Day 11- Blog-vent

Finally a bit of crafting to go up. Here are my little blanket-stiched tree decorations which I'm doing in stars and hearts. They're so easy to make, as all they are, are a piece of felt cut out with a blanket stitch embroidered round the edge. Even the hubby thought they were very nice!

Day 9 (and all the others inbetween I''ve missed)- Blog-vent

Quick apology post. Well I've massively failed so far with keeping up on the blog. However since my last post, the bit of poorly turned to full on poorly and all I could do is (literally) drag myself to work and back and sleep. This has of course left me behind on work, meaning I not only have been unable to do Christmas craftiness because of my yucky and full of cold state, but also because I've been catching up with work. So, tomorrow evening should be filled with films, wine and some sewing so at the latest I should be back to my proper blogging state. For now, look at these personalised tree decorations I've been lusting after and would quite like to make similar ones of my own....

personalised embroidered decoration by laura windebank designs

notonthehighstreet.com

Day 4 + 5 - Blog-vent

Apologies for missing a day already but my body has succumed at long last to the germs picked up from school *sniff sniff*. Hence I've got a little bit behind and lazy too!


Hence here is one of my 'preparations' for getting myself into a Christmas mood. It's cheesy but I have literally grown up with this album being played every year as we put up the Christmas tree. There is even some very funny (and embarassing) video footage of me aged two dancing to this song as we decorate the house. My conclusion is therefore- no Dolly Parton + Kenny Rogers = Christmas not being the same!

Day 3- Blog-vent

ANOTHER snow day for me at home, so I spent the morning making this for my hubby. Very cheesily, I'm going to make myself a matching one (saying 'Mrs' of course!)

Day 2- Blog-vent

It's been another day off school today due to the snow, and I've not felt too well. Hence rather that catching up with university work, as I perhaps should have been doing, I decided to treat myself to a day of sewing. My aim is to make a load of Christmas decorations for our flat this year, and this is the first one I made today.

Day 1- Blog-vent

I'm breaking my rules on what blog-vent is about on the first day, however, Britain (for those who live far away) is covered in a blanket of snow right now. Whilst for those living outside of Britain and where you have a lot of snow, the amount of snow we've got looks a bit pathetic. For most of us Brits though snow causes chaos. We don't get snow regularly enough to warrant buying snow chains for our cars, or for towns/cities to buy an influx of snow ploughs (though you do see the odd one knocking about). The British defence of snow is to either a) go nowhere at all which means 100s of schools close for example or b) go out in the car and end up skidding about all over the place and usually end up stuck in traffic from an accident.

Yesterday I was told not to try and make the normal one hour journey over to where I work, and today the school I'm currently working at was closed and I suspect looking at the weather forcast, may be tomorrow too.
However, snow is Christmassy and of course very pretty so my first blog-vent pic is of a snowy scene just outside our house.

Blog-vent?

Bbbrrrrr! It's cold and snowy in England today...so cold I even had ice on the inside of my bedroom window this morning.

Well it's the beginning of advent on the Christian calender today, and whilst my new mini-project is not going to begin until the 1st of December when people start on their advent calenders, I felt it a good day to tell you about my coming blogging project. Seen as advent is seen as a time of preparation I'm going to try and write every day in the lead up to Christmas a little about Christmas preparations in our house and hopefully share some pretty pictures of goings on too. Hence it becomes my own little blog-vent (get it?!?) calender.

Till then enjoy this.....

I would like a dress like this please....

...and then somewhere to wear it to! Enough said!

Image from So Vintage Patterns

Christmas Cakes and Sparkly Goodness

I'm sat in our living room exhausted after two long and rather difficult days, with the comforting smell of Christmas cake wafting out the oven making it all feel a little bit better. However, the big dilemma now of course is how to ice it. Trust me I need simple 'dilemmas' like this in my life right now! So, the best idea I've come across so far is this one off the Martha Stewart website...sparkly goodness, eh? Comments/ideas much appreciated please...

Martha Stewart

This week I...

A while back I wrote a blog post with the same title at the end of a lovely, yet a little tough week. It's been another one of those this weesk, so I decided to write a similar type post to remind myself to focus on the good things in life. So this week I;

Got to spend some quality time with my hubby and realised once again what an amazing hubby he is.

Enjoyed running in two beautiful places- along the south coast and in the gorgeous Chatsworth Park.

Made a batch of chocolate brownies which were super delicious- in fact according to my sister-in-law, they were the best she's ever had!

Was reminded of how beautiful autumn leaves are.

Had loads of fun with all my nieces and nephews.

Sung my heart out to the Sound of Music soundtrack.

Ate fish and chips with mushy peas (a rare but delicious treat).

Spent an afternoon in my Mum's cosy flat watching two films whilst supping cups of tea.

Ordered lots of material to make pretty Christmas decorations with.

Enjoyed sitting in front of the telly with my Dad with a glass of wine and a tv dinner.

Remembered what real fresh air smells like (as opposed to city 'fresh' air).

Helped my Dad out in the garden whilst listening to 70s cheese on his Ipod.

Had one of the most delicious meals cooked by my best friend (who used his own homegrown pumkins...genius), and at the same time got to enjoy his fab company.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

Christmas is suddenly creeping up, which makes me particularly happy as it's my favourite time of year. However, amongst my busy schedule of becoming a teacher, doing housework and trying to actually get a bit of chill out time, I've got some Christmas decorations to make for our flat, a Christmas cake, mincemeat, and most adventurous of all, a fabric advent calender which I'm going to give to my two nieces for Christmas. I've already got in mind what I'm going to do, but I've been looking around for some inspiration on colours and I found these at All About You. Aren't they gorgeous? And they're all handmade!

Picture from All About You

 

Picture from All About You

Picture from All About You

Picture from All About You

My own to come soon hopefull!

Bye for now!

Sew pretty!

Hope you get the above pun....sew (or 'so') pretty! Very corny I know. Anyway, I'm trying my hand at embroidery for the first time at the moment, although being a trainee teacher at the moment I have virtually no free time, and when I do I tend to enjoy being in a vegitative state in front of the TV. However for my TV sins I have made some progress and this is what I've done so far. Will keep you updated with my progress as the next part involves French knots and beading which seem a little daunting at the moment. It will eventually form a beatiful thimble pod, or if you glue it altogether an unusual Christmas baubel...you'll see!

Our wedding- the reception

Final part of our wedding at long last...drumrolls please!

All the table names were named after places that were special to us as a couple.

 This isn't the best picture but this was a board that I put together of me and my new hubby growing up which was in the entrance. The little box on the table was for people to write a postcard (rather than in a guest book) and pop it in the box.

 My best man's speech. My face says it all!

 This time, my hubby's best man speech- again the face says it all!

 My best man and I dancing 'Beyonce' stylee!

Our wedding- country photo shoot

After the service, my husband and I chose to go for some photos in a field situated at the back of the village where we'd got married. Having grown up in the village, I'd been for many a walk through this field (including since I'd been seeing by husband many a romantic stroll) and it was also on my running route, so for me it was a very much a place of significance. And this is the result....

Just some more of the reception to come in a few days!

Our wedding- preparation and the service

Well it's nearly two months since we got married, and I promised some pictures. So this is how our wedding went...

My bouquet-made up of peonies and sweet peas, whilst my bridesmaids had bunches of sweet peas, and the men had Cezanne Rose buttonholes.

My beautiful bridesmaids and very handsome and unconventional best man!

Yey! We're married!

My best man, Sam, made these beautiful cupcakes which we had along with a traditional fruit cake straight after the service rather than later at the service. This meant that people who'd come to the service but weren't coming to the reception got some nice refreshment for their effort to come to see us get hitched!

Mother-of-the-groom shedding a tear or two.

More pictures to come soon!

Something nice for my niece...

Sorry I've been away for so long, and for still not getting round to putting up some more details and photos of our wedding. In the meantime, have a peek what a spare piece of material, a new sewing book and a spare hour produced last week....

Having just got married, I've now 'inherited' two beautiful nieces (plus two gorgeous nephews too), who were perfect to make this skirt for. It's literally the easiest thing I've ever made (except for threading the elastic through the waist band) and it's so cute too. In the book it suggests adding to large pockets in a contrasting fabric, but I think it looks lovely without in this material. For Mum's looking for long lasting clothes, this skirt has the added bonus that the waist is completely elasticated meaning it'll 'grow' with your little sprog!

Ode to an Aunt

More indulgence with my temporary internet. I thought I would use the occassion to point to my very clever Auntie who has been the source for my love of sewing. She is super creative, and not only is highly skilled at all forms of sewing from dressmaking to curtain making to embroidery, but can also paint and draw very well, and furthermore is very good at interior design. Here's a little taster of her creative flair from our wedding. First of all she made the beautiful bridesmaid dresses for my wedding. Let me reassure you all, they were NOT easy to make and I felt very guilty at times for asking her to make them, especially as they were boned and one of the bridesmaids kept losing a little bit of weight.

Aren't they gorgeous dresses (and bridesmaids)?!? The next thing she made for our wedding was a surpise gift, and even my new hubby (who is not easily impressed) was bowled over at how delicate and beautiful it was, and here it is....

It's a beautiful ring cushion. The photo does not give it justice as to how delicate it is.

Finally, here is the talented woman herself in her homemade dress which she made for our wedding, dancing with her lovely hubby.

Hurrah for my lovely Aunt, Val!

Goodbye Derbyshire....

I have temporary internet for the weekend! Whoopee! Before I start giving you all the crafty and beautiful details of our wedding I wanted to share the walk I had to work on my last day. To fill you in a little I did live in the heart of the Peak District, and on my last day I decided to walk half the way as it was such a beautiful morning plus it was some exercise to keep the pounds off in the weeks running up to the wedding. I'm a real country bumpkin at heart and love nothing more than wandering through fields in my flip flops and pretty skirts in the summer. I have a lot of sympathy with the wonderful Julie Andrews as she wanders round singing the hills are alive, and on my last day of work, corny as it may sound, it felt like the Derbyshire countryside had awoken in all it's glory to give me a good send off, either that or make me miss it even more!

Anyway, here are a few pics of the beautiful morning walk I had.