beer tasting.

Next year my hub Simon turns 30, yep 30! We are entering a whole new era, soon we'll both be 30-somethings still living week by week, storing our fridge only with the necessities, attending Sunday family lunches with sore heads, charging our credit cards when our bank accounts run low, and sleeping in on weekends! Peter Pan and Wendy would be so proud.
Apart from the growing up factor of turning 30, there is the party factor. We've been talking about party ideas for a while now, even more since going to a friends 30th last year themed "W" for Will. Before that, we thought 30th birthdays were just a sad goodbye to your twenties, and preferred to ignore it all together. However thanks to the inspiration of our friend Will, who took 30 by the hands and shaked it up and down all night on the dance-floor, we will celebrate 30th birthdays with much anticipation.
A few ideas have been thrown around for Simon's 30th; hiring out a lawn bowls and sell beer at 1982 prices is our favourite to date. That was until I came across the beer tasting challenge. Perfect for Simon, who let's just say would sacrifice his first born for a cold beer! I especially love the idea of a tasting card, to record your preferences of beer as a star rating. Although I think for health-sake, and event like this should definitely start in the afternoon so guests have plenty of time to taste each beer!

St Patricks theme styling by White Library.

a "tootin" birthday.

I have been planning for a couple of months now to add "party theming" to my design collection. Being an enthused party planner on many occasions, I saw an opportunity to combine events and design and decided to roll with it. About 12 hours before my nephews 1st birthday (last Saturday) I decided to test out some party theming ideas. With a little 'market research', a theme was born for my first test-run - owls!

Okay, so the theme doesn't exactly fit with the fact that the party was at a railway museum in town, but hey I was coming up with these ideas at 2am in the morning, so I did my best. The venue was inside an old train they had converted into a cafe, and the kids got to ride the steam train as many times as they wanted. Alec's first birthday (a train-cake) was yummy-licious too! A great day out!

My sis, me, and my older bro.

warm winter.

Well, Winter, your not so bad after all. Today is the second day of our coldest season, and we have been treated with sunshine and clear skies both days. I wouldn't mind it at all if it decided to stay this way, even when I have a wardrobe of new coats to wear. As I was driving to see my Nan today (who has just moved into a nursing home in the eastern suburbs, although nursing mansion probably describes it better), I noticed there were autumn leaves still falling from roadside trees. The leaves were a burnt orange colour, and the trees were still full of them. Perhaps our seasons are running a bit late this year, something I can relate to well. For some reason, sunny Autumn weather always makes me think of garden weddings. Today would be a perfect day for a wedding. Brides shouldn't be so quick to rule out an early Winter for their wedding date, it might be a risk, but any time of year is these days.  Check out some great Autumn-inspired wedding ideas I've come across...

Inspiration from: Style Me Pretty, Ruffled

a blog is born

There is no better way to launch a new blog than to have a fabulous giveaway competition. So here it is. To celebrate the birth of "rain or shine", I will be giving away a set of personalized stationary from one of my adored Etsy shops: InvitaPaperStudio.
Chosen to celebrate the joys of blogging, this giveaway is perfect for scribbling down notes to your loved one/room mate/or family member.
There are a few simple steps to enter. Simply visit my facebook page, Rammikin {creative}, and become a fan, and then subscribe to my blog post via the tab on the left-hand side. The winner will be drawn at random via random.org, on Friday 10th June. Good luck!!

the home office.

There is a catch when it comes to working from home. You think you have it made; no-one looking over your shoulder every day, no office gossip to worry about, being able to listen to what you want as loud as you want as you work. Best of all, working whatever hours you want. Who doesn't dream of this kind of working lifestyle?
Well the dream is pretty good. I can't lie and say I don't enjoy every minute of it. But here comes the catch, I can never leave my office. It is always there, just a few steps away from me, just another doorway to walk through. No-one to tell you it's time to go home, to stop working so late. It has been about a month now since I started my work-at-home business. Well actually, for those that have been keeping track, Rammikin has been going for a few months now (or a year if you take into consideration my old business Damsel in Design) but I have only just given up my full-time work to dedicate my time to the business.
There is one big problem that I can't seem to solve; how do I set myself a decent working schedule and stick to it? My body clock has been spun out of control since I started, going to bed at 2:30am some nights. I am lucky enough to have a great office set-up though, thanks to Simon who spent many hours on the wallpaper, shelving, bookshelves etc. This is about the time when I show off my office, because I really do love it, it is my new favourite space!

What I love:
The wallpaper design matches the patterened wallpaper we have in our bedroom, we found this from Solver Paints.
I brought my desk when we first moved to the house (our first home!), and loved that it had glass covered top so I could display all my favourite things. Originally it was full of all my gig tickets, festival guides, and old wristbands. The desk is from IKEA.
The vintage style glass water bottle is from Urban Outfitters, it's my new love!
I have a huge collection of storage boxes, most of them sit on the floor. But the gorgeous patterened ones on my shelves are my favourite, I found them at Office Works surprisingly.
The cute little UK flag clock is a souvenier from London. Currently without a battery!
Plus an assortment of wedding memoirs, including one my most adored photos that my older bro Jamie snapped during our bridal dance.