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craft, makeup

Consolidating my eyeshadows

christinahopgood
Generally when I’m doing my makeup I use my Naked 1 palette, Innoxa quad, or my Maybelline gold quad – all of which are fairly neutral and flattering colours.  Browns, golds, taupes, champagnes, plums.
But I had a whole lot of other eyeshadows that aren’t in high rotation, all in little individual packages cluttering up my drawer.  So I decided to consolidate them into one palette by removing them from their packages.
Here’s my collection before.  The ones on the left I didn’t include in this because I was so scared of cracking them!

 I used a sharp knife to prise the metal eyeshadow pans away from their plastic boxes.  They’re stuck on with annoying glue, and you have to be super careful not to bend the metal or your eyeshadow will shattter.  If they shatter a little bit, you can fix it just by pressing down with your finger.  I shattered one of mine irreparably, so be careful!  You also will want to put down some newspaper because it can get a little messy.  Sometimes I accidentally stabbed the shadow and a chunk came out.

When I was done, this is what I had.  I popped them in a little box, but had some others so changed packaging.  Notice how many purpley blues there are?  I count 10 purples of various shades (I think the camera didn’t capture it quite)!  I don’t think that purple eyeshadow looks good on me now.  But I must have liked it at some stage!

I transferred it to a little cardboard envelope that used to house a David Jones gift card.  I cut it down the side to make the lid.  I don’t have any way of keeping it closed, so I’m just careful with it and keep it on top of things in my drawer.

You can get magnetised palettes from various places online, which would be great for keeping your eyeshadow pans in place.  I was too impatient so i just did it without one!

This has cleared out a lot of space in my makeup drawer!  I’m trying to use some of these up, so keeping them all in the same place will help me with that.  Maybe I’ll do some Smurf makeup to use up all that blue…
dress, frocktober

Frocktober 20th!

christinahopgood
Today we ran a barbeque and cake stall at the church, which was an election venue.
It was pretty hot barbequeing in the sun!

 This is kind of a weird picture of me.  I look like someone else?

 Team!  We were selling all kinds of cakes, jams, and chocolates!

 I got this dress for Christmas about 4 years ago, and I loved it so much!  Now it’s fading a bit in the bodice.

Dress: Tree of Life

dress, frocktober, outfit

Frocktober 19th!

christinahopgood
Gosh it’s past halfway in Frocktober!  I never realised I had so many dresses!
Today’s dress is one of my favourites…

I bought this dress in Perth when I was there with Charles’ group ‘Last Man To Die’ around 2 years ago… I saw this dress in a shop window and immediately had to go and try it on.  The mannequin’s dress was the only one in my size!  It was weird, the shop was mostly really trashy lingerie and then this really cute classy dress.  I can’t remember the shop name!  I like the little wing-a-lings on the sleeves.
That was a sad/happy time in my life, I really had fun in Perth with my friends, but Charles departed to Sweden directly from there, and it was a hard separation!
Dress: Shop in Perth!
Tights: somewhere in Japan (they’re very dark purple)
Cardigan: Forever 21.  Can’t be seen without a cardigan somewhere on my person.


dress, frocktober, outfit

Frocktober 18th!

christinahopgood
I’m sorry but today is a rerun!  I’ve almost run out of dresses!  This is the one I wore on our last day in California, and I could only take a photo with an iPad.  Here are some better pics for you!
Today was my hard working day at two libraries.  After I finished at 7 we went to my parents’ house for tea, which was delicious and I ate way too much!  Hence a late post.

Dress: Felt
Tights: a cute shop in Japan
Shoes: Betts

life, wedding

My beautiful budget wedding! Part 4: Reception!

christinahopgood
1. Venue

Our reception was held at University House at ANU.  This was chosen firstly because we both attended ANU and it holds special memories for us.  Secondly, because it’s a really pretty hall and the people really know how to do weddings.  And thirdly, because the rates were reasonable.
The best thing was that they knew weddings.  The venue already had a rough running order for the evening, knew how to do place settings, had special wedding decorations, special food, and were really good at helping us with all our questions.  That was super important for the venue.  Because they knew what they were doing, we were able to relax and enjoy the evening without worrying about little things.

They allowed us to take some photos in the library, which was cute.  See the books all have little labels!
The beautiful hall.  White tablecloths and purple serviettes, all exactly as we wanted.
Another great thing about this venue was that they gave us a bridal suite for free!  So when we got tired of the party we could just head upstairs! 
2. The Cake
My mum made our cake!  It was a delicious rich fruit cake.  She decorated it like a pro.  She worked really hard on it!  She even made those icing roses!


3. Bonbonniere
Some more of the stationery.  You can see the little lyrebird on the place card, which my friend designed for us.  I bought sugared almonds and little bags for everyone and typed out a note for each bag.  It’s a traditional gift, which is nice, but it’s not over the top like some of the more modern bonbonnieres.  People give out all sorts of things now that would cost a fortune.  These things probably cost me about $140 altogether, with the gauze bags and the almonds both costing around $70 each.

4. The Alcohol
A word on alcohol.  It is traditional and fun to have some champagne and drinks for these kind of important events.  Our reception venue had two options for alcohol: a package deal of $120 per person which included all drinks and food; or a consumption deal, which was the meal cost, $80pp, and then all drinks consumed.  We had to decide which one to get based on how much alcohol we thought would be consumed.  Would each person consume more than $40 worth of alcohol?  Booze is kind of expensive!  They used nice champagne and wine which was quite a lot per bottle!  But in the end we chose to pay on consumption, and we ended up paying quite a bit less than the package deal.  So that’s something to think about and ask your reception venue about.

5. The Band

We ended up hiring a local jazz trio who we knew from the School of Music.  They were super rad!  They played all the jazz standards we requested, lots of others, a bridal waltz on Just The Way You Look Tonight, and our entry music was just fantastic.  We fed them a meal and they were awesome.  They played for 4.5 hours (6 – 10:30) and we paid $1000.  That’s a really good deal, just so you know.  You wouldn’t expect that normally, except we got mates rates.
In the end our reception cost around $6000, and the band cost $1000.
Total: $7000. 
Our parents split the bill and we didn’t pay this part.

So how much in total?  If you’ve been following along, you’ll notice…

Accessories: $360
Reception: $7000
Outfit: $580
Church and such: $700

Grand Total: $8640
What I paid: $1540, but that was without the reception, band, or shoes.

The total cost for our wedding was about a quarter of the cost of an “average” Australian wedding.  And I don’t think we skimped on anything at all.  Nothing felt cheap, nothing felt bad, it was a perfect day with my perfect mate.  In the end, it was all about getting married to my partner in life, but that’s the kind of wisdom that only comes after the event.  It’s fun to throw a big party though!

So did you find this interesting?  What else would you like to know about planning weddings?