Our garden, as I think I’ve mentioned before, is almost as arrid as a desert! The sun beats down on it almost full time and thus even our flower bed struggles to keep plants alive within its soil. A while back M and I bought a half wine barrel for R150 (bargin!) and we sanded it, varnished it and thats pretty much where its ended.

I’ve been desperately looking out for a Dwarf Citrus tree of sorts (the dwarf variety is propegated off a full grown tree vs a sapling thats stunted as a bonsai) but there is nowhere that I can find that sells this elusive tree. Thus our barrel has sat empty, void of all soil and roots (ok my mom borrowed it for her avo tree for a bit) and I recently (read: earlier today) found an article in The Gardener magazine which spoke of “Designer Trees: Local winners for small gardens” which turned out to be a pretty cool article. It basically outlined 5 or 6 trees to consider for a small garden.

Two of which caught my eye and are available fairly easily:

Heteropyxis natalensis – Lavender Tree (pictured above)
Searsia pendulina (formerly Rhus pendulina) – Wild Pear

Both are sized 4-10m tall (obv pruned to stay at 4m) and are great with full sun, and dry conditions. So I found a place that sells em, and I was verbally quoted R1500 for a tree of 4m in height (the largest which can be handled by hand without machinery assistance) which is too big anyway, so I’m hoping the price will come down for a smaller (2m) tree.

Yay! I cant wait! I’d like any thoughts you have on which tree you prefer, and why!

And some more good news, possibly even better, Iso’s biopsy results came back. She has (had?) a benign tumour which my vet removed in its entirety vs just a small biopsy and all looks good for it not to bother her again! They suspect it was a saliva gland gone awry but they said it looked like the vet had removed it all so happy days all around!

My sister (who is my Maid of Honour), my best friend (who is my bridesmaid), my mom (who is awesome) and a good friend (who never got to dress shop for her own wedding) are all coming along to assist!

The shop we’re going to is by appointment only, and we’ve booked the package which includes a bottle of of champagne, some cheese, crackers and 5 dresses to try on, and afterwards we’re having a braai at my place to continue on the festivities. The guys are going to hang out at our place while we go off and do the dress thing.

Its the first real weddingy thing I’ve done thus far, except view some venues. Oh, speaking of venues, we’ve booked ours! We chose a lovely winery which is so picturesque and perfect! We also booked our honeymoon suite which is 4 star accomodation and includes a Honeymoon turndown service with champagne, chocolates, cheese, and biscuits as well as breakfast the next morning as well as a complimentary wine tasting and cellar tour! So much awesomeness!

I’ve had a bit of trouble with my rats recently, Iso has a growth/lump on the side of her face. So I took her to the vet, got a week’s dose of Baytril and Prednisone and went home. The meds helped a little but she’s still got the lump, so I took her in the following Saturday and then again on Monday for a biopsy.

She came home with stitches on her cheek, poor thing, and I’ll get the biopsy results hopefully by Friday. If its a tumour, at least I’ll know. Anyway, so yesterday morning I had them out on the bed and next thing I look, there’s Macro grooming out all Iso’s stitches! GRR! So now the wound is open, bar one stitch, so I took her through to the lounge to glue it shut with superglue! (the vet does this all the time) It worked and I then decided to keep them separate until the wound is healed, which I should have done in the first place, but didnt because I felt bad that they were both alone in their respective cages.

Ok so next weekend is also a first for me! My first photoshoot! I won an engagement photoshoot from Hearts in a Shutter and we’ve booked for the following weekend! As you know, I’m normally always the one behind the camera, so this is rather daunting for me. I have no idea what to wear, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out (I’d buy something new but the vet bill set me back R800 this month and still R371 to go!). We chose a nice earthy theme and picked a forest to do the shoot in, so I’m looking very forward to it, in amongst the nerves haha.

And then the following weekend after that one, we’re meeting with our wedding photographer to sign on the dotted line! She is an amazing photographer and I’m so lucky to be able to secure her for our wedding! I always knew the photography was going to be the toughest decision for me because I’m a photographer, but she made it so simple!

And that, my dear readers, are my next few weeks in a nutshell….

Happily I logged on to GelaSkins.com and browsed the many, many skin options available by so many talented artists. I eventually decided that, for my Kindle, I needed a darker colour one, as the light colours just didnt quite match with the grey background of the original Kindle cover.
And of course, I love nature and photography, so who better to go with as an Artist but National Geographic! Right, so I’d narrowed down the choice (the fiance had grown board by this point so it was just me now haha) of artist, now I just needed to pick a design.

It was a tough choice between the Baobab Silhouette and The Orion Nebula…the colours of the Baobab just pulled and tugged at me, and made me imagine sitting somewhere under the beautiful African sky reading my Kindle as dusk fell all around me (until the light became too dim to read haha). But the contrast of the bright pink colour around the keyboard bugged me. So I looked to the Orion Nebula. Immediately my mind was drawn to Pern, one of my favourite series of novels as I’ve mentioned before. Plus, if I look up into the night sky outside my house, I can see Orion and his Belt on many an oft occasion.

And the contrast by the keyboard wasnt too noticable and it didnt bug me. Done and done.

We ordered it on the 28th, and sadly had to pick “snailmail” for $3.95. I just couldnt justify spending $19.95 on P&P when the Kindle skin itself was $17.95 lol. But, I sat back to wait, and on on Jan 2 I got an email to say my order had been shipped, and on the 20th it arrived! (However, Murphy and his Law entourage decided to show his face and the Post Office was closed so I couldnt collect it til today).

So as soon as I got home, I whipped it open and ooh’d and ahh’d at the pretty colours (and the most beautiful Gizmo who I made custom for my cellphone from my own photo of course!). Of course I had to take before (, during) and after photos of the skin before applying it to my Kindle, so I present to you the transformation of my Amazon Kindle 3 to my Amazon “Orion Nebula” Kindle 3:

Before, front

GelaSkin!

Skinned!

Close up

Back

I didnt upload a photo of it, but the texture of the gelaskin is a crosshatch pattern which makes it seem more sturdy and stretch resistant while applying, and you can reapply it a few times before it loses its stickiness and becomes unusable.

All in all, I’m very happy with my Kindle’s new makeover, and for anyone wondering if its worth it to spend the dough, I highly recommend GelaSkins

Then, the Kenaf rat bedding I ordered should be here by now, so I’ll be collecting that at the post office tomorrow. Then its off to drop off the photos from my latest wedding for print, and then to Tygervalley to get my sister’s Christmas gift. Cant tell you what it is, as I’m not sure if she follows my blog, but I can tell you its super cute, and I ordered one for myself as well! If it wasnt so expensive, I’d order more, but they’re limited edition so the price is a little steep.

Then, lastly, its off to see my best friend who I havent seen in AGES! Could almost be months, easily. Her work hours and mine dont match up, so we rarely get to see each other. It’ll be nice to see her again, and her rats, and fish, and kitty. We also decided to do Thanksgiving again next year, for the first time since her sister’s death, which is nice. Even though I’m not American, I miss celebrating Thanksgiving. I’ll handle the turkey side, since she’s vegetarian of course. It’ll be nice, myself and her and our respective partners. And by Thanksgiving next year, it’ll be 4 months until my wedding!

On the wedding front, nothing really has been done, but I have booked an appointment to view Zevenwacht, which looks like a pretty stunning venue. They’re on the higher side of our budget, but if they’re worth it, we’ll make a plan.

Going to PE this Christmas, so going to miss my family, but at least M will be able to see his family, which is just as important to me. Going to try and also pop through to EL as well to see some friends of mine who I havent seen in ages, but they’ll also be in CT early this Dec so all is not lost if we dont see them during Christmas. They recently bought a house, so it would have been nice to see it along with them, but we’d have to borrow the in laws’ car to drive the 3 hr drive, and they dont really seem keen to lend it to us, which sucks, but I guess its their call.

So, thats about it from my side. Will check in probably next week.

Oh, one last thing. One of my hard drives crashed. Yes, its horrible to even type it. All my design items were on there. I am one sad puppy and I literally mourned for a day. Didnt get out of bed and I just slept. M is going to try and work some magic, but for now, I’m screwed.

Hmm, I cant end on that bad note, so I’ll mention I’m going to a girls night with some colleagues in a fortnight. We’re doing all you can eat sushi and chinese. I think its going to be fun, and it’ll be the third time we’re trying to organise it, so here’s hoping it actually pans out this time haha.

I’ve actually never been to a concert before. My mom went to Michael Jackson, my sister went to Whitney Houston and I think Smashing Pumpkins, but I have never been to a concert before. Ever. So when I found out Roxette was coming back to South Africa next year in June, I promptly booked a ticket! Golden Circle! Yes, just one. I am rockin’ it solo.

I dont know anyone else who likes them enough to spend R480 on a GCircle ticket, so I’m going alone, but its ok, I’m one of those people who will pretty much chat to anyone haha and I’m sure I’ll still have a great time. The next concert I’m waiting for: Hanson. Yes, I love them too! And one day they’ll visit our beautiful city. And I’ll be there, probably alone again haha!