Apryl’s Bookish Craft Swap

Ahhh! Look at all this lovely stuff my swap partner Holly sent me! I confess the sweets and chocolate were swiftly opened and ermm didn’t last very long!
Love the bookmark and the little garland (I did try it on as a necklace, very pretty but knowing how clumsy I am I’ll put it up as a garland in my craft desk ) they have strips of veneer behind them, so pretty. And look, bookplates! And a book stamp, and a Miffy badge – I love Miffy.
I opened the book and started reading already, I got really into it so that’s a good sign, and Holly suggested another author I might like too.
I forgot to take a picture of what I sent to Holly (seems the last swap I was way more organised than usual!). I will not give that away until Holly gets her swap though. Look at that, two posts in one day, I’m really spoiling you now!

Moving forward at last!

I have photos! well, they’re just iPhone photos but still better than nowt.
I’ve decided that I’ll take advantage of my ability to write posts on this old iPhone of mine, so apologies if all the pictures come out upside down or something.
I made a tiara, thinking that I hadn’t and wouldn’t find one within my budget or that I liked. Turns out I didn’t like the tiara I made anyway, to me it looks amateurish and I was going to frog it and start again. We went to Abakhan -not sure I’ve mentioned this place before but I love it, everything I could want craft wise all in one crazy place. Crazy because it’s in a really run down area, there is nothing nearby apart from a massive boat that has been grounded and is now rusting slowly into the ground, and boarded up houses. Anyway, they’ve got a bridal section where they have a load of bridal fabrics, patterns, wedding accessories, and so on. They have veils and tiaras but the tiaras were in the £50+ range, as luck would have it they had a sale on (75% off!) so I got a gorgeous gold and pearl tiara for £12, big smiles all round. The veils weren’t in the sale, but I was having doubts about my veil making abilities, and I found a veil there so nice that when I tried it on a complete stranger came up and said how lovely I looked in it -sold! I also got all the tie fabric – the ties I like are £10 each so can’t fit that in the budget, but I found a tute on Threadbanger on how to make a tie and it looks straightforward enough.
So that was a successful day, the first in a while. After my last post, Tim had to have a word with me, I am an unfortunate mixture of perfectionist and crazy high standards, add a lump of someone who always focuses on the details and can never see the bigger picture and you end up with me, stressing over the tiniest thing until I snap. Lucky for me, Tim is the antidote to all my stupid stressing and things have improved greatly since. We made all the invites, sent them out and now getting loads of post with our little RSVP postcards.
I love our invites, Tim hand drew all the illustrations, he drew the most gorgeous map and found perfect fonts. He got them all lined up so we could print them off on our inkjet. I had the task of cutting them out, rounding the corners, doing the wording and spellcheck, then tying them together with a little red heart brad. then the RSVP postcard was put on top of that and then all put together with a band of rose petal paper and a gold heart brad. My hands resembled claws by the end! ooh and I was also using my best swirly handwriting to put names and addresses on the envelopes. I wish I could put the pictures up here but there’s a bit too much identifying info there! I also didn’t take photos of the finished ones before they were posted, which I was a bit gutted about but we’ve got so many invites with mistakes that I could probably make one up for my wedding scrapbook.
I still have a to do list about three miles long, but I think I do best under a bit of pressure. I like a full diary, my mum is staying with us this weekend so she can meet Tims parents for the first time, so we’ve got to get the house sparkling. Tim passed his driving test (first time!) yesterday so I’m trying to get him out in the car as much as possible, he’s not like me in loving driving, in fact he gets really nervous and wound up if he knows he has to drive. I tried to drive everywhere when I first passed, I drove four hours down to Dorset a few days after passing and I reckon that got me over freaking out when I thought about driving without an instructor. unfortunately we haven’t got the time or money for him to drive to Dorset but he’s been tootling about as much as he can. I’m so proud of him and what he’s achieved, every time I think I know him he surprises me with achievements like that.

Rethink

Hi my name is Becca, and I’m turning in to a bridezilla. *sigh* I tried soooo hard not to become one, I laughed and joked about it even a few weeks ago, but tis sad that I’m heading that way fast.

It’s taken me by surprise, if you knew me then you’d think I’d be the last person that would throw a strop because of the shade of green on a card, but there we go. It’s the quiet ones you’ve got to look out for eh? But anyway, first step is acceptance (or is that the first step?) either way I’ve got some making up to do to my poor Tim. I admit to being way over the top with my criticisms, and being a total stressbug about the tiniest things, I’ve talked through all my excuses and realised that none of it matters. It feels that it should be obvious that tiny things don’t matter, that I shouldn’t care what exact shade the invite card is, what colour napkins should be. I feel like some of it is that people are expecting me to stress over the small stuff, like they’re expecting a bridezilla. I’ve been playing up to expectations, I’m better than that.

I’ve been following the blog conversationpieces.co.uk for a while now, I love the style of that blog and she finds some gorgeous things online. She wrote a post recently that really struck me and I’ve been thinking it over since I read it. How do you stay sane during wedding planning? How do you stop stressing over the small things? Step back and think, in five years time what do you want to remember about the whole process? Do I want to think, fuck no I never want to plan anything with Tim ever again, or do I want to think we really pulled together and there were elements of both of us through out the whole day? That’s the thing that will make me happy, knowing that we did it together and pulled off a great party for the people we love – cos that’s all it is, a really good party!

Did you miss me? Like a hole in the head

I was talking to a very good friend yesterday, I hadn’t seen her for months and she asked me what I’d been up to and I drew a blank, I’m drawing a blank right now. Not that I’ve been doing nothing, far from it, just where to start…

Seeing sooo many people, that’s what I’ve been up to. Meaning to save money but then someone comes back in the area or I remember that I haven’t spoken to so-ands-so for ages and I’ll go and visit or go out for dinner. *sigh* money saving is not my forte, but it needs to be! It’s less then three months away to W-Day and people are wanting their money, and I’m wanting my bridal bits and pieces so I’m making as much as I can. I’ve made a tiara – not sure I like it though, and I have patterns for the groomsmen ties and for my veil, I just need to buy the fabric for those. Tim’s making the invites as I type, but I’m in a weird mood and nothing seems right, all the invites I like just don’t fit in with the theme of the wedding, and that feels really important to me. In another month I’ll probably be past caring, like Tim says it’s just a piece of paper that tells people where to go on a certain date.

I’ve done two 13 mile walks in the Peaks, and got weird tan marks when I used old suntan cream. I have a 50p sized mark on my ankle that I missed when putting suntan cream on, a really big watch mark and a crazy freckle face. Think I’ll keep out of the sun for a little  while! We’re hoping to do the White Peak Challenge next year, Tim wants to run it but I’m not sure I’m up for the marathon training again, although I want to complete the challenge with him. He can’t run anywhere at the moment as he has whiplash from a car accident a couple of months ago, so I’m hoping we can just walk it fast!

I’ve been playing a lot of Sims 3 too, it’s the only game I play but when I get hold of a PC that can play it (it’s very resources hungry and my little  laptop just won’t play) I can play it for hours, days in fact. I just lose all time in getting these little people to do the stuff I should be doing in real life, like cleaning the house and getting a promotion. Ok, in the current climate I should just focus on cleaning the house, but Sims don’t seem to have recessions! I’ve been working like crazy, and really concentrated on getting structure and order to my learning. I learn so much but it’s all on the job, and sometimes I go really badly wrong but there’s no safety net of structure to keep me from going wrong, just have to go from experience. I hope I’ve created that structure now, I’m writing everything down, being careful what I say and to who and becoming a lot more bossy. Tim doesn’t think I can be more bossy but I’m really not at work, it’s like I save all my bossiness for home. Got to stand up for myself now things aren’t so stable.

I’ve started running a lot more now too, and beginning to feel a bit wrong when I haven’t been running. I like that feeling, like somehow running has become part of my body’s routine and it works better if I go for a run, even just a mile. Wanted to run a 10k today but perhaps not a clever idea when it’s the hottest day of the year, maybe later.

I do have photos, but I’m not ‘allowed’ to load photos on this laptop (I’m selling it soon so we’ve transferred everything over to a desktop PC) so will have to wait til Tim moves away from the PC and I can upload my photos to that (I could be waiting a loooong time). I also want to add a Nike+ plugin so it provides a bit of extra motivation if I know the results are going up on a public platform. Like I say, just have to wait til Tim moves…. *snore*

WOOHOO!

I’m back! I lost my password and link to this blog for so long, and just suddenly found where I’d written it all down today (naturally whilst looking for something else). I shall update today with all the stuff I’ve been up to, pics and all!

Days are going faster and faster

and while its so very exciting I’ve got a constant feeling I’ve forgotten something! Less than 6 months to go til W-Day now and I’m just about up to date with all my to do lists, however, people ask me questions that I don’t have the answer to. What am I doing for a bouquet? What should the flowers on the tables sit in? What’s the whole feel of the wedding going to be? Frankly I have no idea but I really need to get on to it!

It’s been a lovely weekend so far, we usually spend our Easter break catching up with people that we haven’t seen since New Year or Christmas, and they’ve all got so much going on to catch up with – new houses, babies and weddings, it seems to be about that time in everyone’s lives. The other half has been having a slightly less fun weekend than me, he has whiplash after he was involved in a car accident – nothing too serious but he’s in a lot of pain. He had a load of plans but had to rest up more than he wanted and be fed chocolate at regular intervals, hopefully he’ll recover fully soon.

I had my wedding hair trials yesterday, I bought the comb and tiara base about a month ago so I could at least show our hairdresser what kind of thing I’d be making, even if I haven’t quite got round to it yet. My first thought (and my maid of honour’s when I showed her the pics) was that my hair looked very Pride and Prejudice – y, I now have a fringe and will have curls pinned up loosely on the day. More like an Austen character after a blustery walk!

I haven’t got much done craft wise and I’m starting to really miss it. I’ve got some drawings of bits for the wedding I’m making, and I want to make the t-shirt in Kitschy Coo’s sew along (though still haven’t cut out the proper skirt yet!). Lots of plans but no actual making to show you, but I’ll get there soon enough and I’ll share as I go along – watch this space!

A whole month already!

Well it’s been nearly a month since I last posted, I’ve done a couple of crafty things but most of the month has been taken up with work. I’ve hopefully come to the end of a particularly stressful time at work and I think I’m better for having done it, I’d rather not have had to go through it like I did but there we go.

I made my mum a chicken cushion for Mother’s Day, I don’t normally give her present other than a visit and a bunch of flowers but I saw this fat quarter of chicken fabric and thought it would be perfect for my mum. She likes chickens, and has a friend that keeps rare breeds. I think she’d keep them herself but I don’t think her garden would be suitable.

I also managed to get a muslin sewn up for Kitschy Coo’s Sew Along, a muslin is like your prototype so you can see whether you got the measurements right and saves you from using nice fabric on something you might bugger up. I’m quite pleased with it, it was the first time that I’ve done my own pattern so fairly surprised it fits as well as it does. I messed up the darts, but then I haven’t made clothes from a pattern since I was about 8 so I now know what to do on my nice fabric. I’ve got a grey tweed that I want to use for the proper skirt, I’m hoping it will drape a bit better than the cotton twill I used for the muslin. There’s more photos and everyone else’s (there’s some really nice skirts that people have done) here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1368666@N23/

Kitschy Coo’s Sew Along

Now my sewing machine is up and running again I need to work my way through my fabric stash. Then I spied a sew along on Amanda’s blog – Kitschy Coo. Working from Design-It-Yourself each member makes a skirt and then posts pics to the Flickr group, I get to buy myself a crafty book out of it and a skirt so I signed up straight away!

As soon as I’ve figured out how I’ll be adding a link in my sidebar, I’ve joined the Flickr group and ordered the book from Amazon. I cleared out my clothes drawers this morning (not knowing about the sew along) and was thinking that I could do with some summery clothes, can’t afford to buy any but I have a sewing machine and a stash of fabric so hopefully this will work out.

No doubt I’ll get photos of what I create up on here, not sure if I’ll be modelling them! Mind you, today I set up a standing order to Tim’s account so if I don’t get to the gym three times a week then he gets £10, I worked out that if I only managed to get there twice or less a week and Tim gets the £10 every week between now and the wedding, he gets enough to buy himself an iPad! That’s £300 I could spend on myself plus I use my gym membership and hopefully fit back in to half of my wardrobe. Quite a good motivation I thought so we’ll see how it goes. See you all next week!

UPDATE – Look! In the sidebar! Look what my clever fiance taught me how to do! Follow the picture to see what I’m talking about!

Alice in Wonderland swap

Yesterday I received a parcel from my Alice in Wonderland swap partner. For those not in to craft swaps an explanation, I read a lot of craft blogs and every so often one of the bloggers will hold a swap. Apryl is really good at these and I’ve done a couple. This time the theme was Alice in Wonderland in relation to the Tim Burton film coming out next month. You have to make a parcel containing something you’ve made, some sweets plus whatever you think would make a good parcel that you’d like to receive yourself.

Normally, I forget to take photos but I remembered to get the camera before I sent off my half and before I opened the contents of Fiona’s parcel so here you go:

My parcel contained this

And I was very happy to receive all these lovely things

Sorry the photos aren’t embedded in the post but I’d have to compress them all to get them on and I thought it would be nice to get a good view!

As you can see, what I received was of such a high standard. The necklace looks very professional in all its details, there’s silver beads, red coral beads and polymer clay beads and TizDuster made all the catch too.

I love the pincushion, it made me laugh when I opened it and there’s really lovely details in this too. There’s little beads inbetween each of the felt discs that make up the caterpillar, and the pins have different coloured heads. I was just thinking that morning that I needed to get some pins like that for a wedding project I’m thinking about.

The dolly mixtures didn’t last very long, I managed to restrain myself until after lunch but there wasn’t much hope of keeping them til after Lent. I kept the topper – love that, and the jar has been added to my collection for jam/chutneys. I also got some bay leaves – I never ever have any when I need them so they have been put in the cupboard ready for use. It’ll be really nice to have the right ingredients for once!

Head reset

I’ve almost finished my half of Meridien Ariel’s Alice in Wonderland swap, just waiting for a couple of items to come through the post and one more item to make closer to the date it’s getting sent off. I was just doing the finishing touches and remembered to take pictures as I was packing the items up (shock!) and I’m so excited. I don’t think I’ve ever been this organised or proud of what I’ve made, I just hope my swap partner likes it too (no pressure!). Anyway, now I’ve written that I’m thinking I could have done better on my homemade items, ever the perfectionist.

I had a bit of a meltdown yesterday due to my expectations of myself, luckily Tim’s been with me long enough to know it was coming and what to do. I’ve got a big project on at work, and the first presentation of my work on Thursday morning. The trouble is, I never have time to do work on projects at work, we have loads of support calls come through and a lot of customers that I like to deal with personally so there’s never really a spare moment. So I thought I’d take it home with me, and I had all these amazing ideas of what I could do that I just found I didn’t have the breadth of knowledge to do. Queue mini meltdown and now I have a todo list as long as your arm, and a more realistic expectation of what I’m going to do. It’s like a reset of my head!

Last night I made Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen and they were gorgeous, I made with half 40% chocolate and half 70% chocolate (I don’t really like dark chocolate but could see these needed a good cocoa solids percentage) and left out the mint cream (I don’t need the calories!) but they are so light and airy I managed to inhale three of them without noticing. Good thing Tim stopped me eating more as now we’ve got some for pudding later. Obv I’ve got to eat them before Lent starts, I’m giving up sweets and chocolate – the reason I’m not losing weight. I’ve got a face full of sweet teeth, can’t eat fruit and crave sugar like nothing else. I did manage to do it a few years ago, and felt so much better for it. I felt really calm and could think better, normally I go from one extreme to another and it doesn’t do me any good.

Sweet baby Nathan I sound boring and pious don’t I? I’m off to inhale a cupcake..