Travels

Recently, my boyfriend and I decided to quit our jobs and embark on our big OE. So that's what we did - handed in our notice, packed a couple pairs of jeans and a few tees into a bag and left.

I had no idea what to expect and yeah, it was scary, but the excitement of the journey ahead of us got me through.

We had some rough plans - a month in the U.S. followed by a 6 week coach tour around Europe. After that, we'd settle somewhere in the U.K and find work.

We ended up lasting way longer than expected and now here we are, nearly 7 months on, finally settling in London to earn some money to fuel more travel plans. I've realised how small the world really is and how easy it is to travel - I've definitely got the bug and don't want to stop any time soon!

Now that I've settled for a bit though, it's time to finally document the last 7 months! Stay tuned for pics.

Trip

Hey guys,

Turns out, I'm still alive! I don't know why I haven't posted in so long (it's been like 18 months), just been lazy busy I guess heh.

Anyway, I just went on a weekend trip to Napier (5 hours south of my home) with the boyfriend and here's some photos of my trip. =]

Farmer's market (no that's not my child)

View of the port from the top of Bluff Hill

Juice!

View from Te Mata peak

Honey factory (I ate so much free honey)

British car museum

Cape Kidnappers

Frickin' tandem bike - YES WE RODE IT =D

Rocky beach near the hotel

 

Answers

Hey guys,

My exams are finally over and now I get a short break before starting my next (and hopefully last) semester. Yey! 

There were a couple of questions from the last two posts. Max asked which fabric paints I used to paint Jon's undies. I used these Jones Tones Glossy tube paints, they were the only fabric paints I could find at the store lol.  

They worked really well tho. I squeezed a bit out onto some cardboard and used a paintbrush to stencil them on. Cause it was dark fabric it had to have a few coats (with just a little drying time in between cause I'm impatient). This stuff is kinda stretchy when it dries so it's good for doing on knit/jersey and it seems to hold up to washing so yeah. 

Sam asked where I got the black shatter OPI nail enamel and how much it is usually. I bought it from www.savedirect.co.nz and it's usually NZ$24 but I got it when they had a half price sale so it was only $12. You can buy OPI enamels from pharmacies too and I think they're about the same price.

Looking forward to Star Wars month in August over at Max's blog!

San xx

Black Shatter

Hey guys,

 I just got some of the OPI black shatter nail polish (it was half price, yey!) and I gave it a go over top of this green enamel I already had.

 
I'm normally pretty lazy with nail polish, I never do anything elaborate cause I either smudge it in the first five minutes or it chips off the day after I do it and it looks all scraggly and yuck for months (like I said, I'm lazy. Even too lazy to remove it heh.). Anyway, this was the result (after a couple days wear too!).

Maybe I was just lucky this time with the not-chipping-off-straight-away thing (either that or the green polish is amazingly good.. this was the first time I used it so maybe it is?). I did my nails with the green enamel and and left them overnight cause it says on the black shatter instructions to apply it to completely dry nail polish, maybe overnight is excessive but I was just being safe lol.

The black shatter goes on looking just like a plain black enamel but it cracks pretty quick, maybe 30secs to a minute. It was reasonably dry after a minute or two aswell. I put a top coat over a couple of the nails then got distracted and didn't finish the rest but it didn't seem to make a difference looks-wise or lasting-wise.

I like that this makes your nails look like you spend hours doing intricate little liney things on them, but really it only takes a couple minutes.

Overall, I like this polish. I would recommend it. It's pretty dang cool. =]

San xx

Birthday undies

Hey guys,

It's been over a month since the BF's birthday so it's probly about time I showed you guys the undies I made awesome for him.

I got a 5 pack of undies and freezer paper stenciled some things onto them in fabric paint that matched the waistband colour.

Silhouette of Bender from Futurama

=D

This one's a quote from Venture Bros. about french toast lol

The Monarch symbol (also from Venture Bros.)

Another Venture Bros. one (one of the characters has an obsession with Batman)

This was the first time I'd done freezer paper stenciling and I think it worked out pretty well. I figured doing it on undies was a safe option cause if it didn't turn out well, they'd be hidden from view when he wears them, heh. It was super easy tho and they turned out awesomely and the main thing is, he liked them. =]

That's all from me today.

San xx

Guest blog

Wooo! I guest blogged over at Max California's yesterday! (I'm a bit behind, haha). Go check it out. =]

Yay!

San xx

I'm back!

Hey guys,

It's been a hectic couple of weeks and I've been lacking the motivation to post anything but here's an update.

About 3 weeks ago I flew down to Wellington for a few days for Homegrown, the NZ music festival. This was the third year we've gone down and I had a really good time but it was pretty exhausting (considering I was expected to organise all the flights and accommodation haha)! I got back on the Monday night, had a few days at uni then had to go on a 3 day field trip for the entomology course I'm doing so that swallowed the next weekend. Unfortunately the day we left was my birthday so I didn't get to spend it with my family or Jon, instead I spent it about an hour south at a council reserve with really patchy cell phone reception and 45 people I didn't really know! But I'm not complaining, it ended up being really fun and I learnt heaps and made a couple of friends so it was a good experience. 

Last Friday Jon threw me a surprise party at his place to make up for me being away on my birthday. It was awesome, everyone leaped out from behind the trees with streamers as I drove down the driveway (he lured me there under the premise of "having a couple beers and watching Venture Bros."). I wasn't expecting him to do that for me so it was a really nice surprise. I'm super lucky, heh. x) Thanks babe! <3

I don't have photos yet but I'll post a few when I get a hold of them.

San xx