I can!) and I can feel secure in the fact that no one can kick me out until I'm ready to leave...it's going to be heaven!! 

Happy Friday everyone :-)

10 000 hits!!

Wow! I just missed a massive milestone in my stats - I reached 10 000 hits and didn't even know it! I started this blog almost exactly a year and a half years and it's grown with me (very slowly at times due to my less than regular posts!) through rough and happy times. I don't know who bothers to read my random ramblings and I don't really care if anyone does...I just needed a place to share my thoughts and feelings, an outlet of sorts and this forum has been just that for me.

 

So thank you if you follow my posts and if you just see this one, that's cool too ;-) 

The whole "Keep Calm and Carry On" thing is SO 2012 I know, but at times in life it really is less of a cliché and more of a reality for some (myself included!) I'll think about if it should stay or go, but for now HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Good things come to those who wait

 

 

I truly despise the saying "good things come to those who wait" but recently it's been all to apt for my life. For years I waited for a man, a ring, a promise, a wedding, a house, a home and then they all came - pretty much all at once! Since getting engaged, it's been a whirlwind of planning, dreaming and watching it all come together.

While the wedding plans tick along, we decided it was time to re-start our search for a home. We'd spent about 4 months last year sussing out the market with very little success. It was a depressing experience seeing what you got for so much money! On Sunday we reluctantly got in the car and visited the 3 properties that met our requirements from the weekend paper.

By chance, one of the emails I'd sent of enquiring about a house got answered in minutes and we then headed to the house that wasn't on show. We really liked it, it ticked the boxes and it met the lower end of our budget. It seemed to good to be trued! After a second visit the following day, we took another day to think about it and then put in an offer.

We'd had a disappointment last year when trying to put in an offer (there had been 4 offers in the first 24 hours of the property being on the market and we lost out) so I didn't get my hopes up. Even when we found out that the offer had been accepted, I was calm. Only the following day, a week after we had first viewed the house, did it sink in that soon I'll be able to knock nails in the walls without worrying about filling them up when I leave! I won't have to worry about the Dracula of a letting agent that I have to deal with currently. I won't have to feel insecure about getting "kicked out" if the owner decides to move in or sell. I will have a house to decorate and make a home :-) Once this all sunk in the Pinterest focus shifted from wedding décor to home décor!

If all goes well, we'll be moving in around August, giving us a nice amount of time to settle in before the craziness of the wedding. Touch wood, fingers crossed, prayers said.