Whimsical Wishes

Our Amazing Honeymoon

2012-02-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments about our weddin g invitations! I was beaming ear to ear after reading them, so pleased you liked them too. I have had l ots of enquiries about that design which is keeping me busy and is very exci ting! I spoke too soon on my last post when I said I was starting to feel better as I ended up with a s tinking cold a nd felt dreadful, hence my absence last week. Thankfully it has clear ed up now! So I t hought I would share some pics of sunnier climes! If you click on the photo below it will take you t o our Picasa web album, but be warned there are over 350 photos!! It took an age to download th e m and I haven't got around to adding captions etc yet, hopefully I will get chance to do that soon.

We have such wonderful memories of our amazing trip to Califo rnia for our honeymoon. We loved it there, so much to see and do, nice places to relax too, we had a wonderful time. We knew that we didn't want to jet off to some exotic beach for two weeks, don't get me wrong they look beautiful and I'm sure we would love it, but just not f or a long p eri od of time, we like the choice of having different things to do, I li ke to relax as much as the next person but as I'm usually on the go, I find it too much doing this for a prolonged period , so we want e d to go somewhere where we could either do things or do nothing!! A choice of sightseeing, beach es or pool, shopping, attractions, eating out etc and as we love America, it was a no bra iner! W e hadn't been to California before, so that's where we choose to go and boy was it the right choice!

We went for 17 nights, we got married on Friday 9th Septe mber and flew out on the Monday. As we have lived together for a while we had everything we needed and were so lucky as our family and friends had given us dollars and money for wedding presents which meant that we could stay at some lovely hotels and had plenty of money to see us through our trip. Thank you to you all, you are the best!! We were so lucky to have had some lovely presents too. Everyone really did spoil us.

Our Amazing Honeymoon! Picasa Web album.

We covered many places on our Road trip, we flew into San Francisco, whe re we stayed at The Huntingdon Hotel for three nights, then we went to Monterey for a night, we then travelled down the beautiful and picturesque Highway One, where the scenery took our breath away, simply stunning! We then stayed at the gorgeous Apple Farm Inn in San Luis Opisbo for a night (not lon g enough in my opinion as it was a lovely homely place to stay, with fant a stic decor, food and a fab gift shop), but we needed to head to L.A as Adrian had book ed ti ckets at the L.A Galaxy game to see Beckham play (I ask you I can't even get away from fo ot b all even on my honeymoon, lol, it earned me Brownie points though!!). We stayed in Anaheim for four nights. We went to the Hollywood Hills, Walk of Fame, the shopping malls, the beach and Downtown Disney, we ate out at some lovely places and celebrated my 30th Birthday there! I know I was a lucky girl, also meant that I got to be 29 for a few more hours due to the time difference ;) I was lucky enough to have everyone club together for a digital SLR camera I had wanted for a long time for my main birthday present, so I was able to snap away whilst we were there.

We then travelled to San Diego for four nights and visited Coronado B each, La Jolla and Solana beach. We also went to the design district in Solana Beach called Cedros Ave, where there were thrift stores, boutiques and one of a kind shops a plenty, I absolutely loved it but was so frustrated I couldn't bring all the gorgeous pieces I saw home!!

We then headed to Las Vegas for the final leg of our trip for four nights, staying at The Four Seasons on the first night, then at The Bellagio. We saw a show whilst there and enjoyed the Razzmatazz! We met up with friends of ours on our last night there and had a fab time!

We met some lovely people, saw some amazing sites, drank lots of Champagne, shopped till we dropped, relaxed when we needed to and ate out a lot ( no cooking for three weeks was bliss!!). We will never forget our adventure and how fortunate we are to have seen so many beautiful places.

Needless to say that we were sad when we had to come home, but happy to have had the time of our lives at our wedding and on our honeymoon! It was great to see our family again once we were home and return to our normal lives as husband and wife!

Love,
xxx

Beautiful Birdcages

2012-02-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to feel a bit better thankfully, lots to catch up with now! Thank you to those of you who left comments on my last two posts about our handmade wedding presents from my Dad and sister, it was nice to tell them what you thought of their work :) At last I have managed to photograph our wedding invitations, just before I lost the daylight today!

I must admit I felt under immense pressure, only from myself I m ight add to produce some lovely invitations as most of our guests knew that I make cards and en joyed crafting, I had even made some of our friends wedding invites and the fact that I h ad started a small wedding stationery business meant they needed to be good. I had so many ideas and found it hard t o decide, but when it came down to it I knew what I really wanted to include. I knew I wanted to incorporate birdcages into our wedding invitations as we were having them as our centre pieces along with some tea light candelabras. I'm absolutely besotted with birdcages, I don't know w hy, but I am. I think it's their elegant, romantic, vintage appeal. I do love a birdie too! I also knew I wanted to include a doily, some bunting, bling, pearls and one of my favourite quotes. It was just a matter of how I was going to put all this together. I wanted them to be vintage/shabby chic inspi red in soft colours. Th erefore crinkled, dyed seam binding and a vintage sheet music background with distres sed edges would go perfectly, so I then had my base, it was then just a question of adding the many other elements I wanted to include. This is what I came up with.....

I was really pleased with how they turned out. I love the quote we used, it is from the Papertrey Ink set, Out on a Limb sentiments, there are some beautiful quotes in that set, definitely one of my all time favourite sentiment sets. I feel the invitations reflected all the elements of our day and fitted our vintage theme. We didn't really have a set colour scheme, I wasn't really sure how it would all go together but just hoped that it would on the day! We presented them in boxes with tissue paper and they were tied up with seam binding, on the ones for immediate family and some of the bridal party I also used a brooch on the boxes.

They took forever to make, they were very time consuming and fiddly indeed, but I loved making our wedding stationery myself, it was a once in a lifetime mission afterall :) Therefore it was worth all the many hours spent, a big thank you to my family and friends that helped with some of the production line, you are all stars and they would have been simplified somewhat without your help. You know who you are, love you all so much!! All our family and friends loved them, we had so many wonderful comments. I wanted them to be little surprises wrapped up in those boxes that gave our guests a taste of what was to come. I think I just about managed to pull tha t off, however, they were very late being sent out due to one thing or another, thank goo dness we had sent save the dates! All is well that ends well though!

I want to photograph the whole stsionery suite etc together as I've seen it done on some of the wedding blogs and it looks fab, so if I get around to doing that I'll post a pic of it all together.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Love,

xxx

A stitch in time.....

2012-02-09T04:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've not been on here as often this past week, I have sinusitis, I think this cold weather is to blame and I also have a muscle in spasm in my back, so haven't been feeling very good at all! It's been playing up since New Year and I finally gave in and went to the doctors (us nurses make the worst patients!) and thankfully the painkillers she has given me have helped to ease it!

Thank you for the comments about my Dad's tree, my mum showed him and they made his day. Enjoying crafts runs in the family as my sister loves cross stitch and baking, and my mum knits and crochets. I showed you my sisters cakes on a previous post, today I wanted to share another of our amazing wedding presents, that was made by my sister, Natalie. It is a cross stitch of a bride and groom and has our names and wedding date embroidered underneath, it is such a beautiful piece of work, we absolutely love it and were again so touched by the effort and care taken to make it for us. It will always have pride of place in our home. We need to get it reframed as it needs to be stretched properly, but it was in this pretty frame as she was doing it right up until the wedding bless her. I like the fr ame and will put a picture in it afterwards. My sister had placed it on our cake table for us to see whe n we went into the wedding breakfast. I have only done small cross stitches in the past so can only imagine the work and patience that went into this. Thank you so much Nat, y ou are a star! I definitely think she has a talent for cross stitch, she has done some gorgeous ones.

Thank you for dropping by and for any comments you may leave, again I will show my sister if you do as it will be a great confidence boost for her. W hy do w e always criticise our own work, lol!!

I'll hopefully be back soon with the wedding invitations, still need to photograph them!

Love,
xxx

Our Wedding Tree

2012-02-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

I was completely blown away when my Dad made this for us as an extra spec ial little wedding present, I actually cried I was so touched and overwhelmed! It was so thoughtful, so original and un ique and so much work and effort. We will truly cherish this forever, we love it and it has pride of place on our mantel piece. I really do have such a talented Dad. He always criticises his work and doubts himself, which really frustrates me as I feel he has a real gift. Thank you Dad for all you do for us and for this amazing present.

It is a wedding tree and has our names and the date we were married, as well as our parents and their wedding dates and our siblings on there. So a special family keepsake. I love the in twined hearts on the top and leaf print. This was completely handmade and I think it was such a wonderful idea and design. Especially as it was the first time he had done anything like this!

I really am always excited to see what my dad comes up with in his workshop, he is making the most adorable hand painted egg cups at the moment.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I'd really really appreciate that if you like this you would take the time to leave a comment, so that I can show my Dad and he may then stop doubting himself!!

Some of these photographs are courtesy of the lovely Theresa Furey, who I met at the last wedding fair I did, her photography of my Dad's tree (that's my friend Cheryl holding the tree) and my stand and the fair in general was amazing. I'll be sharing some more on here about that very soon!

Love,

xxx

Marvellous Maps!

2012-01-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

I'm back with the post and pics of our little wedding maps. I felt I was missing out a little in designing and making my own wedding stationery, sure if was fun (although a bit stressful!!) and I loved choosing all the materials etc but I felt like the re were so many pretty things out there I was missing out on a buying opportunity! lol. So when I saw a post about Hand Drawn Maps on a wedding blog, I was in love, they would compliment our stationery perfectly and I felt like I wouldn't be missing out on the buying wedding stationery bit ccompletely!! I know everyone has Sat Nav's these days but it is courtesy to include a map/directions in your invitations, especially as we had people coming from all over and some of our older relations may not have embraced this marvel of modern technology yet! I also thought it would be a lovely keepsake.

I contacted Lydia, just in time as her baby was due and was abou t to go on maternity leave, however she squeezed us in and produced a hand drawn map that was wonderful and included all of our little touches/theme perfectly. We were so pleased with them! Thanks Lydia, you have an unbelievable talent!

Me being me, had to make more work of the process though!! I could have had them done and printed in colour, this would cost a little more than the black and white version. So I posed the question, was it possible to colour them myself?! Lydia sent me a few samples to have a go with and they coloured beautifully. Lydia said it's a lovely idea to do them yourself but are you sure about all the work involved! I thought abou t it but liked the idea of colouring them myself, I find it therapeutic and thought it would be a nice personal touch!! I didn't t hink it would take nearly as long as it did, but it took an age!!! I managed to colour most of them though and some I just had to distress and make to look old due to lack of time as I hadn't banked on a ll the things that cropped up and swallowed up my time, but I stuck to it and was so pleased with how they turned out! My lovely Mum even gave it ago and helped to colour them in with me bl ess her, thanks Mum! I think we did over 50 of them!!!

I still had some to colour in after the wedding for us and our parents to keep, which I'm getting framed and I'll have ours pride of place because I love it and also how much work went in to colouring them, definitely a labour of love, lol! I do have th e craziest ideas sometimes, delusions that I actually have a 34 instead of a 24 hour day!!!

The invitations also turned out lovely but they took forever, I'll photograph them when I can get some decent daylight as it's usually dark when I get home from work, so this may be at the weekend now!

Thank you so much for stopping by and following my little wedding story, it means the world to be able to tell it, it feels like I'm reliving it all over again! Which when it goes as quick as it did, it's only a good thing right!

Love,

xxx

My pink typewriter.......

2012-01-28T13:33:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot to share a pic of my gorgeous pink typewriter!! When I saw these out there on the net, I knew I wanted one, I had loved my typewriter when I was little, but it wasn't pink!! A vintage display piece that is pretty but also functional, what's not to love!

I searched high and low for a pastel coloured one, raw as rocking horse poop here in the UK to say the least. Then I found one on Ebay and it was goin g to be mine.........a last minute bidding war ensued but I missed it my an inch as my computer froze on the last refresh press......NO!!! Why didn't I just put a much higher bid on it in the f irst plac e, I kicked myself. Adrian told me I would find another one, I knew that was slim. I was in a bit of a sulk I must admit, I was nursing my whiplash injury and a bit peeved that my car had been written off, so was hoping I'd win this to cheer me up. So I sent the seller a message to say that if the highest bidder changed their mind would she please consider contacting me as I really wa nted it for a prop/guest book alternative at our wedding. A LONG SHOT!! W ell the lady kindly contacted me straight away to say that her friend was bringing another one over from America in the next two weeks for her to sell and would I be interested in that one, would I ever!!!

So I am now the proud owner of this pretty piece. One day it will sit in m y craft room/studio too! I had intended to have this there for guests to type a message on if they wanted to instead of writing in the guest bo ok. However in my infinite wisdom I left it out to look at and the ribbon dried out!! Well if the item itself was rare, then the ribbons are just as much so, so I decided to have it as a prop on our guest book table. I suppose that saved the kiddos pounding it with their sticky mitts too, he he. We decorated this table with some photos of us as children and a framed message to our family and friends. This is where everyone left all our lovely cards and gifts, everyone was so generous, we were overwhelmed and couldn't believe how long it took us to open them all. We were very lucky newly weds indeed!

Just to give you a giggle this is me and the hubs as little 'uns!

I hope you are having a great weekend so far! I'm hoping to be back with the coloured maps soon, I left it too late to get a decent photograph today, I was also silly in the fact that I forgot to ask our wonderful photographers to take some of the invitations etc! Doh!

Love,

xxx

Love sweet Love!

2012-01-25T11:16:00.001-08:00

Thank you to everyone that has been following my wedding posts and leaving such lovely comments, they make me smile!! Here is another little snippet.

I love sweets!! Who doesn't right?! It brings out the child in us all I think! So I knew I wanted a sweetie buffet at our wedding for guests to help themselves to. I collected some old fashioned jars, including an ado rable apothercary jar to put them in, some little pink stripey bags and some scoops and of course the most important i ngredient, the sweets; Jelly Belly jelly beans, marshmallows, liquorice allsorts, wine gums, flying saucers etc! It was a hit and went down well with the kiddies, young and old! he he. Cheryl did a fantastic job at displaying it all and she also used some of her gorgeous jars and pieces.

Then for the ladies I decided on a nice little treat, my mum had brought me a set of mini Cath Kidston hand creams and I remember thinking that these would make great favours, they were in such pretty packaging. I found somewhere to order them from in bulk and then make some little handbag shaped boxes t o put them in, I used Papertrey Ink's Favour It Box die, some pretty Tilda papers and punched out a heart to decorate the front with the Martha Stewart large lattice heart punch.

We were going to get the men favours but figured that they would just prefer to have more beer on offer from Audrey the Caravan!

The kidd ies also had a little goodie bag with some colouring bits and pieces etc in to keep them occup ied, thanks to my lovely friend and bridesmaid Becky for organising these!

Left to share about our day is the little wedding maps that I had drawn for us and then coloured, the invitations I made and if anyone is interested our honeymoon to California!

Love,

I heart Audrey!!!

2012-01-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

More wedding posts I hear you say....... but I just had to share Audrey, it would not be fair to keep her out of the spotlight when she is the star of the show!! Who or what is Audrey I hear you say......well she is a stunningly beautiful 1960's vintage caravan!! I was bowled over when I first discovered Audrey, I was in love with the little lady! Yes a girl crush, lol! How can you not find her sage green exterior an d little stable door adorable and th e insi de is no disappointment with her extremely pretty floral fabrics and cushions. So so pretty and so cute. I knew I wanted Audrey as our guest of honour, he he!

I had found Audrey via the Midlands Vintage Chic Wedding Fair, I had searched their website prior to attending the fair with my mum and came across the Vintage Glamour Days website, where there was the prettiest china and accessories you can hire and of course Audrey! I couldn't wait for the fair now, to enquire about her.

That's where I met Cheryl, the owner of Vintage Glamour Days and Audrey, I have to say we totally hit it off straight away! I am so lucky to have made such a special friend through the planning of our wedding. Cheryl's stand was simply stunning, she definitely has a talent for putting things together in the most gorgeous displays, after having a good old natter I said I would be in touch about Audrey, I just needed to check this would be OK with the venue first! Much to my delight , the venue said yes and then Audrey was booked! Yipeeee!!!!

Audrey was used to serve our reception drinks from, lovely P imms and Lemonade, beer for the men and old fashioned pop's for the kiddos. Cheryl and James did an amzing job with this, everyone was ready for refreshments when they arrived at the venue after the church ceremony and journey there! Audrey was also a lovely b ackdrop for some of our photo's and added that extra special something to our charming venue's courtyar d. Cheryl did a fabulous job of decoarating the outside of Audrey too with lovely vintage props, bunting and a message on her little blackboard.

Adrian and I have nicknamed Cheryl Mary Poppin's or my fairy godmother! As she also saved the day with our wedding decorations, I had been collecting vintage china prior to meeting Cheryl and had hoped to get all that I needed, I also had a mad idea that I would be able to, with the help of some friends get the bunting sewn!! How wrong I was, both A drian and myself were involved in car accidents that resulted in injuries and written off cars in the run up to the wedding, therefore this meant a great deal of our time was taken up with sorting insurance paperwork, being in pain, finding new cars etc, we were lu cky the injuries were nothing too serious but it was all enough to put us behind. As you can imagine trawling charity and antique shops for these little treasures is fun but very time cons uming. As we both work full time, had the planning to do, all the bits I wanted to make and I had started my own wedding stationery business and done a few wedding fairs, had orders to do etc, it was manic. I know I'm a crazy woman setting up a business at that time, but it just sort of happened and was something I had wanted to do for such a long time and I do not regret that one bit. Anyway enough rambling......

I made an 11th hour call to Cheryl as I had though I would have to go without bunting and china due to lack of time, I knew I had really pretty centre pieces, so tried to console myself with this. I did have some china and it would be such a shame not to use it. I thought I would ma ke a call to Cheryl just to see if I could hire her beautiful pieces to finish it all off, I knew it was a long shot, but Cheryl was amazing, nothing was too much trouble, she said I could use whatever we needed and not only that she gave up her day the day before to come and help set up and decorate!! Boy, did we need that help, we knew it would all be a lot of work but had no idea how much. Cheryl even said to leave her to it for a few hours as I had other errands to run, I felt awful leaving her at the venue, but she insited she would be fine as this is what she did all the time. So off we we nt for a few hours , when we arrived back I was close to bursting into tears, she had transformed the marque, bless her, with her lovely bunting, lace table coverings and pretty china, it looked amazing!!! I could not believe she had done this in such a short space of time and put all the bunting up by herself!!! Hence being called Mary Poppins or my Fairy Godmother, it was just like she had worked her magic!

We can not thank Cheryl enough for her help and friendship, it overwhelmed us and we will be forever thankful for it. It took what would have been a lovely wedding to another level, into our dream day!! Everyone commented and was pleasently suprised by Audrey and all the vintage props, it went down really well. We can not recommend Vintage Glamour Days enough if you are planning a vintage themed wedding or party, Cheryl even serves afternoon tea from Audrey. A truly special and memorable treat that is totally unique. Thank you so so much Cheryl, James and of course not forgetting Miss Audrey!! We are blessed to call you our friends now too!

Oh how I could live in that little caravan...................

Love,
xxx

Again some of the photographs used her are by the fantastic Source Images. Others were from Cheryl's - Vintage Glamour Days Facebook page, where there are more!

Let them Eat Cake................

2012-01-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

Our wedding cake was the most gorgeous cake we had ever seen, it also tasted pretty scrumptious too!! When I first saw Tracy's cakes I was completely in awe and fell in love with her creations. So there was no way I couldn't have a Cott on and Crumbs cake for our wedding!

Everything about them amazes me, the beautiful colours, the flowers that look so real, the attention to detail, the bows, pearls, cameo's and they are edible....cake heaven! I met with Tracy to discuss ideas for our cake and I had seen one of her birdcage cak e creations, I knew this was the way to go with the birdcages theme emerging in our table decorations, invitations etc. We liked the three tier cakes but also loved the vintage style cupcakes, so we went with having a small three tier cake and some cupcakes, you only do it once right, so why not!!

Tracy then set about doing a sketch and describing the cake, I was bowled over, it looked and sounded fantastic. I could not wait till the day to see it and made sure Adrian and I sneaked into the marque before all our guests to look at the cake and everything decorated and laid out so lovely. It was better than we imagined and surpassed our expectations, the beautiful soft colours, the ribbon, lace, brooch, flowers and birdie, simply stunning, like a work of a rt. The cupcakes were gorgeous too, so so pretty. Our guest all commented on how wonderful they thought the cake was and when our friends emailed us pictures of the day, I think there were more of the cake than anything else, lol!

It looked too good to eat and we actually forgot to cut the cake!!! Seriously there is not the obligatory picture of us standing their knife in hand over the cake!! We were having so much fun when we arrived at the venue, we had a few photo's then went off to talk to our guests, our photographers would grab us after the meal to do our couple shots, so afte r the meal that's what we did, we went with them to have our pictures taken. Hence we didn't get to have any of the dessert buffet either, we were just so busy mingling and enjo ying ourselves! The guest took the cupcakes home and we then brought the actual cake home and got to look at it for a day or two before leaving for honeymoon. Maybe forgetting to cut it was accidentally on purpose ;) instead our mum's cut it and gave it out after we left. The top two tiers were vanilla sponge and the bottom tier was fruit. The cupcakes were a mix of vanilla and lemon. Yum Yum!!

I also knew that there had to be lo ts of cake and sweet things on offer for our quests, being a lover of these myself ;) so we decided upon a dessert table instead of a set dessert. Everyone had a starter and main course and then could help themselves to the dessert buffet. That way they could have it when they wanted and have a bit of everything if they fancied it! I basically raided Costco the day before the wedding (major stress alert, in trying to keep them all flat etc in the car and yet another thing to do but saved money and looked fab!) again I was lucky and had lots of help on hand that day. Costco do amazing large cakes, carrot cake, chocolate cake, cheese cakes, gateaux, Victoria spon ge, you name it, all at bar gain prices! We also brought cheese and biscuits for those who have less of a sweet tooth!

My little sister (well she's 25!), loves to bake, she kindly made lots and lots of cupcakes, they were so pretty and although I didn't get chance to taste one on the day they went down a storm! They looked cute on the cake stands with their lovely wrappers and sprinkles. Thanks Natalie for doing these for us, they helped our dessert table look so good! You are a star!

If you are interested in seeing more of Tracy's amazing creations, then check out her website or Facebook page, you won't be disappointed, they are all so beautiful. I can not recommend Tracy highly enough to anyone looking for a wedding or celebration cake, she is such a pleasure to work with. Tracy is also an inspiration to me for following her dreams and setting up her business whilst working full time and making it such a success that she is now doing what she loves full time.

Tracy is also running some classes over the coming months and I can't tell you how excited my sister and I are about attending the vintage boutique cupcake class, I'm new to cake decorating but if you are going to have a go, why not be taught by the best. It's in April, so watch this space to see what we have made. Below is a picture of what Tracy will be teaching us! Simply gorgeous! I better get practicing!

Thank you again for stopping by and indulging me with letting me tell more of our wedding story! It means a lot! Sorry if you are now craving cake :)

xxx

Heavenly hydrangea

2012-01-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

I hope I'm not boring anyone with the posts about the details of our wedding day, I do apologise if I am :-) However I just wanted to share these details and touches with you all as I enjoyed the planning and choosing these so much, as well as the crafting involved. I have a handful more posts and will get these on here this week as I have some time off work. Then I'll get back to some regular crafting posts etc! Today I thought I'd share some pictures of our order of service. They were kept simple and I stamped sheet music onto cream card, then stamped the hero arts hydrangea stamp and a fancy flourish stamp over the top. Simple yet effective, again I had more plans of t hings to do with these but when you have so many to do and limited time, it's definitely best to keep it simple. I absolutely love this hydrangea stamp and have used it for our thank you cards too, which I will share soon.

I choose the hydrangea for the order of service as these were the bridesmaids flowers, we also had a hydrangea wreath and some around the birdcage centre pieces on the tables. Definitely my most favourite flower, I love the fullness and the pretty colours, absolutely beautiful!

Our flowers were done my Karen and Gemma at Passion for Flowers, a lovely mother daughter team who were a pleasure to work with. The flowers were so pretty, simply be autiful. Although we had a limited budget for flowers they looked amazing and we were so pleased with them. As well as the hydgrangeas we also had some tea cup arrangements for the top table and some single roses in vintage inspired bottles. I would highly recommend Passion for Flowers if you are looking for wedding flowers. I collected lots of vintage china in the run up to our wedding and still have these pretty teacups etc, I'd love to have a go at doing an arrangement in one myself to have around the house, as they were so gorgeous!

Again these photographs are by our photographers - Source Images.

Thank you for taking the time to visit, it is much appreciated.

xxx

A little birdie ......

2012-01-13T05:05:00.000-08:00

.... told me where to sit, lol! I saw this used as a table plan and had to have it, it was perfect as we had some birdcages for the tables and I planned to incorporate them into our invitations. I also thought I can use it afterwards to peg projects, cards, photos etc to, it will have pride of place when I have a craft room! (one day!).

I had lots of ideas on how to decorate it for our table plan but as this was done the night before, I decided, well had no choice really, if I wanted a few hours sleep, but to keep it simple! I therefore just printed the table plans out and mounted them onto gorgeous Tilda papers which again were perfect for our vintage, shabby chic theme theme. I think that simple was best in this instance as the birdcage and the papers did all the talking!

I did not just want to go with table numbers and had lots of ideas on what to use instead, thanks to wedding magazines and blogs but settled for something simple in the end. Our table names were inspiring and meaningful words, we choose, Love, Hope, Wish, Dream, Believe, Inspire, Honour, Cherish, Faith, Imagine and Blessings.

I had planned to do beautiful table names to place in the holders but this was one bite more than I could chew with the time I had unfortunately so they were just printed. A small regret as they would have been so pretty and another nice keepsake but in the grand scheme of things I had already made alot an d there were lots of nice, personal touches, so it didn't matter. Just me
being a perfectioni st! It was such a shame that I had had the car accident when I did as it put me behind with so much!

Again thanks you for your lovely comments on my last post, I really do have the nicest blogging friends :-) You are all so kind and I appreciate you taking the time to comment. Plus I'll be sure to get my dad onto making some spools and will put them in my Etsy shop etc very soon. I also have a website coming soon and will be selling all sorts of lovely gifts, homeware and decor on there, I have some fab trade accounts aquired already, one with the company that made this table plan, so I will hopefully have these in the online boutique if you are interested in something to hang your craft projects on!

Thank you for visiting!

xxx

Cute little spools!

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your lovely comments on my last post about my bouquet, so sweet of you, they really made my day :-)

I completely blame my friend Debb ie for this one!! I wanted something a little different for our place names, something our family and friends could take home and keep if they wanted to, a momento of the day. When Debbie still owned Stampeezee, I went there for some supplies one day and she said I have something to show you, it was an issue of Somerset Life that had the most gorgeous little cotton spools, with flags on for place names! I was smitten, I had to have these on our tables, they were so cute and very in keeping with our vintage theme.

By the way if you haven't already checked out the Stampington publications, especially Somerset Life then I would highly rec ommend them, so jam packed pull of prettiness, it will make your eyes hurt!! They will definitely inspire you, a must if you love vintage, shabby chic style crafts. I am now collecting all the back issues as well as it now being a quarterly mus t have. It's more of a book than a magazine.

I then searched high and low to find the right spools to no avail, they were either way too small, too big or just too expensive when you needed 90 od d of them, plus the other supplies! Then enter my wonderful and very talented Dad to the resue! He had started wood turning a few months earlier and had all the tools, so I showed him the picture in the book and he said he would see what he could do!

A few weeks later my dad then said would these do, wow, he had turned some spools for me and they were perfect, just the right size and they looked amazing. Even better to know that my Dad had made them and from a branch from a tree near their house! Being made this way meant that they all had a different individual woodgrain and colour, simply gorgeous! The only sticking point was wh en my Dad asked how many I needed and replied 96!! Yes, we were only having a small wedding but these things esculate!! Poor Dad then set about making them, they took forever bless him, but he did it for us, so a huge thank you to my Dad for all his hard work and talent. He really is someone who can turn their hand to anything and be good at it, a true inspiration to me. Watch this space as I also have some gifts my Dad made us to show off! Sorry proud daughter moment!

Anyway once they were all turned it was then the task of figuring out how we were going to decorate them, then cue Debbie, offering her help and her house for the night to my production team of helpers! Being my mum, Auntie Janice, two of my best friends and bridesmaids, Gemma and Daniela. Debbie had us all descend on her and Pete and he even made us our dinner. A huge thank you to you both for your h elp and kindness and everyone else for your help and support too! I really do have the best family and friends! These spools would never have been finished otherwise, it was another down to the wire job as I had to wait for my dad to turn them first before decorating them. All very time consuming!

Debbie and I worked on these whilst everyone else helped with the order of services and favour boxes! We wired the little flags and put beads on them, then hot glue gunned them into the spools, we then attached the little card flags and viola, cute little spools just waiting for some ribbon, lace or twine to be wrapped around and names put onto flags! Which was supposed to be a fairly quick job, I'll never think that again, it was again time consuming, I was rescued once again my my wonderful mum and sister for the ribbon/lace wrapping and Gemma for adding the names. What would I have done without you lot?!

Anyway enough of the rambling. I loved them and was so pleased another of my crazy ideas had come off! Please note that no family members or friends were harmed in this production, although they way be scarred for life or still be nursing a repeatitive strain injury, lol!!

I have quite a few spools left over and of course I can always ask Dad to do some more ;-) so you may just find some other little creations using them appearing on here soon! I may also pop some plain spools in my Etsy shop for anyone looking for some to decorate.

Thank you for stopping by,

xxx

Bouquet of dreams.............

2012-01-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

I knew I wanted to be able to keep my bridal bouquet, I'm a sentimental girl at heart and although I love flowers, the thought of the ones I have on my wedding day wilting away was not good, however I did not want artificial flowers. I searched around the internet and came across the beautiful vintage brooch and button bouquets that were being made by many talented crafters out there. I did contemplate ordering one from a company that mak es them, but ther e was one thing stopping me, the price tag. Not that they did not look worth it, it's just that we had a budget and were trying to stick to it, we had already added a few things that we had not budgeted for so I had second thoughts about it. Then it struck me........maybe I could make one?!?! Well why not have a go, what did I have to lose?! I googled and found some hints and tips, then found somewhere to get supplies from. I then searched antique and charity shops for some old brooches et c and started collecting bits and pieces. This was quite exciting! My mum also gave me some pieces of jewellery of hers and my Nan's to put in my bouquet which made it extra special and was a lovely way to honour my nan and feel like she was close to me on the day. My Auntie also gave me a silver shoe from here wedding cake which I wired in, it was great as these were my something old too. I wore my Nan's wedding ring on my right hand as my something borrowed and had a blue cameo in the bouquet as something blue, needless to say there were lots of new things ;-) any excuse to shop!! lol. There are also beads, buttons, little fabric flowers and gems in there as well as brooches, ribbon and lace. My mum and dad then told a friend of ours in Greece who makes jewellery about it and she kindly made me some pieces to incorporate into it, they were beautiful and gave me a good clue on how to go about wiring it t ogether. Thanks Denise!

Then I got really busy and w as thinking I was running out of time and maybe I'll just have to have flowers, they are beautiful after all. But I really wanted my sparkly pretty vintage bouquet to keep, so with only a few weeks to go to the day I set about wiring bits together like a mad woman! Then our lovely neighbour, an ex-florist helped me put it together into a posy shape and there I had it, my beautiful keepsake bouquet! I was so so p leased with it and couldn't wait to see how it went with my dress on the day.

I had so many admirers of my bouquet on the day and it went with my dre s s and accessories perfectly. I'm so pleased that I ma de this myself, be it with some help as it was such a nice sense of achievement and saved a lot of money too! I really enjoyed putting it together and definitely feel another hobby coming on, I have so many ideas on how to use these pretty jewels etc, thanks to Pinterest! I would love to have a go at a wreath sometime this year!

I put this on my stand at my last wedding fair as I thought I may as well offer to make these as well as my stationery and had lots of lovely comments and hav e an order for one already! So watch th is space to see more creations like this in the future. I'm like a magpie now looking out for pretty sparkly bits and vintage buttons etc on my travels and I am loving starting a collection of these.

Please see my bouquet page in the sidebar if you are interested in ordering one of these for your wedding, as I have added some information there. Please note that these images are copyright of Source Images Photography.

My bouquet now sits pride of place on the dresser in my lounge, it brings back memories of our happy, dreamy day and will be treasured for years to come.

Thank you for stopping by, wishi ng you a bouquet of dreams come true!

Strive.Believe.Achieve.

2012-01-02T05:29:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! May 2012 bring you good health and lots of happiness! I do not know where 2011 went! I literally flew by for us, it was such a happy yet busy year! We planned our wedding, had an amazing wedding day and honeymoon and I started my little business. So many happy memories and good times I was sad to say goodbye to 2011, however I am filled with excitement and anti cipation for what 2012 will bring! It is wonderful to be starting the year as husband and wife. I have so many plans and ideas for my little business and hobby too, I'm literally bursting with them after not having much time to focus on this or to just create for fun last year.

My mantra for this year is strive, believe, achieve! I will strive to reach my goals and dreams, to make them a reality. I realise that I will have to work hard, stay positive and motivated to achieve this and I am willing to do jus t that. I will also believe that these things can and will happen, as if you have no belief in yourself or your abilities then it is hard to flourish! This along with support and encouragement from my family and friends should set me on the right path! I read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne last year and this book has really helped me to think more positive and focus on what I want to achieve and believe in myself. I would recommend this book to anyone!!

I will start the year with catching up on posts about the creations I made for our wedding, our invitations, my bouquet, the place cards, thank you cards etc. Whilst I post these I will be working on some new projects. I am hoping to create, create, create .......my hands are itching to!!

Wishing you a very creative and happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T03:01:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to pop on and say that I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We had a lovely first Christmas as husband and wife! Santa came and spoilt us again and we loved spending time with our family and friends. I just don't know where it has gone, it's flown by, just like this year has!! I have missed blogging and crafting and I am hoping to get back into it properly over the coming weeks, it's just been such a busy year with getting married and starting my business as well as working full time and the usual family commitments etc. I have lots of posts to catch up on that I had started putting together, things I've been meaning to share on here for a while.

Hope you enjoy what is left of the festive season.

xx

The coolest wedding photograghers......

2011-11-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

........ in all the land! I wanted to give a huge shout out in this post to our ah-mazing wedding photographers, Jordan and Ines Banks of Source Images.

It was a daunting task finding the right photographers as we wanted some relaxed images that would capture our big day as it unfolded. We did not want lots of posed group shots as this eats into a huge chunk of the d ay which we knew our guest would much rather spend having a cold beverage or two! We aslo knew that these photos would be something that provided a lasting memory of the day, so we wanted to be happy with them.

Then ensued much searching on the net, hours and hours of pouring through photographers websites and I knew that I would know when I found then, I'm one of those intuitive types (I get a feeling in my waters, you know what I mean!!).

I then discovered wedding blogs, probably a bit of a mistake really! As I spent hours and hours on them getting inspiration for W-day! Then I found the Rock My Wedding blog, seen our photographers work on there and the rest as they say, is history!

My search was over, or was it, I had to convince the hubs to be now! I got some info from the dynamic duo that are Source Images and we set up a meeting in their funky little studio in Cookham. A nice part of the world if you haven't been down to that neck of the woods!

On the way down in the car, Adrian said to me, their work looks fab, but I know what you are like, don't commit yourself staight away, we can come away and think about it you know (yeah, yeah, whatever, but I did think I better behave to avoid a telling off on the way home!).

We sat for ages chatting and looking through their past work, it was AMAZING!! The most stunning images we had seen, crystal clear and so emotive. They really seemed to capture something special from their end of the lens. Well Adrian was sold too as we hadn't been there long when he said we definately want to book you guys!!! What?!! I thought we were supposed to come away and discuss?!!? ha ha. I was over the moon that he loved them too. Also a huge job completed towards the wedding to do list, and a major score as they were the first and only photographers we m et with, so much time saved too.

We ended up in the pub drinking and chatting for a while, they were so easy to get along with, we just knew that we would feel comfortable with them on the day, and lets face it, that is an improtant element when they would be there all day on one of the most momentous in our lives.

They have been great to work with and we are so happy with our images from the day, they are awesome, there are literally over a thousand photographs, can you believe it! So many special moments, I love how they managed to capture the atmoshere and feel of the day, our guests enjoying themselves and some fun ones of Adrian and myself! They have made us one happy pair of newly-weds! A huge massive thank you to Jordan and Ines, you are two very talented photographers, you two most definately ROCK!! You worked so hard on the day and in producing such great images, we really are over the moon with them! We can't thank you enough. We will have one fantastic album that's for sure!

Please check out their blog post with the images from our wedding here. If you do stop by their blog please leave them some love as they deserve a big pat on the back!! Also it would be great if you went over and liked their Facebook page too. We really can't recommend them highly enough if you or anyone you know is getting married!

Thanks for indulging me in more wedding whittering, sorry folks, but there is more to come too, I'm lining the posts up as we speak!!

To Have and to Hold............

2011-10-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

I thought it was about time for me to return to my little old blog! What can I say, last month was the most amazing of my life so far!! I married my soul mate Adrian after nearly 10 years together on the 9th September and it was the most amazing day ever!!! We had the time of our lives and loved celebrating with all our wonderful family and fri ends. So many fantastic memories that will stay with us forever. We also h ad a fabulous time on our honey moon to California, we loved it there! It was so so busy in the run up to our wedding that it left little time to pop on here and document the process, which is what I had planned to do!!! However I always plan to do more than I can chew! So here I am now better late than never with a few tid bits from the planning and the big day itself ! There will be quite a few posts over the next few weeks so that I can share some of the details and photos with you here. There were lots of handmade details which included the wedding invitations, the place names, table plan, my bouquet etc. We had so much help from our family and friends and some fantastic folks in the we dding industry and we can use our posts to say thank you to them as well.

For now here is a few snap shots that our friends hav e send over to us or popped on Facebook, more to come in the coming weeks.

Love,

2011-07-06T01:51:00.000-07:00

Hello there, sorry for my absence from here. It's been a bit trying around here since my last post. Adrian came back from his Stag weekend a bit worse for wear, I thought it was all down to partying too hard, he had a temperature of 38.9 though and I th ought that I would have to take him to the walk in centre or hospital, but he refused to go (awkward patient!!) so Nurse Katrina here had to look after him at home, I was worried sick, but at least being a nurse I had an idea of what to do! A few days later though he had to go to the doctors as he had an upset stomach, turns out he had gastroenteritis! He is better now thankfully.

However just as he was better, I was tootling around in my car on the way to a hairdressers appointment and some idiot going too fast just after we had heavy rain went into the back of my car!! I have had awful whiplash and my car has been written off! I could really have done without this on the run up to the wedding!! Those of you that follow my blog will remember that someone went into Adrian's car on the M1 in February and wro te his car off too, and prior to this we were both involved in an accident just over 18 month s ago! I can't believe it! My back had improved slightly but has been awful the last few days, got to have physio now.

Anyway not much to share with you, I am so b ehind with our invitations etc at the moment, so frantically trying to get those done, think I may be taking some friends up on their offers of help now! I will share them here with you when I have them done. I love how they are turning out!

I thought I would tell you about my love of Pinterest though, for those of you w ho don't know about this amazing site, it is a place with millions of photos of all sorts of things, you can build inspiration boards with pictures that you find inspiring or useful etc from around the web, you can also follow peoples boards on there and repin other peoples pictures. I love it and have quite a few inspiration boards now. I would really recommend checking it out an d if you need an invitation to join just give me a shout and I'll se nd you one via email. Here are a few of my favourite inspiring pictures this week .

Via Pinterest

Utterly dreamy and inspiring right?! Makes me want to take a picnic, buy some beautiful blooms and send beautiful vintage inspired stationery! It feeds my love of all things vintage and shabby chic!

Thank you for stopping by.

Love,

First large order completed - yipeee!

2011-06-11T01:11:00.000-07:00

Well what a rubbishy (is that a word, if it is it's probably spelt wrong anyway!) few weeks!! I ended up having my wisdom to oth out following a trip to the dentist after my last post, then it got infected, then I got a horrible virus, which Adrian then got too, then got better, then tooth ache etc flared up again, ended up referred to the hospital urgently due to a suspicious lump on the roof of my mouth, which was slightly worrying, thankfully they t hink it's a blocked salivary gland. I feel much better in myself now, had been so tired for weeks, however my mouth is not healed yet, more inflammation and ulcers, yuck!

Right enough of the moaning! Whilst feeling grotty last weekend I managed to complete my first big order of wedding statio nery, whoop whoop!! It was a big task, all did not go smoothly on the way, think companies discontinuing products, trying to find altern atives, then being unwell and then major technical gremlins stopping the printer f rom wo rking just as I needed to print all the inserts etc!! Thankfully I had a really lovely, understanding custo mer, thanks Cara and I got there in the end. I was really pleased with how they turned out and I'm over the moon to say that so were the Bride and Groom, they have had some amazing feedback too, one of their friends even called them EPIC!!! I was so happy to I can tell you!

I thought I would shar e some photo's with you. They are not the best photos at all, a rushed job as I was down to the wire and the happy couple were on there way to pick them up! I will however share some better photos soon, as I have other parts of the order to complete and will be making a few more of these.

The last photo is them all piled up ready for collection. I did 70 daytime invites in presentation boxes with tissue paper and RSVP's and 25 evening! The heat embossing on that many was probably not my best idea ever as it took way longer than expected, but it did look lovely and was well worth it in the end. I have their order of services, place cards, menu cards and table plan cards to do for July, so I will share those with you once they are done. Thanks to Cara and Jonathan for their custom, patience and understanding and their lovely feedback!

Right now, I'm waaaay behind with our wedding invites so I better get to work right away on those, looking forward to doing them now! Adrian is on his Stag weekend in Budapest so I have some peace and quiet ;-) I'm sure they will have a fantastic time, 16 of them have gone, I have a feeling it could get messy! lol.

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Birthday gift emsemble for a friend

2011-05-18T02:52:00.000-07:00

It's been a while I know! Busy as usual these days! Some tim e off work this week though hopefully means we can recharge the batteries, c atch up with the to do list and take some time out to do some nice enjoyable things! Although, typical, I've ended up with awful tooth ache and what looks like an abcess, so a trip to the dentist for me tomorrow :-(

It was my lovely friend and bridesmaid to be, Gemma's birthday on Monday and I went round for tea and cake and to take her card and gifts. I brought her a few little p resents, we have a trip to The Bramble patch and lunch at The Heart of the S hires planned too in the not too distant future to treat her to some new fabric for her next proj ect. As Gemma is always making me wonderful thoughtful gift s I thought I would return the gesture and make some little gifts for her to go with her other presents. Here is the notepad, canv as and gift bag I made. All have Avenue Crafts on which is the name of Gemma's studio!

Sorry the photos are not great, the lighting around here as been a bit hit and miss! Supplies used: 5x7 canvas/acrylic paint/plain craft gift bag/paper doilies/vintage seam binding, glass gilttered stars/ Kars glittered chipboard alphabet letters/Tim Holtz paper Rosette die which I got from Stampeezee/My Minds Eye - lost and found collection papers/flowers and jewelled embellishment from stash/buttons - Papertrey Ink.

I have lots of crafting to do, working on a large order for a lovely customer at the moment and in the process of samples for another. I'm waiting for a Papertrey Ink parcel and some others to arrive so I can get started with my own invitations too, I want to send them out at the beginning of June, lots of ideas for the design, can't wait for them to come together! I've also had another special little extra designed for us that involves lots of colouring, which I'm in the process of!! All will be revealed once they are all made and sent out, so watch this space!!

Thanks you to all those who have liked my Whimsical Wishes Facebook page, I now have 103 likers! So will be having a give away on there soon, it will coincide with the launch of my Etsy shop too! I will be putting some little craft supplies in my Etsy shop as well as handcrafted items, so it may be of interest if you like vintage seam binding, glass glittered accents or crystal/pearl jewelled embellishments.

Hope you are having a good week so far.

Love and hugs,

A spring wedding card

2011-04-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share the card I made for Adrian's sister's wedding a few weeks ago, I also altered a horseshoe to give her at the church as a keepsake. I tried to match in with the colour scheme she choose for the day.

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink/card - Papertrey Ink/DP - The Girls Paperie/lace - Prima/Flowers and pin - Wild orchid crafts/Seam binding - ebay/pearls from stash.

I used seam binding, flowers and pearls to alter ceramic horseshoe that was from Tesco gift/card section. A beautiful sentiment on the card, perfect for a special day filled with love!

Some of you may remember me mentioning my nan needing a major operation a few months back, well I'm pleased to say that she had it done and is now on the mend, it only took just over 4hours in the end, instead of the 10 originally planned, which is enough but a much better outcome! We are all very relieved.

Thank you for popping by my little blog, I hope you are having a good week so far.

Hugs,

More from the Vintage Wedding Fair

2011-04-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

I thought I would put the rest of the pictures I have from the Vintage Wedding Fair on here and a shout ou t to s o me of the lovely and talented exhibitors!

My lovely friend Cheryl from Vintage Glamour Days had a stunning stand, a gorgeous display of china and accessories to hire and of course tea and cake!

Nicola from Silver Sixpence in her Shoe with her beautiful handmade bridal accessories. It was lovely chatting to Nicola, who started her business after planning her own too!

Gorgeous shoes by Rachel Simpson....

Stunning jewelled bouquets from Debbie at DC Bouquets

Innovative albums from Illustries

Beautiful blooms from Bottega Blooms, who offer DIY bridal classes.

There were many more lovely exhibitors and pretty things on display, I just ran out of time to get round and get good photos of them, a very talented bunch of people, it was a great way to spend a Sunday! I look forward to my future vintage wedding fairs, always an enjoyable day chatting to brides to be and fellow exhibitors, fun designing new samples, planning my stand and developing my little business! Etsy shop coming soon folks, a work in progress as we speak!

Hope you are having a lovely Easter weekend!

xxx

New Samples - Vintage Glamour and Birdcages!

2011-04-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm back as promised with a few pics of my latest sampl es that were on show at the Vintage Wedding Fair in Leamington on Sunday.

The first are from my new range of vintage glamour w edding stationery. I'm so pleased I managed to source these vintage brooch style embe llishments as they as go rgeous! This is my higher end of the price range I'm affraid but worth every penny if you want show stopping invitations that set the tone perfectly for an elegant affair! I'll have a better idea of prices once I have more info regarding my trade account with my supplier, as always I want to offer quality bespoke invitations at affordable prices and want t o offer something to cater for all tastes and budgets.

Meet Grace......

and Ava .....

Here are some samples of my Birdcage range, I love these too as I have a soft spot for birdcages and birdies, they have such a pretty vintage charm.

I hope you like! These are samples and can be made in any colours to suit your scheme and are just an idea of the sorts of things I can produce, any of these can be altered or adapted to suit your requirements. These pics will be added to my wedding stationery pages in the sidebar.

I'll be back soon with more pics and news from The Vintage Wedding Fair .......

The Vintage Wedding Fair in Leamington Spa!

2011-04-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a fantastic weekend! Firstly it was Adrian's sister's wedding on Friday, we had a lovely time with family and friends celebratin g with the m. It was a lovely day and the sunshine was wonderful! Congratulations Sarah and Paul!

Then I had my stand at The Vintage Wedding Fair in Leamington Spa. I t wa s a really great day, I had such a lovely time chatting to lots of lovely brides to be and fellow exhibitors there. I was so pleased that I had so many lovely comment s and positive feedback, it was really encouraging and a real boost! I've been tired lately as I seem to be working non stop with my full time job, wedding plans and no w Whimsical Wishes but when you h ave a day like that, it is all worth it!! So thank you to anyone that stopped by, including friends, Elaine, Emily and Dawn. Also one of my dear friends and bridesmaids Gemma and her partner Matt, your help was much apprecaited with all the packing away, thanks guys!

A big shout out though to Adrian and my mum, for getting up early, helping me load the car and set up and for being helpful and supportive all day. I couldn't have done it without you, huge, massive thanks, love you both lots. It was also so lovely to see my sw e et friend Cheryl from Vintage Glamour Days, her stand was amazing as always and it's a lways nice to catch up with her.

Anyway onto the pics! Here is my stand, I have some new samples which i will post in dividually over the next few days. The Vintage Wedding fair was held at the Assembly in Leamington and it was a stunning venue. There was so much pretty on disp lay, such a great way to spend a Sunday!

More photos to come of my new samples and of the other exhibitors at the fair coming soon. Anyone who requested samples I will be working on those over the next few days and get them out to you.

Hope you had a great weekend too and enjoyed the sunshine!

Mother's day cards

2011-04-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

I hope all you mums out there had a lovely Mother's day and were spoilt rotten!! Hopefully I'll be joining the club in the next few years ;-) I just want to say a big thank you to my mum for all she does for me and for always being there, sh e is such a beautiful person, I'm so so lucky to have a mum like her!!

Just popping on quic kly to share a few photos of the other Mother's day designs I made. Had a few happy customers :-)

I've got a busy rest of the week now, busy, busy all the way, samples to do for customers, samples for my stand at the Vintage Wedding Fair on Sunday, brought lots of lovely Papertrey goodies for these, can't wait to play and make the de signs that have been in my head for a few weeks! Adrian's sister also gets married on Friday, so a day of celebrations there. As well as a busy week at work I imagine! Think I will book myself a few days off soon, so tired!! Got a sinus infection and the early onset of hayfever, so on antibiotics and meds for that!

Hope you have a good week. I'll be back soon, I'll be sharing photo's of my stand from the fair etc, I'm hoping it will come together well, lots of ideas for this one, just not enough prep time now, March just sort of diasappear ed on me!!

Hugs,

A few more notepads and the first Mother's day card

2011-03-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

I've got my work cut out for me the next few evenings, I'm in the process of making Mother's day cards, I've had a few ordered and I have my own to do for m y mum and Adrian's mum. I've gone and hurt my shoulder too, I had a fight with the car door and the car door won!! Not a good idea, I blame rushing around! It's painful and bruised at the moment.

It was a busy weekend, I had Adrian's sister's hen party, Ad rian and I were at the theatre seeing Blood Brother's (my third time!!) on Saturday evening and a family meal with Adrian's side on Sunday! If you like the theatre and haven't seen Blood Brother's I would highly recommend it, it's fantastic! We saw it at the Bel grade theatre in Coventry, Nicki Evans did a fantastic job, it was a standing ovation! We also had scrummy pizza at pizza express (blew the diet!).

Here are a few more notepads that I've made, one was for my friend Debbie from Stampeezee, the other for Adrian's sister, so the hen's could write her a message in, a little keeps ake.

Thank you for visiting! I'll be back soon with more Mother's day cards. I haven't had much time to list supplies lately but if there is anything of interest, just shout!

Hugs,

Shabby little notepads!

2011-03-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics of some of the shabby chic, vintage inspired notepads I've been making. The first I made was for my friend Letitia's birthda y, I was so pleased that she liked it. I really enjoyed making it too, I used my favourite Tilda pape rs and some gorgeous embellishments I had in my stash, it's good to finally be using my supplie s instead of just hoarding them!! So when I wanted to send my friend Cheryl from Vintage Glamour Days a little thank you gift, it was what sprung to mind! Cheryl is helping me with one or two things for our wedding and has become a lovely friend, offering me help and encouragement towards my little business venture too. I was overwhelmed with her lovely comments about it, she loved it and even posted it on her Vintage Glamour Days Facebook page, to which there was a positive response! It made my day, I tell you! Therefore I will be making some for my Etsy shop, which will be up and running soon, just taking longer than I intended due to so much going on around here. I'll shout and put a link on here when it's ready. I have a few more to make for some friends too and one for my mum for Mother's day.

Right, now I better get back to those Mother's day cards, and the samples I need to make etc. Oh and not forgetting the housework, the joys!

Thank for for dropping by my little blog, say hi and I'll stop by yours in return.

Hugs,

I heart vintage newsprint!

2011-03-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

Whoa!!! Marc h needs to slow down, it's going so fast it's scaring me!!! I was hoping to have more pictures of my we dd in g inv itations from the fair on here before now, but best laid plans and all that. lol. I've been a busy bee again, I have booked two more wedding fairs, one in April and one in October. They are both vintage wedding fairs. I'll be adding an events page to my sidebar with all the deatils on. The next one is on 10th April in Lea mington Spa. I'm really looking forward to it as I love all things vintage and I will be in my element! I just have to get cracking with more samples of stationery, favours and wedding decor now, so many ideas, not enough hours in the day! I'm looking forward to planning my stand/display, I want to make it better and bit different from last time!

I've have also had several consultations with some lovely brides to be and I am in the process of making their requests a reality with some samples. It was so much fun chatting weddings and stationery with them too. I have a few Mother's day cards I need to make too over the weekend.

Along with that was the mine field of sorting out the paper work etc, to do with registering as self employed (I already have a full time job, but have to do this too) to keep the tax man happy! I've also had to sort public liability insurance out as I am having stands at fairs etc. The not so fun but compulsory part!!

I'm still enjoying making our wedding plans too, a lthough we hav e almost everything choosen and booked! Just all the making and creating then!! So many plans and projects, a proper vintage inspired DIY wedding!! A few things left to order and buy too but nearly there. Plus the all important (and probably much needed by then) honeymoon to book! Soooo looking forward to it all. It's going so fast though, time flie s when you're having fun! I must get myself in shape now, been going to zumba which I'm enjoying but need to step it up a gear now.

Anyway enough of me rambling on, here are a few of the invitations that I had on display at my last wedding fair, the plan is to make the matching, place cards, order of service/order of the day, favours etc so I can show case the whole range of each design, plus I want to add tons more designs, although these can be changed, etc to s uit peoples tastes/needs. I am loving vintage newsprint at the moment, that and vintage sheet music and vintage book print, so watch this space more to come with those.

Thank you for stopping by, I'll be back soon with some Mother's day cards and some altered notepads to show you.

My first stand at a wedding fair!

2011-02-27T13:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy few weeks again, working and wedding plans etc. Also do ing some bits and pieces for my Whimsical Wishes Wedding stationery. I set myself a challenge this past week I booked a stand at a local wedding fair to exhibit my wedding stationery!!

I only had just over a week to plan and prepare, so no pressure then ! Then Adrian was in a car accident, someon e went into the back of him on the M1, thankfull y he is OK, although has a bad case of whiplash! Those of you that have followed my blog for a while will know we were in an accident just over a year ago and had bad whiplash then too. His car is a write off, so he is dealing with that now. I also got a bout of sinusitis which I could have done without, but never mind!

Anyway I managed to get some samples together and plan my stand, it turned out quite well, I had lots of interest and compliments on my stand and stationery. I had more ideas and things I wanted to do but ran out of time, how ever I really enjoyed it and now have something to build upon! It was nice chatting to so many lovely brides to be.

Here are some picture of my stand, the first two are courtesy of Richard Plastow of that's life photography, thank you for sending these over to me Rich, much appre ciated.

The next photo's I took with my humble camera!

You can see my lovely friend Gemma in the above photo's, she gave up her day to help me and keep me company, thanks for your support Gem, it is much appreciated!

I will be posting individual photo's of the new samples I've done on here and my Facebook page over the next few days and also adding pages on here with information regarding enquiring about or ordering wedding stationery from me, so please check back if you are interested!

Thank you for visiting!

Vintage favour boxes and demask wedding invitations

2011-02-13T05:23:00.000-08:00

I'm still working on lots of samples for Whimsical Wishes wedding stationery and favours! These are now at their new home in the display cabinet at Bea's Brida l! I'll keep a set for myself too. I'm been having so many ideas for designs, I brought a sketch book so that I can get my ideas down when I have them, and even though my drawing leaves alot to be desired I can at least look at them and know what they are supposed to be! It's just finding the time to actually make them now!!

We have had some time off from work this week and have had a fab time. We've been browsing antiques, I love anythi ng old, vintage or shabby chic so I'm tr ying to in corporate this into our big day! We are amongst other things, collecting vintage tea sets to use! I'm loving looking for them and finding so many lovely treasures!! You can see a few of my vintage finds in the pictures below!

We also met our lovely photographers this week, they are great, a husband and wife team, who are so bubbly and friendly, their enthusiasm really shines though and their work is amazing, we spent several hours chatting to them and looking through their work on Thursday and even ended up in the pub, so saf e to say we already feel at ease and well acquainted with them, thanks Jordan and Ines for a great afternoon! We are so excited about ou r photos now, just what we were looking for, really looking forward to our pre-wedding shoot too, should be fun! If you are getting married and haven't got a photographer yet, then we would suggest you check out Source Images .

Here are my latest creations,

I'm going to try to get some goodies in my Etsy shop within the next few weeks, I'll link it on here when it's up and running properly!

Oh well back to work tomorrow! Had such a great week off catching up with family and friends, sorting wedding plans, browsing antiques, crafting and eating out, could seriously get used to it!!

Thanks for popping by!

Where have I been?!!?!

2011-02-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

Well hello lovelies! It's been quite a while I know, I've missed this li ttle blog of mine and all of you too. The reason for the neglect, well, several really. Firstly in full on wedding planning mode now and loving it!! Have also discovered wedding blogs, this is good, but bad at the same time as I have spent too many hours perusing these numerous pages of wedding prettiness!! Very inspiring but you have been warned, it will pass several h ours without you realising!!

Secondly well just working full time and trying to be social and have a life, but thirdly an opportunity has presented itself which I could not ignore or let pass me by. I was looking for bridesmaid dresses and found a company I loved the designs of, searched for stockists and found a lovely bridal shop that stocked them - Bea's Bridal in Southam, Warwickshire! The shop is owned by the lovely Hannah, her assistant manager Ria is also v ery friendly and helpful, a must visit if you are g etting married as they offer gorgeous dresses, cak es, vintage china hire, the list goes on, take a look at the site or visit the shop, it is very pretty, a real treat! Well I got chatting, those that no me know I'm good at this!! Got on to the subject of me being crafty and making invitations etc, next thing Hannah asks if I would like to put some samples in the shop!!! Beyond excited!!! They are starting a wedding planning side of the bu siness and are looking to offer everything for the bride to be. Hannah took a look at my blog and then emailed me about it and now I'm making samples! I also went to a vintage weding fair in Birmingham and seeing all the talented ladies with their lovely goodies on display has spurred me on and I've now got business cards, a Whimsical Wishes Facebook page and an Etsy shop!! Not forgetting my little old blog here. So lots of wedding yumminess coming to my sites/pages very soon.

I've been wanting to ge t a little crafty business going for som e time and have done bits and pieces but something abo ut planning our weddin g has bro ught about more inspiration and motivation, so I'm going to throw myself into it once and for all. I plan to offer bespoke greetings cards, keepsakes, wedding stationery, favours and decor, in vintage, elegant and contemporary designs. Please visit my facebook page if you have time too.

So for now I'll leave you with a few of the wedding samples I have done so far, many, many more to come!! Don't worry though I will still be doing general cards and proje cts too. Phot's taken in Bea's Bridal.

Thank you for stopping by, let me know you did so I can visit you in return.

Love,

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T15:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope 2011 brings you all you wish for and more. May much love, happiness and good health be yours always. I am soooo excited for this year I could burst!! This is the year that I get to marry my prince charming!! I can't wait and I am looking forward to finishing all the preparati ons. All that wedding crafting I'm going to be doing ....... invitations, order of service, place cards, tab le plan, favours, guest book, decorations etc, the list goes on and the i deas are overflowing, can't Wait to get into the swing of everything again! I would like a lasting reminder of the build up to our big day, hence the wedding planner journal I made, which I plan to finish up in the next few weeks and share w ith you.

Always a bit sad when Christmas is over for another year as I love it so, but with so much to look forward to, it's full steam ahead!! As well as the wedding I have so many plans and goals for this year. Feeling full of positive vibes, ideas and inspiration . Just need some energy now and we are well away!!! ha ha.

Here are some of the Christmas creations that I did not get to share before Christmas arrived, the last of my 2010 creations. A Christmas notepad for those shopping/gift lists, a keepsake box for my mum and a few cards. I forgot to photograph some of the other things before giving them to the recipients!

Wishing you a wonderful new year,

Christmas Wishes

2010-12-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Wishing you love, joy, happiness and all the bles sings of the festive season. I hope everyone is having a lovely time with their family and friends. I'm having a lovely quite, cozy Christmas day with my hubs to be in our little cottage. I was working yesterday but after work visted Adrian's family, then my family came round when I came back, we went to the pub in the village and had lots of laughs. Love it, family and friends, the greatest gift of all, I feel very blessed!

I'm sorry that I h ave not updated in so long, but can honestly say that I have only just stopped!! lol. It's been a crazy 4/5 weeks. We decided to decorate the kitchen at the end of November after my last post, we didn't think it would take long ...... wrong! Took a few weeks, but the hard work has paid off because it looks much better. It's where I do my crafting too, so I had no where to craft as our cottage is only small. This then put me behind with Christmas crafting, shopping and decorating etc. My mum was also 50 on 8th December so I had her birthday presents, card etc to get, we also went away as a family for a few days to celebrate, which was lovely, we all had a great time. We wanted to make it special for her and think we did.

So here we are, I must admit I'm really enjoying it but feeling very tired! The few days off are much needed and I'm hoping my batteries will be fully recharged! I've got some Christmas creations to share, hopefully will do so over the next few days, better late than never!

Thank you to all my family and friends for their lovely cards and presents, I've been spoilt again! I love spoiling people too at this time of year, so much fun! I've got some new Papertrey ink goodies to play with oh, we never grow up do we ... new toys!!

Well just about to settle down with a glass of bubbly and watch It's a Wonderful life (my favourite film of all time) in front of a roaring fire, with the tree twinkling, candles flickering and my gorgeous h2b, bliss, what more could I ask for!

Hope your Christmas is a wonderful one.

Love,

Cosy Christmas Wreath

2010-11-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

The parcel Gemma and I had ordered from Papertrey Ink finally arrived (a few weeks ago), it took so long because it went via Australia!!! Never mind, at least it got here in the end, and in time to make some Christmas cards etc. I absolutely love the Wreath forAll Seasons set, it's gorgeous, I'm afraid I think you will see this on my creations again and again. It's just my style!! I love twiggy berry wreaths like this a nd h ave o ne h a n ging year round in my home. Something about these wreaths say cosy country home and a warm welcome. So I thought they would be perfect for Christmas cards, however the set is versatile and can be used for all seasons or occasions, yippee, cute wreaths all round!!

Supplies: Stamps - Papertrey Ink, A Wreath for All Seasons and sentiment Holiday tags 2010/DP - Basic Grey wassil/Cardstock and Buttons - papertrey Ink/Twine - Stampin' Up/Lace ribbon from stash/Other - PTI mat stack die, distress inks, sewing machine.

Thank you to those of you who left comments about my Nan, so kind of you.

Hope you are having a good week so far. Please let me know you stopped by and I can visit you in return.

Hugs,

First Christmas cards of 2010

2010-11-20T03:02:00.000-08:00

I'm frantically trying to catch up with my to do list and my Christmas planning, feel way behind!! I made these Christmas cards a few weeks ago now when I went to my friend Gemma's for a craft day. Gemma had made us all a little gift, we had water bottles with our names on for our place settings and a lovely buffet with sandwiches, cakes etc. It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon and with such lovely ladies there for company I think I did m ore talking than crafting!! I didn't take any photo's unfortunately, I must remember to always take my camera! Thank you Gemma for arranging it and spoiling us, you're the best!!

Supplies: Stamp - Imaginations/DP - Websters pages/Buttons and twine - Papertrey Ink/Rick rack from stash/Other - Beaded oval nesties, Tim Holtz distress inks and tool, distress tool.

Supplies: Stamp - Whipper snapper designs, sentiment - Papertrey Ink/DP - Imaginesce/Butons - Papertrey Ink/Baker's twine - Stampeezee/Other - ribbon, oval and scallop oval punches - Stampin up, Tim Holtz distress inks and tool, distress tool.

I absolutely love Christmas and the build up to it, I love getting out my cherished Christmas decorations that I've collected over the years, they bring back such sweet memories. I also enjoy getting my Christmas crafting items out and using these to create handmade cards and gifts for loved ones.

I haven't had the best of weeks this week, had some news regarding my nan, she has been under investigation for mouth cancer and had her biospy results on Thursday, the good news is that it isn't a cancer that can spread to other parts of her body but the bad news is that it is a rare tumour of the jaw which had eated away at the jaw and she has got to undergo a major 10hr operation to remove it and reconstruct her jaw with bone and arteries from her leg. It is a risky operation but the risks of not having it are bad too as it will continue to grow and cause damage. The recovery involves a stay in ICU, breathing tubes, liquidised food, speech and language therapy, a long haul bacically. Not a nice prospect at any age but she is 77 and has had heart trouble in the past, we are very worried about her. So please say a little prayer that she comes through this OK. She is having more tests etc and will be having this surgery after Christmas. So we will try to make Christmas special for her to hopefully take her mind off what the new year is to bring.

Thank you so much for stopping by, please let me know that you did so I can visit you in return.

Hugs,

A snowflake is winter's butterfly

2010-11-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

I'm back again! It's been such a hectic few weeks, I'm really feeling it now, but I've had a great time. First it was celebrating my sister's and Adrian's birthdays. Then I've had one of my best friends, Daniela's wedding, I was chief br idesmaid and it was such an honour.

Congratulations Daniela and James on becoming Mr and Mrs Taylor. Thanks for letting us share your special day, we had a fantastic time. Love you both lots.

So there was all that a wedding entails, I had hair dressers appointments, spray tan appointment, bridal shower, we all met at the hotel the evening before and had a lovely meal. Then me and Daniela had a nice girly time gettin g ready the night b efore and on the morning of her wedding. Then the really fun part, the wedding itself.

I thought I'd share the invitations that I designed and we made for the wedding, Daniela loves winter and wanted snowflakes but also liked butterflies, thankfully we were able to tie these together with the beautiful sentiment a snow flake is winter's butterfly. We made these a while ago now but I never got around to sharing them bef ore. The photo unfortunately doesn't show up the shimmery cardstock etc. The colours were blue and silver.

Then here is the wedding card I made for the happy couple, again bringing in the colours of the wedding and the butterflies.

I also made a keepsake box for Daniela's lovely mum Yvette to give to Daniela at her bridal shower but I don't think I took a picture of it, doh!!

Anyway just a quick post to let you know what I've been up to and to share a few things I'd made, I've now got to get cracking with some Christmas cards etc, feel so behind with everything, so much to do so little time, Christmas is approaching fast!!!! I've got a few cards made which I'll post over the next few days.

Until then,

Hugs,

Bonfire Birthday's

2010-11-05T03:48:00.000-07:00

Today is Adrian's and my sisters birthdays, they were both Guy Fawkes night babies!! So sending big birthday wishes their way. Hope you both have a great day and yes all the fireworks are just for you!! I love you both dearly.

Here are the cards I made for them.

I'm off to my friend Gemma's tomorrow for a craft day, so should have something to share with you over the weekend too. We did order lots of the new release from Papertrey Ink to make Christmas projects with, poor Gemma even got up at 5am on release day because of the time difference to make sure we ordered before they ran out of stock, as if they did it may be too late to order things to make cards etc before Christmas with us being in the UK, but alas that was over three weeks ago and still no parcel, no tracking number and now PTI email system crashed and no other way to contact them!!! The money has been taken and confirmation of order received, so we are worried as to the where abouts of it! Fingers crossed it arrives soon.

I'm off to celebrate Adrian's birthday with him, we both have the day off together, not much cooking today, yipee, we will be going for a lovely meal. My sis is in London seeing Blood Brother's with her boyfriend Carl, so I'll see her to celebrate tomorrow night/Sunday. Also my friend Daniela is having a bridal shower Sunday, as she gets married next week and I'm Bridesmaid. So a busy fun packed weekend!!!

Hope you have a safe and happy Bonfire night.

Hugs,

Pumpkin Pie

2010-10-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

Autumn is my favourite time of year, it is passing so quickly this year, I've been so busy too that I feel I haven't had time to soak up all the things I love about this time of year. So I tried to embrace autumn today and went on a fall food cooking spree!! I made chicken stew with herby dumplins and then pum pkin pies. One for us and one for my mum as she loves it too. I planned to make some butternut squash soup and some autumn cards too, but ran out of steam!! So hopefully I'll finish up the cards over the next day or two and have them to share. I'll make the soup another day too. I always try to cram too much in!

But for now folks all I have is a pic of my pumpkin pie, doesn't look like a pic out of a Martha Stewart cook book I know, but it tasted good all the same ;-)

Hope you have had a happy and safe Halloween weekend, with lots of treats, no tricks!!

Hugs,