Accidental Vix

This is just a quick post to say a massive congratulations to my fab friends El and Paul. All I can say is it’s about time Mr Jaquin!! I am so happy and excited for one of my best friends, and can’t wait to hear all about the wedding plans (I’ve got a strong suspicion it will be anything but conventional.) I’m having withdrawal symptoms after all the handmade preps for my own last year, and if I’m not invited then I’ve just invited myself.

Xx

What a lovely day to get the inspiration going… after a long walk (well long hobble for me) to a local cafe and back, even if the pace got slower as I neared home, I decided to make the most of today’s sunshine and sit in the garden. With me I took some felt, thread and needles and started sewing away – before I knew it I had sewn quite a few flowers in prep for a bridal bouquet.However, I wouldn’t recommend yellow if you don’t want to attract the bees. Watch this space and you will hopefully see the final thing over the next week or so.

Have a great weekend.

Xx

Well apart from it being Friday, it’s a special Folksy Friday today as I’m also using it to do my Folksy Finds Handmade Love. All of today’s picks are chosen with the theme ‘made for you’ as I love my husband to bits and in our first year of marriage I always try to make an effort and create him things that are personal to both of us, especially after his Folksy proposal! As it’s a leap year today’s picks are all wedding and engagement related as I wonder how many ladies will take this opportunity to propose:

Made with Love x – Personalised notebook (these notebooks have played such a big part in our life and engagement that it’s at the top of the list)

Old black hen vintage – Floral and lace wedding book (this could make a great guest book but in my opinion an even better wedding planning book, why not use it to think up some proposal ideas ladies?!)

The leaf press – Personalised wedding journal (every bride needs a wedding book, mine was actually the proposal and is bursting at the seams now)

Joy Nevada - Personalised salt and pepper shakers (I can just imagine the proposal – will you pass the salt please darling…)

xx Bags of love - Shabby chic personalised engagement picture (After my own engagement I would encourage anybody to use handmade items in their proposal, and you can keep it forever)

Ink and stylus - The dressing room (this is such a gorgeous and romantic style of illustration)

Zygotegifts – Valentines card (Although unfortunately some of our hearts were misplaced on the day we had some of the 30 newspaper hearts hanging from our pom poms, and BB even made it to our wedding to see them for herself)

Morning Mr Magpie - Cutout heart necklace (This is beautiful and similar to the necklace I commissioned Sal to make to match my bridal earrings)

Artisan silver – Valentines silver necklace (Traceyann made all of my bridesmaids necklaces and personalised them)

Dottie designs - Personalised guest book (If I hadn’t made a message tree canvas for our ‘guest book’ I would have def got a book from Dottie)

Quernus crafts - Love mouse couple (These are too cute for words, they look like a couple who are announcing their engagement!)

Beadazzle designs – Wedding kiss guest book (Love the fun nature of this, and the fact that no 2 are the same)

Imogen’s Imagination - Ivory small fascinator (Sophie made all mine and my bridesmaids’ hats and fascinators, and this one was worn at my hen do)

Atelier 22 - Wedding/engagement card (Love screen printing and the vibrancy of this is perfect for anybody)

Geneva silver – Eco Bridal Bouquet (I made felt flowers for our wedding but these paper ones are fab)

Wall envy art – Personalised wedding vintage book page (Beautiful personalised momento)

By Poppy with love – ‘I DO’print (Beautifully simple, and reminds me of my own ‘I do’ moment last year)

Artyadz - The best is yet to come print (This one’s for my fantastic husband, we’ve had such much bad luck in our first year of marriage but I truly believe the best is yet to come!)

I’m off to reminisce and look at our wedding photos now

Xx

Short and sweet from me today, I’m going to let pictures speak louder than words. Here is your chance to see my whole sketchbook in sequence so you can follow the story for yourself… no prizes for guessing where my inspiration came from! Any feedback is welcome as always, especially as I’m considering the Limited Edition Sketchbook Project.

Xx

Well hello, we’re back! The madness of planning for a handmade wedding is now over and worth every second. After 6 months of what feels like non-stop making to finally see it all come together on the most amazing day of our lives not only brought a smile to ours (and hopefully everyone else’s) faces but was a big relief. A massive thank you goes out to all our friends and family for their contributions and help, and the venue’s patience with my sometimes crazy and challenging ideas, it would have not been possible without them.

One thing I learnt from my time as an engaged lady was how much I enjoyed making and creating and challenging myself and my ideas, so who knows I may even add a wider variety of items (from my new-found experience) to my shop so if there are any requests or feedback please let me know.

As there were so many handmade parts to our wedding it will probably take me until our 1 year anniversary to blog about it all but I’m going to give it a go and blog about a different part each week so watch this space.

Xx

A quick blog from me today as we are on our honeymoon in Malaysia having the most amazing time and reminiscing already about our fab wedding day – thanks to all those who made it so special. Time goes so quickly when having fun, and we can’t believe we have been husband and wife for a week already.  So, for those who have been following our handmade wedding progress here are a few preview photos of the big day, and the handmade dressed I designed, whilst we eagerly await the professional ones from fantastic Lance.

Xx

Anyone who knows me will know how much I hate having my photo taken, and will always be the one armed with the camera to avoid the possibility of being caught in front of the lens, so the biggest thanks goes to Lance our wedding photographer who did our pre-wedding photo shoot a couple of weeks ago at our gorgeous Yorkshire wedding venue, Coniston Hotel. Lance made us feel so relaxed, which really shows from the photos and because of his lively, enthusiastic and friendly personality we were so comfortable we sometimes forgot that he was even there.

Anyone following my blog will know how much time and effort has gone into personalising our wedding and making sure we hand make as much as possible (including our wedding favours featured in the above photos) and buying from local and independent people for everything else.  Our photos refelect our personalities as individuals and as a couple perfectly – well done Lance on learning so much about us in such a short space of time, with the help of one of the most difficult questionnaires I’ve had to fill in (only because it’s quite difficult to describe our personalities etc to someone new.) All credit for making each photo-shoot unique and tailored to the subject

We cannot wait until the big day, now less than a month away, and the apprehension we had about the photos have all disappeared to be replaced with sheer excitement – we know that we will have some amazing memories captured in our photos thanks to a very talented photographer!

Xx

It’s been a full but fun weekend of creativeness following the Royal Wedding on Friday. I didn’t think it was possible but watching the wedding made us even more excited about our own, and now most of the RSVPs are back it’s time to think about finishing all the handmade items for the big day. Numbers are slightly lower than we thought which means that a little bit of pressure is taken off. Having said that there are still order of service booklets to make, menus to do and the dreaded seating plan not to mention the nearly 90 favours to make, which is no easy task as they are in 3 parts – above is a taster of what has been occupying my weekend and last few weeks, can’t give too much away as I want some surprises for our guests!

Have a good week,

Xx

If you have had your head buried in the sand and somehow missed it then here’s to the ‘not-quite-as-important-as-ours’ wedding of the year.  I’ve started making bunting for our big day, which is a mammoth task in itself following on from the 100 handmade wedding favours (in 3 parts!) and invites not to mention further decorations, order of service, menus, flowers etc with 2.5 months to go!  However, nothing can rival the big budget and union jack bunting to appear in Regent St last week! Therefore here are a few fave Folksters hanging up their unusual and unique bunting…

Love Lottie knits- knitted bunting (I’ve seen quite a lot of bunting in the past couple of weeks, but this is the first that has been knitted)

Vicky Riley – dorothy and bunting card (you don’t often see bunting on cards so this is a good find)

Lemon squeezy – bunting kit (why not make your own?)

Bub’s bears – bunting cushion (again an unusual place to find bunting, but cute all the same)

Hope everyone has a fab day and weekend whether that involves the Royal wedding or not, and whatever your opinion thanks William and Kate for the day off work!

Xx

I love a good wedding… but one thing’s for sure it takes a lot of preparation to make a good wedding! I’m hoping that our wedding will be one of those fab events with lots of planning in little time, a bit of luck and a bucket full of creativity to help us on our way.  My fiance doesn’t know what’s hit him, I’ve gone into work mode and feel like a project manager 24/7 now. I have to admit the creative bits are my fave, although I seem to be managing to give everything an artistic twist at the moment because I’ve promised I won’t take on any major creative projects until I am a married lady. The first major bit of wedding creativity can now be revealed as everyone should have received their save the date cards and invites already

In addition here’s a sneaky peek of what’s to come… watch this space as more handmade wedding bits are revealed. I’d also like to say a big thank you to all who have helped me with my flower so far, we’re over half way now!!

Xx