Old Friends Are Gold

Happy Friday, we survived another week! I hope it was a good one for you. As you may already know, I like to post a quotation on a Friday to give you (and me!) a little weekend inspiration. I thought this week as well as giving you a little quotation about friendship I would also dedicate this post to my dear friend Rosie. Rosie and I have been friends since school, which means we have known each other for coming close to (whisper it!) 20 years. That's a lot of tears, laughter, embarrassing stories, breakups, weddings, birthdays and babies.

She has two boys under the age of three (and a husband, and a dog!). Her youngest boy is almost exactly the same age as baby Joe - it was so fun being pregnant together last year, and has been invaluable to share the experience of our babies' first year since then, and now we are not only fellow mummies but blogging partners in crime too!

 Rosie is one of those people who really doesn't realise how amazing they are. She got a FIRST (wowza!) in business at university, then trained and worked as a professional florist, then a youth worker and now she is running an Etsy business as Rosie and The Boys selling her her paper cut artwork. As you can see from these photos, her designs are so beautiful and intricate, I really love them and am in awe of her talent and determination in developing her business and her blog.

One of the advantages of having a florist for one of your best friends is that when you get married they offer to do the flowers for you! At least, if they are Rosie they do... I absolutely loved my wedding bouquet and we had so much fun going to the flower markets early in the morning and buying all the flowers. Rosie went the extra mile gathering cow parsley from the hedgerows and honeysuckle from her own garden for the bouquets. The end result was totally dreamy and exactly what I had hoped for.

Rosie works harder than I think I would be capable of, while also raising her two adorable sons. She gives so much to her friends and family, is involved in her local community, and is one of the most moral and honourable people I have ever met. No-one deserves success in business (and life) more than her. I love the fact that I can use this blog to share Rosie's work with you, and hopefully get her wider recognition. If you would like to find out more, then hop straight on over to her blog, her Etsy shop, her Twitter account or her Facebook page. I also think it is always worth taking a moment to remember the value of true friendship, it really is rare, and precious when you find it, and something to treasure.

Have a great weekend!


PS. Not sure who originally came up with the Silver and Gold quotation, do you know?

Four Things: Songs That Remind Me Of My Sweetheart

This week's Four Things is another musical one - I didn't particularly conceive it as a music feature but hey, when the mood takes you you might as well go with it! These are four songs that remind me of my darling husband Dan. We are just coming up for our second wedding anniversary, and will have been together five years altogether this August. When I put it like that it doesn't sound long enough to have done everything that has happened - move house, get married, have a baby - but time is a funny old thing...  I am trying out a new experiment here to add playlists to my blog, hopefully this will allow you to actually hear the songs I'm talking about, and maybe even discover a new favourite of your own! Please leave a comment if this doesn't work for you, its all new to me!

1. P.P. Arnold, "The First Cut Is The Deepest": One of our first dates was when Dan took me to see P.P. Arnold at the Jazz Cafe in London. He is a big mod fan and P.P.'s association with the Small Faces makes her a mod legend. This was a great night, and PP Arnold always reminds me of the early, exciting days of our relationship.

2. Fleetwood Mac, "Need our Love So Bad": Our first dance at our wedding. I think Dan had had this picked out in his head for ages, he was always very sure that he wanted this song for our first dance. My Dad is also a huge fan of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac so this song reminds me of lots of people I love and lots of happy times. I posted a while ago about the frames we got so that we could display the 7" single of this song on the wall.

3. McAlmont and Butler, "Yes": A real nineties classic here. This song isn't related to a particular occasion, it is just one of Dan's favourite songs, which makes him happy every time it comes on the radio. I can't hear the introduction to "Yes" without also hearing Dan saying "I LOVE this song!" and picturing his smiling face.

4. Flight of the Conchords "If You're Into It": Flight of the Conchords also played an integral part in our early relationship. It was one of the series' that we both loved and I can remember watching this video on YouTube while talking on the phone to Dan (he lived in Somerset, I lived in Hertfordshire at the time so we spent a lot of time on the phone). You can get the full experience by watching the video here. Dan had been in a mission to get tickets whenever FOTC played in London, and he always seemed to be hearing rumours on the internet about it. We did finally get to see them two weeks before our wedding and they were fantastic and so so funny, it was an amazing night (AND we saw Jonathan Ross and his family sitting not far from us, eeek!)

There are lots of others I could add that remind me of Dan - I have told him I might let him do a guest post and pick his own favourites some time. What songs remind you of your sweetheart?

Wedding Blog Love

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Hello! My friend's sister Clare (who is also my sister's friend. And my friend. Confusing!) and her boyfriend just got engaged. We had all been waiting for AGES for these two to get married so there is much excitement among both our families about helping to plan the wedding! Our families are very close and they all payed a big part in both mine and my sister's weddings, so it is super-duper exciting to have another wedding coming up.

I was talking to her the other day about wedding planning, and said I would send her a list of the blogs I found most useful while I was planning my wedding, and then it occurred to me that maybe some of you blog readers might find this useful too. I think it was when I was planning my wedding that I first got into reading blogs. I found the internet was my best source for wedding inspiration and tips, which is why I thought I would post about my own wedding in the hope that it might be helpful to other people. I have had to strain my brain a little to remember (at the time they never left my recently visited sites list!) but as far as I can recall these were the main blogs and sites I read regularly for wedding ideas and style tips:

• Hundred Layer Cake
• Style Me Pretty
• Once Wed
• Rock'n'Roll Bride
• Martha Stewart Weddings
• DIY Bride
• My DIY Wedding Day
• Rock My Wedding

One thing I do wish is that Pinterest had been around when I was planning my wedding. I used to bookmark pages I liked on Delicious, and save folders of web images on my desktop, but Pinterest is ideal for keeping track of wedding ideas since you keep the images and links together - plus you get to discover the great things other people have found!

I have to say, even though I don't plan on getting married again (don't panic Dan!), I still love looking at wedding blogs and seeing all the pretty ideas for flowers and dresses. It is so inspiring to see the ways in which people have personalised their weddings and come up with brilliant DIYs and money saving tips. I firmly believe that weddings don't have to be expensive to be wonderful, and for me our wedding was the proof of that.

I hope you find these links useful. Do you have any great wedding blogs and sites that inspire you in planning your wedding? Leave a comment so I can share them with Clare!

Our Dorset Honeymoon

I thought it would be nice to share some photos from our lovely honeymoon with you. We went to Dorset for our honeymoon mainly because my grandma owns a cottage there where we could stay for free. Since we were doing our wedding on quite a tight budget, we didn't have much money to spend on going somewhere exotic, and we have always loved staying at the cottage. I have been going on holiday there since I was a few weeks old so it has a very special place in my heart.

Although our honeymoon location was based on necessity as much as choice, we had the most wonderful two weeks and if we could do it all again with more money, I wouldn't change a thing. Partly this is because holidays in the UK always remind you what a beautiful, amazing country we live in and how much there is to discover practically on your doorstep. But another thing I hadn't considered was that we were exhausted by the time our wedding was over, and it was the best thing to be going on a honeymoon we could drive to. We could travel whenever we liked, in our own car, we didn't have to worry about being anywhere on time, we were there door to door in 3 hours or so, and we didn't have to think about vaccinations, time differences and airport transfers. And the advantage of going somewhere you've been before is that you can really relax because you don't feel you have to rush around seeing every sight there is to see just in case its the only time you're there.

We had the most relaxing time ever just pottering around, making nice dinners, reading our books in the garden and sleeping about 12 hours a night, total bliss! As with so much to do with getting married, it is easy to get sucked into feeling like you have to make your honeymoon a spectacular trip of a lifetime, but after our wedding, what we both needed was a rest and time to recover from all the stress and hard work that we'd put into the day. Keeping our honeymoon domestic gave us so much more flexibility and less stress, and the fact that it was cheap seemed almost incidental. If you are currently planning your wedding I would definitely recommend you consider making your honeymoon a little more local - there are plenty of chances to go on big trips, but straight after the busiest day of your life might not actually be the time you most want to head off half way around the world.

Incidentally, the cottage in Bere Regis is available to rent if you would like to stay there, maybe even for your own honeymoon. You can see more pictures and book online on holidaylettings.co.uk

Where did you go on honeymoon? Was it near or far, familiar or new? I hope you had a wonderful time wherever you went.



PS. Want to download this sweet font for free? It's The Only Exception from Dafont

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My Wonderful Wedding Quilt

There were so many things I loved about my wedding day but none more than the amazing wedding quilt that my wonderful friends and family. This was a secret project that I knew nothing about until we were presented with the quilt after cutting our wedding cake. I wanted to share it with you partly just because it is so incredible - this is definitely one of those "things you would save in a fire" items - but also because I thought it might inspire others of you to do a similar project for someone you love. It is a great wedding gift, but could also work for a new baby gift, a birthday gift for a landmark birthday, or an anniversary present. We worked together to make another quilt last year for my little sister's wedding, so I came to learn more about the work involved from the other side of the project last summer!

The wedding quilt project was masterminded by Martha, one of my oldest and best friends in the world. Together with my sisters and both of our mums, they emailed all my girlfriends, female relatives and future in-laws and asked who would like to be involved. Everyone who wanted to contribute was given a basic format to follow, which ensures there is some consistency in the overall design. They were told a set size for the square pieces, given this pattern of light, medium and dark fabrics to follow and asked to add a personal design in the centre. The good thing is that each individual square is small and light enough to be easy to post, so people who live far away or even overseas, can take part if they want.

The centre designs of each square are so personal to us, and reference things from the history of my relationships with the person who made each square: my friend Sarah put tea and cake on her square as a reminder of the many times we have been for afternoon tea together, while my Mum embroidered the lyrics to one of the songs she sang to me and my sisters when we were little ("You are my honey, honeysuckle/ I am the bee"). My mother-in-law and sister-in-law featured a beautiful cross stitch design from one of the seed packets sold by their family company - fittingly, Hearts' Ease - while my sister's friend did a fantastic square featuring the binary solo from Flight of the Conchords song "The Humans Are Dead". Each one was completely different and totally personal to us.

Once all the individual squares were collected, they had to be assembled into a quilt top. A single fabric was used in between all the squares, which again brings together the different designs. You then have to add backing, edging and sandwich a layer of padding in between. All these pieces are sandwiched together and tacked together to hold all the layers of the sandwich together. The edging and piecing together is done with a sewing machine, but then all the quilting was done by hand. You can do as much or as little hand quilting as you can bear, or you can do it by machine if you are confident with a sewing machine, but bear in mind that the quilt will be enormous (ours in the size of our king size bad) and heavy, so it will potentially be hard to manipulate when using a sewing machine.

One of the most wonderful things about this quilt to me is the many hours of work that went into making it. The time, thought and effort it obviously took to make this precious heirloom are what give it its value to me. It is incredibly moving to look at it and think of the love that went into it. We have it on our bed every day so I see it all the time and it is part of the fabric of our every day lives. I love the idea that one day I will hand it down the family, along with the stories behind each square.

Having worked on another wedding quilt myself, I can say that it is also a really fulfilling thing to do for someone special, and there are such happy times to be had sitting with a group of other women (or men) of several generations, friends and family, all working on hand stitching a quilt like this. It feels solid and old fashioned and symbolic to work on something like this, knowing how much meaning it will carry. We will treasure our wedding quilt forever.

Have you worked on a collaborative wedding project before? What did you make? And what special wedding gifts have you been given?


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My Wedding: The Rings

Hi friend!

One thing I wanted to share with you over the coming weeks was some details from my wedding. It was back in 2010 - our two year anniversary is coming up in May! When I was planning our wedding I had a very small budget and a short time frame (engaged at Christmas, married in May) so I was always looking for help and tips! I loved reading wedding blogs and sites to get inspiration, and I thought some of you might find it useful to know what I did and what I learned.

The first step after we got engaged was to buy an engagement ring. I knew I wanted a vintage ring, and while Dan insisted he wanted to pay fir it himself, I didn't want him to spend more than he could afford.  So, we went to one of my favourite local shops, the Ampthill Antiques Emporium. This place is a real treasure trove. I tried on a few rings, which was SO exciting, since we'd only got engages the night before! We picked out this ring together. It is a diamond with gold and platinum setting, and it fit me perfectly without any adjustments. I think sometimes you have to pay attention to these signs! I don't think it is super old, but I love the sparkle of the diamond, and the old fashioned style. It was priced at £95, I don't mind telling you, and the shop knocked off £5 for cash! I love my ring and remembering that special Christmas Eve when we bought it, and I love that it wasn't new or expensive. My top tip to you would be to look out for a second hand engagement ring in junk shops, antique shops and charity shops. For me, it was really important that the ring felt like us, and it is not our style to spend lots of money we don't have on fancy bling.

My wedding ring is a family ring that belonged to my Dad's grandma, and was passed down from his mum. Again, this one fit me exactly with no adjustment, and I love the fact that it is an antique and a family heirloom. I hope I will be able to pass both these rings on down my family tree one day, and love to imagine the life they must have had before me - and after! It is always worth asking in your family if there are any rings that you could use, it is surprising how often older relatives have family jewellery they have inherited tucked away in boxes and drawers, and they are usually really pleased to think these things can have a new life and mark a new marriage.

What is the story of your wedding rings? What do you think of buying them second hand?

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