[Bad username: Its a little late but here it is: 1. Did you get an allowance as a kid, and if so, how much was it? ��� From time to time i got a small one, but not that often 2. How old were you when you had your first job, and what was it? �����17, I started umpiring hockey games.� 3. Which do you do better: save money or spend money? ���� Save, i cant be such a tight ass sometimes. 4. Are people more likely to borrow money from you, or are you more likely to borrow from them? ��� People borrowing off me, usually its my family :-( and more often then not i dont get it back. 5. What's the most expensive thing you've ever bought? ����Well in5omniac] and i paid for our wedding ourselves, but my most extravagent single purchase would have to be my Chanel J12 Watch
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Wow, its hard to believe that it has been 1 week since the wedding, i cant remember a whole lot of it, its such a blur - a warm fuzzy feeling. We have been back at work since tuesday which wasnt that big a deal surprisingly! 
Mum and dad are going to Europe over xmas this year, so it will just be us going to Ziggy's mums on christmas eve. Im so happy that they have this opportunity, it will be the first time my whole life i havent spent xmas with them.

Ok LJ friends here are some pics.... most of these i have ganked from facebook so if your on my facebook you will have already seen these few!  My uncle is a professional photographer so i was able to get the pictures back super quick :)

Enjoy!

Horror!


Assessing the situation

Hero!













 

The rain is affecting EVERYTHING. My cake lady called me this morning, apologising profusely - because of rain the design of my cake has to be altered. *sigh* gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggrrr! I LOVED MY CAKE!

So wedding is three days out and its been raining torrentially for almost 24 hours....

 I cannot belive this weather...! It was exactly like this 12 months ago when the Pasha Bulka ran aground on our local beach in the June storms. 




I thought it was hilarious at the time and took comfort that we couldnt have weather like that two years in a row!  Apparently we can....

Anyone wants more info click here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasha_bulka

with less then 1 week to go now im starting to feel like i cant do any more organising and checking and worrying. My eyes are gritty, blurry and sore and i feel like i need to sleep for the rest of the week before i can feel human. Ziggy is in sydney today picking up his father from the airport, i wish he wasnt because i really could do with his help and motivation. 

Its grey and rainy today, which doesnt help the feel of things either. 

Millie was desexed earlier in the week without any of the emergency procedures and stress that we had with Coco. She is such a good little bulldog, i dont know what i would do without her! I bought her the cutest little red and white knit jumper - she looks adorable. 

Well i think i am finally starting to get excited about the wedding... its kind of shocking that in a little over two weeks Ziggy and i will finally be married! So much money, planning and organisation all for one little day....im sure ive forgotten something since i havent really been stressed yet, weve had two years to organise this thing so maybe thats why.

There are still a few more things to be done but everything i can think of seems to be coming together nicely. Today i got the revised order of service changes back from the parish office, so tomorrow ill get some of the inside paper and they can be printed off over the weekend. 

I need to get my veil steamed but i cant get that done just yet. 

We have had a bit of a problem with the dogs the last few weeks, Millie has been super aggressive to tinsley and it breaks my heart. Just last week they were the best of friends! I have organised a dog "whisperer" to come and consult with them, and millie is getting spayed next tuesday. For now the dogs have to be kept seperate at ALL times otherwise they seriously injure each other, both Ziggy and i have been bitten trying to break up the fights! 

Other exciting news is that Ziggy and i are looking at houses! We are heading to an open house on saturday for a look... exciting times.....

Yesterday ziggy and wondered around and did a bit of shopping. He bought some Blue-ray DVD discs one of them was James Bond, Die another day. Yesterday i lost my James bond Virginity and saw a JB movie for th first time and i really enjoyed it! I wish i we had more to watch!

Im desperate for this perfume. Im typically a Chanel girl when it comes to fragrance but this fragrance is devine....I WANT!



Last night, Laura bought my veil over. Its all finished! Its Cathedral length, which is very, very long so i think ill be taking it off after the ceremony. Its 30 years old, it was mums when she got married so i dont want to destroy it or have it ripped out of my hair by a unaware ziggy....

less then 3 weeks.... it still feels so far away.

I went to the Dry Cleaners this afternoon to pick up my Furr jacket (for the wedding) I saw the randomest thing. Three or four guys sitting in folding deck chairs drinking beer, on the roof of a house at the corner of a busy intersection. It was a normal pitched (triangle type) roof so the whole thing was mind bogglingly dangerous, of course they werent wearing any type of safety restraints..... i guess thats what we call natural selection....

I had the day off work today for a few necessary appts which i wasn't able to schedule on weekends, i also took the opportunity to go into the Newcastle Parish office and pay for the Church. Its hard to believe that in a less then a month Ziggy and i will finally be married! All the little things are falling into place without to much stress and concern... soon all that will be left to do will be get married! 

Faking It! How Counterfeiting Affects Fashion.




Chanel's Gisa Straith
We’ve all seen it - people crowding over tables at night markets, digging through piles of Louis Vuitton monogrammed wallets, striving to find a good fake. From local malls, to alleys in Chinatown; counterfeits are everywhere in Vancouver. The problem is vast, but will it ever end?

It was a Monday afternoon when I arrived at West Hastings and Hornby Street. I walked up the steps and pushed open the heavy glass door. Right in front of me was a showcase displaying a white quilted lambskin purse, and satin silk camellia corsages. “She’ll be right with you Justin.” said Patty, a sales associate at the downtown Chanel Boutique. I put down my bag and began to prepare for the interview.

Gisa Straith, Manager of Chanel Boutique Vancouver, came out from her office in her sleek, black tweed suit. Gisa' s job isn’t easy; she just returned from Paris for Fashion Week, and she' s leaving again the following week. “Sorry, I just had to reply a few emails back there.” She said, while greeting me. Starting my digital recorder, I addressed the issue at hand. “It really comes down to whether or not the buyer cares.” She lamented, “and these people don’t care, that’s why it’s so frustrating.” Dealing with knock-offs on a day to day basis, Gisa explained how knock-offs are ruining our society, and our appreciation for quality and originality, but this is only the underlying issue.
When a consumer purchases a counterfeit, for instance, a Prada handbag, she may think that she is getting a good deal. She is getting more or less the same thing, without having to pay for the exorbitant price tag. What she doesn’t know is that the $50 she paid for her Prada bag goes into money laundering and funding underground businesses.

The majority of counterfeited goods originate from Asia, mostly from China and Korea. People who make them are slave laborers. In fact, most of them are young children, a startling number of these kids are as young as 6, who are taken away from their homes to work in poor conditions, and for as little as a dollar an hour. The counterfeiting industry makes up to $650 billion a year. That $650 billion is going somewhere, and you can bet it’s not feeding the poor kids in China that make these purses. According to Straith, the money goes into supporting the drug business, arms business and funding international terrorism. Basically, they are using a shortcut to make big money, to support illegitimate businesses.

For most people, it doesn’t seem to be worth it to pay $2,000 for, say a Chanel bag. If one can find a knock-off out there that is ten times cheaper, why pay so much for the real thing? Why is a CC-logoed bag or a Fendi Baguette so expensive? “It’s mostly made by hand. Each bag takes between six to eighteen hours to make.” Involving a multitude of steps, each bag is of very high quality and immense craftsmanship. “When you think about the cost of a specialized artisan who makes those bags, it’s very much worth the price. We use the finest skins, and each of them go through quality control.” Gisa explained. Chanel also has six specialized ateliers, for shoes, hats, embroideries and other ornamentations. “That is what produces the expensive, but fine quality merchandise that we make.”

Counterfeits on the other hand, are of very bad quality, in fact inferior quality. Instead of using fine lambskins or calfskins, counterfeiters use plastic or man-made leather. They are not long lasting to begin with; most of them fall apart very easily. The designs are usually off. “People don’t know how silly they look in counterfeits.” Says Gisa. Counterfeits are blatantly infringing on a trademark, and that is illegal. From a fashion house’s perspective, it is a very serious issue. It ruins the brand image, it cheapens the brand, and eventually they lose business.

The issue here though, is not about how much business they lose anymore, because in most cases, consumers who resort to purchasing a counterfeit probably won’t buy the real thing anyway. “The real issue comes in what does it stand for and how far back you trace it as to the slave labor that happened in the beginning.” It’s an intellectual property and a human rights issue, and that is what’s serious. Chanel will still be making lots of money, as will Hermès, Louis Vuitton and all the other fashion houses. “That’s because luxury goods are a hot commodity,” Gisa explained, “which is also why there are counterfeits out there.”

In the last few years there has been resurgence in the popularity of luxury good and designer labels. Canada’s luxury goods retailer Holt Renfrew recently expanded its Downtown Vancouver store; Louis Vuitton will be expanding its Fairmont Hotel boutique in the coming year, which will also be carrying their Prêt-à-Porter collections. When there is a high demand for luxury goods, there will be counterfeits. “We have a lot of clients who simply will not wear specific designers, because there are too many knock-offs out there.” Gisa explains.

Canada is somewhat behind some other European countries, when it comes to laws implemented to target the counterfeiting industry. “If you enter France with a fraudulent item, you will be fined very heavily, and your item will be confiscated. That is what they’re doing to protect their national industry.” Gisa thinks that Canada should do more to protect the fashion and luxury goods business. “All the luxury goods retailers are working together to deal with this problem.”

Ultimately, it is really up to us- the consumers. When consumers boycott counterfeits, there will be no need for it. If that doesn’t happen, it will continue to be there; it will continue to be successful. Gisa hopes that they can catch enough of the counterfeiters to make an impact on that market, and stop what’s happening on the source ends of counterfeits. But in the end we as consumers control the situation, and if we value originality, freedom, and creativity, this issue will cease.

The New babies! ( Millicent and Tinsley  )

new  layout :-)

today Ziggy and i came home from work and Coco was dead. We dont know what happened, it is possible that she could have been bitten by something this morning or had a fit... 

right now i am inconsolable. The bulldog was my baby.  

RIP COCONUT. You were one of the best things that ever happened to me. 

 t

 Ziggy and i went to the DVD store today and got the series "The L word" i feel incredibly dumb... i didnt relise it was a show about a group of lesbians in LA, i thought that "L" stood for love....  not lesbian lol...

Nice relaxing Saturday morning, zig and i are just to head out to get our passport pictures printed so we can send our apps away on monday. The priest from where i was baptised called me back this morning and is sending out an updated version of my baptism cert... which confirms i havent been married before for the catholic church so i am free to marry zig!

I havent updated with pics for ages, im lazy like that. But here is a few 

r