Signing off the double-barrel

Sometimes I'll sit with a bowl of gin or a vase of wine and find myself wondering what on earth this wedding malarky is all about.  Then I go get a top-up and keep on slogging at it anyway in the hope that it'll all be worth it on the day. If I can remember any of it.

I've now nailed down the centre pieces, got the majority of the RSVPs back (to the stragglers reading this, you know who you are), planned the finishing touches and booked to give notice at our local council - who were rather sceptical that our ceremony location is even registered to administer civil marriages. Which inspired confidence.

The next item on the agenda is to change my name by deed poll as I'm double-barrelling the new surname with my rightfully inherited maiden one. Now, I refuse on this blog to get into the controversial debate of why not all women in this day and age have to change their names, whether they want to or not, upon finding a man willing to marry them.  Am I a bra-burning feminist? No (quite frankly I don’t think I could live without my undergarments, regardless of the good cause their flammability might prevail).  Is my maiden name particularly unique or humorous? No (although apparently there are lots of northerners with the same name, and northerners seem to believe we all belong to some kind of secret organisation, with weekly meetings taking place ‘north of the wall’).  Or do I just secretly hate my husband-to-be and want to humiliate him in front of all his traditional friends and family who would not tolerate this kind of behaviour of their own wives? No (not yet anyway).   

So I’m just going to assume that you, the lovely reader of this blog, are fully on board with my decision to not scrap my maiden name altogether and we can move right along, thank you very much.

The thing that’s annoying is that I still haven’t really mastered the signature I’ve already got, let alone now start practising a new one.  Usually when I sign anything, unless I really take my time and concentrate, my writing hand gives up on my signature after the third or fourth letter and just opt for a stylistic scribble. Because Mr Tesco Delivery Man doesn’t know that’s not what my signature looks like and I’m sure if he did he wouldn’t care.  So when I sign something and manage to get it all right without even trying, every letter is there and even the artistic flourish is in place, I can’t help but think “Ooh, that’s a good one!”.  I even take a moment to admire my work, and silently congratulate my sub conscience on doing such a fine job of staying awake and engaged long enough to see this task through.  And Mr Tesco Delivery Man is none the wiser that he has been given a masterpiece of my signature that is very rarely as detailed as that.  But no, the double-barrel is nigh so we are back to square one.  I'm rather like a teenager rehearsing my future married name in my notebook, only this is for real...

Sprechen Sie Englisch? Ich spreche kein Deutsch...

Friday night I got home from spending 2 days in a gorgeous sleepy village called Clausthal, nestled in the Harz mountains in Germany.
 

 

I had great fun renting a car and driving on the autobahn, even getting lost on occasions. I was in Germany for a work meeting which all went really well, and will be one of the last of its type I do on account of my recent promotion. Happy but sad.

 

The wonderful staff of the Goldene Krone Hotel definitely deserve a mention for their wonderful hosting of myself plus 35+ colleagues. Not to mention handling a hectic dinner for all of us that went on til midnight. Danke schön.

 



http://www.goldenekrone-harz.de/



 

When I'm travelling with work I always try to uphold a family tradition of bringing home a treat from the airport. When my dad used to work away when I was a kid he would always bring my sister, mum, and me a big slab of milka or a toblerone each - you can imagine how the 3x metallic sticks looked on the xray of his luggage.

 

Speaking of dodgy hand luggage contents, I had to bring back with me a solid glass award plaque for one of my members.  I dreaded bringing it through the security checks, it has all the characteristics of a dangerous weapon - weighs at least 3kg, solid glass, pointy edges etc. I sent the box through the xray scanner on its own, like a laptop, as I knew they'd be keen to examine it. When it arrived on the other side, of course the nice German security lady was asking me what it was. I unpacked it slowly, to not cause any alarm, and unwrapped the glass weapon from its spongy casing. The nice German security lady proceeded to squeal with delight at the beautiful plaque, and show it to all her colleagues, before sending me and the plaque on our way with a smile and a wave. 

 

 

I've done a mock up of a wedding centre piece that I'm happy with, after the vintage hot air balloons proved too problematic.  I bought these adorable metal tins from Ikea (supposedly they're plant pots, but I think they make lovely candle holders the way the light dances through the laser-cut lace design). I then wrapped paper rose garlands around each of them, in alternating off-white and soft pink. Simple, cheap and effective.  I'm going to fill the tin with glass or white pebbles and a candle, and scatter the tables with tea light candles in assorted jam jars.

 

 

Only 2 months and 3 weeks to go.

A rural Urban outfit...

Here is the finishing touch to our dining room:

  

 

This cotton flat-woven rug from Urban Outfitters with a jazzy grey, white and yellow design was a steal at just £65.  It could perhaps do with a rug pad to give it some more grippiness, but it's ok for us just to set the dining furniture on. Ikea do a couple of anti-slip underlay options very cheap.  The cat seems to think it's a new giant scratching mat for him.

 

I also got some super cute post-it notes to go on the shoe cabinet, along with my vintage iron that I got from the Alexandra Palace antiques market.

 

 

I can't believe just how quick the wedding is coming around, as of today it is T-minus 2 months and 4 weeks exactly.  Even though everything is on track my stomach keeps anxiously tripping over itself whenever I think about how soon it is.

 

It's also got me thinking about the personal pre-wedding preparations I intend to do, such as taking up pilates.  It was always my intention to be in good shape for wearing my wedding dress (I could save money on airfare with my bingo wings) and pilates is supposed to be great at achieving a lean and strong physique.  I have no intention to 'lose weight', but clothes always sit better on someone with better muscle tone than my stature which is built on maryland cookies! The other one I'm intrigued by is aqua-aerobics, which has the option of pretending to drown if it gets too tedious.

 

I'll also need to pay a visit to MAC at some point to pick out some new make-up, because I'll be doing my own on the day. My shopping list currently consists of:

• Greyish mid-brown eyeshadow - for a natural soft shading as the dark brown shadows I currently own are too dark for my pale complexion and look patchy when I try the smoky eye look.
• A non-shimmer highlighter powder, to dust over my cheekbones for a natural brightness and to work with my soft rose blusher to give some definition to my face shape.
• Some subtle false lashes, to give my eyes definition that will actually show up on photographs.

I also want to get a nice new perfume, because I agree that scent is key to preserving memories. I love the smell of hyacinths, so I'm hoping to find something floral but with musky not sickly sweet notes. I nearly gave a colleague an asthma attack in an Italian airport by dragging him around the duty-free when our flight home was delayed. I've got a work trip to Dallas and Houston coming up at the end of the month so I'll be gracing the perfume shops in the designer outlet, I think.

 

In the meantime, allow me to immerse myself in the panic. You are welcome to join me, bring your own onesie pyjamas.

 



http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

P.S. Happy Father's day, particularly to my dad the DIY guru, and our friend Tom who is expecting his first baby this December. Well, not him personally, obviously.

 

The Dining Room - before and after

This is by far the biggest transformation I've ever seen in this house within a 24hour window.



before...

To be fair, it doesn't look to bad from this before picture. But in real life the red synthetic carpet was not our taste, the cream walls were patchy and it wasn't a room you'd spend any time in.

My stag head is now ever so proud, painted white and overlooking the new dining furniture (table £180 from Ikea, chairs £22 in the clearance sale).

Now it's a beautiful dining space to eat the evening meals in, and it's wonderful to walk into this room first when you come in through the front door.  I've seen the rug I want to get to put the dining furniture on, so watch this space to see what I've bought.


In other news my parents now have Skype and Chris' best friends are expecting a baby. The world gets scarier all the time.  I'll go hide under my new dining table.

New branch of Ikea - in our dining room

 

Anyone could tell how much Ikea stuff we own just by the number of allen keys we now have in our toolboxes!

 

We went on a mega Ikea trip on Saturday, spending well over £600 to finish kitting the house out with essential furniture. We wanted to get things that were good enough that we'll take them with us when we move from this house.

 

 

I love this shoe cabinet (£80), it works so well in the front/dining room to provide concealed shoe storage and a surface for letters/keys/all sorts of junk that's gonna end up on there. At 22cm deep it doesn't pose an obstruction in what is already a compact room. It was easy enough for me to put together by myself while Chris worked in the garden, although there were 2x rogue screws left over at the end. Ah well I'm sure they weren't important.

 

 

I also got this adorable grey wicker hamper for £60 which fits so perfectly in the corner of the living room.  I did have a painted solid pine storage chest which has moved around with my over the past 5 years but it was too bulky for this tiny house. I was sad to part with it but I sold it to a nice lady whose profession is the restoration and renovation of wooden furniture, and it's going to be someones birthday present. So it's really nice to know that my battered old furniture is going to be given a new lease of life and be loved by someone for many more years to come.

I put together the dining room chairs (on sale, I might add) so we're going to assemble the table this afternoon. Hopefully if it goes well I'll be posting some before and after pictures of the dining room and some more of the living room soon - the living room is currently the 'staging area' where Ikea furniture is born...

Laminated love...

New laminate flooring in the dining room!

 

 

Three nice chaps from Yerrel Flooring in Chesham came around at about 9:30am this morning.  3 hours, 2x coffees, 1x tea and 6x digestive biscuits later it was all done.  Now I just need to get all the furniture to make it into a use-able room, so I think we're off to Ikea tonight. My fave way to spend a friday night, really.

 

While the fitters were working their magic I kept busy making a mega stew for my lunch, and I made so much I think it'll cover lunches for the rest of the month.

 

 

Beef, chorizo, potato, carrot, mushroom, leek, tomato, onion, pepper, pancetta beef stock, red wine and passata.

 

Stuffed.

 

Another highlight of my week has been getting 4x tickets for me, Chris and my parents to Star Trek live at the Royal Albert Hall next May.  JJ Abram's Star Trek is being screened in HD and the entire score performed live by the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra.

Can't wait!

Yellow and grey brightens your day

Now that the living room carpet is in place, the house is finally beginning to look like we've actually done something over the past six months. Despite the coats of paint, new blinds, apple crate bookshelves and white gloss stair banisters - if all you can see under foot is an expanse of bright red synthetic carpet, it really does retract the eye from all the progress.  Plus the cat gives you a lot of static shocks, much to his bewilderment.

 

So I'm very excited that the last of the red carpet will be disappearing this week. The dining room walls have been painted with the dark grey and white, and we're getting the laminate flooring fitted on Friday. We wanted to sand and varnish the original floorboards but after peaking under the carpet we found they're not up to the job.  Carpet didn't seem like a good option for a room that you step straight into from the front door.  We've gone for laminate in a warm dark oak finish because that's the colour we would have had with the natural floor boards and it marries in the red bricks of the fireplace. Then we'll be kitting the room out with clean crisp white dining furniture and console table.

A sneak peak of the dining room...

What I'm looking for now is a big flatwoven rug for the dining table to sit on. I love the contrast of grey with zingy yellow to brighten up what could otherwise be quite a drab scheme.

 

I've seen a couple that I like, there's this one from Next that's a chequered design of yellows, greys and lime green:

 

 

 

Then there's always Ikea of course, and I love this 60s style article of pure sunshine, even if Chris did do that scrunchy thing with his face when I showed it to him:

 

 

 

I also spotted this one from the Esprit Home range of Modern Rugs that's got a 3D flower design all over:

 

 

 

Then there's Made.com, which is a bit like Achica in that it's somewhere to buy designer homeware for a bargain, but they have perminant fixtures as opposed to flash sales.  The one thing is I've not heard great things about their customer service or ability to get orders right. But for this chevron patterned rug, I could be tempted to give them a go:

 

 

 

 

And while I'm piling up additions to my wish list, I might as well add on the Bouji chair that I've spied on Made.com that would nestle next to the fireplace in the living room a treat:

It also comes with bright turquoise legs, or upholstered in purple or blue or even red velvet... just so you have all the facts.

 

In the meantime, much excitement about the new laminate flooring that will be getting fitted in just a few days time.  I just need to decide on a rug, if there weren't so many choices and not enough rooms to buy them all...