Mantel wellbeing

You can tell how thrilled I am at my new fire mantel by the amount of clutter it has accumulated within 2 minutes of being up.

 

 

 

I've wanted one for a while to give our Victorian brick fire a bit of feature and personality, and there's no denying it's one more surface to put stuff on.

 

We bought this one off an eBay seller (Fire Surrounds) who does standard sizes as well as a made to measure service. For just £52 - including postage - it arrived in 3 days made with beautiful detail and craftsmanship. It's completely solid, all we needed to do was paint it (1x spray can of white satin from Wickes) and mount it with a pair of floating shelf brackets.

 

The mirror is a thing of beauty from Gallery Reflections, via Achica of course (currently can be found on sale at Brand Interiors).

 

 It's all looking rather festive in our little abode. We never usually bother decorating the house but this year we decided we wanted to get into the Christmas Spirit (and I'm not just referring to the gin). Even though last year was our first in the house, this is our first Christmas not spent surrounded by boxes, paint brushes and DIY tools. Actually, yes we are. Scratch that last comment.

 

 

 

 

How do I wrap a tricycle?

Of all the gift-wrap dilemmas, we all know wrapping a tricycle is by far the most tricky one of all. But seriously, how often does that issue come up in real life??
 
It seems Will.i.am has decided it is something he needs to assist us all with, and submitted a how-to-video on this very subject. How helpful of him. And just a smidge odd.

Procrastinating

The Gods of procrastinating have answered without being asked...

Add whatshouldwecallme.tumblr.com to your quick links and prepare to enjoy the next a few hours of your life.
 
Warning, it contains saucy words and risqué content. Which might be why it's so funny. Let's not question how immature that makes me. And almost everyone I know...

You know it's Xmas when..

Starbucks bring out their range of super disgusting latte flavours.

 

The praline mocha was sickly to the point of diabetic-coma inducing, and the gingerbread latte tasted of one of my burnt baking endeavours. But despite knowing better, you can be sure I'll be trying the toffee nut and eggnog flavours this week.

 

You also know it's that time of year when Michael Buble emerges from his cryogenic chamber to unleash his velvety eggnog smooth voice on us all for a few weeks. Then he retreats, having earned enough royalties to fund his cryo egg's electricity bill for another year, not to be seen or heard from again until the next jolly season.  Maybe Michael Buble is really Santa?

 

I have made a sort-of start at making Xmas decorations, mostly out of leftover wedding arts and crafts materials! 

 

 

This one was just shredded raffia jammed in the top of an empty glass bauble I bought in a pack off Amazon.  I'm going for the clunky white and wood look this year.

 

 

 

This was a wedding gift for friends who got married recently - they've been together for 7 years but this Xmas will be their first as a married couple.  My aunt bought us a special wedding Xmas bauble for me and Chris and I really love it, so I wanted our friends to have a wedding gift that isn't just relevant on the wedding day alone.

 

I just printed out onto nice hammered white paper some lines of text - their names, seasonal phrases, the names of their pets etc and sliced them up into strips.  I curled each strip around a pencil first to give it a natural curve, then fed them one by one into the top of the bauble. It took a few goes to get the paper to line up nicely against the glass, and if you overstuff the bauble it just becomes a messy tangle of illegible words.

 

I'm going to have a go at making a rustic Xmas wreath at some point, I have a leftover polystyrene ring from Hobbycraft that didn't make it in the centrepiece design preliminaries...

The Big Shoot

For Chris' 30th birthday, I bought us a Clay Pigeon Shooting session at The Big Shoot Aylesbury. Seems only right I give it a quick review...

 

Location: a village called Long Crendon, about 10 minutes outside of Aylesbury town. As you're driving down a narrow country lane off the main road you wonder where on earth you'll wind up. The end of the lane tucks away a beautiful farmland surrounded by nonchalant and possibly deaf cows.

 

We purchased 40x clays per person, which I think is just right as you're only just hitting your stride at around 25 so 30x might not be enough (packages come in 30, 40 or 50 shots). You don't just stay in one spot either, you'll each cover 10x shots at different bays with the clays being fired from different angles, so there's plenty of variety for even a slightly more experienced shooter to still find a challenge in it.

 

The tutor was funny but very professional, and made us a hot cup of coffee on arrival as we were the only ones that session.  He talks you through the gun and how it works, and remains stood behind you to offer advice on your aiming and a stable hand on the back of your shoulder if like me, the shots take you off your feet a little bit.

 

Bringing out the big guns

 

 

Great time, good value, highly recommended for special events or just something different to do with friends. We went on a Tuesday morning and inadvertently ended up with a private lesson. Whereas at the weekends their popularity rises to groups of up to 20. Not surprised, shooting stuff is jolly good fun.

 

 

The Review Part 2

The week after the wedding I flew out to Dallas and New Orleans for 2 weeks with work. It meant that it's taking me a lot longer than penned to get around to writing on here, sending out thank you cards and sorting through wedding photos. But on the plus side I got to spend some time in the New Orleans French Quarter drinking hurricanes and eating a lot of spiced alligator stew. It's a tough job.

On with the wedding review...

 The Band
The music choice was more Chris' domain as I didn't have a particular preference. I went onto the DG Music website, the management company for bands and musicians in Rutland and the surrounding counties. There you can do a search based on genre, budget and location of your event venue to find your ideal matches, and that's how we came across The Atlantics.  They played all the music we love, like the Kings of Leon, Strokes, Libertines and Biffy Clyro's Many of Horror for our first dance. They were also really good at interacting with the crowd and getting everyone back on the dance floor for the second set when energy levels were waning. A nice bunch, talented, fun, and they gave uncle Phil a good soundtrack to throw some moves.


Cakes
We had two wedding cakes to deliver two of my favourite foods - chocolate and cheese. Both delicious, both a bargain, both from M&S. We had the ribbon cake (£249) for dessert after our Hog Roast dinner with tea and coffee, which went down a treat. The sweet white chocolate outer contrasted beautifully with the rich, fudgy, milk chocolate ganache inside. The box says it serves 110 which I think is quite accurate. Everyone got a good sized slice with their tea and we were still able to salvage the top tier to take home and eat the week after at our spa hotel minimoon.

 

The cheese tower (£155) came out for the band's remission and was served with breads, crackers and chutneys. We had an absolute ton left over to take home, even with everyone taking a bash at it (and the band gave it a good go as well), we barely made a dent. I'd seen other cheese tower cakes that were slightly smaller elsewhere, but they were much pricier. The benefit of this immense portion was that no one went hungry and we had enough to take away with us and share with guests as thank you gifts. I was making cheesy pasta bakes and quiches for weeks after, the blacksticks blue makes an amazing addition to any white sauce.

What was really great about getting my cakes from M&S is the service. I was able to order the cakes to be delivered to my parent's local store in Stamford, and we went and collected them the day before the wedding. A store clerk brought them out on a wheely gurney and helped me load them carefully into the car. I was nervous driving around Rutland's bumpy and windy roads to the hotel but I needn't worry - the chocolate cake (which comes readily assembled) was in a perfect plastic mould of itself to ensure it remained perfectly intact.

 

 

The tableplan

Chris found this beautiful but rather neglected old typewriter on Ebay. We cleaned it up with some baking soda and I printed off a plan that looked like it could have been typed out. Total cost around £30 plus a tenner for the paper rose garland, also off ebay. Job done.

 

 

Now that the wedding is over I am experiencing a few creative relapses of the leftover energy.  So I'm now turning that energy to making homemade Xmas baubles. I will make time for Uni work, house renovations and other things at some point, hopefully. But those chores aren't as fun, nor can you acceptably drink mulled wine whilst doing them. 

The Wedding Review: Where to begin?

And breathe...

Well Friday 13th went without a hitch, and just like that I am now a fully fledged double-barrel Mrs. 

I'll take the time to go over all of the services that went into the day such as the flowers, chair covers, reception venue and the likes when I get chance to gradually work through it all!



Civil Weddings at Normanton Church

Inside the church

Civil Weddings at the Normanton Church
Normanton Church, Rutland Water
What was once called St Matthew's Church stands on the edge of Rutland Water having been deconsecrated and converted into a museum for the last few decades. In the 1970's the valley and village below it had been flooded to create the reservoir but the church was saved and the floor level raised. Now its doors are open for civil marriages and it provides the most beautiful scenery to do so. No end of photo opportunities, I recommend paying a visit in the evening when it's all lit up. The wedding organisers who work for the church take care of everything, from the set-up to lending their lovely faux flowers and bay trees to decorate the interior - not that it needs much decorating with these surroundings, I just added tealights in jam jars.

 

Nigel the acoustic guitarist
Nigel's Beautiful Background Guitar
Well I can't speak highly enough of Nigel, and nor can any of our guests. He's an incredibly talented musician based in Grantham but he covers a multitude of areas including Stamford and Rutland (and probably further).  Not only did he learn my chosen song for my church entrance - Joze Gonzalez's Heartbeats - but he made some excellent suggestions for other songs such as for the signing of the register - 'fields of gold' and 'all you need is love'.  We booked him for a package where he covered the church and the canapés portion of the reception - considering we had him for a total of around 4 hours he was an absolute bargain as well as a delight. He added a lovely ambience to the terrace and gardens of the reception whilst everyone drank pimms/prosecco and mingled. What a joy.

 

Kirsty the Hairstylist
hollyokey@aol.com
If you want to have your hair specially styled for a wedding or event in the Lincolnshire area, I implore you to drop a line to Kirsty first. She's absolutely adorable and fantastic at hair up-dos. She managed to take care of me, mum, sis and maid of honour with all our varied hair types and stylistic requests. She loves doing wedding hair and it shows in her beautiful work.



hair combs: Glitzy Secrets

 

Lots more to come, but for now that's all folks.

3 days to go: Weather forecasts are henceforth banned

When someone hears that I'm getting married this week, they ask me two questions, in this precise order.

One:
Are you nervous?
and, Two:
Have you seen the weather forecast?

Now I do believe that it rains fairly often in this peculiar little country, and so far no one has melted from it. I know there's a first for everything, but I'm refusing to get worried about something I have no control over. I could always swim to the church, my veil acting as a fishing net to catch a few additions to the evening's BBQ meal.

As part of my big day preparations, I paid a visit to The Lemon Rooms spa in Amersham Old Town where I was pampered with their Elemis Lavender Repair facial. It's specifically geared towards treating breakouts, rebalancing the skin's natural oils and addressing problem pores. My skin is having a bit of a tantrum this month for obvious reasons, so it was a good call. I was scrubbed, rubbed and oiled to within an inch of my life, and I emerged onto the beautiful streets of Amersham Old Town feeling relaxed and looking like a madwoman (facial = no makeup & hair standing on end).

Amersham Old Town has been graced with my presence much during this pre-wedding period, and I'm sure I'll always find plenty of excuses.  My Maid of Honour and I enjoyed champagne afternoon tea at The Crown a few weeks ago to celebrate what was a fab hen weekend in Oxford. The wasps enjoyed our scones too, but turned their noses up at the lovely lemon and poppy seed loaf cake. Amersham has fussy wasps.

Speaking of insects, I have an extreme-sports spider living behind my driver side wing mirror. He only comes out when I start driving, ventures to the centre of his web, and enjoys the thrill of the wind against his exoskeleton. Madman.
 

3 weeks to go. Status: in denial

One

Shoes have been purchased, £30 from Debenhams. I had tried to buy them online but they disappeared from the site. After a mentally scarring experience of the Oxford Circus branch's "Customer Service" I finally found them. My one gripe (sorry that should be one of my many gripes): Debenhams don't store the shoes in boxes, so they can get a little mucky in the store room.

 

Two

The rings have been collected from the Wedding Ring Workshop in Hatton Garden. They are fully hallmarked, engraved with the date and mine has been set with diamonds. Chris' silver wedding ring was left with a hammered and scuffed finish cos he's often a little hammered and scuffed himself. He certainly will be once the wedding speeches are out of the way.

 

 

 

Three

I bought these gorgeous book ends, from Achica of course. The brand is called Kare, a bonkers German homeware range.  Love 'em. 

 

 

Four

I'm turning the new series of Great British Bake Off into a drinking game. Drink one for every bright blue band-aid you spot the contestants collecting. Drink two whenever Mary Berry says "soggy bottoms". Drink three if Paul Hollywood gives someone an icy glare.  I recently found out that one of our nice neighbours works for Penguin and published Mary Berry's newest book. Apparently she lives not far from us. I would hunt her down only my quiche lorraine hasn't been up to scratch recently. And I wouldn't want Mary to say anything about soggy bottoms to me.

 

 

Five things that made me happy this week

One: Great ideas for wedding day pictures. I'm not mad about super tacky shots, but the odd silly one will look great in a photo book of formal pictures. My sis sent me this, Chris and his groomsmen will have to recreate it on the day with his hand-made wedding ring:

Two: These ceramic London brick vases from Rebel Rebel. £60 for roses, £50 for seasonal flowers.

Three: Perfectly ripe avocados. Unripe ones on my salad give me heartburn.

Four: Finding a bargain on wedding chair covers. Everywhere I've looked they're at least £2.50 not including any coloured sashes.  Princess Wedding Stationary was recommended to me by another bride when I went to visit my reception hotel a couple of weeks ago. For £2 a chair they provide white or ivory covers with sashes in your choice of colour (I'm going for dusky pink). They also take care of all the set-up with your reception and collecting them the next day. Otherwise you can collect, set-up and return them all yourself for a rock bottom £1 a chair. They also do stationary (the clue's in the name) and hire out beautiful centrepieces, birdcages and bay trees. She's got it all.

Five: BBQ Chicken Powches from Abocado. Nom.

If there's one thing I'm shoe of...

The fact that my last post was about drinking on a school night is very telling of how hectic life is at the moment.

But it's been a productive few weeks. We'd agreed that over the summer we'd ease off doing house DIY so that I could focus on the wedding (which is now next month) and Chris could make the most of the small gardening window our British summers afford us.



Amersham Old Town - War Memorial Gardens

 

We managed to make our way to the Amersham Old Town Italian Food Market last weekend. Amersham does have a good repertoire of town events and live music fixtures to benefit the local community. And we benefited from the freshly sliced parma ham, nougat wedges big enough to rob a bank with and elderflower gin refreshers.

 

I also finally got back my score from my latest open uni module, Creative Writing. I was pleased to see I got a better score for my final assignment (a 40 line poem which wasn't exactly a masterpiece) than I did for most of the smaller assignments throughout the module which were marked by who I can only describe as a hypercritical tutor with a penchant for nonconstructive and inaccurate feedback. 

 

Since starting this module I've gained even more respect for genuinely talented writers. I always thought that writing might be something I'd eventually do, but it is clear that I'll never have the natural flair, or attention span, for that to happen. I much prefer reading other peoples' clever wording and literary nuggets and remark at how talented they are than try to emulate that myself. Good writers have the ability to change the world, one word at a time, and if I can't do something really well then I'd rather not do it at all. But if I've gained anything from the study of Creative Writing, it's made me realise that perhaps my niche is more editorial or proofreading.

 

 

The wedding is just next month, so the voices in my head are all talking over each other at once. A colleague of mine has just had a baby so he outranks me on life-changing-panics which is the only reason I'm acting sane at work.

 

One thing that's getting left until quite late in the day is shoe shopping. I think many brides tend to see this as on-par with the importance of the dress and the cake. However I've been hunting for nice flat bridal shoes that aren't disproportionately pricey. I am getting a pair of small heels for the daytime but by the evening I know my knobbly narrow little feet will be murdering me, so I've been scouting high street websites:

 

BHS

The British Homeware Store has a really nice selection of bridal attire and accessories. In fact I nearly bought a wedding dress from here (check out the Lillian vintage dress, a steal at £395).

 

I've ordered the Nina slingbacks (on sale £13.50) to see if they're comfortable enough as a daytime shoe, I'm not usually one for diamantes but I think on these they might add just a touch of sparkle to look special rather than a plan design.

 

 

 

BHS do have a sweet flat shoe called the Ariel Brooch ballet pump (£22). But I've been trying to stay away from pearly accessories because then I feel you'd have to match it up with pearly jewellery.

 

 



 

Debenhams

Debenhams have a wide bridal range but the shoes I really wanted from there were out of stock. As was the handbag. Plus I find them really hard work to return unwanted items so I avoid ordering anything from there like the plague. But I could be swayed by these lovely simply pleated ivory pumps (£18),

 

 

 

or pointed toe knot pumps (on sale £7.50).

 

 

 

They also have a range of Jenny Packham shoes such as these diamante strap flat sandals (£44) but I think they'd made me feel like a child.

 

 

 

 

Barratts

One pair of ivory lace ballet pumps (on sale £10.75), done.

 

 

Dune

My sister sent me a link to a number of fancy pantsy high heeled wedding shoes on the Dune website. All of them beautiful, all of them far too high for me to walk around in all day. But they also have a couple of nice flats, such as the Mareena sequined pumps which are jazzy enough to wear on other occasions (£29).

 

 

 

Monsoon

Of course Monsoon have an abundance of bridal wear, although I have found their latest range of dresses to be quite plain. But lest we disregard these adorable pumps with floral pom poms on the front - the Hawaii Shoe (a steal on sale at £20). Don't forget to check out their jewellery, handbags and boleros, it's a one stop shop for all your ladies occasionwear needs.

 

 

 

Just give me a reason...

Ten reasons why it's acceptable to drink the grapey stuff on a week night.

 

 

 

One: You've had a really great day and want to celebrate

Two: You've had a really rubbish day and need to numb the pain

Three: It's a Monday and you got through it

Four: It's a Tuesday and you got out of bed early again

Five: It's a Wednesday and you've reached the midweek

Six: It's a Thursday and you have nearly reached the weekend

Seven: It's a Friday so it would be rude not to

Eight: You got promoted

Nine: You got demoted

Ten: It was a dull day so you need to liven it up

 

 

Take your pick, any of them will suffice.

Small county, big pond

It may be called a 'week-end', but it doesn't mean the work stops there.

 

 

 

Friday - Mum and I went to the Normanton Church to see it set up for a wedding and ask the girls who take care of the logistics a few questions. Then in the evening Chris and I went to the guitarist's house to discuss song choices for the ceremony and canapés out in the gardens of the hotel. Nigel the guitarist is not only the nicest bloke but an amazing musician who blew us away with his renditions. He also had really good suggestions for tunes that we hadn't decided on yet.

 

 

 

Saturday -  We met with some of my friends in Oakham for brunch, then went home to help mum prepare for her birthday BBQ. Then we proceeded to enjoy the aforementioned birthday BBQ my dad put on with much wine and meat.

 

Sunday - In the morning we met with the events coordinator at the Normanton Park Hotel to discuss the finer details. Realised I still have a lot to pin down. Got occasionally frustrated at what seemed like 4 people all talking at once and rather hastily took up the coordinator's kind offer to sample the wines.

 

 

 

Monday - I had the day off work with the intention of getting loads of wedding bits done. Reality is I only got the stamping of the name tags finished, because I get bored and distracted very easily.

 

 

I've still got to cut up the postcards for the guestbook, finish the name tags, decide what to do for the table plan, assemble the tuck shop, order the cakes, buy shoes & handbag, put together the centre pieces, order candles, order table linens and ferry everything up to mum and dad's house at some point.

 

8 weeks and a few boxes of wine to go.

The Wedding Ring Workshop

Today Chris and I made our wedding rings.

 

White gold & platinum after we melted it down

 

The Wedding Ring Workshop in Hatton Garden is the first and original jewellery workshop.  For just £150 per person you have a dedicated expert giving you their undivided attention all day, from sitting down to discuss what you want right through to the finishing touch.

 

 

 

 

We melted, milled, sawed, bent and filed the day away until our wedding rings took shape.  Chris opted for a white gold band with a hammered finish, while me being the awkward one went for a shaped platinum band that will frame my emerald cut engagement ring. For this our expert stepped in to help Chris with the tricky wave shape on the band, which isn't the easiest even for the professionals.

 

Our work here is done

 

Now that they're finished we left them in the capable hands of the experts to complete the hallmarks, set the diamonds into mine and engrave the date of our wedding into both of the bands. Apparently the team get all sorts of random engraving requests, ranging from the distasteful to the downright bizarre!

 

We had an absolutely amazing day at the workshop, it was exhausting but worth it. We learnt so much about the process of making wedding rings and how the metals behave being heated, pushed, pulled and cooled throughout the different stages.

 

At the end of the day the rings are weighed and you only pay for the weight of the material you have used, which all-in came out cheaper than buying generic rings from a high street retailer. It was an absolutely fantastic experience and I highly recommend. I can't speak highly enough about the guys working there. Our dedicated expert (called Adam, I think?) was a great guy who was so patient and encouraging all day. The other guys who were busy getting on with their work were still friendly and welcoming despite having their own things to do, and one was kind enough to let me watch him engraving someone's rings to see how it works.

Above all it's so rewarding to make your own rings because you end up with a piece that you didn't just specify its appearance.  Because you physically brought it into existence you feel very proud and bonded to it. Which is a great feeling to have about a piece of jewellery representing your commitment to another person.