WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

it's C + i's second wedding anniversary tomorrow - two whole years since i married my best friend + enjoyed the most wonderful day of my life. i know that sounds really cheesy + cliched, but for me it's completely true. we've been together for over 11 years now (since we were 16 + 17) + he really is the most amazing person in the world. it's impossible for me to share all the happy memories i hold from that special day, so here's a quick little flavour of it-

we were married + held our reception here

the following poem was read at the ceremony by one of our closest friends + holds a great deal of meaning for us

I Will Be Here - Steven Curtis Chapman

If in the morning when you wake,

If the sun does not appear,

I will be here.

If in the dark we lose sight of love,

Hold my hand and have no fear,

I will be here.

I will be here,

When you feel like being quiet,

When you need to speak your mind I will listen.

Through the winning, losing, and trying we'll be together,

And I will be here.

If in the morning when you wake,

If the future is unclear,

I will be here.

As sure as seasons were made for change,

Our lifetimes were made for years,

I will be here.

I will be here,

And you can cry on my shoulder,

When the mirror tells us we're older.

I will hold you, to watch you grow in beauty,

And tell you all the things you are to me.

We'll be together and I will be here.

I will be true to the promises I've made,

To you and to the one who gave you to me.

I will be here.

the 'theme' (don't really like that word) was white + floral.

the flowers were hydrangea, peonies + ranunculus - all of my favourites!

that's enough. don't want to be a wedding bore, so i'm off now for a bath + some much needed beauty sleep - got to look my best (or half-decent at the very least!) for our special little day.

xx

I'M IN PACKING HELL.....

...... + don't know if i'll ever escape!

just thought i'd write a quickie to let you know that i'm still alive + share a bit of my packing misery with you all. yes, the photo is terrible + blurry - this is a weak attempt at using imagery to express how i feel. no. i'm lying. it's nothing to do with imagery, just a really bad photo + i couldn't be bothered taking another one!

have a great weekend.

xx

WHAT I'M DOING THIS WEEK......

1. wishing i had tickets for the chelsea flower show
2. settling for the flower show coverage on the BBC
3. packing up our belongings to move out
4. looking for somewhere new to live. we're moving in with friends in the meantime, but need to find something else soon!
5. trying not to be too stressed out by the previous two things
6. replying to the much-appreciated emails from neglected bloggy friends
7. dreaming of better weather - come on mr sun, you can do it
8. eating take-away so i don't have to cook
9. reading this cute book
10. celebrating my second wedding anniversary - if not already separated after the moving + stressing!

all in all a very busy week. hope you have a good one. xx

I DARE YOU NOT TO SMILE......

......you did didn't you!?!

how could anyone NOT smile at this wee guy, look at his contented little face - he's the cutest little lamb-that-looks-like-a-camel the world has ever seen!

C took this with the fisheye camera i bought him for his birthday. the shot doesn't work very well at this size on blogger, but if you click on it, you can see it full size over on flickr. it's taken a few rolls of film to get used to it, but it's definitely been worth it to get this shot, i love it.

as you've no doubt guessed, i'm a total sucker for fisheye style animal shots - find some great ones here, just click on 'world archive', type in whatever you're looking for a photo of (e.g. dog), click on search, sit back + enjoy the results!

xx

BIG KIDS - THE RECIPIES

at the request of marta + jamieanne, here are the super-simple recipies from yesterdays post:

:: top hats ::

100g chocolate (i use a really nice belgian milk one but any type you like will work) - 20-30 marshmallows - 20-30 smarties or m + m's

• set out 20-30 petit-four cases
• melt the chocolate
• pour a little chocolate into the base of each petit-four case
• plop a marshmallow into each pool of chocolate
• dot a little bit of chocolate on top of the marshmallows
• pop a smartie/m + m on top
• place in the fridge to set

:: mars bar crispie cakes ::

these are pretty much a free for all + i just chuck in what i've got in the cupboard. on saturday the ingredients were something along the lines of -

5 mars bars (milky ways in the US) - 50g milk chocolate - a splash of milk - 125g rice crispies (rice pops?) - 50g white chocolate

• lightly grease a swiss roll tin
• melt the mars bars + milk chocolate
• add a splash of milk to loosen the mixture
• stir in the crispies
• press the mixture into your tin
• melt the white chocolate + drizzle it excitedly over the top
• pop in the fridge to set

:: C's smarties cookies ::

100g butter (softened) - 100g light muscavado sugar - 1 tbsp golden syrup - 150g self-raising flour - 100g smarties

• preheat the oven to 180c
• beat the butter + sugar together 'til light + fluffy
• mix in the syrup
• add half the flour + stir through
• add the smarties with the remaining flour
• bring dough together
• divide into 14 balls
• pop the balls on a baking sheet
• bake for around 12 mins 'til golden
• cool on a wire rack

ta-dah! if any of you try these, let me know how you get on. enjoy!

xx

BIG KIDS

yesterday, C + i spent part of the day in the kitchen churning out sweet treats to take round for our friend A's birthday. now, when i show you the photos of what we made you might be fooled into thinking A has just turned 5, but he hasn't, he's actually 25!


now, i'm all for making fancy cakes + bakes (in fact i absolutely love it), but sometimes only good old, kitsch, kid's party food hits the spot. oh + didn't it just! we stopped short of doing the whole jelly + ice-cream thing, but did produce 2 old faithfuls - top hats + mars bar crispie cakes.

top hats are great, look at them, they're amazing aren't they? i seriously could eat about twenty in one go - why, oh why, don't i make them more often?

+ these......wow!

mars bar crispie cakes with an over-zealous drizzling of white choc

the best thing of all, for me, was that C made the effort in the kitchen alongside me. i'm the main cook in the house, but i love when we work together in the kitchen as a team. i love it even more when he makes these gorgeous smarties cookies all...by...himself! yes i am the luckiest girl in the whole world - he doesn't do it often, but when he does it's well worth the wait! yum.

anyway, i need to go + deliver the goodies, so have a lovely evening.

xx

P.S. i wish i could pop round to each one of your houses with some treats, especially after all of the lovely comments i've received over the last couple of days. thank you, it really means a lot. xx

I'M A HAPPY SHOPPER

bargains, bargains, bargains......that's what i got!

like i said yesterday, the past week has been pretty rubbish here in the little special household. so, like any girl worth her salt, i indulged in a bit of retail therapy. nothing huge, nothing expensive, but a few nice bits + bobs all the same.


lookie lookie, i will show you my haul (albeit with dull, rainy-day photographs) -


first off, we have some goodies from primark - yes, the shops are like jumble-sales but i persevered + managed to find a couple of things i liked which were also in my size - result!

a charcoal smocky vest top with burn-out flower detail (£6)

+ a chocolate brown smocky, long-line top (£6)

on to faithful old topshop, where i picked up......

......this cute little necklace with beads, mother-of-pearl discs + sweet little embroidered felt flowers. so delicate + pretty, i couldn't resist!

+ a green empire ruched tee

i also bought these gladiator sandals which i really need your combined opinion on. you know when you like something but you're not sure if it's just you, well that's how i feel about these shoes. are they really ugly + tacky or are they pretty fabulous? please help + let me know what you honestly think!

finally, to demonstrate that it's not ALL about me, there's the best little outfit ever that we bought for my husband's cousin's baby boy. prepare yourselves because it's unbelievably cute......

......look at that shirt + the shoes! i told you didn't i? cute. cute. cute.

i absolutely love this fabric + wish i could buy it by the metre. congratulations baby gap, you've done it again!

anyway, that's surely enough showing off for one day, so i'll be off.

xx

GET REAL!

it's been a stressful, crazy, mental week + i've been AWOL for far too long - i'm so sorry, did you miss me? i thought not! as a result i feel i've got to fill this post with something good, something that's been worth the week of neglect, i can't promise anything but i will try.

inspired by a couple of brave little bloggers, who posted about the 'real' them (step forward ali, alyson, tonia + sarah ) + their subsequent "if you're reading this then consider yourself tagged" tag, i've decided to get a grip + let you in to the 'real' me.

now, it's not like you all think i'm perfect anyway (surely not!) but i totally get the idea that when you're reading someones blog, you generally just see the person that the blogger wants you to see - not necessarily the real one that lives behind all the loveliness.


so here goes, my five confessions......

number 1 - i graduated with a fashion degree over 8 years ago + have only made one item of clothing since - it was however, an elvis jumpsuit for my husband and probably doesn't really count! i'm actually really ashamed of this, although i didn't study fashion to become a designer (i was more interested in the buying/business side of things), i do feel i should be putting what i learned to more use. i'm just scared to give it a try now in case it's a total disaster.

number 2 - for the last few years i haven't done any exercise (at all!) + yet i complain about how i look. every. single. day. don't get me wrong, i'm not big, but i hate all of the wobbly bits that have become a part of me. even though i know i've only got myself to blame, i never seem to shift my (big) bum into gear to do anything about it or turn down the offer of a cake!

number 3 - hmmm, cake that's another one. i always bully other people into eating cakes or similarly fattening things. if i want one, i persuade the person i'm with to have one too so that i don't feel so guilty about it. this is terrible i know, but i do stop short of force-feeding my victims, so that makes it ok, doesn't it?

number 4 - i find selling my work very hard - going out + promoting what i make really scares me. i think it's mainly a confidence thing (as are most of my confessions in a round-about way) but i also wonder why anyone would want to buy something that i've made, when they could probably do it themselves. does anyone else who makes things for a living feel like this?

number 5 - i don't wash my bedding or clean my bathroom nearly as often as i should. i'm not going to go into any more detail than that, no timescales or examples, i just simply should do it more often. i'm so glad my mother-in-law isn't reading this, she'd be disgusted......but there it is, i said it + i'm not proud, but it's true!

phew, done + dusted. now it's your turn, yes you! if you're reading this (+ haven't already done your own version) consider yourself well + truly tagged. post five 'confessions' about the real you on your own blog - go on, you know you want to!

night night

xx

ENJOY!

now i don't mean to show off or make people jealous, but i just have to share the loveliness that came through my letterbox yesterday.

this wonderful package of truly vintage buttons which i 'won' from paula last week.

if you aren't familiar with paula + her simple me blog, please go + have a peek......not only is she incredibly generous with her buttons + stylish in her packaging of them......

her words, work + photos are just beautiful.

thank you paula, your kindness made my day!

xx

A QUICKIE

hi team!

just a short one today. i've had a bit going on the last couple of days so i've been struggling for time to check in - it amazes me how desperate i am to find out what everyone's been up to though!

some things i'm loving:

• the glorious sunshine
• this mark ronson track - can't get enough! set me free why don't you babe.........la la la
• all of the lovely comments on my last post - my head is now far too big! thanks guys, i really appreciate you taking the time to say nice things......or anything at all for that matter. xx
• these funky shopping bags - oh unicorn, please decide to start selling them online, i don't live anywhere near manchester + i really, really want one some.
• this pretty bike basket. which might just convince me to make more use of mine. find it at design house stockholm
  
  
  

• this post from ali, which really made me smile - not sure if i'm ready to join in with the confessions just yet......maybe in a little while, but don't hold your breaths!

xx