Daydreams in lace

Eat: salmon and cucumber dill salad/goats cheese & onion bruschetta

2012-02-11T09:52:00.002Z

I've done quite a bit of cooking trying out recipes I've saved over the last few weeks. I go through phases of being stuck in a rut where all I can think of is pasta, to being really adventurous and trying out tons of new recipes. A few weeks ago I had a week like that, and since most of them were good, I thought I'd share them. we did eat them all before i'd taken photos, so its a pictureless post.
I found this salmon recipe on pinterest, it's so easy! It's not really so much a recipe for salmon as a dressing you could put with any fish, possibly even meats. It's very summery, it wasn't really the right time of year for it but i know if I don't try things out straight away I'll forget about them.
We roasted some new potatoes in olive oil and rosemary to go with this, our only complaint was that the dressing was possibly slightly runny, but that could be easily amended by adjusting the quantities of the wet ingredients. I'm a bit slapdash with quantities unless it's baking, so it's probably my fault! I also couldn't find fresh dill when I was shopping, so used chives instead. It would be a lovely side dressing for a BBQ, or as it is here for a summer meal.
While I was shopping for the ingredients for the dressing above, I saw goats cheese, and wanted it. So I decided to make bruschettas with goats cheese and caramelised onions for a starter (I really went all out that night!). I don't know about any of you, but I've never been able to make really nice caramelised onions, just sort of burger onions. So I googled it and found this I really only used this recipe for the onions part, I just toasted some French stick under the grill, smooshed the goats cheese (minus rind) on the top, and then put the caramelised onions over. They were scrummy.
That may have been completely unnecessary, I may be the only numpty in the world who doesn't know how to make good caramelised onions, but hey. You live and learn! More recipes coming soon.

Indecisive

2012-01-21T08:20:00.001Z

lobster and swan

I'm intrigued. What do you do with your magazines when you've read them? I read mainly interiors ones, and textile/craft ones too, but I am a hoarder. I can't bear to throw them out. Or even rip the occasional page. I feel like one day I will need a library of inspiration, and that will come from these magazines.

Since I came to college I have had subscriptions to/bought religiously: crafts/vogue/Elle decoration/selvedge/country living/Mollie makes (the last 3 I still get) and I occasionally buy homes and gardens or another interiors magazine that takes my eye.

lobster and swan

But I can't bear to throw them away, so they all still sit on shelves around the house, taking up irritating amounts of room.
I've been debating the idea of scrapbooks? Normally I'm precious about cutting them up too, but im starting to think that keeping the pictures and articles which I find inspiring in one place might be better than a stack of old magazines, in which I have no hope of finding that amazing picture I know one contains.

lobster and swan

I kept a scrapbook when we were planning this house, to save samples and swatches, and pictures I loved, but I was a bit precious about how the pages look. I sectioned it off by room, so I could show James my ideas. But I think I need to try very pointedly do the opposite now, not consciously choose images to sit together, but see what combinations come up from sticking images in as I find them.

Any ideas? What do you do, do your magazines go in recycling when you're finished, or do you have a library of past editions hidden away somewhere?!

All images from lobster and swan - links under images - who is excellent at scrapbooking. she also has cute cats.

Bookcase: We need to talk about Kevin

2012-01-08T19:53:00.001Z

image from amazon

I'm well aware I'm behind the times by talking about this now, even though the films just out the book is a good few years old, and could be described as a modern classic already, but I've only just read it and it's SO.DAMN.GOOD.

I found the first half hard to get into, I'd read a sentence or paragraph and have to go back over it because it was just so wordy, I hadn't taken anything in. But then as Kevin starts to come into himself as a character I was more and more gripped. I found the language became simpler too. It's not easy to read by any stretch of the imagination, the subject is obviously awful, but it was so cleverly written I found myself crowbarring time into my day to read it.

You know what the main crime in the book is from the beginning, so you are constantly leading towards 'Thursday' and yet there are still surprises in it. There were several incidents (maybe I'm just dense-it's eminently possible) that I just wasn't expecting, and floored me when I was reading it. And her ability by the end of the book to make you feel sympathy for Kevin is very clever.Just consider not reading it if you are that time in life where you're thinking about having children!

(Im never sure whether I should carry on writing these bookcase posts - I shied away from writing one from the blook club meeting I went to, since some ladies there were much more eloquent than me, but I like reading, and want to share what I like so I hope you dont mind if I carry on!)

Have any of you seen the film? what did you think? it never came to our cinema, so Im going to invest at the end of the month when the DVD is released!

Pinspiration: christmas decoration storage

2012-01-06T09:31:00.000Z

image from re-nest via pinterest

(I re-pinned it but the link wasnt direct to the blogpost - apologies)

I saw this ages ago, but had to wait to do it until now.

Its worked quite well, it would work better if you don't, like me, collect random odd shaped christmas decorations, but have perfectly matching baubles instead. hence my pictures make it look like a junk shop stored on an apple crate, but I've still kept them like that. I've then stored them in a box to keep them safe.we get our eggs delivered on a large sheet once a month, so I've been saving those rather than boxes, and I got some more, and the larger apple sheets from our market, who would normally just recycle them at the end of the day.

the eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed some glass cat heads in the photos above, heres a closer one with two of them in - a set of 6 of these were my secret santa present from Lisa-Marie, along with some christmassy truffles! Thank you very much Lisa, and sorry it took so long to write about them!

(apologies for the appalling quality of photos, it was night, on an iphone.)

if you'd like to see what else I'm pinning, you can find me here

Imagine it.

2011-12-19T22:03:00.000Z

Remember my friend? (how could you not, the post is only about 4 back, such is my blogging prowess these days)

She got married. It was beautiful.

Herself and her husband run a group providing a fresh perspective on life, positive help for anyone who wants it, and embracing and experiencing everything that comes in their path. If you want to be a part of it, you can go to their facebook page, their website, and sometimes through Vikis blog. (they even do wristbands, if you need a positive thinking stocking filler!

Tonight, all their friends and family are having a push to get their ethos out there to build support for the community they are creating, which is why I'm bombarding you with links. Tomorrow, those of you who read wedding blogs, may notice her face pop up again. I know I've asked it before, but shes worth repeating myself for. If you can, If you want to, go, visit, talk, support. anything you feel like doing.

Thank you.

Bookcase: the River Cottage handbook series

2011-12-11T09:46:00.001Z

Personally, I could write a post on every one of these books, I own 6 of the 8 or 9 there are in the series so far. I love them. They are informative, modern, interesting and well written. The veg book is the only gardening book (other than the fruit one, which I think I took in a bath with me to read!) which I have devoured from cover to cover without skipping bits.

Each book is written, not by Hugh F-W, but by someone knowledgable on the subject, who you'll probably have seen if you watch any of his programmes. So the hedgerow book is written by John, hughs foraging friend. The bread book is written by dan, his baker. The veg and fruit books are written by Mark, the head gardener at river cottage. You get the idea. Don't even get me started on 'pam the jam', I think you can guess that she wrote the preserves book!

Each book is divided into roughly the same sections, an introduction, telling you why you really should bake your own bread/grow your own veg/bottle the veg you grew/foraged, and what you'll need to do it. The majority of the book is taken up with alphabetised sections of recipes/plants and explains about each one really rather well, without losing you in a mire of technical words. Then, in the case of some books (hedgerow/fruit/veg) Hugh has written some recipes to use the ingredients you've grown, and in the veg/fruit books again, there are really helpful chapters on how to set up a good veg plot.

If all that's not enough, they are cloth covered, and the photography is gorgeous.

all images from amazon

Pinspiration: sewing case

2011-11-20T13:59:00.001Z

Pinspiration, see what I did there? I know. Im a comedy genius.

Anywaaaaaay. I thought I should start using some of the images I spend my life pinning, rather than just.... Pinning them. And as is the way, I then have to show off my projects.

So heres the pinspiration for this one:

left, from tasha horsley right, from natty michelle both via pinterest

and heres mine:

We found the suitcase in a junk market in france, I think I spent about 3 euros on it. Its battered, and was lined with a paisley patterned paper. I relined it (badly) with a striped ticking sort of fabric which I found in a charity shop and fabric glue (which I know you can see, dont tell me).

It was reminding me by this point of my mums school case that I still have, so I went with the school vibe and made the needle book to look like an exercise book...

and the pincushion a rather crude apple...

It now lives in the living room next to my seat, and houses a mini sewing kit, and whatever project I'm currently working on - the embroidery of the world was my present to James for our anniversary. It has since also housed pom poms and another embroidery piece which became a wedding present.

One year on

2011-10-16T14:30:00.000+01:00

One year ago right now, I married my best friend.

Happy birthday grandpa, you would be 90 today. We'll celebrate your birthday too.

And happy first anniversary Ray, my anniversary buddy! Hope you both have a wonderful day.

Poppies

2011-09-26T19:39:00.001+01:00

(Viki and I on the ullswater steamer this spring. )

I've had this post in draft for a week now, trying to work out how to introduce a friend of 20 years without sounding trite or sappy. But really, it doesn't matter what I say, just that I say it. So go read vikis blog, she's just started. And it's well worth reading.

DIY:jersey shift dress

2011-09-17T08:10:00.001+01:00

Yesterday evening I made this dress! I've not yet learnt how to follow a pattern, (my mum is meant to be going to show me) but I found this fabric pretty cheaply in the Market, and thought f@&k it, let's try it out. Normally I buy fabric for two main reasons, either I have a plan for it (so it goes on my fabric pile of doom at home) or I like it (so it goes on my fabric pile of doom at home) so I didn't want this to go the same way.
I'd never sewn with jersey before, and the only other piece of clothing I've made was a smocked maxi dress which was nice, but someone in the pub asked me when I was due. So I haven't worn it again.
Anyway, this only took about 2 hours, I was pretty pleased! It's fairly plain, and obviously I have a tshirt on underneath, buti think with a belt and some jewellery it could be nice. It's also very comfy.

Growth: wisteria

2011-09-15T09:07:00.000+01:00

One of the first times I managed to get out into the garden properly after we moved wasn't until about February (what?! It's cold and wet up here!). My parents came across to help for the day, with a large amount of pruning and thinning. To the left of the porch in that photo was a large pile of grasses, which we cleared out, and there were 6ft conifers somehow still growing in chimney pots either side of the porch which we took out completely.

There is a wisteria which had been left to climb the front of the house, but had gone a bit mad and was going through the guttering! We decided that the best way to tackle it was to cut it right back to about 4 foot, and pray.

(you can just see the stump here, that standing twig to the left of the porch)

It eventually started to shoot, just as we were starting to think the worst, and once it had a leaf it was away. Dad came and put wires in for us, they have to be a certain distance apart to allow the flower heads room to hang, apparently.

We put the next two wires up at the weekend, as it was starting to grip onto telephone cables, and here it is now:

(most photos taken on my phone, excuse the quality!)

Our House

2011-09-03T18:16:00.000+01:00

So here it is.

Our House, in the middle of our street.

I'm not mad keen on either photo, but the front garden isn't very big, so I don't have much space, and the trees, oh the trees! there are so many. you can see what a difference a few months and some leaves on the trees make. But thats another story for another time.

DIY: pom pom garland

2011-08-31T11:00:00.001+01:00

The hardcore, long term readers out there may vaguely be able to dredge up from the recesses of your mind that I spent a long time making pompoms a year or so back, in the hope of one day making them into a garland for christmas time. Today was that day. Never say I dont finish a project...

Bookcase: A spot of bother

2011-08-30T09:00:00.002+01:00

(image from amazon)

I've got the reading bug badly at the moment. I was holding off reading this one until I had read his first offering (finally) on holiday. I liked this one even more than A Curious Incident... both are excellent but this one is properly laugh out loud funny, while also being very dark.
Each chapter is written from the point of view of one of 4 members of a family, parents, daughter and son, in the run up to the daughters second wedding. each of them concerned with their own problems, they dont notice each others - the fathers impending nervous breakdown, the sons relationship failing while the mother continues an affair. Its all very everyday, mundane, but very very funny.
I ploughed through half of this on a train journey, and the other half one night when James went out - as the chapters are short - some of them only a page - its very easy to keep reading!

Moving on

2011-08-24T19:27:00.001+01:00

So thats my wedding done, finally! I'm glad to have it out of the way, it was a struggle to write the last post, as its so long since I was there I can only remember bits of it all now. Its just not what I'm thinking about now, obviously. What I am thinking about, amongst other things, is our house, the garden, cooking nice things, sorting my life out, and so on. you know, normal, boring things. (And pinterest, but who doesn't think about pinterest constantly...right? RIGHT?) The things that life is made of. So if you dont mind, thats what I think I'll write about from now on.

I hope now, that I will blog more frequently. (haha!) Perhaps with smaller posts (If I can stop myself rabbiting on), perhaps some better organisation, and better tags. (I've actually managed to sort the tags before posting this!) I envy other blogs where there is some semblance of order running through it, either with the titles, or the quality of the pictures. So that's what I'm aiming for, when it happens is another matter!

Holiday: France

2011-08-20T22:02:00.000+01:00

I won't say too much about the holiday, as it's the same place we went to for the first half of our honeymoon (yup, we liked it that much). We spent two weeks out there, the first week was overcast and on some days downright rainy, which meant that I read a lot of books, and sat around doing not much. Which at the time was annoying, but meant that the holiday actually felt like more than two weeks! In the second week another couple came out to join us, so it became more of a whirlwind tour then, and the sun came out and we basked in it.

I ate a lot of croissants, rhubarb jam, cheese, and managed to cobble together a respectable potatoes boulanger.

We went on a 'velo rail' (platform mounted bikes on a disused railway high over viaducts and through tunnels) saw amazing butterflies, and several vultures.

We drove the tarn gorge, where many moons ago my mother studied geology on a field trip from uni.

(there are 5 vultures flying in this photo if you blow it up super big, promise!)

We found a campsite by the river, surrounded by mountains, where you could hire canoes, and so we spent happy hours with the men on the water, and the ladies with their feet blissfully cool in the river, reading books lying on the riverbank.

I found out that I quite enjoyed being in the canoe myself, and James and I spent an hour paddling off, going under a waterfall on beautiful aquamarine water, and came back to find a friendly face swimming out towards us in the river.

I discovered that when pressed I can hold a simple conversation en francais (turns out I've not forgotten all of my French a-level), and that I really want to move there. We ogled vegetable gardens, immaculate and so productive.

We drank homemade walnut wine and pastis, and played scrabble by jam-jar candlelight on the terrace til late. James is now obsessed with scrabble.

Bookcase: holiday reading

2011-08-05T20:14:00.001+01:00

14 days, 7 books. Even I can do the maths there, although there was one very rainy day where I read the fellwalker in 5 hours.

A year in the village of eternity.
I think this was newly released, the only one in the pile which is. I'm not sure where you'd find this in a bookshop as it's not fiction, more a cookery diary of a year in the hilltop village of Campodimele In Italy. Apparently the residents have a longer life expectancy there than anywhere else in Italy, and it's all put down to their food and way of life. Lawson lived there for several years, and this is her account, each chapter being finished by a few recipes relevant to it. A lovely book that will make you want to jump on a plane to Italy, even if you're already in France.

The fell walker
James requested this for the holidays, and it's not often he asks for a book. Set in the lakes, it was easy for us to picture, almost too close for comfort! I really enjoyed this thriller, as you can probably tell from the length of time it took to read it.

An Englishman in Paris.
Again lent by a friend, a book about a year spent eating, drinking and loving in paris. Funny.

The island
I've been recommended this so many times I've lost count, but it's taken me a long time to get round to reading, I'm not often one for 'chick lit', which I assume this would fall into. It was nice to read about a country I've been to, and I enjoyed the whole thing much more than I was expecting to.

The curious incident...
It's taken me a long time to get round to reading it, but it was great. Funny and sad at the same time, But viewed through the eyes of someone who finds it hard to understand emotion. I've got his follow up book waiting to read now.

Doors open.
The Ian Rankin books are where I ran out of my own store and had to start borrowing from the house. Not a Rebus, but still set in Edinburgh, an art heist that goes wrong. Good book.

The Hanging Garden
(I only managed one half of this double bill before we left) this one a Rebus although I found it hard to picture Ken Stott. I've never read a Rebus before, I enjoyed it as detective books go, but there were a lot of plots going on and a lot of history, which made it hard work. I also spent a lot of time comparing it to the tv series, as we watch them a lot, and he seems a much more rounded person in the books than on screen. No bad thing, but I wasn't expecting so many musical references.

I'm considering a kindle. (don't say I told you so, R and Gaynor!)

Absence makes the heart...

2011-08-04T19:21:00.001+01:00

(flying across the White cliffs)

We're back. Not that you'll have noticed I was away, since my blog silences go on for longer than 2 weeks often, but we went to France. To the house we used on honeymoon.
I'd nearly give anything to be back there now.

We looked for the care bears on the way there and back, elusive little buggers. I say we, I mean me.

honeymoon part 2: Paris

2011-07-17T21:03:00.000+01:00

When we made it off the train in to Paris I was far more relaxed. there were no more possible delays, our only remaining transport was in the hands of eurostar and dear old British rail. We found our way out to the worlds longest taxi queue, which also wins the award for worlds fastest moving taxi queue. We went on a hairpin backstreet one way street ride to our flat in the 3ieme which was a tiny tiny studio, with amazing use of space. seriously, go look.

We were there for 5 days, and we did a lot of walking, even after we bought 5 day passes to the metro. They are well worth the money, get one if you go. is the first time I've done much travelling on public transport on holiday, I've not felt particularly safe on them before, but this was fine.

We passed Notre Dame several times on our wanders, impressive inside and out but so swamped by tourists that we never spent long there. The first of my dreams to visit viewpoints and take photos from high up, crushed cruelly by large queues of chinese tourists. dreams aside, it was a beautiful building inside. amazing

We happened to wander to the arc de triomphe just as they were raising this massive French flag.

On morning we went up to Montmartre, made it up to the hill to Notre Dame, to see the early morning views over the city. Just in time, also, for a frenchman to get his head in my photo.

We'd read about the insitut du monde arabe being one of the great free viewpoints of the city, and we managed to find it one day. its an amazing building, the whole side below is glass fronted, and split into panels. Within each panel are hundreds of contracting mechanisms which control the amount of sunlight going into the building. just as stunning from inside when you can see the mechanisms.

Theres a cafe at the top too, when you reach the free view!

I built a journey around going to this metro station, since I had seen it on Little Brown Pen. It was redesigned in a steampunk style based around Jules Vernes work. Absolutely amazing, its clad in copper, the seats are wood, and every so often there are portholes in the wall with museum artefacts in from the arts et metiers museum above it.

We went on one of the boat tours up the Seine. you can hop on and off all day, but we just did one long course of the river, starting just before Notre Dame and going to the Eiffel Tower. James enjoyed it for seeing the underside of the bridges, odd man, and I enjoyed all the views.

These last two are from the tuileries gardens, and one of the old shopping arcades that have been restored.

I loved Paris, and I'm glad I've been, but I didn't find it as amazing as it always sounds. If I went back, I think I'd go with friends, and do different things. I'd like to see the massive Monets in the orangerie, and wander and drink coffee and not feel the compulsion to have to see everything. We went to the eiffel tower three times thinking we might go up, and every time the queues were horrendous. so I have lots of pictures from the bottom, but none from any level above that. We went at night once though, as very hour the whole tower lights up like a sparkler for 3 minutes. that was worth seeing.

(what a misery I sound! I did love it, it just wasnt earth shatteringly, mind blowingly awesome. And I'd rather be honest)

The honeymoon, south of France

2011-05-02T10:12:00.000+01:00

We left for London, and the start of our honeymoon, on the Monday. We stayed overnight in London, right next to Kings Cross, as our eurostar left early the next morning. We had decided to do everything by train, which would have been lovely had the French not chosen the start of our honeymoon to strike over retirement ages. The eurostar people were very helpful both the night before and on the train, keeping us as up to speed with everyones connections as they could, unfortunately things were happening in France faster than they knew. To cut a long story short, we ended up waiting in Lille (however it gave us a chance to do a bit of food shopping, ever taken 2 suitcases round a French hypermarket?) then getting further south to a town I have no desire to remember the name of, being stuck in the train station for several hours as the train time kept getting delayed, until finally in the night a double-decker tgv appeared out of the night, to get us to Montpellier. The car hire company had been great, we found their place while in Lille and got them to transfer our booking to the airport depot since the train station office would be shut by the time we got there. So we got a taxi to the airport, where we found possibly the most helpful car hire man in the world.

Finally we were under our own steam and not bound up in the Frenches arguments!

So instead of the 5pm we had anticipated, James found himself driving us out into the countryside of France for over an hour at 9pm. I am eternally grateful that he likes driving, and has driven abroad before. (that didn't really cut it much shorter, did it)

Our home for the next week was a holiday home of a friends in a tiny hamlet on the edge of the Languedoc. The setting, once we had recovered and it was light enough to appreciate it was lovely. (so lovely, that we are going back this summer) The hamlet was perched up the side of one of the big valleys which cut through the region, so from our little patio we had lovely views. Behind the house the hills rose up, to the top of the escarpment, and even though it was October it was still lovely blue skies, bright sunshine. The nearest town, St Affrique was 5 minutes drive, and had everything we needed to make lovely simple meals.

We did a lot of relaxing in the first week, something James especially isn't known for!
We went out on a day trip to Albi, with a colossal cathedral, built from brick, and frescoed inside with geometric patterns, it was a soaring building.

We went for a drive along the gorges one afternoon, seeing towns perched up on rocks, and landed in a small town as local men came in from the country with boars in the back of their pickup trucks, which were then taken into what must have been a butchers. We were lucky to have got one of the Citroën cars with a panoramic windscreen, so we had brilliant views in all these gorges.

We went to a very odd town (la Couvertoirade), restored from the time of the conquest, to be as it was -a fortified walled town - but people live in it and craftsmen have little shops in it. It didn't help that a) it had not really been described as that, and b) the fog was like pea soup that day, so it was rather like being in an Indiana Jones film. We arrived into the car park and could hear disembodied voices in the mist. Very odd.

James wanted to see the Millau viaduct, built by Norman Foster, the tallest bridge in the world. It was pretty impressive, we managed to find a road that went under it one day, which actually showed it off better than when we went across it later in the week. The photo on the left is James in front of the bridge just before we went over it. the part of the road with the bridge on is toll, once you ar on it you can pull into a specially built service station with a viewing platform which is where we were at in that photo.

We went for a walk up to the top or the escarpment one afternoon, which was wonderful, lots of wildlife, fantastic views and lots of sun. On the left is a little village from another drive through a gorge, with trogloditic houses, and the right is from the top of the escarpment.

Then, after a week, it was back onto the train, bound for Paris. We got to travel first class, actually got our seats, although the train was packed and it was only an hour delayed! Once I was in Paris I relaxed a lot as our only transport left to take (eurostar home and good ol' British rail) were not involved in the strikes.

An evening stroll

2011-04-26T21:13:00.000+01:00

This evening James and I went for a 'stroll' along the river.

I say stroll, it was more of a gentle scramble along the riverside playground of james' youth.

(that's James, in case you were wondering)

You can join a path along the river right behind our house, we didn't know how far we might be able to still get along it now. Turns out, the answers all the way still!

We got all the way to this old disused bridge, although it can't be crossed now sadly, hard to believe that behind those trees there's estate after estate, and the city hospital!

There was some scrambling under the rail bridge, and jumping over boggy bits, but mostly it was really pretty!

The bluebells are out in force here, they're migrating into my garden too!

We seemed to be following the family of ducklings most of the way along the river.

We also found an approaching army of pylons, but hopefully they can't cross the river?

a room with a view.

2011-04-24T15:00:00.009+01:00

The garden is really coming into bloom now, so I thought I'd share one of my favourite views from the house with you. The ancient apple tree, shading debris from the shed saga (more on that to come, oh the joys), the chestnut we hung my wedding dress from to photograph it, and a lovely lilac. There's several of those around the garden, which I love. The lovely sunshine is making it harder to see here, but if I waited I'd never get round to posting. I'm too impatient.

Just a little sneak peek of whats to come once I finish the last of my wedding posts.

credit where credits due, pt 2

2011-04-24T10:00:00.004+01:00

In praise of friends.
Little did I think when I started this blog 18 months ago, that I would make what i hope are lasting friendships from it.
This little space was created after spending several weekends completely immersed in the world of wedding blogs, seeing the relationships that formed, the supportive comments, and the brilliant ideas in weddings which were oh SO different to the ones in magazines.
Of course, I wanted in on all that fun. I hoped that people would pop by and comment, like what I was doing. I wanted it as an outlet for the ideas I was having, rather than constantly bombarding my mum and lovely bridesmaid with emails.
And you came, and you commented, and you were lovely. Occasionally you would email, and slowly relationships started to grow.
One day I met one of you, bizarrely we went ring shopping together. If it weren't for this meeting, I wouldn't have the wedding ring I wear today.
Then a while later, another lady emailed, asking about a group meet. So 5 of us met, in Edinburgh (I love that because of these ladies I get posh days out to Edinburgh :) drank coffee, smelt tea, ate cake, and laughed.
We've met again, with the addition of another, and I count all of them amongst my friends. Oddly, for people I haven't known that long, I feel like they can read me like a book. Maybe I wear my heart on my sleeve, maybe I am an open book, or maybe we were meant to meet, who knows?
You may notice us, babbling on twitter (sorry! We're that loud group in the corner).
But it's not only these ladies who've commented, who have read my ramblings. I wanted to say thank you to you all.
The ladies who write about their life in London, sometimes with forays abroad.
The ladies who married before me, marching on into married life.
The ladies who moved country to live with their husbands, to Italy, to America.
Ladies with beautiful children, who take beautiful photos.
Ladies who got married after me, in the snow.
A Lady who got married the same day as me
A lady who makes wonderful driftwood sculptures.
A lady who takes gorgeous photos, and had the most colourful wedding ever!
(every link is a different blogger, do click through to them all)
And lastly, (but definitely not least) to the real life friends. Not many of them know about this space, but I'll thank those that do anyway.
To Andi, and Kathryn, for funny twitter conversations, and just for being good friends. (and for a recent pretty awesome birthday present which I'll show you soon)
My bridesmaids - my 'sister', oldest friend, and best friend. Thank you all for being beside me when I got married :)
Only one of you reads this, and I hope you don't mind me 'outing' you, but thank you for being with me through nearly all of the wedding planning, for giving me a kick up the proverbial when I needed it, for organising a brilliant hen, and for being beside me as I got married. I should probably also thank your husband (!) for not only being our wedding entertainment, but also the entertainment (purely musical I assure you) at my hen.

Thanks to all of you, and I hope you'll stick along for the ride with me.

credit where credits due, pt 1.

2011-04-24T08:03:00.000+01:00

venue - Crosby Lodge
photographer - Anna Hardy
Bridal dress shop - Mia Bridal
Dress designer - Suzanne Neville
Stationery pieces - Daintree paper/Paperchase/Papermash/fiskars
Transport - Silver lady wedding cars
Bridesmaids outfits - Laura Ashley/Monsoon
Rings - Michael King/Wedding rings direct

etsy shops, used for jewellery for bridesmaids, and supplies for my headband: pianobenchdesigns/marynotmartha/whiteowl

disposables.

2011-04-15T21:35:00.001+01:00

I thought it worth writing about these photos on their own, since I got several different opinions on them beforehand. Personally, I'm really glad we got them, I just wish I'd had more!

(in which I realise that anna is leaving, and james stares at my chest)

We bought 8 cameras in Boots one day, they were on a BOGOF offer so we only paid for 4, and about £5 each, I don't think that's bad. I didn't buy lovely white wedding ones, there's a limit, I reach it before I buy specially-coloured-for-my-wedding disposable cameras. (Having said that I dd make labels for them all, but since they seemed to make Annas day I think it was worth it :), also, thank you R, for help with the quotes!) Bear in mind when you're costing for them that you usually pay to have them developed as well. I think this was another £5 each for us, which SIL got done while we were on honeymoon. It was great to come home tired at night, and to have 8 films to look through straight away, it filled the gap while you're waiting for the professional ones to come back. So the total cost of these was about £60.

( an in joke on the left, from lovely bridesmaid and her husband and Anna!)

I was wondering whether I would be left with a load of half empty cameras at the end of the night, but luckily we weren't. At the wedding of a friend several years ago they had these, and she was left with a lot of cameras with 10/15 photos on each left to use, the only reason we didn't was thanks to the young boys on James side of the family. This was both a blessing and a curse. We put them out on the tables for dinner, by the time the eating was over, 4 of the 8 cameras were finished! The waiting staff then separated them out for us when they cleared up, packed the finished ones away for us, and moved the half used ones out into the bar rooms for us to use. ( I didn't ask them to do this, they were just extremely thoughtful!) The boys then cottoned onto the fact that there were cameras to be used, and went about their work! Its great that we ended up with finished cameras, and no film left to use up, but the downsides were that because they got used so soon I have no record of my evening guests, and I think the boys a) often forgot to use the flash, and b) didn't vary their subjects much, so the ends of the films are largely unfocused badly lit pictures of themselves!

What I'm trying to say is that if you have a choice of when to put them out/who to give them to, do. My mum had suggested doling them out to a few people in the evening and asking them to be photographers for the night. I sort of wish I had done this now, as some people obviously love taking photos, the proof of that is in the cameras from tables who used them up completely before dinner was over. I also wish I'd maybe bought more, given that they were BOGOF anyway, and kept a few back to bring out after dinner for the evening guests. but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The evening of the 16th

2011-04-14T21:08:00.000+01:00

(I've deliberated over putting photos in here, all I have is the disposables and theres no way of showing you them without showing you my entire family! so this post is image free. :( sorry)

Once we were all in the dining room everything became a lot more relaxed. My parents and I had spent quite a while sorting out the table plan, and that was even without having any complex family politics! It was lovely to see everyone start to admire the table DIY bits, to see the groups of people we had sat together start to talk (there were some surprising friendships started), to hear the silence fall as people started to eat.

Between courses people moved around, got air -I may be talking about me here, a Suzanne Neville dress does wonders for your figure, bit it does not allow for a GOOD appetite- and took photos with the disposables.

We had a wonderful time at dinner, from where we were we could see the whole room, it was lovely to let the whole atmosphere wash over me. There was plenty going on on our table, even tho my bridesmaids were from disparate parts of my life each of them had met each other once before the wedding, but none of their husbands had ever met each other, or the best man; so it was great to see them all get on. Our tables camera was finished before dinner was over. When I went off between courses a load of random things happened that I didn't get to know about until the photos were developed!

After dinner we cut the cake, with the boys watching expectantly, I think they thought we would just start serving it up there and then. Then we all started to disperse into the other rooms. The evening guests had been starting to arrive as we had our coffee, there was a buffet people raved about for them in the drawing room.

We had swing playing in the drawing room, which for a large portion of the evening hosted one large family group and a lot of cooing over a new baby.

In the bar, which is two rooms joined together by glass doors, we had a massive iPod playlist playing most of the night, but at about 8pm lovely bridesmaids husband stepped up and started to play for us. This was a very last minute decision for us, he turned out to be the 'entertainment' at my hen do, I had never heard him play before that (acoustic guitar versions of pretty much anything he has a while to put his mind to) and I told James about it, we ended up asking him about 3 weeks before the wedding!

The whole evening was very relaxed, exactly how we had wanted, and I had worried that we wouldn't get. Shock horror, we didn't do a first dance! We had chosen a song just in case, but really didn't want to, fortunately. There's no space that demands dancing, so I don't think anyone noticed. In fact, most of you may find this odd and boring, but there wasn't any dancing. We wouldn't have been bothered if people did get up and dance, we'd cleared a space for it, but no one did. It was a really nice relaxed atmosphere, with family groups and friends chatting together, catching up, and getting to know others.

By about 11ish people were starting to leave, and there were a few groups dotted around and the people who were staying the night sitting around chatting. I was quite surprised to find my parents still up and part of the biggest group, by this point I was just wafting from room to room and gazing around, the same way you do after a really good Christmas day. when the last group left/went up to bed sometime after midnight, the bar staff just cleared up around us while we sat in a quiet corner, listened to our music, finished our drinks and mulled over the day. It was a wonderful way to end the day, sitting with my new husband, in my wedding dress, doing what we would normally do on a Saturday night.

Edinburgh

2011-03-22T12:33:00.001Z

Last week, we took ourselves away for a few days in Edinburgh to eat nice food and wander. Zoe kindly recommended us some places to shop, which we duly went to, and bought from, along with some of our own favourites.

(skyline from north bridge)

(vases in hotel missonis windows)

(coffee in artisan roast)

(shopping on Victoria St)

(busts in the national gallery)

(skyline from princes St gardens)

As you can see I've been having a play around with my phones camera.

The afternoon of the 16th

2011-03-12T18:28:00.000Z

(yes, those are the gyp hearts we made the day before, outside the front door)

A lot of the afternoon reception is a blur in my head now, we got to Crosby lodge before most guests, and while everyone went inside and were given their first drinks we waited for Anna to grab us for our photos.

We wandered around the grounds of Crosby lodge with her, and a little bit upstairs, but we didn't want to be too close to the guests while this was happening. I don't remember much after this until the speeches, but apparently what was happening was that lots of random groups chatted, laughed, caught up with each other, and in one case, which I wish I'd seen, James godfather did card tricks for the kids!

(possibly the best photo ever. IMHO. thank you Anna!)

Eventually, just after 5, we got into position for the speeches. We wanted to do them before dinner in the bar, a couple of people suggested it to us, for the sake of everyones nerves, rather than having to wait to do them after dinner. I have to say it worked well, relaxed everyone and meant we could all enjoy the meal after.

We started with my dad, whose 2 sides of A4 terrified James I think! He wrote a lovely speech, mum and I had been teasing him for ages before hand about things that could and couldn't go into the speech, apparently he wrote it in one sitting and needed no amendments. The photo above was when he was comparing James to himself and saying how similar he thought they were!

Then it was onto James. The 'speech' word had not been mentioned much around our parts, it's one that was met with tumbleweed most of the time. I know that it was mostly in his head but only went onto paper that morning, as the friend he was staying with rang me to check the bridesmaids preferred names. However it was lovely, he was greeted with a cheer when he started with 'my wife and I' which I think helped!

Then it was my turn. Yes, I did a speech. Anyone who knows me (ahem) will know I always have something to say, especially on my wedding day. I was the classy one who had their speech written on the back of an envelope that I'd taken to bed with me the night before, and scribbled down as I woke up. I'd sat down in a quiet room about 20 minutes before the speeches to read it through, and got lovely bridesmaid to read it too, who pronounced it lovely. Apparently she then went back to her husband and told him that I wouldn't get through it without crying, how right she was! It wasn't very long, but my toast and thanks was to James parents, and when I got to that bit I couldn't speak! Anna managed to get photos of both James parents at that bit, his dad is master if the art of hiding but she got him perfectly.

Then it was the best man...
His speech was wonderful. Again, I think that this was written fairly late in the day, but he still managed 2 sides of a4 as well! He said some nice things, and then went on to give us some advice on marriage. Things like 'leave the toilet seat down' ( the only one I can remember). But the piece de la resistance came with the ending ( bear in mind we asked him to keep it relatively clean for the sake of my 2 great aunts...) 'becca, a man is like a tiled floor, lay it right the first time and you'll be walking all over him for years to come' ( I think the photo above was taken at the moment we realised what he was saying!). thankfully the aunts either didnt hear, or didnt understand, or just chose to ignore it, but everyone else loved it.

Then, it was time for dinner. everyone went through and was told where they were sitting, while we waited with the manager. They always announce the couple into dinner, which we knew nothing about, which is probably just as well as we would have said no, if we had known. I'm so glad we didnt know, as its one of my favourite memories of the day. the dining room was packed, and we had to walk the length of it to get to our seats, having been announced in as Mr & Mrs ..... and everyone was around us clapping and cheering, it was a ridiculous feeling of love.

Dinner was beautiful, there were 3 choices for starters and puds, and one main (plus a veggie option) we were waited on as if out for a meal, no prechoosing, they took our orders table by table. The tables had the most of my projects on:

menus (standing in corks)

table numbers

place names (standing in corks)

table centres - we had left the venue with instructions on assembling the centres, they misunderstood slightly and put the dried hydrangea petals on the table around the bowl. lovely bridesmaid and I wandered in at one point before dinner to check the room out all set up, saw this, and did not give a crap. considering how control freaky we were before the wedding it was wonderful to laugh and shrug and walk out on it again. I mean, what would I have done, spent 20 minutes putting them back in the bowls?

disposeable cameras

favours

we also made little bags of sweets for the kids, and the cake baked by my sister in law, and iced by a local sugercrafts lady, with the cake topper I made was standing in the centre of the room

Our table was us, best man, bridesmaids and their partners (and in one case child/my goddaughter). it was at this point that Anna left, and the disposeables took over, which just leaves me with about one post to write!

Belle amour

2011-03-02T07:05:00.000Z

Hello all,
I've just dropped in quickly to say that today our wedding will be over at belle amour, written by the lovely Debs! Thank you so much for featuring us, and more importantly, annas work!
X

the ceremony

2011-02-13T10:00:00.001Z

I'm not going to say too much about the wedding itself, I think it should be relatively private for us and our guests.

So here, instead, is a string of little moments, taken by Anna, with snippets of memories.

Holding hands

Friends reading for us

Godparents reading for us ( this is where I lost my nerves as we both knew James godfather was nervous about getting this right- I just held my breath the whole time)

Singing -the vicar complimented my dad on his volume!he's used to having to get a wedding going, not ours though, my family are all very musical and loud!!

Catching annas eye in the corner, and getting big grins back. It was so comforting to have someone friendly I could see!!

My bridesmaids whooping when we were announced husband and wife, (their excuse being that they couldn't clap for holding bouquets-apparently my mum told them off!)

I love this photo,

James' mum: are you alright mrs D?

Me: yes I am mrs D!!

And then walking out as husband and wife, to one of my favourite pieces of music, which neither of us can remember, and seeing the monocle again!

Greeting family and friends outside the church, many hugs and kisses, many group photos, a small amount of confetti, thrown mainly by tiny people, and then away!

Going to the church

2011-02-12T09:21:00.000Z

I think James headed to the church about 1pm, my cousin, who was playing the organ, was coming up on the day by train, and was one of the first to arrive. James had been really looking forward to hearing him play (he's a tad talented) but he can't remember any of it!

Dad and I were ready to leave the house, but we were early, so we ended up sitting in the car with the driver for a few minutes, them chatting about old cars while I sort of gazed around wondering what was going on. After a few minutes we set off for the church. When we arrived the bridesmaids and a few randoms were waiting at the gates for me, including someone I used to work with. Anna took a few photos of us in groups, portraits with my dad, and some of the ushers staring from the porch. A few guests ran past us, and then the vicar appeared.

I remember there being jokes about the bridesmaids heights, following on from the previous night, hence the photos of shoes in height order, a prayer in the porch once the doors were shut, me needing to ask yet another question, and the vicar being oh so understanding of me.

Then the vicar flung the doors open, and boomed 'ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for the bride' and walked off up the aisle ahead of me.

Meanwhile I was trying to work out who everyone else in the church was, and why they seemed so tall! My dad had the say on when we started walking, (there was a particular point to move off at in the music apparently) so we were still standing in the porch, when suddenly, an old work friend sitting at the back grinned at me and gave me a thumbs up, and Istarted to realise who people were!

We had a friend (also at the back) who had been promising all sorts of bizarre outfits for a full year before the wedding, and as we stepped forward into the church, his hand moved up to his eye, to put a monocle in. (you can just see him and monocle in the photo above!) I'm so glad he did, it made me laugh and calmed me right down. And watching the reaction of his friends ( we all thought he would do it on the way out, not the way in) was brilliant too.

We got to the altar rail, and it was James who was the more nervous I think! His best man had asked him if he was going to look, as I walked up to them, he did, when I got to him he seemed on the verge of tears.

And then it was time to get married!

Bookcase: Reading list

2011-01-23T18:43:00.001Z

This is my current pile of books to read, mostly gained through amazon marketplace and charity shops.

I love Louis de bernieres, as you may gave guessed since the only other bookcase post was on a book of his too! Red dog is a short story based around a fabled dog in australia.

I read Dave Pelzers first book in this series last year, and I've been waiting for the second to appear in a charity shop for a while since. They aren't easy reading, but they are oddly compelling at the same time.

Some of the pile was influenced by my Christmas television watching - did any of you see toast? I watched it and loved it, so thought i should maybe read the book too. I'm about halfway through now, I'm finding it has a slightly darker undertone than the adaptation, but it's still great.

We also watched 'Eric and ernie' which reminded me of a book I found a long time ago about the pair, but never bought and was never able to find again, until now! This one is a republication so I'm assuming that's why I've not been able to.

The two without visible names in the middle were bought with some vouchers we were given, they are two of the river cottage handbooks. We already have several, these ones are for 'bread' and 'hedgerow'. Each one is written by someone who works around river cottage, so the bread one is by Dan his baker there. I thoroughly recommend the 'veg patch' one, I think it will be my reference bible in the next few years!

I read a thousand splendid suns and the kite runner last year, and saw the file of the kite runner when it was on last week. I love these books, despite all the tragedy, they really do show that we should be grateful for what we have, and that out of adversity can come beauty.

And finally, I read birdsong for the first time last year, so I thought I would try a couple of others by Sebastian Faulks too.

Have you read any of these? I'd love to know what you thought of them.

the mens morning

2011-01-17T10:00:00.002Z

This is a not very picturey post because of James privacy and a not very wordy post because I dont know what went on. these are some of my favouriste photos of them all because its view onto a bit of the day I didn't see, and hadn't planned for 18 months.

He and the best man spent the night before the wedding at one of the ushers houses, and they all got ready there in the morning. All the men met for a pint at the pub opposite the church, which is their regular drinking haunt, and where anna caught up with them.

His nephews were ushers too, (I think they look best in the suits out of any of them! but dont tell him that...)

And from there they went onto the church, to start greeting guests!

The morning of the 16th

2011-01-16T09:00:00.001Z

I slept better than I thought I would the night before, ably assisted by two cats pinning me down, and my childhood friend, penguin.

I did wake up early though, which gave me a chance to write my cards to the girls and my parents. (cards from papermash, that were in this post many moons ago.) I got up, left my presents out for my parents - I got my mum an amethyst and silver bracelet, and my dad got one of the tie pins we had made for all the men, I'll show them later. I managed to eat a banana, which I was actually rather impressed with since I cant eat when I'm nervous. The girls had all arrived by ten, and we all, with mum trooped p to the salon at the top to have our hair and nails done. the nails took the longest, with our hair being done shockingly quickly. really there was nothing to be done to mine, except having it nicely blow dried with a few rollers, and the girls had theirs put into poufy buns on the right hand side of their head. we'd only trialled this with one of them, and the other two were certain that it wouldn't work with either of their hair types (one too short, and one too fine) so they seemed very chuffed when it worked.

We walked back to our house via the butchers - he had taken a massively sarcastic interest in our impending nuptuals over the previous year, to the point where he got mentioned in our sermon, so I wanted to see him - and we found Anna at our house with Dad.

The next hour or so was a whirlwind of photos, makeup and running round in circles. I wasn't very nervous, certainly not like I had expected I would be, which was good. Anna took photos of all my outfit, we hung my dress off the massive old chestnut in the garden, I think James dad could see this happening from next door and must have thought I was mad! I'd mentioned the chestnut and the porch for hanging the dress up in as it would mean some of the photos had things we associated with the house in.

She also took photos of all my jewellery, thats my great grandmothers locket above, which was my something old and borrowed, and the earrings James had bought me the year before to wear at the wedding.

The girls hadn't been allowed upstairs before we went out, as I'd put their presents out up in my room. There was a little pile for each of them, with a card, a clutch bag, different jewellery for each of them, a hankie (remember them from way back when?!), and I'd found toeless tights, great for peeptoes on an october day, but they were more a practicality than a present! (M&S in case you were wondering)

Our shoes were all different, as we all wanted different heights, and I had anna take a photo of them in height order, as a little joke for me, and she popped them in the porch, which I love!

Lovely bridesmaid spent most of her time doing mine, my mums, and her own makeup, while we all floated around eating cheese and biscuits, and drinking bucks fizz.

I ended up with much less makeup than in my trial, just enough to give me some cover, but since James had done a double take at me that day, I went for a more natural look.

It was around this time that Anna left to meet the men in the pub, so there are no more photos, but we all ran around getting changed, my dad caused 20 minutes of panic when he went off up to the church to drop the car off with all our overnight bags in, and didnt come straight back. Turned out that the car park hadn't been opened as promised, and he went to sort it out himself!
meanwhile the wedding car turned up early to pick mum and the girls up and Mum got in a tizz because dad wasnt back (in all fairness two serious accidents had happened on that road the previous week). eventually he turned up, and mums parting words to me were 'make sure he sorts out his hair'.

Dad and I were left alone in the house, he went and got changed quickly while I stood around in the dress, and then I had to tell him what to do (movetheironingboard/letthecatsoutoftheconservatory/movetheirfood/tidythekitchenabit) while I sort of pivoted on the spot for fear of damaging said dress.

then it was time for us to go too!

all photos by the wonderful amazing Anna

photos

2010-12-05T08:53:00.002Z

we're up on Anna Hardys blog now, go see it here. She wrote beautiful things abot us, as she does with all her couples, and right at the end my dad posted a comment too :) I promise promise promise I'll be back soon, I'm working super hard and I'm way behind on christmas, its all I can do to keep my eyes open in the evening! but I now have the internet on computer in a war room which is much more condusive to typing, so even though I've just given you the link to a lot of our photos, words may come soon. promise.

recaps: the week before

2010-11-20T08:26:00.013Z

The week leading up to the wedding is a blur to me now, and was rather at the time too! My parents and lovely bridesmaid were around on and off for most of that week. I don't think I would have got anything done without them, all three were amazing.

We had a day making the orders of service, and cutting corks to stand menus and place names in, I remember feeling generally nervous and scared, and this was 8 days before! I kept taking deep breaths and my mum was wondering what was happening to me. I was prepared to feel like this on the day of (which didn't happen oddly) but not a week early.

Those feelings came and went over the next few days, as did lovely bridesmaid who I think possibly took as much delight as me in ticking things of the ever diminishing list. I finished work on the Wednesday, which gave me 2 days to run around and pick up things,drop off things, and all those other bits that mount up and you have no idea how everything will happen on time. We got the dress on the Wednesday when I finished work, which really started to make it seem real to me. this dress, which I had been trying on for 8 months in a shop, was now mine, to take home, and wear!

I can't remember this end of the week very clearly, there were visits to the florist, dropping off vases, picking up the massive bundles of gyp (which by the way she majorly overestimated on!)getting the tie pins from the jewellers, and lots of phone calls.

On the Thursday evening my parents arrived to stay until the wedding. It was all rather surreal, as it was James last night at home before the wedding too. On the Friday, lovely bridesmaid appeared again. my parents spent a good while laying everything out into groups by table (table numbers, menus, table centres, favours, and then boxing it all up by table - thank you to whichever one of you suggested this to spare thoughts before her wedding, it was a great idea - I was complimented on my organisation by the lady who runs the venue!), while lovely bridesmaid and I made the two gyp hearts for either side of the front door at the venue. this took a good long while, but was very calming ( I like monotonous repetitive tasks, it concentrated my mind) and we printed off a few last minute bits, extra place cards, a large order of service for my aunt etc. We finished all of this and loaded the car up at 3 to take everything to the venue, also the ipods and docks for the music.

We then came home, and had a rather bizarre but nice drink over at the in laws house , along with James godparents, and then it was time for the rehearsal. we all trooped up to the church, I remember getting near the church and seeing one of my other bridesmaids waving at me, which started to make everything OK.

Mum and SIL hung the wicker hearts off the pew ends, while I got excited and spun around in circles talking to everyone. Anna arrived, having never met her before I thought (rather rudely) who is this random woman and what is she doing at my wedding rehearsal, and then realising who she was. Then it was time to start. I got tongue tied and giggly, and both of us were nervous. Ben, our vicar, was great, but nothing quite prepared me (even having seen 2 of my bridesmaids go through the dame thing in the previous 2 years) for being at your own wedding rehearsal. it was almost more surreal the night before, than on the day.We went through the rehearsal, in what seemed like 5 minutes. Ben put up with us asking about 200 questions, he had got used to me by that point, so wasn't in the least surprised when I produced a small list! After talking to everyone, we left the church and it was time to say bye. I got quite teary, and then had to try to pull it together cos one of my bridesmaids and her mum and husband were coming home with me to see our house. This didn't turn out so well, as about 20 minutes after we got home, I burst into tears for no reason.

For anyone reading this who isn't married yet, do not underestimate the amount of bizarre and unexpected emotions you may or may not feel. I thought I knew exactly how I would feel, I had no idea. all my emotions came out the night before, which in a way was good, but I just hadn't prepared or allowed for this. Only have around you people that you want, and don't plan ahead on what to do. if we had been having the big bridal group around for a takeaway like I thought I wanted, I would have been a wreck. I'm not saying don't do it, just be prepared for the unexpected!

After my bridesmaid left, I recovered my senses and my parents and I had dinner. I delivered the silly little present I had bought for James to where he was staying (he was out) and promptly fell asleep on the sofa.

(first two photos, by me, the rest by the stunning Anna Hardy)

the return...almost.

2010-11-05T19:40:00.006Z

I feel awful that I've not been blogging, but I just don't have words for it all. The day was wonderful, perfect and lovely. I will, I promise, at some point be a good blogger and write you out numerous posts about the extent of the loveliness, but I want to accompany them with photos, and I don't have them yet. So in lieu of that, while I get my thoughts, and act, together are a few ridiculous photos a friend sent me.

First, the rubbishiest confetti throwing ever, the man behind the camera on the far side is my godfather, the hand behind me is my godmothers. The confetti throwing was rubbish mainly because our families thought it logical to get children 1/4 of our heights to throw it at us. the pavement had a very good do. (also, I have very bad posture dont tell me.)

I have NO idea what is going on here, but I love it.

Also, I did not want to leave my bouquet. No one bothers to tell you you may form a deep and meaningful relationship with a bunch of flowers, I nearly cried when I left for honeymoon. Ma in law re-presented me with it when we got home, the cabbages had rotted.

sneaky peek.

2010-10-17T14:00:00.003+01:00

The only things I can find to take photos of today:

my bouquet (you can just see the lace its wrapped in) no I did not throw it, and yes, it was more beautiful that even i could have imagined. the florist did herself proud. also, that is my dress lying in a crumpled heap behind it!
mud stains on my dress, from a long lovely walk with James and Anna Hardy

and a tired, bashed, crushed buttonhole.

No, I have nothing better to do than make blog posts, some things never change, the husband has gone to the pub, and I'm meeting him in town later. I'll miss you all, see you in two weeks!

orders of service

2010-10-14T07:36:00.002+01:00

these are our finished orders of service. Made with the same card as the invitations, and with a natural handmade paper inside, all from daintree again, and tied up either with lace (from etsy) or a pink or plum ribbon. They took an afternoon with the parents, while I was feeling rather out of it and nervy, and lovely bridesmaid had to save us from our bow tying late on. my dad is wonderful in many ways, expert bow tyer he is not.

the fonts, in case anyone is interested, are

Front cover: Ecuyer dax (free)/ Aphrodite slim stylistic (paid for)

inside: Ecuyer dax/Optimus princeps (free)

park it.

2010-10-14T06:47:00.004+01:00

This is what my cat thinks of the seating plan.

eeep!

2010-10-03T09:07:00.002+01:00

at just under 2 weeks to go, we went to church this morning, and what did I see on the pew sheet?:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

table numbers

2010-10-01T19:47:00.002+01:00

Remember the table numbers we 'liberated' all that time ago?

Well lovely bridesmaid did some very lovely stuff with a chalk pen (FREEHAND!), and then my dad did some lovely stuff with wood stuck to the back that made them stand up, so here they are. I loves them.

Sorry about the quality of the photo, bizarre light conditions.

mallows.

2010-10-01T07:52:00.003+01:00

Several of you have asked how we made these beauties on here, and on twitter, and as they have only improved with time I thought it only right to share the recipe with you. I have it in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls family cookbook but he also did it in his 'autumn' tv series last year. I didn't add the beetroot (they were a tv addition for colour - we used food colouring) but theres no reason why you shouldn't. heres where to find the recipe. Its great fun, and it was in a book designed to be used by children with adult supervision so great for a rainy day.

p.s. when it says oil the knife, DO oil the knife. this mixture is like glue.

recently.

2010-09-28T18:40:00.004+01:00

Most of my recent posts have been wordy, so heres some pictures of more recent wedding making.

I made these, to sit on lower tier of the cake:

with the finished cake topper on top:

We printed and stamped place cards:

we turned these:

into these:

we made fudge:

and marshmallows:

Theres probably more, but I don't have pictures of it.

appointments left right and centre.

2010-09-17T07:43:00.002+01:00

I'm pretty sure if I don't write something soon, my only posts will be 'catching up' posts, so I've just dropped in quickly to say hi.

In the last week we have had hair trials which went fine, I only have a pic of the bridesmaid hair as mine was like mine but with a bit more oomph. there not much you can do with jaw length hair. Mums was the main worry or me as she hadn't met the girls before and she doesn't much like her hair at the moment anyway. all was good.

Then we went to the dress makers, tried on a toile of my jacket, which I've been back and tried on again since, and its lovely. 3/4 length sleeves with a little scrunch at the end, and a nice plain collar. sorry, no pictures.

mum and I went int othe church and decidd where to put the flowers - did i mention ever that due to health and safety vases on the window ledges were a no-go? well they are. so we are having one in the porch, one either side as you go in, the little wicker hearts hanging off the pew ends, a big pedastal in front of the altar rail, and then the church does the ones beyond the altar. I confirmed all that with the florist on monday, and we are going to try to make two of the gyp hearts ourselves to hang outside the doors at the venue.

we went to the venue on sunday to choose the menu, its looking scrummy! not going to post it yet, but I will at some point soon. Shes also sorted the bottles of yates beer for James, (its alocal beer) and we asked lots of other little questions, and got a lot sorted.

Lovely bridesmaid came over last night (thursday is going to be our wedding night) and we made the second batch of jam for the favours, and managed to finish it all, so it just needs labelled and the fabric put on top. We also chose the pieces of slate to use (we only need 8 now) and cleaned it up. And we picked out the best vases for the church, to give to the florist, and made the last labels for the cameras.

Lastly, I think, its my hen this weekend!! I'm excited and terrified. there is a day bit with me, 2 bridesmaids, my SIL & MIL (yes I booked time off for my hen on a weekend that my mum is at the other end of the country. I am a tit.) then a few hours peace, and and evening bit with meal, drinks, and god knows what else. One of my bridesmaids is travelling up from bedford today for it, I havn't seen her sinceher wedding ayear and a half ago! very excited.

The new house is lovely, odd to be living here but I'm getting used to it! Its still a tip, but a box gets unpacked each day. I'm finding it hard to concentrate on the wedding bits when all I want to do is unpack, but only a month to go!

so thats all for now, a bit of a wordy post but someone who shall remain nameless has been nagging me for information ;) so I thought I would share it with you all, or another week will go by and I won't have written any more!

playing catch up.

2010-09-05T07:22:00.005+01:00

Hello my lovelies,

I'm sorry for being not so bloggy recently, things are getting rather hectic here at the moment. We now have a moving date for Wednesday (whoop!) so if I am silent around then, you know why, although we are taking over an existing phone line, so there shouldn't be (ha!) any of those problems with cancelling and setting up phone lines that you usually get. I spent my week off a few weeks ago with my parents helping me to move as much as possible into the spare room at the new house, and the stuff that is left to pack here is all either clothing and kitchen essentials, or those bits that you know you need, but have no home for. I hate this part, and the packing has slowed down which scares me somewhat, as its now Sunday morning, and I don't have a day off until the delivery men arrive. Ho hum, it will be fine. cross your fingers for me! I will try and take some photos of the house in its almost empty state, so that you can have before and afters.

In wedding news, I have a lot of appts coming up. Mum is coming across on Thursday, and we have hair trials booked, along with lovely bridesmaid, then we are going to try to get into the church to sort out the amended flower plans so that I can go to the florist and finalise that, then later the same day we have another appt to try on the toile of my jacket, and then we are going to take mum into boots to get her some makeup sorted. phew!long day! We are also going to the venue next Sunday to sort out the menu, and then the following Monday I am going to the florist to finalise everything with her. So that will give me something to post about soon, internet willing.

I also managed to crowbar in a crazy bad day of train travel sandwiched around a delightful blogger meet up in Edinburgh last weekend, where I convinced Gaynor, Zoe, R (who lets face it, already knew from our previous meet) and Dizzy Girl - the artist formerly known as Glasgow Bride - that I am in fact insane, and not to be met again. Who knew asking to smell someones chocolate tea isn't what you do within an hour of meeting?!

Disclaimer - I am in fact lovely. FACT.

Anyway.....

I've STILL not done the bridesmaids bags, although all the fabric is cut out now. I have however started on the cake topper, which looks like this:

But I'm going to have to take it apart and put it onto a yet again smaller polystyrene ball as the lace was all wider than I thought, and in its present state will hang over the side of the top tier of the cake. nearly there though. its been very easy to make, apart from making it the wrong size n' all...

I've also bought some disposable cameras (if you are in the UK boots have a BOGOF going) I bought boots cheapest own brand ones with a flash, £5 each, so in the offer I got 8 for £20, which will be more than ample. They will go out in the bar in the evening after our meal, when Anna leaves. My mum suggested that I actually think of a few people to give them to as well as leaving some around, which I might do.

I wanted to attach little labels to them (the bane of wedding blogs) and here are the finished ones so far:

they have 'be our photographer' on one side, with a corner of the doily stamp, and some kind of quote about photos on the other:

Some are funny, some are old classics. You may have seen me asking for these on twitter, so a massive thank you to R from sparethoughts who as usual, came up trumps with probably half of them (my favourite is madonnas one) and cakesandbunting for the half a sixpence one. BUT! I still have 3 more to fill, and I am stuck, so if you have any more ideas, please let me know!

Other than that, there isn't much to tell, it was T minus 6 weeks yesterday, so I'm starting to get a little tiny bit flappy now!!

honeymoon

2010-08-19T18:16:00.006+01:00

image: weheartit

We have now pretty much finished booking our honeymoon. Earlier in the year, when we were going round in ever decreasing circles on where to go, we were offered a friends house in the south of France, so that formed the basis of the trip. we really wanted to do a honeymoon from a couple of bases, so we also booked a tiny flat in Paris for 5 nights at the end of the trip, and because the ash cloud happened soon after, we also decided to do ALL the travelling by train.

This next bit isn't intended as a boast, I just found out quite a bit about train travel while booking all of this, found some useful links and whatnot, and thought someone else might benefit from it too. If you have no interest, or have done this before, I suggest you turn off now.

We've managed to get tickets to London (from Carlisle) for £14 each. This is super cheap, believe me. We are a long way away from you Londonites, and has really made me think about overnight trips down to the big smoke as a reality rather than a dream. Anyway, I knew you could get cheap trail travel in advance, but I didn't realise it was that cheap. All train tickets are released at 3 months out from the travel date (except Eurostar, which is 4 months) and at 2 months out, UK travel prices suddenly drop enormously, and build up again as people buy them. so buy at 8 weeks out, and you can apparently travel most of the length of the country for a pittance.

I used thetrainline for this.

We are staying overnight in the premier inn next to Euston, and then leaving early the next morning on Eurostar, changing in Lille, and getting the TGV down the country to Montpellier. I have no idea when I booked them, but I got tickets for about £68 each all the way from London to Montpellier. the Eurostar website will book through journeys for you, even on into other countries, and I would heartily recommend their call centre, I have spoken to them several times and they have been nothing but helpful to me (especially Gary, but that's another story!)

For the return leg, we've booked the TGV up to Paris, which you can book on Raileurope it was only an extra £10 per person to go 1st class, so we booked that!

I think I left the return Eurostars a little late, as they were £60 each, but we are also travelling back on a Saturday, s that may have something to do with it. It was cheaper in the afternoon, and I thought we would have to stay over again in Londres, but there was a connecting train again for £14 each, which gets us home by 8pm.

With Eurostar you can even choose what seat you have, which is a really great option I think, although mine did get cancelled on the 3rd phone call to them about the return Journey, but its my fault really for not knowing my own age, and booking myself as a youth in the first place. ho, hum. That's where Gary came in, he was, as R called him, a hero.

If you are thinking about a holiday involving trains, I would really recommend going here, its a bit convoluted at times, but extremely thorough information on rail travel throughout Europe.

And no, we are not train spotters, just 6' foot tall people who think that planes should have more legroom, and we rather like the idea of being able to see landscape rushing past us all the way through France. Now I have to just limit what I take enough that I can bring tons back!

absence.

2010-08-19T16:28:00.003+01:00

Sorry I've been away lovelies, life got in the way for a while. In fact, it still is really, but I wanted to tell you that I'm still alive. Huzzah, I hear you cry!

We are now split between two houses, with the i- laws spare room taken over by boxes of our things, and the flat we are still currently in is well, awful. There are piles of things everywhere, more sofas than I care to imagine, and I can only comfort myself with the fact that many of the cupboards are actually empty, so there isn't too much hidden stuff to pack.

I'm not sure that I've done much wedding stuff recently, since the invitations went out its been rather quiet on the western front, which has given me some time to pack and sort the house out without feeling too pressured by the impending nuptials. I have however, felt slightly concerned by the wedding playlists, which until now, have not been started.Please, if you did this, and it took ages, don't tell me. I have two months, and as we speak, songs are going into my itunes. We were held up by the fact that although we have 3 computers in the house, I didn't have one I could start making them on.

1 is ancient, and although its what I currently run our ipods from, it takes about half an hour to import a CD into itunes on there.
2 is actually James business computer, so I didn't want to put our entire music collection onto that,
and 3, the laptop which I use most of the time was in computer hospital with the best man until the other day. it is now, very much alive and kicking, upgraded to windows 7, and some extra ram is on its way, so I'm importing every CD we own. I may yet regret it.

I did however, have quite an eventful dress appt the other week, which resulted in a quick cancellation of the original order (quite within the rules if it hasn't been started, and no deposit lost because lovely dress lady kept refusing to take one off me) and she's selling me the sample one instead. at a rather nicely reduced cost :) I am aware that in ethical terms this probably makes me somewhat hypocritical, since I was dead set on having a dress made from organic silk, but given the saving, I think I would be possibly the MOST awful daughter ever to walk the earth if I had still asked my Mum to pay the original amount. (to her credit, she did not try to sway me one way or the other, she just kept playing with the dress ladies 5month old daughter who was sitting on her lap.) Fine, if I was paying it myself, I would feel free to choose which I wanted the most, but for one day, I think I would still be hard pressed to choose to have a new dress made, when I can in some way, recycle the ready made one.

She's also making a toile of the jacket shes making me, and I'm going back soon to try that on, its going to be 3 quarter length sleeves, with a slight pouf at the ends, a crumply sort of collar and an inverted pleat at the back so that I have plenty extra material to hug with!

I've got nearly all the bridesmaids jewellery presents now, so I'll pop all of that up when I have enough money to buy the last piece,and my Mum gets her fascinator tomorrow which was being made for her by the lovely Sara Gadd. The jam jar collection is going well, I'm into the 20's now, and I discovered the other day that the person we got all those plums from last year has been hoarding 5 bags for me in her freezer for a year now, which I apparently knew about, so I won't hardly need to buy any plums to make the jam either, which is a bonus!

I still need to make the bridesmaids clutch bags (procrastination, much?) clean the slate, cut the corks so that they will hold place names, wait til the vicars back to confirm readings and hymns and then make orders of service, and go to the venue and choose a menu and then print said menus. oh, and make pocket squares for the men, a cake topper, sort out the church flowers (all change since health and safety said nothing on the frigging windowledges, and we can't get in the church to look around on a weekday since all the people are on holiday)I'm sure there's plenty else I haven't yet done, but I won't dwell on that!

Surprisingly I feel quite calm, even after writing that massive list, presumably because
a) the house move is more pressing
and
b) if I don't do any of those, no-one will care, or probably even notice.
Its only me that will know, and that's why I'm still intending to do them, because I know I will be really satisfied with myself if I do. Because while getting married really has nothing to do with what your bouquet is tied up with, and where the flowers are, I know that completing a set of tasks, and learning new skills gives me a sense of accomplishment that I will carry with me, and will give me more confidence with other tasks in the future. And to me that's worth something.

liberation

2010-07-27T06:45:00.009+01:00

I never told you about lovely bridesmaid and I taking an unplanned trip to 'liberate' some slate from the Lakes. because its a naughty thing to do.

We had gone out from the day to woolfest, yes, thats right, woolfest. next week I go to potfest, twice. its a crazy place, Cumbria. After we had dragged ourselves away from all the wool, we went for lunch at a pub that lovely bridesmaids sister manages, and realised that we were halfway to one of the places on my list of things to do which we were planning to come back to in a few weeks time. I love killing several birds with one stone!

After lunch, we set off on a further tour of the lake district, to one of the scariest rides my little car has ever done, via a tour of my bridesmaids own wedding day. I wasn't at this wedding, as we had lost touch at this point, but she got married in a beautiful tiny church nestled in between hills, with a reception in the village hall afterwards. They had photos taken in the nearby bluebells where her husband originally proposed, and more photos in (yes IN) the lake opposite. I had never been to any of these places before, and they were all on the way to our final destination of near car death, so we had a couple of stop offs in beautiful scenery.

the path up to the bluebells

Crummock water - I have a picture of her in the lake on a rock she stood on in her wedding dress!

Then we headed on to the place which shall remain nameless, but very steep. I should point out that my dear little car, is 11, was born in the fens (well, not born, its a hyundai, but you know, lived) and is still somewhat reticent to attempt a good hill. So just after stopping for a drink/icecream (us, not the car), to see a sign saying 20% INCLINE or something to that effect, struck terror into my heart. However, it pootled on up, and about halfway up we stopped for a 'wander'. While on this wander, we encountered sheep that look like rocks. They creep up behind you and listen to your conversations.

can you see the sheep? THERE ARE THREE.

Anyway, after much shenanigans, we managed to liberate enough slate for my table numbers. There was a point, near the top of the hill, where my car almost started rolling back down again, but it made it. The other side was far scarier,many more bends, and steeper inclines, but we made it.

When I got home that evening, I rang James, and said
'we did the scary hill' (obviously I said the real name)
'HOW?!'
'in first gear.'
cue much laughing from him, and later everyone in the pub I suspect, when he told them. Incidentally, everyone there just said I was 'tidying up' by taking a bit of slate. they do seem to have rather a lot...

speeding along.

2010-07-26T19:49:00.006+01:00

Firstly, thank you for your lovely reactions to my previous posts, I had been putting off telling you all about the house for a while, but I needn't have worried!

I had a moment on the way home today, where I realised that 3 months is NOTVERYLONGATALL, even less when you consider that its now less than 3 months, and even less still when you consider that we are about to move.

However, most of the things left to do are choices rather than necessities. Our banns have been read, (no objections, yay!) the rings are here, and the church/reception is booked.

RSVP's have started rolling in to my parents, which is very exciting!

We have started booking the travel arrangements to our honeymoon - we are going completely by train so we had to wait til 3 months before to book any of the journeying. We are both really looking forward to a good rest after everything, this hasn't been a particularly stressful wedding to plan, but when in conjunction with everything else happening around us, we are slowly becoming mentally (me) and physically (James) exhausted and are VERY ready for the break!

We even sorted the bridesmaids shoes the other week, so now we can all walk to the church, properly shod. Phew!

On the list of things I still want to do/have just done but are not necessary to render us married but make me happy:

James kindly mended a very cheap velvet covered jewellery box for me the other day, to keep our rings in, and he managed to do it without pulling that, 'you want me to do WHAT? WHY' face that tends to come with blog induced ideas. its the maroon velvet thing the rings are standing on in one of my previous posts.

I want to make the bridesmaids little clutch bags. I think I mentioned this before, maybe not, but its my main source of procrastination at the moment. I've done the trial run, which is going to be my bag, in the hope that the other 3 will be near identical, and better than the first. This, I have justified not only by thinking that bags are useful, but it teaches me the new skill of fitting those metal purse frames.

Having a jacket fitting this week, I'm having a little bolero jacket made in the same material as the dress.

Still collecting jam jars for the favours, getting there, I'm eating a lot of Greek yoghurt and honey as the honey comes in perfect jars!

There are lots of other little bits and bobs to do, but the main bits are coming together. As my mother keeps saying when I tell her about another thing slots into place, 'its all dovetailing!' (very old obscure darling buds of may reference - we are odd people, my mum and I)

On the other hand, health and safety have pissed on my bonfire with regards to some of the flowers in the church. Apparently we are now not allowed to put anything on the windowledges, where we were going to put vases of gypsophilia. However, there are other places in the church where we can put them, and we will still have the wicker hearts hanging off the pew ends. Having also been told that the church do not do wedding flowers, I was then told that people do pay to have the flowers done on a specific week at the altar, for example in memory of someone, and someone is doing just that on the weekend of our wedding, which saves us about £90 for a pedestal at the altar. So between that and the vases issue I can only assume that some greater power than me is determined that we don't waste too much money of flowers, which will only die in the end, and get seen by us for even less time!

When Mum comes across for my jacket fitting this week we are going to try and get into the church to have a look at what we can do instead, so I'll maybe have more on that later in the week.

2010-07-24T08:24:00.006+01:00

image via weheartit

At the risk of sounding like I'm copying other beautiful ladies, I can't let today pass without saying that the lovely R becomes a MRS today! A year ago, we'd never spoken, never heard of each other, but shes become a very lovely supportive lady to me, and I want to wish her every happiness today, and for the rest of her life with O. She really is a darling!

Congratulations to you both, I can't wait to hear about it all afterwards.

once more with feeling....

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

the ring!

2010-07-23T16:49:00.003+01:00

finally got my wdding ring back from the jewellers, its my own fault its been so long, I kept adjusting bits, so the whole thing took a long time. but finally, after a bit of internal grappling and terrors that I wouldn't like it, I lov it! the millgrain texture they've put on it has made it so much more dainty than before, its lovely! at least I think so anyway!

home sweet future home / my own personal big and scary post.

2010-07-22T19:05:00.006+01:00

I'm a little scared of writing this post, so please, you've been so lovely for the last year, can you be nice again just for this one?

The reason why you might have seen that I've been moving boxes today on twitter, is because well, we are moving.

The reason why I said I can do it slowly, is because we're moving to James parents house.

They aren't going to be in there still, before you ask! They are moving next door, into a building they have been converting, and we are moving into the home James spent the majority of his life in, to make it our own. Its been in the works for a long long time, but the timing has meant that this has become a wonderful accidental wedding present.

I'm not going to tell you about the monetary side of things, that's quite frankly noneofyourbeeswax, but don't go labouring under the illusion that we are spoilt little rich kids turfing our parents out of home for our own gain. We both work hard to earn our pennies, James particularly so, having spent the last 18 months working every weekend to help convert said new home next door, when he works a full week in between. And most importantly, this was their choice, their offer.

You might say that I didn't need to tell you this, that I could just have said that we bought this place, but
a - that's a lie,
b - we will know the house very well from day one, and that would show in my posts.

yes, I will post about it, that's why I'm introducing it now, because we move in a month, and it probably going to be one of the topics on the blog after my wedding. I love interiors, and decorating, I love this house, and I'd like to share some of it with you.

*runs away quickly after hitting publish*

the full stationery shebang unveiled.

2010-07-22T17:02:00.006+01:00

The past few weeks have been punctuated, as you know, by the making of invitations. There have been several invitation construction afternoons, one with lovely bridesmaid, and one with the parents. Barring a couple of evening invitations still to do, we are now done, and as of last night got posted/delivered! So here, for your viewing pleasure, are all the photos of them, in a sort of order...

WARNING: gratuitous shots of bridesmaids legs...

We took this:

paper and card all from daintree paper

ribbon from the market

and made them into these:

we punched corners ...

and threaded ribbon...

and licked stamps...

and Dad addressed envelopes in nice handwriting...

and then put all of this, along with a map for visitors, or a slip of information for the locals into an envelope, and that, was that!

I got the lace image from iDIY while trawling it one night for ideas, and I'm so glad I did. nothing was coming together for me on this until I found that and changed the shape. I had it in my head that we were having folding card invitations with a paper inner, but my two problems were that they really did not have the nice finish that I wanted to be able to create, and that all the ones that inspired me from blogs and whatnot were a completely different style so I had nothing to draw from to help me. The best bit was how simple they were, no folding or sticking, we simply had to cut the sheets into 3, punch the corners, and the holes for ribbon, and tie the ribbon through it. bobs your uncle. have to say though, not at all sure that they'd have gone out this week were it not for lovely bridesmaid or my parents! so, not that my parents read this, or know about it, but thank you very much!

p.s. in case anyone else sees that fiskars punch and thinks wowee I love that, they are great, but check what weight of card you're punching. mine was 200gsm, only read while trying to replace it that its only designed to punch up to 130gsm. oops. no wonder its got so sticky that I have to whack it on the table to release each piece of card! It did hold up a good while though, and can still be teased into use. Cutting tin foil in it did seem to sharpen it again, a tip from a work friend, but one piece of it seems to have bent slightly out of shape! no idea how, I might be wrong...

Bookcase: Notwithstanding

2010-07-17T18:37:00.007+01:00

I've been wanting to write a little about books I've read for a while now. Since I've moved to the other shop I've got more time to read and I love passing on a good book afterwards, so I hope you'll bear with me on this one! I read a wide variety of books, they wont necessarily be a newly released one that I write about, just one I've read, or re-read recently that I enjoyed enough to tell you about.

(yes that cover is by Rob Ryan! another good reason to own this book)

I love all Louis de Bernieres books that I've touched so far, so I asked for Notwithstanding for Christmas. I finally got round to reading it a month or so ago, and loved it. If you've read any of his before (Captain Corelli's mandolin anyone?) this is lighter than most of the others, but doesn't avoid subjects such as death. Its an easier book to read in snippets, as each chapter is about a different character from the fictional Surrey village of the book title. In the space of a chapter you are told a story about them which encapsulates their personality, their claim to fame, or defining moment. The characters then dip in and out of each others chapters, so that by the end you have a sort of understanding of the villages complicated web of relationships. Although its lighter, its still able to provoke all the emotions I've ever felt from his books. Just wait til the story about the crow. it got me, especially when the next day one fell down my chimney.

I'd love to know if you have read this, or if you read it because of this what your thoughts are?

time is marching on...

2010-07-16T07:54:00.002+01:00

3 months today I'll be getting married! Appropriate then that my parents are coming over today to help finish the invitations - 80 envelopes to address, and the printer doesn't like them! So heres a sneak peek...

warpaint

2010-07-08T19:05:00.003+01:00

I had me a makeup trial today in boots.
To clarify, until this morning, I did not own makeup. any makeup.
When it comes to the wedding, my bridesmaid will be doing my makeup, but we had a trial at a beauty counter to get the right colours and products for me. At the age of 26 I decided it was maybe time to own some makeup of my own. We went to the clinique counter, for a full consultation (£30 redeemable against anything you buy - call me a sucker if you want, I need all the help I can get!) and this is the end result:

and thats all semblance of anonymity gone, right there.

maybe it doesnt look like much, I dont know, but then we wanted it to look natural. I've bought foundation and lip pencil for now, they didn't have the colour lipstick we used in the trial for now, but I'll go back and get that too, but the eye colour stuff we'll probably buy other stuff thats cheaper.

be gentle!

map.

2010-07-02T21:46:00.004+01:00

Inspired (yonks ago) by Rosalies wedding map, I've been working on my own to go with the invitations. Its almost finished now, just a couple of tiny tweaks to make to it still, but I'm quite chuffed really. Lovely bridesmaid has taught me the rudimentary skills of photoshop for this, and I had to dust of my watercolours too. As you can see from the title (which I'm hoping my parents don't mind me leaving on...) it is both completely not to scale, and innaccurate, but it gets the point across!

catch up.

2010-06-27T21:16:00.006+01:00

The car's booked. the trims are chocolate brown rather than the black that appears:

its a 1936 rolls, beyond that please dont ask me, but i think its rather rare. The car was a source of procrastination for me for AGES. I had hoped to organise a gorgeous car from round the corner to transport us, but, well, it didn't work out. anyway, job done.

we've also sorted the 3rd umbrella (vitally important), organised a fascinator for mum, found material for the pocketsquares, ordered all the card for all the stationery, mostly made the map to go in the invitations, and then, because we did all this, we had to write a new list. booyah.

I'm not feeling wordy, can you tell? it rained here today, that focussed my mind enough to write this much. I think I have heat blindness. all we seem capable of eating are BBQ's. coming up soon, (for R's benefit mainly) the story of liberation, sheep, hills, and slate.

Intermission

2010-06-23T07:40:00.002+01:00

I seem to have left my blogging mojo somewhere the last few days, I've done stuff on the list, honest I have, I'm just not writing about it. We're off to see cars tonight, of the wedding variety, and theres lots a'happenin' around here (not least that we have exciting house news finally, more on that another time) which fill up all my days. I'm still reading your blogs, as you probably noticed from my comments, I'm just not writing, but I will, soon. promise.

In the meantime, I joined twitter. you're a persuasive lot. find me @ becca_clare - I didn't want my blog name on there, and I didn't want my married or maiden names in there either, so if you've been getting random tweets from someone of that name, its me.

tweeters.

2010-06-18T10:42:00.002+01:00

I feel like I'm missing out not being on twitter, am I?

(Of course, you lot will all say yes, you're all on the damn thing!)

Just another way to waste my day, instead of climbing the insurmountable pile of things TO DO IN REALITY. ugh. what to do...

1st

2010-06-16T21:11:00.003+01:00

I spent bout a week constantly checking what date I had started blogging one year ago, and then managed to forget on Monday. oh well, Happy 1st birthday Blog, Its been lovely!

Thank you all, for coming along for the ride so far, It really does make my day to come home and hear from you all, and I love reading your blogs too, long may it continue.x

for your amusement.

2010-06-11T21:41:00.003+01:00

I thought I'd tell you about my day.

James has gone away for the weekend to France as he does every other year to watch the 24 hr race in le mans. so I'm home alone, and this morning I started hearing noises from the kitchen. Our flat is part of an old house with fireplaces in every room, the one in the kitchen we took out and blocked up when we moved in, for space and because it was a hideous 70's tiled affair, leaving only a 6in wide vent hole.

A bird had fallen down the chimney. (God I love my life. why does this happen when the man is away?)

I decided (40minutes before work) that I would have to pull the plug in the vent hole (James never actually put a vent in, just bunged the hole up - workmen and jobs at home n all that...) out so that the bird could come out into the kitchen and hopefully fly out the window.

So I sat for a while, watching this hole with the cats shut out of the kitchen, me shut in, and the window wide open. The bird had gone very quiet when I'd started moving around the room. Eventually, a JACKDAW hopped into the hole and started looking at me. Every time I moved it would go back into the hole in fright.

I suppose this was a sort of bizarre narnia to him. One minute you're sitting on a chimney pot, the next you're in a dark sooty hole, and then a 'door' opens, and you're in someones kitchen! Does that make me the white witch?

Anyway, I sat very still for a while, with a cushion in front of me for protection, and the bird and I looked at each other. I tried chucking bread in front of it to get it to come out, I tried hiding next to the hole so it couldn't see me. Nothing worked. By now I had 10 minutes til I had to start work (thank god for living in a small town) so I decided that I would have to leave for work with the kitchen window open, the door shut, and hope that the bird worked out what it was to do.

No such luck. It had solved half the problem, when I returned home 4 hours later, by leaving the hole in the chimney, and finding a perch on top of the curtain pole.

My immediate response was to call my Dad AGAIN and ask who one calls to remove crows from kitchens, at which point we embarked upon a ridiculous, needless conversation about whether it was a Jackdaw or a Crow, with my dad relaying between my mum and I.

In the end I decided I would have to go upstairs and get my neighbour to help me. He obliged by coming in, and poking it with a bamboo cane until it left its perch, and flew into the top shelf of a full height (10 ft) built in cupboard, where my Christmas decorations are kept.
More poking.
More flying, this time full pelt at the large window, and the lovely orchid my Mum got me for my birthday.
Then my neighbour managed to grab the Jackdaw (since we had decided that was what it was) and chuck it out the open window.

It then sat, rather dazed, in the back yard for about 20 minutes, until its mother/friend came down and started talking to it, and it seemed to wake up, and eventually fly off.

After which I resumed
a)sweeping up the soot it had propelled around the kitchen
b) taking cuttings from some plants out the front
c)looking for the cat
d) feeling rather rubbish/taking cold and flu tablets
e) went out for tapas.

Just another day in the life.

Oh my Gahd, SHOES.

2010-06-06T21:36:00.003+01:00

Favours were asked to get these shoes, as Faith are in administration.
'mum, they have the shoes in Bristol, who do we know in Bristol?'
'M and M W live there, I could ask them...? '
'Really? I havn't seen them for like, ever... do you think they would?'
'I'm sure they would if I asked...'

a week later...they arrived.

a thank you letter has been sent.

Teeny tiny bit tight cross the balls of my feet, I'm thinking about stretching them with damp teatowels stuffed in, any other suggestions gratefully recieved. also still cnsidering the dyeing idea, my mums just not feeling the coloured shoes thing though.

favourite fonts.

2010-06-06T09:26:00.011+01:00

I've attempted to start on the invitations.

For attempted read faffed around with fonts.

I think I have the finalists sorted now:

Aphrodite slim stylistic:

Ecuyer Dax:The first one is a paid one, which I took the plunge and bought the other week, because I couldn't find a scripty font that I liked as much for free, and I think that £11 isn't a bad price really. Ecuyer Dax is free, and I found it thanks to iDIY which I spent an evening trawling for ideas.

Aphrodite will be for our names, the guests names, and occasional flourishes, and Ecuyer Dax for all other text. I will have to find a simpler complimentary font for the text in the orders of service, as its a bit much to read the words of a hymn in fonts that fancy I think!

here's a sneaky peek of a trial run using both together...

I know what card and paper I'm going to use, and I have a few thoughts on design. The problem is really that the designs I love don't suit us or our wedding at all. modern, quirky designs with circus writing, and crazy illustrations, or worse, letterpress, which I have no hope of emulating!But I've had another idea this morning which I need to try out, so I'm not going to say anything else yet! oh the suspense... I bet none of you can wait!

Also thanks to Glasgow Bride for accidentally putting me back on the font trail, it was the kick up the bum I needed!

RSVP words.

2010-06-02T20:17:00.001+01:00

I've started fiddling about with the invitations, and while looking for RSVP wordings, I found this gem. I WISH I could have this wording:

Please take a moment to fill in the blanks:
____________! (Exclamation)
_____________ is/are ____________ to attend (Your name{s}) (able/unable)
There are ___________ people in our posse. (total number)
Kindly mail by June 16, 2006

HOW TO: ribbon roses

2010-05-30T09:02:00.005+01:00

I'm sure I probably just don't know what to put into google, but I found it hard to find a useful tutorial for making this type of rose online. So with the last one I made, I took photos as i went to show how I did it. These could easily be attached to safety pins instead, or a crocodile clip for your hair, sewn onto bags, whatever you want really. I used satin ribbon that was about 3.5cm (1 1/4 ins) wide, and I bought 3m of each colour I was using. I didn't use all the roses I had made in the headband, but I wanted to be able to pick the best of the bunch, so I used up all the ribbon.

Apart from the ribbon ( the amount you need depends on the size of rose you want, I would say between 1m to 1.5m per flower for a decent head, but you might find slightly different) you will need a needle and appropriately coloured thread, and some fabric scissors.

Start by taking one end of your ribbon, folding it in on itself to hide the raw edges, and stitching it together with a long length of thread. Don't cut off the thread after, I keep it attached the whole way through and keep using it to secure more folds. just tuck your needle out of the way somewhere relatively safe (I use my jeans!)and don't let the thread get rolled into the flower.

Start rolling the closed end in, keeping the ribbon quite tight on itself. As in the photo below, don't worry about the pleat starting to come out, this is meant to happen. When the roll is this small you can put a stitch right the way through the bottom of the rose, so do this whenever you feel it needs holding in place, Just make sure you go through all the layers. (I like to check it from the top before putting a stitch in, so that I can change the look of the flower if I'm not happy, without having to unpick stitches)

As the pleat comes out the top, tuck the ribbon in again at the bottom, always making the folds go in the same direction. Keep rolling the rose, still fairly tight at this point, and putting stitches in whenever you feel you need them.

Your rose will be fairly tight at this point but just keep rolling and folding the ribbon...

and sewing through the bottom for as long as you can.

Once you have a reasonable sized centre to your rose, and are about halfway through your ribbon, you need to start making larger more obvious pleats in the ribbon to create the outer petals. Fold the ribbon, still in the same direction, as in the picture below, on a largish diagonal. These first pleats will get pulled in by subsequent ones wrapping around them, so don't worry too much if they are much bigger than anything before.

I found that these pleats needed securing straight away. No need to go right through the bottom now, its probably too thick to do that anyway, just secure the newest pleat with a couple of stitches as below, and then move on to make another one further round.

Keep looking at your rose from the top too, these pleats have a habit of falling directly outside one another, forming a sort of triangular flower, so pay attention to where you are placing each pleat, and try to move it round if you can. The bottom of the flower should be fairly tight still, it should only be opening out at the top to create the flower.

Once you are on the last pleat before the end of the ribbon, pleat it as normal, and then fold it over again at the back to hide the raw edges as much as possible, then stitch across it to secure it firmly. I trim any loose raw edges off after, and then put some extra stitches through it to make sure the end is held well down.

Et voila! your own ribbon rose :)

To make the two colour rose:

I added a shorter length of a different ribbon into the roll after starting the flower of and completing a couple of rolls. Then continue as normal.

To make the headband:

I pinned the 3 roses I chose together until I was happy with the arrangement, and then stitched them together. I then did the same with some lace leaves, and put some tiny pink pearls in as filler to hide the stitching between the leaves and the flowers, although you can't see them here. the headband was a cheap one from new look (£2) that I thought was the right colour, but turned out to be too bright, so I bought a thinner version of the same colour ribbon as the flower, and wrapped the headband with that ( I bought 2m, but probably used less than 1.5m). Then I worked out where I wanted the roses to sit on the headband, and used a curved needle filched from ma-in-law to sew through and around the headband to secure it.

If you got to the end, thanks for indulging me, and I hope it helps someone!

DIY #3: ribbon rose headband

2010-05-30T08:30:00.004+01:00

This has been an on-off project of mine for a couple of months now. turning this:

Into these:

To make this:

I'm pretty chuffed with it. It has been hard work, it took a couple of goes until I felt the roses looked good enough, and working on things that small tends to give my fingers cramp, but I'm glad I persevered. and you know how much that has cost? about £8.

The only thing I would say is that it is slightly one side heavy, so I feel like its going to droop off my head, but I don't think it actually will! I'm reserving to go out and buy something different until I've had my hair trial, I want to see what its like in my hair once it has some volume to it.

I'm going to make my next post a 'how to' on these roses, I hope you don't mind, I'm kind of gagging to write a how to, and I found it hard to find a good tutorial on these things online, I had to adapt the best one I found to get these, so I thought I'd show you what I did.

Changes

2010-05-26T21:36:00.004+01:00

Since I've started getting told off by a certain lady for not posting for ages, I thought I should get you up to speed with the last week.

Last monday, I got an email from our photographer, unfortunately pulling out of our wedding for various reasons. cue a little bit of foot stomping, there may have been a couple of tears, James may have had to make me dinner.

I then spent the next 3 day emailing various recommendations, looking constantly at wedding galleries until every wedding merged into one, and reading and being very thankful for positive, helpful, and generally nice emails from the same aforementioned lady, who quite frankly, I'm not sure I could have got through the week without. On Friday, just when I was getting worried that all wedding photographers would be away for the weekend, and I was really sick of spending more time on google, I got an answerphone message at work from this lady, who was actually free on our date! heaven forbid, a photographer, who takes lovely photos, free 5 months before the date? seemingly unheard of. Anyway, she is a delight. in the last 4 days she must have a had nearly 15 emails from Mum and I, and shes been nothing but wonderful about it all.

So that was the week that was last week, I'm glad its over! normal programming will resume shortly, probably with the headband I'm making, the invitations I'm not making, and the wedding shoes that have been sitting here for a month not being shown to the world. Oh, and we meet the vicar for the first of our wedding preparations tomorrow night. eeep!

the joys of (mostly) internet shopping.

2010-05-16T06:55:00.005+01:00

I've had this ready to post for a while, but preparing for an imminent visit from best friends and goddaughters, and then having a visit (ongoing) from said goddaughter and friends has taken up most of the last week. She is so much fun at the moment, just walking, and starting to talk. yesterday she said hello to grandma on the phone, and eeyore at a donkey. Last night lovely bridesmaid came round, and two of my worlds collided when two bridesmaids met for the first time. my 'sister' (visiting best friend) and best friend (lovely bridesmaid) hugging and chatting in front of me made my day. And we're all the same height! definitely going to have to make that satin covered box the other bridesmaid was asking for...

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled programming. I went a bit mad with my paycheck at the beginning of this month, I had written a list of all the things I had been eyeing up for a while and wrote out the prices, so that I could decide what to buy first. Instead I pretty much bought them all. they were all just detail items though, so it wasn't too bad. Anyway, here they are:

from sort of left to right, with links where possible:

fabric glue, for fixing bridesmaids clutch bags into the metal frames
lace letterpress cards from Papermash - these are gorgeous, delicate little cards, 6 in a pack, which I'm going to use for notes to the bridesmaids, and parents I think/
a large plum ink pad.
a luggage label cutter from woodware for the favour labels.
rubber stamps numbers set from cutetape (using a discount from a post on Oh, hello friend)
a massive reel of ribbon from the market, originally 100m, but sold by the metre so some had gone, they guessed 80m was left, which made it £11 and then they gave me 10% off on top. I'm going to use it for the invitations and orders of service etc etc
a black ink pad
a book of sheet music from a charity shop, which I might use to make confetti cones if I'm allowed confetti.
a broken ring box, from ebay, which I thought our rings could go in, but might not work.
adobe photoshop elements, as you can see, not only for the invitations, but also for my own work.
a bag of chain, for the clutch bags, from u-handbag
a doily rubber stamp, for use on all the stationery
a metal frame for the purses, also from u-handbag

It was a busy month for my wallet! what with also buying the pashminas etc, and just living in general. I've also since bought some lace and pink pearls for my headband, but that's for another post methinks.phew!

I heart this heart.

2010-05-08T18:17:00.003+01:00

I had another meeting with the florist this week, which has left me thinking about the church flowers (we found out that our church does not do flowers on the weekends of weddings, as they have been let down before) and specifically what flowers to put in the porch. I think this picture maybe problem solved! isn't it beautiful?

snippetandink

My florist actually seems to be trying to save us money, she keeps downsizing my plans! I had gone to her with the thought of a small arrangement on the little table sitting in the porch, and she suggested another vase of gyp instead to tie in with my theme inside the church itself, but we are also considering an informal welcome line in the porch after the service, and I was worried about the space in there, so hanging a wreath instead may sort that out for us too!

political baking.

2010-05-08T07:59:00.003+01:00

I made these for an election 'party' a couple of friends and I had on Thursday night. we had coloured food, drink, balloons, and dress. we played mario kart on the Wii, and it said 'victory to the red team', which we thought might be a prediction, but now I'm not so sure. believe me when I say that this was the best looking food by far that evening, and I'm not just blowing my own trumpet.

I used the hummingbird bakery vanilla cupcake and frosting recipes, I can't believe how much better they were than anything I've ever baked before, just because of a different recipe. I was only given the book for my birthday, (I'm a little late to the hummingbird bandwagon) and I;d made the brownies the night before. flippin heck they are GOOD.

over exertion.

2010-05-07T18:48:00.002+01:00

Its a hard life being Louis...

tick, tick, tick.

2010-05-01T07:53:00.005+01:00

I don't mean to brag, but yesterday was mega ticks in boxes day. It felt gooooooood.

1: before I was even out of pj's, I bought metal purse frames from u-handbag to try and make the 4 of us bags. I've done a trial run with a smaller frame following the really helpful tutorials that they have on their blog, so I now understand the theory of it all, so hopefully I can make bags for us. eeek. I've bought a remnant of white dupion silk from work, and I got some pink satin backed dupion for the inside lining, and I'm going to try and put a big bow on the front.

2: I went into town and bought:

ribbon to try and make headband with
a paper punch that cuts gift tags
3 pashminas from accessorize
3 hairclips from accessorize
a pair of lace fingerless gloves for one of the girls who I think will like them (from accessorize!)

3: I went to the jewellers and took them the design we had seen for my ring in Glasgow. I feel better about showing you it now, as its started (!!!). Its based round this ring:

rox

Imagine, if you will, that on one side, two of the pieces part more significantly, to make a bigger notch for my ring to fit in. When I have drawn it (or had it drawn for me by a lady in glasgow who then let me TRY THE PAPER ON - had to get it in somewhere R) its been more asymmetrical than it is here, which I like. Anyway, the upshot is that the jeweller man liked it, said it was perfectly doable, and then took my engagement ring off me :( so that he can work on fitting my wedding ring around it. I get my engagement ring back next Friday, and I think there might be something to try on as well. Big tick :) I'm now having to wear another ring so that i don't feel like I've lost my real ring!

phew. what with also going to a paper mill, morrisons, picking up a friend from college, and sitting down, it was quite a busy day!

thoughts on details, with many brackets.

2010-04-29T18:08:00.005+01:00

my head is full of wedding thoughts again. (When was it ever not). I feel like I'm mentally working on about 5 different parts of it at the moment, so I'm hoping that by writing this down again (to compliment the lists, you understand) my head may de-fog a bit.

Current thoughts:
headband - how to make/what to make/ custom order on etsy?
stationery - specifically invitations, and maps to go inside.
My ring - I have one design stuck in my head since the lovely R put up with being trooped round many many ring shops selling all the same rings last week. I'm going to my jeweller man tomorrow to talk about getting a similar one made.
that elusive 3rd umbrella - I know I can get it online, but it annoys me that its double the price of tkmaxx.
clutch bags for the girls - this should be underway next week, I've done a trial run following a fantastic tutorial online, I'm just waiting for the paycheck to go into my account so I can buy the purse frames for the real things!

oddly, transport is not on my mind, this seems to have gone onto a back burner, and we really must get it sorted.

Its odd that its the details that currently concern me most about the wedding. I know that on the day, I'll likely not notice most of them, but it satisfies me to know that I accomplished something. I've read many posts on details mattering, not mattering, being the single most important point of the day, and so on. I have to say for me, right now, they do. I'm an arts graduate for heavens sake, I spent 5 years at college being taught about colour and composition and style. I know that it makes me no more married at the end of the day, and that I will enjoy my wedding because I will be surrounded by love and friends and smiles, but I can't help, right now, carrying the strap of a bridesmaids dress in my wallet so i can check it matches ribbons and ties and envelopes.

I think James understands this better than my parents some of the time, hes understood my need to buy umbrellas for the bridesmaids (its called preparation), he even participated in the choosing of colours for them, instead of telling me I was mad (I am a bit). He let me take him round tie selling establishments til I found ones that somehow, wonderfully, match every colour in the bridesmaids dresses.

I'm also learning to say no. to cross, rather than tick things off my list, because really, its going to stress me more than please me. making pashminas for the girls has gone this way, even though I am a weaver, its much finer than I'm used to working, and there was the aspect of sourcing materials too. I've seen some in monsoon that are the perfect colour instead. I thought I would find it hard to cross, rather than tick that one off, but it was actually a blessed relief. The venue gave us another small get out clause the other day too, they told us specifically NOT to do a table plan (unless we really want to).(which I don't).

I seem to spend my time mentally flitting from one of these thoughts to another, its actually quite tiring! I'm hopeful that in the next few days, I can get a couple more ticked off, odd how a little mark in a box can be so fulfilling!

eeeeep!

2010-04-27T08:30:00.001+01:00

just ordered James wedding ring :)

and sent off the deposit for part of the honeymoon :)

church music.

2010-04-25T09:48:00.006+01:00

I want to tell you that we chose our entrance and exit music last week. I want to put a youtube video here of each piece. I can't find the entrance piece on you tube. this annoys me. We are (as long as the vicar and my cousin the organist are OK with it) going to walk in to Arthur Bliss' wedding fanfare - apparently what princess Margaret walked into at her wedding. When dad played it for us last week, I got goosebumps.
We are going to walk out, to this:

Vidor's toccata is the piece of music that the cathedral organist played at the end of every term service at school (I went to a cathedral school, so we got big end of term services there) so I have a lot of fond memories of this piece. It goes on for a while, so don't feel you have to watch it all! We were worried that the length of the piece would mean that my poor cousin would be stuck inside the church while everyone else was outside, so we think that James and I will maybe do an unofficial welcome line in the church porch, to slow the exodus from the church, and allow everyone (including us!) to hear my cousins amazing organ playing skills. That also leaves us at the back of the queue if we're allowed confetti!

one track mind.

2010-04-23T18:55:00.002+01:00

(and not the one you think)

for the last two days, James has been wearing sample wedding rings from here. they will send out silver versions in the exact size and shape you want for you to try before you buy. this has been invaluable since James has never worn jewellery in his life. I keep catching him looking at it oddly, like an insect has taken up residence on his ring finger. In fact, I keep looking at it oddly. its nice to see him with it on. (don't tell me if its bad luck, I don't want to know).
Anyway, last night, as we were turning out the light, I was playing with it on his hand.

James: 'don't do that, I'll take it off'

Me: 'no, its nice, its a symbol of our lunch!'

Seriously. I think about food, all the time.

Oh dear.

2010-04-23T09:30:00.003+01:00

I just turned into that bride.

stop the train, I want to get off.

over shoes!

I've never been a shoes girl.

oh dear.

going to work now, I will return later a calm and sensible rational being like the one I met yesterday :)

place card holders

2010-04-18T08:10:00.004+01:00

I was going to do the cork thang, to hold the place cards for the meal,

project wedding

but I just saw this on dog 'n' bird, from etsy: aremarkyoumade

I think the two might look good alternated too, they're both wood after all!

6 months out, 1 year older.

2010-04-17T07:37:00.005+01:00

I fully intended to post this yesterday at some point, and then failed. oh well, if you can't fail on your birthday, when can you?

yesterday, I hurtled not only into my 26th year of being, but also headlong into my 6 month pre-versary for wifedom (yes, those are words - it was my birthday don't argue with me). For my birthday, I got a hell of a lot of milk tray, and flowers. 3 vases worth to be precise! I also got a subscription to country living and selvedge magazines too. reading for a year! :)

as a 'celebration' of the 6 month marker, lovely bridesmaid decided it was high time we re wrote the list of doom, as I wasn't completing things on it anymore, and more needed to be added. We split most of the points up so that it is easier for me to tick things off the list (procrastination in its truest form!) so now, instead of there being 'Rings', it is divided into 4 points: ' 1-order James samples, 2- Order James ring, 3- decide on my design, 4- and order my ring'. simples. or mental however you want to look at it! Obviously it works though, as I've already done one thing on the list.

And then, just because I like laying things out and sorting them, I unpacked my boxes of wedding paraphernalia, and laid them out on the floor. GEEK.

there are:

2 umbrellas (I'm trying the find the 3rd one still), doily envelopes, 11 bowls, 7 vases, lots of lace, 13 candles, 4 hankies, 3 fat quarters, 1photo album, 7 jamjars, 12 wicker hearts, and 8 ties.

so at 6 months to go, we have:

venue: booked

church:booked, and cousin as organist, and aunt saying final prayers, and friends for readings chosen, although no readings yet!

florist: booked, vases for church, bought( - 1), pew end decorations, bought.

photographer: PEONIES!

dress: ordered

bridesmaids:chosen, dresses bought, shoes nearly there, clutch bags, about to be made. jewellery, in progress

men: chosen, outfits booked and paid, ties bought.

table centres: bought, just need dried stuff to sit in them.

mother of the bride outfit: bought, just need fascinator

cake: sister in law making, fruit/Madeira/chocolate

cakestand: in progress, a friend making me a ceramic one.

hairdresser: found, booking trials for mum and lovely bridesmaid in the summer.

there's probably other things I've done, of far less importance, but I can't remember them now!

p.s. can you tell lists are calming me at the moment?!

banana bread.

2010-04-15T18:44:00.003+01:00

seriously people. go out there, buy yourselves some bananas, leave them a week, and then make this. it is so worth it. only Nigella could get bourbon into a banana bread recipe and make it work. (don't correct me if I'm wrong on that).

nom nom.

Pew ends.

2010-04-12T09:09:00.006+01:00

(I'm sure that title sounds vaguely dodgy, but hey ho...)

I've had these ages now, but keep forgetting to post about them. In fact, I've had them since THE BIG SNOWS. remember that people? seems ages ago now the sun is out, anyway....

I wasn't ever too bothered about having flower decorations for the end of the pews in church, since we'll be there for such a short space of time, and I saw these in a shop in town. In the end I had to buy them online because I was assured they were discontinued, and the lady I got them from was so much more helpful and threw in a reel of ribbon for free! They're hanging from some of the lace we got from ebay, I think we will add some thin plum ribbon too just to give it a bit of colour. I like them because they wont die, and I can either give them away, or use them at Christmas! hurray for recycling. ouf I'm in a funny mood...

P.s. my time off for the honeymoon and wedding has been authorised, so I can get booking on that :)

meh.

2010-04-11T12:31:00.004+01:00

I've reached a 'blah' point in all of this. I'm sure it will go again, I'm also sure it will return before the next 6 months are out, and I think a lot of it is down to hormones. I hate to write such superficial things but its true. Next week will be better. I feel like, instead of ticking things off my list, I'm currently unticking them. I know things could be far worse in my life, so I'm not going to moan and moan, but neither is it light and fluffy, so I wont pretend it is!
Here's to next week, a week beginning with sun, ending with my Birthday (and the 6 month marker to the wedding, but we'll ignore that) and hopefully lots of things good and fluffy and tasty and successful in between.

lace necklace

2010-04-10T08:20:00.004+01:00

a while ago, some of you asked for 'neck action', whatever the heck that is, and I finally found a patch of light in my house at the same time as i had the camera and the necklace.

Ruth 1:16-17

2010-04-08T18:47:00.003+01:00

While on the hunt for wedding readings for a friend, I came across this one on a forum. I've not been sure about what we could have as our bible reading, but I like this. As the person who posted it on a forum where I found it said, its more about familial love than husband and wife love, but thats important too.

"See now!" she said, "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god. Go back after your sister-in-law!"

But Ruth said, "Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! for wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Wherever you die I will die, and there be buried. May the Lord do so and so to me, and more besides, if aught but death separates me from you!"

Naomi then ceased to urge her, for she saw she was determined to go with her.

(p.s. the friend can't have religious readings at her ceremony, so this isn't technically stealing...)

wedding rings. (plea for help!)

2010-04-02T07:56:00.004+01:00

We started the hunt for our wedding rings last weekend, I did *not* think I would find this so dificult. perhaps its because out of everything to do with the wedding, its one of the only things that will be with me, I'll carry on me, and see, every day for the rest of my life.

James found the style he likes fairly quickly, plus he doesnt have an engagement ring to work around! we are going to order some samples from a shop online, they send you out replicas in silver I think, in exact sizes/shapes/styles so that you can see for comfort and fit what works best. We've got to be sure on size for him, as he wants his ring in titanium, which can't be resized.

I've been to a couple of jewellers now, and tried quite a few on, and I may carry on doing so, but I was just wondering if you lovely ladies have any hidden resourses of beautiful jewellery that you'd like to share? I'm not saying I'm going to go there and buy the very ring you show me, so if you want to keep your little jeweller craftsman a secret feel secure, I'm just trying to get ideas. That also means if you'e in the USA and want to share, you can :)

The only ideas I've had so far are that I'd like something delicate(ish), I'm interested in the idea that it look almost like wirework perhaps. I'll probably use two colours of gold, as I have my grannys wedding ring which I would like to incorporate if possible. and having tried on several wishbone rings, I dont think I want anything that extends beyond the point of the diamond on my engagement setting. I like it when things lock together nicely. Also I'd like to be able to wear it without my engagement ring if possible, in case that day ever comes when I take this baby off. sniff sniff. (that looks more picky when its written down, I promise I'm not really!)

Therefore, although major kudos to R for finding it, this wouldn't work. I still think its super cool though!

link

I am a little bit in love with this ring.

all right, a lot.

serendipitous shopping.

2010-04-01T20:12:00.005+01:00

The magic combination of finding anenomes at a florists while also having money - tick

Finding probable perfect bridesmaids/bridal shoes in unexpected places - tick.

Having both lunch, and dinner out with friends - tick

Rug that I couldn't find anywhere on display in metro centre M&S - tick.

Letting me buy it for £50 instead of £150 - super tick.

I love it when a plan comes together.

my workspace (less of a wonder)

2010-03-28T18:11:00.004+01:00

For those of you who have been asking to see my loom.

Small but perfectly formed, it can weave up to 9m long, and 80cm wide.

I've had a bit of a purge in the room, it had become worse than a dumping ground, and more of a non-negotiable tip, which provided me with an excuse not to be working. Its taken me about 4 hours, but now I have a weaving table which only houses weaving equipment, and a sewing table that houses my machine. I've got rid of about 6 things from the room to freecycle, and organised all the boxes of rubbish still sitting unsorted since it moved from my parents. I'm still storing a lot of stuff, we've been hoarding things for our next house for about a year now, the wedding is starting to take up space (5 boxes as of today) and I have boxes of treasures that I can't bear to part with from my childhood, but they are better hidden in the room now, theres so much floorspace I barely know what to do with it all!

Workspace wonders:

2010-03-25T19:25:00.004Z

This idea has been floating around in my head for a while now, ever since I saw it on Hannahs blog ages ago. see the shelving in the corner?

isn't it great! and so easy to do, now I just need to find me some ladders...

The list.

2010-03-19T20:31:00.002Z

Thought I'd show you the gigantic list (with tick boxes!) that lovely bridesmaid and I made a while ago, to show you that ticks are starting to appear!

I started on the 'transport' box today, tell you more soon!

Table centres

2010-03-19T20:04:00.003Z

I've looked for these for ages now, I was starting to think a trek to ikea was in order, when I found 2 stores in this town that I had forgotten about. I found several options, to be honest I've been sold on a hurricane lamp from the other one of the two shops for about a week now, but when we went to get them today, the price had gone up by £1.50! So I got annoyed with that shop, and we went to look in the other one instead, where we found these bowls. I wasn't entirely sure about them for a while, but we brought one home, with candle, as you see, and tried it out, and sent photos to my mum (what I always do if I'm not sure about something). Mum, after not being sure from my phone description, now says that she prefers these to the original hurricanes we bought, especially since bowls are more useful afterwards if we end up keeping them...

The chillies are still up for debate to some extent, but while they dont match the bridesmiads colours really (which I'm not too bothered about), they do match the dining room at the venue perfectly, as it is painted red. I'm now of the opinion that its probably more important to have decoration in that room which matches the room, rather than 3 dresses dotted around the place...

doily guestbook.

2010-03-19T19:28:00.004Z

Remember these, which I bought ages ago? well, today, lovely bridesmaid and I turned them into these:
They're so sweet! I'm going to make a few more, I'd rather have too many than not enough, so I think the next few will be slightly bigger maybe too, for those people who want to write me a full on love letter as their guest book entry. I'm well aware that some might not get used, but I can always use them afterwards for something else, so I'm not too fussed.

Then I went a bit snap happy...

p.s. I followed this roughly to make them although we found that pritt stick didn't work, but a strip of double sided sticky tape, as any good blue peter viewer knows, holds anything together.

etsy buys...

2010-03-11T19:37:00.003Z

I love how long packages from the states take to get to me, I've almost forgotten I've bought anything by the time it arrives, so I get a nice surprise when a package lands on my doormat!
I'd been hankering after one of white owls lace necklaces since I noticed them on several blogs a while ago, and they're even more beautiful in real life.It sits just how you hope it would, even James commented on how nice it is! The packaging was beautiful too, a strong reminder that first impressions really count.

crafting for little peoples.

2010-03-06T07:06:00.005Z

For the last couple of weeks, my Mum and I have been meeting for one reason only. To turn these charity shop clothes.....

into these....

and then sew them into these!

I become a godmother this weekend, and for some reason I offered to make bunting to decorate the village hall after the service. I 've actually really enjoyed this project, as has mum I think, and once we worked out what we were doing, it was quite simple. Working with the charity shop fabrics was good too, very cost effective I think, an exercise in coordinating random fabrics, and who knew you'd be able to get 15 flags out of a mans shirt?! my mum has crazy cutting skills.

We ended up with 20 metres of bunting, in 2 metre lengths, but I could have made more with the fabric we had. we only stopped because we ran out of tape! My mums taken the bunting on ahead of me, so once I've seen the hall decorated I'll take a photo of it up to show you. I enjoyed this so much that once I knew what sex another friends new baby was, I bought more fabrics to make her a set too!

Last night I also quickly put this together for my lovely little Goddaughter.

Its made from cream cord fabric, and a scrap of her baby blanket. I'd never done this before and I'm quite pleased, although I need to be careful with the edges when I make the next one.

The Gestalt Prayer.

2010-03-03T04:32:00.002Z

I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other,
it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped.
(Fritz Perls, 1969)

Found via Micaela.

loom.

2010-02-26T18:05:00.003Z

For R, and Zoe, who has now joined the rallying call (ahem - bullying - ahem ;)) of people who want to see my loom. I'm afraid you may all be dreadfully disappointed, as its not a massive machine which fills a room, but a small tabletop loom which is collapsable so I can take it wherever I like. You're also going to be disappointed as I'm only going to show you a close up of it in action because at the moment its surrounded by mess, and the photos I took the other week in an attempt to get this post written look like I live and work in squalour. so you'll just have to wait.

Workspace wonders.

2010-02-25T21:10:00.004Z

With everything thats been happening recently I've been thinking more than normal about my ideal workspace, and theres a lot of inspiration out there once you start looking. I thought I'd do this post as an occasional feature on here, whenever something inspires me.

this one comes from Design*Sponge :

I've wanted to paint a wall with chalkboard paint for ages, and its such a good way of forcing yourself to organise your time!

frocks.

2010-02-23T20:03:00.004Z

I realised I never showed you the bridesmaids dresses. I think I had some sort of Idon'twantoshowyousoyoucan'tgoandbuythem paranoia about them last year, and then I never got around to taking photos of them after. yes, I got them from work. staff discounts can be useful. The colours and fabric are lovely though, they were the first 'sane' decision I made for the wedding, way back last summer. now I just need to find shoes, wraps, bags and jewellery for them all!

moggies.

2010-02-18T21:05:00.004Z

For Celia, who just posted adorable pictures of her cat being, well, adorable. Her are some appalling photos of my boys, who are indeed, idiots.

Benny:

and Louis:

and a couple of nicer photos with the new camera:

(sorry about the quality, I ain't no professional)