Tails’ Blography

I’ve been in two minds about posting this, but after much thought I decided that this blog is essentially about documenting my life experiences, so one day perhaps I can look back on them and hopefully smile.

So, with that thought in mind, here is my blog about my visit to the “Wizard of Oz”. Aka, our ring designer! (I’m not telling my friends yet until I’m actually engaged, so when I FB about it, I refer to her as “The Wizard of Oz”)

It was last Monday, when the bf and I were driving to work (we work at the same company now) together, when I mentioned about seeing a designer. We’ve been having these discussions for a while now, and during that 20 min drive to work, he agreed that we should visit a designer together, and we could do so on the upcoming public holiday (last Thursday).

So we arrived at work, and excitedly I began Googling for ring designers in our area when a website that caught my eye came up in the top search results. She described herself as inpired by organics and nature, and explained that she does custom designs. Pleased by this, I looked through her portfolio and found a few designs I liked, as well as the craftmanship. So during the day, I showed the bf her site, he approved and set up an appointment for that Thursday. I grinned like a loon.

Thursday came (not soon enough!) and we ventured out to her studio and arrived at 3pm. Now apart from her being inspired by nature (me!), and being the first site I found online (fate!), she also drove a Getz (like me!). Surely this is everything lining up?

Her building was nice and rustic, which really appealled to me, with a gravelled front area where we parked, and had teracotta pot plants filled with herbs like basil and thyme out on the balcony. She let us in and we made our way up the concrete stairway. She led us through the heavy doors which opened up on the main room, which had a rustic looking table that reminded me of a trestle table, a display cabinet which held some of her jewellery, and some rustic framed photos on the wall.

I apologise for describing everything as “rustic”, but it all was!

We sat down and we started chatting about our ideas for the ring. Then she asked me to sketch the design I had in mind…talk about being thrown in the deep end! I sketched a rather unproportioned design of the ring I had in mind, and we chatted about various settings we could use for the diamond.

Oooh! Diamonds!

We chatted some more, and while I was drawing, I apologised for the shakiness of it (I explained I was hungry as I hadnt eaten all day) and after a few more minutes of discussing settings, she asked me, “Do you eat nuts?”. I answered with a yes, thinking she was barmy and whatthehelldidthishavetodowithmyengagementringdesign? she promptly got up and returned with a bag of trail mix.

It was such a thoughtful gesture, as she neednt have brought out anything (it was a free consultation after all), but she saw I was peckish and brought it out for me to nibble on. A thoughtful designer. Another indication of Our Chosen One, perhaps?

So I nibbled, we chatted, I nibbled some more, we looked at photos of her previous works, I paused in my nibbling (didnt want to look greedy), and we listened to her professional opinions and suggestions about the design, and I finally nibbled a little more while her and the bf discussed budget.

Yup, you read correctly, I’m involved with (part of) the budget. Some might think this is something I should not be a part of, and while I agree to an extent, I’m happy to be involved with the initial budget as I would feel uncomfortable if the ring were to be too much money.

After two hours of chatting, we discussed diamonds again, and she said she’d source some diamonds from her, well, sources and get back to us. Well on Tues morning we got an email saying that she had a selection to show us, which she would be getting hold of in the new year. She explained costings and sizings and so far so good! Everything is lining up perfectly!

What has almost clinched the deal for me using her services is that she’s willing to send photos of the stages of the ring’s creation for us to see! There will also be one fitting before everything is finalised and then I’m out of the picture until the bf proposes!

I wont know when the ring is finished, I wont know the final cost, I wont know when he’s collected it, and hopefully I wont know when he’s proposing hehe.

I’ll update as we go along, but I’m keeping mum on the design until I cant hold it in anymore (presumably when the photos come in!).

Disclaimer: this blog is probably about to get very wedding-related. It will be an outlet of my bride-to-be excitement so I hopefully dont drive my bf and my family nuts! Apologies if wedding blogs make you gag, I’m sure it’ll resume to normal in a year or two haha!

PS: no that isnt my design at the top, just a random image I found on the net

My best friend, bf, and I went out to the West Coast National Park to see the flowers in bloom. Apparently they’re supposed to be quite something. I say “apparently” because we didnt really see that many flowers hehe.

We packed a picnic basket, packed our cameras (bf used my Sony and 300mm lens), and off we went. We drove all the way there, paid our R33 each to enter the park (thanks, Viia!), drove about 8km only to realise we were low on fuel and probably wouldnt make it around the park and home again. Sigh. So we loaded up Garmin on my cell, shook it like a Magic 8 Ball and asked it where the closest petrol station was. It pointed us in the direction of Yzerfontein, 12km away. Off we went, refilled, and returned anew and with much gusto!

The first critter we came across was a tortoise crossing the road (see image). Of course Viia and I bounded out the car, cameras at the ready, knelt down on either side of the little guy…and grimaced in pain! That gravel was demonic on our knees! Fearing the pain if we moved, we stayed put and made do with the shots we could get (I got the tortoises attention…hehe must have been the gigantic L lens hehe) and eventually he grew bored and wandered off while we painfully got to our feet and returned to the car.

We continued on and saw some Ostrich and ostrich behbehs! They were so cute, but alas, too hidden in the long grass to get a decent photo of. Moving a little further, we thought we saw a flower, but were mistaken, so we continued on, still feeling hopeful.

We came to a beach spot where people were milling about and we got out to take some shots. It was fairly windy there, so we didnt linger, and moved off to find the next stop, which promised to be a picnic spot. When we arrived there, people were setting up their braais in the designated areas (being National Braai Day ‘n all for us) so we scrambled amongst the rocks looking for a sheltered spot, which we found and promptly set up our stuff and had lunch. We milled there for an hour or so, marvelling at the weather that was overcast, yet very warm. If it hadnt been cloudy, we would have melted!

After lunch, making sure to pack up everything and not litter, we stood around taking some more pics and then moved off to continue through the park. We eventually arrived at a summit where we took some shots of (woah!) flowers! and the scenery and each other. We were naughty, though, getting out of the car despite the “Please Remain In Your Vehicle” sign hehe.

Continuing on, the clouds got darker and more threatening, but by some chance of luck, a patch of cloud broke and the sun shone down onto the field of herd animals we were approaching. They were quite close to us, and my 300mm lens worked perfectly, so we stopped and got some shots of the behbeh buck and ostrich. We moved on a little way and found a small area of purple flowers, so of course we bounded out the car yet again and took some shots (we just had to get flower photos before leaving haha). Just as we were about to leave, we stopped off at the last lookout point, and took some shots. This is when it started raining hehe so we got back in the car and made our way home.

The day was super relaxing, and we ended up at Viia’s to have some tea and snuggle her rats. Unfortunately by that time Michael was plagued with a headache, so I ended up driving us home in his car hehe. I always get nervous driving his car…I keep forgetting he has a boot (trunk) since my car is a hatchback…

Maybe next time we’ll see those flowers…

Me with the 24-70mm L beauty

Michael and the Sony

Awesome view from our picnic spot

Flowers, flowers and more flowers

Flowers, flowers and more flowers

Flowers, flowers and more flowers

Flowers, flowers and more flowers

A field of flowers!

The last little bit of sunshine before the clouds took over for good