As a recap, the three days before the big day:
there’d been a funeral, a minor freakout,
a frenzied bakeathon and full-on packing.

And then here we were. The day before the wedding.

All our helpers made it to our venue first.
They put out the benches and put up my trees
so when we arrived this is pretty much what we saw above.

It was a definite moment stepping into our tipis.
The moment I realised that it might just be all ok.
I think I shivered. And maybe giggled.
I would have hugged all our helpers
but for fear of getting weepy!

Then it was down to business…
arranging the tables and chairs,
putting up all the bunting,
hanging our gorgeous ‘do I love you’ sign
that my uncle made for us…

And oh yes, the scary bit…

Yup, the flowers.

One thing everyone said to me
was ‘do not do your own flowers’.

But circumstances (including being screwed
over by our not so lovely bank) meant that
well, doing our own flowers was exactly
what we were going to do.

So I bought some Craspedias… or yellow balls
as I think kept calling them.

And pink and darker pink gerberas…

And eh… broccoli.

Ok, they’re Chrysanthemums.

But my now mother-in-law’s first reaction
was ‘oh, that looks like broccoli’.

Cue some extremely nervous giggling from me.

Then onto the bouquets…

My little sis was a godsend here.

If you follow the pictures above, you’ll see
I’m back to giggling by one point
and she’s just continuing regardless.

Yes, midnight making of bouquets
is not really something I’d recommend.
It can be done. And some of it was fun.
But it was rather intense!

Here’s how we made them:
selected flowers, bunched them together,
trimmed, tied with florist wire near the top
and then wrapped some washi tape
round the middle. (Yes, I’m obsessed!)

Along with the flowers, we made the boys’ buttonholes.
Fox masks for our ‘no photo booth’ photo booth.
And some more bunting. (Because we needed that.)

Our friends headed to bed around 1am.
At 2am, me and my now husband were still
trying to work out the table plans
when we got a text from my sis
saying ‘get to bed… now.’

So a night of sleep for him
and a night of no sleep for me later
and it was the morning…

And my… if our flowers didn’t look
too bad in the morning light!

We rushed around that morning (though kept separate by our friends)
still setting up things… like the chalkboard table plan!

And then we reached this point…

And all that was left was for us to get ready…
because, heck, there was going to be a wedding!

So that was the set-up. An insane, crazy effort
that we couldn’t have achieved without
my sister, my maid of honour, the best man,
his wife (the best lady), my now parents-in-law
and my Dad and his girlfriend.

Thank you all so very, very much.
You really are the best-est friends
and family a guy and a gal
could hope to have!

********

P.S. If you have any wedding questions,
feel free to ask… I probably could
have made this post ten times longer!

********

Pics from day before: from our best lady.
Pics from the morning: Lillian and Leonard.

This… yes, this is pretty much my motto right now.
(Except I actually say ‘I don’t know what
I’m doing but I’m doing it anyway’.)

I do like a good motto.
So much so that my friend once made
me a print of a saying I said a lot.

I think it’s my way of explaining why I do things.
Or me trying to talk myself into doing things!

Anyway, I thought it was time I had some new ones.
Some ‘let’s do this thing’ 2012 sayings…

Here’s my new favourites:

This is… well, I want to say perfect…

But, yes times a million.

Done… and beautifully imperfect, this sounds good to me!

You can’t really argue with this can you?!

If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know!

This…

And this…

And this… just because I love it.

And if none of that works, what you really
need is this – a fox riding a rocket!

********

So what’s your motto?
(If it’s good, can I steal it for me too?)

********

P.S. Yup, I had a little blog redesign.
Hope you like it? It’s a bit of a work in progress.
(Yes, I don’t know what I’m doing
but I’m doing it anyway!)

1. making stuff and doing things 2.dorothyjeannegoods
3.LisaBarbero 4.kickcanandconkers 5.  designfuersheim
5. imeus design 6. hammer press (via littlegreenshed)
7.hellojenuine 8. corduroy

No when your friend who you’ve known since you were 14,
who you went to uni with, who you lived with for years,
with whom there’s been many, many, many, many, many
brilliant times, drunken nights, fits of giggles, and silly adventures
that may include breaking into our own apartment in Cannes…

Well, when she has a baby…
you know, it’s sort of special really.

So as well as buying her a present,
I wanted to make something.
For her and her baby.

A ‘welcome to the world’ if you will.

That’s what I kept saying… and that’s what it became.

A teeny tiny diy for a teeny tiny person…
cut out of vintage map paper
and strung on some baker’s twine.

1. Take one old atlas…

2. Draw your letters and cut them out

3. String together on baker’s twine.
And try to make sure the cat doesn’t
sit on it while you’re not looking.

*******

And the ‘holy moley me oh my’?
Well, I was thinking of making my own version
that says “home is wherever I’m with you’.
And then the song got stuck in my head
while I was writing this!

If anyone has any requests for one,
I still have 3/4 of an atlas to go!

So far this has involved:

1. Making a little wall display
with my print from The Seventy Tree,
poster card from General Pattern
and little map print by Alison Hardcastle.

2. Acquiring another sideboard.

In my defense, this is actually a drinks cabinet
so I’m not as much of a sideboard addict as I seem.
(None of you are convinced by that right?)

It needs a bit of work (its bottom glass doors are broken)
but it’s lovely and narrow… so it’s perfect for the hall.
Which is exactly where I’ve just plonked it for the moment!

3. Making a tea towel cushion

Back in the summer of 2010, I bought
a ‘owl and pussycat’ tea towl by Gabrielle Reith.
And I’ve just got round to converting it
into a cushion. Looks rather lovely
with my cuddly Custard Cream!

4. Turning Xmas decs into full-time decs

Yes the fairylights are still up!

I’ve also been trying to decide on a home
for the pom-pom wreath my little sis made me
for Christmas… it’s too pretty to put away.

I’m thinking as it’s red and pink
it could be a Valentine’s wreath too?

5. Dropping stuff off at charity shops
and coming home with some finds

Yes I’ve dropped bags of old clothes off at charity…
so it only seems to right to reward myself with
this gorgeous typewriter. Especially as she only cost £3!

We also may have picked up a what
I’m calling a boy’s polaroid too…

We bought film for both cameras – and the results have
been, um, interesting so far! Expect a post on that soon!

6. Rediscovering my SLR

In amongst all the shuffling, I dusted off my SLR
and started playing around with it.
(Yes, cats make easy subjects!)

I’ve gotten very bad at just snapping everything
on my iphone… so I’m determined to
try and get back to using the SLR.

And maybe even learn how to use it properly!

*******

So’s that’s my bits and bobs for a Monday.
Anyone else having a bit of a January
reorganisation? I think I do this every year!

They were all supremely good.
And we had too much.

But two nights before the wedding
I was worried we wouldn’t have enough.
So I wanted to bake.

Someone suggested making cake pops.
One glance at the recipes revealed that
it was not something that my
pre-wedding brain
could cope with.

So I decided to make ‘not cake pops’ instead.
Otherwise known as biscuit and marshmallow pops.

I made them for the kids –
but all the adults ate them first!
Though not before they got
a starring role in our wedding…

Yup…  this is us doing our posed
‘we are signing the register’ picture…
(after having actually signed the register)
complete with biscuit and marshmallow pops!

******

I’ve made a few more batches since…
that’s how easy they are to make
and how yummy they are to eat.

Here’s how to make your own:
(I take no responsibility for
how many you might eat!)

You’ll need:

Double-stuff Oreos (has to be the double stuff ones)

Marshmallows

Long lolly sticks (you can get these from Hobbycraft)

Melting candy (any colour; again you can get this from Hobbycraft)

Decoration (we used white chocolate stars and sprinkles)

A colander and a chopstick

******

To make your Oreo biscuit pop…

1. Slowly start to melt your candy in a glass bowl inside a pot of hot water.
Keep the water below boiling point or it will burn the candy.

2. Take Oreo double stuff biscuit and insert stick carefully.
(It’s easier if you use a cocktail stick to
create a hole before inserting the stick.)
If the biscuit halves separate then simply use
some melted candy to glue them back together.

3. Place the newly ‘stuck’ Oreos into your freezer for approx 10mins.
(This is pretty important or they fall apart when you dip them in the candy!)

4. Once Oreos are chilled and the candy is nice and runny,
it’s time to dip them. The best way to coat them is to use
a ‘dip and spin’ technique – as this removes any excess candy.
Use a chopstick to smooth the candy down and clean up the edges.

5. Now you need your colander.
Turn it upside down and use the holes to put the pop’s lolly stick in.
(This way, your pop can dry without getting stuck to another pop.)

6. Before the candy dries, add your stars or decoration.

7. Try not to eat immediately. If you can.
(Of course, you do need to sample some
for quality control so that’s allowed!)

******

To make your marshmallow pop…

1. Insert the sticks into the marshmallows.

2. Dip into the candy, using the same ‘dip and spin’ technique.

3. Place in the colander and then decorate.

4. Leave to set.

5. And then eat as many as you can…
before everyone else does!

******

P.S. For a handy paper version of this ‘how to’
get yourself a copy of the Hannah Zakari zine
as they kindly featured my ‘not cake pops’ there.

P.P.S. This is my first post on grown-up wordpress.
Do let me know if anything glitchy,
I feel like a blogging newbie again!

******

Image 1: Lillian and Leonard at our wedding
Image 3: snapped by my uncle
All other images: by me.

Or it’s Jaguars Need You, Larry
according to my Cats Let Nothing
Darken Their Roar calendar.

(I missed out on getting one last year
so I was determined to have the 2012 one.
I’m trying to be good and not peek
at what the following months are…
we’ll see how long that lasts!)

Yup… I even put the cover in a frame.
It’s ridiculous just how much I love it.

So how’s everyone else coping with January?
I’m refusing to take down all the extra
fairy lights from around the flat…
and I’m still happily eating Xmas chocolate
which I need to stop doing soon!

Apart from that, I’m back to work,
back to yoga, back to reality…
and planning (hopefully) some rather
exciting stuff for 2012.

Yes, this cat is going to let
nothing darken her roar…
whatever that means!

Happy 2012 so far everyone xx

P.S. Thanks for all your lovely comments
and interest on the book project I was
working on (still doing a bit now actually).
I’m only part of the book, no solo project yet…
but I’ll tell you all about it as soon
as I allowed to. Promise!

Here’s their wonderful suggestions:
Christmas with the Beach Boys (a favourite of Seeds & Stitches)
This Noel playlist by isabelleoc
An alternative Xmas mix by Last Year’s Girl
For Folk’s Sake, It’s Christmas 2011
A Charlie Brown Christmas,
Muppets Christmas Carol soundtrack,
This cool playlist by naurnie,
Sufjan Stevens, Low
and R2D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas!!

And for the Christmas holidays…
Here’s what I have planned:
That’s yummy food, presents,
taking pics with my car boot Polaroid,
roasting chestnuts on our fire
(never done this before ever!),
watching Christmas movies
and getting my skates on…

Oh yes and some sitting on the couch
doing absolutely nothing too!

(Weird fact: the penguin with the bauble?
That’s how he came out of the Christmas box,
holding that bauble… it seemed mean to take it off him!)

So I’ll see you all in 2012.
Thanks so much for dropping by this year,
leaving comments, emailing me,
even saying hi sometimes.
You guys rock, you really do.

I hope you all have some lovely, relaxing, fun plans?
But whatever you do, remember the following:
You do indeed!

Merry Christmas.
Hope you all have an amazing time.
And get super, super spoiled!
xxxxx

Image 3: Lillian & Leonard (at our wedding)
Image 5: merriweathercouncil

On Friday night, we bought our tree
(and named him Bruce the Spruce)
then on Saturday we set about decorating.

A lot of last year’s decorations were looking
a little tired… so I decided to make my own,
using things that we had left over from the wedding,
like baker’s twine, paper doilies and washi tape.

Candy canes, word banners
and a stealthy deer!

I looked for pretty paper to make
my Joy word banners with…
I couldn’t find any so I made my own
using washi tape. (God I love that stuff!)

I even cheered up this mirror with a little ‘joy’ too.
(Yes, I was watching Home Alone at the time!)

If you’d like to make your own,
here’s how in this mini ‘how to’:

1.a Find yourself some pretty paper.

1.b Or fail to find to pretty paper
and decide to make some yourself.
I just took A4 sheet of paper
and stuck rows of different Japaneses
washi tape to it. And voila!

2. Draw in pencil your letter shapes
(I do it in pencil so I can rub it out!)
3. Then cut out using scissors or a scalpel.
4. Using a needle, thread some baker’s twine
through each letter twice. Then tie the ends
with a loop and a slipknot so you can adjust them.
That’s it!

******

I still had lots of paper doilies leftover
from the wedding so I turned them into…

… Xmasy doilies with typed phrases
and dotted ‘em round the flat.

There has to be a fox right?

I’m counting the elephant as festive since he’s red!
The rest we hung up, using fishing wire…
(it’s virtually invisible which is great for decorations,
not so good when you’re trying to find the end of it!)
We also made some ceramic hearts…
Strangely I didn’t take any pics of making them.
But I did take pics of our ceramic stars.
It’s the same theory, different shapes!
1. Basically you roll out some ceramic clay
(like you would with some pastry).
2. Then use a star/heart shaped cookie cutter
3. Depending on your clay, leave to dry or bake.

(I’m planning on making a little star banner,
that’s why they have holes in them.)

And to complete our ‘love xmas’ scene
I added my wee snowman, tree and pudding.
(The pudding makes me laugh so!)

****
The rest of the weekend was spent
doing secret crafty stuff.

Handmade presents mainly…
but also crafty things I’m making
for a book which I can’t tell you
more about until next year!

******
So I’m starting to feel a mite more
festive now… how about you all?