Burlap and Lace Wedding

Hi folks sorry I have been AWOL these last few months, it's been a busy time for me with some unexpected changes to my life which I will share as soon as I feel I can.
I have really missed blogging and have been umming and ahhing about starting a new blog because of the big gaps and inconsistencies of this one, but I am delaying/stalling because I can't think of a new blog name, plus I am worried about losing all you lovely people who read this one.
So anyway, way back in April I went to a wedding of a wonderful family friend, I had no idea what to expect in terms of a theme, dress, anything!  So it was all a lovely surprise and I was so impressed by the elegance and tastefulness of it all.  Some of these are my photos and some belong to the wedding photographer Zelda Martin (the first two and the forth):

Mirror displaying the table numbers and guest's names

 

Mr and Mrs Banner on the head table

 

 On the dessert table

 

Delicious croc en bouche

 Favors in brown paper bags embelished with a paper doily (love) and wooden peg

Top table floral arrangements, jars trimmed with lace and twine

 

 The floral arrangement on our table with lace and twine

 

beautiful bride, beautiful lace dress

 

Stunning beams on the ceiling of the barn

 Bunting (a family tradition)

This is the third wedding we have been to with Orren and we really enjoyed it.  Orren had a great time dancing to the disco lights and music at the evening function, I wish I had taken more photos but it is so difficult when you are preoccupied with a one year old!  I would loved to have shown you my outfit too as I was pleased with the thriftiness of it.

Re-usable wet wipes tutorial

If there is one thing that most parents seem to not be able to live without then it has to be wet wipes.  I often hear other mothers lamenting the cost of nappies, formula and wet wipes and I smile smugly to myself and think how glad I am that I am not having to spend money on two out of those three essentials.

Don't get me wrong, I am no saint, I was using cotton wool and water for this first five months of my son's life, but I realised the error of my ways and that I needn't be filling up our dustbins with yet more detritus, that, although admittedly will eventually bio-degrade, will take a long time under all that plastic.  So in order to eliminate that little bit extra waste I decided I could make my own wet wipes.  This idea struck me after reading the chapter about babies in The Self-sufficientish Bible, they suggest cutting up polyester fleece to use as wipes, but seeing as I had a lot of cotton flannelette left from the neckerchief/bandanna bibs I thought this would be a better material.  Not only is cotton more natural that synthetic fleece, but I figured it might also be more absorbent.

To begin with I tore up my flannelette into long strips which were the width of a sheet of toilet tissue.  I then cut these strips into smaller toilet tissue sized rectangles.  Initially I thought to make them wet-wipe sized, but decided that toilet paper size was sufficient, and should I decide they ought to be bigger in future I could just make more.

Next I stitched round each edge with a wide zig-zag on the sewing machine.  I don't think that this step is essential, but I thought it might make them last a bit longer as it will stop them fraying in the wash. 

Then just keep going until you have as many as you need.  I must have made about 50 initially, but may  make more depending on how many I get through in a day.

To store them I put mine into a plastic tupperware type box with a slosh of water to keep them moist.  You could also add a few drops of something like grape seed oil which is the only other ingredient in waterwipes, or soak the water in chamomile tea before putting the wipes in. 

Better for your pocket and better for baby's bottom too because they don't contain any of the nasty chemicals found in commercial wet-wipes.

Once used place them into another plastic container with a tight lid which will not only keep in any smell but will keep them moist making them easier to wash.  (much harder to get out dried on poo than the soft wet stuff) You can wash them as you would washable nappies.  I will be washing them at 30 degrees with Bio D Laundry Liquid.

Neckerchief/Bandanna bib tutorial

Have you seen there sweet bibs you can get now that look like neckerchiefs?!  I think they are really cute and much more fun that an ordinary bib, it makes the bib part of the baby's outfit rather than just covering it up for the sake of dribble protection.
I was on the verge of buying some when I suddenly remembered that I can sew, and have half a brain #9the other half went out with the placenta!) and therefore could make some myself.
What's more I though I could share it with you so you can have a go at making one for your baby if you have one, or as a gift for a friend with a new addition.
It is dead easy to make one of these bibs, as I am sure you know by now I don't really do measuring, so haven't included any, all lengths are by rack of eye! (Or by what I figure will fit round a baby's neck.)

For this tutorial you need two types of fabric, I used a flannelette type cotton which I figured would be fairly absorbent, then a patterned jersey type fabric for the front.

Begin buy making a paper template for the shape you want, I loosely wrapped mine around my baby's neck to get an idea of the size and included enough room for hemming.

Pin the template to the fabric then cut around it.  

Next pin the flannelette to the jersey and cut around it as before so you have two triangles of the same shape and size.

Keeping the fabric pinned together sew the two pieces together using a straight stitch.  Leave about 1 cm for hemming.  

Make sure you leave a small gap of about 3cm to turn your bib the right way round.  I left one of my corners open.  

Next trim off the excess from the edges so they are nice and neat:

Then turn the bib the right way round through the small hole you left at one end:

It should look like this now:

Now to finish off tuck in the un-hemmed edges on your open corner like this:

Then simply sew a straight line over this edge (you could do a chain stitch by hand if you so felt inclined, I am a bit lazy though and want to get it done quickly, so it was just a straight stitch for me.)

Now you need to add some velcro.  Cut a piece about 3 cm long and pin one piece to either side of your bib:

Sew them with a straight stitch and you are done!

Hope you are all having a great week, I am writing this tutorial in my garden because we finally have some sun in the UK!

"Bon Voyage" card

Before I had baby Orren and had time for things like craft I made this card for some friends who were travelling to America to live and work for 6 months.  I was really pleased with it as were my friends so thought I would share it with you.

I began by creating a background with brown parcel paper.  I placed small strips of masking tape in places on the packing paper to make the front of the card look like a parcel. Then I cut out three circles from vintage maps to give them impression of globes.  Next I stuck on some stamps I had saves, some from America and one British one.  Then I cut out the words "Bon Voyage" from brown paper, written with black pen and stuck them on top.  Finally I stitched a line in black embroidery thread on the sewing machine with a drawing of an aeroplane at the end of it so it looked like the plane was flying round the globes (or something like that!) I liked it anyway and thought it had a bit of a vintage feel to it.

What do you think?

Review of 2011

Last year I made some new years resolutions, so though I would now take the opportunity to see which ones I achieved, which ones I nearly achieved and which ones I didn't achieve (and why)  So these were my resolutions for 2011:

1. Read the Bible in a year - I have very nearly done this, I am about two months behind and am proud of that alone, I have never got this far through the Bible before.  I have found the process of reading it very useful, though I have to confess often I am just reading the words and I feel they are not really sinking in, however the odd verse jumps out at me and speaks to me on a really personal level.  My aim now is to read the rest before the baby arrives!

courtesy of weheartit

2. Buy nothing new for a year - Although I did of course buy new things this year, I think I was much more thoughtful when making purchases, I did consider if I could make things or get them second hand and have come to the conclusion that if there is something out there that I really really want (but can't afford), then I can get it one way or another, either I buy something similar second hand or make it myself.

Vintage map bunting for sale in the craft shop

3. Exercise at least 3 time a week - for a long time I was cycling to work every day, but since I fell pregnant I have been too frightened to cycle in case I fall off or hurt myself on the handle bars, so I have stuck with walking; walking to the shops when I can and going for long woodland walks at weekends.

Me on one of our many woodland walks,

4. Eat more healthily - I started the year eating very healthily but in the spring I started medication for Poly-cystic ovarian syndrome which made me feel very sick, then I fell pregnant and felt even more sick to the point where vegetables made me gag (I can't think why my body didn't want me to eat veg but I couldn't) however I did keep eating lots of fruit so don't feel too bad about not being super healthy.

Courtesy of weheartit.com

5. Finish my wedding scrapbook - hmmm still not finished, or even close!

Unfinished wedding scrapbook,

6. Grow more veg - I struggled with this because I had a very difficult start to my pregnancy and as a result wasn't able to work the allotment...AND I got an eviction letter :(  On the bright side I am now sharing the allotment with a friend so hopefully it will be more manageable in 2012, I can't wait to spend time there with my child, showing him or her the wonders of nature,

Courtesy of weheartit.com

7. Make £400 per month of crafts, photography etc - Didn't manage £400 per month, but I was pleased with what I achieved in 2011 in terms of independent money making.  I am going to carry on with my Etsy craft shop, although I have closed the art shop because it wasn't as successful as I had hoped.  I am on maternity leave from photography now, but will start again in late March/April.  Having said that I am definitely happier with the craft side of things than the photography, and am going to work on this more in 2012,

32 sales yippy!

8. Pay off overdraft -  I did this!!  Purely on saving and spending less, so very pleased with myself,

Courtesy of weheartit.com

9. Watch less TV - I did this and re-read "Remotely controlled" to motivate me further, I am going to continue watching less TV and hope that when our baby comes I will be far to busy!  Really don't want to look back on my life and have wasted 12 years watching TV (The average amount British people watch TV in their lifetime!)

Courtesy of weheartit.com

10.  Have 100 followers on the blog - I have 106 lovely lovely followers, I have love for you all, I love your comments, thankyou thankyou for following my blog.

My fabulous followers!

As for 2012, I am not making New Years resolutions but I do have many hopes for my life with my husband and our new baby which I am sure I will share with you as time goes by.  I am really looking forward to 2012.

(Photos are mine unless linked to weheartit.com)

Christmas stuff in the shop

There is a little bit of crimbo stuff in the shop, would love it if you took a look, see what you think:

GIVEAWAY WINNER

Rather strange happenings with blogger has stopped me posting for the last couple of days, now I am finally able to announce the winner of my 100 followers giveaway, not many entries this time so lucky for those who entered, they have more chance of winning!
So the winner this time is the lovely Bethany from Sweet Bee Buzzing.  Well done Bethany, you just need to let me know what you want your bunting to say (pleeeeease not supercalifragolisticepialidocious!)

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend, I have a cold which is a bit rubbish.

ttfn
xxx

100 Followers Giveaway - (new posts will appear below)

I am so thrilled and thankful to now have 100 wonderful followers and as a thank you to you all for your constant support, encouragement and kind words I am doing a fabulous give away.  This time I will be sending the lucky winner a string of personalised, custom made bunting just like the ones pictured.  You can have the word of your choice (within reason please!) appliquéd to the white cotton flags and the bunting posted to your door anywhere in the world.  All you have to do to enter this give away is to leave a comment after this post with your email address telling my what your favourite posts are on my blog.  For newbies to my blog you get an extra entry if you become a follower, just make sure you leave a link to your blog reel, you can get yet another entry if you "grab my button" and add it to your blog, just remember to leave a note with a link to your blog so I can check it out.

Blogging really has changed my life and I can honestly say it wouldn't be the same without all of you.  When you leave your lovely comments it really does bring a smile to my face and makes blogging even more worthwhile. I will announce the winner on Thursday 12th May.  Good luck everyone!

NEW POSTS WILL APPEAR BELOW THIS ONE!

Beautiful Bird Painting

Added a new painting to the shop today, this is the one I created with my lovely friend Hannah a while back.
I would reeeeeally love to sell one of my paintings to someone out there in the world (hint hint!) This is what I truly want to do in my life and I so want it to be a success, it all feels a bit futile at the moment.  Anyway, none of this "woe is me" nonsense, here is my painting, I hope you like it.